Yeah but the “Number One Hits” from the 90s also mostly sucked. It’s all Madonna, Boys 2 Men pop crap.
I like:
There’s some good number 1 songs in the 2000’s.
Vertical Horizon- “Everything You Want”
OutKast- “Ms. Jackson”
OutKast- “Hey Ya!”
Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx- “Slow Jamz”
Kanye West- “Stronger”
I’d say that “Hey Ya” and “Stronger” are great songs.
I think I’ll look for ones I like from the 90’s:
Prince and the New Power Generation- “Cream”
Ace of Base- “The Sign” (there’s probably a nostalgia factor here)
Lauryn Hill- “Doo Wop (That Thing)”
The 2000’s win by a lot, IMO. At least compared to the 90’s… let’s see, there are 19 songs I like in the 80’s and a good number of them I’d consider great. And of course there is a ridiculous number of good and great number 1’s in the 60’s.
Remember that one time, when Marley23 posted in [post=10071179]this thread[/post]? I miss that.
Wow, I must say, I’ve never heard The Wallflowers get this much respect. I love them, but I seem to be the only one around me that does. Breach is one of my favorite albums, though I’m not such a big fan of Red Letter Days.
I don’t know if they’ll hold up for people in the long run, but they’ll always hold a half-nostalgic place in my heart (class of '99 here).
I think the #1s on the american billboard is a very bad measure of the musical level of decades. At least we should look at the whole top40. And Stronger, really? It’s just a Daft Punk rip-off.
I’m 26, and I don’t get “nostalgic” for music from any given era- I like what I like, and my MP3 playlist runs the gamut from Peter Frampton to Madness to Led Zeppelin to Martin Denny to FatBoy Slim.
Occasionally I’ll hear a song on the radio that I remember from High School and get reminded of how long ago that was when the announcer says something like “That was Walking On The Sun by Smash Mouth, from way back in 1997… coming up next, it’s Whiny Emo Kids and Some Song You’ve Never Heard Of”, and I’m sitting there thinking “Was it really 1997 that song came out???”
I have to say that there have been a couple of songs out this year that I’ve liked- Sweet About Me by Gabriella Cilmi, The Longest Road by Morgan Page, and American Boy by Estelle and Kanye West spring to mind- but otherwise, I’ve been hearing a lot of forgettable crap, or worse, cover versions or remixes of stuff that was actually good from the '70s and '80s. I’m still trying to work out how Kid Rock managed to combine Sweet Home Alabama and Werewolves of London and come up a song that wasn’t great…
For the record, my current “Greatest Rock Song Of The Last 10 years” is Knights of Cydonia by Muse, and personally I think it’s right up there with Kashmir by Led Zeppelin as one of the Greatest Rock Songs Of All Time. But I’ve never heard of any of the bands in Argent Towers’ post, so that probably disqualifies me from having an Informed Opinion on Modern Music… 
I’m 23, and don’t feel nostalgic for anything 
There’s way too many good bands around these days to dwell on late 90’s stuff. If you like 90’s bands like Oasis, Blur etc. check out The Music, The Enemy, Kasabian etc. Even The Verve have just reformed.
I think some of you people are not realizing how different the world was for us when were 12.
When I was 12, I was a kid living at home, the world seemed like a safe, stable place, it was before 9/11, there was no specter of international terrorism or a “war on terror” claiming thousands of lives, Bill Clinton was president, the economy was in good shape and there was no panic over the price of gas or anything else. The only things I needed to worry about were getting good grades in school, playing hockey, and having crushes on girls.
Fast forward to 22…what has changed here? A lot.
When I look back on those times it’s like a completely different life. I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that I used to be that kid. And that kid had a musical soundtrack to his life, and that music is always going to be extremely special to me.
Dude, I was twelve in 1984. We grew up thinking we were going to be blasted into glass by Soviet ICBMs. I still remember as a little kid sitting in gas lines in our family station wagon with no AC and windows that didn’t roll down. We had the bombings of the Marines baracks in Lebanon, the hostage crisis in Iran, space shuttles exploding and all kinds of other shit. Remember I grew up with Reagan and Bush Sr.
I think for my generation, the 1990s was a time of relative peace and prosperity that because of our childhoods, our cynical nature wouldn’t let us enjoy.
But I hear what you are saying. The 80s as a kid were very different to me than the 90s as a late teen/early adult. I just wish I grew up with better music.
Well, I don’t know if I would put them in the same category as Zeppelin and The Who (although I don’t really like the who). But I think that as a traditional rock band they just have that timeless quality that a lot of other genres might not have.
Another thing I should point out. A lot of the alt rock music hasn’t changed that much over the years. I have a genre on my iPod of all the similar sounding post-Seattle grunge alt rock bands that spans like 20 years - Bush, Live, Collective Soul, Silverchair, Creed, Lifehouse, Daughtry, Nickleback, etc, etc
Or maybe they realize that they’ve gone through the same thing that you’re going through? No crap, life is different at 12 compared to 22. I’m 26 so I know what you mean, but I had to laugh when I read:
Do you realize how damn young you sound here, with a friend named Jordan and riding in an Expedition (as opposed to a Caprice Classic, an LTD, a Chevette, whatever)? It’s cute. And I say that as someone only a couple of years older than you. 
When I was 22 (way, way back) I was amazed that there was a music special on TV with MY music on (Captain Sensible! UB40! Talking Heads! The Police!). The nostalgia had already been hitting hard and the TV show made me gush with happiness. My older (possibly 30 y/o!) and more cynical flatmate said “Welcome to the target demographic.”
He was right, I had disposable income and few financial commitments, what savvy marketer wouldn’t target that?
Still, it was great to hear my music again (and again 10 years after that, and again just lately - another 10 years down the track.
I’m 26 as well and it’s always surprised me how pronounced the generational shift is between people born between 1980 and 1982 and those born after. My wife was born in '85 and she’s the only one I’ve ever met from those years that doesn’t seem like an alien.
Y’know, that’s a really good point. Obviously we’re still young (and any “quarter life crisis” angstyness we’re going through is adorable looking to those 10-20+ years our senior :)), but I have to say that I have very few friends who are younger than me; the ones who do seem unusually mature (even when able to be goofy, etc.).
It’s kind of like this one guy I work with. Awesome guy, smart, has a good work ethic, etc. He’s living at home while he saves up to move out. That’s cool, so am I*. But when we grab lunch and he starts complaining about how last night his mom cooked chicken again and it’s like, the 4th time this week they’ve had chicken and he told her that he’s getting sick of it and so OMG it’s so annoying… I want to scream, “YOU’RE 24 GODDAMNED YEARS OLD. MAKE YOUR OWN GODDAMNED DINNER AND BUY YOUR OWN GODDAMNED FOOD!”
I’m only 2 years older than him, for crying out loud, but sometimes it feels more like 10.
But I wonder if it’s a huge generational shift, or more because of us being at the age where we’re out of college and in The Working World, where most of the younger-than-us adults are still in college (or that general stage). Maybe you need at least 3-4 years out of college to do that shift, instead of it being related to our birth years…
- For another month or so; not finding more than a part time job for a couple of years after college bites. Damn Michigan recession.
I wonder if there’s something to this, because I feel the same way. When I was a teenager pretty much all my friends were in their 20s and we got along well and had a lot in common. Now (I turned 27 less than a month ago), everyone under 24 seems like - well, you said it best: like an alien. My sister was born in '85 and I’ve never been able to relate to her.
I was stuck (long story) with a bunch of recent high school graduates last summer and it was like we barely spoke the same language. They’d never heard of any of my favorite bands, and I’d never heard of any of theirs. They’d never seen my favorite movies - not even Pulp Fiction! Independence Day was the first movie they remembered seeing in the theatres (I saw it in high school.) At one point I was cutting up with a few of them and another said, “dude, are you really 26?”
And it dawned on me, They think I’m old.
This is true IMO, although for me that point starts well into my thirties. I think it was about when the Flamming Lips came out with Yoshi Battles The Pink Robot that I gave up on new music. I still listened for new Bell and Sebastian for a few years past that, but I don’t even care about them anymore. Without Isabelle Campbell they just aren’t the same. I just don’t get excited about new music anymore.
Strangely, this means the music I listen to is newer than the OP, and I’m considerably older than he is. In a bizzare anti-nostalgia twist though, I have started to listed to 80’s metal, which would have gotten an eyeroll from me during the eighties.
Interesting: most sources say the last of the Generation X babies were either 1981 or 1982. I always thought those generational definitions were bullshit but a lot of time, money and effort has gone into studying it. Maybe there’s something to it.
What he said… (even down to the time frames)
Although I have to admit that it was kind of strange, yet kind of nice when one of the radio stations started doing an “80’s Weekend” in about 1994 or so.
I have a few friends younger than me (I was born in '82) that I get along with quite well, but the majority of people in their early 20s I run into do make me raise my eyebrows a bit. Just the other day I was having a drink with a handful of coworkers and they were going on about the meaningless of life in a way that reminded me of teenagers that had just discovered Nitzsche for the first time ever. I made a joke to that effect and they stared at me blankly.
To be fair, one of them was my age.
He used the sample well. Daft Punk got part of the songwriting credit so I wouldn’t call it a rip off.
Maybe I’m atypical, but I’m 22 and I hang out with people in their 30’s- two or three born around 1970, one born in 1975. I can relate to them just fine. Of course in high school I listened to a lot of the stuff they would have in high school and college- Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Counting Crows, Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Gin Blossoms, REM, New Order, The Pixies, etc.
The only real gap I can think of right now is that Transformers wasn’t as big when I was a kid. I never saw Optimus Prime die.
I think there’s a bigger gap with people just a few years younger than me due to the internet. When I was in second grade a friend told me about something that sent mail over the telephone line and was called e-mail and I thought he was making it up. Of course just a couple of years later my parents got AOL. Teenagers now have Myspace and text messaging.
I can’t let this go without a fight. Modest Mouse is one of the best bands of all time, a first ballot hall of famer. Lyrically they are miles ahead of any other band around, they rock, and they write well crafted songs. You can do far better than to “stomach” them.
The fact of the matter is that despite the widespread piracy, the music scene is more vibrant and diverse than ever before, and people really should be kicking back and enjoying it. Nostalgia is all well and good, but I find its more satisfying to enjoy the moment.