I don’t think the point was that the bands and albums he listed were necessarily “the biggest”. I think that the point is that they are widely considered* to be among the best and most influential bands and albums in rock history, and remain very popular*, among music fans of a variety of ages, four decades later. Meanwhile, the top-selling songs from that era have not endured in popularity, nor are they generally as widely acclaimed as “great” or “influential”.
You don’t share in those views. No worries. “Widely” does not mean “universally”.
Exclusivity has always played a large part in what makes something cool. If everybody has it or knows about it, it becomes mundane and is no long extraordinary.
The Man In Black, either there’s a bigger gap between the generations than what I realise (I was born in 1978), or you are more unusual in your musical knowledge than you seem to think.
Surely you know at least one of these songs by tune if not by name:
The Beatles: “Drive My Car”, “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”, “Nowhere Man”, “Michelle”, “Taxman”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Good Day Sunshine”, “Got to Get You into My Life”
The Rolling Stones: “Mother’s Little Helper”, “Under My Thumb”, “Paint It, Black”
The Who: “My Generation”, “The Kids Are Alright”
Simon & Garfunkel: “The Sounds of Silence”, “Scarborough Fair/Canticle”
The Beach Boys: “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, “Sloop John B”, “God Only Knows”
The Kinks: “Sunny Afternoon”
These are enduring classics, whether you’re aware of them or not. And let me recommend that you’ll be better for hearing and knowing these songs in any case.
Like others, I question your basic premise. I suspect that there have long been some people who thought that anything “popular” was terrible, but at the same time I don’t believe that now or at any point in the past there wasn’t also a large group of people who thought the things that were currently popular were also of good quality. I mean, if everyone thought “popular” stuff sucked then how could it be popular? If something is popular then by definition a lot of people must like it.
If I said my favorite musical artist was Lady Gaga or Train (both names plucked from the current Billboard top 10) then some people would consider that cool. If I said my favorite musical artist was Fugazi then a different set of people would consider that cool. It’s harder to think of a musical artist who NO ONE would consider cool. Acts that were very popular years ago would probably be the way to go, but even then you’d have to get the timing right. Too recent and some people will still think they’re cool, too far back and some people will think your interest is ironic and thus cool.
Some acts are so middle-of-the-road that even the people who like them see them as “nice” or “good”, not “cool”. Celine Dion, say, or Michael Bolton. They appeal to a very conservative taste that doesn’t necessarily see coolness as a positive.
OK, so not to go all “Jack Black in High Fidelity” on you and everything, but stop what you’re doing, and download/steal/purchase Revolver now now now. Give it 40-some odd minutes of your time.
I’m no Boomer by far (born in 1984), but Revolver is just one of those albums you have to hear at least once.
Yeah I couldn’t find an “Introduce Yourself” (Oh how I hate those :rolleyes:).
Anyway, topics like this intrigue me. I’m surprised that none of you have gone into detail about how Mariah Carey’s popularity has been massively inflated by her PR people (and her fans BELIEVE that she’s really that popular).
Every time I mention her lately to anyone outside of the internet, I get “She’s still around?” or “That chick that got married to Nick Cannon?”. Apparently in real life people take her at face value for what she really was during the 90s: A teen pop queen.
I lurk threads about her in music forums and her fans/lambs have her made out to be a legendary diva that everyone knows. They’re also under the impression that she’s bigger than Madonna, Michael Jackson and the Beatles combined. :dubious: It’s funny that they believe this when in reality she’s a middle-of-the-road Michael Bolton or Celine Dion type as previously mentioned.
Here’s two good cites, the Pulse Music and UKMix Mariah threads to back that up:
Mariah Carey had a hit song and hit album last year. Not sure why anyone thinks she is no longer popular. She has had 18 #1 songs which is the most ever for a solo artist -more than Michael Jackson.
BTW, I am not a fan of her stuff but it is silly to say she is not very popular.
Media presence has an enormous impact on popular perception. At best you can say that popularity and presence (in cultural terms) are symbiotic, though IMO most of the money is bet on the “presence” side–performers get popular because they are overplayed, not the other way around.
A good illustration of the effect can be seen in the advent of Soundscan in 1991. For decades the Billboard top 100 was compiled mainly by radio airplay and informal lists supplied by record store managers, rather than actual record sales. Needless to say, these ratings could be easily manipulated by record companies–if not with outright payola, with ticket giveaways and other promotional material. That changed dramatically when Soundscan figures were used for chart calculations in the summer of 1991. For a short time at least, word-of-mouth (reflected in actual consumers paying for music) had the upper hand in determining popularity. A well-known article in the July 1992 issue of Spin credited the Soundscan change with turning indie-pop faves Nirvana into Pop superstars:
I’d also add that–in an Internet age that has seriously fragmented mainstream pop culture–there isn’t really a centralized musical force like AM Top 40 radio or MTV, ubiquitous marketing channels that could get a product everywhere at once. Simulated versions of them still exist–the Disney Channel, performances on SNL–but these are mainly conduits for kids. SNL is particularly sad–back in the '70s, a performance on their was the quintessential badge of cool, but once they figured out their core audience was middle-school/high-school geeks who couldn’t go out on a Saturday night they started booking no-talent teeny-boppoer crap like the Jonas Bros. and (ack) Justin Beiber.
For my money, I’d say the shift described by the OP occurs about when you realize how much of your personal taste is driven by commercial marketing. This happens to most folks in their 20’s and 30’s, and explains in part why demos targeting 18-34 are so coveted by advertisers–people old enough to have significant disposable income, but not old enough to recognize the manipulation.