Well, truthfully, if it’s not getting heavy exposure (ie, it’s not pop), how is it going to have a dramatic effect?
Musique concrète didn’t reach a wide audience, but it reached the right people, and ended up being a strong influence on electronica and hip-hop, as GorillaMan already alluded to. And emo has its roots in the hardcore scence, which has always shunned wide exposure.
I actually agree with this. Electronica, industrial, house etc. have traditioanly been dance (not necessarily pop) music, but I actually think you will see more of it’s influence in more mainstream or in other genres. More melodic versions of hip-hop, electronica etc. not quite as beat driven. Just my opinion of course.
I see several trends currently happening:
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There’s a serious melt going on in the indie scene between different genres and aesthetics. Listen to something like Clouddead’s “ten,” released on a rap label, and tell me what genre it is. You can’t - it sounds like bedroom indie rock meets musique concrete meets rap meets IDM meets… and that’s becoming the norm, rather than deviation.
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There’s some serious cross-pollination going on in the mainstream. Outkast’s “Hey Ya” sounded like a Pixies song, period. It was the biggest song of the past year.
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Risker production is being allowed in mainstream music. Timbaland ripped off Bhangra for some of Missy Elliott’s biggest singles. BT’s production for N’Sync’s last hit, “pop,” employed experimental music software that only academics have used thus far (Kyma). It sounded more like something by Aphex Twin than the usual Triton presets that make backing tracks for those people. The Neptunes have used some interesting sounds (for what they’re working on). None of this stuff is remotely experimental or challenging in the empiricial sense, but compared to the type of production that’s previously been heard in pop music, it’s pratically Stockhausen.
I’ve already been hearing techno beats show up in odd places. The influence of industrial depends on what kind you’re talking about–the first wave of industrial metal has given way to the second; industrial dance has merged with goth to produce darkwave; and avant-garde industrial has…well, it’s remained avant-garde, I suppose.
Aaaand the next big influence in US music could also be as shallow as Puffy Ami Yumi.
The Archies had more than 1 top 10 hit, you know. :dubious:
As long as there have been teens to buy music (since the baby boomers started using their allowances to buy 45s), there have been ephemeral teen stars. And “music” was never judged by them. So the preponderance of teenage stars and boy bands and the like should not distress anyone.
That said, I think companies like Infinity Broadcasting and Clear Channel have actively made it harder to listen to anything but mainstream schlock (in all genres of music), which is why the music industry seems so bleak – you now have to seek the music instead of having it in easy reach on the radio. It has gotten worse since the early 1990s, which at least had MTV out there actively promoting new music (West Coast rap and grunge/alternative). Nowadays MTV and VH-1 do nothing of the sort.
But if you know where to look, it is still there. If you are looking for good, new pop/rock that doesn’t sound like old stuff, I would point you to The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, and Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service. All of these bands (with Modest Mouse’s singles) are immediately accessible, listenable, singable, and in some cases even danceable. All the definition of good pop.
It is easy to overlook the big revolution in music. I think what has happened in music is that, like the rest of our lives, computers are no longer just an optional tool but have become integral. So while electronica persists as a genre, it is mostly subsumed by other genres as they incorporate more computer tech into composition. Just like you would never hire someone nowadays simply on their prowess on Microsoft Word, it is not really a big deal anymore to set down tracks and play with them in the computer. Everyone can do it. This is exemplified by Death Cab for Cutie. Ben Gibbard runs a great rock band in DCfC; he made a collaboration with Jimmy Tamborello from the electronic group DNTEL in The Postal Service, which hit big beyond any of their solo efforts. Rather than this being a new genre or a new fad, it is changing all of music.
Ultrafilter
Yes, I think I can.
How about Antics by Interpol?
What about … uh… You only asked for one right?
Now what are these revolutionary 5 new albums you mentioned?
Franz Ferdinand
Andrew WK
Maybe not so much with the latter (he’s probably too hard for most people), but I’m convinced Franz Ferdinand will become among the Next Big Things.
People keep saying that Franz Ferdinand is new and exciting.
It sound pretty old and tried to me.
I can’t think of any examples (because I don’t like that music style), but it doesn’t exactly sound new to me, more like… old.
Andrew WK’s meant as a joke right?
Franz Ferdinand have blown their bolt too soon. ‘Take me out’ is a great pop song, but they strike me as one of those bands who will never write a song as good as that again, and that was their first single. I would also agree its not pushing any boundarys either - its just they’re taking their influences from a different source than everybody else on the current British music scene was. To me they sound like XTC/Wire/Talking Heads, rather than all the other absolute crap the NME and Q seems to love these days like the Libertines and Razorlight, who are taking music to an early grave.
So who’s pushing it these days? I’m not entirely sure, as I no longer have access to the new music like I once did. But i’m pretty sure someone will be along shortly, to produce an up turn, in much the same way waves like Madchester and the whole Nirvana thing did in the early 90s.
Because it can’t get much worse than it already is. Look to the Hip Hop on the 5th day. Thats where my money would lie.
Well, for something newish, there’s Evanescence. Goth-Pop. Sure, Goblin and Suspira have been doing the same thing in Europe for a while, but any band that breaks big is usually the second or third or fourth to try the concept.
Hmm…I guess. From my point of view, that’s pretty mainstream, but since it’s not top 40 and I’m coming from a different perspective than most, I’ll give it to you.
Never said they were revolutionary, but they are as follows:
[ul][li]The Blood Brothers, Crimes[/li][li]Converge, You Fail Me[/li][li]The Dillinger Escape Plan, Miss Machine[/li][li]Isis, Panopticon[/li]Mastodon, Leviathan[/ul]
i agree. i’m not a big fan of franz ferdinand. i thought for sure that “take me out” was a cover of an eighties song. sure, it’s catchy, but it’s not breaking any new ground. not that all of the music i listen to is groundbreaking, but FF just seems boring and old-hat to me.
as for hiphop music, i think it’s definitely in decline. there are some great producers working in the genre today, but i can’t name many great emcees. hiphop was so innovative and fresh from the late eighties through the mid nineties, but since then, it’s become co-opted by the big companies and watered down to appeal to the masses.
innovators in music today? i think the aforementioned cross-pollination or genre-hopping is the new thing. not that it’s new. alt-country has been around for awhile, but i think elements of it are seeping into all kinds of music now. look at wilco, no matter what your opinion are, they’ve taken country, indie, electronic, and a little pop music and wrapped it up in an interesting package.
personally, i can’t get enough of the once acclaimed, and presently much maligned band interpol. groundbreaking? maybe not, but i think they bring something new to the table. sure, they borrow from joy division, but i think the comparison is a little thin. i’ve heard their lyrics bashed quite a bit, but i love the non-sequitors set against paul bank’s robotic voice, over some great soaring guitars and (especially) the bass. they remind me a little of the afghan whigs, with all the soul removed. maybe it’s my love for kool keith and ghostface coming through, but how can you not love a line like “time is like a broken watch, i make money like fred astaire”? or when he says “i submit my incentive is romance” in that voice…
The Blood Brothers, Crimes
Converge, You Fail Me
The Dillinger Escape Plan, Miss Machine
Isis, Panopticon
Mastodon, Leviathan
Let me guess : metal? (or whatever you want to call it. I am not bashing it, I like me some metal)
And Evanescense ?
No way they are doing something new.
The Gathering (Dutch band) has been making their sound for years and years.
The only thing they added is that guy screaming over the top of it. 
Most of those bands are more of a hardcore punk and heavy metal hybrid. I’m not sure what they call the style these days. This is some seriously good stuff. I don’t know whether it’ll be as influential as ultrafilter thinks, but I wouldn’t mind if it was. Hey, ultrafilter, do you know a band called Refused, by any chance. (I assume you do.) Have they come out with anything since Shape of Punk to Come?
I’d call it post-metalcore, just for need of a reasonably descriptive name. Traditionally, the new movements of metal have their roots in the punk scene (cf. thrash and nu metal), so yeah, I think this will be the new direction.
Isis is something of an odd man out on that list, but they’re not too different, so they fit.
I’ve heard of them. AMG says they’ve only done compilations since then.
Interestingly enough, there was a link to Leviathan displayed rather prominently on the AMG front page when I went to look.
You should definitely at least sample The Shape of Punk to Come from the AMG website. I think this record is a must-have for somebody with your tastes. I can’t believe that record came out in 1998—it’s definitely ahead of its time. While it rocks hard, it manages to have a lot of tongue-in-cheek musical humor in it. I love any band that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and Refused comes across as one of these bands.
I’m sorry Freejooky, but Hey Ya sounded nothing like a Pixies song. I love the Pixies, and I even liked that pop song when it first came out, but I must say there is no dirrect correlation between their sounds.
Some people do concept albums, I can’t believe Bjork’s Medulla hasn’t been mentioned, or perhaps the Polyphonic Spree. There are new sounds, but sounds will always remind some people of sound they have already heard, and it is hard to not be influenced by sound that you have heard as a creative musician.
I agree, in fact my music was supposed to be part of the next generation. It’s certainly melodic hip-hop. We were signed but then internal squabbling brought us down.
http://www.subtechbeats.com/oldindex.htm
Go to downloads and listen to “Crawl” or “Los Pasos Del Diablo”. I can’t think of anything out there to compare them to.
Maybe I’m biased though. 