Top Ten Albums of the 2000’s Preview

let’s hope veckatimest & kid a are in there.

but pinkerton better be on there.

I’d agree and disagree with you on your statement about 2000’s music being underwhelming. Certainly, the 90’s were way better popular rock music, but the indie musicians of this decade have not ceased to amaze me. First off, while OK Computer may have been a complete masterpiece, Kid A is still an utterly fantastic album, and in my opinion, Radiohead’s best. Sigur Ros’s Takk has been one of my most listened to albums of the last two years, and I love it more every time I listen to it. Arcade Fire’s Funeral is another great cd. It’s also good to remember that we’re all products of the decade we grew up in. The 90’s will probably always stand out to you as one of the best decades for music. For rock, I would agree, but the 2000’s have been awesome for the lesser known bands. Of course, if we’re talking pop, this might have been the worst decade ever.

When I was in college, I remember wondering when or if I would begin to cave to the bias of coming-of-age music nostalgia. Of course, at the time I was delusional enough to believe I might never become the old dude who hated “the youngin’s music”.

I think I have to admit that some time in the last few years I took my seat in the rocking chair that I’ll be condemning new music from until I’m dead. But I will say this in an attempt at “objective” historical analysis:

The music that has changed my life more than any other, I actually discovered in the 2000s. Why? Well, when I look back to the 90s, like you guys have said, all of my favorite music came from rock-oriented major record labels. (Weezer, Radiohead, Ben Folds Five, Third Eye Blind, Sublime)

In the 2000s, in my opinion, the landscape of major-label rock has been a testosterone-fueled wasteland (with some exceptions, i.e. Jack White) — as if a homophobic, walking, talking man-penis was writing every song on the radio only for profit. Maybe a better metaphor would be a rock Titanic, fueled by huge, money-burning engine rooms and captained by a uniform-clad set of cock-and-balls. One thing seems for sure, the ship is sinking.

In the 90’s, turning on the radio sufficed for me — there were lots of great artists to be found and I was satisfied leaving it at that. Now things are different; now we have the internet for music finding. Whether the chicken or the egg came first, I don’t know, but all the creative people seem to have decided to jump the major label money ship and become net pioneers. The amazing thing is that it seems to be working!

A number of amazing rock artists have found a home in the internet-aided world of indie and quasi-major labels, (Coheed and Cambria …etc.) while another growing throng of musicians are putting out some of the most inventive music I’ve ever heard that blur the rock/pop boundaries with genres that never sold well on the money ship. (St. Vincent, Amanda Palmer, Arcade Fire, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear)

Perhaps best of all, the lack of easy-to-find, quality radio music has also resulted in my finding listening time for discovering amazing radio-neglected genres and artists for the first time. (Ralph Stanley, Tim Eriksen, the Sacred Harp hymn tradition)

In my opinion, the 90s OWN the 00s in regards to “official/sponsored/professional” music. I think the issue that will make it difficult for us to wrap our heads around the 00s will be the shifting paradigm that asks the question: “what is the definition of official/sponsored/professional music?”

In my opinion, the emperor has been thrown down, to the benefit of “peasant” musicians everywhere.