While this decade has had the expected amount of financially successful, mass-produced bland (often blond) popstars, and while Karaoke Idol continues to be a perennial television hit, the last ten years have nonetheless managed to produce some genuinely great and original music.
The Strokes began 2001 leading the way for a "rebirth of rock," with their hard, guitar-heavy short songs that were a clear throwback to the rock hits of previous decades. Though both The Strokes and most of these bands eventually went the way of their predecessors, bands like Kings of Leon, Silversun Pickups, and Kaiser Chiefs continue to bring forth the blunt, unapologetic hard rock sound and kick ass doing it.
Meanwhile, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, having outlasted The Strokes, are still pulling off their original, "we can get away with anything" sound that has somehow gotten their most recent hit, "Heads Will Roll," wide stream fame, and they're not the only ones who have turned originality into success in this decade.
The Killers came out with a sound so unique, critics tried coming up with new names for it (none of which stuck); Panic! At the Disco's album Fever to Tell specifically defied nearly every convention modern rock has given us (verse-chorus-bridge, who needs it?); and Vampire Weekend decided what modern rock needed was more reggae and island sounds.
The Rap/ Hip-Hop world has also provided us with new sounds to mingle in with the old. Kanye West (yes, I'm praising Kanye West) and Akon brought the robotic auto-tune to the mainstream, which then quickly suffered from overuse. But, smaller acts like Chromeo keep it fresh and original while the slow rhymes of Kid Cudi give us someone to point at and say, "See, there's still new things to do in rap!" And then there's the raw voice of Lil Wayne that takes us back to a more simple, but still awesome rap style ("Prom Queen" is a great song!).
Standing atop the music scene in the past ten years (and deserving to be there) is Beyonce. She exists as the perfect bridge between the rap/hip-hop world and that of mainstream pop music, with a success that transcends both. She has the large, dance/ performance heavy shows to equal Britney Spears, but the fact that she can (and does) sing amazingly well raises her to another level entirely. She has somehow managed to do what almost no one else has (including J.T.), stretch out from her singer background to conquer other fields, but still be successful as a singer.
Basically, she's everything J. Lo. and Britney wish they were.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I mentioned to someone at work the other day that Britney may actually be this generation's Madonna. Was Madonna ever the best singer out at the time? No, but no matter where popular music seemed to go, there Madonna was putting out hits. Britney, much like Madonna before her, continues to put out Top 40 music in spite of (or because of) her outside-music antics. Madonna did some weird crap, but she was around on the charts for a long time. Britney is following that lead. Is Beyonce a better singer and performer? Definitely, but you have to give Britney her dues for still being around and still getting airplay.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Britney lacks both the creditibility as an artist that Beyonce posseses, as well as the ability to successfully appeal to so many divergent demographics. And Beyonce has succeeded in keeping up her music career while also spreading out to film and television success.
ReplyDeleteShe really can just do it all, and manages to do it all very well, which very few people have ever accomplished.