Re: OT Re: DEFINING CULTURAL YEAR of the DECADE

["Matt Davignon" <mattdavignon@gmail.com>]

I think if you're looking for earthshattering trends of the last 2
decades, you're not going to find them on most terrestrial radio
stations. The music industry has settled on a pretty cost-effective
model: rather than trying to guess which music people are going to
like, they just put out stuff and do all they can to see that people
don't hear anything else. Most of the radio stations across the
country have the exact same playlist. If you listen to a pop station
in Los Angeles, you're going to hear the exact same stuff in Maine.

When I think of things that happened in the 2000's:
--Glitch pop: The idea that a computer can be an instrument, and that
sequences and samples you program at home can be the new "folk" music:
The Books, Tujiko Noriko, Tuung

--Indie Hip-Hop has grown by leaps and bounds this decade, and now has
a completely different identity than the mainstream
2-notes-on-a-$10,000-keyboard stuff on the radio. Take a listen to the
record labels Stones Throw (Madlib, J Dilla, Oh No, Aloe Blacc, Guilty
Simpson, etc) and Definitive Jux (El-P, Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox, Mr.
Lif, etc). Another collective, Anticon, put out several albums of
their more avant-garde take on it earlier in the decade, including the
excellent first Clouddead record.

--Grime as a genre didn't become as popular in the US as it allegedly
did in England, but it's usually characterized as a funky "dirty"
combination between dancehall (reggae), rap and techno, often using
"affordable" equipment: MIA, Dizzie Rascal, Lady Sovereign

--New services on the internet, such as myspace and iodalliance.com
make it easy for independent artists to get just as much online
distribution (even more) than major label artists get.

Matt Davignon
www.ribosomemusic.com