the 2000s: worst era in recorded music?

version

Well-known member
lol i certainly share this thread's assumption whether it's truly fair or not. that things were dire on both a sonic level:

and a spiritual level, as implied in the discussion of how tons of artists became flattened cartoon characters. no shortage of "talent" but a severe dearth of magic.

dunno how much i can justify this but the 60s-90s really feel like a distinct arc of cultural history that dies at the 2000s. there are artists from that epoch who managed to keep the fire going in the 2000s but even then, dunno that any of them did their best work.

thinking of the kind of stuff matt's researched, maybe you could say 60s hippyism > 70s cults / interest in eastern religion > 80s new age > 90s cyber utopianism. but nothing in 2000s, as far as i can tell.
Did you see that old issue of Wired someone posted on Twitter the other day? It said we were facing 25 years of prosperity, freedom and a better environment unless some of these ten things happen, pretty much all of which seem to have actually happened or are in the process of happening now...

:ROFLMAO:

 

luka

Well-known member
i saw it. i was going to post it on the divination thread but i already feel bad abput the amount of embedded tweets i post. feels wrong.
 

luka

Well-known member
See, I feel that early 2000's Heavy/Nu Metal can usually be distinguished simply by overproduction.
The studio has cleaned up so much, the instruments almost stand completely separate from one another. You can take each one out and still recognize the track, because they're all playing from their own room. There's just so much individual attention, it drags damn near needlessly at the details of an instrument that may have sounded better within that group, if you were simply allowed to play how you wanted to.
I also feel there was a big call to produce radio-ready tracks that would be pumped out at the speed of light. You can hear the guitar loudness is too sharp, or the drums are just a crisp & clear rendition of a slightly more sloppy version of the same track, or even just the vocals being too polished. There's no grit to any of the vocals, as they've all been washed over, and over again in studio. They sound almost isolated from the rest of the group.
Even black/death metal bands during this period are guilty. There's so much separation in sound, that groups like Immortal, Behemoth, Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, all suffer from this sense of overproduction.
Everything is too loud and clear, all separately from one another, that you can pick apart what you want to hear without ever even enjoying the entirety of the song. It never stopped me from enjoying these tracks, but damn it, I notice it way too much now.
Oh, and too many bands tried to incorporate a post-grunge type of vocal into their sound. Whether they sang, growled, or screeched, at one point or another, you would definitely hear this drawl to their vocals that would bring them ever closer to the realm of the grungiest. From Alice Cooper to ZZ Top, many groups who were producing at that time tried their hand at becoming more raspy, and draggy with their vocal sound.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
See, I feel that early 2000's Heavy/Nu Metal can usually be distinguished simply by overproduction.
The studio has cleaned up so much, the instruments almost stand completely separate from one another. You can take each one out and still recognize the track, because they're all playing from their own room. There's just so much individual attention, it drags damn near needlessly at the details of an instrument that may have sounded better within that group, if you were simply allowed to play how you wanted to.
I also feel there was a big call to produce radio-ready tracks that would be pumped out at the speed of light. You can hear the guitar loudness is too sharp, or the drums are just a crisp & clear rendition of a slightly more sloppy version of the same track, or even just the vocals being too polished. There's no grit to any of the vocals, as they've all been washed over, and over again in studio. They sound almost isolated from the rest of the group.
Even black/death metal bands during this period are guilty. There's so much separation in sound, that groups like Immortal, Behemoth, Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, all suffer from this sense of overproduction.
Everything is too loud and clear, all separately from one another, that you can pick apart what you want to hear without ever even enjoying the entirety of the song. It never stopped me from enjoying these tracks, but damn it, I notice it way too much now.
Oh, and too many bands tried to incorporate a post-grunge type of vocal into their sound. Whether they sang, growled, or screeched, at one point or another, you would definitely hear this drawl to their vocals that would bring them ever closer to the realm of the grungiest. From Alice Cooper to ZZ Top, many groups who were producing at that time tried their hand at becoming more raspy, and draggy with their vocal sound.

Whoever wrote this should be curb stomped, jaw hanging loose, teeth tumbling, completely unable to close their mouth
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
so that implies that you think the 2010s are significantly better?

(I'd probably agree but I'm not completely sure why - seems to be less pastiche - the vintage-y / faded / Hipstamatic-filter thing replaced by ultrabrite superflat hyperdigital)
 

luka

Well-known member
so that implies that you think the 2010s are significantly better?

(I'd probably agree but I'm not completely sure why - seems to be less pastiche - the vintage-y / faded / Hipstamatic-filter thing replaced by ultrabrite superflat hyperdigital)
not so much that its just i dont really know what happened in the 2010s. it doesnt have a grime or anything on that level
but its not as crass and cheap and tacky considered as a whole
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
did anyone mention 'microhouse' aka 'mnml' yet? all that music out of Germany, Kompakt, Michael Mayer, et al. Now that is some 'moderately diverting at the time', utterly forgotten / forgettable echt-2000s shit if ever there was...
 

luka

Well-known member
@linebaugh why are you so quiet today? are you OK? is there anything you'd like to say or anything you need help with?
you've always got someone to listen to in me. let us share the load, don't keep it all inside.
 

woops

is not like other people
i'd given up buying records in 2021-2 and only listened to what my mates were doing. and my own stuff of course. lots of that.
 
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