Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I suppose there's been discussion in here around "Why the 80s?"

Is it just that the 80s is far enough away now for it to be milked for ideas or is there something about this 80s music in particular that chimes with the present?

i.e. the synthetic, unreal quality of the sounds and the ironically distanced, postured melancholy
 

luka

Well-known member
I think there is a deep rhyme between the two eras and the arrival of new technology reflected in recording processes and whatever etc the disquiet that provoked
 

luka

Well-known member
As discussed in eighties pop poignance the sadness and anxiety underneath the kitschy surface, and perhaps above all, sense of distance
 

sus

Well-known member
I suppose there's been discussion in here around "Why the 80s?"

Is it just that the 80s is far enough away now for it to be milked for ideas or is there something about this 80s music in particular that chimes with the present?

i.e. the synthetic, unreal quality of the sounds and the ironically distanced, postured melancholy
I think part of it is that the recycled era has to be far enough away

I think also though, all historic styles are back in some form—the 90s are back (see the shoegaze Oneohtrix did, or the fuzz-goth of Phoebe Bridgers & Billie Eilish), the 70s are back, there are pockets of underground rock where the 50s and 60s are huge. But the 80s are the best suited to big pop music probably.

I guess it's a fair question why the stuff that charted in the 90s isn't getting recycled for Top 40.
 

luka

Well-known member
One of the things to do probably is to look at the neon screams thing and strip it of its value judgements and take away its polemic and focus in on the questions of what it represents and announces
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I guess it's a fair question why the stuff that charted in the 90s isn't getting recycled for Top 40.
Can't help but wonder (oh-so-predictably) if there'll be a grunge-esque rebellious uprising – back to the humble geetars etc.

But then, I don't think culture works like it did in the 90s anymore.

There's obviously still a mainstream, but anything outside it is still sort of in the mainstream by virtue of the fact it can be easily accessed.

Hard to imagine something "breaking out" into the charts and taking down the dominant hegemony (which I suppose now is a combo of pop music and rap music).
 

wektor

Well-known member
Can't help but wonder (oh-so-predictably) if there'll be a grunge-esque rebellious uprising – back to the humble geetars etc.
indie boys do sing trap beats now instead of playing the guitar.
wait a few years until you can style transfer a whistled melody into the timbre of any given instrument, and it will become a vintage thing to play a physical guitar.
instruments will get even cheaper than they are now, since they do (in theory) require skill to use them and who wants that?
that's when it will hit.
perhaps we might even arrive as far as some sort of new chamber music as the ultimate form of sonic luxury and excess.
 
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