modern day musical heroes??

[datura]

Thing is, I've heard of not one of those bands. The commercialised stuff nowadays is utter wank and is targeted at teens who wouldn't know good music if it smacked them in the face.

There are a few good bands/artists about of course, but there isn't one stand out one, if you know what I mean. In the past we've had Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, all giants in the world of music and with sales that will probably never be beaten now we're in the digital age.

There's some good and a lot of bad commercial music. If you are interested enough in music, spend some time and listen to some of the bands/artists people are listing here as there's some excellent artists mentioned.

Sales don't necessarily equate with quality of music.

 

[esmufc07]

There's some good and a lot of bad commercial music. If you are interested enough in music, spend some time and listen to some of the bands/artists people are listing here as there's some excellent artists mentioned.

Sales don't necessarily equate with quality of music.

Of course not, I'm not claiming anything else.

I'll give the bands/artists listed here a listen through over the coming weeks.

 

[Nearco]

I don't think you can deny the musical influence Elvis had, regardless of whether or not you like his music.

He was the biggest artist in the world despite never touring outside of the US, I think that says enough.

His influence was more to do with his image than his music, from that standpoint I would argue that Little Richard was far more influential. I think if people are gonna quote giant artists from the past it would be more approriate to bracket The Beatles with The Beach Boys.

 

[RedNome]

There's some good and a lot of bad commercial music. If you are interested enough in music, spend some time and listen to some of the bands/artists people are listing here as there's some excellent artists mentioned.

Sales don't necessarily equate with quality of music.

That's exactly it, all over the Ents forum, there are a whole host of great bands/artists recomemended by a whole host of people, if they actually bothered to listen to any of it they might actually have a different view on the quality of music around currently.

 

[El B]

No one agrees with Fugazi then? Living legends. And if you claim to be into music and dont like or know of them then you're really missing out.

 

[CircusMonkey]

Jack White
Dave Grohl
Eddie Vedder
Joanna Newsom
Pj Harvey
Tom Waits
Dr Dre

 

[RedNome]

No one agrees with Fugazi then? Living legends. And if you claim to be into music and dont like or know of them then you're really missing out.

Never heard of them lad, just set an album called Marillion downloading, if they are shite our relationship will be very shortlived

 

[El B]

Go for Argument, End Hits, Rpeater, Red Medicine or In on the killtaker. Probably their best stuff. GIve their wiki a read aswell, they stayed loyal to the whole DIY ethos, did everything themselves, released their own albums, etc.

Fugazi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Melbourne Red]

Thing is, I've heard of not one of those bands. The commercialised stuff nowadays is utter wank and is targeted at teens who wouldn't know good music if it smacked them in the face.

There are a few good bands/artists about of course, but there isn't one stand out one, if you know what I mean. In the past we've had Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, all giants in the world of music and with sales that will probably never be beaten now we're in the digital age.

I was responding to this statement:

I very rarely listen to modern music, I'm constantly listening to stuff from the 60's, 70's and 80's and I love it.

I know a lot of people like that who only listen to the old stuff, and I think in most cases it's because they just don't where to find the good new stuff. This unfortunately leads to the assumption that 'they don't make music like they used to', which is really very wrong.

There's not a 'few' good bands/artists, there's an absolute well of quality modern music you could tap into and explore. All anyone has to do is get on Pitchfork.com and read their reviews and their 'best albums' lists and learn the names of the quality artists, and I suspect they'll inevitably come out of it with a far more optimistic view of modern music. I also don't know about other regions, but I know in Melbourne we have access to several radio stations that favour a less mainstream sound where bands like the ones I listed before get the sort of exposure and repetitive airplay that your James Blunts get on mainstream radio. I assume most regions would at least one option like that, and I think it's worthwhile for exercise for anyone to change their listening habits a bit and try it out.

It also seems to me that by standout, you mean 'iconic'. Well you're right, in the modern era, with the mainstream acts being dire, the good acts being on Indie labels, and the digital age rendering massive record sales impossible, there's a near complete absence of bands capable of matching the greats of previous eras for that aura and that rock God 'vibe'. But there's still loads of bands that make standout music.

 

[Melbourne Red]

Nick Cave is a great shout.

He's made more all-time great albums than most artists make albums.

 

[a_devil_inside]

i'd say Take That / Robbie Williams might be on the list
maybe Kylie?

 

[R.N7]

DJ Shadow

The guy's a legend in my eyes, not only an amazing solo artist and live performer in his own right but also for his production and collaborations with other artists. I mean this guy is responsible for two legendary albums already, his own album 'Entroducing' and also with his little jaunt with James Lavelle on the brilliant UNKLE album Psyence Fiction, both highly critically acclaimed.

Yup.

His last album was unbelievably shite though.

 

[Easy V]

Thinking about it some more, I have to say Sufjan Stevens could just be the one that stands out above the rest in terms of talent, originality and individual output, but whether he'll ever make it as a global icon is much less certain. He has a talent for writing the most heartbreaking, touching songs, for instance;

Romulus


Casimir Pulaski Day



But then he can go completely the opposite way, with an epic, self-indulgant, multi-instrumental piece like "Chicago";




He's also worked with electronic music, and I thought his cover of Castanets' "You Are the Blood" was a great change of pace for him;

 

[I_live_cement]

Thing is, I've heard of not one of those bands. The commercialised stuff nowadays is utter wank and is targeted at teens who wouldn't know good music if it smacked them in the face.

You haven't heard of Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes or Arcade fire?

Those are fairly big bands, Elvis.

 

[moses]

Jeff Tweedy, Conor Oberst, Sufjan Stevens, The Radiohead lads, Alex Turner; and Malkmus is a good shout.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

Not many post-1990 artists will still be on teenagers' walls in 40 years time like The Beatles, Dylan and Hendrix. In fact the only one I can think of who definitely will be is Kurt Cobain.

 

[El B]

Not many post-1990 artists will still be on teenagers walls in 40 years time like The Beatles, Dylan and Hendrix. In fact the only one I can think of who definitely will be is Kurt Cobain.

More so due to the fact he died as an anti-hero than due to his music. Nirvana weren’t a bad band, but they definitely benefitted from being in the ritght place at the right time, with grunge taking off and people getting sick of 80’s metal. If anything they were quite overrated, only helped by the fact that Kurt Cobain was a rock star they flet they could relate to . Same as Sid Vicious (has the young rock star death), and you could maybe say Johnny Rotten and Iggy Pop are more revered just for being them than for their music (although they are doing their best to piss on their own reputations at the minute). What is it with ex-punks doing ads for car insurance and butter? Kinda depressing.

What about Mark E Smith? The Fall aren’t everyones cup of tea, I quite like them, but theres something about him that even though hes an absolute arse hes still a legend. Him doing the Football Focus scores is hilarious

 

[pillory]

What about Mark E Smith? The Fall aren’t everyones cup of tea, I quite like them, but theres something about him that even though hes an absolute arse hes still a legend. Him doing the Football Focus scores is hilarious

Got my first The Fall album recently, Slates. It's ace.