“IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE -ANDY WARHOL

We seem to have a pretty good schedule for these sorts of things. The 1920s brought jazz, the 1950s ushered in rock ‘n’ roll, the late ’70s started exploring hip-hop, and in between, we had variants of jump blues, rockabilly, mod rock, punk, funk, disco and electronic  that provided such a rich pop music history in the last 50 years. But where is our musical revolution? Sure, the ’80s had post-punk and grunge and the ’90s had… well, the ’90s had music … well, the ’90s had something resembling music. But as we approach the end of this century’s first decade, what musical progression do we have? Sure, artists like Radiohead, Jay-Z and Beck reached an apex of their careers that allowed them make some of the best records of their genre, but did they do anything particularly innovative? Not unless you consider mainstream success for a scientologist to be progress.

BadgerHerald
Sept 15 2008