A bit too radical
September 21, 2006Sting, bass player and singer of one of the best bands of all time, The Police, has said that music and rock are dead. He says nobody is making new music, and that everything is an endless loop of more of the same.
I respect Sting, and credit him for all his work, but this is just plain nonsense. If you look at the past 10-15 years, MANY new bands with new sounds have risen and fallen. To name a few.
Fiona Apple. Radiohead. Oasis. Blur. Gorillaz. The Streets. Marylin Manson. Rammstein. Garbage. Sufjan Stevens. The Verve.
And I just came up with these in 30 seconds.
Now, I agree with Sting that with the exception of Sufjan Stevens and Fiona Apple, nobody will ever become as great as bands/artists such as The Police, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Don McLean, Neil Young, Dire Straits, The Eagles, etc. etc., however, to say that no one is doing anything new is a bit too radical.
Music | 
You are paraphrasing it incorrectly… In the linked article Sting said that *pop* and rock are dead, not *music* and rock, which is a big difference (at least if you also listen to other genres than pop & rock).
Funny how Sting would make this statement anyways tho, it’s not like The Police created a new sound really.
Comment by Edwin — September 22, 2006 @ 1:12 pm
To me, the only thing that’s dead is Sting.
I disagree about the greatness of the artists and bands you mentioned. Rammstein & Marilyn (btw, this is the only correct way to write it :P) Manson have changed metal forever and surely will leave a lasting impression. Just like Nine Inch Nails & Kurt Cobain did by the way.
Sting is a moron. I never liked The Police anyway. :P
Comment by LoeZ — September 22, 2006 @ 1:46 pm
with the exception of […] Fiona Apple, nobody will ever become as great as bands/artists such as […] The Beatles
I happen to really like Fiona Apple, but you’re delusional if you think she is on par with the Beatles or Elvis or even the Eagles. These are people that changed the face of music as we know it. Fiona Apple is destined to be a niche act, and that’s not a bad thing by any stretch.
I also happen to disagree with you that Don McLean and Dire Straits belong in your list. Your list, I think, is about people who reinvented or reinvigorated music. Music IS being reborn, but not in the form of rock, sadly.
Some bands that do belong on your list, whether you like them or not, are: Nirvana, Guns N Roses, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath. Each of these bands changed the direction of music. They inspired a new genre. Time will prove that the rest of them are merely great artists, but not people who influence the direction of music.
I think you could make a case for Shania Twain and Garth Brooks, who brought accessible country to the masses; Run DMC, LL Cool J, and Public Enemy, who popularized rap; and probably Madonna, whose empowered female music led the path for kitchy acts like Gwen Stefani and Britney Spears.
Comment by Adam — September 22, 2006 @ 2:59 pm
Fiona and Sufjan were mostly a personal note by me, obviously they are not as huge as The Beatles et. al.
And I disagree about Nirvana. I don’t see how they brought anything new to the table; mostly illustrated by the fact that Nirvana’s best album is Unplugged, and its 2nd best album, Nevermind, was only so good and succesfull because of its producer (Butch Vig).
What Sting was referring to, was that present-day bands are stuck in an endless loop of regurgitation; THAT I disagree with. Fiona may not have changed the face of music, but she certainly is unique and fresh.
Same for McLean. Don McLean may not have changed the face of music, but when Bob Dylan calls you “the voice of the century”, you sure are important to music as a whole. Take Don McLean away, and classics like American Pie and Vincent are gone; ti would leave a serious gap.
Take Gwen Stefani or any present-day rapper away… And no gap is left. Someone else will easily fill their shoes. This is not the case with any of the bands/artists I mentioned; they may not have changed the face of music, but they sure as hell are unique and irreplacable.
I mean seriously, you know anyone else who can play the guitar like Mark Knopfler?
it’s not like The Police created a new sound really.
Tha’s herrecy over here. The Police’s “Synchronysity” is one of the best albums ever made, and their earlier works nrought raggea to the masses in such a unique form, nobody ever did it again.
Comment by Administrator — September 22, 2006 @ 3:19 pm
Believe me, if Oasis, The Verve, and Garbage never existed, the world wouldn’t even notice.
I love Oasis. I was a HUGE fan in college. But they didn’t change anything, and they weren’t that unique. In fact, I’d argue that they did everything they could to NOT be unique. They were 100% the Beatles and the Stones and everything they liked about late ’60s/early 70’s British rock.
I play 4 instruments, and I LOVE music. I have thousands of MP3s, hundreds of CDs, and hundreds upon hundreds of hours of live music. I’ve been to hundreds of concerts, some bands I’ve seen 20 to 30 or more times, and my favorite band I’ve actually seen in 8 times in Europe alone! I’m not trying to undervalue music, Sting’s opinion, your opinion, or anyone’s opinion.
But I’m a realist. Being a great band doesn’t mean you have a spot in history. I know everyone thinks Radiohead is the second coming, but just because they make great music doesn’t mean they have altered music as a whole or even left a spot that couldn’t be filled. Bob Dylan can say whatever he wants, but trust me, 99.999% of the world doesn’t know the song “Vincent,” and I’d suspect that of the .001% that knows it, half of them think it’s cheesy as all hell. I’m one of them.
I’m not trying to give you shit here, by the way. I honestly just think that when history remembers this period, nearly all the bands will fade into obscurity but a handful. “Synchronicity” is a great album, but it’s not one of the most influencial, but Nevermind is, and it did change the direction of music. The Police were great - they really were - but Reggae was popularized years earlier by Bob Marley.
“When the Pawn…” is an awesome album that I love listening to, but I don’t believe for a minute that it’s more important than any other album of its era. If you took it away, yes, there would be a gap. But it would be filled by someone else and the world would get on its merry way.
Listen, my favorite bands are Phish, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews, Smashing Pumpkins, Faith No More, and many others. I recognize, with the possible exception of the Beatles and arguably the Dead, that if they didn’t fill the space they did, someone else would.
Comment by Adam — September 22, 2006 @ 6:27 pm
“If you look at the past 10-15 years, MANY new bands with new sounds have risen and fallen”
It’s too bad we have to go back 10-15 years though. What has come out in the past 5 years? Nada. You mentioned Gorillaz, and while I think they are great, their sound is anything but innovative. I’m hard pressed to think of any groups that have put out anything innovative since the mid to late 90’s.
Adam mentioned Nirvana, which IMO was the last band to actually come up with a new sound. I can still listen to Nevermind and it sounds fresh and new.
Just a correction about The Police: They are classified as 2nd wave Ska (Reggae is a subset of Ska, with the Bob Marley sound classified as 1st wave). 3rd wave Ska includes bands like The Toasters, Bosstones, etc (some would even classify some of early No Doubt as 3rd wave). More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ska
Regardless The Police are not Reggae, and they certainly were nothing compared to what Marley did for the Ska genre. They are one of the top 5 groups ever though.
My complete list is here: http://jaysonknight.com/blog/archive/2006/02/12/7096.aspx
Comment by jayson knight — September 23, 2006 @ 6:06 am
You guys are not getting what I’m saying. It is irrelevant if someone or some band changed the face of music or not. What is important, is if that person or band is producing something unique, something no other can.
In case of Fiona Apple, her past gives her a unique position to write about things few others could write about. Not many women have such a past, and are willing to sing about it in such a way. Besides that, Fiona’s style of music is also unique; I don’t think you could name someone else who has such an ‘Alice-in-wonderland’ kind of music.
And Adam, as for Oasis: no, they did not change the face of music. However, Oasis was part of the revival of the British music scene, which coincided with the struggle against Tatcher and the end of her era; this revival gave way to a multitude of bands, who are all extremely important for Britain of the 90s; to name a few: Oasis, Blur, The Prodigy, Pulp, Supergrass, The Verve, Radiohead, you name it.
While Oasis obviously was inspired by the music of the 60s and 70s, they DID create a whole new sound (together with Blur and Suede) a whole new mousic movement, Britpop, which sure as hell had its own distinctive sound.
What I’m trying to say is that a band’s or artist’s importance has little to nothing to do with how much they changed the face of music. It is completely irrelevant what the ‘normal’ people think about them, or how succesful they were.
As time progresses, it will become ever harder to have the same kind of impact as The Beatles, Evlis Presley, Johnny Cash, The Rolling Stones, and so on, had. In fact; it is my strong belief that no such band will ever arise again; it was simply easier to stand out in the 50s/60s/70s than it is now. In that area, truly new and fresh acts could rise to absolute stardom and hence gain legendary status.
Today, this is impossible. Take Sufjan Stevens for example. A truly amazing artist, who I’d say is just as, or maybe even more, capable than the bands of the 50s/60s/70s. However, he’l; never be able to gain the same legendary status; were he born earlier, he could very well have.
Comment by Administrator — September 23, 2006 @ 3:50 pm
In addition, think of it in terms of the software world. When did we have the excpetional system and software that was able to wow us?
Exactly, in the early stages. The Amiga, the early Apple machines, you name it. Now? When is the last time a new operating system ame outand you were truly wowed in the same sense the Amiga could?
SkyOS and Syllable. They are miles behind what the mainstream world has to offer, however, does that make them less impressive? In this day and age, it is MUCH harder to stand out in the OS world than it was 20 years ago. However, does that make SkyOS any less impressive?
Comment by Administrator — September 23, 2006 @ 3:56 pm