At what year in history does your acute knowledge of music come to an abrupt end?

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I've got some stuff pre-1930s, mostly the big bands, Louis Armstrong and some New Orleans shit, but I'm definitely best on 1950-now.

Jazz I have a pretty good knowledge of from the mid-20s thru mid-70s, when it largely stopped evolving.

Blech.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 16 February 2004 23:38 (twenty years ago) link

2004

― feminazi (feminazi), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 00:15 (twenty years ago) link

Beatles was an important thing in 1963, but there were other changes going on then too. Phil Spector more or less invented the Wall Of Sound the year before, Motown developed their trademark sound (earlier Motown singles were standard R&B hits, sounding less typically Motown), Bob Dylan and Beach Boys both had their breakthrough. Certainly an important year for more reasons that The Beatles (who didn't crack the US until the year after)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 00:18 (twenty years ago) link

2004

I know some stuff about 2004, like I know the answer to the question "Who released "Talkie Walkie" in 2004?", for instance ;)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 00:19 (twenty years ago) link

From Motown through to Speed Garage I'm pretty solid. 98-2002 a bit of a blank spot, but picks up again after that...

― Jacob (Jacob), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 03:05 (twenty years ago) link

my musical knowledge is generally incomplete. you guys must all be really well informed!

― snd, Tuesday, 17 February 2004 03:12 (twenty years ago) link

"nothing happened between The Day The Music Died in 1959 and the Beatles landing in America'

Well, apart from Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and James Brown inventing soul music.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 03:15 (twenty years ago) link

Oh, and in that "70-76 black hole" you'll find a ton of great, non-turgid "soft rock" like David Bowie, Roxy Music, Bob Marley, T-Rex, Stevie Wonder etc. etc. etc.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 03:22 (twenty years ago) link

i'm good with 1940s-1980s. It starts to break down after about 1998.

― Orbit (Orbit), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 05:15 (twenty years ago) link

I can sort of bolster my knowledge via basic research but non-rap music in general from 1980 to about 1991 is sort of a blur for me, maybe because I grew up with it and didn't want to dig much further than the stuff I'd already been exposed to via radio/MTV ("Smiths? OK, uh, "How Soon Is Now". That'll be fine thanx"). My favorite album from 1981 is Fair Warning, which leads me to believe one of two things: my knowledge of post-post-punk-pre-synthpop is sorely lacking, or Van Halen fucking rules. Perhaps both.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 05:24 (twenty years ago) link

(I did wind up surprising myself with how much stuff on the '82 CDR Go! I realized was along my lines of interest so maybe that's a good sign)

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 05:25 (twenty years ago) link

I'm alright going back to punk starting and before that I'm pretty piss poor. I think this is because I have a memory full of Menswear song titles and other things absorbed at age 15 or so which I have no use whatsoever for, and can't find space for good pre-77 music in there (with a few honorable exceptions).

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 10:34 (twenty years ago) link

Not that I'm proposing anyone should do it, but perhaps this should be split by genre. It would be interesting to see the jumps people make ie a pretty common one would probably be something like:

PUNK: Nirvana/grunge/whoever got you interested, lead to 1976-1979, lead to 1973-1976, lead to 1961-1969 (although now you'd probably find people slotting post-punk in somewhere)

Or an interesting one would be 'blues': band that got you interested in music; Rolling Stones; 1950's; 60's revival; then moving back in time until you get to the Robert Johnson song that you already knew about because the Stones covered it.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 11:04 (twenty years ago) link

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