But Steely Dan are still going. This isn't so much about the "sound of the decade" as about bands who were born, lived and died in a single decade.
― goth colouring book (anagram), Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:07 (nine years ago) link
aah, now I get it
― niels, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:08 (nine years ago) link
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970-1979)?
― nxd, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:10 (nine years ago) link
90s - Pavement, the Boo Radleys
― Scary Darey (dog latin), Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:10 (nine years ago) link
They released an album in 1992 but that's pretty close.xpost
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:10 (nine years ago) link
The Smiths?
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:11 (nine years ago) link
All the bands I've found seem littered with dodgy reunions
If you discount those, then Bangles fit nicely with the 80s
― nxd, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:12 (nine years ago) link
Ha, & Starsailor 2000s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starsailor_(band)
― nxd, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:13 (nine years ago) link
TLC for the 90s
― nxd, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:14 (nine years ago) link
Yeah the Smiths are a perfect fit for the 80s.
― goth colouring book (anagram), Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:15 (nine years ago) link
TLC released an album after Left Eye's death in the 00s.
― Tim F, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:24 (nine years ago) link
Ah yeah just reading about 3D now
― nxd, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:25 (nine years ago) link
You're probably also looking for artists who released multiple albums throughout that decade as opposed to a single one, right?
― MarkoP, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:25 (nine years ago) link
Hadn't thought of it from that angle but yeah, they need to have been pretty much active throughout their decade.
― goth colouring book (anagram), Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:27 (nine years ago) link
makes sense, otherwise Modern Lovers could be 70s candidates... Television too, but I guess they're back together. Very tricky stuff. Smiths is great for the 80s.
any special reason for listing this btw?
― niels, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:37 (nine years ago) link
boredom tbh
― goth colouring book (anagram), Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:37 (nine years ago) link
Big Star?
― MarkoP, Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:40 (nine years ago) link
Hüsker Dü
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 21 August 2014 13:40 (nine years ago) link
Louis Armstrong's Hot Five (1920s)
― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Thursday, 21 August 2014 14:16 (nine years ago) link
Minutemen -- sadly.
― that's not my post, Friday, 22 August 2014 06:06 (nine years ago) link
Badfinger -- also sadly
― that's not my post, Friday, 22 August 2014 06:11 (nine years ago) link
maybe they wrapped things up a bit early, but Electrelane for the '00s
― Merdeyeux, Friday, 22 August 2014 06:14 (nine years ago) link
Felt
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_FndWVWa36Hg/TU6hFEnFu7I/AAAAAAAACcQ/0fCEc-Kvc2k/s450/FeltBubblegumPerfume.jpg
― fit and working again, Friday, 22 August 2014 06:30 (nine years ago) link
not exactly a perfect representation of the 80s though.
― fit and working again, Friday, 22 August 2014 06:31 (nine years ago) link
if not by fey VU tributism, how does one best represent the assassination of anwar sadat, mount st helens, chernobyl, soviet union vs afghanistan, lebanon war etc?sure as shit ain't duran duran
― massaman gai, Friday, 22 August 2014 07:28 (nine years ago) link
it has always annoyed me that the first Go Kart Mozart album was released in 1999 rather than 2000 so we missed out on havingFelt -80sDenim -90sGKM -00sespecially as I think I read that Me and a Monkey on the Moon was released On él Records rather than Creation specifically because the former were able to get it out before the end of 1989
― soref, Friday, 22 August 2014 08:00 (nine years ago) link
notorious b.i.g. for the '90s, sadly.
― fact checking cuz, Friday, 22 August 2014 08:18 (nine years ago) link
one direction, sadly
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Friday, 22 August 2014 08:29 (nine years ago) link
i mean it's sad they haven't been around longer
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Friday, 22 August 2014 08:30 (nine years ago) link
90s: The Smashing Pumpkins
― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Friday, 22 August 2014 09:01 (nine years ago) link
Pumpkins are still active..
Bedhead for the 90s.
― Mule, Friday, 22 August 2014 11:33 (nine years ago) link
Ride ? shoegaze/britpop : a big part of the 90s (in the UK at least) !
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 22 August 2014 11:41 (nine years ago) link
1970s: The Meters1980s: Wham! 1990s: 2 Unlimited2000s: Sugababes (I guess they technically existed until the 2010s, but since all the original members had left by 2009, I'd say they were firmly a 00s act)
― Tuomas, Friday, 22 August 2014 11:44 (nine years ago) link
feel like the 'no reunions' thing is a useless caveat. The Eagles formed in 1971 and broke up after releasing an album in 1979, and were arguably the biggest band of the '70s, doesn't make them any less associate with that decade just because they started touring again in the '90s.
― some dude, Friday, 22 August 2014 12:27 (nine years ago) link
Soul Coughing?
― Maggie killed Quagmire (collest baby ever) (frogbs), Friday, 22 August 2014 12:31 (nine years ago) link
blind lemon jefferson can have the 1920s, left to die in the back of a car stuck in a blizzard on december 19th 1929
― ogmor, Friday, 22 August 2014 12:32 (nine years ago) link
yeah, the "no reunion" criterion seems moot to me. except when it's a proper reunion with new album, new "creative" group activities, not just touring for the big bucks.
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 22 August 2014 12:56 (nine years ago) link
Nirvana - 90s ?
― Moka, Friday, 22 August 2014 16:44 (nine years ago) link
Um, Billy Corgan using the Smashing Pumpkins name is still active, but let's be honest.
― Everyone's a closet ned. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 22 August 2014 16:48 (nine years ago) link
The Books - 00s They did all of their work from 2000 and disbanded in 2010. Their sound although not popular musically for me they capture the decade like no other band.
LCD Soundsystem - 00sJust like The Books, they did release their final album in 2010 but disbanded shortly afterwards soI'm counting them in. Their sound was also very descriptive of the decade.
Other bands from the 00s that were formed and disbanded in the 00s: The Unicorns, The Avalanches, Fridge, Dntel,
― Moka, Friday, 22 August 2014 17:01 (nine years ago) link
yeah, i think Pumpkins represent the 90s more than Nirvana because they were around for the whole decade and disbanded at the end of 2000 (the 2000s didn't start until 9/11/01). each of their albums is a signpost of where the culture was at the time. Gish was a musical outlier to grunge (psychedelic prog rock not exactly 90s) but they were still of a piece at least in attitude with all those bands. they rode the alt rock wave into Siamese Dream, smash hit before the wave crested/Cobain's suicide, then got darker with Mellon Collie right before Marilyn Manson became a sensation, had some major hits with the experimental/futurist "1979" and "Eye," then came Adore, which was heavily informed by electronica/dance music of the time despite being essentially a folk record, then they tried to compete with the nu-metal bands with MACHINA, with production that sounded like Limp Bizkit. To the end, they were challenging (perhaps to a fault) and difficult, over-ambitious, idealist, deeply cynical but just as sincere. so they carried the spirit of the alt rock explosion with them until they broke up. can't think of another band that captured every musical era of the 90s like the pumpkins did.
― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Friday, 22 August 2014 19:14 (nine years ago) link
00s = LCD Soundsystem
― Οὖτις, Friday, 22 August 2014 19:27 (nine years ago) link
'50s - Buddy Holly & the Crickets
― and in his absence, she (Lee626), Friday, 22 August 2014 19:28 (nine years ago) link
i know one
― mattresslessness, Friday, 22 August 2014 19:29 (nine years ago) link
i'll charade it
― mattresslessness, Friday, 22 August 2014 19:30 (nine years ago) link
*rocks to song by band from decade*
Limp Bizkit?
― Moka, Friday, 22 August 2014 19:33 (nine years ago) link
Spin Doctors?
Dave Matthews Band? Black Eyed Peas?
I can't really think of one for the 80s cuz imo they would have to straddle both new wave synthpop and rap in some way (to say nothing of what was going on w guitar rock at the time such as the Smiths), and I can't think of a single act that did that
― Οὖτις, Friday, 22 August 2014 19:54 (nine years ago) link
00s: 2 Many DJs, Glass Candy, Fischerspooner (not sure if these two are still active, they seem like a good fit anyway)
― cock chirea, Saturday, 23 August 2014 00:45 (nine years ago) link
re-posting from some other thread I probably shouldn't have revived:
I was thinking of this yesterday, although not so much in terms of favorite as much as in terms of artists' whose work during a given decade best approaches encapsulating that decade. Prompted by listening to a bunch of Prince stuff, of course. His run of 80s albums contains so much - both in terms of musical styles and genres covered or touched upon as much as the overall subject matter and aesthetics - and his output reflect the times so well. It has the panicky hedonism, the apocalyptic eschatology (both religious and sexual), the 60s/baby boomer hangover, the sense that computers/tech are the future, flirtations with Reaganism. And musically so much of the decade's trends are present, regardless of whether or not he was setting or following them: post-disco R&B, new wave, 60s throwback jangle pop, Bob Seger-style guitar anthems, rap. If you go through these records they give you a better picture of what 80s pop culture was about, from the dawn of the decade to the end, than almost any other artist I can think of.
Then working back I was figuring Zep for the 70s and (duh) the Beatles for the 60s, although going the other direction I have a harder time - feel like from the 90s on either the number of artist's who sustained a career height through the entire decade become rarer (and they were pretty rare to begin with), or the pop landscape fractured too much for anyone to really cover it all.
I mean you could even (to some extent) extrapolate 80s hair metal from Prince - the androgyny + guitar pyrotechnics and stupid come-ons
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 22:01 (eight years ago) link
although Prince was active outside the 80s so I guess he doesn't quite meet the thread premise re: activity
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 22:02 (eight years ago) link
also I can't accept the Pumpkins for the 90s because the 90s were VERY much about rap imo and Corgan is like the whitest of lily-white non-rap dudes possible
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 22:04 (eight years ago) link
feel like to represent the 80s you'd have to have "light and jaunty" sounding records early on but "heavy and bloated" records by the decade's end.
― lute bro (brimstead), Friday, 18 December 2015 22:10 (eight years ago) link
maybe that's rock-centric, idk
Prince def meets that criteria!
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 22:13 (eight years ago) link
For the 90's, I'd say Pavement might be the best example for it.
― MarkoP, Friday, 18 December 2015 22:22 (eight years ago) link
60s: The Beatles70s: Led Zeppelin80s: Prince90s: Nirvana00s: Animal Collective
― flappy bird, Friday, 18 December 2015 22:28 (eight years ago) link
i don't think prince is a band?
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Friday, 18 December 2015 22:38 (eight years ago) link
ok, Madonna then
― flappy bird, Friday, 18 December 2015 22:40 (eight years ago) link
tell that to the Time
xp
Madonna is the only real contender for the 80s imo. I have zero interest in her catalog but her transformative zeitgeistiness is undeniable.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 22:41 (eight years ago) link
Teena Maria
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Friday, 18 December 2015 22:52 (eight years ago) link
you can't pick an artist you have 0 interest in! you can't subtract yourself from the question
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Friday, 18 December 2015 22:57 (eight years ago) link
why not? I haven't ever really enjoyed listening to Madonna but I am familiar enough with her work (still have copies of the first three albums, for some reason) and a clear enough memory of her impact over the course of the decade to understand how well she embodied the decade. I guess she's a bit musically less adventurous than other contenders like Prince or Zep or the Beatles - and that's to her detriment - but she was pretty on top of mainstream pop trends, and she still covers a lot of ground.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:01 (eight years ago) link
I guess she has no real connection to any of the rock of the decade, that's a hindrance.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:02 (eight years ago) link
they might be referring to prince and the revolution, but i don't know. i wouldn't choose prince to rperesent the 80s
feel like prince representing the 80s would be saying the 80s was a sex addict's dream sound. the guy made some cool stuff, but his mind didn't coincide with most 80s music? 60s or 70s would be more of a sexual liberty thing
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:04 (eight years ago) link
porn first became widely available in the 80s thx to VHS so no
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:08 (eight years ago) link
choosing a single band/musician/artist to represent decades is a fool's game
as if porn was the peak of 80s pop culture
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:10 (eight years ago) link
I just meant that in comparison with the 60s/70s the 80s had its own kind of "sexual liberation"
if you have an issue with the basic premise that's all well and good (albeit a different complaint)
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:11 (eight years ago) link
― Οὖτις
lol maybe where you're from x-post
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:12 (eight years ago) link
exactly. you can't win. it's useless
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:13 (eight years ago) link
to my mind there was a very deep strain of puritanism vs. sexual hedonism that ran all through the 80s - AIDS crisis, Ed Meese's anti-porn crusade, John Holmes and the Wonderland murders, the Dorothy Stratten murder, the PMRC, the teen-sex comedy genre, I could go on and on
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:14 (eight years ago) link
and Prince (and Madonna!) were right in the middle of that stuff, sometimes literally
was grunge the first pop phenomenon that was sex-negative
― COOMBES (mattresslessness), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:16 (eight years ago) link
probably. it was unusual on a lot of levels.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:18 (eight years ago) link
if prince and madonna were the sexual hedonism half, who was the puritanism half? or are they puritan in some way i'm missing
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:18 (eight years ago) link
like who were pop music puritans? idk... Stryper? Obviously hedonism has more popular appeal. otoh we don't have to take our clothes off to have a good time, now do we.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:20 (eight years ago) link
outside of music it's pretty obvious who the puritans were
prince's storybook transcendence is kind of puritan on some level imo
― COOMBES (mattresslessness), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:20 (eight years ago) link
i don't think that's how Outic is using puritanism though?
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:21 (eight years ago) link
the funny thing about Prince is he can kind of be argued to embody the 80s puritan/hedonism conflict itself, as opposed to just the sexual hedonist side of it. He always had stuff like "Temptation" in his ouevre, refs to God/Xtianity, that kind of thing.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:23 (eight years ago) link
yeah I'm talking old school American religious capital P puritan - renouncing the sins of the flesh for the glory of spiritual communion
obviously Prince *really* went there later in his career
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:24 (eight years ago) link
yeah, puritanism in music is rare. i don't think it should be looked at puritanism in music, though. more like the absence of sexual connotations/innuendo, which prince is the polar opposite of.
goth had a dark view on sex and some of them were asexual, but they had opinions on that so you find references to it in their music, so it's definitely some level of hedonism, but not quite prince-level of moaning sounds
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:25 (eight years ago) link
goth always seemed closely tied to the S&M scene ime, or at least a lot of 80s goths I knew were into the S&M scene and vice versa. Which is not puritan really, if anything it inverts trad religious punishment tropes into sources of pleasure.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:28 (eight years ago) link
puritans probably didn't make a lot of music in the 80's
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:29 (eight years ago) link
One thing I did and do appreciate about the Smiths was Morrissey's puritan put-on - claiming to be asexual while always singing about sex
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:29 (eight years ago) link
didn't CCM really take off in the 80s? I know it def had its roots in hairy 70s hippie Xtians but like didn't Amy Grant start in the 80s
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:31 (eight years ago) link
wait so all you have to do is basically mention christianity to be a puritan?
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:33 (eight years ago) link
is that all Amy Grant did? (I wouldn't know tbh - let's ask Joan Crawford Loves Chachi)
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:34 (eight years ago) link
i hung out with a bunch of goths in the usa for a short time and a lot identified with being asexual, and the s&m part become more popular as the years went by (after the 80s).
music is just too nuanced and time/city/culture-specific
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:36 (eight years ago) link
puritanism usually manifests as an overly judgmental attitude, imo, i don't really buy into your symbolism or narrative tbh x-post
― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Friday, 18 December 2015 23:53 (eight years ago) link
just in terms of Prince? yeah it's a bit of a stretch, but I do think there's this sort of wrestling-with-temptation undercurrent in his 80s work, even tho most of the time his inner horndog wins out
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 19 December 2015 00:18 (eight years ago) link
― Moka
Was going to agree with this until I noticed it's my own post. Palms in my face.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 19 December 2015 00:24 (eight years ago) link
LCD soundsystem still looks like a good choice for the 00's but it seems del reunite next year so I guess they get eliminated.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 19 December 2015 00:25 (eight years ago) link
del = they'll
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 19 December 2015 00:26 (eight years ago) link