End of the Decade

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Here is a quote from the introduction to the Guinness Book of British Hit singles (1986 edition):

"We enter the last part of this decade hoping history will repeat itself. The final few years of the fifties, sixties and seventies all represented the peak of a new type of music. Here's looking forward to something exciting to close out the eighties - something even more important to mention in next edition's edition than Madonna and Jackie Wilson were this time".

And of course Gambaccini, Rice and Rice were proved right by dance music in its various forms: house, acid house, trance and hardcore etc.

So what is it about ends of decades that makes this happen? And why was there nothing comparable at the end of the nineties which was after all the end of a century as well?

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 11 September 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Er? I would think that the argument was hip-hop and r'n'b's explosion/revamping into simultaneously pop and experimental realms is all you need to point to for an end-of-century definition.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 11 September 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

what are you talking about? The end of the nineties was when non-jewish white guys were finally allowed to rap without shame! How is that not the revolution? RAP-METAL, BEEEYACH!

http://muzyka.kulichki.net/kid_rock/kid_rock2.jpg

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 11 September 2004 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post)

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 11 September 2004 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

plus Moby and Fatboy Slim helped techno reach its cultural apex by getting their tracks in every other ad on TV.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 11 September 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I suppose it is debateable as to what constitutes "a new type of music". When did soul become R&B? How many diffreent types of hip-hop are there and how different are they?

I actually find the first question the more interesting of the two - what is it about the ends of decades that causes this to happen?

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 11 September 2004 14:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I would also point to albums like Mercury Rev's "Deserter's Songs" and the Flaming Lips' "The Soft Bulletin", both highly ambitious - really broadened the idea of what could be done to indie music...Though people's opinions of these albums have somewhat diminished (I'll even admit to filler in Deserter's Songs) their influence is undeniable, and I don't think we've really seen its full effect yet

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Good grief.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

what are you good griefing about specifically, Nick?

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I like those two albums, don't get me wrong.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe music goes in cycles of roughly ten years and it's just a coincidence that each major development falls at the end of the decade.

― Wooden (Wooden), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

This end of the decade thing is pretty much nonsense, I think.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

You may have a point. Thinking about it, the real quantum leap in sixties pop probably happened around 65/66.

― Wooden (Wooden), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

The 70s began in 1968.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Insignificant things seem more significant at the very end or beginning of a decade.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Or 1973, I forget.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 11 September 2004 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

1971. As that's when I was born and the course of world history changed fore'er more.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 11 September 2004 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.imomus.com/1998.html

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Sunday, 12 September 2004 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Flaming Lips got indie rock to come sail away with them.

There are 8 types of hip-hop.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 12 September 2004 02:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Collect 'em all!

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 12 September 2004 04:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Dancism is the new rockism.

― David Allen (David Allen), Sunday, 12 September 2004 04:58 (twenty-one years ago)

As always these sorts of arguments are all dependent on a very loose, vague flexibility as to what "the peak of a new type of music" actually means - and that's after you've made a decision as to what actually was important at the time (eg who in the US outside of three cities cared about dance music in 1989?). Presumably dance music "peaked" in 88-89 with acid house crossover in the UK, but of course in strict musical terms you could say that the peak actually occurred at any time between 1985 and 1994. Likewise the punk-to-new-pop continuum arguably peaked at any time from 1976 to 1983.

I think the tendency to consider these years (eg. 68, 78, 88) as being really crucial arises from the fact that they witnessed developments whose full impact would only be felt in the following decade. But strictly speaking this is no different to developments from 64, 74 and 84 continuing to have an impact in the second half of the same decade.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 12 September 2004 05:10 (twenty-one years ago)

The idea that we haven't seen the full effect of the influence of Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips gives me the cold robbies.

Are our children doomed to make panda-bear rock?

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:40 (twenty-one years ago)

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