Defining the 00s

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
The 90s had g-funk, trip-hop, grunge, eurodance/eurotrance, the rave scene, post-rock, electronica(experimental, "idm", ambient techno, glitch etc) and many more styles. But what new scenes and genres have emerged since new years eve 1999? Right now I cant think of a new genre or scene that has reached the same status as the ones in the 90s, and we're halfway through! Clicks and cuts?(ha!) Rise of Southern rap? What do you guys think?

Abstract Pictures (Abstract Pictures), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:33 (twenty years ago)

Too early to say.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:36 (twenty years ago)

not until 2008.

cutty (mcutt), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:38 (twenty years ago)

Crunk, garage, microhouse, grime, electroclash, mash-up, splatterbreaks.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:40 (twenty years ago)

But surely when you were living through the 90s you realised at the very same time how "important"/big these genres were! It shouldnt be too early to tell.

Abstract Pictures (Abstract Pictures), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:40 (twenty years ago)

noise breaking into the mainstream conciousness

LE CHUCK!™ (ex machina), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:42 (twenty years ago)

"Crunk, garage, microhouse, grime, electroclash, mash-up, splatterbreaks."

I doubt they will defy the 00s like the others defined the 90s. Maybe grime will reach that level, I dont know.

Abstract Pictures (Abstract Pictures), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:43 (twenty years ago)

define, not defy. sorry.

Abstract Pictures (Abstract Pictures), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:43 (twenty years ago)

THE 90S ARE GOING TO BE ALL ABOUT TRIP HOP

LE CHUCK!™ (ex machina), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:50 (twenty years ago)

I didn't and still don't think that any of the genres you mention (except for g-funk and the dance ones) were terribly important either. Trip-hop? Post-rock? Who cared?

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:50 (twenty years ago)

Actually the rise of exotica or whatever you want to call the proliferation of East Asian/Non-Western elements is probably the defining trend of 00s.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:51 (twenty years ago)

"I didn't and still don't think that any of the genres you mention (except for g-funk and the dance ones) were terribly important either. Trip-hop? Post-rock? Who cared?"

You dont have to think they are/were important or good, but you cant overlook them when you look at the 90s.

Abstract Pictures (Abstract Pictures), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:55 (twenty years ago)

And you can overlook crunk and mash-ups?

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:09 (twenty years ago)

I can overlook trip-hop and post-rock pretty easily. So can about 90s% of music listeners from the 90s.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:11 (twenty years ago)

when has ILM ever comprised 90% of the music listeners? we are a minority of music NERDS.

cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:13 (twenty years ago)

THE STOKES!!!!

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:14 (twenty years ago)

I havent overlooked crunk or mash-ups. I just dont think they'll define the 00s. Maybe I'm wrong.

Abstract Pictures (Abstract Pictures), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:16 (twenty years ago)

Even though it had already probably peaked or was just reaching it's peak in 2000....nu-metal makes me think of the early '00s.

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:18 (twenty years ago)

does 80s revivalism count as a genre? Otherwise, Crunk and Southern rap for sure. Techno's dead in the water. Rock is confused and fractured. R&B pretty much IS hip-hop right now (and vice versa).

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:18 (twenty years ago)

The Neptunes sound and hip-hop with little or no sampling. Maybe the dance punk thing will further take off, but too soon to tell (and I wouldn't shed a tear if it doesn't).

Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:29 (twenty years ago)

Techno's dead in the water.

who says so? pitchfork?

:| (....), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:30 (twenty years ago)

says America.

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:32 (twenty years ago)

The decade will be defined by the wisdom on this thread.

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:36 (twenty years ago)

Well thank god there are ya know like other countries then.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:36 (twenty years ago)

was techno ever big in the us? or at least medium sized?

:| (....), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:40 (twenty years ago)

I think the 00s are going to end up being all about niche vs. pop. Where everyone who wasn't in love with top 40 found their space becauseof sattelite radio and the web and personal music players to find the same kind of community and volume of input they did in larger genres in more narrow pathways. There will always be pop music on the large scale, but I think the sub genres will continue to get even more speicalized and specific before it gets tedious and starts to re-mingle.

leslie (leslie), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:41 (twenty years ago)

well, I don't think it was ever really huge - but it was bubbling under the mass consciousness there and was decidedly hip for a while in the late 90s as a rave "industry" finally developed in the US (tho I personally don't consider that a good thing). But compared to just a few years ago, the interest in this music from the press, the clubs, even in the DJs I know has seen a precipitous decline. Maybe that's just here in SF, where the exodus from the dotbomb took a lot of the techno community with it, but I just do not see, hear, or read about this stuff nearly as much as I did. Maybe Alex in SF can back me up on this, as a fellow Bay Area resident....It's like people expected great, grand crossover successes for jungle or IDM (altho seriously - what were they thinking?!?), and that interest just never materialized in the American listening public. I mean, Tigerbeat6 has yet to release any kind of landmark album in the IDM genre, for example. Matmos and Blechdom from Blechdom seem to be as far as they got. The novelty hits for Fatboy Slim and Moby (yes, that's what they were) have faded. There's no interest or inclination to follow the genre hairsplitting necessary to process the stuff coming out of Europe - it's too esoteric and foreboding and (dare I say it), elitist.

x-post

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:42 (twenty years ago)

Also, I'm sure Mr. Miccio would like me to point out Good Charlotte et al....that breed of pop punk/emo seems to be pretty big with "the kids", as they say, in the 2000s.

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:44 (twenty years ago)

"techno" was at its peak in the US when MTV was airing AMP.

cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:45 (twenty years ago)

The Top American DJ in the DJ mag poll for 2004 was Christopher Lawrence, at number 7 who apparently plays underground trance.

http://www.djmag.com/top100chart.asp

DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:47 (twenty years ago)

yes but i'm sure no one here is talking about RAVES.

cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:47 (twenty years ago)

Actually Mr. Miccio would prefer everybody drop the kreskin act and spend their time soaking shit up rather than spewing pointless predictions out (though this is less angering than the "what IIII think will happen tomorrow" mentality).

(x-post)

manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:48 (twenty years ago)

Actually Mr. Miccio would prefer everybody drop the kreskin act and spend their time soaking shit up rather than spewing pointless predictions out (though this is less angering than the "what IIII think will happen tomorrow" mentality).

sorry dude!

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:50 (twenty years ago)

nu-emo: Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, Story of the Year, Further Seems Forever et al

bill neil (inabillity), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:50 (twenty years ago)

there's a massive cultural disconnect between the US and Europe re: "techno", electronic dance music, whatever you want to call it. I'm not sure where it springs from - maybe at its root its a puritan vs. pagan cultural history kind of thing. But the disconnect is huge, and is having strange consequences for the weird symbiotic relationship that the US and the UK built via rock n roll.

x-post

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:54 (twenty years ago)

garage rivivalism and disco punk

Techno got big in europe because europeans are a bunch of faggorz and American are kickass rocvk und rollers who arent faggorz/

Disco Nihilist (mjt), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:56 (twenty years ago)

Jesus Christ owns this thread. So does Island music.

Never have the religious and the Caribbean had such mainstream pop radio acceptance.

Chris O., Tuesday, 2 November 2004 00:57 (twenty years ago)

DANCE PUNK (aka disco punk like DN said above)

W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:20 (twenty years ago)

was techno ever big in the us?

It hasn't always been a bunch of lameass rock critics talking about how it was gonna be the next big thing. For a couple years ('bout the time Trainspotting came out, if I recall) it really was the next big thing!! I mean jeez, Fat of the Land debuted at #1 in the US for fuck's sake! All the kids at my school were totally into that record. Couldn't walk into class without seeing a bunch of Prodigy T-shirts. It was awesome. I still think that record's a classic.

Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:29 (twenty years ago)

dancehall (Sean Paul)
pop-punk (Blink-182, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte)
crunk (Usher, Li'l Jon)
grime (only in the UK)
electroclash (only in the UK; Fischerspooner, Miss Kittin)
mash-ups (again, only in the UK; "Freak Like Me," "Intro Inspection," "A Stroke of Genius")

Hell, pop-punk seems to be the ONLY thing big with the US rock kids nowadays.

Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:35 (twenty years ago)

Alex in SF, expand on how 'exotica' is a trend of the '00s. Examples? I mean, I wish that were the case, but I don't see it. There still haven't been any real J-pop successes. And Utada doesn't count because her new album is basically a Western-style album with sexy vocals. There's not much Japanese about it (I mean it's not even cute!).

Patrick South (Patrick South), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:37 (twenty years ago)

Also, what's grime?

Patrick South (Patrick South), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:38 (twenty years ago)

you don't want to know. another attempt by the UK to produce hip hop.

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:40 (twenty years ago)

This will give you all the information you need.

I hope I got the HTML right.

Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:40 (twenty years ago)

How has religious music had any sort of pop radio acceptance?

I mean, except for all those shitty WOW records...

Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:42 (twenty years ago)

new 00s

desi beats
electroclash
folktronica
jazztronica
microhouse
screengazer

DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:47 (twenty years ago)

Linkin Park

manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 01:57 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah. Them.

This is the worst goddamn decade for music ever.

Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 02:02 (twenty years ago)

grime
beardcore
dancepunk
electro-clash
dancehall
indi-ronica

plus elements of neo-soul and garage-revivalism

chris andrews (fraew), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 02:07 (twenty years ago)

Modern rock is probably in the greatest state of disarray right now than it has been since 1996 or 1997. Which of course, means that it is also the best time for modern rock since then as well.

I think it's entirely possible we look back at crunk/southern rap as the g-funk of the 00s.

Some other 00 genre/movements not mentioned yet:

Morr Music
Laptop Pop
Shemo
Screwed & Chopped

And yeah, the new rock revolution.

The Good Dr. Bill (Andrew Unterberger), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 02:10 (twenty years ago)

"indi-ronica"

i misread this as ironica.

artdamages (artdamages), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 02:10 (twenty years ago)

what are some 'shemo' artists?

artdamages (artdamages), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 02:11 (twenty years ago)

The REAL question is: Who has foresight enough to describe any kind of current music as PRE-something-or-other?

Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 02:27 (twenty years ago)

what are some 'shemo' artists?

I think Avril and maybe Michelle Branch are prime examples. It's a term coined by Gavin Mueller and Todd Burns from Stylus.

The Good Dr. Bill (Andrew Unterberger), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 03:51 (twenty years ago)

I think reggaeton can be added to the list. (Not new, really, but it is suddenly very much here, outside of Puerto Rico.)

Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 04:08 (twenty years ago)

The political situation could blow up in a way that gives birth to new forms too, before the end of the decade.

Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 04:15 (twenty years ago)

I guess that's pretty fucking vague, but I just think something is going to give.

Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 04:21 (twenty years ago)

To term this music "post-rock" would be an insult; Sigur Rós are pre-whatever comes this century.

Discuss. Alternatively, look up that review and read the next few sentences for a fun time.

sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 04:26 (twenty years ago)

OK, instead of being an esoteric dick I'll actually say what that's from: Pitchfork Review of Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun by Brent D.

sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 04:29 (twenty years ago)

schaffel!

manuel (manuel), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 06:28 (twenty years ago)

this is a shite decade for music.

I think of what the kids in the 70's must have felt before punk. I feel sorry for young people these days, they really did miss out on the party. At least in the US anyway...

Disco Nihilist (mjt), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 06:46 (twenty years ago)

I think it's more historically self-conscious/overdetermined, maybe suffocated and certainly harder to pin down . . . but the young(er than me) folks I have seen at Lightning Bolt, Erase Errata, The Locust, Wrangler Brutes, Gravy Train!!! and Deerhoof shows over the last few years of this decade seemed to being having a pretty awesome time.

Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 07:56 (twenty years ago)

But . . . I know what you mean. I remember feeling genuinely excited about the mid90s as a time when the map of music was getting chopped up and restitched in some new ways. What's happening now seems much more reactionary and calculating, generally.

Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 08:22 (twenty years ago)

It all just seems like such as pose, and jesture. It is like we are the rock kids, so lets do the rock thing, or we are undie backpackers...

I cannot speak for the rest of the country, but Austin makes me sick because everybody is completely entrenched in their little scene ghetto, and nobody is looking outside their box. It just seems like music is just something you throw into your ipod to go along with your other lifestyle accessories.

My idea of a good night out is listening to Derrick May in the car, going into a honky tonk for a couple beers and listening to old-style country, listening to Frank Bretschneider on the way back, and then going home and throwing on some Soft Machine or Marvin Gaye while I read before bed.

I wonder how much of it is because I am getting older, how much of it is me withdrawing from the world for personal reasons, and how much of it is the actual cultural situation at the moment. It just feels like the bummer of the 30's after the roaring 20's, or the 80's after disco and punk burned out.

Disco Nihilist (mjt), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 08:43 (twenty years ago)

disco rockist

Sympatico (shmuel), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 08:53 (twenty years ago)

I am a Rave-ist thank you very much!

Disco Nihilist (mjt), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 08:55 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure that these talent competition/reality tv shows like Idol will be remembered as a feature of the 00s.

Amarga (Amarga), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 10:33 (twenty years ago)

I tend to think that this decade has been dominated by the free music revolution. We are too focussed on finding new depths in power balads that we have hardly any time for new things. The mp3 revolution has also created an adverserial relationship between consumer and record company, thus we find it anacranistic to commit too heavily to anything they promote.

lukey (Lukey G), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 11:04 (twenty years ago)

i think the 00s will be defined by the consolidation, refinement and fusion of existing genres creating hybrids (modern metal+hiphop, 2step+hiphop, ecstasy+hiphop, bootlegs, electropop redux, no wave) plus non-specific (musically/genre-wise) scenes such as the downloading boom, laptop DJing and the like. in this respect the 00s are just as experimental as other decades and there's been just as much great music.

Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 12:43 (twenty years ago)

I've said it a million times - this decade has NO definition.

billstevejim, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 03:21 (twenty years ago)

The novelty hits for Fatboy Slim and Moby (yes, that's what they were) have faded. ?
Novelty Hits? this seems rather absurd to say. its not that far removed from say HIP-HOP?

Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 05:14 (twenty years ago)

I would say bootlegs and grime thus far, but that's speaking from a British ILMer's point of view. We're not quite half way through the 00s yet. I'd also say Timbaland and The Neptunes, although I realise they started in the late 90s really.

Nick H (Nick H), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 22:14 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

not until 2008.
-- cutty (mcutt), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:38

well?

Z S, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:14 (seventeen years ago)

The revival of a lot of 80s genres like Electro and New Wave have had one of the biggest impacts I reckon. In the 90s these styles really weren't much of a factor, with sampling and scratching and smooth production values etc being more popular than the more obviously computerised sounds that really came to the fore with Electroclash in the early part of the decade.

It would be almost more interesting therefore to see what the 00s HAVEN'T been about than what they have been about.

One thing I've liked about this decade (or maybe it's just my age group) is that people seem a lot more open minded to different styles and flavours. When I was a teenager in the nineties you either listened to rock, dance or r'n'b, and it was considered a bit weird if you listened to, say, heavy metal AND house. But nowadays all the Emos are just as likely to be found bopping around to Electro for example. Rockism doesn't really exist in the same capacity as it used to, where Grunge kids would shit on anything with a synth in it.

the next grozart, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:43 (seventeen years ago)

3/10

Bodrick III, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:45 (seventeen years ago)

I think the 2ManyDJs album has had a profound effect on the decade in that way. Although the mashup craze was shortlived, I reckon it's definitely had a huge impact in the way people think, and now people from all walks will turn up to see them spin. Unheard of that hordes of indie-kids, clubbers and whoever else would gather in huge throngs to see people DJ-ing in the 90s, or ever before.

the next grozart, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:47 (seventeen years ago)

grozart yes.

00 = mashups & novelty pop from "blogosphere"

00 = retro 80: lectroclash, post-punk, Moroder rehash

00 = mainstream indie rock

00 = obscurantist bullshit: isolationist black metal, twig grinding folk noise, plain old dumptruck machine noise, hand-numbered lathe-cut editions of 17 pieces, private press reissues of private press rarities, etc.

00 = METAL

contenderizer, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:54 (seventeen years ago)

that is one of the best rehashes of the decade i've seen.

jonathan - stl, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:57 (seventeen years ago)

The metal thing may be summed up as part of something that is probably even more typical of the 00s: Fragmentation. This has partly to do with the net.

Other than that, I agree with contenderizer.

The 00s haven't been really different from the 90s, but I see the following changes:

- People have seemingly tired of boy/girl bands. They were all over the place in the 90s, while there are only a few now - most of which have been around since the 90s.

- While there was a lot of hip-hop in the 90s, in the 00s it seems to have been part of a larger R&B scene. Even the most famous hip-hop records have often been based on beats and compositions made by current "super producers/songwriters" rather than sample-based.

- Electronica is still around, but maybe not quite as huge and important as in the 90s. Trance still has a large audience, but the acts are too many for any of them to have established themselves as big mainstream names.

- While indie in the 90s was grunge and britpop, indie in the 00s seem mainly to be about neo-psychedelia (US) and sort of the AOR version of Britpop (UK). Most of all there is a bunch of indie bands who are influenced by postpunk - and this trend has been evident on both sides of Atlantic. As did the short-lived garage rock fad that seems to have faded again.

- Metal has definitely become more extreme and - to some extent - more popular. The increasing popularity of metal goes from hair metal revivalists like The Darkness to some really extreme black metal stuff that has at times managed to crack at least the album lists.

- The current "rock" trend is also possible to hear in some mainstream pop. Acts such as Avril Lavigne, Pink and Kelly Clarkson have added more "rock" elements in their music that what was usual among typical popular tween-pop acts of the 90s. This may also partly be sort of an 80s revival thing, as these have a lot in common with acts such as Tranvision Vamp - or Blondie for that matter.

- The electro element is very evident and may be summed up as mainly three different forms of influence 1. electroclash, which was hard, brutal, "cold" and often more or less instrumental, 2. "classic" 80s-influenced pop from the likes of Kylie, Madonna, Annie etc. and 3. an increasing electro element in a lot of modern R&B productions

- "Prog" forms have become increasingly accepted. Maybe not quite as mainstream as it used to be in the 70s, but through acts such as The Mars Volta, Muse and Porcupine Tree, prog influenced music has probably never been more popular since pre-punk.

Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:07 (seventeen years ago)

Emo and crap dance covers. Would nu-metal be considered this decade or last?

Duane Barry, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 00:25 (seventeen years ago)

last. Korn were at their peak around 1996, Limp Bizkit et al followed suite. Obviously there was quite a bit of overlap, but by 2002 that shit was pretty much over with.

the next grozart, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 00:37 (seventeen years ago)

haha, I remember the synth hatred of the 90s. I'd tell my grungy friends that "one day, the synthesizer's gonna make a big comeback!" now they're dead.

burt_stanton, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 01:11 (seventeen years ago)

Again, grozart's right. Nu-metal = 90s.

Same goes for the early 00s retro rock moment: Hives, White Stripes, etc. A brief commercial flash at end of a garage boom that had been building through the 90s (Gories, Billy Childish, Teengenerate, New Bomb Turks, etc.). And in the case of bands like the Strokes, it was just a lead in for the more 00s-specific postpunk/new wave thing.

contenderizer, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 02:48 (seventeen years ago)

all these posts and no experimental horse music, for shame y'all

J0hn D., Wednesday, 30 January 2008 03:41 (seventeen years ago)

but of course 00s = post-90s

Dominique, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 04:12 (seventeen years ago)

(ie, post modernism finally, officially fit for family viewing, disparate influences and references woven together into mainstream fabric that will probably turn into neo-traditional, "well-rounded" values of 2010s)

Dominique, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 04:36 (seventeen years ago)

i remember when i heard 'buy u a drank' and realized t-pain was just singing the hooks to various snap anthems and went "what the hell is going on here, how is this on the radio"

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 04:48 (seventeen years ago)

ie disparate influences and references woven together into mainstream fabric

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 04:48 (seventeen years ago)

This is a little bit interesting, and I think, partly right, but as often happens, Morales slips in a howler. Bachata, a hopping dance? There are these little drops that you see good bachateros doing, but I wouldn't call it a hopping dance, and in fact, the overall movement is more wave-like.

www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-0130loszeros_filljan30,1,6198699.story

chicagotribune.com
Los Zeros sums up an era of Latin music
By Ed Morales

Tribune Newspapers: Newsday

January 30, 2008

NEW YORK

It's getting late in the decade, and we don't even have a proper name for it.

There is a strong sense of how we think of pop music history in terms of "the '70s," "the '80s," and even "the '90s," and Latin music has its parallel moments -- think the Fania All-Stars, Julio Iglesias, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Juan Luis Guerra, the Buena Vista Social Club and, finally, Daddy Yankee.

It's time we locate contemporary Latin music trends in something called "Los Zeros."

What characterizes the era of Los Zeros? One trend, urban pop, has its roots in the '90s, when rap and dance hall en espanol laid the groundwork for reggaeton. The influence of '70s and '80s styles such as reggae and post-disco R&B crept gradually into Latin music until a new hybrid of polyrhythmic Caribbean beats and slow-jam aesthetics created the urban pop sound.

Now, what once seemed separate genres -- hard-core reggaeton, romantic pop, salsa, merengue, cumbia and bachata -- are all part of a new fusion.

Artists once pigeonholed as underground rappers are now international pop musicians, and the likes of Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, Andy Montanez and Julieta Venegas are all collaborating with urban fusionistas. The super-twangy guitar and hopping dance that helped bachata burst onto the scene has also been co-opted into a funky teen pop in which New York-based crooners turn up the guitar amps and ride the electric wave of a Dominican Invasion.

A new roots movement is also one of Los Zeros' strongest trends. Puerto Rican bomba and plena acts are multiplying rapidly, pioneered by bands such as Yerba Buena, Los Pleneros del 21 and Viento de Agua. Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, a Colombian roots band steeped in the ancient arts of puya, bullarengue, gaita and cumbia, won a Latin Grammy this year and groups such as La Cumbiamba Eneye are the rage of Queens' Jackson Heights neighborhood and beyond. Zon del Barrio revives Rafael Cortijo's brand of soulful bomba and plena alongside a healthy dose of old-school salsa, which is in turn fueled by the reissue of the Fania Records catalog, some local bands that never gave up the old school and intrepid DJs.

Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 16:57 (seventeen years ago)

nobody called nu-metal nu-metal in the 90s tho, i thought

blueski, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 17:11 (seventeen years ago)

(Actually, now I'm sorry I posted that, since it's a lot of fluff. His lousy description of bachata dancing is the most interesting thing about it.)

Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 17:13 (seventeen years ago)

I know the Cher Autotune thing was technically from the 90's, but man do artists nowadays get a lot of mileage out of it. (Maybe it didn't lose its gimmick status till the 00's.) To me, that's one of the defining sounds of this decade.

Vinnie, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 19:53 (seventeen years ago)

Nu Metal was probably at its most popular around 2001. But surely it had existed for some time, and it was more or less gone by 2003. Irony is that The Darkness were among those who killed it: Nu Metal was killed by Old Metal.

Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 20:46 (seventeen years ago)

Wow, the Darkness.

burt_stanton, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 20:53 (seventeen years ago)

twelve years pass...

00s revival seems to be in full swing everywhere. remember house of jealous lovers etc. obviously millenial rnb has been ever-present but it does feel like this is not a test we are finally on the inevitable 20 year pop culture rebound. that decade was a deeply miserable time for me and feel no sentimentality for it and p much everything i've heard for the first time since '08 still sounds as tired to my ears as when i got sick of it a decade ago.

plax (ico), Thursday, 13 August 2020 11:30 (four years ago)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_in_music

✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 13 August 2020 14:26 (four years ago)

I thought this revive was gonna be about the fluxblog guy's hot new Electroclash playlist

nashwan, Thursday, 13 August 2020 14:48 (four years ago)

00s revival seems to be in full swing everywhere

this completely passed me by so far tbh, do you have any examples?

groovemaaan, Thursday, 13 August 2020 14:52 (four years ago)

I'd say 2000-era nostalgia is in full flow (that Rina Sawayama album for one thing), but that's an entirely different era from what came later.

Matt DC, Thursday, 13 August 2020 15:43 (four years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.