OK Computer best of the last 20 years

[MomurdA]

Perhaps the single has come back becuase there are very few bands that can even come up with an entire album these days. Or perhaps cuz the labels just want one mainstream song that will sell 'albums'. Bottom line: Albums rock, singles suck.
Peace

[Troy]

Daruis us right whether we like it or not.

Why the single has seen such a resurgence:

1. Short attention spans of the current generation of listeners. They are mentally incapable of listening to an entire album. They have far too much talking on the cellphone to do to listen to a whole CD.

2. The proliferation of "iTunes" type companies that base their sales on singles rather than albums.

2b. The whole mp3/online road that music took via napster also favored the single, just for bandwidth reasons alone. A chicken/egg argument could be made here, but I see it that iTunes' design and the nature of mp3 favors the single, so singles look hot and that makes singles hot by default.

I suspect that it will swing back the other way as artists and listeners realize that basing everything on the single format is extremely limiting when looking for a piece that gives total immersion, a place to go for more than 3:15.

AFAIC, the music scene today is just like the early 60s before the Beatles. Lots of parallels to the early 70s too. Vapid singers and prefab studio "bands" pukeing up innocuous pop dreck is what's moving the big numbers. It feeds on itself.

It WILL change again. Doesn't it just FEEL like there is a new thing in music that's gonna break huge in the next year or 3? A sea-change, like The Beatles or Punk; something to shake the whole thing to it's foundations.

[nobody]

I guess I just look it it like, if you were picking the greatest album from the 50s & 60s, it should proabbly be a rock and roll record. Sure, Sinatra put out great albums in the period, but the biggest musical shakeups were in rock, so I'd have to lean that way.

I guess if I though tthere was any way you could possibly pick out an objectively "best" album from such a long period of time with so much good music coming out, I would be less likely to disagree. But, since I think that notion's a bit silly, I guess I look for external signifigance to the pick.

I agree the electronic music rise is a huge musical development that has affected music across the board too, from rock to hip hop and beyond, really. I may be naive in saying it, but it seems to me that its the biggest European contribution to pop music, while hip hop is the what the US brought to the party. Sure, there are plenty of electronic bands in the US and plenty of Hip Hop ion Europe, but it seems like the biggest audiences and most firm roots make the case. But, if I weant to give a nod to electronic music, I'm gonna go a lot further than going to Radiohead to do so.

Davey...sorry I ignored the sales chart stuff. I just really don't look at 'em enough to be sure one way or another. It seems to me, I tend to see more hip hop and such with big nubers more often than rock, but I'm pretty out of the pop culture loo most of the time these days, so I could be way off base. Then again, maybe the answer is as simple as we live in a world where multiple strains of music are pumping at once and we just need to stop with all the linear thinking remember that we don't have to pick one or the other as of current signifigance.

[Davey]

Davey...maybe the answer is as simple as we live in a world where multiple strains of music are pumping at once and we just need to stop with all the linear thinking remember that we don't have to pick one or the other as of current signifigance.

Yeah, not sure what that's the answer to, but it makes sense to me

Heehee, I sometimes check out the Billboard chart because they put it in the music section of my newspaper on Friday on the reviews page. Usually I don't know who most of the artists are, but this week I was really surprised because I knew them all. Don't have any of the records, but still made me think of the past converstaion we had. Music has become pretty much the same as the movies in the modern era where a small handful of corporations control all the pop culture icons. They put all the ad budget and their stockholders good grace in just a couple big, bland releases each month and that's it. This month by coincidence those couple releases are mostly rock. Next month probably urban pop or hip hop. I'm way past caring except as a subject of internet music board conversation.

[Dusty Chalk]

...maybe the answer is as simple as we live in a world where multiple strains of music are pumping at once and we just need to stop with all the linear thinking remember that we don't have to pick one or the other as of current signifigance.

I concur! Many years ago, I wrote an "open letter to the record companies". In it, I rallied against the concept of "pop" music. My stance was, that the population had gotten too large, and too diverse for any one kind of music to appeal universally.

I think the same thing can be said about formats.

Oh, and in answer to the original question, I think not.

What would I pick instead? I don't know, maybe one of these:

Matt Elliott, The Mess We Made or perhaps Drinking Songs
Sigur Rós, ()
Stabbing Westward, Darkest Days
Notwist, Neon Golden
In The Nursery, Hindle Wakes

...maybe not...I'd have to think about it...

[newtrix1]

1. Short attention spans of the current generation of listeners. They are mentally incapable of listening to an entire album. They have far too much talking on the cellphone to do to listen to a whole CD.

...went back to about 45 minutes +/-, rather than 60+ minutes (to fill a cd??), it would help. I personally find too much filler on albums produced since the cd became the standard format.

[-Jar-]

Doesn't it just FEEL like there is a new thing in music that's gonna break huge in the next year or 3? A sea-change, like The Beatles or Punk; something to shake the whole thing to it's foundations.

I hope so.

I have no idea what it will be. We probably won't until it happens. I think I really am getting old. The last 10 years or so have been one "NEO" trend after another. Neo-punk, Neo-ska, Neo-swing, Neo-garage, Neo-new wave, Neo-post punk.. It's just one big recycle bin. Soon it will be time for Neo-grunge.


That's fine, esp for those who weren't there the first time (or the 2nd time as the case may be)..

I'm just having a hard time trying to figure out what's left that hasn't been covered. Whatever the next big thing is, is here somewhere, bubbling beneath the surface. It's always happened that way.

-jar

[Ex Lion Tamer]

Full list:

1. Radiohead - OK Computer
2. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
3. Nirvana - Nevermind
4. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
5. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
6. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
7. De La Soul - 3 Ft. High And Rising
8. Prince - Sign 'O' The Times
9. PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me
10. N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
11. U2 - Achtung Baby
12. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
13. Husker Du - New Day Rising
14. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
15. Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
16. Beck - Odelay
17. Nas - Illmatic
18. Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
19. Hole - Live Through This
20. Wu Tang Clan - Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers)
21. Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet
22. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
23. Outkast - Stankonia
24. Sleater Kinney - Dig Me Out
25. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
26. Bjork - Post
27. The Cure - The Head On The Door
28. Oasis - Definitely Maybe
29. Fugazi - 13 Songs
30. The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die
31. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
32. The Replacements - Tim
33. Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
34. Elliott Smith - Either/Or
35. Dr. Dre - The Chronic
36. Pixies - Doolittle
37. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
38. A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
39. Lucinda Williams - s/t
40. Run D.M.C. - Raising Hell
41. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
42. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
43. B.D.P. - Criminal Minded
44. Green Day - Dookie
45. Kanye West - College Dropout
46. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
47. Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full
48. Radiohead - Kid A
49. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of...
50. New Order - Low Life
51. Nirvana - In Utero
52. Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill
53. Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles
54. The Breeders - Last Splash
55. The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
56. PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
57. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
58. Metallica - Master Of Puppets
59. Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
60. De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
61. Weezer - Pinkerton
62. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly
63. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
64. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
65. Basement Jaxx - Remedy
66. Outkast - Aquemini
67. Slayer - Reign In Blood
68. Tricky - Maxinquaye
69. DJ Shadow - Entroducing...
70. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
71. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
72. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
73. Pulp - Different Class
74. Portishead - Dummy
75. Le Tigre - s/t
76. Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
77. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
78. The Stone Roses - s/t
79. Moby - Everything Is Wrong
80. D'Angelo - Voodoo
81. Beck - Mellow Gold
82. Jeff Buckley - Grace
83. At The Drive-In - Relationship Of Command
84. Soundgarden - Superunknown
85. REM - Automatic For The People
86. Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
87. Blur - Parklife
88. Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
89. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
90. Sonic Youth - Sister
91. XTC - Skylarking
92. Big Black - Atomizer
93. Pearl Jam - Ten
94. Slint - Spiderland
95. Elastica - s/t
96. The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & The Lash
97. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
98. Cornershop - When I Was Born For The 7th Time
99. Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
100. The Strokes - Is This It

[daigoro]

I'll wager that '75-'85 would take the lion's share of a 30 year list.

Now, if you further isolated it to also include just '90-'95 there would be precious little left for the other 15 years of dreck.

[MindGoneHaywire]

Noticed elsewhere: not that I care all that much, and not that I'm a fan of the rec, but it does seem a bit strange to me that U2's Joshua Tree doesn't make the cut here. But I have no idea what SPIN is like these days & probably haven't since I stopped buying it back in, uh, 1987? I bought EVERY issue of that mag for two years but then it disappeared for awhile, came back not quite the same, and by the time it did I didn't care anymore. But 20 years ago, for a brief period, they were a great music magazine.

That was a long time ago.