What music from today will stand the test of time?

Another person from that era who would've had a large impact on the music business had he lived was Sam Cooke. He wrote all his own songs and if I'm not mistaken, he also produced some of his own stuff as well.

 

I wonder what Sam Cooke would think of today's image-driven music industry based on this quote from the liner notes to the album "Sam Cooke: The Man and His Music"

"I'd like to give Sam Cooke a lot of credit. He was a real special guy, he was instinctively knowledgeable about the record business and what people were looking for. I learned a great deal from him. For instance, once we were auditioning a singer, a very good-looking Caribbean man who played guitar. We listened for about ten minutes and I thought he sounded great. Then Sam said to me, 'Turn on your back on him and check him out for about five minutes.' I did and I felt it wasn't the same - it was weird. Then Sam said 'That's right, people don't care if you're black or white, what you look like, where you come from. You're listening to a cold piece of wax in the record business, and it either makes it or it doesn't.' I think of that, often, even today when I listen to a new group."
- Herb Alpert Goldmine April 1980

 

You have to look at music the way you look at literature these days. The best stuff isn't going to be on the bestseller list, except in rare occasions. Mitch Albom is the cultural equivalent to Clay Aiken. No one is going to remember that bullshit in five years, much less 10. If you want good music, you have to seek it out, sort of like good books. It's not going to be spoon fed to you.

Wilco will still hold up 25 years from now. The fact that they haven't been mentioned on this thread is just bizarre. The Old 97s have put out some great stuff. Lucinda Williams is a freakin poet. Ryan Adams is excellent, even if he is an insufferable ass (but just to be clear, going to a Ryan Adams concert and asking him to play Summer of '69 to try and provoke a reaction might have been funny two years ago, but now it's just lame). Whatever Jack White does over the next ten years will likely still be relevant. Pearl Jam's last album was very good. The Shins, while not exactly rock, have put together three excellent albums, and are really just getting started.

The problem isn't music, or the artists writing and performing it.

It's the people in charge of distributing it.

 

Pearl Jam will look better in retrospect.

The White Stripes will stand up.

Springsteen will be reconized for having a hell of a second half to his career.

Most hip-hop will not hold up well.

 

Agreed, and I'm a big hip-hop fan. There are, however, notable exceptions. Run DMC, Public Enemy (simply for their political stance), NWA, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Jay-Z, Eminem (unfortunately) and Kanye West (if only as a producer) will stand the test of time, IMO. There probably are others I'm missing. Where's Clubber Slang when you need him?

Counting down till someone says, "He's boning your mom."

 

Clubber's busy.

 

Hip Hop started to lose its way when everyone wanted to collaborate with some female artist in an attempt to grab a piece of mainstream success. Jay-Z's various duets with his girlfriend did more to undress his credibility than Nas ever could.

If Eminem wants to hold up, he needs to come back with a new gimmick. Lyrically, he's already up there, but the whole "making fun of other pop stars" has got to go. The fact that he engaged himself in a B-level feud with a C-list star like Moby is just lame. In my opinion, Eminem missed a real opportunity to become one of the leading artists giving a Fuck You to the Bush administration, not necessarily from a political stance, but just from a "Fuck Those in Power" approach. He started to tip-toe in that direction with "Mosh" but then disappeared. For all his bluster about giving the finger to authority figures, and not giving a fuck, he ended up looking less courageous than the Dixie Chicks.

 

I was going to say Wilco, but DoubleD beat me to it.
Anyone said Oasis yet? Or would they not count since they hit in the mid-90s?
You got lots of music that will stand the test of time. But I don't think much of it is getting radio airplay right now. All manner of Americana/Al-Country (whatever that is) bands who are very good.
I also think you got some British bands out there, that are just starting to come up, and could be huge on the scene for decades.

 

|?1/4j1/4?Mutt Lange (Mr. Shania Twain) gets credit for the Def Lep sound. Which, if you added fiddles, is the same as the Shania Twain sound.

This is a fun thread to throw out artistes and see which ones have staying power, but the fact is we're too close to the here and now to be certain. Twenty-five years ago I'd have put Blondie on the list. Four number one singles? Why not? I think I heard my last Blondie song in a diarrhea medication commercial in 1994.

Today's charts are topped by the likes of Norah Jones, Beyonce, Katharine McPhee, Daughtry, Celtic Woman (whatever that is), Akon and Pretty Ricky. I'd say Beyonce and Jones are safe bets to have stuff played on my adult contemporary radio station implant chip in 20 years.

My favorite rock band that is of this decade is System of a Down. I can only hope the Downies are successful enough to still be touring in 20 years.

 

Well, hell. Damn near every hardcore rapper from the '80s and '90s has gone legit now that they have money. Eazy-E, Tupac and Biggie just never had the chance. I don't think dating an A-lister (Jay-Z) or doing a Coors Light commercial (Dr. Dre) lessens their influence or impact on music. As far as Eminem, you're right, DD. I don't like him in the least anymore, but his first two mainstream albums (especially his second) hit the music scene like a bullet. If he had died right after releasing the Marshall Mathers LP, would people be talking about him as they do Kurt Cobain?

 

Wilco offers an interesting conundrum. The music is fanstastic, and they're my favorite band on the planet now. But it's not easily accessible. Hell, I had to listen to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot at least five times before I really started to like it, because the damn thing is so rich and layered that it's not meant to be consumed wholly in one sitting. I hear something new every time I listen to it. There aren't a lot of people who are patient enough to enjoy music like that. They just want a quick, poppy hook and that's it.

As far as Timberlake goes, I like some of his stuff, but let's not be naive. Without Timbaland, he's nothing.

 

I was waiting for that. I don't own a CD of his, but I've been wondering lately is he isn't this generations Michael Jackson ... sans the 10-year-old boys in the Fantasy Mansion.