Passage of time that shocks you..

boogieman

Teetonetal said:

ICBM said:

p90fool said:

I think whatever your age or taste it's possible to say fairly objectively that the sounds used in mainstream pop music were mostly in place by the early 90s, and have been juggled or combined in original ways to create new music ever since. 

That's not "nostalgic old man" talking, I'm 53 and mainstream music is infinitely better and more interesting than it was when I was 18.

Once the 80s were out of the way everything pretty much referred back to a classic, retro tonal pallette, not just guitar music, but even hip hop and electronica. 

That's true, although I would say that the use (many would say over-use, which is also true) of Auto-Tune since 1997 has drastically changed the sound of modern music.

I certainly agree that music is at least as good and as interesting now as at any time in the past, contrary to the usual belief.

What I think is different is that pop music has a far, far wider remit than ever before. Just that large chunks of it are intentionally bland. But go looking and there is really good and intetesting pop music to be found.

The biggest difference for me is the huge variety of music available on tap. You used to have to rely on what record companies thought was worth releasing. Now with simple but decent home recording set ups and easy internet distribution anyone can release music.

A lot of the technical development of late seems to have gone into home studio software, but there doesn’t seem to have been much innovation in actual physical musical instruments for decades; I think the last big musical leap were synthesisers and associated electronica.  Maybe we need another Robert Moog to push things along. 

fandango

BigBearKris said:

fandango said:

...The Argies never knew what hit them. (No apologies to the Argentinians, who should have known better than to mess with Thatcher's Britain). When was it? 1982...

Are you for real? 
Argies? LOL

You had to be there. But, yes that’s what we called them.

Reverend

fandango said:

BigBearKris said:

fandango said:

...The Argies never knew what hit them. (No apologies to the Argentinians, who should have known better than to mess with Thatcher's Britain). When was it? 1982...

Are you for real? 
Argies? LOL

You had to be there. But, yes that’s what we called them.

After scrap with us English navy
They'll be asking for  recipe for chips n gravy.


The Macc Lads certainly had their finger on geopolitics.

Phil_aka_Pip

fandango said:

BigBearKris said:

fandango said:

...The Argies never knew what hit them. (No apologies to the Argentinians, who should have known better than to mess with Thatcher's Britain). When was it? 1982...

Are you for real? 
Argies? LOL

You had to be there. But, yes that’s what we called them.

No worse than calling Americans Yanks, or any other nickname for a racial group this side of eastern europe (apparently if you use a nickname for groups from further east, you're "racist")

57Deluxe

Fretwired said:

A still from a video - camping with friends April 1975. I'm the tall guy in the middle eating a bacon sandwich - my girlfriend to the left is now a professor of law in Baltimore, my friend in the blue shirt is a director at the Land Registry and the girl on the right in now a vicar in Borehamwood. It only seems like yesterday that we sat listening to Pink Floyd and sipping cheap wine without a care in the world.

looks like a screengrab from Grergory's Girl...

Chalky

Jalapeno said:

Alnico said:

Legionreturns said:

My bus ticket to school used to cost me 15p... Return.

Mine was 4p single.

Mine was 4d, RETURN !

Saturday morning, 4d return into town and 2d for the pictures.  Reminded me of having the day off school for Churchill's funeral, I think.

Sassafras

Chalky said:

Jalapeno said:

Alnico said:

Legionreturns said:

My bus ticket to school used to cost me 15p... Return.

Mine was 4p single.

Mine was 4d, RETURN !

Saturday morning, 4d return into town and 2d for the pictures.  Reminded me of having the day off school for Churchill's funeral, I think.

School? You were lucky, I had to scamper up chimneys just to earn enough to keep my family in thin gruel.

Chalky

Scamper? You were lucky. We were greased up with lard and forced up tight chimney wi' brass plunger and steam!

VimFuego

up the chimney? we were dropped from above with a heavy weight tied to our legs. And we had to pay for our own weights. And rope.

Sassafras

Chalky said:

Scamper? You were lucky. We were greased up with lard and forced up tight chimney wi' brass plunger and steam!

Lard? We could only dream of such luxuries.

EricTheWeary

NOW 100 comes out in 2018. 




Which which does seem to imply that the first NOW was in 1918 whereas it was 1983 but with the various editions apparently number 100 ( not counting the various international spin offs like Now what’s what I call Arabia ) is due out in a few months. 

ICBM

EricTheWeary said:

NOW 100 comes out in 2018. 

Which which does seem to imply that the first NOW was in 1918 whereas it was 1983 but with the various editions apparently number 100 ( not counting the various international spin offs like Now what’s what I call Arabia ) is due out in a few months. 

It's on my shopping list already .

There are three a year normally - spring, summer and before Christmas. That would make 33 years not 35, but I think a couple of the early years only had two.

I have all bar three from 29 to 98. I'm actually hoping they might reissue the early ones as a special edition to mark the 100, or something - especially the first seven, which were never available on CD.

Sporky

Emp_Fab said:

I say presumably because I believe it is very very difficult to make digital archive media that will withstand the passage of hundreds or thousands of years.

I reckon CD and its (ha ha) spin-offs should be interpretable and reasonably long lived.

Stuff that's just on servers and the like may well be a different matter.

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

NOW 100 comes out in 2018. 

Which which does seem to imply that the first NOW was in 1918 whereas it was 1983 but with the various editions apparently number 100 ( not counting the various international spin offs like Now what’s what I call Arabia ) is due out in a few months. 

It's on my shopping list already .

There are three a year normally - spring, summer and before Christmas. That would make 33 years not 35, but I think a couple of the early years only had two.

I have all bar three from 29 to 98. I'm actually hoping they might reissue the early ones as a special edition to mark the 100, or something - especially the first seven, which were never available on CD.

I think 100 will be a special revisiting the early days with an accompanying TV special with artists like Duran Duran.

Looking at the Wikipedia page it’s amazing what a successful formula it has been, presumably made a lot of money for someone. There was definitely a point in time when they were the soundtrack to every party and family shindig; well they still might be if I ever got invited to anything. 

fandango

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

NOW 100 comes out in 2018. 

Which which does seem to imply that the first NOW was in 1918 whereas it was 1983 but with the various editions apparently number 100 ( not counting the various international spin offs like Now what’s what I call Arabia ) is due out in a few months. 

It's on my shopping list already .

There are three a year normally - spring, summer and before Christmas. That would make 33 years not 35, but I think a couple of the early years only had two.

I have all bar three from 29 to 98. I'm actually hoping they might reissue the early ones as a special edition to mark the 100, or something - especially the first seven, which were never available on CD.

@ICBM ;Wow! But what happened with 8 to 28?

Anyway, there must be some real time warp nuggets within what you do have. I'm also guessing there's some dross in there, too. Am I right?

EricTheWeary

fandango said:

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

NOW 100 comes out in 2018. 

Which which does seem to imply that the first NOW was in 1918 whereas it was 1983 but with the various editions apparently number 100 ( not counting the various international spin offs like Now what’s what I call Arabia ) is due out in a few months. 

It's on my shopping list already .

There are three a year normally - spring, summer and before Christmas. That would make 33 years not 35, but I think a couple of the early years only had two.

I have all bar three from 29 to 98. I'm actually hoping they might reissue the early ones as a special edition to mark the 100, or something - especially the first seven, which were never available on CD.

@ICBM ;Wow! But what happened with 8 to 28?

Anyway, there must be some real time warp nuggets within what you do have. I'm also guessing there's some dross in there, too. Am I right?

Robbie Williams is the most featured artist on Now with 28 tracks, I feel certain there’s some dross just in that bunch. 

ICBM

fandango said:

@ICBM ;Wow! But what happened with 8 to 28?

Anyway, there must be some real time warp nuggets within what you do have. I'm also guessing there's some dross in there, too. Am I right?

I haven't found them yet - or 55, 72 and 75 - but I've got 24 and 26. I've been collecting the whole series from charity shops for a few years now. The only ones I've bought new are 80 onwards - I started getting them because it was a good way to buy a lot of the songs my kids wanted at a good price, and I somehow became a bit OCD .

The dross/forgettable/good/great ratio is pretty consistent - about 3/3/3/1. This collection is one of the reasons I disagree with the common idea that music isn't as good as it used to be - it's just that mostly we've forgotten the dross from the past .

EricTheWeary said:

Robbie Williams is the most featured artist on Now with 28 tracks, I feel certain there’s some dross just in that bunch. 

You're not wrong, even though in general I like him!

Emp_Fab

EricTheWeary said:

NOW 100 comes out in 2018. 

Wow - a hundred years already....   Who'd have thought eh !

Sporky said:

Emp_Fab said:

I say presumably because I believe it is very very difficult to make digital archive media that will withstand the passage of hundreds or thousands of years.

I reckon CD and its (ha ha) spin-offs should be interpretable and reasonably long lived.

Stuff that's just on servers and the like may well be a different matter.

Alas, CDs and their ilk rot pretty quickly.  I've just been going through some of my old stuff that has already developed bloom and rot - and that's after less than 30 years.  It's a big problem.  As it stands, I don't think there is any media that is likely to keep its integrity intact over a period of even 50 years, never mind 500 or 5,000.

the_jaffa

As it stands, I don't think there is any media that is likely to keep its integrity intact over a period of even 50 years, never mind 500 or 5,000.

Vinyl has done a pretty decent job of 50+ years so far. Not ideal for digital files though I suppose

ICBM

Vinyl does last well if not played - the problem is that every time you play it, you cause wear. I’m not sure what the long-term life of unplayed vinyl is but I would guess in the hundreds of years - it will probably break down eventually though.

Digital music should survive indefinitely if properly backed up and transferred to new devices, rather than statically stored on just one.