In years to come how will the noughties be remembered in terms of British music?
Every decade seems to evoke images which define it for the benefit of history and everyone who wasn’t there at the time; - The sixties saw the birth of rock and roll in the UK with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, swinging London, the mini, the mini-skirt; the seventies big hair, big flares, prog rock through glam rock to punk; the eighties – charmingly naff, silly hairstyles, silly fashion, new romantics and soft rock ballads, Live Aid and Frankie says ‘Relax’ t-shirts; the nineties Britpop, Oasis, Blur, The Spice Girls and cool Britannia.
Obviously a huge over simplification and you may well point to outside influences, for example the eighties saw the emergence of hip hop which we see now as possibly the most significant thing to happen to the music scene for 40 years. Somewhere in it that period the rave scene happened again a hugely significant cultural event.
But anyway I digress - obviously shitloads happened over ten fucking years and this was not supposed to be a look back but a look forward to a look back, if you get my drift.
When we look back on the noughties in ten or twenty years, watching grey haired Ant and Dec presenting ‘I love the noughties’ how will we remember it?
The Libertines, The Arctic Monkeys? Probably. Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse? The Streets? Muse? It doesn’t seem as clear cut as past decades. Kaiser Chiefs, Franz? Do you see what I mean?
What songs will go down as definitive noughties songs? What is this decade’s ‘Relax’?
Will it be remembered for the X Factor and Britain’s Got talent? The decade where Simon Cowell is labelled a genius. I prefer wanker myself.
Will the noughties be remembered fondly? I personally have my doubts. Britpop seemed glorious at the time but with the 20:20 gaze of hindsight it did seem to be a lot of also-rans running alongside a few heavyweights. The noughties certainly didn’t seem glorious. Does that sound like ‘it isn’t as good as it was in my day’? Bugger.
Perhaps it is quite simply too early to tell which artists will define the era. That great musical sage Paul Gambaccini (stop that laughing at the back) said that music needs a bedding in period of at least a couple of years before you can judge it as great or not. You have to say he is right. (Never mind Simon Cowell, Paul Gambaccini was a man whose genius will not be recognised till he is no longer of this mortal coil).
Undoubtedly the most significant aspect of music in the noughties is not the music at all. The noughties will go down as an evolutionary period for the music industry. The noughties will be remembered as the era of the illegal download where music changed forever. Millionaire artists like Elton started shitting themselves that people were stealing from them, meanwhile the young-uns embraced the new changes – most notably the aforementioned Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen in what was termed the ‘MySpace generation’.
Pirate Bay and Spotify, Bit Torrents (whatever the fuck they are!), the way we listen to music has changed for ever. So what do I do with all them cds I’ve collected over the years? You can’t throw them out, can you?
The times they are a changing innit. I just wish someone had’ve warned me.
All these questions and so few answers. I genuinely don’t know how we will look back on the music of the noughties. But if someone fancies putting forward a theory or two…
Posted In Music Of The Noughties, Nov 24 2009.
Words - The Ginger