Defeners/Le 90s Kids

[KimCoppolaAficionado]

Yes, there's a lot of "find already established writer to continue the works of a dead writer" happening (Sebastian Faulks writing Jeeves and Wooster, Eoin Colfer writing Hitchhiker's Guide, Jill Paton Walsh writing Lord Peter Wimsey, everyone writing James Bond).

Plus the endless mashups like Pride and Prejudice with Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer, and soon.

Interesting filter there!

Wasn't Eoin Colfer finishing a mostly-written manuscript at the behest of Douglas Adams post-mortem, or was that a lie by the publishers?

 

[H3LLH4MM3R666]

Sometimes I like to listen to youtube playlists of Japanese hits from the 80s and 90s. They get a lot of japanese comments, which I like to translate.

A lot of them are high schoolers complaining that modern j-pop music is nothing but mass-produced idol trash and they wish they could go back to when music was serious because they only listen to old stuff

Point being, the feeling of modern disenfranchisement is universal across cultures and generations

 

[Guardian G.I.]

There are plenty of 30 year old people on the Internet here that defend god-awful Russian pop music of the 1990s. It's funny, because it was almost universally hated back then, and now it's apparently "better than this crap on the radio".
My subjective opinion is that the genre here actually got better over the two decades - it's not as cringy as it used to be, and musical producers can imitate foreign trends better these days. I still wouldn't listen to it on my own accord, though.

Personally, I think the best cure for musical nostalgia is a time capsule. Turn on your TV at the pop music channel that actually plays music, record several hours of footage without omitting anything, and then hide it. Many years later, dig it up and listen to it. You won't find a better image of the era.
Last year, I found an old VHS with music videos from various European pop music channels of 2002, full of various stuff: Shaggy, Sugababes, Nelly, Shania Twain, Jennifer Lopez, Samantha Mumba, t.A.T.u, etc. It was an interesting thing to look through, but sadly, we had to give it away.

 

[H3LLH4MM3R666]

Oh yeah, communist "throwback parties" became a thing in some eastern bloc countries and clubs, even though everyone's lives were objectively worse under communism.

 

[millais]

There are plenty of 30 year old people on the Internet here that defend god-awful Russian pop music of the 1990s. It's funny, because it was almost universally hated back then, and now it's apparently "better than this crap on the radio".
My subjective opinion is that the genre here actually got better over the two decades - it's not as cringy as it used to be, and musical producers can imitate foreign trends better these days. I still wouldn't listen to it on my own accord, though.

Some of that Russian technotrash is more relevant now than before, imo. Kroshka Moya should be the anthem of all cucks and incels on internet.

 

[Meowthkip]

Last year, I found an old VHS with music videos from various European pop music channels of 2002, full of various stuff: Shaggy, Sugababes, Nelly, Shania Twain, Jennifer Lopez, Samantha Mumba, t.A.T.u, etc. It was an interesting thing to look through, but sadly, we had to give it away.

The early 2000's was not the best time for music.

It's gonna be really weird in the 2020's when people get nostalgic for The Darkness.

 

[Guardian G.I.]

Some of that Russian technotrash is more relevant now than before, imo. Kroshka Moya should be the anthem of all cucks and incels on internet.

I can't stand Ruki Vverkh and the like, but I have a soft spot for this guy from the early 90s - he fits into my "so bad it's good" category.

Spoiler

---
I'm looking forward to people unironically claiming that Justin Bieber was better than all this modern trash.

 

[Pointless Pedant]

Oh yeah, communist "throwback parties" became a thing in some eastern bloc countries and clubs, even though everyone's lives were objectively worse under communism.

Depending on where you live. Ukraine and Moldova have never recovered from the post-Soviet recession, and even Russia didn't recover until the mid 2000s, though that's a while ago now.

 

[H3LLH4MM3R666]

Depending on where you live. Ukraine and Moldova have never recovered from the post-Soviet recession, and even Russia didn't recover until the mid 2000s, though that's a while ago now.

Yeah I guess that's a good point. I forgot about the 90s collapse.

I'm looking forward to people unironically claiming that Justin Bieber was better than all this modern trash.

Of course that will happen, because the biggest acts of the past decades were written off as pop trash at the time. I don't even get why people hate Bieber, but I couldn't identify any of his songs. It reminds me of the vitriol that boy bands and pop acts got that lead to their falling out of favor in the early 2000s. Like a collective American insecurity to be seen enjoying something music that's "manufactured". That, and record companies losing cultural power as music sales went into freefall in the 2000s.

That type of cynicism or insecurity never really caught on outside of western countries, which is why the boy-band and idol models still reigned supreme in Japan and Korea. Not-coincidentally, music piracy never took off in those countries either which is why an insane amount of music is still sold on disks there.

 

[Pointless Pedant]

Yeah I guess that's a good point. I forgot about the 90s collapse.


Of course that will happen, because the biggest acts of the past decades were written off as pop trash at the time. I don't even get why people hate Bieber, but I couldn't identify any of his songs. It reminds me of the vitriol that boy bands and pop acts got that lead to their falling out of favor in the early 2000s. Like a collective American insecurity to be seen enjoying something music that's "manufactured". That, and record companies losing cultural power as music sales went into freefall in the 2000s.

That type of cynicism or insecurity never really caught on outside of western countries, which is why the boy-band and idol models still reigned supreme in Japan and Korea. Not-coincidentally, music piracy never took off in those countries either which is why an insane amount of music is still sold on disks there.

I disagree, actually. Not all pop music from the past does get acclaimed later. I don't see many people praising Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli as great music these days.

The Beatles were the exception, not the rule. They transitioned from being initially a boy band of sorts to being rock stars with a career spanning several years, which was unheard of at the time; early rock stars were usually only popular for a few years before fading away. Their later material was also fairly experimental by the standards of the day, with Sergeant Pepper popularising the concept album and songs like Strawberry Fields and A Day In The Life inspiring progressive rock. People don't consider them a great band just because they were popular, they consider them a great band because they redefined what rock music meant in popular imagination and made critics take it more seriously.

Bieber hasn't done anything like that.

 

[H3LLH4MM3R666]

I disagree, actually. Not all pop music from the past does get acclaimed later. I don't see many people praising Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli as great music these days.

One-hit wonders are one thing, and Milli Vanilli were ousted as frauds. Not all pop music of the past gets a resurgence, but it was all initially written off as disposable. Although the Beatles fended off some criticism by writing their own music, there were a bunch of boy bands that very much did not while still trying to follow their formula. I don't see Bieber as any less manufactured then say, the Monkees, but those guys made more money doing reunion tours then when they were under a recording contract

Whether or not Bieber writes his own music has become largely irrelevant to the people still listening to his music 40 years from now and wondering what happened to the days when some kid could just post himself on youtube and become famous.

 

[Pointless Pedant]

One-hit wonders are one thing, and Milli Vanilli were ousted as frauds. Not all pop music of the past gets a resurgence, but it was all initially written off as disposable. Although the Beatles fended off some criticism by writing their own music, there were a bunch of boy bands that very much did not while still trying to follow their formula. I don't see Bieber as any less manufactured then say, the Monkees, but those guys made more money doing reunion tours then when they were under a recording contract

Whether or not Bieber writes his own music has become largely irrelevant to the people still listening to his music 40 years from now and wondering what happened to the days when some kid could just post himself on youtube and become famous.

It's true that all past pop attracted hate in its day, but I'm talking about how people see it in retrospect. A lot of pop music from the last century really isn't remembered fondly today, and I don't see why Bieber will be either in the future.

I'm not saying this as someone who particularly hates Bieber, either. It's not great music, but it's not BrokeNCYDE.

 

[Trombonista]

Sometimes I like to listen to youtube playlists of Japanese hits from the 80s and 90s. They get a lot of japanese comments, which I like to translate.

A lot of them are high schoolers complaining that modern j-pop music is nothing but mass-produced idol trash and they wish they could go back to when music was serious because they only listen to old stuff

Point being, the feeling of modern disenfranchisement is universal across cultures and generations

They're also in Spanish. From an upload of Juan Gabriel's "No Tengo Dinero":

I love Juan Gabriel too, but Bieber's made a huge improvement in the past two years.

 

[Addicted2Memes]

Would it make me a Defener if the only relatively new music I like is regurgitated stuff from the past?

 

[Meowthkip]

That type of cynicism or insecurity never really caught on outside of western countries, which is why the boy-band and idol models still reigned supreme in Japan and Korea. Not-coincidentally, music piracy never took off in those countries either which is why an insane amount of music is still sold on disks there.

That actually explains a lot.

 

[Pointless Pedant]

Would it make me a Defener if the only relatively new music I like is regurgitated stuff from the past?

No, unless you complain about how things were better in the past on Youtube comments.

 

[DykesDykesChina]

2000 -- 2006 waz totally best yearz cuz Bratz and Windowz XP came out.

 

[Pointless Pedant]

2000 -- 2006 waz totally best yearz cuz Bratz and Windowz XP came out.

Is that you, MylarBalloonFan?

 

[smellymarine]

BBC Four have been showing thirty-five-year-old episodes of Top of the Pops for the past few years, which completely destroy any notion of music better "back then".
Speaking of--

the whitest rap possible that are Ugly Ducklings and Dr Steel.

Spoiler: Challenge accepted.

 

[Pointless Pedant]

I think the worst white rapping I've ever heard is probably BrokeNCYDE.

The album cover explains it all.