Tuesday, November 8
Nostalgia for the Mid-90s
SIQ: 28 (strong alfalfa smell but not too annoying).
Yep, the late 90s... that was a good time for music. For the world, really. A competent person was president in the United States. The economies of the world were, by and large, very strong. And music was fucking amazing. I've been digging through my CDs for the past few days trying to dig up my "old fossils" from 1998 or so...things like Massive Attack's Mezzanine (along with Blue Lines, of course), Portishead's self-titled second album, Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children, Tricky's Maxinquaye (yes, I once had the web's first Tricky site, which I gave up once I realized that others were doing a better job than I at keeping the artist relevant), and many others. This is some great music--a rich blend of styles and ideas all mixed around drug and dub beats. These artists are still around (well, save Portishead, which seems to have vanished from the earth), but their more recent music is far removed from the laid-back and intelligent music they made when Clinton was in power and Blair wasn't a lapdog. Is there a connection between the political situation in the late 90s and the good music from that decade? Does it extend to this rather horrible period in history? Probably--to some extent. Or was that period in the 90s just a pinnacle for my own enjoyment of popular music--when I thought popular music was actually interesting and relevant?
And so let me say it, if no one else will...
I miss the 90s.
Yep, the late 90s... that was a good time for music. For the world, really. A competent person was president in the United States. The economies of the world were, by and large, very strong. And music was fucking amazing. I've been digging through my CDs for the past few days trying to dig up my "old fossils" from 1998 or so...things like Massive Attack's Mezzanine (along with Blue Lines, of course), Portishead's self-titled second album, Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children, Tricky's Maxinquaye (yes, I once had the web's first Tricky site, which I gave up once I realized that others were doing a better job than I at keeping the artist relevant), and many others. This is some great music--a rich blend of styles and ideas all mixed around drug and dub beats. These artists are still around (well, save Portishead, which seems to have vanished from the earth), but their more recent music is far removed from the laid-back and intelligent music they made when Clinton was in power and Blair wasn't a lapdog. Is there a connection between the political situation in the late 90s and the good music from that decade? Does it extend to this rather horrible period in history? Probably--to some extent. Or was that period in the 90s just a pinnacle for my own enjoyment of popular music--when I thought popular music was actually interesting and relevant?
And so let me say it, if no one else will...
I miss the 90s.
