But I know more about pop music and it's been fascinating to see which boomer stuff floats and sinks. Does anyone still listen to The Doors? Jackson Browne? Cream? When I was growing up those were in the Rolling Stone canon.
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I got a ton of pop culture osmosis simply by watching SNL reruns on Comedy Central, and watching boomer bait documentaries on VH1. The kids these days don’t waste their youth the same way.
The Doors and Cream haven't aged well, but Jackson Browne is timeless. Wouldn't have bet on the Dead being the clear winners of the 60s, but here we are.
🤔💡I figure In The Dark was helpful to their winning. The band caught the late Eighties 1960s nostalgia wave, and people liked Touch Of Grey, Hell In A Bucket, etc. enough to try the old stuff, or the traded tapes...
It’s fun going through old Billboard magazines & looking at the charts. So many huge hits that no one has listened to in years, but a lot of songs that have survived weren’t so big at the time. But you can find the same trends with classical music too. Fascinating how popularity rises & falls.
I've been thinking lately about how much, compared to the 80s and 90s, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix seem to have disappeared from the canon in addition to The Doors. On The Doors, I wonder if the Stone film had a negative impact on their reputation.
I'm not sure on that one in particular. Could The Cure sustain a long-term gig at The Sphere? Not sure. (Did people get a bit sick of Bono after too many zigs and zags and sunglasses? Of course.)
Had you told me in 1989 how respected Nine Inch Nails and RHCP would still be today, however ...
Yeah, it may just be my particular circle. I’d be curious the demo that U2 gets at the Sphere tho—it feels like the Cure has more currency among people who didn’t grow up with them. That could be wrong and anecdotal!
Your anecdata is consistent with the sample size of my 17-year-old daughter, who is excited that Devo and NIN are both touring again this year. No U2 I've ever played for her has drawn much interest.
Among my high school students, several are fans of The Cure (one even wore a Songs of a Lost World t-shirt last week); I'm not sure any of them know who U2 is (insert caveat about my students not necessarily being representative of all current high school students)
I liked them both back in the day but in retrospect the Cure sound more timeless to me whereas U2 sounds very much of its time. I wonder if that’s a factor.
There are so many things that get lost because there is no vested interest in broadcasting it. My wife’s family was shocked to find out I had no clue who Billy Jack was - turns out it was a really big hit in the 1970s, almost completely forgotten now.
There was a great Atlantic piece a while back that discussed the Rod McKuen phenomenon in this light. (I made the mistake of telling my in-laws, who gave me 6 Rod McKuen records a few months later.)
There's probably something to that, but it also occurs to be that Eric Clapton's place in the canon has also really dropped in the past 20 years and I don't think it's just because of his politics or the song about the kid.
There's always some Janis movie in production, that could reignite interest. I was one of like four people who saw the Andre 3000 Jimi movie... that didn't do it!
We all want to see Jackie Jormp-Jomp released already. (I do wonder on Hendrix how much guitar rock's relatively low place in contemporary popular music means that guitar rock is proportionately diminished in the canon.)
Parent of two early-20s sons. Both are aware of Hendrix and a decent amount of music from the 60s-80s, even obscure stuff (granted, both pursue music as a hobby, but I get the feeling they aren’t alone — Spotify or whatever they listen to leads them to some of it, certainly).
Yeah. There are a couple of Yacht rock acts that have a bigger cultural footprint these days than the Doors. And some of them were near contemporaries. Not something I would have predicted.
These are all good pulls. Janis, Jimi, and the Doors all seemed more relevant to me as an 11 year old in the 1993 than they do today as a 40+ year old well enmeshed in classic rock culture.
But no one cares about pre-Buckingham Nicks Fleetwood Mac. You don't even have to go back to Peter Green: Bob Welch era is full of solid stuff, especially from Christine McVie (on an open field with no Stevie to steal the oxygen).
my dental hygienist who was in her 30's was playing AM Gold hits this morning while she worked on my teeth. Carpenters, Harry Chapin, and Terry Jacks. I'm 50 and liked this much better than The Food Network patter. https://youtu.be/YG9otasNmxI?si=15H86m0jGNKXwOYG
They all have more than two million monthly streamers on Spotify, which I would have to think puts them in the top 1% of all artists. But I agree with the other people who bring up the fracturing of mass culture, so if you’re not one of those millions of people you aren’t exposed to it.
One of the strange things about being in my late 30s is being a kid when cable exploded, and so all these extra channels filled their airtime with old boomer shows. I probably saw more SNL, Lost in Space, etc etc and whatever else than my parents ever could.
In my late 40’s and I felt like all I was fed was old re runs. Different Strokes, Happy Days, Lavern and Shirley. That was like the dinner time transition stuff though not prime time.
The Doors are as far from us as Benny Goodman was from 80s and 90s childhoods. I'm not too certain I could name many Goodman songs in 1991. More extensive archiving, I know, but the rise of sophisticated digital archiving is coterminous with a proliferation of media. So, push.
What's striking to me is how much this isn't happening to other acts that started in the 60s - most obviously the Beatles, but also Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, David Bowie. We just had a big Dylan movie.
Some acts that didn't used to be that far below them in cultural impact are now forgotten.
Beatles (Paul and Ringo) and Stones still tour, Bowie kept up with trends until his passing, Elton John fricking re-worked “Rocket Man” into a Dua Lipa song. The artists you mentioned above never had a chance to re-contextualize their legacies
I mean, there is a certain kind of Gen Xer who got really into the Doors at age like 15 or so and now thinks the Doors were pretty much bullshit and are embarrassed.
Gen Xer here: I got into the DOORS by 17, was more moved by their tones and song construction, vocals. I found their lyrical content to be facile (then and now). TBH, their small music catalogue stands the test of time but they don't do anything for me anymore. Now B.A.D.G.E. on the other hand...
Yeah, I like Queen but it's always cracked me up. In the 70s-80s among many folks they were considered self-indulgent schlock that occasionally made weird forays into cheesy jock rock. Now they're untouchable gods of the R&R canon. Well at least Freddie is.
The Doors are still relevant in the sense at least that the Bandsplain podcast did an episode on them. Plus the YouTube clips... phenomenal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKw9JA66H-A
Belushi was such a huge icon, even into the 90s. Now nobody really mentions him outside of YouTube videos about SNL and the Blues Brothers. Maybe partly because comedy often doesn't age well, and maybe there is only so much collective space in cultural psyche. All the new stuff crowds out the old.
Gen Z seems to dig Queen (queer, no macho baggage) more than most bands of that era. They sold a fair amount of records (more outside the USA), but had zero hipster / critical cred.
Perfect examples. Each of those artists had three entries on RS’s Top 500 Album list in 2003, but in the 2020 update Doors and Cream have one each and Browne fell off completely.
Think about this with Spotify “play counts”. Just a completely random assortment of younger people connections.
Like Kate bush blows Janet Jackson out of water. I’m sorry (love Kate bush) but that is not based in any reality. How have we ended in a world where young people don’t know Janet?
I feel like they were overrated for so long they’ve become underrated again; that first album is great and they have a few other good tunes here and there
Doors? You bet. Jackson Browne? Yes sir. Cream? I just listened to all of Disraeli Gears last night.
But I've kept up all the way through. Now I'm into Chappell Roan. I view keeping up with music & listening to it for hours every day as almost a sacred obligation.
More broadly, Downtown NY culture is pretty resilently popular: VU, Patti Smith, Ramones, etc. But I still listen to the Doors as a guilty pleasure. And to Love, of course.
As for the Stones, I hardly think they have been erased from the culture, particularly given that they are the indirect, but clear, progenitors of punk.
But back to where I started, I would not have predicted even a few years ago that young people would be listening to Blowing in the Wind. Now we have to turn them on to Pleasures of the Harbor.
To me this is a function of the death of mass culture. Radio, Rolling Stone, and Spin are no longer the pinch-points in music (likewise the willingness of Walmart to stock back catalog).
I mentioned the "I want to kill you father" part of "The End" to a bunch of Band Knowers in their 40s recently and I don't think anybody recognized it.
I’ve had the same thought about The Doors. But what if you go back a bit further to Elvis? Biggest thing in the world through the 70s, but when was the last time you heard an Elvis song?
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Had you told me in 1989 how respected Nine Inch Nails and RHCP would still be today, however ...
The Doors are self indulgent and bad.
https://youtu.be/YG9otasNmxI?si=15H86m0jGNKXwOYG
Some acts that didn't used to be that far below them in cultural impact are now forgotten.
T. Rex might as well be the dead sea scrolls.
Not quite The Who's shoutout in "You Better You Bet"; more longterm lowkey effective...🙂
You may be onto something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKw9JA66H-A
Like Kate bush blows Janet Jackson out of water. I’m sorry (love Kate bush) but that is not based in any reality. How have we ended in a world where young people don’t know Janet?
But I've kept up all the way through. Now I'm into Chappell Roan. I view keeping up with music & listening to it for hours every day as almost a sacred obligation.
And it sure does keep me sane.
But also Matt Foley!