Nothing Left To Invent (or possible even recycle to good effect) In Music aka Dooooooooom!

Of course its not the be all and end all to try and do something new. In fact when these 'new things' emearged it seemed that most of the time they were not really intentional. When you listen to the stories of how records like 'Blue Monday' came about they're often total accidents, or at least the way they get blown up and become so popular are.

I'm in the position of having grown up with the technology boom that resulted in genres such as techno, hip hop and house all emerging in a short space of time and I'm quite bogged down in them all. Because I've grown up in parallel with the music was a little hard adjusting to the idea that not every generation might have that and that there wouldnt be some other kind of revolution for me to encounter (and struggle to keep abreast of) in my mid-late 20s. It did occur to me that the whole 'music and the internet/new technology' thing is the revolution of our time though. If you ask people to name an exciting musical form from the 70s they'd probably say punk, the 80s = acid house, the 90s = possibly drum n bass/garage/the mutations of acid house but for this decade perhaps the most memorable exciting thing has been Napster, AG, p2p file sharing and perhaps even the explosion of blogging. None of it a musical genre as such but equally as inspiring as the music itself in many ways.

But perhaps it is irrelevant that there's nothing new around the corner (people's suggestions such as bhangra hip hop, arabic drum n bass etc. - they've all existed for 10-20 years already at least and thats not what i'm talking about). I didnt mean whats about to become trendy or popular, I meant what could be really qualify as a new form of music. I am putting this down to technology and rhythmic structure but I dont see how else to define it because making music that moves you regardless of how its made has always been elemental. If anyone could name some records that they think delivered new ideas that were not dependent on the technology used to make them then please give some examples - I'd be interested to see what you come up with. Perhaps Radiohead's last two albums might be a good example. What sounds like 'Pyramid Song'? And that track coulve been recorded at any point over the last 10 or 20 years because it doesnt seem to rely on the latest developments in music technology...sorry i had to use Radiohead, I'm sure there are better more obscure examples...

There can't be "an end" to something like "music" can there? I mean it's just so ridiculous an idea. Only evolution surely, and maybe an end in your interest.

"Fuck *new sounds*, fuck *done all before*, I am interested in music that MOVES me."

I agree. I'm not waiting for a scene, an explosion, or a new type of music. I just want each album I buy to sound brilliant, fresh and exciting. Some will, some won't. Sure, I see the need for innovation, but I demand it more on an individual band/artist level. I'm not waiting for one, singular sweeping trend.

sure the making of music is never going to stop. i'm just getting quite fascinated about what kind of music will be popular/trendy in 10, 20 and 50 years time now. if you look at every single in the charts now, is there one of them that couldnt have been sitting in the chart five years ago? I dont actually think you could say that in 1995 or perhaps even as recently as 1998...or do you think tracks like 'Emerge' could only have come out now that the climate seems to be right (whatever that means)?

"Is music like an animal of which we've identified every kind of species?"

there are LOTS of species that havent been discovered

I would say that the music world is still digesting, plundering, recycling, reflecting on the three major new forms of music, new paradigms that emerged between 1985-1995: the house/techno revolution, hip-hop and extreme metal. I can't think of any other period in time, apart from maybe the '20s Jazz era, where so much innovation happened simultaneously. In comparison, the 1975-1985 era was also somewhat of a recycling decade, recovering from the preceding revolutions. Punk as a return to basic rock 'n roll, prog as a sublimation of the 60s meandering experimentation, new wave as a return to basic pop.

Oh come on! you can't say "oh all this could have been in the charts 5 years ago". I mean maybe it could maybe it couldn't but you're basically saying someone could have had this thought process 5 years ago and came up with this single, er how could they? They didn't. If you're saying the charts 5 years ago contained very similar music to the charts now I'm sure a quick chart dig out would lead to alot of people disagreeing with you.

dam, my reply to ronan got wiped...if i can muster the energy i will re-attempt later

i do stand by the 5 year thing tho - whats the most innovative thing in the charts right now? is it the Neptunes productions? Timbaland had set that ball rolling with Missy's first releases back in 96/97...The Streets and Fischerspooner owe too much to what was happening ten (or even twenty) years ago - as Mike Skinner says 'same sights, same sounds, new beats tho'

i'm not saying music was better then, just that its NOT better now

Big upheaval due in 2005. You heard it here first.

Next big thing: link