Which artists legacies have improved/worsened during the 2010s?

Watching old episodes of Red Dwarf a few months ago, Lister's character seems obsessed with a pop culture era that feels so distant now it's hardly relevant - old film stars and rock'n'roll icons from the 1950s, but I'm guessing these were all considered fairly credible retro-hipster touchstones for Gen Xers at the time

Watching old episodes of Red Dwarf a few months ago, Lister's character seems obsessed with a pop culture era that feels so distant now it's hardly relevant - old film stars and rock'n'roll icons from the 1950s, but I'm guessing these were all considered fairly credible retro-hipster touchstones for Gen Xers at the time

― frame casual (dog latin)

i took that as part of the joke, kind of a piss-take on the ubiquitous sf notion that people in the distant future are obsessed with the culture of the 20th century

re : Chuck Berry and Elvis, I think the last time they were relevant was Pulp Fiction for the former and Ocean's 11 for the latter... so yeah, a long time ago !

Calvin Harris was a fairly successful but kind of joke figure 10 years ago when he still insisted on singing, now absurdly rich and a much better rep as a producer of more critically approved pop bangers

i took that as part of the joke, kind of a piss-take on the ubiquitous sf notion that people in the distant future are obsessed with the culture of the 20th century

― Un Poco Loco Moco (rushomancy), Thursday, July 11, 2019 9:38 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

True true, but also I think it was assumed (at the time) that these icons would have some relevance to the target audience watching. If a similar show today started referencing these (actually very famous) touchstones, the joke wouldn't resonate - it would feel quaint rather than funny.

it's almost like science fiction is actually about the present rather than the future or something

A pox upon you ILM, Who's Next is better than I remembered. I now have a bushel of records to visit.

*revisit

Well, yeah

With the '50s, '60s, '70s, it seems to me to be the transformation of living memory into the dead past. I approve, if only because tacky paintings of Jimi in heaven next to the Andrews Sisters appeal more to me than tacky paintings of Jimi in heaven next to Kurt Cobain. (Kurt will get there eventually!)

I really want to write a book on the strange/ubiquitous space Elvis inhabited in the 1980s if there was enough money in book writing and if I wasn't actively trying to leave the industry all together

back when I was in grad school there was a professor from India who was teaching a course on Elvis and he came to all the parties and turned every conversation about movies into a discussion about Elvis movies etc.

nothing is relevant

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, July 10, 2019 5:18 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

otm

Elvis' peak influence/audience was basically a few years before boomers, save maybe the absolute oldest ones.

There's a humongous Elvis section in every single used record store, which really drives home how (A) His longtime, collecting fanbase is dying off or cashing in, and (B) Just how much ELVIS STUFF there is, and how poorly complied it is by RCA. They didn't really start delivering the goods until the CD era.

― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, July 11, 2019 1:23 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, RCA and/or the Colonel just shat out whatever for a payday. Given how horribly scattered and shoddy his discography was from roughly the mid-'60s through the mid-'80s, it's shocking how respectfully and cohesively his work has been presented since the '90s. Maybe his legacy hasn't improved in the '10s, but the reissue campaign kept it from tanking.

I'll be honest, there's some Elvis stuff I like (I think "That's the Way It Is" is an amazing document) but I have a hard time working up much enthusiasm for large swathes of his music - it's so mannered and melodramatic, and there's so much of it (and so much crap)

The Elvis discussion here reminds me that the whole "kitschy Fifties" thing is also more or less faded from pop culture since the 90s as well. You know, bowling shirts and Leave It to Beaver references. I'm reading Douglas Coupland's Generation X and there's a fair amount of that in there, and of course, embodied in the The B-52's and Jon Waters. MST3k also had a lot of "gee whiz 50s" jokes. (And to bring it back to the King, SPIN had an "Ask Elvis" column, right?) It has sort of moved up to the Sixties, but there's less irony in folks wearing or decorating their apartments in late Sixties style--I find most people I know who dig the era as I do think it is legitimately cool, as opposed to the liking it for tacky/kitschy reasons.

I keep thinking about this viral tweet about Netflix show Someone Great about how a black girl would never have a photo of Elvis in her room, which makes me think that people have long forgotten the era of kitsch/Velvet Elvis/etc

Tbf the very notion of 'bad taste' has taken a severe beating over the past 15-20 years.

i think the '50s fading has been pretty natural, it seemed like the peak nostalgia for that era was the '80s, and now thirty-plus years later the peak nostalgia is for the '80s. Stranger Things is like the new Stand By Me etc.

G-Eazy and Logic still embrace that turn-of-the-50s Rat Pack aesthetic tho

Should I pitch this as a Slate essay?

jazz d-bags are really the only ones keeping the 50s going at this point imo

Probably helped along by 50s music largely disappearing from oldies stations. I remember tuning into Nick at Nite as a kid and the bumpers were that 50s aesthetic, lots of I Love Lucy etc. Now I see it broadcasts Friends and Full House!

Also, like, there is a lot more representation in media and I can’t imagine a lot of non-white Americans have the fondest memories of anything that happened before 1964

xxp speaking of which, Sun Ra's profile seems higher than ever, tons of great new remasters/reissues coming out all the time

XP Rockabilly D-Bags still keepin' the '50s alive too.

i think the '50s fading has been pretty natural, it seemed like the peak nostalgia for that era was the '80s, and now thirty-plus years later the peak nostalgia is for the '80s. Stranger Things is like the new Stand By Me etc.

― omar little, Thursday, July 11, 2019 11:40 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

looking forward to the next remake of stephen king's it in 2043, with timelines in the 2040s and the nostalgic 2010s

feel like my kids are gonna think That 70s Show was actually filmed in the 70s, same way I thought Happy Days was actually from the 50s

I figure 50s kitsch was also big in the 80s/90s because you could still find stuff from that era in thrift stores

They should do a remake of “Back to the Future” where a kid goes back to the 80s, and everything is pretty much the same, except he can’t get his iPhone to work.

"Huey! Huey, it's Billy. Your cousin, Billy Lewis? You know that new sound you're looking for? Well, listen to this!"

Tell me, Future Boy, who's President of the United States in 2019?

oh man

They should do a remake of “Back to the Future” where a kid goes back to the 80s, and everything is pretty much the same, except he can’t get his iPhone to work.

― stan by me (morrisp), Thursday, July 11, 2019 10:09 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a subplot of the movie detention (the character travels back in time to 1993)

there's a thread about which song a 2015 Marty would play in 1985 to blow the kids' minds

Gangnam Style?

guess it was 2006 Marty:
If Marty McFly went back in time thirty years ago today, what song does he play at the dance to blow everyone's mind?

which song would Marty blast into his dad's ears to torture him and which future villain would he dress up as?

Sun Ra's profile seems higher than ever, tons of great new remasters/reissues coming out all the time

Nah, the Sun Ra wave (and subsequent total distortion of jazz discourse among rock critics who heard Ra and almost nothing else, and thus had no way of placing his work into historical context) crested in the late '90s and early '00s.

which song would Marty blast into his dad's ears to torture him and which future villain would he dress up as?

― omar little, Thursday, July 11, 2019 5:26 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

6ix9ine

I would disagree strongly. The arkestra is touring more than ever, he's being referenced in non-music specific artmaking contexts constantly, and there is a deluge of new product in record stores - mostly live material but still steadily coming out.

xpost

xp 6ix9ine works for both aspects of the question

I figure 50s kitsch was also big in the 80s/90s because you could still find stuff from that era in thrift stores

I wonder what "vintage" 2010s stuff will exist for the future revival (assuming they aren't living in a Mad Max hellscape by then). It's hard to imagine American Apparel clothes or IKEA furniture lasting 50 years the way Sixties or Seventies vintage did... Cutesy enamel pins?

He'd stick the "AirPods" in his dad's ears, one of them would fall right out -- "Sorry, wait a sec" -- nothing would happen while the Bluetooth is pairing -- "Just a sec, I'm trying to pull up Spotify... nuts..."

sadly pfunk isnt as strong as it was in the 90s.

I think all funk music has trended way downward as 70's/80's R&B's stock has risen

Such a great thread.

Up: Grateful Dead

Down: Sonic Youth

Everyone is Xanned and CBD'd out of their gourds and would rather listen to Teddy Pendergrass than Kool & the Gang. You hate to see it.

He'd stick the "AirPods" in his dad's ears, one of them would fall right out -- "Sorry, wait a sec" -- nothing would happen while the Bluetooth is pairing -- "Just a sec, I'm trying to pull up Spotify... nuts..."

"Sorry, BMG has restricted this content in your country era."

when called to "get down with the boogie," the youth of the 2010s said "no thank you."