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

Just thinking about the fact that when I was in college in the early 90s it was a given that "Tempted" was one of the all-time great pop songs and the Squeeze comp "45s and under" was owned by everybody who cared about music at all -- does anybody now think about Squeeze EVER?

i saw them at Coachella and still have my copy of 45s and under

elliott smith has 1.36 mil monthly listeners on spotify. 300k or therebouts more than pavement.

on a similar note Elvis Costello seems to be much less talked about these days. 10 years ago I heard his name dropped all the time.

I think that whole wave of 1979-1983 bands that were punk-adjacent-but-ultimately-mersh is on a huge downswing, compared to the 90s/00s: Squeeze, Joe Jackson, Boomtown Rats, the Knack, the Tubes, Nick Lowe even Elvis Costello (ha, frogbs)

elliott smith has 1.36 mil monthly listeners on spotify. 300k or therebouts more than pavement.

“mersh”?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mersh

strictly commercial

I didn't hear those artists talked about much even in the '90s/'00s (with the exception of Costello, and maybe Squeeze a little).

speaking of

I wonder about Zappa's legacy these days - when I got into him back in '04 or whatever he was described as a "genius with a potty mouth" and "funny" whereas now it's more about what an incredible asshole he was and how much garbage he put out in his career, despite being actually brilliant

costello was great and is great. the next generation of critics isn't as breathless in their praise of him as the last, but they should be. guess i'll report back from the costello/blondie show i'm seeing next week about how cool the crowd is.

nothing lost by consigning Zappa to the dustbin imo

yeah zappa is way down. i think the closest he's come to making headlines in recent years is the "fuck you captain tom" anecdote that went around when bowie died: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-frank-zappa-adrian-belew/

which is a great story, granted

Zappa is a great example, tho he was already going down in the 00s. totally forgot about a great documentary about him I saw maybe 4 years ago that was exclusively archival interviews. he did give a good interview. never found a way into his music.

there are some pretty obvious reasons for it of course, he never licensed his music out (with one exception) and none of his 'hits' would make any goddamn sense in the current era ("Valley Girl"!?) so Today's Modern Teenager would never hear of Zappa unless they'd fallen into a prog wormhole, only to be quickly intimidated by the size and inconsistency of his discography...even his GOOD albums have those "are you kidding me with this" moments. I don't see people putting in the effort these days. That said I'm a little surprised he's not some sort of figurehead for the Joe Rogan/libertarian crowd since he very much seems to slot in there. Maybe if he'd lived a little longer.

I don't think Zappa's legacy has improved or worsened tbh, if you're into him, you're into him, nobody else gives a shit, I don't think that's changed at all.

Zappa will always have name (and maybe face) recognition.

helps to have distinctive facial hair

yah I feel like Zappa has always had a very unique position in pop culture

I think that whole wave of 1979-1983 bands that were punk-adjacent-but-ultimately-mersh is on a huge downswing, compared to the 90s/00s: Squeeze, Joe Jackson, Boomtown Rats, the Knack, the Tubes, Nick Lowe even Elvis Costello (ha, frogbs)

― Hannah GAPDY (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, July 18, 2019 4:02 PM (forty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

And based on the "who the hell is Graham Parker?" conversation that happened in a recent thread, I'm gonna say Graham Parker's legacy has worsened...though started in the mid/late '90s.

lol I've been baffled by the Rolling Stone Record Guide's 5-star review of Squeezing Out Sparks for almost 40 years

A few of his records got 5-star reviews in that book! I think Howlin' Wind and at least one other album did.

Squeezing isn't bad, but it seems run-of-the-mill compared to what Costello or even Joe Jackson were doing at the time.

yah totally... 16-year-old me was like "this is OK I guess, but it's no Blank Generation"

I amazed at how common Parker records are in the $1-3 bins as of late.

i love squeezing out sparks as much as any costello record

but yeah it's probably the most irrelevant of anything that's been mentioned in this thread

Zappa will always have name (and maybe face) recognition.

Way back when, when I was a kid, I remember reading a piece about the minimum information needed on an envelope to could get a letter to its recipient. Iirc, the two people whose faces alone could get a letter to its destination (at the time) were Reagan and Zappa.

Graham Parker played a huge role (literally) in that one Judd Apatow movie, but then, Judd Apatow's legacy has definitely worsened.

How is Van Halen looking these days? The problem with Spotify or whatever as a metric is that I can totally imagine no one under the age of, say, 40 listening to much Van Halen, but plenty of people over the age of 40 listening extensively to Van Halen (give or take some hyperbole). That is, monthly listens don't break down who is listening and how much, right? Just the total? Which makes it harder to measure current cultural impact/import. And there is no 19

Ha, I think I was going to write "there is no 1984 or even early 2000s version of Spotify to compare the numbers to."

xp The Wire is supposed to have a themed issue next month, Excess All Areas!, with a feature on Zappa

I think Van Halen are doing ok. Big Spotify numbers and vinyl dealers I know have no problem getting $$ for used DLR-era lps.

xp

oh mark s must be back at the wire! lol

van halen - 8.2 mil monthly listeners. top three cities that stream 'em? mexico city, sao paolo, and santiago.

Genuinely never heard of Graham Parker before and have spent plenty of time listening to Costello and Joe Jackson, even some Nick Lowe. Really is an odd feeling to encounter a "famous" UK artist I've not heard of before.

you would probably like his records of that era!

Yeah, seriously. And even some of the later ones. Hell, the Rumour reunion album (and tour!) was pretty strong.

yeah it's great pub rock from someone who *may* even have a more acidic worldview than early Costello

“Discovering Japan” is a great GP song

Really is an odd feeling to encounter a "famous" UK artist I've not heard of before.

Judd Apatow thought him famous enough to build the entire plot of 2012 film This Is 40 around: Paul Rudd starts a boutique record label not out of his spare room, but in rented new-build high-ceilinged ground floor offices, with multiple staff, and a reformed Graham Parker & The Rumour as their sole signing.

(At least, IIRC, the record flops because nobody in America cares about GP & the R.)

Feels like I’ve seen graham parker in dollar bins for like 20 years now

that's a lie, This is 40 doesn't have a plot

xp

looked it up bcz I couldn't remember if Rudd's label had a best-of or just the newie and ha ha he ends up saving the label by signing Ryan Adams

"He's not on a label at the moment..."

xp four hours ago, sorry...

Where's the proof that Elliott Smith's legacy has gone down?

When Rick and Morty did a bit on Elliott Smith back in 2015, would viewers have thought that the music was a parody of sad-sack singer-songwriters or the genuine article?

The other area of music which strikes me as having experienced a noticeable uptick in interest over the past decade is 80s R&B outside the usual touchstones of MJ and Prince - at the top end this can be seen in the increase in consensus around Control as a classic album, but the rising tide seems to have lifted the boats of other Jam and Lewis artists like Alexander O'Neale and Cherrelle as well as Rene & Angela, DeBarge, the 80s output of Evelyn King and Stephanie Mills etc.

long championed by alfred iirc

Alexander O'Neale and Cherrelle as well as Rene & Angela, DeBarge, the 80s output of Evelyn King and Stephanie Mills etc.

ha, that's everyone I've been listening to recently

We're a few days away from Graham Parker's annual free show at Brit's Pub in Minneapolis! I went last year, it was great.

_elliott smith has 1.36 mil monthly listeners on spotify. 300k or therebouts more than pavement._


Damn!

the 80s output of Evelyn King and Stephanie Mills etc.

the 'revival' of early 80s stuff like "love come down" happened at least ten years ago, though, right? agree that the later 80s stuff is hotter now (and that rules). even white instrumental funkateers like benedek are dropping in shuffly beats now.