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

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.

Yes "Love Come Down" has been hot for maybe 12 years, but it feels like there's now heightened interest in delving deeper into those back catalogues (beyond like, just, "Love Come Down" and "Let The Music Play" and "I Feel For You" and "Ain't Nobody" and "Just Be Good To Me" and "Don't Look Any Further") rather than just treating R&B as a source of pop or dancefloor hits or effectively "post-disco" (although the Larry Levanish liminal space between disco and R&B will never not be hot).

In addition to the evangelising of people like Alfred I think one influence on that has been the success (again starting in the previous decade) of contemporary R&B that explicitly calls back to that sound - it's like, once people started lionising The-Dream (however fleetingly) it was only a matter of time before 80s R&B ideas would start to seem compelling again in and of themselves.

speaking of Zappa, do young people enjoy Beefheart?

Have they ever?

... yes

My partner teaches high school English, and one of her students is into Beefheart...but I think they may be the only student at the school who does.

Which Beefheart do you mean

Everyone still loves Elliott Smith.

Yeah, everyone absolutely still loves Elliott Smith. His legacy is pretty much static. No posthumous additions to catalogue in years. No massive new book or documentary (I mean there was a book and a documentary but there was nothing revelatory). He'll always be adored by anyone who likes acoustic guitars and songwriting.

Yeah, he's got a very hardcore fanbase, and swathes of youngsters discovering him every year still.

i honestly can't be 100% sure this isn't correct

If Frank Zappa were alive today he'd be a Ben Shapiro stan

— The Give Smart Guy (@BobbyBigWheel) December 13, 2018

flamboyant goon tie included at 12:39 19 Jul 19

Which Beefheart do you mean

Lieutenant Colonel Beefheart

xpost You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a classical liberal.

I kinda feel like he'd hate Trump though, just how dumb and full of shit he is

wow, i've never watched "this is 40" but for a movie released this decade it sounds like it's aged incredibly poorly

would def hate trump

I wonder how the whole PMRC thing would be perceived if it happened today?

oh you rich musicians whining about freedom of speech wah wah wah

but then you've got the party of Family Values waddling around in "Fuck Your Feelings" t shirts so

zappa 100% would be a Facts and Logic guy now

maybe he'd be more a sam harris guy than fucking shapiro (if for no other reason than ben is so shrill and agitating) but yeah def on that facts and logic tip