pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

Weird that they went with a death metal band instead of, like, the Armed, but wgas

careful, you might start to sound like LJ!

Place your bets now on which of these bands p4k will claim were never very good to begin with in 5 years.

Snail Mail

snail mail is probably the weirdest inclusion just for being a bog standard 90s-ish indie act that isn't doing anything distinctive at all

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stompboxing a Pavement riff on a human face — forever.

also Snail Mail had a Rising feature 4 1/2 years ago

I think there's a bit of a mismatch between the subhed ("blazing new paths forward") and the acknowledgment that the list favors "music that has recently moved us, and people we believe will play meaningful roles in their communities going forward." "Where music will go from here" implies artistic innovation, but I suppose it need not.

"Where music will go from here" implies artistic innovation, but I suppose it need not.

I guess they didn't want to come right out and say "Faced with the prospect of civilizational collapse and possible human extinction, people will retreat and seek solace in bland, unthreatening bullshit"...

Music 25 years in the future? Well there will definitely be flying bands by then, given the current arc of tech progress

lo-fi study blast beats

"Where music will go from here" implies artistic innovation, but I suppose it need not.

I guess they didn't want to come right out and say "Faced with the prospect of civilizational collapse and possible human extinction, people will retreat and seek solace in bland, unthreatening bullshit"...

― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, October 11, 2021 2:37 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is a little unfair, there are some great artists on this list! Loraine James, Moor Mother, Duval Timothy, Yaeji, and a few others have made great (and in some cases pretty challenging) records in recent years.

how can pitchfork and yet all of you as well all be so wrong

anyway, blood incantation even allowing for a tedious americanist perspective are a horribly mundane token metal choice

and both keiyaa and l'rain are straight-up amazing, not 'tuneless bedroom r&b', albeit l'rain went from an all-time classic debut to a merely good follow-up

also there's a (good) british prog band in the list so all things told i'm really not hating it as much as i thought i would, even if pitchfork's recent self-regarding shenanigans have otherwise annoyed

since this whole exercise is theoretical anyway i'm more interested in the question of what a list would look like if you reverse engineered it based on the artists in 1996 that shaped the next 25 years of music. like not what ppl would have said at the time but what would be accurate in retrospect, bcuz i feel like those would be two largely different lists

i think they should have predicted bands that are yet to exist

xpost Would be a good thread. Who would have possibly guessed Screw and Dilla back then

LJ approved R&B made the list .. always a good sign..

its weirdly missing both mainstream rap and r&b

like ... no chloe bailey, brent faiyaz, EST Gee, Babyface Ray... RIP poptimism lol

In April 1996, SPIN published a feature titled The Alternative to Alternative, which feels similar to what Pitchfork is trying to do here:

"This section honors artists who represent the best way out of the alternative morass: genuine experimentation that acknowledges the bars of orthodoxy, then wiggles through whole. ... The best alternative to alternative provides a perch for the future."

It wasn't a list so much as a series of short profiles, but here's who made the cut:

-Afghan Whigs
-James Carter
-Cornershop & Cibo Matto (paired for some reason)
-Fugees
-Will Oldham
-Mo'Wax (label)
-Scott Walker

the first mention of Screw in SPIN afaik is in a 2000 sidebar on "HIP-HOP'S NEW HOMEMADE HIGH: SYRUP"

ftr the fugees were busy outselling tupac and oasis and shania twain and metallica

people are so weird about what alternative means when it comes to rap

Tbf, The Score was released in February 1996 and didn't hit #1 until May. When that issue was going to press, their only hit was "Fu-Gee-La," which had just cracked the top 40.

Also they were just done being like an East Coast Pharcyde

since this whole exercise is theoretical anyway i'm more interested in the question of what a list would look like if you reverse engineered it based on the artists in 1996 that shaped the next 25 years of music. like not what ppl would have said at the time but what would be accurate in retrospect, bcuz i feel like those would be two largely different lists

― J0rdan S

I’m blanking out. There’s albums from 1996 that still feel influential to me but couldn’t name what artists from 2021 they are still influencing… maybe they’re not.

Anyways:

Outkast - Atliens
Everything but the girl - walking wounded
Ground Zero - Pekinese Opera V. 1.28
Aphex Twin - Richard D James
Fiona Apple - Tidal
Dr. octagon

And La Macarena obvs

Big Boy - mis ojos lloran por ti

Would have been a massive spot on choice for 1996 as it’s pretty much proto-reggaeton.

Jay-Z
2Pac
UGK
Korn
Three 6 Mafia
Sleater Kinney
Aaliyah

Is Korn influential in 2021?

I mean I found this article… so maybe?

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-most-exciting-new-sound-of-2020-is-nu-metal

wyd moka

Three 6 Mafia and UGK are accurate

Sorry lol

Listening to some of the artists I had never heard before and they’re great. I think saying any of them will be influential for the next 25 years is a big IF but they’re making cool music for sure.

The fans-artist relation is best described as a "community" now ? In the religious or social sense ?

many of the people who grew up around nu-metal but were turned off by its hypermasculinity and adoption by teenage boys with bad attitudes can now safely listen to the music they wanted to...and also, the older teens are deep in the nostalgia of the turn of the millenium, if my friends' very artsy and fashionable kids are any indication

There's a piece on L'Rain in the new issue of The Wire.

an example of an experimental musician influence by nu-metal, among other things: https://fire-toolz.bandcamp.com/album/eternal-home

everything but the girl is one that i feel like would not have been tabbed in a 1996 version of this list but is completely accurate in retrospect

they were in the '95 Spin Guide

Which struck me as prescient because "Missing" hadn't even taken off.

shout out to spin

anyway, it should be a new thread

SPIN really was a not-terrible mainstream music mag for a while there, sort of half-way between Rolling Stone and CMJ in their coverage

make one dawg xp

I learned a fuckton from the stable of writers in the '90s xpost

Yeah Spin (I think even in the same issue!) introduced me to Basic Channel and Neil Hamburger, can’t be all bad.

xpost: speaking of new threads. This thread deserves to be archived and continued in a new thread. It's a pain to open it and show all messages on mobile. There's 18,000+ posts right now.

no locking this thread til the number of posts matches the number in the thread title

the 34,985,859,340,293,849,494th pitchfork post celebration and physical fighting thread