chickfactor 17: sneak preview poll question!

how has music changed in the past 20 years?

allen clapp: seems like there’s more tolerance for melody now than there was 20 years ago. everything back then was so aggressive and serious! ugh. I think the world has loosened up a lot since the early 90s. thank goodness.

dawn cf: lots.

stephin the magnetic fields: the enormous changes in every genre between 1972 and 1992 are obvious. changes since ’92 are subtle (country, dance music, children’s music) to nonexistent (cabaret, rap, metal, musical theater, rock, gospel, jazz, soundtracks). In chickfactor’s core genre of cheaply made strummy rock, there hasn’t even been a new guitar effect.

gordon the fan modine: hmmm. has it?

stephen the real tuesday weld: there seems like there is an awful lot of it.

corin tucker: obviously the format has gone digital and people find new music in a different way now. there also seems to be many many more bands than there were in 1992. unfortunately there are still very few great bands.

james dump/yo la tengo: haven’t really been paying attention.

ed shelflife: more bands and less labels.

jeffrey honeybunch: everything is accessible which has its good points (josef k video’s on youtube) and bad (I can’t tell if the josef k–influenced band is new, or something old I missed out on).

michael white: it barely has; only its delivery systems have been revolutionized.

gaylord cf/wfmu: music has changed more between 1960 and 1970 than in the 42 years that follow.

shaun brilldream: we have a healthy post-oasis indie scene now. more record labels too.

andrew eggs/talk it: the 1992 music economy is unrecognizable today because it depended on narrow channels to distribute music, channels that are by and large irrelevant now.

bridget st john: It’s a more level playing field – with the will and a little wherewithal any one who chooses can make music and has a good chance to be heard.

clarissa cf: there is much less new music that is my idea of a good time, and much more that is 20-years-younger people’s idea of a good time. I’m fine with that.

fran cannane: a lot of use of the vocoder. more silly talent shows encouraging bad music. a lot more cover versions being hits perhaps?

gene booth: popular music is incredibly subtle and diverse now — thanks nirvana you really did change everything.

jennifer o’connor: the idea of what passes for a song in many cases these days is a joke.

pete paphides: it’s more freely available and, as with anything which is more freely available, its monetary value has gone down.

gail cf: the underground disappeared in the 1990s when the internet happened and maybe even before.

daniel handler: has it? I keep hearing music that I think is new and turns out to be old, or vice versa.

ian musical chairs: the mainstream has embraced an indie sound; indie bands have embraced commercials and other licensing opportunities (now the only reliable sources of income for bands). most commercial rock music is otherwise basically the same as in 1992 (grunge) and aside from the occasional interesting production job, top-40/dance music seems pretty the same too except for the overuse of auto-tune which will sound silly in a few years.

tim dagger: mp3/downloads.

joe pines / foxgloves: the sundays stopped. belle & sebastian started. I got better at writing songs, and was lucky enough to record some of them with a few tremendous people. it arguably became easier to filter out what you didn’t like. which may, come to think of it, mean that contemporary culture is even worse than I think.