The Music Thread

[The Dunster]

oh i dont think anyones being a dick here. i love these types of conversations as it generally makes me reflect with a little more accuracy and end up in rabbit holes of stupidity: speaking of which.

I was looking through the history of the American Music Awards. it seemed to be a bit more 'representative' of most factors of the music industry. It took in sales, airplay, industry opinion and fan votes (in different structures across its history).

Anyway they were on today (yesterday?) and they gave out the 'Artist of the decade'. It went to Taylor Swift. So i went back and looked at who the other 'artist of the decade' winner were. (some were done at the time the others retrospectively). Check out this list.

50's - Elvis.
60's - The Beatles.
70's - Stevie Wonder.
80's - Michael Jackson.
90's - Garth Brooks.
(for some reason it wasnt awarded in the 00's.
10's - Taylor Swift.

So Garth Brooks looked like a bit of an anomaly. Until i read a bit further.
All time, 5 of the top 10 AMA winners are country artists. Kenny Rodgers and Reba McEntire have both won more than Beyonce. would never have picked that.

It prob shows just how big Country is (and always has been) in America, its such a minor category here but its massive over there. It also shows that stereotypical 'red neck' impression people have of middle america is a ****ing huge base to ignore.
It also puts artists in our generation into perspective.
Alabama are 3rd all time for wins, can you even begin to imagine how that would go with Twitter around?

Record sales and industry awards tell us about the business and the marketing side of the industry. It tells us very little about the artistic side of music which to many of us is all that matters.

The Beatles and Stevie Wonder are really the only musical giants on that list - the rest had commercial success but weren't really innovators in the sense that they formed genres of music and supplied a blueprint for others to follow.

With respect to Alabama - listen to an album Plague then try and get the tunes out of your head - it's very catchy / addictive/with brilliant harmonies and musicianship. Wonderful band and deserving of their commercial success.

I'm a big fan of country music - but mainly the traditional and bluegrass is more my thing than the Nashville sound that's commercially successful.