Music of the '00s

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The decade's pretty much gone - were the last ten years a musical catastrophe or was there good stuff among all the emo **** that was churned out?

I only developed any real musical taste in about 2003, then spent the next six years listening to a very limited amount of metal and 80s/90s stuff, as well as having a very peripheral view of the mainstream (and then quickly looking away - mein gott), so my knowledge of what's been going on is limited. What bands can we look back on and go 'hey, yeah, that decade wasn't so bad after all'?

From my limited vantage point (listed by album):

2000:
Mother Earth by Within Temptation. I've always thought this album was really weird, but in a good way. Incredible female vocals with some light symphonicy metal backing it up.

Bloodflowers by The Cure. Their last album without any crap songs on it. Not as great as their older stuff, but still way up there.

2002:
Century Child by Nightwish. Despite preferring their old style, this album is very endearing.

2003:
Fallen by Evanescence. I don't consider this to be fantastic anymore, but as far as I can tell it's the only decent thing to break into the mainstream for the entire decade and served as my gateway drug to better things. For that - great love.

2004:
Asobi Seksu (self titled album) - the only 'nu gaze' band that I've really heard, but if it's all like this then the '00s are fantastic indeed. Shoegaze is the best thing about the '90s (possibly the best thing ever, but I try and rein in my sweeping statements... ), so it's good that it came back from the dead.

2007:
Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails. A brilliant album that I rarely feel like listening to. The ARG was superfantastic. I think this album sums up pretty well how everyone felt about America's politics at the time.

2008:
Halou (self titled album). More shoegazey-resurgent goodness, with a mild electronicish/'trip hop'(? I don't really know what trip hop is, although I think I should find out) edge to it. This is currently topping my favourite album of the decade list (small as that list may be...).
(I'm listing this album purely because it's the only one I've heard, not because it's somehow better than their other many releases. Same goes for Asobi Seksu)



Most of these bands have released other albums this decade, but I figured listing albums by the same band would be a bit redundant. Also, some of them started to suck as the decade went on (guh - Within Temptation, what the hell happened?).

So, tell me about the good music I've been missing from the last ten years.

 

No Lady Gaga and Poker Face? Awww... must have been a boring '00s for you.

 

Sorry Aikanaro - but I haven't heard of any of those songs and I have only heard of some of the artists. And what are "nugaze" and "shoegaze"? Are they bands or dance steps?

 

Shoegaze is a style of music popularized by bands like My Bloody Valentine (not an emo band, despite the name) and Slowdive, who would play slow, ethereal music with their head down (i.e. "gazing" at their shoes).


The 00's were good for metal. Lots of drivel (mostly in metalcore and thrash), but a lot of good stuff as well (Dark Tranquillity and Katatonia, for two).

 

2001-2002 came out a lot of great albums; Queens of the Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf, System of a Down: Toxicity , Rammstein: Mutter and Tool: Lateralus to name a few. Like said above, 00's was good for metal, but IMO there were very few excellent metal albums.

 

The 00s were an interesting decade for music. While the popular mainstream scene was a disaster, there was still some interesting music. These were a few of the best, IMHO:

Thievery Corporation:



The Dining Rooms:

 

Lots of good music in the 00's. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, Queen, etc. - these were all playing on the classic rock station I listened to this decade.

 

Now ya talkin'.

 

Planet Rock is a great radio station for decent music. Plus, Alice Cooper does the breakfast show. It's rather surreal to hear him doing a traffic report over your morning coffee

 

Nothing in the music that was made in the last decade really moved me. The new bands that I've listened to (the ones that I could listen to anyway) sound like nothing new and don't get me started on the stuff we can hear on mainstream radio stations. This thread got me thinking and I've come to the conclusion that the music I enjoy listening to dates back to before 2000. Good to know it's not just me then.

 

This is a very dreary thread. So here's a long list of great (mostly indie) albums released this decade:

Arcade Fire - Funeral album of the decade
The Strokes - Is this it? close second
Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now beautiful
PJ Harvey - Stories from the city, stories from the sea
Modest Mouse - We were dead before the ship even sank
Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
Seth Lakeman - Kitty Jay
The White Stripes - Elephant
Nick Cave - Nocturama pretty much any Nick Cave cd could be included
The Pipettes - The Pippettes very cheesy I admit
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Florence + The Machine - Lungs
Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots the album for the information age
Interpol - Antics
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Daft Punk - Discovery
Richard Hawley - Coles Corner old style crooning
The Aliens - Astronomy for Dogs
Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold
Gorillaz - Demon Days fabulous concept and execution
Starsailor - Silence is Easy
Tenacious D - Tribute
Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords

And I'm sure I've missed out on loads more.

 

I've only heard this one and I have to admit it really is beautiful. I discovered this group from the movie V for Vendetta wherein Bird Gerhl was part of the OST.

 

Harbourboy: You're the last person I'd expect to have heard of any of these

I filled up a post on the last page of the random music thread with classic 90s shoegaze, if you're curious.


It seems I've forgotten about Placebo, who have been consistently good (if a bit predictable). A Perfect Circle had two good albums as well - and yeah, there's Tool. Muse - who I'm surprised no one's mentioned - are respectable even if I don't like them that much. So, there is some good stuff that's mainstream or near-mainstream.

 

Woohoo! I actually HAVE 3 of those (Ladyhawke, Flight of the Conchords and Gorillaz). Good to see some New Zealand artists on your list.

 

Mean Red Spiders also had some pretty good shoegaze around the start of the 00s.

 

I can't say it's because I actively follow the New Zealand music scene, nor indeed could I name any other artists. Those two are just great albums though. Of course Conchords (and Tenacious D) are cheating a bit.

 

Ahem. If Placebo and Muse are the best from the big double Os then it's worse than I thought. If we're going to mention music made for teenage girls then I'm surprised you don't include Tokyo Hotel or the Maroon 5. Forcing me to listen to any of these would give me an ear infection and probably get me arrested for assault and battery.

 

I have to include Datarock : Datarock. That was a great discovery for me (and the second album that came out this year is one notch bellow but still not bad).

I also like the Killers (Sam's town especially).

 

The Killers are good (one of the good things that I learned with Guitar Hero )

 

What can I say? I like Lady Gaga.

There's been a lot of songs that I really enjoy, but very, very few albums that I can actually listen to.