The Stream – This trend is still on the rise, but it’s one of the undeniably positive elements the internet has provided music fans. Not only can fans stream more of their favorite bands by the day and virtually any major festival around the world, but it has created a completely new revenue stream for bands in an era where bands desperately need new revenue streams. The flip side of this equation will be if this trend has a cannibalizing effect on ticket sales, but still, sky is the limit for this development and it’s only going to get better.
Pop Stopped Being a Bad Word – Anyone who grew up listening to the classic rock of the ’70s, the hair bands of the ’80s or grunge in the ’90s will agree: the label “pop” was derogatory, a downright insult even. You pretty much couldn’t get any less cool. Yet suddenly, across of genres of music, the pop suffix attached to anything is a blessing. There’s synth-pop, punk-pop, psych-pop, folk-pop, you name it. For the most part, the letting down of this guard is a good thing, but it’s also giving credence to short musical attention spans and propelling the flavor of the month mindset. As most art forms work in cycles and evolve though reactions, it’ll be interesting to see if there is a backlash against this trend. Hopefully, the hipster set will start embracing more sophisticated music with more adventurous time signatures, instrumental emphasis, and less traditional song structure. In the meantime, lets just pray to God that there never becomes a jam-pop genre.
The Full Album Performance – As Phish fans, it’s always secretly rewarding to see our conventions make their way to the broader music culture. Perhaps, the biggest Phishy trend to catch fire in the past five years has been the full album cover. We’ve seen it in all shapes and sizes from My Morning Jacket doing their own entire catalog over five nights, to the Flaming Lips doing Dark Side of the Moon, to the Allman Brothers doing their Fillmore recreations. This is a trend that we can get behind a million times over, especially if it means tackling a full work of somebody else’s. In my mind, this trend simply speaks to working hard for your fans. It’s hard enough to learn one song well; I can’t even imagine mastering a complete album. Kudos to any band who execute something of this magnitude.
Page 3 = Rise of Social Media and Reunion Mania
5 Responses
Great article… except the day that probably changed the blog forever was in 2008 not 2009.
Kraftwerk, people! Does anyone remember Kraftwerk??!! Trans. Euro. Express… Before Beard Rock we had these lunatics and guess what: they were experimental. Sound familiar? Great article as usual – how about a follow-up on what’s next? Feels like a turning point… FYI – Happy 5th – keep up the great work.
excellent article as usual. HT is my go-to site these days and essential daily reading. I’ll just add that I think the dreaded “jampop” genre, actually may exist. I think I heard the term bandied about once in reference to The Heavy Pets (incredible jamband from FL, poppy or not). And I think you missed one, for me, disturbing trend which is the rise of “pay to play” access to top-tier musicians through high priced VIP packages with meet & greets,e tc. which I can see leading to a class structured jamband experience, which cannot be a good thing.
Man I loved Ekoostik Hookah. Killer version of Southern Cross. Although I asked them to play it once when I was in college and they said they stopped playing it because the guy who brought it to the band, left the band. I was heartbroken.
http://phish.net/setlists/?d=2009-03-06