ADELE

Okay, here's a good debating question we had in the pub a while back.
Have you noticed great music often is tied to a social/political scene or movement?
I wonder if the climate is sometimes just wrong for a great band.
Like punk bands today would be selling loads had they been around in 79.
Black metal today is nothing compared to it's heyday.
The climate has to be right doesn't it?
Summer of love don't work now as we have the choice of thousands of summer love festivals all mainly corporate.
Beatle mania came out of a climate of new hope after Kennedy's death and a new government in the UK.
Punk exploded thanks to the system of old bands like the stones not reaching the kids mixed with a class system so terrible.
Britpop also came from a new Labour Govt.
What about Elvis and the birth of Rock?
What about the birth of metal with Zep and the Who and stadium rock.
Even the prog rock for it's amazing musical achievements?
I reckon many bands just come about at the wrong time when society is just past it or into something else and it is the explosion of cultral need and musical statements all coming together at once.
What about Rap in the US in the eighties for black movement?
I want to debate what you think was the most important musical movement EVER.
For me it was punk in 76-79 both here and in the States by far but I want to know what others think.
If you say the eighties electro movement you are in for a hard time!!!
I say this because I keep wondering what the next explosion will be. There always seems to be a lull where the ****e pop bands come back for a while till the next explosion.

jackhammer

Robert Johnson entering a studio is the single most important musical event in regards to popular music.

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ADELE

You know, many people will say that Elvis was the most important person who invented Rock.
The thing is, while I like a bit of Elvis like pissed on New Years eve but not at home if you get me and he is dated, I have to say that all the old people say that when he came on the screen it was just like God had arrived.
He was so different and unique as an act.
Pioneers are great but what I mean is what changed the world?
I would say Elvis, psychedilic movement as some right wing in the sates blame the liberalisation for all the problems today seriously they do and they have a point about family values.
But to me it was punk because it made so many bands just strum away and play both here and over the pond and it was political and artful and music and the full package and I was only 5 in 79 so I can only go on what I read and learn.

COBHCNick

I'd have to say the internet. Not only does it allow us to be exposed to bands and artists that we likely never would have heard of otherwise, but for aspiring musician's its beyond a blessing. Long gone are the days where you have to get all sorts of books or pay for lessons (though these things should still be encouraged!) since all the information is so readily avaliable online.

But as for specific music cultures, I can only say that for me personally I find the 80s thrash movement to be the most interesting and had the most profound effect on my life. Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Testament, Exodus, etc. really spoke to me about being a poor youth from a broken family and helped to vent frustrations about being pissed off with the world.

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Blooddrunk!

WeeLittleHobbit

I think the Hippie movement was probably the most important cultural movement in America's history, not to mention musically.

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Tommy: I don't know. You said it. You said I'm funny. How am I funny?

ADELE

Never thought of the internet.
That is true.
Has any band made it big yet through the net?
I know what you mean about a movement in your youth that grabs you and from then on you just love it.
You get pressed and gold plated in that era forever.
For me at my youth I loved the Who even though they were long gone and behind blue eyes is such a brilliant song I used to sing at school and get in trouble.
For me too the pistols and the clash were so energetic and the kids at school loved pop and soul music and I just couldn't understand why teenage kids like music for middle aged men with a mortgage.
I was never into heavy metal but I always liked kids who were because they were individual and they could play guitar....well!
The metal movement was massive. I always liked Maiden. That movement was huge.
By the way some people who know about this stuff say Chuck Berry changed the world!
I love Chuck Berry. I love Monkey Business as it makes me think of all those boring chores you have to do.

simplephysics

The shift from the 50's to 60's...as in the whole counterculture/Haight-Ashbury movement.. it's entertaining history.

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one font under god

ADELE

Looks like the hippy movement will get it already.
What about Punk?
Someone come out for punk here!
Didn't the hippy movement fail?
Billy Brag said "the hippy movement promised us the earth but all they gave us was trenchcoats and broken dreams"
Punk spurned so many bands it is just unbelievable.
We can include iggy and co when we say punk.
Both US and UK.
DIY music.

WaspStar

Socially, I think the most important record release was The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. It gave a modern musical voice to the American civil rights movement. Even strictly as an artifact in the record-world, it remains one of the most influential reocrds ever (and one that still holds up).


But as far as a movement goes, I have to cast my vote for the punk explosion of the late 70's. Every band that's mattered since then owes a debt to some of those bands. It doesn't even really matter how narrowly you define punk; even if you exclude bands like Talking Heads and PIL, the influence the original punk bands had is mindblowing. It didn't change the world as it was supposed to, but it gave a few generations enough hope to suppose that it might happen.

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"This sure doesn't look like 'Crazy Ernie's Amazing Emporium of Total Bargain Madness!'"

ADELE

Punk also had an effect on the way news and magazines etc were made and some would say the way art was produced.
DIY culture and anyone can attitude that prevails today.
For me, instead of the hippy movement which challenged the ruling order's ideas the punk movement made new rules and started a new movement.