It's sunday, and we all got a nice extended night's rest, so it's a good sunday (not THE good sunday, just one of them)
So in the future, I'm going to reserve sundays for answering questions you might have for me. But without anything else to talk about today, at the end of my first week, I'm just going to describe my musical theory to you.
A friend of mine once suggested to me the theory that political changes happened in, roughly, 40 year cycles. His reasoning for this was that it is, roughly, a persons half-life. According to the theory, it is at the half-life point in our lives that we have the most effect on the world around us (most presidents were around 40 years old for example.) We grow up being effected by what's around us, so those born during a certain type of era will re-enact that era when they have power.
And it actually seems to work... a few discrepancies... but yeah... take a look...
1776 - Revolution
> 36 years later
1812 - War of 1812
> 38 years later
1850 - Compromise of 1850 leading to the Civil War
> ???? (my history isn't great)
??????
> ????
1918 - World War
> 42 years
1960 - Civil Rights Movement
> 41 years
2001 - 9/11
It's not flawless, but it seems to hold some basic merit... so why not apply it to music?!?!
Of course, I think you can break the 40 year cycles down into smaller sections also... I decided to do this in terms of decades:
1930: Swing
1940: Random music, but no significant style (dying out of Swing)
1950: beginnings of Rock & Roll/Pop Rock era
1960: ROCK & ROLL BABY!
1970: Disco/Dance
1980: Random music, but no significant style (dying out of Disco)
1990: Pop Rock, Boy bands etc.
2000: Indie Rock/beginnings of serious D & B
?????
Now let's match it up by 40 year increments...
1930/1970 = Dance Music
1940/1980 = No unifying style
1950/1990 = Pop Music
1960/2000 = New Original Music
Seems to work... and by this theory, in 2010 we will be entering another "Dance" era... I'm guessing this would be pointing to Drum and Bass (D&B) and other well constructed techno, which is very much on the rise right now.
I'm not sure how much merit this whole idea holds, but its interesting and who knows! maybe its even a good way of predicting what kind of music will be out there in the near future (I guess we'll have to wait until 2040 before we can start getting some good tunes in good numbers again though... that sucks...)
so... what do you all think of this idea? possible truth or complete bullshit? leave a comment and I'll come back to this issue next weekend.
Thanks for reading guys!
3 Comments so far:
"1980: Random music, but no significant style (dying out of Disco)"
What!? What's wrong with you? The 80s is chock full of amazing music. You need to broaden your horizons my friend.
sorry... maybe i was unclear... I wasn't saying that music from the 80's was "bad"... just that it didn't have a unifying theme for that era... The closest thing you might be able to classify it as would be "experimental synth rock" but i don't think that accurately depicts that era well at all.
in contrast, all the other eras seem very well dictated... disco, boy bands, british invasion... It just feels to me like there was a 10 year span without a theme (still good music, just not connected in the way other decades are)
I've had a good many discussions with readers about this topic since i posted already... there will be a revised version of the theory next sunday... if you want to talk or add your two cents to the issue though, send me and email!
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