blackwasp said:
Does anyone else have an opinion on the matter or have a song that they consider to be the most important to them or music as a whole?
I don't so much think of songs impacting music as a whole, save for the immediately obvious ones VH1 always throws out on their '100 so-and-so whatever-it-is' countdowns (which I'm not bashing, BTW, I actually like them, but sometimes they can get a tad old).
I tend to think of important songs more in the context of what genre they come from and how the song in question impacted people who don't typically listen to that type of music, or the song that really solidified the genre into it's own, or provided another step forward musically. For instance, when talking of the development of punk and organic alternative rock as a whole, most people point to the Velvet Underground, since there was a lot of groundwork laid down, and then bands like The Stooges and New York Dolls came around and developed a bit further, until you get The Ramones and the Sex Pistols influenced by bands like the Dolls or the Dolls and David Bowie and create punk rock as we know it in a seemingly short amount of time. I'd say
Blitzkrieg Bop and
Anarchy In The UK are defining moments for early punk, but in the scheme of music as a whole, I'd probably say
Anarchy In The UK set forth the mainstream's conception of what punk rock was or what is was going to become, and for the most part, they were right.
There are other disputable entries, however. I can't quite give it in paragraph format, so I'll make a listing.
Industrial rock =
Me I Funk by
KMFDM, for actually being the defining 'safe' moment from their second album (I could choose a couple other tracks, but they're very inappropriate in nature), which infused quite a bit of rock into Industrial's cold, mechanical, and highly electronic environment.
Scarecrow or
Jesus Built My Hotrod by
Ministry, for solidifying Industrial Metal not only as a basic desriptor, but also for the mainstream.
Head Like A Hole by
Nine Inch Nails, for introducing standard rock lyrical form into Industrial music
Closer by
Nine Inch Nails and
What Do I Have To Do? by
Stabbing Westward, for really igniting popularity in the style of Industrial music during the mid-90s.
Post-punk =
Bela Legosi's Dead by
Bauhaus and
Love Will Tear Us Apart by
Joy Division, for really exposing the mainstream to what would come to be called Goth rock.
Independence Day by the
Comsat Angels, for unifying a more standard form of alternative rock years before acts like
The Replacements, many so-called 'New Wave' artists, or even the
Hüsker Dü side project
Sugar began playing the same thing.
My Sharona by
The Knack, for fusing rock-based post-punk with American mainstream rock and helping to start off New Wave.
Soft Cell's version of
Tainted Love,
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) by the
Eurythmics,
I Ran (So Far Away) by
A Flock of Seagulls, and
Cars by
Gary Numan, for practically defining New Wave's usage of synthesizers.
Hardcore Punk = 1)
California über Alles by
Dead Kennedys, 2)
Living In Darkness and
Bloodstains by
Agent Orange, 3)
Skate and Destroy by
Faction, and 4)
Six Pack and
TV Party by
Black Flag for solidifying four aspects Hardcore would come to have: 1)Anarchy or Fascism as a major theme; 2)some consistent melodies that are dark, haunting, and hard while also accentuating the alienation concept that would become very common in American punk during the 80s and early 90s; 3)establishing the 'skate punk' ethic that would eventually dominate California punk in the mid to late 80s; and 4)putting a real emphasis on fun in Hardcore music.
Mainstream punk =
Longview by
Green Day, for helping pop-punk break through. 'Nuff said.
Alternative music as a whole = I know I'll probably regret this, but
Smells Like Teen Spirit did let most mainstream music listeners in 1991 and 1992 know that there was even such a thing as Alternative music, even though most alternative doesn't sound a thing like Nirvana or grunge.
And this one I'm predicting ahead of time:
Danger! High Voltage! and
Gay Bar(the lyrics for this one are very tongue-in-cheek, but a little too low brow for some people's tastes; I personally think the song is hilarious) by
Electric Six,
Take Me Out by
Franz Ferdinand,
Spitting Games by
Snow Patrol,
Float On by
Modest Mouse,
Obstacle 1 by
Interpol, and
Talk To Me, Dance With Me by
Hot Hot Heat, for being the Neo Post-punk songs with the most promise to break through to the mainstream. And possibly even
I Miss You by
Blink-182, for beginning to forge into the realm of Neo Post-punk. Coupled with the new album coming out from The Cure and the songs I just mentioned, I think that pop-punk will start to morph into Neo Post-punk and we'll get a lot more interesting music in the next three or four years while those artists and others like them put a lot more creativity into the music scene as a whole.
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