Would hits from the 90's and 2000's also be hits if they were released in an earlier era? Some songs seem timeless or even retro, but others have a certain zeitgeiss that I don't know if they would've appreciated as late as the 80's. Also how would people react to the more explicit lyrics we have now?
WI recent songs in earlier times?
- Thread starter tallwingedgoat
- Start date
You wonder how people would have responded to explicit lyrics? Look at how people responded to Louie, Louise in the 60's (even though there were not anything explicit in it) or 2 Live Crew in the 80's for your answers.
Torqumada
They weren't the only ones Sullivan edited. The Rolling Stones had to edit their lyrics "Let's spend the night together" to "Let's spend some time together." which Mick Jagger sang while rolling his eyes at the camera.
Torqumada
I don't know that lyrics in general are much more explicit than they were in the '80's (at least). As was mentioned, there were groups like 2 Live Crew. Some groups got away with some really bawdy innuendo (Aerosmith: "Big Ten Inch Record", AC/DC: "Big Balls", ZZ Top: "Tush", "Tube Snake Boogie", "Pearl Necklace", Cindy Lauper: "She bop", Madonna: too many to list). Actually, I'm not certain that all of that is really just innuendo.
One of the things that I think makes classic songs, classic has to be the period they were recorded in and all of the events surrounding it. The anti-war music of the late 60's wouldn't be very effective a decade later in the late 70's for example, because the events at the time were so different, even though the songs might be well written and have meaningful messages. Even music just a few years apart in time might not be big hits. Look at the sudden rise of Grunge and Gangsta style music compared to that which immediately proceeded it.
Torqumada
Torqumada
Thande
Donor
This is more of an ASB thing although it is worthy of discussion.
I recall the sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart (about a bloke who can time travel from the late 90s to 1940) looked at this a bit--everyone treats the chap as a great musical genius when he plays songs from later in the century on a piano, but on the other hand they also had bands playing "his" songs in the style of contemporary 1940s big-bands.
Explicit lyrics are far from a new thing, it depends on what era you're talking about--these things are cyclical. In the past they tended to be more clever with innuendo to circumvent censorship.
I recall the sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart (about a bloke who can time travel from the late 90s to 1940) looked at this a bit--everyone treats the chap as a great musical genius when he plays songs from later in the century on a piano, but on the other hand they also had bands playing "his" songs in the style of contemporary 1940s big-bands.
Explicit lyrics are far from a new thing, it depends on what era you're talking about--these things are cyclical. In the past they tended to be more clever with innuendo to circumvent censorship.
In the 90's there were a few huge hits like "Closing Time" that was always on the airwaves, but somehow I feel would not quite capture the moment in the 80's, but perhaps in the 70's might have fitted in.
The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was losely based on a Rolling Stones song and I think it would have been a huge hit any time from the 60's on.
Most Katie Perry songs are considered sweet by our standards but would probably get her thrown out of town in the 50's.
The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was losely based on a Rolling Stones song and I think it would have been a huge hit any time from the 60's on.
Most Katie Perry songs are considered sweet by our standards but would probably get her thrown out of town in the 50's.
But 2 Live Crew was a commercial success. No doubt they were controversial, but as they say there's no such thing as bad publicity.
Bolt451
Gone Fishin'
Are you saying that the film "A Knights Tale" Lied to me and David Bowie didn't release songs in the 14th century?
Hmm. Rebecca Black's "Friday" being released by someone in the 70s? The Osmonds?
The Sex Pistols take the world by storm with that famous punk hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Hmm. Rebecca Black's "Friday" being released by someone in the 70s? The Osmonds?
The Sex Pistols take the world by storm with that famous punk hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM51qOpwcIM
^Stephanie Germanotta may have been able to be popular in earlier times. However, I don't think Lady Gaga would have been able to make it in the 50s (too shocking attire and whatnot).
^Stephanie Germanotta may have been able to be popular in earlier times. However, I don't think Lady Gaga would have been able to make it in the 50s (too shocking attire and whatnot).
If Little Richard made it, I can't see why Gaga could not. The lyrical choices may have to change, and the music itself would be so far out at the time as to be considered ear torture, perhaps, but the costumes would have been taken well by the youth. Outlandishness was in and it was simply a lack of original context that prevented some Ziggy Stardust shit from happening in the post-war west. Particularly playing up the Cold War Era sci-fi element of her wardrobe concepts, (imagine George McFly's wet dream on Bandstand...) yeah, it would work.
This brings up an idea I had that I mentioned in another post: It would not have been too much of a stretch for a drummer in England in the late fifties or early sixties to begin drumming in rhythms and beats similar to Franz Ferdinand, of Montreal, Two Door Cinema Club, The Rapture, etc. Four on the floor, dance beats behind proto-power pop/rock 'n' roll music.
What if the "Mersey Beat" had been sped up, kick drum on every beat, sixteenths on the hi hat in nature? The birth of dance rock at the dawn of the sixties... This HAS to have some intense musical and cultural butterflies for decades. It could be pretty well accepted too, I don't think it's much of a stretch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QC-s6e1jWI
Yes, they were a commercial success, but there was also a big uproar over the lyrics. Rock and Roll was a big success too, but there was many attempts to ban it in the early 50's.
Torqumada
It sounded so much like a Rolling Stones song that it got them sued and they no longer own the rights to the song.
Torqumada
there's one recent song in particular that i know which may have been taken as a sign of defiance to the US occupation of Japan in the 40s: O2 by Orange Range
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSDWrUuhLkI
here's a version with english subtitles (pardon the imagery if youre not an anime fan; this song was used as the opening theme for several episodes of Code Geass):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUHdPOuBdyw
just read some of those lyrics and tell me that it doesnt sound like paranoid US soldiers would hear this and think "there must be some kind of resistance movement trying to kill us!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSDWrUuhLkI
here's a version with english subtitles (pardon the imagery if youre not an anime fan; this song was used as the opening theme for several episodes of Code Geass):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUHdPOuBdyw
just read some of those lyrics and tell me that it doesnt sound like paranoid US soldiers would hear this and think "there must be some kind of resistance movement trying to kill us!"
MrP
Banned
I've spent an enjoyable time listening to the Puppini Sisters this morning. Here's their cover of I Will Survive.
Film score composers like Basil Poledouris and James Horner would have been better appreciated in the 19th century. Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian and Horner's Glory are as magnificient as anything Wagner or Carl Orff wrote.
oh! what if one of wagner's plays had been accompanied by this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk3KGHlCD1g
there's just one conceivable flaw with this: the vocals are done in sanskrit; if wagner had used this, it would almost certainly have been retranslated into german
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk3KGHlCD1g
there's just one conceivable flaw with this: the vocals are done in sanskrit; if wagner had used this, it would almost certainly have been retranslated into german