Name: Retromania
Rating: 4.4 (21 reviews)
Author: Simon Reynolds

What’s in it for me? Learn why music really was better back in the day!

You’ve probably heard some nostalgic grouch complaining about the sorry state of today’s music. “We used to play real instruments,” such people like to say, or “In my day, music was innovative.” Most of us shrug off these sentimental laments, but what if they actually hold some truth? What if things really were better back in the day?

Examining the music of this millennium's first decade shows that the complainers are driven by more than just nostalgia and conservatism. Music used to be more progressive; it used to really push the envelope. Maybe it’s the music of the aughts that’s filled with nostalgia, conservatism and mania for the past. All you have to do is open your favorite streaming service and you’ll be overwhelmed with evidence supporting the arguments these blinks make.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how bands like the Fleet Foxes wouldn’t exist without 1960s music;
why dubstep might be the only original music of the 2000s; and
that technology keeps us in the past rather than pushing innovation.

Since the year 2000, both experimental and mainstream popular music have failed to innovate.

Do you think the quality of music has taken a nosedive in the new millennium? Perhaps you’ve gone to recent concerts by so-called innovative bands and been disappointed by their atonal chords and lackluster sound experiments.

The problem with modern experimental music is that its methods are stuck in the past, and the musicians are struggling to come up with something new and exciting.

This wasn’t the case in the 1990s. Then, music fans were constantly being surprised by innovative artists. The techno and rave movements exploded onto the scene, helped along by impromptu and drug-fuelled parties illegally hosted in abandoned warehouses.

But the turn of the century seems also to have marked an unfortunate turn in music history: the new millennium has brought no new music.

You can get a good sense of this stagnation by going through music magazines or websites such as Wire, Pitchfork or Fact. Their articles and reviews make clear that nothing new is happening.

Even the most experimental genres derive from ideas that have been around for at least 20 years, whether it’s the minimalistic repetition of drone or noise, the unstructured freewheeling of improv music or the disharmonies of atonal music.

And so the mainstream music of the 2000s pulls out all the stops in an attempt to appear groundbreaking.

Take the Black Eyed Peas, for example. In order to appear cutting edge, they lean heavily on futuristic and sci-fi scenarios in their videos and apply robotic effects when the lead singer is delivering lyrics such as, “I’m so 3008, you’re so 2000 and late.”

But the Black Eyed Peas aren’t as innovative as you might think. Their beats recall those that Missy Elliott used near the end of the 1990s, and their use of Auto-Tune – a device that corrects a singer’s pitch with unnatural accuracy to give it an electronic sound – was pioneered by Cher in her hit song “Believe,” back in 1998.

The 1960s, music’s “golden age,” still have a strong influence on today’s artists.

If you’re a music fan, you probably feel some nostalgia or longing for the revolutionary energy of the 1960s, even if you weren’t around to witness it.

A glimpse at the music of the 2000s betrays what an influence the 1960s – and especially the late 1960s – has had on modern artists.

When young artists fail to let go of the past, they also fail to be innovative.

With today’s music streaming services, you have the complete catalogs of The Beatles, The Stones and even Irving Berlin or Louis Armstrong available at the touch of a finger.

This is great for fans of music from previous generations. However, part of the problem with music in the 2000s is that today’s younger artists are reluctant to let go of music’s glorious past.

Modern music’s focus on technology has inspired super-hybrid musicians.

These days, music and technology are more entangled than ever. Indeed, your own listening habits probably rely heavily on your computer.

In all likelihood, the 2000s will be remembered as an era of technological innovations in music rather than as one of musical innovations.

Key ideas in Retromania

What is Retromania about?

Retromania (2011) takes a critical look at the state of modern pop music and asks what happened to all the innovative energy behind the pop of the past 50 years. Why hasn’t there been another groundbreaking innovative musical movement like the punk-rock explosion of the 1970s or the hip-hop boom of the 1980s? Find out what’s keeping today’s artists from creating the next great rock ’n’ roll revolution.