Kid IRA1
member
kill yr idols
Joined: 09/03/08
Location: formerly some antiseptic
Posts: 3,380
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For a historical take on late 20th century, early 21st century
Gil Scott Heron's Winter in America. Very religious, very political. Reflects the feelings of the third world living within America at the early 70's. Soul, spoken word, jazz, proto-rap.
The Beatle's Abbey Road. A real piece of pop evolution. You can see the sonata form in verse/chorus/verse on their simpler tracks, and then its digressions on that suite. Music is in many ways measured before and after The Beatles, and I think this is their most characteristic album.
John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Its hard to pick out a jazz album for this list. Miles Davis have so many that exemplify every step of the genre, and if I included Sun Ra or Archie Shep we could let folks know that in the 20-early21st century, our music was still sounding more futuristic than anything they could come up with. But I went with Coltrane because A Love Supreme has such a spiritual edge to it that it transcends the rest of the genre.
Radiohead's OK Computer. Nothing quite represents all the anxiety of modernity quite like that sterilized macbook voice reading an update of the Trainspotting manifesto. Integral to understanding the existential roots of ostensibly 1st world problems.
Gang of Four's Entertainment. A wonderful resource if you're studying the relationship between culture and economics. Certainly Anarchy in the UK had all the snarl associated with Britain's economic downturn, but Gang of Four really get into the mechanics of it.
The Notorious BIG's Ready to Die. A psychologist could have a field day with this album. The crack epidemic pretty much fucked up the psyche of a generation. Nas' Illmatic would also be a fine choice for this slot.
YMO's BGM. 70?s Japanese electronic pop pioneers also known as Yellow Magic Orchestra. They were seen as a sort of counterpart to bands like Kraftwerk or Devo, because of their early experimentation with electronic instruments, social commentary and conceptual visuals. BGM was their fourth album, released in 1981. BGM stands for background music. With it’s early 80?s synth pop sound, it also contains some early forays into ambient and drone, and, possibly, the first recorded Japanese rap song.
Saint Etienne's Fox Base Alpha. "And I asked her what will anyone remember this decade for? She paused for a second, and said 'waffle cardigans.'"
Peter Tosh's Equal Rights. I dont particularly like reggae, but there is no doubting this thing's influence on dub production in electronic music, the entrance of Jamaican culture into the US, Britain, and abroad, and its primary impact on politics in Jamaica.
Flying Lotus's Cosmogramma. Maximalist electronics, and a more modern update on Coltrane's Love Supreme. This here is the future of music, equally meant for headphones or the dancefloor. All encompassing, this is Walt Whitman as Warp electronics.
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