Who is the defining artist of this generation?

[The Niggardly King 0]

I'm still going with Puff Daddy to an extent...

 

It's pretty hard just to pick one artist... people will be breaking it into genre's.

 

Good picks would be Radiohead, Eminem, and Outkast.

 

I'd say the people who will get consideration for this down the line are Kanye West and Kelly Clarkson.

[Hawk 34 0]

I called Clarkson awhile ago, but people were caught up in the Eminem/Radiohead battle. Clarkson, while a decent act is not quite the defining artist of this generation but rather the representation or effect of this generation.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Anyone mentioning Kelly Clarkson in this thread allows me to safely ignore their opinions on anything at all in the future.

[razazteca 0]

All image no talent is what this generation is all about

 

OK

 

This generation makes me wanna puke

[vivalaultra 0]

I think all the back and forth in this thread prove that there's no single artist that "Defines" this generation. I think that in this thread there's been a pretty varied sampling of society, and very few people have agreed on one artist. Once again, I think that goes back to deciding what it means to be a "Defining artist". Does it mean that the artist is universaly liked? If so, you can cross off pretty much any artist discussed so far, as for every person that likes Eminem there's another person that couldn't care less for him. Same thing with Radiohead-for every mocha drinking hipster that's into them, there's two people that think they're boring and pretentious. I certainly won't agree that a "pop star" like Kelly Clarkson defines me or my personal outlook on life, but I can't say that her music doesn't define the 14 year old girl down the street from me that voted for her on American Idol every single nite. The fact is that this generation is just too varied. There's too much variety and too much accesibility to that variety. There's just so much music out there that it's possible for a person to listen to Kelly Clarkson, Radiohead, and Eminem with the same vigor for each but not feel "defined" by any of them any more than they feel defined by someone else. There's just too much out there to have one singular artist that defines and speaks for every member of this generation. Radiohead doesn't speak for the disenfranchised inner city youths or the Kelly Clarkson idolizing girls that sing in to hairbrushes. No single artist encapsulates every form of expression or identification found in this generation.

[Hawk 34 0]

Anyone mentioning Kelly Clarkson in this thread allows me to safely ignore their opinions on anything at all in the future.

 

I was just saying she represents the reality generation that created her. She defines that aspect of our reality crazed generation. You can't deny that she represents that part of our generation, it's no different then Eminem in the sense he represents a section of our generation as well. That is where the comparisons cease.

 

In 20 years, people will look back at AI and it'll be remembered for being an enormous success for at least 5 years (It probably has a shelf life of 2 more seasons, but it'll need more Kelly like stars to emerge). While AI hasn't really altered the music business, it has become a big deal in the general mainstream. Kelly is the face (if not Simon Cowell) of this phenomenon, and her existance will forever define this time where AI was the king.

 

So, she is a defining artist of this generation. She, obviously isn't comparable to Jackson, Nirvana, Stones etc, etc but AI is a part of the generation (not everything can be a good thing, it's no different from what Banky said in his Limp Bizkit tirade) and Clarkson was a product of that.

[snuffbox 0]

There were alot of people that didnt like Elvis or the Beatles...did they not define their generations?

 

I think that this thread has proven that the two best candidates to define this generation are Radiohead and Eminem. The only problem seems to be a few people completely unable to comprehend this.

[vivalaultra 0]

The difference with Elvis and The Beatles was that after they became popular and well-known, there were countless other acts that came out doing alot of the same stuff that they had already been doing. If you weren't in to The Beatles, you were in to The Monkees or The Dave Clarke Five or Herman's Hermits or whomever. It's not that "everybody liked The Beatles". It's that everybody liked a band that drew alot of influence from The Beatles. I'm aware that The Beatles didn't invent the style of music that they played, but they certainly popularized it and made people aware of it. Bar none-The Beatles were the most influential artists of their time period. They were liked by nearly everyone, probably at least 95% of the population. If you can say that as mean people today like Radiohead or Eminem as liked The Beatles or that Radiohead or Eminem influenced as many artists today as The Beatles influenced during their day, then you could say that one of the two is the defining artist of this generation, but I honestly don't think that could be said. In fact, I think that more people from this generation like The Beatles than like Eminem or Radiohead and more artists from today have been influenced by The Beatles than by Radiohead or Eminem. Therefore...the defining artist of this generation-The Beatles.

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

The Grateful Dead never sold too many albums...would anyone argue (like them or not) that they didnt define a generation?

When you talk about the Dead, though, you have to understand that the albums were secondary, playing live was the thing. I think they set the record for most tickets sold.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

This thread's good, because it inspired me to listen to Amnesiac for the first time in a while. I like it much more than the last time I listened to it, and I'm thrilled that "I Might Be Wrong" is still a totally fucking great song in every possible way. I never liked the second half that much, so we'll see if that holds up too.

[Annabelle 0]

i sorta think daft punk should define our generation. who's with me?

[vivalaultra 0]

I'm with you, but only because Daft Punk is playing at my house...my house.

[Guest Temet]

The Velvet Underground are pretty interchangeable with The Stooges in this thread, I think.

 

Radiohead for me, but I'm a huge fan anyway. Why are they good? Because they challenged the notion of what popular music can be in a time when the focus on art got narrower and narrower and is still narrowing today. Because they took the ballsy move of making a record completely unlike any they'd ever done after making what's arguably the greatest record ever (probably top five at the least.)

 

You won't be able to see influence of Radiohead until maybe 10-15 years but for fuck's sake, possibly the largest band in the world at the moment in Coldplay lifts an extraordinary amount from them and how many kids will want to sound like Coldplay in a few years?

[EricMM 0]

If I seemed a little bit against Eminem earlier on a massive part of that is just that I was so fucking sick of the accolades he was getting at the time.

 

I get disgusted by anyone trying to turn him into any kind of avatar. I would feel the same way about anyone trying to do it with the Staind guy, Durst, the Slipknot guy, Lil John, or Usher.

 

It isn't even the musical quality, as someone who I could possibly see "winning" the argument (cobain) wasn't spectacular by any means. It's the ... I dunno. Cultural quality. I think maybe a cultural generation has to have an effect on a generation instead of conforming to it?

 

I dunno.

 

I'm just trying to explain my distaste for 96% of the nominated names in this thread.

 

Kelly CLARKSON???

[Murmuring Beast 0]

Ok, who have Radiohead influenced? This is a serious and non-uninflammatory question here.

[The Man in Blak 0]

Most of the influence comes from The Bends, which has greatly impacted British pop-rock bands like Coldplay and Travis, by their own admission. Muse especially falls under that category, with the lead singer almost shamelessly impersonating Thom Yorke, yelp for falsetto yelp.

 

OK Computer has had an impact on a lot of bands, not only in lyrical content (Grandaddy's career from The Sophtware Slump forward, dozens of other indie bands), but in the splicing of electronica elements of sound to acoustic instrumentation (to which they were not the first, of course, but probably the most notable out of "mainstream artists").

[Guest Felonies!]

This thread's good, because it inspired me to listen to Amnesiac for the first time in a while. I like it much more than the last time I listened to it, and I'm thrilled that "I Might Be Wrong" is still a totally fucking great song in every possible way. I never liked the second half that much, so we'll see if that holds up too.

"Life in a Glass House" is great too, especially if you splice the cool WHOOoOoOoOoOsshhhhK opening sound with the extended trumpet solo.

 

Right on with "I Might Be Wrong." I love the intro and the coda, those are what make it so great. If you just started with the main riff and faded out with it, it'd just be okay, but with the big chorus of oscillators opening it up and then Jonny's (or maybe Ed's?) cool guitar solo against the drum machine and Thom just kinda wailing...yeah, great stuff.

[Annabelle 0]

I'm with you, but only because Daft Punk is playing at my house...my house.

 

no

 

and the man in blak is the only one to give a real answer to my previous question. thank you.

[EricMM 0]

Thats the album with Pyramid Song on it, right?

 

I freaking love that song.

[razazteca 0]

So if VH1! made a I Luv This Generation show who would Hal Sparks be shrilling? It's going to be Eminem, Radiohead, American Idol, and Toby Keith?

[Steviekick 0]

I think the biggest problem is that people's taste in music is to diverse and distinct. The beauty of Generation Y/iGeneration is that it is extremely easy to move on from mainstream music and acceptable to be an indie snob or a metalhead or like underground rap.

 

That said, I would say that Jay Z is the voice of this generation. His body of work is varied, and he is one of the few to have mainstream, commercial, critical, and popular acclaim. He has also been able to not fall into the cliche of being a rapper, as he's avoided petty feuds, legal trouble, and turning into a parody of himself. His collaborations are usually smart, and he has been able to crossover to the TRL crowd, most rap fans, and was even getting play on rock stations with "99 Problems" and his collaborations with Linkin Park. Look at his musical accomplishments, like running his record label, opening restaurants and clothing lines, and being a co-owner of a sports franchise. He's definitely changed the perception of what it is to be a successful artist.

[The Man in Blak 0]

He has also been able to not fall into the cliche of being a rapper, as he's avoided petty feuds, legal trouble, and turning into a parody of himself.

 

Um, Nas? I know that they effectively put the feud to rest late last year, but Jay-Z and Nas were feuding for years, prior to that.

 

And I'm not sure I'd consider the Linkin Park collaboration to be smart either, commercial success be damned. The smartest "collaboration" decision he ever made was releasing the tracks for The Black Album, which spawned a pretty impressive run of mashup remix albums.

 

All that being said, Jay-Z does actually fit into the discussion very well, for many of the other reasons you stated above.

[Steviekick 0]

He has also been able to not fall into the cliche of being a rapper, as he's avoided petty feuds, legal trouble, and turning into a parody of himself.

 

Um, Nas? I know that they effectively put the feud to rest late last year at I Declare War, but Jay-Z and Nas were feuding for years, prior to that.

 

And I'm not sure I'd consider the Linkin Park collaboration to be smart either, commercial success be damned. The smartest "collaboration" decision he ever made was releasing the tracks for The Black Album, which spawned a pretty impressive run of mashup remix albums.

 

All that being said, Jay-Z does actually fit into the discussion very well, for many of the other reasons you stated above.

 

I think the fact that the Nas feud is over kind of falls into the image of power and respect that he exhibits in his music. I mean, his rival now works for him and they are both cool about it.

[Guest]

That said, I would say that Jay Z is the voice of this generation. His body of work is varied, and he is one of the few to have mainstream, commercial, critical, and popular acclaim. He has also been able to not fall into the cliche of being a rapper, as he's avoided petty feuds, legal trouble, and turning into a parody of himself. His collaborations are usually smart, and he has been able to crossover to the TRL crowd, most rap fans, and was even getting play on rock stations with "99 Problems" and his collaborations with Linkin Park. Look at his musical accomplishments, like running his record label, opening restaurants and clothing lines, and being a co-owner of a sports franchise. He's definitely changed the perception of what it is to be a successful artist.

I think he's the closest.

[Annabelle 0]

ya jay is a good answer. although a few things here are misleading. jay had two horrible albums that went back to back. from 97-00 he wasn't really that great. but seemingly from the blueprint onward he built an empire that encompassed everything you've explained. petty feuds? ha! give me a break. i think jay's overall greatest impact on pop music will be who he is signing & promoting under the def jam label with new artists like rihanna & such.

[Red Baron 0]

Avril Lavinge.

 

Seriously, how many chicks followed her pop punk image to become "I'm punk rawk!!!1!!!!11!"

 

Its more on image than music.

[Angle-plex 0]

The fact that nobody here can decide who the defining artist is means there is no defining artist.

[Guest DaGoodz]

For those that list Radiohead - would you say that Faith No More was the defining artist of the 90's instead of Nirvana?

 

I see them as very similar, obviously not in terms of sound, but in terms of their impact on music. FNM obviously wasn't anywhere near as popular as Nirvana, but Radiohead isn't anywhere near as popular as many of the other artists listed in this thread either.

 

Both bands reached pretty similar levels of mainstream success, and are both generally loved by most music critics and music fans.

 

Plus, they have left a big mark on music, as for better or worse, they are usually listed as the main influence for just about every rap/rock/metal band that has come out in the last decade. From Limp Bizkit to Korn to Linkin Park to Gorillaz and many others. I remember Tom Morello saying they were probably the biggest musical influence on RATM.

 

Probably similar to the way we'll see many Radiohead influenced bands crop up as the years go on, some already have.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Jay's a good choice, although from a personal stand-point, he leaves me a bit empty lyrically. Flipping through his discography, there's little growth. He steps outside his circle here and there, but for the most part, he's one-dimensional on a substance level.

 

There are too many folks who think the guy can do no wrong and stupidly look back on his career through rose-tinted glasses and act as if it was blemish-free.

[5_moves_of_doom 0]

south park at its height. and wwf ATTITUDE. and doing it all for the nookie. and mysogony.

 

I.E. all things that define the current generation (late-90s/early-00s)... hence Eminem defining a generation. I don't see how that doesn't make perfect sense.

 

Eminem and Radiohead would be my two top choices. Radiohead isn't quite as popular commercially but their fanbase has gotten pretty huge and really quite rabid. Heck, I tried to buy tickets for their L.A. shows and both of them sold out in under a minute. I think that Radiohead (like the Pixies) won't really be recognized during their creative peak but later on will definitely be recognized as a defining voice of this generation. I really can't say I like them all that much, but to many they are the ultimate forward-thinking rock band of today.

 

Another up-and-comer is the Arcade Fire. Again, I am not too huge of a fan, but their overexposure has made them quite fucking popular. My Dad listens to them, and I have heard many Valley Girl-types listening to them as well. Their sound appeals to a huge demographic, and on top of that their songs are more "anthemic" than most bands these days. Whether or not they even have a chance though really depends on their second album.

 

Outkast is a good one. And I like them a lot better than any other band I've mentioned in this thread, too.