Pitchfork has a really interesting article on how Pop music has changed these past 10 years, with a surprising take on the what was BackStreet Boys, Britney Spears, TLC, Christina Aguilera and Hanson. You know, since most people try to deny they listen to them at some point in their lives.
Here’s one measure of how well they succeeded. Breaking through behind the Backstreet Boys on 1999’s pop roster were a crew of former Mouseketeers: Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and ‘N Sync’s Justin Timberlake. Even the commentators who loved their records didn’t give them a hope of longer-term success. But 10 years on, Spears is midway through the year’s highest-grossing tour, Aguilera is lining up M.I.A. and Santigold to work with, and Timberlake can pick his hip-hop collaborators as he wishes. (Not to mention snaring a Pitchfork Single of the Year.) It’s fair to say the class of ’99 exceeded every expectation.
My only issue is the focus on the American market. Sure, BackStreet Boys, Britney, Aguilera and everyone were popular worldwide, across cultures. Since the market’s shift to online music, it hasn’t been really the case… so the 2nd half of the article feels dull, just like the ‘worldwide pop music’ market. How about an exciting comment about Pop music in Asia? I keep saying Asia is actually saving “pop acts” alone by taking it to different levels.
You can read the article here.
Also~ Pitchfork has its Decade lists…
From its 200 albums, we only concur on five choices. They also repeat artists… 2, maybe 3 albums per artists, while I chose 100 albums by 100 artists including soundtracks. Oh yeah, I also have albums in Chinese and Japanese and Korean, and French. They don’t.
I’m kinda mad at their lack of variety.
It’s as if music in English is the only one that matters…
Check all their Decade lists here.
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If you wanna check mine.
Best Albums of 2000-2009
Best Songs of 2000-2009
– part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5
