Graham English

NPR has compiled a list of the 50 most important recordings of the past 10 years. Here’s a PDF of the full list:

The Decade’s 50 Most Important Recordings

Link: The Decade’s 50 Most Important Recordings

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Tags: 50 most important recordings, All Songs Considered, lists, music, NPR, recordings

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Music Education, Opinion, Prose. You can leave a comment if you follow my Living Room Rules. If not, you can leave a trackback from your own site.

Comments

1. alsnyder says:

   November 17, 2009 at 8:34 pm

   Now, after reading this list why I listen to Jazz and not POP. I also remember why I stopped supporting NPR. Beyonce?? Come on.

   Reply
   • Graham English says:

     November 17, 2009 at 9:06 pm

     I thought that Beyonce album was great. You might not like it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an important album for the decade.

     Reply
     • alsnyder says:

       November 17, 2009 at 10:52 pm

       Rigghttt! Then what a joke this decade has been in music. Give me the Blues, Jazz, Real Rock and Roll, Celtic music, selected Indie bands and Country – and or – Western … But do not give me that list. It’s a joke.

       Reply
       • Graham English says:

         November 17, 2009 at 10:57 pm

         Come on man. Lighten up. Music is music. Some of it might not be your cup of tea, but everybody has a right to express themselves. And this is NPR’s list of faves, not the de facto standard for all things holy.

         Reply
         • alsnyder says:

           November 18, 2009 at 10:28 am

           OK, OK… I’m lighter. Not as light as I wish I was, if you take my meaning, but I feel very passionate about music, being a musician myself.

           I agree with you in that everyone must be able and allowed to express themselves, that is indeed the truth. I am against the thought police as much as any individual, but try and see this decade thrqugh my eyes. The eyes of the minority.

           I grew up with underground radio, that the people and a few “free thinking corporations” (an oxymoron today) funded, and played EVERYTHING under the stars, with absolutely NO commercials… When most “Vinyl Albums” didn’t have a bad song on them, and you got a little tired of going to concerts, because everyone of them was a great happening, kind of like “great concert burn out”. I passed up my chance to see Cream’s farewell tour and Woodstock because of the burn out. Now I kick myself for not having put forth the effort. But C’est La Vie.

           By the way, did I mention that I considered Most of RAP and HIP-HOP to be the Disco and Bubble Gum of these times?

           This song “I wish I was a punk rocker (with flowers in my hair)” by Sandi Thom is an idealistic paean to a simpler lo-tech age, when people cared enough to form cultural revolutions such as flower power in 1969 and Punk Rock in 1977″. A lot of people don’t use their wits and become confused about the pairing of the Chorus, and wind up thinking it trite at best. It’s as if they were a group of chimps trying to write the oeuvre of Shakespeare’s works, and just don’t get it.

           It knocked “Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy” (now there’s a good song) out of the #1 spot on the UK charts. I guess if you didn’t live through the 60’s, YO just don’t get it.

           As Sandi Thom puts it:

           “When music really mattered and when radio was king
           When accountants didn’t have control
           And the media couldn’t buy your soul
           And computers were still scary and we didn’t know everything”.

           Chorus

           “When pop stars still remained a myth
           And ignorance could still be bliss
           And when god saved the queen she turned a whiter shade of pale
           My mom and dad were in their teens
           And anarchy was still a dream
           And the only way to stay in touch was a letter in the mail”.

           Chorus

           “When record shops were still on top
           And vinyl was all that they stocked
           And the super info highway was still drifting out in space
           Kids were wearing hand me downs
           And playing games meant kick arounds
           And footballers still had long hair and dirt across their face.”

           Chorus
           “Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
           In seventy-seven and sixty-nine revolution was in the air
           I was born too late into a world that doesn’t care
           Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
           I was born too late into a world that doesn’t care
           Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair.”

           It says it all for me.