The seventies and eighties brought us disco, punk, funk, new wave, new age, heavy metal, ska, rap, and hip hop. The fifties and sixties brought us rock and roll, reggae, and folk rock. What's come along since the eighties? Grunge and other slight variants of the above? With all due respect, I don't think there's been a significant genre created since the eighties. Did I miss one?
Is that the music of rich kids act out their harsh life by wearing Ramones shirts, skinny jeans, and Converse gym shoes. Yeah thats a genre.
I think part of the issue here is subjectivity, it's difficult to be objective and hear the differences in some music genres until you are quite familiar with them. To me there is a world of difference between say, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, to some it's be-bop & avant garde to others it's just all "jazz". Similarly, for some older listeners disco and funk from the list above would be too similar to easily separate whilst to others there is a world of difference between, house, acid house, techno, trance, breakbeat, jungle, ambient... etc.
Yeah, where have you been? House, and Trance, have taken over the free world. Dj's are touring the world and the main players are selling out stadiums. Tiesto, The Thrillseekers, Deep Dish, Armin Van Buuren, Armand Van Heldon, Tall Paul, Victor Calderone, and many, many others are making bank and rocking most of the world outside of the U.S. Even India, and South Africa are moving into the scene. Unfortunately the U.S. has spent so much time infatuated with crappy Hip Hop, and Radio Junk, that they are now lost in a sea of mediocrity , classic rock, MTV, and Retro 80's Flashbacks. It's a sad state of affairs when you walk into a million dollar night club in the U.S. and they are playing the same 40 songs of crap you can hear on the radio on any day during drive time.
Excellent post. My favorite era/genre was the late 70s and early 80s New Wave. New Wave was rather broad from with bands like The Fixx, The Romantics, Elvis Costello, The Clash, REM, Big Country, INXS, The Police, U2, and a variety of others. There was a variety amongst these bands but they had wit and/or strong opinions. It was distinctly different to the pre 1977 crop of disco and rock. Hip-hop and rap were a departure from the funk and smooth rock that preceded it. I don't see anything that you can (subjectively) say is that distinctive from a previous era since the 80s.
For most, what you consider distinctive changes with your age. It is true that for most people, that they stop at a certain age with what they enjoyed the most, or at the first thing they latched onto strongly. My mom is still attached to MoTown, My Grandmother swing and jazz. I have friends that are still attached to classic rock, some still attached to 80 and 90's metal, "Old school" R and B, "old School" Rap, and others. There is new music every year, but they will never consider anything good enough to beat the styles that they most associate with, and attached themselves to the most. However, I have been a fan of House, Techno, and Dance Music since the 80's (The Beginning- Detroit, and Chicago) and have just as much love for new songs and artists that catch my attention, as I do for the original or "Old school" stuff. I'm still in my niche', but, it never stopped evolving, and new arists have never stopped comming. If anything it has spread to more markets ar0ound the world and has gotten stronger over the last 20 years, where as, most forms of music that people Identify with, came to a dead stop such as; Disco, Punk, Classic Rock, Metal, New wave, Glam Rock, MoTown, Rockabilly, Speed Metal, and many other genre's who's fans are still living in that time period, but have no new music. There are no new classic rock songs, and there will never be! House and Trance has never stopped and continues to grow all over the world.
I recall my father liking music up to but excluding Elvis and the Beatles. I determined not to be like that and have bands that I consider to be favorites that are half my age. I have been waiting for Relient K to mature a little more and they are taking a spot in my taste that was occupied 25 years ago by Elvis Costello. You kind of made my point by saying you've been a house, techno, trance since the 80s. That was my point, no new genres. You also reminded me that I read the 2006 top ten grossing tours were Usher, one other new artist, and 8 bands/performers that were around in 1980.
I guess if you look at other markets, other countries you will find some stuff and styles you never heard before, but, everything has been done here in the U.S. It's all been explored, re-explored, remade, remixed, sampled, collaborated, and then it ends up on late night T.V. as "Classics". The first time I saw C and C Music Factory on a compilation CD on late night T.V. I almost cried, because it officially meant that I was old enough to start saying, "Back in the day"