Postmodern Masters

by Gabriel Barrio in Musician Reviews, Opinion Posts, Reviews, bands to watch

There is a nagging suspicion that these recurring themes I hear in music lately are no accident, but play into
the hands of a generation without direction, nothing of its own but hopelessness. All these purported advances in musical style are not braving a new world but are borrowed from our most colorful decade the 80′s.  The 80’s bred some sort of
strange postmodern musicianship that had previous generations scratching their heads.

The glam, color, glitter, bangles, synth, and all together strange appearances that each band in the 80’s made popular
seemed to be a sign of a global society, confused and emerging into an technological age of enlightenment.
This age birthed an era of discontent and apathy that brought a new stage of no skeletons type of music
and lyric that we will call the 90′s. One could be openly depressed, apathetic, self-destructive, hateful, angry, confused, and
distraught and that was a sign of the times, a representation of who we were as a society. The turn of the
century brought a new era of excess and abstraction that could only be identified as you were either winning
in life or you were losing. With music that boasted of wealth and over indulgence and music so
disconnected from reality on the other end of the spectrum, true representation of the human spirit through
music was seemingly lost forever. With the first decade done in our newest century in an era of firsts and
an age in which we are all pioneers, the musical representation of our society as a whole looks as though its
regressing. I draw linear qualities between the now and the 80’s as intentional retreat into what we felt was
more amicable.

The 80’s was an era in which people were discovering a larger cultural experience and technology was
bringing us closer together. The music reflected these changes with bizarre new pop sounds in an
exploration of synthetic sounds that mimicked a faux futuristic sound that we almost believed was
advanced, new and cutting edge. As we retreat into the dark period of music that was the 80′s, musicians
and audience are exploring the archetypes of the duality of man, and self-loathing with a modern twist; more
bands exploring the annals of electronica, synth sounds, and mashups. We return back to the future in
terms of music looking for ourselves, still lost, still relevant, still innate human expression at its finest with
the help of our detached android selves.

This can come in the form of many notable bands that bridge the gap between what some older folk might
say real music is, and what we all feel music to be in our heart of hearts, a melodic expression of the soul
we contain. These bands mirror this concept perfectly and are a must on anyones playlist.

Phantogram- Some noteworthy songs are Mouthful of Diamonds, and When I’m Small.

Thom Yorke- Anything coming from Thom Yorke is an exploration of this regression of music and artistic approach.

Gorillaz- Although a larger than life band the musicianship is bridging the gap between the now and then. You can hear in the music the airy synthetic sound of the 80′s shooting us back generations ago almost to re-educate us in the value of this era.

Sparklehorse- Listen to the basic but beautiful usage of instrumentation to get a glimpse of what years ago was moving and meaningful.

The Flaming Lips- A band that was formed in the 80′s that never quite escaped but shows the relevance of an era that brought us to our current musical apex.