Music from Past Decades

As boomer we were blessed with one of the most creative periods in music. Especially in the pop/rock genre, along with personally being able to hear some of the greatest bands in musical history live. So it’s a high bar for anything that follows, mainly if your musical taste requires a unique sound as well as being complex. The current decade’s music is another example where technology can infringe on that creativity component in song writing using things like auto-tune extensively in production. A bit like the same piece of art being reproduced in different colour combinations then being sold as something new. In fact with the odd exception it can be hard to tell some of today’s Top 20 songs apart. So I thought I’d pick five of my favourite songs with clickable links from each decade as pleasant distraction from being caught up in lockdown again back home. In the Sixties I could not go pass Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” it is simply brilliant.  Even though I missed the elephant in the room, The Beatles they just had too many hits. :)For the Seventies I decided on a band called Steely Dan who would take extra time in the studio polishing the final cut with one of their songs called “Reeling in the Years.” The Eighties became a lot harder as this was a decade of big hair & shoulder pads where disco dominated and while there were some nice jazz and good rock albums from the likes of Queen I decided on one from Sting, with a song called “An Englishman in New York” with an honourable mention to Sade  & Kate Bush who also came from that era. The Nineties was a lot easier as this introduced some new styles of music some good and some not so good. Like the introduction of Techno, the big progression of World music, plus Hip Hop & Rap. Although I can’t say I was ever a fan of the last two genres. In the end I decided on a song from Seal called “Kiss from a Rose” which is a great song written by him and with all those ingredients to make a song unique. Which leaves the 2000’s and beyond where finding something unique is a lot harder. Although there are decent artists like Adele and Co. But there was one pop song I was impressed with and that was the Miley Cyrus break up song, “Slide Away”. Regardless of what one may think of her personally, her voice has developed more depth with a raspy tone that is suitable for both rock & country. Plus I think it’s a well crafted song that will stand the test of time. Also an honourable mention to Aussie Pete Murray’s “So Beautiful” and Gotye’s Somebody that I used to know