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Originally Posted by
telecode
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The whole argument about age and decline is pretty much tied to charts and pop music. Certain artists that operate in roots, folk and Americana music can not decline because they don't really compete with artists that try to top charts.
Which equals to say that the whole thing is tied to their once well-known status. From which, and as the trends change, one way or another the 'artist' will be perceived as 'declining'.
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Originally Posted by
telecode
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The Johnny Cash records on Def Jam are a great example. He became much more popular and trendy in later life than he was in 80s and that's mostly due to Rick Rubin.
He is indeed is a good example of how a 'worse' or 'better' perception of an artist can be mitigated through a career : what part is due to his own eventually increasing skills and what other, to Rubin influence ?
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Originally Posted by
telecode
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I recently watched and listened to the new Kylie Minogue single on YT. Now that IMO is an interesting head scratcher. She is a pretty old artist (going on 30+ years -- there is only 5 years difference between Madonna's Like a Virgin pop reign and Minogues chart hits with Stock, Aitken and Waterman in 1988 -- so they are in essence very similar artists as far as pop music history is concerned ) who is still trying to compete on the pop charts with the likes of Dua Lipa e.t.c Is the new music a decline for the artist or does she occupy her own space in that genre?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZucxtSFe2s
Not my cup of tea, honestly : I have the rather embarrassing impression to have heard/seen this kind of show 9473 times in the last 40 years : nothing new - a recipe that has been exploited to death, IMO. And I wasn't a fan of Madonna, either, in the '80s... So, it's difficult for me to say if there has been any king of 'growth' concerning her.
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Originally Posted by
telecode
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Re: Neil Young.. I liked that Le Noise record that he did. It was cool and different. I don't like the folk and piano strumming stuff. I think his type of music belong to a different era. But music is all subjective anyways so my opinion is irrelevant.
Sure, subjectivity is the key, as well as the trends of a given time. So, I'm not sure that a 'decline/growth' concerning any artist is truely relevent. I wouldn't say the same thing for groups/bands : other things are playing a part, in this case and, even for very well known one, 'decline' is much more obvious.
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Originally Posted by
telecode
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RE: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross soundtracks. I don't think it's that particularly ground breaking stuff. The only thing ground breaking about it is that Hollywood/David Fincher chose to use Reznor music for a score instead of turning to the usual suspects (James Horner, Zimmer, .e.t.c) to score the films. For anyone that is familiar with NIN music -- you can hear lots of stuff in those soundtracks that can be directly mapped to NIN records. What is interesting about Reznor and Ross scores is -- even with an army of very competent and brilliant composers working on big budget hollywood films, it took Fincher turning to a rock star to make a score which seems to kick start a new era in film soundtrack trends. The standard Hollywod composers are too afraid to take risks on a big budget film. A alternative rock star like Reznor doesn't have that problem as he has been taking risks and making what can be labeled as fringe music since the early 90s. His entire career is based on being on the outside of popular trends. Now that he is the mainstream, it will be interesting to see where he does with it.
I have a mixed impression, concerning Reznor : I remember having seen him working with Bowie, which wasn't exactly 'outside of popular trends', in my view. But again, I don't know him enough to make definitely my mind about whether he has improved himself with time.