7 posts tagged “music”

Where have you gone, Eagle-Eye Cherry?: A tribute to terrible late '90s hits

The Onion AV club has put together a collection of awful radio-pop from the late 90s. And I know every single one of them like the back of my hand. Someday this will make me really cool, like when they release the "AWESOME LATE 90s" pack for rockband. Also, someone with a serious music collection please muxtape this.

Additionally, they totally forgot my favorite late 90s band, Eve 6!

I'd like to believe that somewhere in the world there is always a marching band playing various music from classic Nintendo games.

I have some serious nostalgia problems with 8-bit music. Anything that sounds like it was picked straight from a NES evokes a visceral reaction completely independent of my knowledge of the music or even the genre. These kinds of things show up in more and more public settings and somewhat obviously, video games have a certain sense of nostalgia for the under-35 crowd. It's a popular nostalgia - if you play the super mario bros. theme in the crowded theater you'll hear cheers, not boos. And it's not just the geeks cheering. But before you celebrate the national acceptance of video games as a pastime, it doesn't extend very far past basic recognition. Most people that realize what they're listening to haven't touched a console in years and probably stick to the games-are-for-losers mentality.

Before I go further I should get clear something up: I was raised a 16-bit gamer. Let's not get things mixed up, I have a NES on my desk at work and I can run through SMB in under 15 minutes but my childhood experiences were mainly with the first console I owned - a SNES. The primary NES generation is close to 30, if not older, and only in the last couple years have we started to see both music and art which is highly derivative of older video games. Those people driving creativity related to older video games are not the original generation of gamers but the second major generation of gamers, those who have a familiarity with the NES but truly hold their roots with it's 16-bit successor. This is pretty clear if you look through the mis-titled I AM 8-Bit exhibit where most of the art relating to Mario (those images from Ann on We ♥ Wii) has some clear connection to Super Mario World rather than the previous 3 NES games.

Discussing the reasoning behind this shift and the differences between the two game generations is more difficult. The change from SMB to SMW is a great one and Mario's world was given a lot more depth and clarity which surely went a long way in keeping kids glued to the screen for hours on end (myself included). Also, I don't really have a good way to end this short essay and concluding paragraphs take too long.

You and hundreds of your filthy music-loving users have persisted and now I am listening to Ratatat. Are you happy now, innernets? Please stop it with the posts every two days about how good Ratatat is. I have learned my lesson and will assimilate much more quickly in the future.

Ratatat

Ratatat

As a side note, I listened to two albums last night with my ipod headphones. Then I listened to two MUCH BETTER albums with my HD497s today. So... stay away from those little white earbuds of pain and misjoyment.

What are your three favorite album covers of all-time? Any honorable mentions?

Question submitted by Tamara.

Album covers are a luxury enjoyed only by those who buy their music in physical stores or get lucky with some obsessive-compulsive who happened to scan the cover for the ID3 tag.

I have 31 five-star rated tracks on itunes at the moment but the one that is the BEST track is pretty easily Doves' Catch the Sun.

Catch the Sun

Doves

2 comments

Shatner.