Intelligent Life On Planet Rock
Oi old man! These are the songs of our decade.
I have been reliably informed by my 14 year old twins that this is the definitive list of the top 100 songs of the decade. http://www.xfm.co.uk/onair/shows/song-of-the-decade
Voted for by the listeners of XFM whose demographic is probably not quite the same as The Word's. Anyway if you want to impress all those young relatives over christmas I suggest you take heed of the top ten at least, being able to name the number one may impress your moody niece or nephew over the Quality Street. My boys have most of these songs in their Ipods and many are as important to them as all your favourites from yesteryear. As a sometime defender of what is known as "landfill indie" round these parts I have to say that there are a few tunes in this list that I have been known to enjoy. At least my boys aren't listening to Kanye West, Leona or JLS! These are the songs they will be remembering in 30-40 years time with great fondness, the noughties will be their decade. It's interesting that 4 or 5 bands dominate the list, would it have been the same for the kids of the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's? Could you still name a top ten list from your decade?
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Looks very much like
the NME list, presumably similar demographics?
Was rather suprised to see that Richard Skinner was reading the countdown, is that the same Richard Skinner I can remember from my youth 25 plus years ago?
Beware before reading the top ten
I was sipping coffee and when I saw F.E.A.R. by Ian Brown in the top ten a little bit shot out of my nose.
that's the only one in the 10 I don't have.
In fact I don't think I've ever heard it.
And one of the best too....
Now you have no excuse.
Superb song.
Inventive style of writing lyrics too.
Still prefer
My Star (even though it's from the 90's), though I do like this.
It's dreadfully bland
and that's just the top 20. I haven't bothered looking further. Have XFM dropped the "alternative" tag these days?
Edit: Checked the rest of it. There are about 10 bands that dominate the list. Not exactly straying from the white guitar 30 somethings are they?
Reading that list has made me...
yaaaawwwwwwwn. I'm going to bed.
It's true
All very mainstream and safe. Maybe this is the evidence that the album's on its uppers for a younger generation, as very few of these songs are just album tracks. There's some decent stuff sprinkled about within, but there's nothing hugely exciting, is there?
An ex-pat writes
Not too bad really, although I've only scanned the top 40 so far. Not very surprising really, and the thing that struck me was that while I've been aware of all of them particularly through TripleJ (Aussie yoof network on ABC radio - BBC equiv) and most have made an appearance downunder.....the glaring exception was Elbow. I kept hearing the name, the prizes and all the rest, but only copped an earful on an old Later that made it's way to free-to-air here recently. I was gob smacked, and they're easily head and shoulders above the rest of the bunch on that list.
And I'm not sure you can really sniff at the list being mainstream and safe - these polls always end up like that by definition (like every one I ever saw in Mojo in the 90's, Q in the 80's, or NME back in the 70's). Which probably brings us back to the discussion of popularity vs quality.
i think you need to move Harold
Melbourne has 2 excellent community / independent radio stations playing the full gamut of roots, indie, reggae /funk /blues etc.
Has had for many years and IMO a major factor in the musical development of its citizens.
10 acts
appear to be responsible for the top 30 tracks
Please explain.
XFM's
very narrow play list is I feel to blame.