For Fans of the Past Decade Pt. 1 (The Good)

That time has come. A decade ago we thought all the computers in the world were going to crash at the very least, or worse, become intelligent and destroy the human race as we know it. Well, like Run-DMC Public Enemy said almost two decades ago, “Don’t believe the hype.”

But a lot has changed. The music industry especially, maybe more than any decade since the 60′s. While the Music Industrial Complex began to crumble musicians around the world almost immediately adapted (and adopted) to Web 2.0, utilizing social sites to reach more fans than ever before possible. In turn, sites like Myspace replaced traditional marketing, distribution, paparazzi, fan club, gossip mags, even venues. Blogs then became something more than any music magazine or MTV program could have imagined, a place with continuously streaming music, videos, criticism, praise and interaction for musician and fan in kind. Obviously this has produced more flashes-in-the-pan than you can hold in your iPhone. As every new band blips onto the blogosphere radar a new subgenre sprouts around it producing ever more collaborators and imitators, and another 10 gigs of music in your aggrigator. No longer can people safely confine themselves to one musical sound or genre to define who they are. Hipsters get a bad name, and deserve most of what’s said about them, but when it comes to music… Well, let’s just say, it wouldn’t be the same without them.

With so much music at our fingertips what really floated to the top at the end of the day? Which albums did you seek out after hearing in an iPod commercial? What bands did you actually pay money to go see live? What was the last analog album you acquired? And what did you miss because you were just overwhelmed with the shere amount of indie bands being heralded as the next Big Thing? [editors note: Big Things are now extinct. Don't expect to see a Big Thing in the future.]

So where does that leave us? At the beginning, of course, but first we need an ending list. A final capsule of what was so we can continue with what is. This is my time-capsule. The albums I think made a huge impact in the past ten years.

This is the first volume. The bottom 20 of 60 albums I chose. I hope that many of these will make you nod your head in agreement but I also expect dissent by the boat loads. That’s what this whole blog thing is about, interaction. So tell me what you think.

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60. Burial    Untrue – Seminal dubstep.
59. Justice    † – Seminal French electronica.
58. Franz Ferdinand    Franz Ferdinand – Seminal skinny-jeans rock.
57. Kanye West    Late Registration – Aside from “Gold Digger”, this follow-up just didn’t have as many huge songs as his debut, but at this point it still seemed that anything Kanye touched was dope.
56. TV On The Radio    Return To Cookie Mountain – I think TVOR is easily one of the best bands to come out of this decade.
55. Johnny Cash    American IV: The Man Comes Around – The last album he made and one of the best covers I’ve ever heard, “Hurt”.
54. Annie    Anniemal – I only wish mainstream pop could sound more like this and less like Lady Gaga.
53. Bloc Party    Silent Alarm – Seminal genre-hopping hipster music.
52. My Morning Jacket    It Still Moves – Seminal boot-gaze.
51. Joanna Newsom    Ys – More than just freak-folk for the sake of freakiness (I’m looking at you Devandra), these songs might be hard to follow but they’re complete genius.
50. Feist    Let It Die – Not the HUGE one, but good none-the-less.
49. Kanye West    Graduation – Say what you will about Mr. West (he fully deserves it), he’s a one of a kind who defined mainstream hipster-hop from those slotted sunglasses to having his album cover done by Takashi Murakami.
48. Peter Bjorn & John    Writer’s Block – The whistling in “Young Folks”, need I say more?
47. The Shins    Oh, Inverted World – The movie Garden State, need I say more?
46. The Shins    Wincing The Night Away – Sub Pop’s highest charting album ever, need I say more?
45. The Shins    Chutes Too Narrow – I believe their second album is their best so far, mostly because of “Kissing the Lipless”.
44. MF Doom    Special Herbs Vol. 1&2 – Maybe it’s just the foodie in me but when DOOM (here, going by the moniker of Metal Fingers) dropped an instrumental album consisting of tracks named after herbs and similar flora (and even some mass-produced food additives like monosodium glutamate and Red 40) I had to have it.
43. Madvillain    Madvillainy – If you think Ghostface Killah, or even Lil’ Wayne, has the most twisted lyrical puns in hip-hop, think again and than listen to this (or any DOOM) album.
42. Tokyo Police Club    A Lesson In Crime – Honestly there’s nothing ground breaking here, just one of the most fun rock n’ roll albums.
41. Feist    The Reminder – This is the HUGE one, but I would recommend “Sea Lion Woman” over “1,2,3,4″.
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