For this week’s Thursday Discussion Jason has handed over the torch to me, so without further ado I wanted to discuss a topic which was inspired by a news submission from one of our users combined with an idea I’d had for this feature for a little while now. Imagine that the year is 2040, which albums do you think future generations and our future selves would consider “greats” from recent years. To put some sort of time constraint on it let’s just include albums released between 1990 and 2010, much like there are many widely held greats from 1960-1980s across many genres such as David Bowie – Low, The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Michael Jackson - Thriller, Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited, The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico, Television – Marquee Moon, The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead and well, you get the idea.
I’ve included a selection of the albums I think would be contenders and based my picks on various reasons including resonating influence, originality, success and more. This isn’t a list of your personal favourite albums from the past 20 years, so let’s make that clear, try to think outside the box and include the albums that you think will be heralded come 2040, the ones that either started something special, inspired a whole new generation of bands or that became a “cult classic”.
There are many albums I wanted to include on this list, so the omission of them is not because I don’t think they are worthy, I just wanted to be hard on myself and give a small selection to start with to spark off other people’s ideas. So please get involved, give your suggestions across various genres and let's see what kind of results we can come up with!
Some of the first choices that come to mind (using 1990 as a starting point):
Nirvana - Nevermind
Raidohead - OK Computer
Metallica - Black Album
Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Eminem - The Marhsall Mathers LP
Green Day - Dookie
Blink 182 - Enema of the State
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
But most of these are already regarded as modern classics. It's hard to gauge a thing like this in our music scene. It's impossible to tell if people in whatever futuristic version of this scene will still be talking about Take This To Your Grave, Tell All Your Friends, Deja Entendu, Sticks and Stones, Is a Real Boy, The Upsides, et al. decades from now. They could just as easily fall into obscurity.
All Kyle's picks are phenomenal. But I think Kanye will be in the discussion. Once a little history determines what out of his incredible run is the consensus pick for his best, it's safe to say that will be held with the essentials. I also think Grace, The Rising, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and at least one of Ryan Adam's first two solo records will be in the discussion.
What really intrigues me is what will grow in esteem over time. In the way that, my dad grew up in the 70's and has never heard of Big Star, but now everyone considers them one of the staples of the 70's. I'd be ecstatic if the consensus came to revere albums like August and Everything After or The Con the way that I do.
I'd put Brand New's Deja Entendu, Silversun Pickups' Swoon, and Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion and Strawberry Jam will be classics in my opinion.
All Kyle's picks are phenomenal. But I think Kanye will be in the discussion. Once a little history determines what out of his incredible run is the consensus pick for his best, it's safe to say that will be held with the essentials. I also think Grace, The Rising, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and at least one of Ryan Adam's first two solo records will be in the discussion.
What really intrigues me is what will grow in esteem over time. In the way that, my dad grew up in the 70's and has never heard of Big Star, but now everyone considers them one of the staples of the 70's. I'd be ecstatic if the consensus came to revere albums like August and Everything After or The Con the way that I do.
Definitely all picks I had considered including, specifically a Kanye record and Lauryn Hill, great additions. Was this close to writing up about Jeff Buckley's Grace as well but wanted others to be able to discuss those as picks.
American Idiot. Sound of Silver. I would hope that a Frank Turner album ends up with that "classic" status. And I could see The '59 Sound really digesting well with the mainstream over the next 30 or so years.
American Idiot. Sound of Silver. I would hope that a Frank Turner album ends up with that "classic" status. And I could see The '59 Sound really digesting well with the mainstream over the next 30 or so years.
My mind instantly went to Dookie as the Green Day classic, but you're right - in the long run, American Idiot will likely be the one that's remembered.
Some of the first choices that come to mind (using 1990 as a starting point):
Nirvana - Nevermind
Raidohead - OK Computer
Metallica - Black Album
Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Eminem - The Marhsall Mathers LP
Green Day - Dookie
Blink 182 - Enema of the State
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
But most of these are already regarded as modern classics. It's hard to gauge a thing like this in our music scene. It's impossible to tell if people in whatever futuristic version of this scene will still be talking about Take This To Your Grave, Tell All Your Friends, Deja Entendu, Sticks and Stones, Is a Real Boy, The Upsides, et al. decades from now. They could just as easily fall into obscurity.
Great picks too, exactly what I'd hoped for with a list displaying various genres. I agree about the tougher task of picking albums for a specific scene, will the likes of Tell All Your Friends means as much to young teens in 20 or so years time? Hard to tell.
come 2040?? wow, ummm
Green Day-American Idiot
blink-182-Enema of the State
Alice in Chains-Dirt
Linkin Park-Hybrid Theory
Katy Perry-Teenage Dream
Weezer-Blue Album
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