best of the 60's,70's,80's, 90's,...._________? wtf?

Oh, there are a couple songs that will be remembered from the 00's, we are just not the generation that would title these as classics.
But hmm. U2's Beautiful Day? Foo Fighters "Best of you", Johnny Cash's "Hurt"(!!!), RHCP's "Californication", Evanescence “Bring Me to Life” and Creed "With Arms Wide Open" i can instantly remember from the 00's (for the better or the worse, but i still remember them well).
Also stuff, that is not my music from the pop sector, that will most probably make it to be remembered. Like things that are more unique and therefore will survive.
Say, "Drop It Like It’s Hot” from Snoop Dog and Missy Elliott's “Get Ur Freak On” from the hip hop department, because they have a cool twist so even i remember them, Gnarls Barkley's “Crazy” will also be such a song for parties. Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling” and Outkast's Hey Ya might make it into the party music evergreens, too.
Some Gaga-songs will make it, Winehouse's "rehab" and most probably "American Idiot" from Greenday, if you like it or not...
Interestingly i can not remember even one single hook from the cash cow stars of top 10 in the 00's like Mr. Kanye "Bohemian Rapsody"(LOL) West, or Beyonce, Jay-Z or Justin Timberlake or whoever else might had a lot of financially very successful stuff that never stucks in the ear. (Yes, we are lucky...)
And most probably i forgot a lot of really good stuff that get's me a "Yeeees. I totally forgot, it was good." moment when i hear it instantly. E.g. White Stripes stuff. Macy Gray. The Mars Volta. Whatever...
Ehm, i am just a bit surprised how much i remember, despite i boycot listening to radio since the end of the 80's...

I think it mostly depends on the genre of music that you're into. You're a big classic rock (and classic rock influenced) guy right? In the past 15 years, I think rock has mostly broken into more subdivisions that it had been prior. There are a lot more indie and metal acts (plus all the subdivisions of those categories) than straight ahead rock bands these days. If the indie / metal scene isn't your cup of tea, you've basically got the Foo Fighters and a bunch of mediocre rock (or even worse like Nickelback). I think the best of 2000+, just isn't the type of music that you dig, not that there isn't good stuff. It's just a sign that you're getting old, right?

It's not an age thing the songs just don't hold up they date and disappear so much faster than they did in the 90's. A lot of the stuff I was playing in the 90's I can play still not the case for most of the newer stuff.  

there's amazing stuff post 2000.

The fact that you're benchmarking what is played on the "radio" with "post radio pop culture" is part of the disconnect.

Also, in programming for a "station" like that you run into another problem--both radio requests AND music sales drop off a cliff around then, ehm Napster, ehm iPod.

You know--if you played me a "best of the 80s and 90s" (my youth)....I'd hate the fuck out of 90% of what they played. The "cream" never rose. Or at least not in my music listening life 80s+. Some really talented people sold a lot of records--but, not because they were talented or accomplished. And Nirvana was a huge tipping point downward, so considering a "best of the 90s", I liked maybe none. This was a top Google hit:

www.timeout.com/london/music/best-90s-songs

I literally own NONE of those--and never did. Ms Pop has Jagged Little Pill, but....And keep in mind that during that era I was easily buying one CD a week. Time 52 weeks....times a decade....and actually, the only one that stood out as a great song to me was Waterfalls, You Oughtta Know, and Hit Me Baby One More Time. And even there--I bought none of them, so they're not "great" relative to OTHER songs, they're simply great on the scale of the other crap on there. Waterfalls I loved, but never liked anything else TLC did so I never bought the album--I've always understood the difference in a good record/song and a kindred artist. The reason I don't have that "common complaint" of "there's only a song or two I like on every CD" is because I'm a musician who understands enough about music and production to separate the two more often than not. Not that I don't have some of those....but, they're the exception rather than the rule.

Bob makes an interesting point.

I was a soloist in my school's Glee Club beginning at 5 years old, recorded with them live in a big, proper recording studio, (with one of those great old fashioned red "RECORDING" lights), for a radio show featuring me singing at 9 years of age, and was gigging in NYC when I was 15 years old.

At 16, I had a weekend residency at a Blues and Jazz club in downtown Brooklyn called Dodgers Bar. It was a really rough neighborhood then, and as a young skinny white boy with a guitar, I had to show respect by playing well, or I'd surely have gotten my ass kicked. Now THAT'S what I call motivation, ha! By 17, I had a serious band, all original called Pandora, think Humble Pie meets David Bowie. We did a showcase gig at Max's Kansas City for industry reps, and were offered three deals. The guys in the band unexpectedly quit though, and went on to play and record with David Johansen, Cherry Vanilla, John Waite, Tom Petty, and others. I became even more determined to get a record deal before I was 21, and did in fact sign with Mercury Records then with my band The Demons.

So, by the time I actually recorded anything published and released by a record company, I'd been involved in music in one way or another for 15 years, played at least 50-75 gigs, and had recorded demos at Bell Sound, Electric Lady studios, and live at CBGB's on a mobile unit.

My thinking is that after say.. 100 years of popular music being available to the general public, the simpler forms of music we call Rock & Roll, Rock, Blues, R&B, etc., have just about exhausted all the musical possibilities within their limitations. So we get recycled pop music. Now, each generation erodes the form a little. Of course something great and new will come along. We might not be here to see it though. Also, the idea of "great" or "classic" music often went hand in hand with commercial success. Think, Elvis, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, and so on.

Today, I think there is much great music being made, it's just not being promoted in such a way as to become globally popular, therefore missing that tipping point where some music becomes potentially "great". It's there, we just have to search a lot harder to find it now.

Yep. For example, Max's Kansas City and especially CBGB were cauldrons of creativity, and unsigned bands could grow, learn by experiment and gain an audience without interference.


Record companies finally got what they wanted all along, complete control, but they couldn't manufacture great art and creativity. That control led to safe and familiar choices, and we got bland generic music they could sell like chewing gum. No wonder they lost it all after Napster, they were all too busy snorting coke with models and more concerned about growing their wine cellars than hanging out in a cellar somewhere, listening for the next great artist. They didn't love music, they loved money and glamor.

That worries me these days.