What defines the 2010s?

Billboard charts? Then you think pop rules. Also there is more than one chart. That doesn't really say anything but opinion though. That's all popularity is. And it still doesn't change music. Hell much of hip hop samples rock.

in the US:

ultra-partisanship.

people seemed to have lost their minds with the election of obama back in '08 and we haven't seemed to recover since..

Seems like a period/decade of indifference from the public.

@Jag85:

60's music was defined by Rock music, it was a clear winner here. The Motown machine was also big, but had a lesser impact on the course of music until it's stars went on their own in the 70's (see below).

The mellow 70's was defined by the singer/songwriter era and for great soul/funk from the likes of Parliament, Ohio Players, Curtis Mayfield, Sly and the Family Stone, The Commodores, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder, the latter 2 of which broke from the Motown Formula and made better music. Soul defined this decade (not disco, despite popular opinion).

But the most important musical event was the punk movement of the late 70's, which would radically change music. After the punk movement people began to make music from a much more honest place inside of themselves that people could relate to, This was major, and it began with The Velvet Underground of the 1960's. The impact of this is felt today.

....to be continued, but I'll just say your 80's study is flawed.

That's the whole point of the discussion, what was most popular. The Billboard charts reflect what was most popular in America during a particular era.

Hip hip did fundamentally "change music." For example, the study analyzed chords, and found that hip hop was a more radical shift than rock. Rock chords were an evolution of blues, whereas hip-hop did something more radical: music without chords.

Also, sampling was revolutionary in itself, laying the foundations for modern music production. Nowadays, that's how most music is produced, cutting up fragments of sounds and looping them, something that hip-hop popularized.

Sampling was not revolutionary.....it was taking someone else's work for one's own and only when confronted was it done legally. And pop music is more popular than hip hop so that negates your thesis.

Also the early hip hop co-existed with rock....it didn't depart drastically and one of the impetus for exposure was RUN DMC with Aerosmith......a rock band.

@AFBrat77:

What you think "defined" an era is largely subjective. But what we can be more objective about is looking at the actual statistical data of what was most popular during each decade:

The evolution of popular music: USA 1960–2010

The three ages of modern pop: Scientists pinpoint musical 'revolutions' over past 50 years

By analyzing over 17,000 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 charts from 1960 to 2010, we can determine which genres were the most popular in America during each era:

1960s - Blues/Jazz, then Rock

1970s - Disco, then Rock

1980s - Rock, then Disco/Dance

1990s - Hip Hop, then Disco/Dance

2000s - Hip Hop, then Rock

@Jag85: You ignore grunge which was a BIG part of the 90s.

Sampling was revolutionary in terms of music production. Prior to hip hop, popular music was produced by actually playing instruments. After hip hop, popular music has been produced by cutting up fragments of sounds and looping them. This is how most popular music is produced nowadays, regardless of whether the samples are legal (from instruments or sample packs) or illegal (from copyrighted songs).

Pop music isn't a real genre, but is just a catch-all term for what's currently most popular. And it's not "my" thesis, but a study by a team of academics from Queen Mary University and Imperial College London.

Again, in terms of chord progressions, hip hop was a drastic departure. Popular music before hip hop, from blues/jazz to rock and disco, all had chords. Hip hop is music without chords. That's why so many people refuse to acknowledge hip hop as "real music", because of how much of a radical departure it is compared to music that came before it.

@Jag85: These are songs not the culture on general.

Although Id have to say Grunge and Hip Hop both had their moments in the 90s. Both genres were on their golden age of music

For Hip Hop:

- Reasonable Doubt, All Eyez on Me, Ready to Die, Illmatic, It was written, Amerikkas Most wanted, death certificate, doggystyle, slim shady lp and the miseducation of lauren hill are all masterpieces. This isnt even regarding Big L, Big Pun and Redmans work either. The 90s was very much the hip hop age but it was also the grunge era.

Grunge had just as much of an influence on the 90s, and this is coming from a hardcore hip hop head.

You know the instrumentation of music doesn't sound anything but sterile and there is a back last toward over produced music. Pointing out negatives does not make it better.

Bilboard charts don't say everything about the legacy left behind. Nirvana was a much more iconic figure than any hip hop artist was in the nineties.

Besides, the world is much bigger than the usa only, not to mention that the variables used here are highly debatable.

If only we knew, life er... OT was never going to get any better.

@commander: @Jag85: @AFBrat77:

At AFBratt "There's no way that 90's hip-hop revolution was bigger than the 60's rock revolution, no chance at that. Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix Experience, and The Velvet Underground changed the course of music. If you think those 60's bands sound quaint today, that is because their revolution in music is incorporated as the norm today."

You're crazy. Just read about hip hop history and you can't tell me that it's more revolutionary than Rock. Especially as it's still more popular today than any other genre . I mean something that was supposedly started among New York teens in the 70's/80's New York became a billion dollar business.

At commander "The statement rock dominated the eighties is the proof of that."

Michael Jackson dominated the 80's not hair metal. No question Hair Metal sold albums but MJ and the mentioned Maddona did some serious damage in the 80's.

And Jags Hip Hop is way more influential than Rock will ever be. White suburban kids are fascinated with hip hop culture. I mean this group is the one buying the records.

problem understanding context? I never said that rock dominated the eighties,

@Jag85:

The true revolution for music (along with the beginning of Rock in 1965) came in 1976 with the punk movement, it took a few years because it was ahead of its time but music was altered forever when it became much more honest and inner directed rather than something you casually listened to. This is why early 70's music sounds so ancient now, doesn't mean there isn't good stuff there just means it's quite dated.

Aren't those charts based on opinions?

Now this is a joke. Motown set the tone. The 60's was dominated by the Supremes and Temptations. Racism prevented them for being even more popular during that period.

@PSP107:

I believe you are the one that is crazy, you just don't seem to get it. You probably weren't even alive in the 80's. ......I was 18 when the decade began, 28 when it ended. I'm probably one of the few here who has been alive since the 60's. And I damn sure know my music.

I was dancing to Prince, Madonna, and MJ at clubs, buying Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy and NWA cds, and going to see REM, The Ramones, New Order, and Echo and the Bunnymen concerts when most of you were in diapers or your parents hadn't even met. Guys like you don't have a clue what defines the 70's and 80's, u weren't even there! But I was.

The 80's was defined by techno-pop, hair bands and stars like Madonna, MJ, Prince, Springsteen, Duran Duran, and a slew of other bands that benefitted from MTV, but it had a bit of something for everyone. Probably the best music was college radio, thrash and underground alternative which provided the groundwork for 90's grunge.

@commander: Who is "nirvana"?

Exactly.

Alot of 90's kids actually heard of NWA, 2pac, Biggie, Snoop Dog etc. regardless of where there from.

@PSP107: Love me some NWA

Anyone that lived through the nineties that hasn't heard of nirvana lived either under or rock or was simply too small to remember.

Sure kids and people in general heard of some those artists , especially snoop but it's far from the name that nirvana was.

@commander: Nirvana and Sublime all day.

4K became mainstream in the 2010s!

@commander: Nirvana just wasnt a household name for my family or any of my friends. Mostly country out here

@PSP107:

Motown was a formula pop machine, decent songs but mostly formula. Best thing about Motown was when the better talents like The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder broke away and made more substantial music. Sure, The Supremes could match The Beatles with hits in 1964, but once The Beatles matured and released Help and Rubber Soul in 1965, Supremes were left in the dust. Motown albums could not match rock albums.

Motown, while good at kicking out catchy pop tunes, lacked much substance until later, when they tried to keep up with Rock music's more conscientious lyrics. But the best rock bands blew Motown away.

Without question, musically rock music defined the 1960's.

Feminists, hypocrites, social justice warriors and bias.

Underground rap music was doing that before the punk movement emerged. For example, The Last Poets during the late '60s to early '70s, producing political rap inspired by Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. Rap and punk were parallel developments in that regard.

Smart phones, social media, the failing of the EU, ISIS and SJWs

Rock and it's sub genres in the 60s were politically motivated.

@LJS9502_basic:

Exactly, folk, folk-rock, and Rock had already been doing that. But he completely missed my point anyways.

If rock was already doing that before, then punk cannot be considered revolutionary in that regard.

Punk was DIY ethos that was against the very wealthy musicians of the day that were removed from real life struggles. Punk embodied that. Nonetheless what punk is import for doing is the creation of post punk and all the alternative sub genres that came later.

@AFBrat77:"The Supremes could match The Beatles with hits in 1964, but once The Beatles matured and released Help and Rubber Soul in 1965, Supremes were left in the dust. Motown albums could not match rock albums."

The Beatles were influenced by soul music aswell.

And the Motown machine was still cooking after the Jackson 5 took off in 1969.

You saying Motown was a formula could be directed at any band/company.

lol@ this dude insulting 1960's Motown.

I would say that if there's one thing that truly defined this decade and that we will carry with us for the rest of the future, it's the shift to an all-digital approach to everything. Literally everything - buying or selling businesses and plenty of on-demand services, culture, school, videogames, movies and TV shows/series, anything you can think of.

With the success and diffusion of the smartphone in the late first decade of 2000 and the estabilishment of cloud computing, having things unavailable in the digital world of today is the kind of thing that really makes you go "Ehhhh, I'll pass", which was completely inconceivable just 15 years ago. In fact the shift is so thorough that in some places non-digital interactions aren't even used anymore.

Following this shift I would say, and I'm calling it here, that the next decade is going to be all about automation. With the ever increasing digitalization of human-to-human interaction we will also start wanting to digitalize interaction with things that aren't human - cars are already on their way, coffee machines, all kinds of things that work with paper tickets, the supermarket, I expect we will also get a "cooking machine" if not a fully automated kitchen, a cleaning machine (not just a dust-sweeper, an actual cleaning machine that can do the job of a fully-fledged maid), a digital wardrobe, maybe even a digital clothes shop, etc.

@PSP107:

Who is insulting the Motown machine, they were good at churning out catchy singles. They just weren't the be all to end all you seem to think they were. They had an eye for talent, I'll give them that.

But you still never got my point about the fundamental shift in music provided by the punk movement.

To all of you complaining about SJW, complainers, and feminists, I guess we need to go back in time where interracial couples were threatened and ridiculed, blacks and whites were segregated, women couldn't vote, and homosexuals was not dared to be spoken of. Much better right? Conservatives are cancer to our society. I hate it.

Stupid comments based on extremely shallow thought processes precisely like this^ are the true cancer of society.

This decade f*cking sucks. Terrible music, hollywood is nothing but superhero movies and bad remakes, SJW's are everywhere you turn around.

Trump winning the presidency was the first good thing to happen in years.

But you have your X. :P

@NathanDrakeSwag: "hollywood is nothing but superhero movies "

Movies have been awful since 2000=(