Monday, October 5, 2009

Song of the Week? No. Song of the Decade.



Pitchfork.com, the music blog most modern inide fans struggle deciding whether they love or hate, has listed their songs of the last decade. Number one of the list? Outkast's hit "B.O.B." You can find their reason for choosing the song here. What do you think? Is this the best song of the last 10 years?

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous5/10/09 08:47

    Definitely disagree. I have no problem with them choosing a hip-hop song as the best song of the decade, but even for Outkast - Hey Ya was certainly a memorable tune the BOB.

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  2. Yeah, I think I would agree. This decade has certainly been owned by hip-hip and probably most innovation in music has been in that genre but as far as just straight up good songs, Outkast have made better. What I think Pitchfork is suggesting is that B.O.B. was before its time and incredibly influencial and therefore, maybe not the best song but the most influencial. I think. I would definitely agree with the influential/ahead of its time part - the song would still sound fresh on the radio 10 years later - but I'm sure there are a lot of musicians who can make that arguement (Radiohead!!!). Anyway, I guess you can't please all the people all the time, it's risky and that's really what Pitchfork is all about - trying to make waves and be contradictory whenever possible. Still, though, good song.

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  3. Now, I went back and forth on this one... but after writing half of a post arguing why this was a poor choice, I recant.

    First of all, I cannot think of a more genre-bridging, experimental, reach out across the musical and generational isle pair of musicians than Outkast. I mean, these guys dressed up guns in tu-tus and not only lived to tell about - but had a nation of ganstas reevaluating their inner creative thug child, without - for even a second - losing their cool!

    BOB is the hip hop generation's "End of the world as we know it" by REM. It is a sociopolitical anthem whose musical diversity and deliberate energy pack enough firepower to be deserving of this heavy crown.

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  4. Tim,

    Very good points. You know, I've thought a lot about it and I've come to this conclusion. I don't think it's the best song of the last 10 years... It's not the most hummable, melodic tune out of the probably millions of songs that have been written since 2000.
    BUT it proably is the song that best sums up our last decade. The song is chaotic as Hell, from beginning to end. The name itself references an action one year before it happened, that we would be dealing with over the rest of the decade. As you said, Tim, it's a complete mash-up of everything Western music has to offer - the Beatles White Album in one song - and still they are the "coolest motha fucka's on the planet," through it all. Best song, nah. Most important - probably, and even more so because that's not what they were trying to do.

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