While regular readers might reasonably remain in some doubt as to who is “real” among The Hinternet’s authors, only those without much in the way of an occipital lobe could ever take “Sam Jennings” for a pseudonym of anyone else — he is just
I never comment on things, but I've been thinking about this most of the weekend. This is a good piece, and I agree with your central thesis about the importance of the unheralded pop music of this era - and the sheer number of tracks and artists that should have been huge. I'd also add Yeasayer to this canon - I think 'O.N.E' should have been a big hit!
If I can add a few things to the mix:
1. I'm a Brit, and I'd argue there is an important Anglo angle not in the piece and a crucial bridge we had between the "indie sleaze" and the seam of electronic pop of which you speak. That is the short lived genre of "nu rave" - Klaxons, New Young Pony Club, and CSS for example. These were broadly guitar bands that started to incorporate electronics - and were designed to be heard in indie clubs. They were very much still bands playing to 'alternative' NME-reading crowd, but I reckon they lay the groundwork for some of the more pop acts that followed (at least UK ones). I think it's telling that long before becoming Blood Orange Dev Hynes was in a nu rave-ish band (Test Icicles)... and Lovefoxxx from CSS went on to do the vocals on Nightcall. I reckon it was this milieu that went on to create the conditions for the pop of La Roux - who in Britain at least - had some real mainstream success with the sound you are talking about.
2. I also think there is a stronger Gallic angle beyond Phoenix and Kavinsky. Arguably Daft Punk were laying the groundwork for some of this long before, but Justice were quite important in setting the stage for this spund I'd say. More importantly, I really think that Christine and the Queens' 'Tilted' was probably the best pop song of the 2010s. Obviously it's a popular song, but it should have taken them stratospheric. Has that same 'outside off this timeline sound.
3. I'm not sure I quite agree that "Sharon Van Etten, Alex G, Angel Olsen, Men I Trust, Mitski, Soccer Mommy, Phoebe Bridgers, and The War on Drugs" continue this spirit in the same way that Charli XCX or Caroline Polachek do. I love them all and think they should all be much more famous, but I don't quite see them in this lineage. But that's a minor quibble.
I'd never heard of 120 Minutes before this piece, and perhaps we might have a slightly stronger institutional setup for canonisation of this sort of music in the UK thanks to BBC 6 Music and reruns of Later...with Jools Holland - but broadly the same situation applies about the unrecognised legacy of all of this. Again, great piece.
Great piece, Sam. We're about the same age (graduated high school in 2011, college 2015), so I am familiar with pretty much every song and band mentioned here. Also attended the Pitchfork music festival in 2013, although I went to the one in Paris and mainly went to the "after party" sessions which focused on electronic music. Your framing intrigued me a lot here. I distinctly remember discovering a lot of this music in high school by listening to the college radio station and not knowing too many other people into the music. But then when I went to college I joined the radio station and hung out with a completely different type of person (arts kids instead of jocks, basically), so this music was everywhere. It seemed massive to me, but in retrospect that was because of the bubble I was in. On our radio station it was actually not allowed to play anything that had ever cracked the top 100, so there you go. Oh, and there's one band that is absolutely essential here, possibly my favourite band ever, especially when it comes to the confluence of electronic music and pop that you mention: JUNIOR BOYS!!!!
Sorry I missed the Junior Boys! Though they did help produce Jessy Lanza’s record which I mentioned. But no top 100 is a perfect rule for a college radio station.
Great piece. The shout out to “Hold on we’re going home” was surprising but it definitely fit with the broader “vibe”. Funnily enough “Tuscan Leather”from the same album has been on repeat for me for the past month and I think it might be one of Drake’s most well-aged tracks. One could probably make the case that the haunting Whitney Houston sample (just over one year after her passing!) on there straddles a line between classic chipmunk soul sampling and a sort of witch-y Crystal Castles sound. The final keyboard riffs are lovely too.
Looking forward to more music posts! From you and Mary.
I would like to add James Blake. He's definitely alternative. His debut album 'James Blake' (2011) was a hit. 'Limit to you Love' and other singles like 'Retrograde' have millions of streams. Also, he's had a great run of smart collaborations (Bon Iver, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Rosalía, etc.) because his sound sits between electronic, R&B, hip-hop, and indie.
And...I haven't read it but "Meet Me In The Bathroom" is supposed to be a good book on the music scene of the aughts in NYC.
Well said. Feels like time got fragmented and weird, something got lost. Too many alternatives. "Heartbeats" and "Thrift Shop" do feel like they're from parallel universes. For some reason, I was reading hoping for a Sleigh Bells reference.
Being older--specifically, born in '79 and having spent a fair number of Sunday early mornings watching 120 Minutes in its entirety--I of course love how that show and that brief moment of upheaval, 1991-93, are used to frame this whole piece. That said, my experience leave me somewhat baffled as to why Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem are given such high praise. I even listened to the latter yet again (I've tried this before, believe me!), to try to figure out what I've been missing all these years--no... while I appreciate the electronic parts at times, the songs stink. And Arcade Fire... I won't even go there. Whereas, in general, thought I might not like some of these artists (Cut Copy, Neo Indian, e.g.) like you do, I appreciate them and what they were trying to do. And you capture the early-2010s moment very well. I had a younger housemate for a year, living in Jersey City. He was your age, very excited about both artists like Grimes and the latest Kate Bush album. Jimmy Fallon's version of Late Night also comes to mind, where you'd see some of these artists as well as the likes of Deerhunter. In the background, there were the smart phones, slowly starting to destroy all of this (because they destroy everything), but there were few years there, what we could call the "Wait and See Obama Era," where mainstream pop culture seemed at least promising.
I never comment on things, but I've been thinking about this most of the weekend. This is a good piece, and I agree with your central thesis about the importance of the unheralded pop music of this era - and the sheer number of tracks and artists that should have been huge. I'd also add Yeasayer to this canon - I think 'O.N.E' should have been a big hit!
If I can add a few things to the mix:
1. I'm a Brit, and I'd argue there is an important Anglo angle not in the piece and a crucial bridge we had between the "indie sleaze" and the seam of electronic pop of which you speak. That is the short lived genre of "nu rave" - Klaxons, New Young Pony Club, and CSS for example. These were broadly guitar bands that started to incorporate electronics - and were designed to be heard in indie clubs. They were very much still bands playing to 'alternative' NME-reading crowd, but I reckon they lay the groundwork for some of the more pop acts that followed (at least UK ones). I think it's telling that long before becoming Blood Orange Dev Hynes was in a nu rave-ish band (Test Icicles)... and Lovefoxxx from CSS went on to do the vocals on Nightcall. I reckon it was this milieu that went on to create the conditions for the pop of La Roux - who in Britain at least - had some real mainstream success with the sound you are talking about.
2. I also think there is a stronger Gallic angle beyond Phoenix and Kavinsky. Arguably Daft Punk were laying the groundwork for some of this long before, but Justice were quite important in setting the stage for this spund I'd say. More importantly, I really think that Christine and the Queens' 'Tilted' was probably the best pop song of the 2010s. Obviously it's a popular song, but it should have taken them stratospheric. Has that same 'outside off this timeline sound.
3. I'm not sure I quite agree that "Sharon Van Etten, Alex G, Angel Olsen, Men I Trust, Mitski, Soccer Mommy, Phoebe Bridgers, and The War on Drugs" continue this spirit in the same way that Charli XCX or Caroline Polachek do. I love them all and think they should all be much more famous, but I don't quite see them in this lineage. But that's a minor quibble.
I'd never heard of 120 Minutes before this piece, and perhaps we might have a slightly stronger institutional setup for canonisation of this sort of music in the UK thanks to BBC 6 Music and reruns of Later...with Jools Holland - but broadly the same situation applies about the unrecognised legacy of all of this. Again, great piece.
Reading this and listening along to the music mentioned made me feel like I was levitating. Thank you!
Great piece, Sam. We're about the same age (graduated high school in 2011, college 2015), so I am familiar with pretty much every song and band mentioned here. Also attended the Pitchfork music festival in 2013, although I went to the one in Paris and mainly went to the "after party" sessions which focused on electronic music. Your framing intrigued me a lot here. I distinctly remember discovering a lot of this music in high school by listening to the college radio station and not knowing too many other people into the music. But then when I went to college I joined the radio station and hung out with a completely different type of person (arts kids instead of jocks, basically), so this music was everywhere. It seemed massive to me, but in retrospect that was because of the bubble I was in. On our radio station it was actually not allowed to play anything that had ever cracked the top 100, so there you go. Oh, and there's one band that is absolutely essential here, possibly my favourite band ever, especially when it comes to the confluence of electronic music and pop that you mention: JUNIOR BOYS!!!!
Sorry I missed the Junior Boys! Though they did help produce Jessy Lanza’s record which I mentioned. But no top 100 is a perfect rule for a college radio station.
Great piece. The shout out to “Hold on we’re going home” was surprising but it definitely fit with the broader “vibe”. Funnily enough “Tuscan Leather”from the same album has been on repeat for me for the past month and I think it might be one of Drake’s most well-aged tracks. One could probably make the case that the haunting Whitney Houston sample (just over one year after her passing!) on there straddles a line between classic chipmunk soul sampling and a sort of witch-y Crystal Castles sound. The final keyboard riffs are lovely too.
Looking forward to more music posts! From you and Mary.
Good song, good point Michael! (Among takes I will stay mostly silent about for a while: Drake actually was a really good pop musician)
I would like to add James Blake. He's definitely alternative. His debut album 'James Blake' (2011) was a hit. 'Limit to you Love' and other singles like 'Retrograde' have millions of streams. Also, he's had a great run of smart collaborations (Bon Iver, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Rosalía, etc.) because his sound sits between electronic, R&B, hip-hop, and indie.
And...I haven't read it but "Meet Me In The Bathroom" is supposed to be a good book on the music scene of the aughts in NYC.
He's in there! In the paragraph about 2011.
oh man, my bleary eyes! XD
Well said. Feels like time got fragmented and weird, something got lost. Too many alternatives. "Heartbeats" and "Thrift Shop" do feel like they're from parallel universes. For some reason, I was reading hoping for a Sleigh Bells reference.
Could’ve included the SB debut record, true. A few classics on there.
Where’s the accompanying Spotify megamix?
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2oHxurdpu69Ex8MLKgKzv6?si=c4f3496dfd39479e
Great piece. The 10,000-strong show tapes of Aadam Jacobs have been blowing me away- https://chicagoreader.com/music/gossip-wolf/aadam-jacobs-collection-internet-archive-concert-recordings/
…still being added to IA.
Having just been told of it i’ve jumped in with aplomb- standouts so far include The Unicorns, The Shins, Karate… https://archive.org/search?query=subject%3A%22AJC+Project%22
Being older--specifically, born in '79 and having spent a fair number of Sunday early mornings watching 120 Minutes in its entirety--I of course love how that show and that brief moment of upheaval, 1991-93, are used to frame this whole piece. That said, my experience leave me somewhat baffled as to why Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem are given such high praise. I even listened to the latter yet again (I've tried this before, believe me!), to try to figure out what I've been missing all these years--no... while I appreciate the electronic parts at times, the songs stink. And Arcade Fire... I won't even go there. Whereas, in general, thought I might not like some of these artists (Cut Copy, Neo Indian, e.g.) like you do, I appreciate them and what they were trying to do. And you capture the early-2010s moment very well. I had a younger housemate for a year, living in Jersey City. He was your age, very excited about both artists like Grimes and the latest Kate Bush album. Jimmy Fallon's version of Late Night also comes to mind, where you'd see some of these artists as well as the likes of Deerhunter. In the background, there were the smart phones, slowly starting to destroy all of this (because they destroy everything), but there were few years there, what we could call the "Wait and See Obama Era," where mainstream pop culture seemed at least promising.