The List
If you are listening to modern music you mostly are listening to pretty mediocre music. Don’t get defensive. Do the math, if a minority of songs made each year are truly good enough to be played for decades and not gone from the culture in a month then add up all the really good music made and it wasn’t made in the last few years.
All people grow up in an environment that limits what you hear. Where I grew up there were some genres of music that were out there much more than others so there’s a ton of music I never heard when it was made. I made this list to give you a list of songs you really need to listen to. When you finish it you will have a good idea of the styles from times past.
All these songs were huge in some way. So this isn’t a list of just good music. That list is much longer. Many of the artists that only have one song on this list actually have more good music. That will be for you to find and explore on your own.
Ok, I lied a little. 5% of the songs on the list were very under the radar and didn’t get the spotlight or might be on the edge of what deserves to be on the list. It happens.
After a few decades the context or references in a song may no longer be in the culture. This means that the older a song is the more cool bits you might be missing.
Some artists have many great songs. I tried to put them in order from great to least great. For some artists you’ll see this pretty easily but others just have great song after great song and the order is completely irrelevant. And those are just their great songs, often they still have many more good songs.
The list is totally incomplete. We all forget a song or two. Feel free to let me know when you think I missed one to add to the list. What did it take to get on the list? Usually it’s a combination of instrumentation, lyrics, vocal ability, and vocal interpretation. The best songs are great with all of these. I do have some songs that are on the list for cultural impact or just have some unique creativity.
The list is organized by how I grew up. There was the golden oldies station which was generally 1940’s through a tiny bit of the 1970’s. Then there was classic rock which was some of the 1960’s to a little of the 1980’s. Then there were rock stations who played all rock but weighted toward more recent music. There were pop stations that played pop and the odd new songs that came up like the beginning of hip hop. There were a ton of country stations back then that played music from most of the past. Finally there is a hip hop list and just a smidgen of jazz and classic blues and they are the weakest in my collection. Hip hop didn’t exist when I grew up and my area didn’t have dedicated stations early on. Jazz and the blues had almost no presence in media even though it had a long history. Opera is not on my list. I just don’t like it. Classical music is it's own beast and I'm not covering it here.
I’ve included a playlist section that includes a wide variety of themed sets. There is a comedy list of both humorous songs as well as comedians. I’ve also included some music related shows to watch and some comedians to listen to.
A Few Music Comments
1. Originals are generally better than remakes. Don’t listen to a remake that just copies the original. Every listen is making the actual creative talented person who made the song get listened to less as a computer takes the remake into account. Now there are some very good remakes that take a song in a new direction. There are a few that are better than the originals. But generally the original is the one to listen to.
2. Listen to the original released song. This is what hooked millions of people. If you pull up some other performance you don’t know what you are going to get. An artist’s new take on their old song, a bad performance, bad recordings, and many other things can leave you wondering why a song was popular. Yes great performances are worth watching … after you have listened to the original recording.
3. For some songs watching a lyric video can be very helpful. There are huge hits that people don’t know what the words are. That being said, you will get caught up reading the lyrics which is going to pull you away from listening to the song. For songs with lyrics that are just there to elicit a feeling or image versus telling a story or exploring something in depth this will hurt the song.
4. Don't watch the video unless told to. Sometimes the video detracts from the song. Sometimes it is its own story. Some videos really are great but they can leave you paying so much attention to the video that you don’t really hear the song.
5. If you want to understand if a singer is good, try singing the song. It’s not a hard rule but if you can sing it the same fairly easily then it’s usually not great.
6. If you want to know if the music is good, listen to each instrument individually, focus on the drums, the guitar, etc. If it’s just a generic strumming, loops of the same chords, or the same beat repeated over and over, most likely it’s not a great song.
7. Don’t get lost in performance or a live experience and confuse that with great music. A great entertainer can do that with pretty mediocre music.
8. One of the best music experiences I ever had was in the car when a great song came on. I turned up the radio and enjoyed it. Then an even bigger song came on that built on the previous song. Sooo, I turned up the radio again and started rocking out. Then the next song was even bigger than the last and built upon the previous 2 songs. So I turned up the radio again and was just blown away.
Music is best in a curated set. Just taking a best of playlist and having songs play randomly is not the best listening experience as it mixes up tempos. Professional DJ’s spend time making playlists where one song moves to the next to build a mood.
The easiest way to make a playlist is to include songs that were made within about 5 years of each other from the same genre. The more experienced you are the better and more adventurous your playlists will get. I’ve gone from Enya to heavy metal in 4 songs in a playlist that worked.
9. Sadly, if you find a decade of music you like, that’s all there will be. That style is gone, mostly forever. Music has changed dramatically with technology since 1900 and as its changed music evolved with it. The creativity and environment that fostered the styles of the time were unique to each era. As music and the music industry evolved, styles changed and they won’t ever come back. Really, it’s gone.
The big band era lives only in throwback groups and gets no air play. Retro bands looking back at a given era have a hit or two in that style but then disappear. And it’s not like people got tired of one style. Music just moves on and doesn’t come back.
10. Worst still, music appears to be in a downward spiral for many reasons. If you look back at the 1900’s many different genres were exploding with talent we’d never heard before. But starting in the 1990’s the creativity started to diminish. There were fewer and fewer new big bands. I grew up in the 1970’s and I can tell you, there just was a huge continuing explosion of great music for years and years.
Now the reasons for the fall are many. Acts don’t have the support of big companies behind them to develop their talent. Kansas (a band) soaked up a bunch of label money before they finally found their stride.
To be sure, after a bunch of music has been made it’s harder to be original. And technology changes that have happened since the 2000’s haven’t really brought new sounds with impact.
Technology since the 1990’s might actually have hurt music. With programs that can do all the instruments for you easily many people have just cranked out music that are just loops with generic backgrounds. It’s not that these songs are horrible, but they are generic and have no depth to keep you listening to them. Yes this is broadbrushing but generally speaking it’s true. Now acts don’t have to perform a song great, a producer can go into a recording and use autotune and other software to make a song at least listenable.
Also the rise of online musicians has given performers a way around the years of touring that gave acts a chance to learn their trade. To get good.
Musicianship has fallen as artists just try to make music on the computer. In every decade of the 1900’s there were hit instrumental songs that had tons of air play. I can’t think of one in the last 20 years. I watch new bands several times a week and much of the time the musicians on stage could be replaced by a computer without anyone noticing as the instruments of today mostly just stay in the background strumming or beating out the same tempo.
I also want to blame Disney for bad music. In the 1990’s Disney got its own channel. They made a bunch of bad generic kids television. Some of those shows included kids in bands playing mediocre music while smiling. A generation got raised on this as parents let them watch “safe” television. Sadly I saw music become more like those bad shows as those kids got older.
11. Speaking of television. Music on tv has gotten worse to. Theme songs to television shows became hits played on the radio since at least the 1960’s. This continued into the 1990’s with the show “Friends.” I can’t remember a hit tv theme song in decades now though.
12. To sum up, music is getting worse, the best music has already been made, the best music doesn’t get much radio play so you’ll have to go find it instead of having it blossom around you as it did for me (I didn’t know how spoiled I was growing up), and even when you listen to great music from the past you are probably not getting the full enjoyment out of it as you miss references or the context of the song when it was made. Also, most of the dj’s on the air back in the day actually were musicphiles who spilled out tons of info on the songs.
13. The good news is there are web services where people are packaging up good music. There are websites that have all the good stories about the artists and their songs. There are tons of great documentaries on musicians. The info is out there but now a days you have to do some work to get it.
Reaction Guide
For those of you who post reaction videos here are a few thoughts:
Don't interrupt a video/song unless you really need to. It ruins the flow of the music. If you need to break up a video for copyright issues then listen to the song and then splice in your thoughts afterward. Your thoughts will be more developed and your first listen won’t be ruined by the pressure of when to cut into the video.
When possible watch it with an old person or a musicphile. Someone who was around when the song came out. So often a reactor will have questions regarding a song and the back and forth between someone who knows more about it is informative and entertaining for the audience. Short of that, start doing research on an artist so you aren’t asking silly questions that show the audience how little you really know.
Keep and post a list of videos on your page. After a year of videos scrolling through thumbnails means people will never see some of the videos you have. There are just too many. They won’t get to have a new experience and you are losing views.
Play music in sets that build on each other. Now it’s hard if you haven’t heard the songs before. One way you can do it is to binge listen to an artist. For the best acts you really should listen to the whole album an artist produced as they really took time to make a musical experience from one song to the next.
PARKER JONES
PHONE | +1-202-555-0195
MAIL | JONES@MOVIE.COM
ADRESS | 1 NORMAN STREET,
LOS ANGELES, 90014, CA
EXPERIENCE
2020 FEB - PRESENT
WARNER BROS,
BURBANK, CA
FILM DIRECTOR
Coordinated closely with the scriptwriter and transformed the script into a film.
Planned and directed locations, shots, and pacing, acting styles of the movie.
Coached actors and directed them towards the required performances.
Coordinated staff on set, directed the shooting timetable, and ensured that deadlines are met.
Involved in the editing process on a holistic level, cut film and tape, and integrated pieces into the final product.
2019 OCT - 2020 JAN
LUNAFLUX PRODUCTIONS,
MADISONVILLE, KY
FILM DIRECTOR
Executed creative vision on tight budgets that consistently hit production deadlines.
Utilized sound design, lighting design, and the latest technical equipment to create video content for clients.
Planned and scheduled video production schedules of 30+ cast and crew members.
Directed live video and audio staff to ensure adequate video, lighting, and sound on sets.
Edited video content using Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro on tight time constraints.
EDUCATION
2016 - 2018
NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY,
MA IN FILM & MEDIA PRODUCTION
FILM STUDIES
Assisted an acclaimed director, writer, and producer with the editing process and post-production.
2012 - 2016
THE LOS ANGELES FILM SCHOOL,
BA IN FILM PRODUCTION – DIRECTING
FILM STUDIES
Won Best Comedy in an annual student film festival for “A Simple Request.
SKILLS
Leadership
Visual storytelling
Excellent communication skills
Cinematic lighting techniques
Final Cut Pro X
Adobe Premiere
Adobe After Effects
Avid Media Composer
QUALIFICATIONS
Remarkably accomplished film direction experience
Sound knowledge of film production and lens technology
Exceptional creative vision and skills
A detailed understanding of the modern film scene and of film history
Sound knowledge of optical thin film theory, design, and evaporative and ion beam sputtering processes
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
Superior abilities in teamwork and management
Ability to remain calm and think clearly under great pressure
ACHIEVEMENTS
2018
STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL,
JURY AWARD
DESCRIPTION
Won Best Drama in an annual student film festival for “Escape“