[Danny Himself]

Okay, I'm not going to pretend that I know much about music before the 1950s- I do enjoy the old recordings of American Roots music, I forget the name of the fellow who did all of the recording.. is it Alan Lomax? It might be. Whoever it was put down a great collection of American Folk, Blues, and all the stuff in between. And then there's the majority of the great blues musicians before 1950.. Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Lowell Fulson, Ma Rainey (and Pa Rainey), Leroy Carr, Scrapper Blackwell.. you can't forget the birth of jazz either. I'm talking Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Bessie Smith, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, you know, it's all good..

And then there's the 50s. Birth of ROCK AND ROLL, and what a beautiful thing that is. Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash. Then you have SPACE AGE POP, some really exciting composing going on in this period, most of it down to Juan Garcia Esquivel. Some nice Tejano recordings from this time too, Isidro Lopez being my favourite. Again, there's some great jazz from this period but I don't really need to go into it all because y'all know it. LOUIS ARMSTRONG THOUGH

1960s is where the shit hits the fan. You have some of the best pop music ever written, the folk revival, countless more hotttttt jazz records, the birth of real psychedelia and psych rock, plus the more scarier side of the coin with stuff like the VU, motor city five, the stooges, the sonics.. A disappointing side effect of the 60s is boring hippie rock as well as the birth of cheesy electric blues (see: eric clapton) and the rolling stones.

1970s is probably the first low point, musically, of the century. although you have some of paul simons best records coming out in this decade, classic fucking rock (creedence, lynyrd skynrd, america), the emergence of TOM WAITS, plus the birth of funk, experiments in rap, and some interesting punk (patti smith, television, voidoids.. you know), there is some real terror here- slade, the majority of uk punk in general, which was just a complete crock of posing shit and completely tainted the entire decade- oh, and the bay city rollers.

1980s carries the same balance of absolute shit and absolute genius. Classic Hip Hop is born, post punk, Tom Waits records the SWORDFISHTROMBONES TRILOGY, hardcore, of course we have the wonderful SONIC-YOUTH given to us.. and in turn some of the most beautiful guitar music being made, ever, see: galaxie 500, dinosaur jr, greg ginn's solo in 'slip it in'. also we have daniel johnston, who is just a tour de force on his own. oh, and violent femmes arrive. downside of course is some of the worst canned synth pop and cock rock ever put down on tape.. ugh..

Then we have 90s. THE DAISY AGE BEGINS AND WE ENTER DE LA HEAVEN. Indie guitar rock supremacy. Hail to Pavement. Cat Power shows up. Sonic Youth make 'Washing Machine'. Beck arrives in 1994 with three albums of absolute mellow fucking stereopathetic graveblues. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Tom Waits shifts from marimba jazz insanity to lo-fi blues and conquers my heart. Squirrel Nut Zippers successfully revive dixieland, swing, and klezmer.. for a few albums. Hip Hop splits in two- ATCQ, De La Soul, Beastie Boys all swing to the left, and NWA's influence starts up the bullshit that is gangsta rap. Radiohead bring out two good albums. MAJOR DOWNSIDES: pearl jam, britpop, boy band dominance.

00s! One could argue this is the most varied of all decades, mainly due to the internet's influence bringing the extremes of all genres to our ears. Tom Waits releases two musical soundtracks. Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Zooey Deschanel considerably up the nerd folk ante. The Strokes record two good albums and inspire legions of terrible copycats (but its worth it). Rap reaches a few good heights, c/o SHADRACH KABANGO and SCROOBIUS PIP, and of course R Kelly brought 'Ignition Remix' to our ears. Noise 'arrives'. Downsides include UK INDIE ROCK, NU RAVE, EMO AND SCENE SUBCULTURE, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL.

the end