I’ve never really understood picking favorites for music, games, movies, etc. I’ve always found “what’s your favorite ?” a hard question to answer. What’s wrong with enjoying things without ranking them? Do other people find ranking somehow increases their enjoyment?
The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
51–60 of 139 posts
Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
#52Not to contradict the writer in any way, obviously in popular music this format has largely disappeared. But even so there are lots out there and a ton of diversity. Some from recent listening: James Blackshaw, Zoe Keating, Max Ananyev, Mary Lattimore, Anna von Hausswolf, Goldmund. and of course Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebro, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Jack Rose, RIP. Individual musical artists have so many more tools now t…
I find it fascinating that despite listening to a lot of music I don't recognise a single name in this list.
You might know of Ryuichi Sakamoto from his work with Yellow Magic Orchestra. (Or not, but YMO seems to have more name recognition.)
Big recommend for Keating. She doesn’t have a large catalog, but her albums are fantastic. I wish she was more prolific. (I think she’s doing a lot of composing for TV and film.)
Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
#53I don't know if these anecdotes prove anything, but two of my favorites, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, had popular instrumentals in the late 80s/early 90s. And one of my non-favorites, Kenny G, is one of the best-selling artists of all time, more than 75 million records.
Kinda leans into the point of the post, I think. Vai, Satriani, and Eric Johnson are still working today, but they peaked popularity wise in the late 80s / early 90s.
Not sure Satriani ever topped “Surfing With The Alien.”
Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
#54bzrp is doing a concert tour now, he just played here in buenos aires a couple weeks ago, i have the t-shirt
also maybe lindsey stirling counts?
Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
#55Trey Anastasio?
Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
#56> favorite [popular] musician that doesn’t sing
He's looking at the wrong chart.
Looking at this week's Billboard electronic/dance chart I see: David Guetta, Tiësto, Illenium, Marshmello, Calvin Harris, Chainsmokers, Skrillex ...
All extremely popular musicians who are known primarily as producers/DJs rather than vocalists. And there are tons of popular instrumental electronic and dance tracks.
Calvin Harris does actually sing (Feel So Close, Summer, etc.) but he's currently at #1 on the UK singles chart (Miracle) with Ellie Goulding on main vocals.
Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
#57Not to contradict the writer in any way, obviously in popular music this format has largely disappeared. But even so there are lots out there and a ton of diversity. Some from recent listening: James Blackshaw, Zoe Keating, Max Ananyev, Mary Lattimore, Anna von Hausswolf, Goldmund. and of course Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebro, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Jack Rose, RIP. Individual musical artists have so many more tools now t…
Hiromi Uehara is a contemporary japanese jazz pianist and composer I'm a fan of. She's released a solid catalogue of 12 studio albums in the last two decades.
Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
#58Huh. I'm a huge fan of instrumental music. I encountered Plini and Nick Johnston and through them discovered my favorite guitarist, Guthrie Govan. Then through him discovered his band The Aristocrats, with Bryan Beller (who's awesome, but I don't know too much about bassists) and the drummer Marco Minneman, who's now my favorite drummer after Neal Peart passed away.
I also really like all the Dream Theater adjacent stuff, like Liquid Tension Experiment...
Ok, guess I'm rambling. I dunno, for some reason I find it easier than ever to find all kinds of fantastic purely instrumental stuff, and now with YouTube you often get to more easily observe the musicians themselves, as opposed to listening to CD's back in the day.
Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
#59If the author continued their lineage beyond hip-hop, into electronic music (house, drum n' bass, downtempo), I think they would see that "favorite instrumentalist" has transformed into "favorite producer".
Favorite producer seems equivalent to favorite big band leader.
Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song
#60Carbon Based Lifeforms anyone? Solar Fields?
Solar Fields did soundtrack for Mirror's Edge for example.
So many good composers doing electro/synth instrumentals nowadays but aren't mainstream, which might be good thing