so who the hell out there is doing something different? i tire of the boring guitar driven indie-rock, stale IDM and laptop electronic, and lifeless hip-hop that pollutes the music scene in the 21st century. are there any new genre movements? the 80's had no-wave, new wave, goth, industrial, hip-hop, hair metal, electro, etc. what do the 2000's have? i know its only been four years, but i am getting bored.

there are some rays of sunshine: 90 day men, blonde redhead, tv on the radio, the books, mars volta etc, but i see no movement.

anyone have some insight?

I think that perspective needs to be gained before judging the Aughts properly.

ulrich schnauss, xela, pendelum, and calibre define innovation in electronic music. all have created genre defining electronic music.

as for indie.....

I don't know. Lots that I like and that I think are kind of groundbreaking, but not always sure what others think. What about these?

The Notwist - Neon Golden
Dirty Three - Whatever You Love You Are
Solex - Low Kick And Hard Bop
Low - Trust
Calexico - Feast of Wire
The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts
Black Heart Procession - Amore del Tropico
Blonde Redhead - Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons

good call with calexico and the decemberists. i see them, and raise you a lightning bolt and a death from above 1979.

there's really just more excellent music than i will be able to hear in my lifetime, so i get amused when folks get all spent and jaded.

welcome to the new digs, lawrencerock, btw.

i would toss out the black heart procession as innovators because they've been doing the same thing for four albums. and it's always good, but they're not exactly breaking any new ground. i don't know enough about the others on davey's list to make a good call, but maybe the notwist is close, at least of what i've heard of them.

I guess the freak/folk movement (Animal Collective, Johanna Newsome et.al) is fairly innovative; or at least a new spin on more traditional music;

I think Arcade Fire (will the hype ever end?) is innovative just based on instrumentation (steel drums, bells, offbeat percussion etc) and for tinkering with more orchestral arrangements

And of course the Drive By Truckers are creating Gangsta Rap for White Folks

Well, I don't necessarily disagree, but who's doing anything like them? And Amore del Tropico is quite a bit different than there first three albums to my ears, so much so in fact that I know people who don't like it but love the previous ones. I love them all and don't know anyone like them. But you can find bits of their sound in Nick Cave and Mercury Rev and even their sister band, Pinback. All good stuff in my world, but I'm not sure lawrencerock really meant to have a hard cutoff at 2000

m83

Lemur has it exactly right, and your example of the '80s as an era of innovation proves it. I remember living through the '70s and it was just, like, taken for granted that it was a wasted decade. Looking back on it from the vantage point of the present, however, it seems like a golden age. Ditto the '80s. At the time so much of that new wave and no wave and goth etc. just seemed like a mutant form of nostalgia for the underground acts of the previous decade (although I'll give you rap and/or hip-hop as something that sounded completely new) or, worse, the mainstream commodification of punk, which shrunk a cultural uprising into a fashion preference. Twenty years later, you can't help but love the wide variety of cool music that came out of that decade.

So, maybe in another decadeor two the '00s will be twisted into a new shape by fad revivals and revisionism and your own remembrance of more care-free times and presto: it's a golden age. Again.

IMO there's always great music and innovation happening. Always will be. And those eras in which the complaints about stagnation are the loudest will probably be the eras most fondly remembered.

I definitely have to second Notwist. Although I know you mentioned laptop electronica, I really think they're doing something different with it, by writing actual good songs on top of all that.

Also have to second M83 -- totally dig that shoegazer/electronica hybrid. Orgasmic.

You wanna go in a totally different direction? Shape of Despair -- dirgey shoegazer metal. And I mean seriously slow -- makes Black Sabbath (at their slowest -- E.G. the slow section of "Black Sabbath") sound like Slayer.

Check out Telefon Tel Aviv's "Fareenheit Fair Enough". It's a mix between R&B and IDM. Though I feel the album is better than what I've heard from either genre and I'm big fan of both.

Also, I'll see your Neon Golden and raise you Faking the Books.

i haven't heard shape of despair, but are they like SunnO)))?

right, right, i know we need more perspective.

i guess i am asking what people think about new genres.

Kinda -- more melodic (it's kind of gothy melodic), and more shoegazery in the production (read: lots of reverb). You should be able to find Angels of Distress pretty cheap (I think its MSRP was like US$9).

PS I dig Sunn O))), too. Do you like 5ive? I like 'em even more.

This is more and more where my curiosities are heading lately (although I haven't heard 5ive, or much of what's out there really). I've been turned on to Boris, Sleep, Mainliner, and Electric Wizard lately. Maybe doom drone and psych-noise will be the next trailblazer. I think there's a lot to be said for noise-inflected music and what it might achieve, especially when artists realize need not be inherently painful. Perhaps there exists some consonant noise music somewhere (I guess not unlike Loveless), but I don't know where it is.

Actually, Bloor, I'd suggest that Animal Collective skirts more on the edge of the above than freak folk - take a listen to their first three albums. Impactful but beautiful ambient noise pop.

np: Elliot Smith "Either/Or"