2064--What music from 2024 will still be viewed as "relevant"

[GulDukat]

Today Van Halen's 1984 turns 40 and Jimmy Page turns 80. Makes me wonder how acts that are popular today will be seen in 40 years.

Taylor Swift will be seen as the Madonna of the 20s.

No one will care about any rock bands that formed after the 90s.

Teens will still wear Nirvana shirts.

Nine Inch Nails will likened to Bowie, Talking Heads, etc. as "classical alternative."

What are your predictions?

[botley]

I've been thinking about something Robert Fripp has said, which was his attempt to view Music straddling both past and future as all being part of a 'wider present', and how music or art that speaks to the current moment may still speak to us in the future. It's hard to predict what the 'received opinion' will be about these artists' music, because critique of cultural expression seems so fragmented and split into the little bubbles everyone seemingly swims in, instead of a broader institutional consensus. But that's okay! I don't mind being seen as an old fart or out of touch for enjoying what I like and ignoring/having no time for anything else (either now or 40 years from now, provided I'm still here).

I think certain artists from this time are going to be heralded as classics in the future. I could see Lizzo transcending the current moment, to pick one example. But she's already in her mid-30s. As for younger people who have a fair shot of still being active or even remembered in 40 years, I have absolutely no idea.

[versusreality]

I believe the majority of music will be AI generated then, and the kids of today won't care about any music before 2021 or so (they already don't) .

[GulDukat]

Guns N' Roses will be working on a follow-up to Chinese Democracy, soon.

[onthewall2983]

I am far more hopeful for these things then when I was 15, and I still kind of view that point in time as the nadir of (the second half anyway) the 20th century, where the cynicism building up and the children of the Vietnam war were more given to not give peace a chance but fuck you I wont do what you tell me. This was now being bottled back by corporate America and spat back to us with Woodstock 99, reality television and one presidency. On the other hand Coldplay and Foo Fighters each have a 10-minute song on their last albums and I actually am starting to like how some nu metal bands have aged. Life is strange. The possibilities of mythology in the last four years alone could serve as inspiration or warning for what’s ahead. I turned 40 a few months ago. Change is inevitable and goes by quicker it seems, the slower I get. The part of me that needed to slow at least.

[Wretchedest]

I think those old frameworks for understanding legacies and retrospective are pretty much gone. The reason all of those older artists in the previous century ended up so glamorized and put on a pedestal is because there were pretty limited avenues for exposure. You essentially had the radio and eventually TV. Social media makes those outlets far larger and number and far more individualized.

Which is to say that being relevant really isn't possible. Sure, you have your constructed mega-stars like Taylor Swift, who are an actual economic force, but hard to see any other kind of influence be more than diffuse or niche. The "alternative" rock stars of the 90s like Trent or Maynard or Chino, I think already had that influence manifest in the decade or so following, and while they retire into merchandising and music composition, the paradigm for other figureheads to take their place just doesn't exist any more.