Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

discuss

Compared to the 90's, I might agree. In pop culture, the alternative became the mainstream, which killed the alternative by the late 90's, but lead to such awesome things as Nirvana, Pulp Fiction, Star Wars expanded universe fiction, and Doom/Quake/CivII/etc.

Of course, I've spent the 2000's as a bitter 20 something, not as a precocious teenager.

-9/11
-2 recessions so far
-the death of Johnnie Cash

Yea the 2000s are pretty sucktacular.

Amen to that. Although the 2000's had some of Cash's most relevant work since the 70's. I'm just glad he got to go out back on top and in the limelight, not as a forgotten relic. His complete demolition of the NIN song Hurt was the most soulful thing I think I've ever heard: a dying man reflecting on a life, realizing how much was wasted and meaningless. Even Trent Reznor has commented that the song isn't his anymore.

So, while I mourned his passing, what made it more bitter sweet was that it came during a rejuvenation.

Polonius wrote:Amen to that. Although the 2000's had some of Cash's most relevant work since the 70's. I'm just glad he got to go out back on top and in the limelight, not as a forgotten relic. His complete demolition of the NIN song Hurt was the most soulful thing I think I've ever heard: a dying man reflecting on a life, realizing how much was wasted and meaningless. Even Trent Reznor has commented that the song isn't his anymore.

So, while I mourned his passing, what made it more bitter sweet was that it came during a rejuvenation.

Word on that.

Similarly I can't tell if he first did Won't Back Down first or covered it, but man that song just feels REAL. Someone who's fought the fight, wants to rest now, but will stand up one last time even though he know's its going to cost him everything. Its way too personal for me.

I recall someone a couple years ago (before this recession) asking who's had a good decade. The only person they could come up with is Kelly Clarkson, LOL.

AV Club just did a fairly short but good history of Cash's America Recordings for Rubin. If you like his songs from the 2000's it is worth the read here.

Ahtman wrote:AV Club just did a fairly short but good history of Cash's America Recordings for Rubin. If you like his songs from the 2000's it is worth the read here.

Great find Ahtman! I read through it, and it's both informative and well written. One of the things I like best about the AV Clubs approach to music criticism is that it's based on an unabashed love of music, not the desire to elevate themselves above the music.

One area where the 2000's are better is arguably in satire. Websites like the Onion and shows like the Daily Show are coming up with some hilarious and insightful satire on a daily basis. Sure, most of that is due to the advances in technology that allowed websites and b-level cable networks, but it's still impressive.

Polonius wrote:Amen to that. Although the 2000's had some of Cash's most relevant work since the 70's. I'm just glad he got to go out back on top and in the limelight, not as a forgotten relic. His complete demolition of the NIN song Hurt was the most soulful thing I think I've ever heard: a dying man reflecting on a life, realizing how much was wasted and meaningless. Even Trent Reznor has commented that the song isn't his anymore.

So, while I mourned his passing, what made it more bitter sweet was that it came during a rejuvenation.

I couldn't stop listening to that song for at least a week. Fantastic.

That said, the 2000's sucked quite a bit, even from the perspective of someone who was a teenager during most of that time.

- resurgence of country-western as a form of popular music
- final death of hip-hop
- emo/screamo
- the dry, emotionless, crap that evolved to counter emo/screamo
- the attempt to popularize metal
- skinny jeans
- the 'betray-us' ad (seriously, I'm as liberal as they come, and this made me want to go full republican as an act of rebellion)
- the popular assumption that being religious is equivalent to being fundamentalist (thank you, Richard Dawkins)
- the resurgence of 'ironic activity' (doing/wearing/reading things because they are actually horribly uncool)

There were some good things as well, just not nearly as many.

- mainstream gaming
- publicly acceptable miniature gaming (although this is largely a byproduct of the ironic trend)
- Simpsons Movie
- the resurrection of hip-hop (Nas, Talib Kweli, DangerDoom, et al)

Yeah the 2000s pretty much suck.

Global economic crisis
The boom of reality television
More nails driven into the coffin of good music as more bands sell out to the mainstream
Terry Pratchett having Alzheimer's disease
The Market Tavern and Rios closing down
The Empress being demolished

Plus side for me, is the total explosion of gaming systems and miniature makers. GW might still be top of the pile, but we at least now have viable alternatives.

New cellphones are awesome, and we're finally getting exo suits. Cybernetic prosthesis is in a phase of funding and development never before seen, and breakthroughs in processing and battery life look to revolutionize everything technological. If you judge a decade by the number of sellout bands every decade is going to look terrible.

The 2000's kicked ass, they were just setting up for the better 2010's when we get the benefits of the 2000s.

ShumaGorath wrote:If you judge a decade by the number of sellout bands every decade is going to look terrible.

The converse being that judging every decade by the level of technical progress makes every decade look good, at least as long as you aren't terribly focused on the specifics of that progress. The 2000's haven't been particularly good for stem cell research, for example.

I spent the last eight years living as a liberal in a red state, so yes the 00's sucked in that regard.
If we're going to talk music, I haven't listened to "mainstream" music since the mid-nineties so I actually don't think the 00's were too bad. Venetian Snares proved not only was break techno not dead, but that it could be unbelievably awesome. Animal Collective and Of Montreal are both becoming popular in some circles which gives me hope for the future.
Comic books are actually hip which is pretty cool. The Daily Show is more relevant then ever, Adult Swim really took off, so the last decade hasn't been all bad.

Eight years of a bible-thumping bomb-crazy slow in the white house.
Losing more than half my income because my partner in the engraving business decided he'd rather do drugs than work, then burning bridges with most of our customers and wrecking the van.
My migraines have started back up even though I quite drinking.
That 'ironic' crap.
Go 2000's...

warpcrafter wrote:Eight years of a bible-thumping bomb-crazy slow in the white house.

Proceeded by eight years of a skirt-chasing pacifist in the white house.

And don't forget, The Big Change was elected in the 2000's. Sure to totally fix the country. Unless his own party derails his plans in Congress

Since I dont have a choice where to spend my 20s, I am forced to take a more positive view.

Northern Ireland more at peace than anytime since WW2.
Global reduction in anti-african racism (at the expense of the middle east)
China opening up bit by bit
Booming global economy (just not so much the OECD), pushing China, India and Brazil into the second world, giving more minds to scientific progress.
Fewer people in poverty than any time in history (as a percentage), whilst global population is rapidly increasing.
Life expectancy of all areas of earth except sub-saharan africa has improved.
Better treatments and survival rates for major diseases (aids, cancer, etc)
And greedily, I have 50mb/sec Internet. In the 90s I had 56kb/sec.

Proceeded by eight years of a skirt-chasing pacifist in the white house.

I think you mean preceded. By what I see obama is fairly happy with his wife.

D'oh! What I get for being an engineer and not a anglish - eanglesh - someone's who is good at words.

Hey, I'd be happy with Obama's wife. And I'm not sure how much I can fault Clinton considering his wife.

dogma wrote:
- the popular assumption that being religious is equivalent to being fundamentalist (thank you, Richard Dawkins)

Dawkins is just a symptom of a larger problem within the Christian community. The Christian movement, and in particular the evangelical movement have allowed their fringe element to become their public face which has created a negative perception of Christianity (also marrying themselves to a political movement didn't help) and marginalized many more moderate Christians. Hopefully in the next decade we will see Christians rejecting more extreme leaders and getting back to actually working to make the world a better place. Seeing as my Dad will be working as a Priest in the next decade, I can only hope for the best.

Sad year for black metal:

Immortal breaks-up
Emperor breaks-up
Valfar from Windir dies
Gorgoroth frontman goes to jail
Frontman for a grindcore band (can't remember the name) dies in the Tsnuami

Ein Windir wrote:Sad year for black metal:

Immortal breaks-up
Emperor breaks-up
Valfar from Windir dies
Gorgoroth frontman goes to jail
Frontman for a grindcore band (can't remember the name) dies in the Tsnuami

But Dimmu Borgir, Behemoth and Cradle of Filth put out their best work yet, so all is not lost.

warpcrafter wrote:

Ein Windir wrote:Sad year for black metal:

Immortal breaks-up
Emperor breaks-up
Valfar from Windir dies
Gorgoroth frontman goes to jail
Frontman for a grindcore band (can't remember the name) dies in the Tsnuami

But Dimmu Borgir, Behemoth and Cradle of Filth put out their best work yet, so all is not lost.

I'm more of a fan of Dimmu and Behemoth older stuff.

On a side note: I missed Behemoth when they came to my hometown. Damn mother nature and her freezing rain!!

I'll have to disagree that the 2000's suck, at least in terms of music. I wouldn't even have 80% of my favorite music if it weren't for this decade.

The metal genre had a huge uprising of technical/progressive/melodic metal. In fact, it totally redefined those classifications (Before this decade, metal was considered 'progressive' based on how many power ballads were performed in the song, and it was all ridiculously gaudy and too similar). You find musical talent in metal that simply did not exist in the 90s. The 90s were filled with a bunch of repetitive, mind-numbing Thrash and Grind music (I guess trying to distance itself as much as possible from the 80's). Most of the most talented metal bands around didn't even exist before 2000.

Also, the Industrial scene has seen a huge amount of love in the past decade. The amount of Industrial music you can find now is exponentially larger. Sure, a lot of it might just be a bunch of kids messing around with programs, but that's forgivable. Industrial has the broadest scope in terms of how it can sound, in my opinion, which is really refreshing to hear.

There has been a huge change in the Jazz/Fusion genres, too. And underground Hip Hop just keeps getting better.

It's really not that hard to stay away from the kind of music you don't like. Turn off the radio, for once.

EDIT: And it's a good thing I don't care about Black Metal at all, I guess.

It's the kind of crap that gives Metal a bad name (That, and Gore/Grindcore). Most Black Metal takes itself entirely too seriously, and relies waaaay too much on image, and not talent.

And Gorgoroth have been asking to go to jail since their inception. The idiots support the Arson of Churches and literally worship Satan. I'm sure that made me sound like an uptight Christian. I'm not. That's just idiotic.

legoburner wrote:......
And greedily, I have 50mb/sec Internet. In the 90s I had 56kb/sec.

Once upon a time I had a 300 Baud modem and a Compuserve account.

BloodofOrks wrote:

dogma wrote:
- the popular assumption that being religious is equivalent to being fundamentalist (thank you, Richard Dawkins)

Dawkins is just a symptom of a larger problem within the Christian community. The Christian movement, and in particular the evangelical movement have allowed their fringe element to become their public face which has created a negative perception of Christianity (also marrying themselves to a political movement didn't help) and marginalized many more moderate Christians. Hopefully in the next decade we will see Christians rejecting more extreme leaders and getting back to actually working to make the world a better place. Seeing as my Dad will be working as a Priest in the next decade, I can only hope for the best.

I have to say that good priests, rabbis and mullahs (and other faiths including Humanism) IMO do a lot of good for humanity. Once you disregard doctrinal aspects of sin and salvation, we are all poor effing humans trying to rub along and make our way in the world. The best of us try to make it better for everyone. I am not among that number, and I wish I had the character to be there.

2000s does suck mostly because soad broke up and there is hard any good music on the radio any more. I miss the 90s so much

They're just trying to get some respect for the Old Gods!
By the way, it's the fixation on sin and salvation that is keeping us down. Both are illusions that people need to let go of.
I also love high-speed internet, but that does not mean every website needs to cram as much stuff as possible on every page. (I'm looking at you BOLS!)

Chrysaor686 wrote:
There has been a huge change in the Jazz/Fusion genres, too. And underground Hip Hop just keeps getting better.

It's really not that hard to stay away from the kind of music you don't like. Turn off the radio, for once.

EDIT: And it's a good thing I don't care about Black Metal at all, I guess.

It's the kind of crap that gives Metal a bad name (That, and Gore/Grindcore). Most Black Metal takes itself entirely too seriously, and relies waaaay too much on image, and not talent.

And Gorgoroth have been asking to go to jail since their inception. The idiots support the Arson of Churches and literally worship Satan. I'm sure that made me sound like an uptight Christian. I'm not. That's just idiotic.

Yeah, good thing you don't care about black metal . What is music without image? Look at rap/hip hop, tell me that all that "bling", NY baseball caps turned to the side, or extremely baggy cloths does not provide an image with the music. Every genre as an image to go along with the music. Plus there is no talent in a beat box.

Also which Satan are you refering to, the chruch or pagan one? Most paganism is seen at Satanic, even though it is not.