Generation X's Greatest Black Musician? Rihanna, In My Humble Opinion.
I'm also a big fan of Michael Jackson, but I think he was a Boomer.
For the first in this series on music:
For my friend and partner
's response/challenge:Now, he asked why a specific genre (rap) was missing from my post. I’ve never really been into it, to be honest. There are a few songs that I like, such as Will Smith/Fresh Prince:
Eminem:
…some old NWA tracks. I do love the Beastie Boys:
…and Linkin Park (I do have their remix/collaboration with Jay-Z, “Collision Course”):
Love this one from House of Pain:
…but it’s more of a hit and miss kind of thing for me. Same thing with country. There are songs that I like, but it’s not something I have in the rotation on a regular basis.
“A part of me wants to throw in Trent Reznor (1965), but he’d probably more be on the lesser half of any best Xer musician list for me rather than the top half.”
This is an interesting one for me. I love NIN, and it also bears mentioning during our exploration of Black History Month that he and Atticus Ross composed the score for “Soul”, which in my opinion is one of the best movies in general, and one of the best movies PIXAR has ever done. They’ve actually done quite a few movies together, including “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, “The Social Network”, and “Bird Box”, among many others.
I also love that Johnny Cash did a cover of one of my all-time favorite songs:
Now, the reason I chose Rihanna as my favorite black artist is: I think she has a beautiful voice, and she’s got an amazing talent on screen too. If you haven’t seen “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”, I highly recommend it. “Ocean’s 8,” as well.
Now, in terms of the greatest Generation X musician, that’s a tough one. You mentioned Nirvana/Kurt Cobain, but I actually think Dave Grohl is the GOAT. Nirvana was part of my angry young man music phase, but Grohl managed to pull something off with one of my favorite bands of all-time, The Foo Fighters:
^^Featuring Tenacious D!!^^
Grohl is a guitarist, drummer, singer, and songwriter. To me, that kind of dedication to one’s craft, over the course of decades, is amazing and awesome. From Wikipedia:
Grohl is a self-taught musician and cannot read music, and instead plays only by ear.
There are so many others. You mentioned Beck, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool, among others, and most of them are in my library LOL
Thanks for the ongoing dialogue about one of my favorite things on the planet: Music.
Love, peace, and guitar grease!
Kilgore
UPDATE: See the next installment in the series here.
Very interesting points, my friend. My response is scheduled for tomorrow. You made one particular big error in your analysis which I failed to catch myself before publication, so I suppose can't hold too much against you... I discuss in tomorrow's post and further challenge some of your points while agreeing with others. For example: you make a good case for Reznor. I'd forgotten about his film score work. That ups him quite a bit I'd say. Also his writing the song of the greatest music video of all time certainly counts for something too.