Greatest Musical Geniuses for Each Decade

[AlphaMale]

In your opinion, state the greatest musical geniuses of each decade. It is not by birth but a period when they were active. Feel free to explain why next to their name


Template:

1900 -
1910 -
1920 -
1930 -
1940 -
1950 -
1960 -
1970 -
1980 -
1990 -
2000 -


Mine:

The fact that "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Strauss was composed in the 1890's made it a lot easier.

1900 - Bela Bartok and Arnold Schoenberg tie. (Bartok for his 3rd Bagatelle and Arnold Schoenberg for the fourth movement of his second string quartet. Both in the year 1908 were the two first atonal pieces composed.)
1910 - Igor Stravinsky (Rite of Spring, Petrushka, and Firebird all in that decade.)
1920 - Louis Armstrong and George Gershwin
1930 - Robert Johnson
1940 - Thelonius Monk (Composition of 'Round Midnight at 19)
1950 - Charles Mingus and "Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker"
1960 - Dmitri Shostakovich and John Coltrane (Sorry beatles fans)
1970 - Stevie Wonder and Frank Zappa
1980 - Discharge (for the influence on Punk as well as metal bands)
1990 - I dont' know..
2000 - The Beatles for Making no new music in the past 30 years but making the best selling musical release of the decade.


I'm honestly not familiar with music after 1970, well nothing genius so don't take anything I said after that seriously.


I really wanted to put in more rock, but I couldn't really find any musician/bands that created enough music to be considered the greatest geniuses of the decade.

[ksandvik]

... not including Beatles in the sixties as they influenced nearly anything out there today?? Zappa was pretty active in the eighties. And whether you like Punk or not it had a big influence on what is out there today, maybe not genius concerning musical tonality but genius concerning creating a movement that became big.

[dancehallclasher]

I'm biased towards songwriting rather than musicianship... Not too familiar with the early decades but today I'm feeling like:

1940 - Woody Guthrie
1950 - Miles Davis
1960 - Jimi Hendrix (my nod to great musicianship)
1970 - Tom Verlaine
1980 - Johnny Marr (the acme of guitar pop)
1990 - Fugazi as a whole (5 albums of an elemental, original sound)
2000 - John Darnielle (incredibly prolific, BRILLIANT lyrics)

Bob Dylan is conspicuously absent, only because it's hard to choose a decade for him!

[Munjibunga]

The three most overused words in the English language:

1. hero
2. diva
3. genius

[Otso]

Originally Posted by AlphaMale

1900 - Bela Bartok and Arnold Schoenberg tie. (Bartok for his 3rd Bagatelle and Arnold Schoenberg for the fourth movement of his second string quartet. Both in the year 1908 were the two first tonal pieces composed.)

You propably meant atonal pieces. Atonality wasn't exactly invented by them, it was something that evolved. For example Wagner and Debussy already get very atonal in their music.
Beside Schönbergs dodecaphonic works are a lot more important, the whole idea went on to develop into serialism, and also in this case it was Schönberg's invention, not something that just happened to be in the air.

[AlphaMale]

Originally Posted by ksandvik

... not including Beatles in the sixties as they influenced nearly anything out there today?? Zappa was pretty active in the eighties. And whether you like Punk or not it had a big influence on what is out there today, maybe not genius concerning musical tonality but genius concerning creating a movement that became big.

Regarding punk, I included Discharge...
And I can't say that the Beatles were more genius than the jazz greats at the time. I'm not concerned with the music that is "out there today." Most of what is "out there today." is not very interesting. I picked Coltrane because even though the beatles had some cool albums. John Coltrane created some of the most genius work of the 60's.

In 1959 he had just got done experimenting with modal jazz, with Kind of Blue on Miles Davis' album but even ignoring that since it wasn't in the decade. You have.

Giant Steps 1960
My Favorite things 1961
Live at the Village Vanguard 1961
Coltrane 1962
Ballads 1962
Impressions 1963
Live At Birdland 1964
A love Supreme 1965
Ascension 1965
Expression 1967

I chose Dizzy and Charlie because their innovations took jazz back from the pop music world and brought it to an intellectual level forcing other jazz musicians to raise their musician.


It's just opinions.

Originally Posted by Otso

You propably meant atonal pieces. Atonality wasn't exactly invented by them, it was something that evolved. For example Wagner and Debussy already get very atonal in their music.
Beside Schönbergs dodecaphonic works are a lot more important, the whole idea went on to develop into serialism, and also in this case it was Schönberg's invention, not something that just happened to be in the air.

Yeah of course, it was a typo, like when you said propably. It's not a big deal. I was referring to serialism. The first attempt at intentionally organizing and using every note was by Bartok making it just as an important innovation as when Schoenberg popularized it.

[Otso]

Originally Posted by AlphaMale

Yeah of course, it was a typo, like when you said propably. It's not a big deal. I was referring to serialism. The first attempt at intentionally organizing and using every note was by Bartok making it just as an important innovation as when Schoenberg popularized it.

Atonality and Schönberg's dodecaphonic system are two different things, although dodecaphony is atonal. Also serialism doesn't only mean the systematic organization of harmony, but of every variable in music. Dodecaphony as an idea, the tone-row, a series of strictly organized tones inspired doing the same for the other variables in music, duration, dynamics and so forth resulting in works such as Messiaen's "Mode de valeurs et d'intensités". Just trying to eliminate the hierarchy present in tonal music (the harmonic functions, and the tonal centre/centres) by using the entire selection of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale doesn't make it serialist.
Sure Bartók wasn't the most tonal composer, but serialist? No.

[AlphaMale]

Originally Posted by Otso

Atonality and Schönberg's dodecaphonic system are two different things, although dodecaphony is atonal. Also serialism doesn't only mean the systematic organization of harmony, but of every variable in music. Dodecaphony as an idea, the tone-row, a series of strictly organized tones inspired doing the same for the other variables in music, duration, dynamics and so forth resulting in works such as Messiaen's "Mode de valeurs et d'intensités". Just trying to eliminate the hierarchy present in tonal music (the harmonic functions, and the tonal centre/centres) by using the entire selection of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale doesn't make it serialist.
Sure Bartók wasn't the most tonal composer, but serialist? No.

I'm talking about a specific piece, and you're talking about his general work.
Have you heard the piece?


http://www.classicalmidiconnection.c...tok/bag6_3.mid

"Bartók was "the first composer to use a group of twelve notes consciously for a structural purpose," in 1908 with the third of his fourteen bagatelles."

From wikipedia citing the book Neighbour, Oliver. 1955. "The Evolution of Twelve-Note Music"

[iamlowsound]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

The three most overused words in the English language:

1. hero
2. diva
3. genius

Quoted for truth. Although I am a member of Mensa, so I am aloud to call myself a genius.

lowsound

[Bluesy Soul]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

The three most overused words in the English language:

1. hero
2. diva
3. genius

...just ahead of "Dude" and "...like".

Bluesy Soul

[Bluesy Soul]

nope- rule 2 and rule 1m please re-read. - Blisshead

[iamlowsound]

Originally Posted by Bluesy Soul

edited by Blisshead

Bluesy Soul

I was joking. Not a member, I have looked into taking the test, but I don't feel like spending the money.

lowsound

[derelicte]

Originally Posted by AlphaMale

In your opinion, state the greatest musical geniuses of each decade. It is not by birth but a period when they were active. Feel free to explain why next to their name

I really wanted to put in more rock, but I couldn't really find any musician/bands that created enough music to be considered the greatest geniuses of the decade.

Prolific artists =/= genius.

My vote goes for John Mayer for 2000. That is all I can be sure of coming close to TRUE MUSICAL GENIUS. His compositions and mastery of his instrument at his age takes a certain amount of virtuosity to accomplish.

[dancehallclasher]

Well this thread is a runaway success so far. How about more people post some freaking lists?

[Bluesy Soul]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

I was joking. Not a member, I have looked into taking the test, but I don't feel like spending the money.

lowsound

The seriousness of my response is deirectly proportional to the seriousness of your original post.

Bluesy Soul

[sir juice]

I don't know anything about geniuses, but in terms of people making fantastic music.
I'm not too hot with dates or years, especially with classical stuff, there might be some mistakes.

here are mine:
1900 - Buddy Bolden
1910 - not too sure
1920 - Sergei Prokofiev
1930 - Olivier Messiaen/Louis Armstrong
1940 - Thelonious Monk
1950 - Charles Mingus/Malcolm Arnold
1960 - The Beatles/Malcolm Arnold
1970 - John Adams
1980 - Wynton Marsalis (primarily as a performer, but some overlap as a composer)
1990 - D'angelo (mainly as a producer, in bringing together some fine musicians)
2000 - Damon Albarn (all of his post-Blur stuff)

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

Quoted for truth. Although I am a member of Mensa, so I am aloud to call myself a genius.

lowsound

I was in Mensa years ago, then I said something stupid at a party and they kicked me out.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by derelicte

Prolific artists =/= genius.

My vote goes for John Mayer for 2000. That is all I can be sure of coming close to TRUE MUSICAL GENIUS. His compositions and mastery of his instrument at his age takes a certain amount of virtuosity to accomplish.

Oh for the love of Judas H. Priest! Here's an example of his "genius." This is the second worst song of all time.

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's hard to beat the system
when we're standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want

that's why we're waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's not that we don't care,
we just know that the fight ain't fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

and we're still waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

The only song dumber than that one is:

Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed,
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants

[Chorus]
MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down...
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing checkers by the trees

[Chorus]

There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one.

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky.
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why.

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down...
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
Oh, no
No, no
Oh NO!!

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

Oh for the love of Judas H. Priest! Here's an example of his "genius." This is the second worst song of all time.

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could...

...and, apparently, a Curtis Mayfield ("People Get Ready") rip-off.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by AlphaMale

1910 - Igor Stravinsky (Rite of Spring, Petrushka, and Firebird all in that decade.)
1940 - Thelonius Monk (Composition of 'Round Midnight at 19)
1950 - Charles Mingus and "Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker"

Not that it matters-
I would say Bird was a genius in the '40s...he died in 1955 & I would say the last 5 years of his life were "not genius".
Also in the '40s...DUKE!

1910-I would add Charles Ives.