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I will point out that Europe is still a major force in music. Particularly in the realm of electronic dance music; DJs and producers like David Guetta (French), Martin Garrix (Dutch), Armin Van Buuren (Dutch), R3HAB (Dutch of Moroccan ancestry), Alesso (Swedish), Tiësto (Dutch), Sebastian Ingrosso (Swedish), Ofenbach (French), the recently disbanded Daft Punk (French) and the late Avicii (Swedish) have all been massive figures in dance-pop music for decades, including composing and producing mega-hits with famous artists from America, the UK, Australia, etc.
Yes, this is not a cultural achievement on the level of the great European orchestral music tradition, nor even of the intellectually-stimulating European high cinema of the 20th century, but I think it’s at least as respectable as Spaghetti Westerns, and certainly considerably more popular and lucrative.
Music is dead as a cultural touchcpoint.
I think this is a delusional take, and that major music artists are still an extremely important part of the cultural zeitgeist. I don’t know what it would take to convince you otherwise.
Really? Dylan, Hendrix, The Beatles, etc all touched culture. They molded it and it molded them and what was spit out changed the world. You can’t help when you think of Vietnam thinking of the soundtrack to Vietnam.
Today? There is some small commercial stuff. You see people trying to make statements but it comes off less organic and more “we are supposed to stand for something.”
Who is the soundtrack of the 2020s?
I mean I have some idea but that's more like 2010s.
A fairly niche band and not even its most recognizable song?
If you think people at large know any other MGMT song better than Little Dark Age, you're not paying attention to zoomer culture.
It's a meme song at this point, has specific (if unintended) political salience and enough cultural impact that a whole genre of musical videos is named after it.
You want the equivalent of Dylan's boomer hymns, this is it.
I doubt I qualify as such. Having heard this song before and refreshing on it today, it is resoundingly below mediocre. I mean, Dylan is also generally bad so I guess it appeals to a similar sort of person maybe. I've always heard boomers call Dylan a "poet" or something similar. This seems to be popular, to the extent it is, because it conveys a sort of sense of ennui.
I give it a mildly resounding "meh"
The subjective musical merits are, as you rightfully point out, totally irrelevant to our discussion of cultural impact.
You can say the Matrix is a mediocre blend of Neuromancer, GITS and John Woo movies all you want, it's still a cultural touchstone.
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