[Rob Instigator]

It is nearly impossible to tell, and sometimes people with a good ear and amazing foresight are able to see possibilities in certain bands or sounds or genres which help them see the onrushing future of music, but it is a tricky business.
It is very hard to guess where the next musical evolution will head. In 1970 there would have been very very few people that could have predicted that a guy with a couple of turntables and a couple of records, would endlessly repeat a 4 second drum break from an old R&B song, while another guy would speak rhymes and boasts over it.
In 1976-78, when the aforementioned was happening, it would have been a shot in the dark to predict that what less than a hundred people in NYC were doing at clubs and house parties would grow to overshadow rock music and take over the consciousness of the entire world.

Right now we are at another crossroads. Somewhere, in some garage, or basement, or bedroom, or tiny dive, in some country anywhere in the world, a few people are mixing up their influences and their musical (or non-musical)tools and conjuring up a new music, something that has yet to take flower, and may never take flower.

I always wonder about this. What is next? while there are always dozens of revivals at any time occuring, and people still seek to perfect older forms, even recent ones, trying to guess what the disaffected and alienated youth of the next ten years will be grokking interests me.

What type of sounds do you think will be coming down the pike?

I used to think that the next mass consciousness msuic, at least in the USA, would involve a convergence of the Tejano/ranchero music, with it's conjunto instrumentation, and asian polyphonic rhythms and traditional acoustic instruments. anything that sounds "fresh" to the kids will be loved by the kids, especially if it is seen as "their own."

I may just be rambling, but I would like to know what you guys, who are much closer to the cutting edge of the new shit than most people I run into, think is coming next.

[demonrail666]

A lot of what we know as popular music stems from the rise of America as a world force after WWII. If it is able to maintain that position then I don't see much change, but if the balance of power shifts elsewhere then its fair to say that things will become quite different, maybe not immediately, but certainly over time.

Popular culture requires a large target audience. At the moment it seems set on satisfying the tastes of American and Western European youths. If another market emerges, which is even bigger, then I assume pop culture will transform itself in order to satisfy its taste.

[ALIEN ANAL]

first person to say robots gets a neg rep

[nicfit]

robots.

[ALIEN ANAL]

you just keep checking those points buddy
who knows when ill strike

[Everyneurotic]

i doubt something as massive as grunge or hip hop will emerge as a single most dominating sound in popular music.

[Glice]

Ah, it's this thread. Comes around about once every 6 months.

I've been surprised to find that I quite enjoy a lot of Bassline and Grime seems to have avoided flash-in-the-pan-ism, so maybe Ibiza Trance is the logical progression? It's certainly the last genre you'd expect to be good again.

Ultimately though, I haven't the energy to think about it.

[HECKLER SPRAY]

Don't worry, the mainstream will collapse in few years. There won't be a big stuff, a Neo New New wave or a New Mega Electro Metal... Only a million of little bands solely listenable on the net...

[ALIEN ANAL]

me and my friend discussed how back in the day elvis swinging his hips was seen as being really bad

and now all these extreme metal heads with blood and yikes knows what going on

so in the future music will be made from samples of rape victims and babies being slaughtered

[nicfit]

Originally Posted by ALIEN ANAL

you just keep checking those points buddy
who knows when ill strike

what's this, cold rep war??
I might as well strike first, then !

[ALIEN ANAL]

you dont frighten me sir
im 2 strikes ahead of you

[pbradley]

I thought you were above the "feverish obsession with novelty" (or however it was worded)? Worrying about the future is such a waste of time. It's more than likely that whatever becomes massively popular is something you dislike or don't care about.

[SYRFox]

I myself can't help but thinking that the future of music will be made of a combination of electronic and electric. Sure, some - lots of - bands mixing those two things already exist, but I think that it's what's coming next.

[Rob Instigator]

"worrying" is your word dude. I am in no way worried or stressed or flustered. I am just curious, and have been ever since I started to see music, like art, and literature, and science, as a constantly evolving , near-living organism. (the past 20+ years)

I find it endlessly fascinating. and yes, there are ways to see the future, and be farsighted about it.

I am not talking about base novelty, I am talking about a completely new musical idiom, new musical languages, like hip hop/rap music did , like no wave did for a few years, like elvis and little richard and chuck berry and buddy holly did.

those who see the future clearer than others can get in on the ground floor.

[StevOK]

Here's to hoping humanity still has one great musical movement left in it. I want another Woodstock type culmination in my lifetime. Not that I want them to be playing the kind of music that was played at Woodstock, mind you.

[acousticrock87]

It's not. I think music has become too diverse to have new movements arising from the shadows. I think there will be blends of a lot of things (particularly rap, electronic, and screamo) with stuff its never touched (latin? jazz? classical?) But overall, it will probably start to diversify even more.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (Mars Volta) kind of has an idea of where it's going at the moment, though. A pallateable mix of salsa, prog, and jazz with traditional guitar rock.

[Rob Instigator]

those type of musical movements will always exist though, the merging and mixing of old genres to create a new flavor, but a flavor is not a new type of music in and of itself.
hip hop was a new thing unto itself, and sure it drew on the past but not in it's inherent structure, which was a new thing, made possible by a couple of DJ's and a few MC's.

house music/dance/electronica did the same thing, created a new musical world, and that too has fragmented, as they all do, into many many offshoots, each expanding their own little corner.

What I am curious about is if any of you have any guesses as to what type of music will be brought forth by the collective human consciousness in the future.
It ussually results from new musical instruments, such as electric guitar, the saxophone, turntables used as instruments, etc.

anyone out there making new musical instruments?

[✌➬]

I can't wait till we have Mariachi and Hip-hop as one.

[gmku]

I think there will be a renewal of interest in the Beatles. We'll see all their albums reissued again, only this time they'll be "better than they've ever sounded."

Mark my words.

[Rob Instigator]

mariachi hop!

you already got hip hop/reggae/salsa mixed up in Reggaeton, out of Puerto Rico!

next thing will be conjunto hop!