Ten Minute Nostalgia Hits

May 6, 2023 2:07 PM

YouTuber @TheManInMeOfficial has created a series of videos summarizing "Iconic Albums" released each month during different decades. I don't know what the criteria are, but I have to say, the selections are indeed iconic. Each video runs 11m. Most Iconic Album Released Every Month Of The '60s. The 70s. The 80s. The 90s.
posted by hippybear (31 comments total)

I confirm the 1980s selection. I am not qualified for any other decade.
posted by chavenet at 2:15 PM on May 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

The 1990s choices are solid as well.
posted by mbrubeck at 2:50 PM on May 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

I was pleased by the representation of punk, metal rap in the 80s, and punk and funk in the 70s.
posted by COD at 4:01 PM on May 6, 2023

It was interesting, for thec90s, how women-led bands disappeared by about 1995.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:41 PM on May 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Lots of artists with multi-album runs in these videos: Metallica, REM, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, and Megadeth appear repeatedly. Interesting that for NIN, Pretty Hate Machine and Fragile are included but the seemingly more wide-reaching Downward Spiral is not? Soundgarden appears too much and their March 1994 entry is not a great substitute.
posted by migurski at 4:49 PM on May 6, 2023

It really worked out for this person. I mean, it would have sucked if they'd gotten up to the end of the 90s and then... "oh, shit, none of the albums released in April '97 were ICONIC" But that never happened.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 4:51 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Was a little surprised no Depeche Mode or New Order though all of the 1980s. Or maybe I was just moving into some different places during that decade?

(Also how was "Miss You" by the Rolling Stones missed during the 1970s? It was certainly iconic to me when it dropped.)
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:05 PM on May 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

For each decade, there are a few clunker months where The Man in Me had to dig pretty deep and only found.... a couple rather mediocre selections or had to resort to some frankly disposable pop, but in every decade, for easily 9 of every 12 months, there was at least one amazing album.

And some great albums were left off because, well, even though I like the Duran Duran album better, it just wouldn't be right to rank Rio higher than Combat Rock by The Clash.... and there were a lot of great runs of albums, such as the last several months of 1969 which were just MONTH AFTER MONTH of truly amazing albums.

Really, for variety and just banger after banger of incredible albums it's hard to top the run in from February 89 to July 1990 (even if Bleach by Nirvana only really ranks there in hindsight, rather than being a hit at the time), with only one clunker (IMO) of Savatage's Gutter Ballet.

As much as I love the 80s, the only decade on this list that can top the 1965-1975 window is the 1988-1998 window. So many great albums, and I'm glad to see that he's done a decent job of really pulling in from all genres.
posted by tclark at 5:13 PM on May 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

Soundgarden appears too much and their March 1994 entry is not a great substitute.

I will literally fight you, you'll win, but I'll fight you

but yeah this format is fun but not great for generating a full list of iconic albums, Mutations but no Odelay? I can't argue with What's the Story, Morning Glory, but it eclipsed Mellon Collie, etc.
posted by taquito sunrise at 5:13 PM on May 6, 2023

Interesting that for NIN, Pretty Hate Machine and Fragile are included but the seemingly more wide-reaching Downward Spiral is not?

Hot take time.

I'd wager it's because The Fragile, while it may not have been as popular or had a zeitgeisty song like Closer to carry it, was, as a complete work, better than The Downward Spiral.

(Hotter take time: Year Zero was also better than all NIN albums before it.)
posted by tclark at 5:22 PM on May 6, 2023

The 80s was… an era of contrasts.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:27 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

I wonder how many other Iconic Albums were not here because of 1) they were released the same month as another Iconic Album, and 2) how many Iconic Albums weren't even considered by the compiler of these videos due simply to personal taste.
posted by hippybear at 5:40 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

(Hotter take time: Year Zero was also better than all NIN albums before it.)

I feel like With Teeth is the most under appreciated album in the canon, but Year Zero is probably their best album to date. I cannot tear myself away from The Fragile, however, no matter how much I want to.

It's been so long, please let me go.
posted by hippybear at 5:46 PM on May 6, 2023

The 80s one included plenty of stuff I liked, but seemed really heavy on classic rock, hard rock and thrash metal. It also seemed very white, but at the same time had only one country album. Things like random Jerry Garcia album, Journey album that didn’t have Don’t Stop Believing, and ten Megadeath/Metallica/whatever albums all seemed like odd choices. As noted, no New Order seemed weird to me, but I would have included all the New Order albums of the 80s, which would also be weird.
posted by snofoam at 6:47 PM on May 6, 2023

Yeah, one example of album eclipsing is that The Unforgettable Fire is the album chosen, but Welcome To The Pleasuredome came out the same month.
posted by hippybear at 7:10 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

The frequency of album releases by some of the 60's bands, particularly the Beatles of course, really stood out to me. Who today is releasing two albums a year for three years running.
posted by calamari kid at 7:16 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

It was interesting, for thec90s, how women-led bands disappeared by about 1995.

And this is how women are repeatedly written out of history.
posted by Toddles at 7:23 PM on May 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Well, given that Lilith Fair started in, what, 1997? That's entirely on the choices of this editor, not on the reality of what women were achieving in the culture at the time.

It's not perfect at all. But it is a nostalgia pill.
posted by hippybear at 7:27 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Are there good links to something that isn't a 'month = 1 album', but instead something that tries to map progression and relationships between pop music?
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 7:52 PM on May 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

yt has been feeding me this video series and others and as a child of the 70s and teen of the 80s I've been greatly enjoying them.

Prior to 1990 my owned music collection was incredibly dismal, just some lame Columbia House selections I'd gotten (like the non-Best-of-Abba Greatest Hits, Lipps Inc?? Really??), two early Police cassette tapes.

In 1990 things got a little better since I worked at the student union and was able to get the budget to get a CD player for the student arcade, and went to Tower Records to buy ~$2000 worth of CDs, from which I dubbed to tape while at work on my 4-6hr shifts via a nice Walkman I'd bought for this purpose for $200 IIRC.

Then out in the real world in the 1990-00s I was able to pick up CDs here and there, choosing the "Best Ofs" options generally because again, not made of money.

But when watching this series the thought occurred to me it'd be a blast to spend the $$$ to actually buy the CD library of these classic albums I've always wanted, as seen in movies and TV.

But with Apple Music at $10/mo, I guess that's good enough. What I should do is write a program that rips Apple Music streams to .aac 24/7, since I'm paying for it but not using it all that much. Kinda like what I did at the arcade 30+ years ago but more automated, and relentless.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 7:59 PM on May 6, 2023

That was definitely a nostalgia trip. Going through the '70s, I realized that I bought the overwhelming majority of these. With my allowance and judicious skimping on lunch money, I could afford a $5 album most months, although sometimes I settled for a single instead. That all stopped cold in college, when I couldn't afford anything. Then in the '80s, I discovered cassette recording.

It's a good thing I had a connection at the local theater, so I didn't pay for most movies.
posted by Miss Cellania at 3:06 AM on May 7, 2023

I can see why he stopped at the '90s. The last 23 years have not exactly been a high-water mark for popular music and certainly not album-oriented popular music and even more certainly not album art associated with popular music. In short, quality popular music (along with its accoutrements) died when we shifted to the bad timeline on January 1, 2000. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
posted by the sobsister at 8:56 AM on May 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Love this!
posted by photoslob at 9:43 AM on May 7, 2023

That was all fun to listen to, but I have to quibble with whatever definition of "iconic" they're using. A ton of these seem to be there because a particular song got tremendous airplay, but the rest of the album didn't match-up with the hit.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:43 AM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hey, like, random YouTuber has their own criteria. I feel less argumentative about the representation in these videos than I might in a similarly constructed list released by Rolling Stone or NME or whatever.

Honestly, I was much less concerned with any sort of rigid accuracy in these compilations than I was by the feelings they evoked in me.
posted by hippybear at 1:45 PM on May 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

That was all fun to listen to, but I have to quibble with whatever definition of "iconic" they're using

Random youtuber really likes Van Halen and Megadeth.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:03 AM on May 8, 2023

Now I'm tempted to do some data entry and put together a database so I can ask questions like:

1. How often is the "most iconic" album released in some month the same as the bestselling album (over its lifetime) released in that month?
2. What are some highly regarded albums (from critics' best-of lists, maybe) that were released in the same month, meaning that only one of them could be "most iconic"?

posted by The Tensor at 2:58 PM on May 8, 2023

I don't think the phrase "most iconic" is used at any point in these videos.
posted by hippybear at 7:14 PM on May 9, 2023

It’s in the title of each video (as you quoted in this MetaFilter post): “Most Iconic Album Released Every Month Of The ___”
posted by mbrubeck at 8:03 PM on May 9, 2023

Ack. Well, this was obviously a very subjective measure of "most". Again, it's from an internet rando, not from some kind of musical authority like a popular publication of any sort.
posted by hippybear at 8:16 PM on May 9, 2023

And, as I mentioned above... Welcome To The Pleasuredome is quite Iconic, but is not on this list because another album this author deemed to be More Iconic was released the same month. I'm sure there are a lot of examples of such if people really wanted to do the research.

But, I mean... why? To what end?
posted by hippybear at 8:19 PM on May 9, 2023