September 17th, 2007
11. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, Supa Dupa Fly
Supa Dupa Fly offered fans a twofer: a revolutionary beatsmith whose drum patterns, wiggy synthesizers, and electronic flourishes split hip-hop production into two eras (pre-Timbaland and post-Timbaland) and a songwriter, rapper, and singer utterly unlike any previous artist. Together, Timbaland and Elliott formed an unbeatable twosome that, beginning with Supa Dupa Fly's hypnotic title track, cranked out a string of giant hits accompanied by mind-bending, eye-popping videos that wowed highbrow critics and the masses equally. Elliott's star has faded a bit lately, but Timbaland's longevity is astounding: He's been one of the top five hip-hop producers for a solid decade, a formidable feat even if he hadn't branched out to conquer the R&B and pop realms as well.
The puffy outfit hits its zenith
12. Erykah Badu, Baduizm
What Supa Dupa Fly did for hip-hop, Erykah Badu's Baduizm did for what would be dubbed "neo-soul." Badu's unhurried tempos and self-confident lyrics carried a personality that was playful, yet dead serious; so did her honey-rich voice and flexible phrasing. However different Elliott and Badu were individually, together, they made R&B in their own images—which still exert a powerful influence on everyone who's come along since.
13. Mogwai, Young Team
Sigur Rós' Von and Godspeed You Black Emperor!'s F#A#∞ both came out in 1997, but those groundbreaking debuts weren't widely available, and they went virtually unheard that year. Mogwai's Young Team, though, made a big, instant splash on its '97 release, pumping new life into post-rock and shoegaze, two relatively nascent genres that already seemed tired by mid-decade. Genre-splicing aside, Young Team is a force unto itself: Mostly instrumental and adrift in a void of pissed-off yet blissful noise, the Scottish group's inaugural album balances delicacy and thunder with haunting samples and an aura of churning loss. By the time Arab Strap's Aidan Moffett finishes deadpanning on the disc's sole vocal track, "R U Still In 2 It," there's no turning back. Since its release, Young Team has influenced everyone from Explosions In The Sky to Pelican to Bloc Party, whose Kele Okereke recently cited the record as his musical "year zero."
Mogwai Fear Satan at Coachella
14. Daft Punk, Homework
Electronic music has turned out no image more winning than the skeletons and robots dancing around a would-be Busby Berkeley set to Daft Punk's "Around The World." The thing is, the song didn't even need a good video to stick. In 1997, Daft Punk's breakout single and the attendant album Homework sounded a call to revisit dance music's roots in house and disco (as opposed to, say, the rock and rave of acts like The Chemical Brothers and Prodigy). The best songs drew a circle and waited to see what would happen if they kept on spinning. What has happened since, in pretty much every realm of dance music, owes a lot to that same assignment.
Skeletons and robots dancing around a would-be Busby Berkeley set
« Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next »
- Comments