The most excellent Brandon Harris asked his followers for musical “must pick one” binary choices. My thoughts (I refuse to pick!):<\/p>\n
Both choices are earthshaking performer vs. musical creator.<\/p>\n
MJ delivered two faultless albums and many great songs, but he never made anything so unique as e.g. Anotherloverholeinyohead.<\/p>\n
If you listen to the Beatles’ albums in sequence, around Rubber Soul they unfold wings and soar higher… and keep doing it for five albums<\/em>. I think musical groups throughout the seventies struggled with “okay they’re on Mount Olympus, what the f*** do we do down here?” Rock even harder, go back to roots, go further with progressive rock, import the jazz they never did to make jazz-rock or jazz-funk, and explore performance they abandoned with glam rock, UFO stage sets, etc.<\/p>\n Duran Duran made more good songs, but Adam and the Ants were hugely influential in Europe. Duran Duran wanted everyone to become a fan, while Adam and the Ants explicitly made hermetic music for its tribe (“that music’s lost its taste, so try another flavor \u2013 Ant music!”, “A new royal family, a wild nobility We are the family … Antpeople are the warriors, Antmusic is the banner”). It encouraged bands to be more niche, more extreme, and many genres bloomed: new romantics, electropop, deep jazz, Northern soul (Dexy’s Midnight Runners), ska …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The most excellent Brandon Harris asked his followers for musical “must pick one” binary choices. My thoughts (I refuse to pick!): Johnny Cash or Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson or Prince Both choices are earthshaking performer vs. musical creator. MJ delivered … Continue reading Duran Duran or Adam and the Ants<\/h3>\n