dankrsta

I agree. That's why I don't follow the scene that much like I did in the 90's. Actually my favorite post-rock bands are all formed in the 90's. (Gastr Del Sol, Tortoise, Slint, Labradford, Trans Am, Godspeed You Black Emperour, Windy & Carl, Bardo Pond, Mogwai, Jessica Bailiff, Pan American, Ui, Stereolab, etc.) It was a much more exciting scene then, because it wasn't so much a genre but more of a phenomenon (as the prefix 'post' suggests) in the 90's underground music. It was a reaction to the loud 80's underground (noise, hardcore, math-rock, shoegaze etc) that was starting to break into the mainstream, although the post-rock pioneers all came from those scenes and their musical language came from those styles with very diverse influences from jazz, dub, electronic music, avantgarde and most importantly kraut-rock. They took that minimal and repetitive approach of kraut-rock and electronica and applied it to rock idioms, they made noise sound beautiful and quiet, slowed it down, sprawled it, made it minimalistic, more abstract and ambient. There was more diversity - jazz/dub/funky influenced post-rock, electronic influenced, drum&bass influenced, experimental, cosmic rock, drone, neo-krautrock, ambient etc. All these styles were considered post-rock, because the term, just like 'post-punk' covered a variety of expressions and an attitude and relationship to previous period in music (namely loud 80's underground rock and punk in the case of 'post-punk').

But, in this decade the 'post-rock sound' have become more unified, with identifiable set of rules in composition and idioms, and thus a proper genre. This development is, I'm guessing, a result of a major influence from Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperour. A great strenght of post-rock - minimalism and repetitivness - has become a weakness, because there is only so much you can do before it loses its freshness and becomes too repetitive, too flat and boring. Also, the development towards more and more ambiental music is a problem for me, because post-rock is becoming a soundtrack, a background music for pictures (when your music needs a picture to complete it, then your music is in trouble). Several posters in this thread have commented that they listen to post-rock as a background music for reading or doing something else. And I don't blame them, because when you actually pay attention to its music (well the majority from this decade), it's pretty boring and lacking in impact. So, how long before post-rock becomes elevator music.