Music That Is "Ahead of Its Time"
 

Red Krayola's A Parable of Arable Land seems an obvious choice

there's still nothing much that sounds like it today, though

What kind of music did krayola influence btw? I don't know much about them.


I think this song is the first thing I think of when I think about ahead of its time. It sounds like it could have been released today never mind 32 years ago

they're mostly free-form freak-outs, on the first album anyway - i dunno, ambient noise is influenced by them, I suppose

God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It definitely influenced a lot of punk/New Wave

My Generation-era Who were effectively the first punks, and so they were (kinda) ahead of their time in that respect.

I`ve been listening to my early Talking Heads albums again recently and its still amazes me just how ahead of their time that band actually were. In fact the period 1977 to 1980 threw up a whole host of bands the pushed musical boundries.

Red Krayola were great, I`m not a huge fan of Velvet Underground as you know, But the White Light/White Heat album must surely rank as the single biggest influence on the late 70s new-wave and post-punk movements.

White Noise are the first band that come to mind when I think of music ahead of it's time. This track is from 1968 and sounds shockingly trip-hop-ish to me:

I agree. In fact, I think that the psychedelic pieces in that album are closer to post-punk than psychedelic rock. That's just the vibe that I got from them, though. Occasionally, when I want to listen to some post-punk, I tend to play that album along with many others...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Odyshape (Post 1127136) What kind of music did krayola influence btw? I don't know much about them.

Well, I know for a fact that they influenced Pere Ubu, Chrome, and The Raincoats. However, I can't specifically say who or what else they influenced... but I can say that their first two releases contain early examples of: punk rock and new wave, industrial music, noise rock, noise, post-punk, and indie/alternative rock. They were also helped pioneer free improvisation, which was a relatively young genre at the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Il Duce (Post 1127137) God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It definitely influenced a lot of punk/New Wave

I think it's their best album actually.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon (Post 1127193) White Noise are the first band that come to mind when I think of music ahead of it's time. This track is from 1968 and sounds shockingly trip-hop-ish to me:

Delia Derbyshire = amazing

I think that The United States of America and Silver Apples rank among them as well. I mean... Silver Apples were basically a more psychedelic version of Suicide. Also... they pretty much invented minimal synth, and they helped pioneer electronic dance music.

Surely 'Marquee Moon' by Television is "ahead of it's time"?

Also, 'The Modern Lovers'.

In fact both Television and Velvet Underground were ahead of their time.


Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane (alternate outro) - YouTube

Both were ahead of their time, but I can never listen to the Modern Lovers as I really dislike the vocals.

Really? I like Jonathan Richman's voice quite a bit.

I think David Bowie was ahead of his time. If he put out his albums today (and updated the production), I think they would fit in perfectly. His appearance is another story...

I try not to let the vocals cloud my judgement of a band if the music and idea is good, but in this case I find the vocals a real turn-off and have never gotten into the Modern Lovers largely for that reason, luckily they only made one album and David Robinson went off to form the Cars.

He`s really the obvious choice for this thread really and his image was shocking and controversial for the early 1970s, today somebody with this image would probably just get laughed at for being too corny.

Agree 100% on the Talking Heads

I would put Fates Warning on the list, who is beyond underrated in the world of progressive metal. and I absolutely credit them with being the first true prog-metal band, and you rarely hear anything about them anywhere. They were called the American Iron Maiden, but the depth of their music goes well beyond Maiden's, Compare this to what Maiden were doing in '86. I also like John Arch's vocals better than Dickenson's.

I have to say that muse was ahead of its time and still is.

I think I'm one of the few that was a huge fan of Fates Warning in the late 80's. Retrospectively it's hard to compare Iron Maiden and Fates Warning, as Maiden was far more accessible, had much more tangible lyrics, and as far as musical styles are concerned are concerned were much more anthemic, but at the time Fates Warning was in fact the closest living American relative to Iron Maiden.

I agree that Fate's Warning were far ahead of their time, which explains why they didn't cultivate more of a fan base. Revisiting their music, it hasn't aged as well as you think it would have, but the concepts are to to this day still quite fresh and progressive. No Exit is one of the very few 80's metal albums I still own.

Hmm... How can you not mention Silver Apples?



Stared doing music like this in 1968.

Chrome were ahead of their time, precursors of Industrial for one.

Apologies, didn't notice the mention of Apples.

I'd also like to throw Ligeti in the hat. A lot of what he was doing in the 50s-60s as a composer was astonishingly original, and breaches into a lot of ambient/thematic areas a lot of people were not willing to for awhile.

Fifty Foot Hose were pretty original and experimental for the mid-late 60s. I guess they never really got that popular though so I don't know if you can really consider them ahead of their time.

But, but... industrial music technically began in 1976 with Throbbing Gristle's somewhat extensive list of cassette releases. Some people even go so far as to say that industrial music started in the early 70s with Cluster/Kluster's early albums... Half Machine Lip Moves wasn't released until 1979... several years after the genre was created. However... you could say that Chrome was a few years ahead of their time in a sense that they were early pioneers of noise rock and post-punk.

Popularity is irrelevant in this situation. Luigi Russolo was what? Fifity or sixty years ahead of his time? And yet he was still rather unpopular... In fact, people in the audience would boo at him and start a bit of a ruckus during his performances.

You could look at it like cult classic films in that they don't get popular until later, thus being ahead of its time, but I understand what you're saying.

Anyways, here's rapping in 1968.

You can judge it in terms of popularity though. It's only one way to do it. For your example of Russolo, he was a pioneer, sure, but if he's not well received in any real time period, then he himself is not ahead of his time as an artist in terms of popularity, but rather he made music that was ahead of its time in style. If he was never received well by any audience, then he's not ahead of his time (again, in terms of popularity).

Haha yeah there was really no reason for arguing over this. Your's is the more common view of it. Not sure why I was thinking that way going into this thread anyways.

Those drums are unreal

They formed in 75, releasing their first album in 76. They are seen as forerunners for the wave of bands that were to give the burgeoning scene an identity in the late 70s/early 80s. The melding of rock instrumentation with synthesized, heavily manipulated sound was not only an influence on Industrial, but as you said, Noise Rock too.

And Cluster were a band ahead of their time, but not because they invented industrial. Kluster were more proto-industrial, but Cluster were more into ambient, 'kosmische' electronics and subtle rhythms.

Joe Meek for sure.

Amazed he's not been mentioned.

Joe Meek veritably invented the psychadellic record style with 'I Hear a New World'. Which, imo, achieved everything that Pet Sounds did 5 years earlier.

It's only a shame the album was largely non-lyrical therefore dooming it to commercial failure, and forcing the commercial rock world to pick up the pace a half decade later.

Fleetwood Mac - You Make Loving Fun - YouTube

There are very few pre-1980 songs I like. That is one of them, because it sounds like it could be from the early 80's (for a while, I didn't realize it was from the seventies). The pacing and length later became standard for pop-rock songs, the guitar-playing feels ahead of its time somehow, and singing about sex was ahead of its time for the genre.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...tT_hTQe5e8Nx5w

No matter what people think of Pink Floyd especially post- Barrett, there is no denying the sonic sound of Interstellar Overdrive or the quaint, melancholic charm of Bike or The Gnome. The British music scene especially 'the bedroom poets' of the 80's and 90's were hugely influenced by Barrett's unique style and delivery. David Bowie has always cited him as a massive influence and he has influenced enough artists himself.