The first golden age of the music industry was probably the 80s, I say "first" because I believe there is another golden age coming very soon. When you think of the history of music as an industry, and see it evolve from tangible objects to digital bits and now streaming digital bits, I see a lot of potential parallels to currency. This is one of the reasons I am so excited about cryptocurrencies.
But I'm going to stick to the topic at hand. I made a playlist of my favorite songs, a lot of them are 80s based, I mixed it with different eras and also included 3 songs of my own "Sown" "Blood" and "I Will Run."
The playlist includes Aphex Twin, Notorious B.I.G, The Knife, Death Grips, John Carpenter, Chromatics, Bowie, Suicide, Prince, Caribou, Giorgio Moroder, Radiohead and more.
Click here to listen https://open.spotify.com/user/wvm_/playlist/53hwIAinmQ3LoMdRk5NdIZ
If you are on Spotify be sure to follow the playlist as I am continually adding new songs as I think of them. You can also follow me here https://open.spotify.com/artist/25c3OWKZOyl3hDJHTJe3ui
Every one of these songs on the playlist are songs that I never get tired of listening to, from Aphex Twin's "Xtal," which is a beautifully minimal masterpiece that defies a lot of rules in mixing to John Carpenter's "The President is Gone." one of the earliest great electronic music soundtracks to make a huge impact not only in future soundtracks but countless electronic artists and albums. Some of my biggest inspirations are Prince and David Bowie, if you listen to "Sown" it's sort of a cross between 80s Bowie with a bit of Prince thrown in but I think with all my songs I have my own voice and style. Still, as an artist you can't escape inspiration and Bowie and Prince run deep for me. For example if you listen to "Swing Swan Song" by CAN you can hear a lot of the influence they had on Radiohead. Below are some of my thoughts on select tracks from the playlist
David Bowie - China Girl
I am going to add more Bowie songs in the future to the playlist but I wanted to start with "China Girl." What a mesmerizing album this was, it's one of those albums where you can clearly hear the differences between inspired works and those that are paint by numbers.
Prince - Controversy
I like the way he mixed so many genres together, I always get a slight sci-fi feel when I listen to this song.
WVM - Blood
One of my songs, I poured a lot of my heart and soul into it, the subject matter something very personal but I felt the need to write about it.
Notorious B.I.G - Juicy
I first heard this song during the Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko fight as Joshua walked in to this track, haven't stopped listening since.
The Knife - Got 2 Let U
This is the song that got me hooked to The Knife, funky electro done at it's best.
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