The Music Futurist: The New Acoustic Popular Music (Part 9)

By Don Robertson

Say Goodbye! to hard rock as it writhes in dying pain and bid Hello! to Americana, the new acoustic popular music. Thank God you have arrived.

In the previous articles of the New Acoustic Popular Music series, I discussed the emergence of new music that is widely divergent from the typical commercial offerings brought to us by corporate America. It is acoustic music that is mainly based on the roots music of Southeastern America. We find that it is innovative, fresh and young. Most of the musical members of this genre are under 30 years of age, or were when they started their careers. In this and the following articles in this series, I will continue to introduce this new generation of music.

Solo singers with major talent and great voices have returned to the stage after the years of assault by hard-rock bands with crappy voices thatdrowned out by fuzz-tone guitars. In the next two posts I review the phenomenon of the new bred of solo singers.

David Gray

English singer David Gray came along in 1993 when at 25 he released his first album. His first two albums were acoustic folk-music albums and were not commercially successful. However, with the release of his great White Ladder album in 1998, he reached commercial success.

"Babylon" by David Gray

Robbie Williams

English singer Robbie Williams began singing with the band "Take That" in 1990. This band was known for the great single "Back for Good":

"Back For Good" by Take That

Williams left the group in 1996 and began a solo career. His first six albums all reached number one status in England. Robbie Williams is one of the most successful and highest-paid singers in the entire world, having sold over 75,000,000 records, yet he is scarcely known in the USA, where much good music had gone into status during the stranglehold that six huge entertainment corporations have had over the country's citizenry. If you live in America and haven't experienced Robbie Williams, check him out:

"Angels" by Robbie Williams from his great concert filmed at Knebworth in England

"My Way" Tribute to Sinatra in the Royal Albert Hall in England

Lara Fabian

Here is one of the greatest (and most beautiful) singers in the world, and yet she, like Robbie Williams, has been unable to gain much attention in this country of ours, so distracted by the music offered by corporate greed. This will change, however, as more and more people seek out music that works well on the feeling level. She's from Belgium and sings in an assortment of languages. This great song (covered in the USA by American singer Josh Groban) was composed by Lara and is called "Broken Vow." If she doesn't get under your skin, then I don't know what would:

"Broken Vow" by Lara Fabian

Lara is famous in Europe for her rendition of Serge Lama's song "Je suis malade." There are over 3,000,000 YouTube views on the following video at this writing, in case you are wondering if she is famous in Europe:

"Je Suis Malade" by Lara Fabian

James Blunt

English singer James Blunt is awesome. From England, he burst on the scene in 2004 with his song "You Are Beautiful," which rendered him famous worldwide. In 2008 he sang at the great annual bastille day concert in Paris on the champs du mars below le tour eiffel:

"Carry You Home" in Paris 2008 Bastille Day at the Champs du Mars with James Blunt

Ed Sheeran

This young English singer began releasing recorded music in 2011 when he was 20-years old. This video "Thinking Out Loud" has had over one-billion hits while I write this:

"Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran

Bon Iver

The American band Bon Iver is basically the work of lead singer Justin Vernon. Bon Iver's first album was released in 2007. In 2011 the band received four grammy nominations with two wins. This is great popular music on the path to the ears of the world:

This "Holocene" video from 2011 has over twenty-million hits at this writing

The following session at AIR studios in England has had over six-million views. Please listen to Vernon's piano work on this video. This is truly new music:

Session at AIR Studios

I will continue with "The Singer Revolution" in the next episode of "The New Acoustic Popular Music" I will continue to present videos that I hope you will love and enjoy as I do.

Enjoy the music. There is a lot more to come.

So for now, "Good music. Good Vibes." I'm Don Robertson.