Belly

I'm hoping one of the good things that comes from 8 years of George W. Bush is some great music again. Starting in the late 1980s, after 8 years of Ronald Reagan, popular music went through a six-or-seven year period where music really mattered. New voices emerged and new genres were born - Tracy Chapman, U2, De La Soul, Suzanne Vega, Nirvana, Smashing Pupmkins, A Tribe Called Quest, Sinead O'Connor, Ben Harper, Ani DiFranco, Arrested Development - and music on the radio was really, really good. I don't know if we'll ever get there again - though artists like Kanye West and Ray LaMontagne make me feel like it could - but I think great art emerges from times of great frustration and powerlessness, so we might have some really great American music again sometime around 2010.

I thought of this while listening to Belly today. They don't even make minor two-hit wonders like Belly anymore. Listen to this, and I dare you not to feel joy.