Teenagers and Musical Tastes

[MarkMgibson]

Originally Posted by zachoff

My 15 year old daughter likes crap music. Bieber and One Direction sort of stuff. She pretty much hates everything I listen to.

That's probably as it should be really. Parents are supposed to hate the music their kids listen to, and vice versa.

[Luke19Boarder]

Originally Posted by Tupac

You can't be a bassist and listen to only modern music today, creative basslines have slipped away from popularity.

I would agree if the radio was the only way to listen to new music.

There are plenty of awesome current bands that have awesome bassists. It just takes a little bit of searching to find them.

[jmattbassplaya]

Originally Posted by GK Growl

Before you get the idea that this is an old fart bashing the music of the "yewts" (I'm sorry....yoooouuuths) thread, it is not. I'm 41 (old fart) and my son is soon to be 15. He's a bassist (starting on upright several years ago, now plays electric bass only in school Jazz band). He also plays a little guitar and keyboard but bass is his thing.

Now to the meat of the thread. I've noticed that in his circle of friends, the ones that are musical and into rock music absolutely love the music that I grew up with!! I couldn't imagine being his age and digging anything my dad liked. Aren't we supposed to hate our parents music? I actually like more modern rock than he does. As I'm typing this, I can hear him playing along to Orion by Metallica. Earlier it was Sweet Child O' Mine and Give it Away. Before that it was Skynrd!!

Here's a list of what he's playing this week:

Orion
Sweet Child O' Mine
Peace Sells
Wake Up Dead
Give it Away
YYZ
Simple Man
Mr. Brownstone


Is this because of guitar hero or what? It boggles my mind. And no, I don't have a problem with any music he might want to learn.

Wow! Your son and the 15 year old me (I'm 22 now) should have started a band! I knew each one of those songs by that age, too. Thinking back on it, I was getting into all those bands by the time I was in middle school, which was at least a good 2-3 years before the first Guitar Hero came out. I think good music is simply good music. Pieces like Fur Elise and Beethoven's 9th are still well-known by many people, and I think that really has to do with the timelessness that really great works of art have. The mundane works will always fade into obscurity, and the great ones will live on.

[jmattbassplaya]

Originally Posted by oniman7

As a teenager (17), I'm into all of the above other than maybe Skynyrd (and I'm in their hometown, so you better believe I hear about them... we have a venue here called Freebird that I believe was run by a band member's wife for a while).

Anyways, I also dig King Crimson, Black Sabbath, etc. but I'm into a lot of newer stuff like Avenged Sevenfold, Rage Against the Machine, Protest the Hero, Opeth, Symphony X, Katatonia.

I tend to like progressive music and hard rock

The funny thing is, none of those bands are all that new, either lol. Rage's first album dropped in (I believe) 1992!

[Kwesi]

The world of music has expanded VASTLY since around 1960, or so I would think. Folks who were bug fans of genre x wouldn't listen to a whole bunch from genre y. Now we've got tons of music, tons of ways to find that music and tons of ways get to that music. Access has given everyone with an internet connection the ability to familiarize themselves with music from all over the world and from hundreds of years ago.

Personally, I dig a lot of the music my parents listen to. I also dislike a lot of the music they listen to. The same goes for them. Were one big melting pot now, or at least we're getting very close.

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by Tupac

...creative basslines have slipped away from popularity.

For a guy who hasn't been playing bass all that long you sure have some strong opinions.

[Kenzy]

Originally Posted by Kwesi

For a guy who hasn't been playing bass all that long you sure have some strong opinions.

Kwesi used Credibility Check. It's super effective!

[jmattbassplaya]

Originally Posted by Kwesi

For a guy who hasn't been playing bass all that long you sure have some strong opinions.

[jmclearnon]

For most cases of the biggest selling hits i would have to agree. Compared to decades ago were everything in the charts have great lines like Chic hits . even Dead or Alive played synth bass lines more interesting than most new stuff.

There is still really good music being made atm but in terms of popularity its not on the front lines anymore. That saddens me.

[pklima]

Originally Posted by jmclearnon

For most cases of the biggest selling hits i would have to agree. Compared to decades ago were everything in the charts have great lines like Chic hits . even Dead or Alive played synth bass lines more interesting than most new stuff.

Maybe interesting isn't good. "Interesting" basslines have been tried and found wanting. Now, they're living fossils like horseshoe crabs or lungfish, they supposedly survive in some small weird niche that they happen to fill, but those niches are small and weird enough that nobody I know has ever actually seen one in real life.

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by Kenzy

Kwesi used Credibility Check. It's super effective!

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

#swag

[MarkMgibson]

Originally Posted by jmclearnon

For most cases of the biggest selling hits i would have to agree. Compared to decades ago were everything in the charts have great lines like Chic hits . even Dead or Alive played synth bass lines more interesting than most new stuff.

There is still really good music being made atm but in terms of popularity its not on the front lines anymore. That saddens me.

True enough. There's certainly good music out there, but it's takes some searching to find it. That wasn't the case in the 60's or 70's. You only have to look at the album charts, and work your way back.

[Tupac]

Originally Posted by Kwesi

For a guy who hasn't been playing bass all that long you sure have some strong opinions.

Well if you wanted an inside opinion from the discussed crowd, there it is.

[MarkMgibson]

Let's face it, the idea is musical virtuosity is practically frowned upon in most rock circles these days. As for Hip-hop, those clowns just steal other people's bass lines (and drum tracks, and guitar riffs). They don't actually invent anything new (certainly not melody, it doesn't exist). So it's no surprise that any aspiring musician would look back to the days when music was played by musicians, rather than just sounds being programmed into a computer.

Even people on this forum think using electronic drum tracks and a computer program equals "professional quality recording". That's a sad state of affairs, and I'm glad young musicians see through this modern drivel - more power to them.

[ShredderMaximus]

This reminds me of a conversation I was having with a co-worker of mine about how alot of the younger kids we work with hardly knew who Jimi Hendrix was. After some talking he ended up saying, "you can't really blame them, it was before their time," to which I replied, "the guy died in 1970, technically he was before our time!"

I think alot of it has to do with the slow dying of rock n' roll radio. I wouldn't trade my experience of growing up with a great local rock radio station for all the Itunes in the world. Back then, classic bands like Hendrix, Sabbath, The Who, and Creedence, (just to name a few) were still relevant due to still receiving plenty of air time on the radio. Now, with the way that the internet has evened out the playing field musically in a way where the great classic bands and a guy attempting 50 Cent rap covers using his phone for recording may receive the same amount of exposure, those classics are starting to fade.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the internets effect on music. On one hand, its easier to find new music than ever before. On the other hand, it also makes for digging through alot more crap to find those good bands, and harder for those truly great bands to get the recognition they deserve. I think the role of music in our modern culture is going through the biggest musical revolution since the phonograph played it's very first note, and it will be interesting to see where musics role lies in culture in the the near future.

Oh yeah, one last thing...
I've always been very musically centered, and this radio station helped make me who I am today, but is now just another top 40 station.


R.I.P.
1988-2011

[pklima]

Originally Posted by MarkMgibson

So it's no surprise that any aspiring musician would look back to the days when music was played by musicians, rather than just sounds being programmed into a computer.

Sure, that makes sense, but it's also no surprise that any aspiring buggy whip maker would look back to the days before cars.