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cmon have a bitch with me.

L

LayDownABoogie

Guest
Jan 3, 2012
151
0
#1
There's no "bitch" section so I thought I'd say this here till it gets moved.

Is anyone else completly disgusted that the majority of mankind today seem to only care about a "catchy melody" ? It ain't about the music no more. Musicianship means nothing. They jus keep on pumpin out the same ol nursery rhyme s@#%.
 
#6
LayDownABoogie said:
There's no "bitch" section so I thought I'd say this here till it gets moved.

Is anyone else completly disgusted that the majority of mankind today seem to only care about a "catchy melody" ? It ain't about the music no more. Musicianship means nothing. They jus keep on pumpin out the same ol nursery rhyme s@#%.
Click to expand...

Not sure if I want to join an omidirectional whinge, but here's my 2c:

Things were never significantly better IMO, simple music has always had an audience, and if we look back at ALL the medium / big successes of the last 50 years we see a mix of cookie cutter stuff, some very dated "novelty" material, and a significant portion of very accomplished musicianship.

Things might be worse today, with TV and radio being dominated by narrow genres, most of which is certainly not to my taste, but the internet has changed our consumption of music hugely.
I love old music, I love new music... it's easier find the old classics because time has forgotten many of the simpler, or at least the less successful, less accomplished pieces.
With the breakdown of many stricter genres some very interesting things are happening.
Revival of some old gems, like rockabilly where I am, and some scary metal, rock and experimental groups are keeping it interesting.

If 1% of music connects with you as a listener, then It's worth listening to. But a lot of music sucks. And I seriously can't stand certain approaches, like obnoxious and off key vocals:mad:, use of heavy house / dubstep effects and samples in 75% of pop releases that I am unfortunate enough to hear...:scowl:

I am optimistic, but cautiously so. What do you think?:)
 
#8
PlungerModerno said:
I am optimistic, but cautiously so. What do you think?:)
Click to expand...

I think any musician worth his salt should continue to listen to the music that inspires him and pushes his imagination and his ability.

But at the same time he would be a fool to wave off anything that struck a chord with thousands of people and begins a new trend. There's something there to be learned as well and it's not just that simple music sells.

There's new sounds, techniques and nuances coming along all the time. And if you can't evolve, you become the dinosaur.
 
#11
Music has a lot of functions.

One is to make money for the industry.
One is to help people enjoy themselves to dance and buy drinks in bars and clubs.

Some music is created to praise a supreme being or a supreme all-encompassing something.
Some music is has some intellectual harmonic fascination for a very few.

Some music is about expressing anger and frustration
I watched a documentary the other day that I couldn't finish, but I found it facinating
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I kind of liked Bad Brains.
 
#14
While I do agree the majority of popular music sucks, I don't really care. I am just as tired of musicians who only want to be impressive and show off their ability.(I'm looking at you Dream Theater.) Music has to have a good mix of BOTH musicianship and catchy hooks to hold my attention. Of course when I get tired of something I switch whole genres. It tends to soften my critical edge for a while.
Go listen to some 'popular' world music for a while. Alot of the music they sample actually took some skill to produce in the first place. North African and middle eastern music is always refreshing to me. Good luck in your quest for inspiration.
Forget any aspirations of 'people getting what they deserve'.
 
#16
I would have agreed with this. However the BBC here keep showing clips from old Top of the Pops shows. Popular music has always sucked in the main. The difference is that we only remember the good stuff and seem to think all '70s music was of the high standard set by maybe 20 of the best bands.
 
#17
PlungerModerno said:
If 1% of music connects with you as a listener, then It's worth listening to. But a lot of music sucks. And I seriously can't stand certain approaches, like obnoxious and off key vocals:mad:, use of heavy house / dubstep effects and samples in 75% of pop releases that I am unfortunate enough to hear...:scowl:

I am optimistic, but cautiously so. What do you think?:)
Click to expand...

Agree........ Though I'm blatantly pessimistic. : )
 
#18
LayDownABoogie said:
Nothing. But why not give rhythm the spotlight for a change.
Click to expand...

Funny, I would contend that music is equally about melody and rhythm. They should co-exist but don't always have to. I am as into folk with one guitar as I am to trip hop which is primarily drums and bass tones. Perhaps it's that you aren't looking hard enough for music to satiate you? Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Dub Step, Reggae, all genres that practically glorify or at least up the rhythm / eclipse melody. World Music strikes a great balance. Dig deeper. Top 40 ain't all that but to the casual listener / trend followers...it's what sells now, but doesn't always endure.

I guess I don't understand this thread.
 
#19
LayDownABoogie said:
There's no "bitch" section so I thought I'd say this here till it gets moved.

Is anyone else completly disgusted that the majority of mankind today seem to only care about a "catchy melody" ? It ain't about the music no more. Musicianship means nothing. They jus keep on pumpin out the same ol nursery rhyme s@#%.
Click to expand...

It's always about the music, in the context of the current genre model. Being in the current genre model gives those lucky enough to be involved with major record companies a better than average chance of a hit.....and some bankable money.

Maybe your "bitch" is it is not your chosen genre in that current spotlight?

"Majority of mankind" is a wide target. I assume you are talking about the "record buying public" which is really just a corporate market created by major record companies that they wish to control. At some point this market has to crash because it is spending to much money with little diversity between it's products. Eventually all music and artists in this market will be seen as one option, as we go to explore new music, another option, maybe from independents, another option,or self producing artists, another option.

But that's the way music was, and it grew and developed this corporate beast we say today. So it maybe far to assume that any new market developed would follow the same road to corporate beast.
It's music for musics sake, and if someone can see the opportunity, or recognise a chance to market.........they will.
 
#20
Meddle said:
I would have agreed with this. However the BBC here keep showing clips from old Top of the Pops shows. Popular music has always sucked in the main. The difference is that we only remember the good stuff and seem to think all '70s music was of the high standard set by maybe 20 of the best bands.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of that has to do with the record labels being able to allow the bands the time to grow and mature as artists. In return it meant each album release had quality and substance (for the most part).

Where as nowadays it seems that bands are required to pump out multiple albums in a much shorter time frame to keep from getting dropped by their labels. The end result is much of the material is nothing more than filler that should have remained in the trash bin and ends up not selling well. This in turn leads to the band getting dropped by the label anyway.

In the current environment (which encompasses many years IMO) artists/musicians/bands, etc. are simply a commodity to be bought and sold as if they (muso's) were nothing more than pork bellies being bought and sold on wall street. "Art" has always taken a back seat to sales success. This is nothing new, it just seems the labels can't or won't invest in the long haul. It's instant success or get dropped.

Another disturbing trend for example is/has been the Nashville mindset of not allowing artists to use their own bands in the studio. While this may help create more work for the studio musicians (and I would never begrudge them work), it must be disheartening to be left out of the creative process. What would the Beatles have sounded like if they were only allowed to record their vocal parts and studio players were used for all the musical parts?

Just food for thought, rant over. ;)
 

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