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Classic Rock "dead"?

#62
Roadkill said:
^ I can't figure out why that song is somehow stupider that some lame tune like "I wanna hold your hand" LOL.
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bigmuff113 said:
The Beatles were real musicians
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+ 111111111111111 The first Beatles tune I ever heard was I Wanna Hold Your Hand. When it first came out. I was maybe 8 yo or so. My parents listened to country, my older brother R&R which was 50's rock, surf, Motown, and one hit wonder pop. Even that young the moment I heard that song I knew. This was something different and wonderful.
 
#63
jive1 said:
Doesn't matter. I Wanna Hold Your Hand is still a simple song with inane lyrics. I can pretty much guarantee that the session musicians hired for lots of these inane pop songs can bury the Beatles in terms of instrumental chops and possibly even vocally.
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As opposed to all the brilliant lyrics out there today. Most of them probably learned their chops from listening to Beatles tunes.
 
#64
Stevewd said:
As opposed to all the brilliant lyrics out there today. Most of them probably learned their chops from listening to Beatles tunes.
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Sure, I can see that. But, the Beatles were great songwriters, and to me I Wanna Hold Your Hand is the beginning of their great compositions, not the peak of it. I'll take the White Album, Magical Mystery Tour, or Abbey Road over that any day.
 
#65
jive1 said:
I Wanna Hold Your Hand is the beginning of their great compositions,
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Which was my point. Even with inane lyrics there was an overwhelming musicality there. I'm not saying I break out I wanna Hold Your Hand when I'm the mood for the Beatles. Lol. But as lame as the lyrics might be it's 10 times better than this manufactured pop crap these days.

Classic rock is not dead but rock sure is. It's nothing more than background music or annoying growling that's not even good enough to be background music cause it gives me diarrhea.
 
#67
Classic Rock will die when bars and beer go out of style all over the world for a prolonged period of time. That'll probably also kill country music.

Don't get me wrong, it'll go up and down in popularity. It'll change a bit here and there and it'll be perceived differently by it's own audience, but it's not going anywhere anytime soon. A hundred years from now... maybe. Difficult to say. Always in motion is the future.

As for the Beatles, the cool thing is that they covered such a broad spectrum while remaining more or less accessible to the general population. They have something for almost everyone. Personally, I like their early stuff, but I'll take 'Dear Prudence' and 'She's So Heavy' over 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' any day.
 
#68
hudpucker said:
Are you playing classic rock songs culled from corporate radio playlists?



SO SICK of those same forty songs. :spit:

For God's sake dig a little deeper into those catalogs.
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are you playing for yourself, or the audience? we play music people want to hear, dance, or sing along to, and frankly, that sounds a lot like the music they play on the radio

Our set list has 90 songs on it though. we just pick the 50-60 a night that are best for the venue
 
#69
gigslut said:
For starters, how about autotune?
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Not to mention the total lack of real instruments. Those HAVE to be synth strings.

Most if not all music during the early 60's was performed "off the floor". A few overdubs here and there maybe, but base tracks where done off the floor.

Putting a song together in Pro Tools or Ableton or Logic isn't quite the same as playing in a band with other musicians without a metronome.

Good money in the new pop stuff though. And sometimes you can get away with only hiring one guy to write, produce, perform and record your whole album.
 
#70
In Northern Ireland where I'm from Classic Rock seems to be dominating the scene at the minute. All the original bands who seem to be getting anywhere are classic rock bands.

Million Dollar Reload just played download festival http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrBWeUUcNI8

Trucker Diablo just got signed to a global endorsment deal Invalid Link Removed

I find it kind of frustrating because personally I think there is absolutely nothing original or progressive (In terms of moving the scene forward) about any of it. Thats not to say the music is bad, I quite like it, I'd just prefer the biggest bands coming out of Northern Ireland to be a bit more game changing.

Fair play to the bands though who have put the work in to get to where they are, you can't take that away from them.
 
#71
tuBass said:
are you playing for yourself, or the audience? we play music people want to hear, dance, or sing along to, and frankly, that sounds a lot like the music they play on the radio

Our set list has 90 songs on it though. we just pick the 50-60 a night that are best for the venue
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Clearly, our respective audiences are quite dissimilar.

I don't usually play for people who like to dance to corporate classic rock playlists. I leave that to the sports bar cover bands (at least around here).
 
#73
I'm 18, love me some classic rock.

Beatles, stones, tragically hip, queen, Rush, pixies, clash, acdc, megadeth, zeppelin, eagles, wings, cult, etc.. Love em all.

Could jam away to some classic rock all day and all night, and sometimes I do... More than I should probably...

You can't stop Rock N Roll.
 
#75
scottbass said:
A few years back I auditioned for a "classic rock" band. It was not a good fit. I was a teenager in the late 1960's and early 1970's, but these guys were about 10 years older than me. Their concept of "classic rock" ended with Buddy Holly. They hated the Beatles, the Stones, and all things British. They especially hated Motown...I suspect it was somewhat race-related.
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Wow, that's just really strange to discount a whole important era of music like that. Also, it's really limiting them as a cover band that plays music from that era. A general audience isn't going to make a huge distinction between early American rock 'n roll, doo-wop, and British Invasion music in that ambiguous time period between when certain music is classified as "oldies" or "classic rock." They're going to seriously be perplexed why the band can play Peggy Sue and Blue Suede Shoes but not My Girl or Saw Her Standing There.

as an art form classic rock is not dead, as your typical mainstream weekend warrior gig, yes it is and has been for a long time.
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I totally agree. Speaking personally, I'm burned out on the classic rock cover scene for the same reason I'm burned out on classic rock radio: The same exact songs have been beat to death.

And it's not like there's a dearth of material to play. Take Lynyrd Skynyrd for example. What two songs do bands and the radio stations play? Sweet Home Alabama and Gimme Three Steps - once in a great while I'll hear Simple Man. Those are great songs; however, Lynyrd Skynrd has a very deep and high-quality song catalog. There's a ton of accessible material from Lynrd Skynrd that hasn't been beaten beyond recognition. I'd love to walk into a club and hear a band tear up Saturday Night Special or Workin' for MCA or Double Trouble or I've Been Your Fool.

But of course, I say that as someone who is passionate about music. Maybe the casual music listener is cool with Sweet Home Alabama instead of Needle and the Spoon or Brown Eyed Girl instead of Moondance or The Joker instead of Swingtown. But I'm not saying you have to play these obscure deep cuts. I just think that you could have a successful classic rock band that doesn't play all of the stuff that's been overplayed by everyone else.
 
#76
I'm old enough to recall the time when there was no such thing as "classic rock". There was only "rock". :hmm:

Classic rock is "dead" - in the same sense that old-skool R&B/soul & funk are dead; in the same sense that rockabilly & '50s rock & roll is dead; in the same sense that do-wop is dead; in the same sense that old-skool country & western is dead...and so on... :hmm:

In other words - none of those genres is dead, but each one has found its own audience and has settled into its own niche. None of these genres is nearly as dominant as it was in its prime. But you don't exactly have to be "dead" in order to be no longer as dominant as you once were.

Let's bear in mind that rock music is - or should be - a genre of music that is constantly changing & evolving. If you're not continuing to evolve, then you're beginning to become extinct... :eyebrow:

MM
 
#80
LiquidMidnight said:
And it's not like there's a dearth of material to play. Take Lynyrd Skynyrd for example. What two songs do bands and the radio stations play? Sweet Home Alabama and Gimme Three Steps - once in a great while I'll hear Simple Man. Those are great songs; however, Lynyrd Skynrd has a very deep and high-quality song catalog. There's a ton of accessible material from Lynrd Skynrd that hasn't been beaten beyond recognition. I'd love to walk into a club and hear a band tear up Saturday Night Special or Workin' for MCA or Double Trouble or I've Been Your Fool.
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We play Sweet Home, Three Steps, Simple Man, and Saturday Night Special. Guess which ones get the best response? Yeah, the first two...
 

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