Embracing the changes in the music world

[P-oddz]

A mere boy.

Welp... thanks for adding absolutely nothing to the conversation.
Clearly, your advanced age has garnered you an intellect that is far superior to someone such as myself. So much so, that formed thoughts are too much of a burden for you and you'd much prefer to communicate your worldly knowledge in the form of animated emojis and sentence fragments fit for a Batman villain.

Good luck, buddy. Keep banging that head against the wall.

 

[CereBassum]

That's just silly.

 

[CereBassum]

your advanced age has garnered you an intellect that is far superior to someone such as myself.

drool

 

[Julian Reid]

I live in Melbourne and music is definitely alive and well. Guitars, rock, alt country, electronic. Whatever.

Anyone who thinks guitars are going anywhere has rocks in their head. There are more kids playing guitar than ever. It makes no sense to think otherwise. Why?
They are cheaper. You can make your own music by plugging into your iPhone. You can get great free or cheap learning apps. Guitar Hero as inspiration for millions of kids now at an age to be playing in bands. Tabs for any song you want etc etc.
I don't know why people think music is Dying because there are no more mega bands and rockstars. Who cares? I can see just as good, or better bands at any number of pubs in Melbourne for $10. Any night of the week.

I too am over 50 and play in an originals band for fun. And don't get me wrong. The 60s 70s and so on where great. Every era is great. But depending on the era It's just you may need to look beyond most of the mainstream crap that we got fed, and still get fed, to find great bands.

Music, guitars, rock will never die. It just morphs. Always has, always will.

Your input here is essential!!!!!



I started playing music in the 70s. Every decade both music and the industry have changed. This past decade I think it's changed the most. I'm not sure all the ways it has, but some of that change can be depressing - so I thought I'd start a thread where we might collectively be able to identify what's different, what sucks, what's great, and how we might be able to embrace it all.

I'll start with what's bugging me most. While I don't believe R&R is yet dead, it definitely moved to Florida. And its on life support. I work in a HS, and I'm gigging more than I ever have in my life to big crowds of people in their 20s and 30s. I don't see anybody anymore that's into R&R, wants to play guitar or bass, or is even the least bit interested in what the band is doing when we're performing. And we're good. There are no Led Zeppelin or Van Halens any more, no STP, no Greenday. There are no more rockstars. Nothing to inspire kids to pick up a guitar. All the best clubs in NYC are gone and forgotten. Carvin is closing (or closed). GC is rumored to be struggling. OK, I'm bumming myself out...

The good news is it's prime time to reinvent music. The Beatles did what they did in the 60s - somebody (maybe you or me) has their work cut out for them come the 20s! I always wondered what it would be like being the first person to become a pop star in his 70s or 80s . I've still got some time to work at that . We have access since the new millennium to take things entirely into our own hands. We don't need record companies, producers, recording studios, huge bank accounts, or even musicians anymore to produce, market and sell our own music. People under 20 may take that for granted, but I sure don't. With fewer and fewer people strapping on guitars, we also (those of us who stay in the game) have more and more opportunity. At 56 yrs old, I just started making the most money I ever have in my entire life with music.

Bottom line, there is lots for us to keep our heads up about. I'd love to get a discussion going. Dump yer garbage and complaints, and tell us what's great about it all too.

 

[RickJones]

I started in 1973. Made my 1st record in 83 and was depressed about the direction music was taking even then. Since, I've made a few cd's and basically just keep composing and recording in my home studio. Nothing I do would ever fly with the mainstream these days, so, I guess it's just a serious hobby now.

 

[devnulljp]

Ahem...



I don't think any of these guys is more than 16 yo

 

[Charlzm]

While I don't believe R&R is yet dead, it definitely moved to Florida. And its on life support.

Well, that's one opinion. Most of these bands below are gigging, selling some music, making new music that draws from the past but isn't beholden to it.

With the exception of three or four of these acts, I doubt any of the bands are headlining venues with capacities over 500. It's like the middle-class of rock has disappeared: there is only indie and arena/festival stuff.

I still routinely go to shows and I still hear new music that's exciting and relevant. I'm 52. Here's what I have been listening to that was released this year:

1. Blackfield - "V" - a prog/tinged pop album from Israeli pop star Aviv Geffen and prog banner-carrier Steven Wilson
2. Caligula's Horse - "In Contact" - modern prog/metal
3. Elder - "Reflections of a Floating World" - Sabbath meets prog
4. Enslaved - "E" - prog meets black metal
5. KXM - "Scatterbrain" - dUg from King's X and George Lynch make some groovy, heavy rock
6. Kylver - "The Island" - jammy instrumental hard rock/metal
7. Lakeshore - "Pure Imagination" - screamo/prog with cinematic expansiveness
8. Leprous - "Malina" - as unique a blend of vestigial death metal and modern keyboard prog as you will hear in 2017
9. Marty Friedman - "Wall of Sound" - instrumental shred metal
10. Mastodon - "Emperor of Sand" - unique blend of prog and metal that sounds unlike anything else
11. Mutoid Man - "War Moans" - weird punk/[prog mashup with lots of energy and thrashing
12. Nova Collective - "The Further Side" - shreddy fusion (think diMeola) meets prog rock
13. Overkill - "The Grinding Wheel" - thrash vets release a crushingly heavy late-career blow
14. Pain of Salvation - "In the Passing Light of Day" - more off-the-beaten-path prog/metal that sounds nothing like Dream Theater
15. Primus - "The Desaturating Seven" - come on, you know what Primus sounds like
16. Prong - "Zero Days" - much like Overkill above, it's astonishing that this band has gotten better and tighter over the years! Brutal.
17. Roger Waters - "Is This the Life We Really Want?" - kind of a snoozefest, honestly.
18. Scale the Summit - "In a World of Fear" - the "new shred" - more musical and emotive than wanky. But still wanky, a little.
19. SikTh - "The Future in Whose Eyes" - rapping/screaming/aggressive vocals, djent arrangements
20. Soften the Glare - "Making Faces" - top-notch fusion guitarist Bon Lozaga, Mudvayne bassist Ryan Martinie - imagine if Primus were trying (and succeeding) in playing fusion. Instrumental
21. Steven Wilson - "To the Bone" - weak poppy effort from prog's torch bearer
22. Tetrafusion - "Dreaming of Sleep" - more shreddy prog rock/fusion instrumental goodness
23. The Contortionist - "Clairvoyant" - outstandingly atmospheric yet still virtuosic release from a band pointing to the future of heavy music
24. Tony MacAlpine - "Death of Roses" - shreddy proggy and modern
25. Uneven Structure - "La Partition" - djent meets atmosphere in this impressive prog/metal release
26. Volumes - "Different Animals" - techno-djent? Lots of electronics and studio polish to this aggressive djent band
27. Voyager - "Ghost Mile" - modern prog/metal - lots of melody
28. Without Waves - post-metal? Beautiful, almost ambient at times and crushingly brutal technicality alternate. The song "Fractals" is my favorite thing this year.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

 

[Mannyinnewyork]

I started in 1973. Made my 1st record in 83 and was depressed about the direction music was taking even then. Since, I've made a few cd's and basically just keep composing and recording in my home studio. Nothing I do would ever fly with the mainstream these days, so, I guess it's just a serious hobby now.

Hey, as long as you’re writing and playing it’s wonderful. Set up my first DAW in 2001 and have been writing and recording right up until this very weekend. My kids, my wife and a few friends hear the material no one else - whatever, Music is a part of my every day. I’m thankful that I have this. And technology allows me to create a passable version of my material.

 

[Hawkeye]

Not just the younger generation - the whole world suffers a bit of ADD

I'm guilty of this myself. It's not very often that I will sit down and listen to a whole album from start to finish. The technology has totally changed the experience. I now have instant access to my file server that has over 13,000 songs on it and I switch it up according to how each song inspires me.

 

[Loring]

I'm guilty of this myself. It's not very often that I will sit down and listen to a whole album from start to finish. The technology has totally changed the experience. I now have instant access to my file server that has over 13,000 songs on it and I switch it up according to how each song inspires me.

I remember reading a great line...

I love all the songs in my music library except when it's on shuffle play - then I can never find anything to listen to.

 

[Honch]

I don't see anybody ... wants to play guitar or bass ... Nothing to inspire kids to pick up a guitar.

Find this very peculiar. Maybe we're guilty of this ourselves. Maybe they've read talkbass? Found the posts in this thread very contradicting. Almost unanimously throughout the talkbass history we've talked about guitarists in our bands as gtrds and how much they are a nuisance, and annoying. We even call them that. It's definitely in the majority. And then, yet we complain about youngsters not wanting to play guitar...or at least not complaining but detecting it and label it as something of a warning, cultural decline. My take?

The less gtrds out there, the better!

 

[RickJones]

Find this very peculiar. Maybe we're guilty of this ourselves. Maybe they've read talkbass? Found the posts in this thread very contradicting. Almost unanimously throughout the talkbass history we've talked about guitarists in our bands as gtrds and how much they are a nuisance, and annoying. We even call them that. It's definitely in the majority. And then, yet we complain about youngsters not wanting to play guitar...or at least not complaining but detecting it and label it as something of a warning, cultural decline. My take?

The less gtrds out there, the better!

My main instrument for decades was the guitar (which I still enjoy playing), but in the past few years I've really worked hard at the bass because it's difficult to find anybody around my area who wants to play the instrument. I enjoy it - it's like constantly soloing, even on a simpler or slower song.

 

[Nashrakh]

Re: young "Van Halens". One musician that comes to mind minus all the attitude and rock star lifestyle, would be Tosin Abasi. I don't consider what he does to be groundbreaking in itself (taking techniques like double thump and applying it to guitar and playing extended range instruments for example), but he is what I would consider one of the musicians most inspiring to young players.

 

[Graeme D]

Here's my take on the current state of music. Rock isn't dead, it's just not front and centre as it used to be. There are now more genres of music out there than ever before, and with the internet we don't need things like charts. We go where we know our music is at. The big charts are only relevant to those who are looking for the flavour of the week.
Want rock? Head over there. Want classical? That's over in the back there.
Want the current disposable X-factor-alike who'll be gone faster than you can say second album? Well, they're right in your face all the time because they are where the money making is (but not so much for the artist).

I heard something on the radio talking about intros to song, and how they're becoming obsolete. They said back in the day, people listening to new songs would on average give it 20 seconds to see if they like it. Now with streaming, the average is 5 seconds. It shows the current trend in popular music, as the singing is really the only thing it has going for it. People who like music (whatever genre you choose), will listen longer as they have a greater affinity to the actual musical content.

Forgive me if I mentioned anything already said, as I'm working my way through the thread, just wanted to have my say before I'm too late

 

[JMacBass65]

Ahem...



I don't think any of these guys is more than 16 yo

I totally dig this! I'll be looking into these guys, and turning my daughter on to them.

 

[JMacBass65]

I totally dig this! I'll be looking into these guys, and turning my daughter on to them.

So they have been at it for four years or so......not sure how I missed it?

The audio is not the best on this, but it's from a show after Tom Petty passed. Great song choice for them:

 

[JMacBass65]

It's like the middle-class of rock has disappeared: there is only indie and arena/festival stuff.

I think this is a very interesting observation, and spot on really.

 

[hrodbert696]

Just another thought - thinking about @Joe Nerve 's "embracing" part - I've been launching a cover trio (Link Removed, shameless plug) with the concept of playing only music of this century (OK, we have a Cake cover from I think 1996).

This past week we added a couple of recent hits to the set list - Ragnbone Man's "Human" and Portugal the Man's "Feel It Still." My guitarist listened to them and said, "Umm, there isn't too much for me to do here." And of course, he was right - neither song has any guitar riffs, solos, or strummy chord progressions.

But that didn't mean cutting the tunes. This is what I love about this guitarist. The lack of guitar in the existing recordings wasn't a negative, it was just a challenge; what could he do to help fill out the songs? We played through them a few times, he experimented with some ambient stuff here and a sparse riff there, and went ahead and hit big chords in another spot, figuring out what would create the right mood and build the tension. By the end of the night we had some great arrangements of those tunes, recognizable to fans of the original but not much like what you would hear out of a jukebox. Can't wait to try them in front of a crowd.

 

[Joe Nerve]

Just another thought - thinking about @Joe Nerve

But that didn't mean cutting the tunes. This is what I love about this guitarist. The lack of guitar in the existing recordings wasn't a negative, it was just a challenge; what could he do to help fill out the songs? We played through them a few times, he experimented with some ambient stuff here and a sparse riff there, and went ahead and hit big chords in another spot, figuring out what would create the right mood and build the tension. By the end of the night we had some great arrangements of those tunes, recognizable to fans of the original but not much like what you would hear out of a jukebox. Can't wait to try them in front of a crowd.

Going to go a little OT here with that...

There was a thread a while back asking what songs we hated to play most. There aren't a whole lot for me, but I threw something into the mix. Someone else who I don't remember said something along the lines of they make it their business to love EVERY song they play. That's what being a pro is about. I was immediately humbled , and I committed to that. I think that's made all the difference in the world in my playing, and my attitude.

My band pretty much covers every genre, and there are tunes where there's nothing for me to do outside of doubling up a bass synth of 3 or 4 notes for the entire tune. I welcome it now, and give it everything I've got. A lot of people in that thread mentioned Wonderful Tonight, and I've been able to make that one of my absolute favorite songs to play (not that I never actually disliked playing it). There is room for more emotion in that tune than any other song we do. And if I watch the couples dancing as we play it I can actually get teary eyed . It feels great to be able to give people music that they can respond to like that.

As the first musician I ever played with (and Flea) pounded into my head - I put 150% into everything I play. We can play notes, or we can make music. I think there's a HUGE difference between the two, and I always choose the latter.

Congrats on the new band . Website looks great.

 

[sm49341]

Lotsa good music being made these days. John mayer for example. Acoustic seems to be as/ more popular than electric. I find regardless of genre, people are appreciative of well played music. Just when you think somethings dead, a simple tune comes along and starts a revival.