Whiny, self-indulgent music?
 

I happened to caught a little bit of Mallard Fillmore this week in the Denver Post where it was talking about the whiny, self-indulgent music of the early 70s. This is probably the music I know best, which includes the folk/rock/pop singers like Taylor, Denver, Folgelberg and many others. Admittedly some of it is whiny, self-indulgent but was it more so than most other genres in most era (from 40 yrs ago to today)?

The Cure

Folgelberg, McLean, Croce, and Taylor are my gods. I grew up on them (and others like them), and I still listen to them all the time. McLean and Folgelberg especially, had a huge effect on me.

Have you listened to some these teenaged, male "rock" bands today?

I believe you can find loads of whiny, self-indulgent music everywhere, I just wonder if my (and Schmidty's) music is perceived as being the most?

Every decade has had its share of whiny, self-indulgent music, but I submit that the 80s achieved a level of whininess and self-indulgence that will never be matched. To The Cure, let us add The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Psychedelic Furs, Joy Division/New Order, Depeche Mode...

What a great time to be young :)

maybe not all music is whiny, but certainly all music is self-indulgent...if you write, sing, record music and want others to hear it, think others will want to hear it, then self-indulgent it is.

bullseye

We had joy we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed were just seasons
Out of time......

Wah wah wah wah

waaaaaah wah...

I did leave out the rest of the description of not only being self-indulgent and whiny, but introspective (and a few others) as well. I agree that all music in one sense is self-indulgent but I think we're talking about the lyrics themselves being about the songwriter/singer and what he/she is going through/experienced/made up.

To help me understand this more, what would be the opposite of this kind of popular music?

The opposite is...

And then the witchdoctor he told me what to do,
He said that

Oo, ee, oo ah ah,
Ting tang,
Wala wala bing bang

Not alot of soul searching in that one other than wtf is ting tang...

They've been reading your posts?

I would say dance music is the least whiny and least thought provoking music one can find.

If he's one of your gods, you should know his name is Fogelberg- no extra L.

I know this because my wife (first my girlfriend and then fiance, etc...) played young Dan pretty much every make-out session we ever had in college.

I defy you to produce whiny Depeche Mode.

Dola -
I can't recall whiny New Order either, but I don't have a few of their earliest albums.

Did anyone else read this where "played" was in the sense of "acted out the role of"?

That's not self-indulgent - that's just shit of the highest order.

Yeah, that was an honest mistake. I'm a terrible typer.

The first cassette I ever purchased was "Souvenirs", and I own (and listen to) every other album he's ever made. Yes, even "Twin Sons of Different Mothers", otherwise known as "Fogelberg: The Elevator Years", and the horrific "Exiles".

Just for the hell of it, here are my favorite D.F. songs:

1. "The Sand and the Foam"

2. "Old Tennessee"

3. "Along the Road"

4. "Only The Heart May Know"

5. "Scarecrows Dreams"

Honorable Mentions:

The entire Souvenirs album
"Run for the Roses"
"Sutter's Mill"
"Ever On"
"Wysteria"
"Stars"


The thing about Fogelberg is that when he is good, he is GOOOOD, but when he's bad, he's ATROCIOUS. I choose to ignore the latter and focus on the former.

Introspective and emotional =! whiny

But for whinyness, you can't go far past the current, absolutely god awful emo scene. The apparent melodrama is so overpowering that I fear what would happen if one of these multi-millionaire rockstar pinups ever had something actually unpleasant happen to them.

Less whiny perhaps, but certainly amongst the most self-indulgent.

I think the mistake lies in reading Mallard Fillmore.

I think that all of Mrs. SpeechCoach's music is whiny and sel-indulgent. On the other hand, music I listen to is intelligent and well created.

Be careful or the Karma Police are going to come and get you. More important than whiny and self-indulgent is that for some reason Depeche Mode and Radiohead act as an inexplicable aphrodisiac to women.