Kinda says it all don't it?

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

Rap is a very broad genre. You have gangsta rap, then you have commercialized rap, then you have story telling type of rap and you have under ground rap. And far as gangsta rap goes, most of of those rappers aren't even from the hood, never lived the lifestyle they talk about and half of them have drawn on tattoos.

Now far as people dressing and acting like the gangsta rappers they listen to, you can honestly say that about all music genres. I knew people who listened to heavy metal and dressed just like them. Know people who listened to country, dressed and act like them, even though they never in their life step foot in a country area. But I seen them wearing cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and every thing else in the streets of Chicago.

You go to Toronto and Montreal areas, a lot of them up there in those regions love Soca music. They be up there talking and dressing like they from the islands but a good number of them never step foot outside of Canada.

And far as explicit material goes, you will find that in all genres as well. Some artist are just very explicit, don't matter what genre they are in.

[slickdtc]

I'll stick to my obscure bands that nobody but like minded people have heard of. Care less what's cool on the radio. It's nuts what's being passed off as music. But eh, thank God for Spotify, Pandora, iPods, TurnTable, etc. Don't have to be subjected to that garbage.

[Money99]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

What?

Anyways, that's far from the main thing that's wrong with today's music.

To me it's the fact that damn near everything is made to be some club/techno/house music song. I think there's a video on Youtube where someone gets a bunch of top 40 songs or whatever, plays them together, and they all pretty much sound exactly the same.

Now all that said, it's not like it's hard nowadays to find good music and filter out the bull**** or what you don't like. I know personally I couldn't tell you what the majority of the top songs being played on the radio are because I have my own radio - my iPod.

AMEN brother!

I have XM radio and if you listen to 20 on 20, it's basically the same song repeated 100x all day long.
On a recent long road trip, my wife turned to that station and in 15 minutes I heard 3 songs that I would have bet money were all sang by Katie Perry. NOPE. All of them were from girls that sounded exactly like her; down to her voice, beat, lyrics, etc.
Listen to that crap song "Domino" by some chick. It might as well be Katy.

I'm turning 38 and I know I'm starting to become 'that old guy', but my musical library has come to a screeching halt.
I only listen to tunes from back in the day because most of the music today just plain stinks.

The other day in my company's gym, one of the latest 'top 20' songs came on. It's by some boy band where they sing about how beautiful a girl is even though she doesn't know how beautiful she is.
I was just about to say, outloud, what a horrible song this was when some 20-something spoke up to his buddies "Brah! This song gets me mad pumped! I'm usually bang out an extra 3 reps to this s**t!"
Not only did the song stink, but this guy dressed like a typical d-bag; chin-strap beard, Affliction T-shirt, Chinese tats down one arm.
It's like Adam Carolla said "In 50 years, we'll all be chicks".

Give me some Lynyrd Skynryd, Metallica or Tupac anyday of the week!

P.S. My biggest gripe about music from the past 5 years is when guys sing the word 'YOU' like "YA-OUU".
It's "YOU"!! There's no 'A' in that word moron!!!
Every band today does it and it's annoying!!

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

About what's wrong (IMO) with some of today's "music"...

You mean ASCAP and BMI having teams of writers and songs getting multiple writing credits? Pretty sure that was happening back in the 1920s, too.

Ever heard of Tin Pan Alley? Carole King started off writing songs for other performers. Frankie Avalon, among others, was produced to cash in on early do-wop and "Philly Sound" fads. For every Beatles or Rolling Stones (who both started off favoring covers of early blues and rock n roll), there are tons of Monkees and Paul Revere & the Raiders out there. Not to mention all the countless surf rock bands that came out after Dick Dale and the Beach Boys became successes.

****, just go back to the old late night and music shows and take a look at those lineups. A lot of "who the **** are they?" goes through your head.


Music from yesterday has the benefit of already weeding out the **** and the overplayed nonsense and leaves you with the good stuff worth looking into. The problem I have with today's music is that people are so aware of old music and constantly trying to be anointed the next *insert old band name here* that they often give too much reverence to old music while discrediting "new" music.

[Money99]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

Good points Tendril.
My main gripe with today's pop music is that almost all of it is so over-produced, the only way for the artist to reproduce it on a stage is with a Mac, not with actual instruments.

If all you have to do is press "PLAY" on a computer in order to create a song, then the artistry is lost to me.

Bands back in the day, whether their music was great or not, could at least create music in a garage without any power.

[jmood88]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

Good points Tendril.
My main gripe with today's pop music is that almost all of it is so over-produced, the only way for the artist to reproduce it on a stage is with a Mac, not with actual instruments.

If all you have to do is press "PLAY" on a computer in order to create a song, then the artistry is lost to me.

Bands back in the day, whether their music was great or not, could at least create music in a garage without any power.

No one goes on a computer, presses play and a beat comes out. Just about all of the big producers are musicians who choose to use the computer to make stuff for other artists.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

Plus, bands starting in the 60s were mixing and editing tapes in the studio and coming out with tracks that could never be reproduced on stage either. Sure, they may not have been able to use computers, but multi-tracking, cutting and taping, and other equipment tinkering created studio productions that would be nearly impossible for the same bands and personnel to recreate on stage.

[Money99]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

No one goes on a computer, presses play and a beat comes out. Just about all of the big producers are musicians who choose to use the computer to make stuff for other artists.

Some might, but not all.
I've read that DrDre is pretty good when it comes to composing original beats.
But the majority don't.

Too many pop and rap songs I hear today are nothing but a 70's song with a rap-beat put to them.

And my point about 'pressing play' is meant that when they do perform, that's all they have to do.
If they were to do it all live, with instruments, it wouldn't even sound like the same song.

Tendril, I know that splicing occured years ago, but in the end, if I wanted to watch Skynyrd or AC/DC live in concert, they would sound nearly identical to what they did on the album.
I remember a STP concert; if you closed your eyes and could mute the crowd, you would have sworn you were listening to their CD in a car or your bedroom.

But if you went to a Katy Perry or Beyonce concert and they were forced to use real instruments, that would never happen.

[savoie2006]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

Plus, bands starting in the 60s were mixing and editing tapes in the studio and coming out with tracks that could never be reproduced on stage either. Sure, they may not have been able to use computers, but multi-tracking, cutting and taping, and other equipment tinkering created studio productions that would be nearly impossible for the same bands and personnel to recreate on stage.

Valid point, as The Beatles openly admitted that even if they continued touring there was no way they could have performed alot of their later material live due to the amount of overdubs and such.

[Jukeman]

No one goes on a computer, presses play and a beat comes out. Just about all of the big producers are musicians who choose to use the computer to make stuff for other artists.

He's somewhat right. Live recording is becoming a lost art.

We dont really have a modern day Abbey Road or a Hitsville USA.

Most Composers/Songwriters/Producer (which ever term you prefer) have templates now (especially with Hip Hop and electronic music) and can actually load up thier program and "press play" they'll even sometimes make subtle changes to the template and call it done.

And thats another reason most songs sound alike when the same producer or whatever is involved with the project.

Midi and computer software made everything easy and its all about workflow rather than sound. Guess thats what happens when something becomes a business instead of doing it for the love and art.

Heck, Ive seen some fellow producer not even use instruments (or a midi controller) to make a song. They'll do it all by simply using their mouse lol. Click and drag and edit the crap out of it to get a humanize feel.



Example of a Big name producer using a template or a skeleton beat.

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[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

Good points Tendril.
My main gripe with today's pop music is that almost all of it is so over-produced, the only way for the artist to reproduce it on a stage is with a Mac, not with actual instruments.

If all you have to do is press "PLAY" on a computer in order to create a song, then the artistry is lost to me.

Bands back in the day, whether their music was great or not, could at least create music in a garage without any power.

This is why it's so cool to see some guys like Trey Songz or Ne-yo with his older songs come out with these full-blown bands and stuff. You don't see that all the time nowadays.

But yeah, bands really make the performance for me. Like with the Dave Matthews Band, the guy that blows me away the most is the violinist, Boyd. He's amazing and the passion that he plays with is so cool to see live.

[Segagendude]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

I originally took this off my Facebook page. Alot of the comments are similar to what I'm reading here.

I realize it's just one example, and it may not mean much to some. I just found it interesting, the comparisons.

I also know ALOT of artists don't write their own material, past and present. But for those who do, I give them credit.

Jim Croce wrote "Have to say I'm sorry in a song" after an argument with his wife.

Don Henley and Glenn Frye wrote "Hotel California" after visiting the state for the first time.

I could go on and on.That, to me, is talent. Writing songs along with the musical accompanyment(sp) just based on everyday observations/feelings.

Kinda off-topic, but this whole argument could also be made about comedians. Jay Leno has writers for his Tonight Show monologue, yet he started as a stand up comedian. You'd think he should be able to write his own stuff.....(Remember the writer's strike a few years ago; he and Letterman didn't do their shows)

[Jukeman]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

One of my favorite youtube channels

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[Trevytrev11]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

Kinda off-topic, but this whole argument could also be made about comedians. Jay Leno has writers for his Tonight Show monologue, yet he started as a stand up comedian. You'd think he should be able to write his own stuff.....(Remember the writer's strike a few years ago; he and Letterman didn't do their shows)

But it's one thing to spend months or years writing and perfecting your 30/60/90 minute set and then take it on tour for a year or two with very few changes and a completely different thing to have to write brand new material every night.

Reversing directions back to bands this is why most keep a very similar set list from show to show because it is damn near impossible to go out a pick 20 different songs every night and play with quality. They have to make their picks and fine tune those.

As far as today's recording habits. I thought it was very cool that the Foo Fighters reordered their last album in Dave's home studio on actual tape. And basically did their editing by cutting and splicing the tape. I bought it on release date and it came with about a 1 inch section of the tape, which though useless, was pretty cool. There was a documentary about it on TV that was pretty interesting.

Also, back to bands and crappy music. It's always a fine line for bands to grow and change. Too often when a band matures and begins to go away from what got them there, they usually get the sell-out term thrown in their direction. People want these bands that have been around 5, 10, 15 or 20 years to sound like they did when they were 20 years old and when they don't, all of a sudden they sold out.

[Candyman5]

Re: Kinda says it all don't it?

I guess this is the wrong thread to post that I enjoy Blain Gabbert. (Spell?)