[Jove d'Ark]

Hi Kirk,
A a music tutor to very young children I am constantly ammazed at just how many hunger for the Tunes from YORE. I believe the intrinsic human spirit even within very young children is fed up with the garbage that is masquerading as todays MUSIC. All that Violent rap crap and noise that no-one understands.
I am constantantly recieving requests for Smoke on the Water and the Ol'Satchmo favourite ..What a beautiful world.
Cheers
Jim Scott

[D-Dawn]

Smoke on the Water ..lol...I get tired of hearing that one from my 13 year old! But if it gets him to play willingly then I am all for it!! Now he wants to learn Blackbird...too cool

[Jove d'Ark]

As I said even children are sick of the violent hateful garbage masquerading as Music these days.. I am endlessly amazed at just how many kids want to play the music I heard some 35 years ago. Surely there is a social lesson to be heard here by all adult society. As The ancient adage goes..From The Mouths Of Babes....Comes truth.
Maybe its not the Kids of this world causing so much social Ill but Rather the adults????

[cshude]

Much of what I play is from before I was born or when I was very young- most of what is out today has no value. We are not going to be humming Tool songs 25 years from now. The Beatles, however, will still be going strong.

[8LU3]

by noise no one understands i assume youre talking about metal. and i really really think you should listen to some and ACTUALLY listen before you judge the music so. people get metal wrong all the time.

[8LU3]

and i will be humming tool songs mister

[WernHalen]

This is a very interresting topic... and it can make a lot of people very hot under the collar...

I believe it has a lot to do with melody, the band wagon and people are not honest about the quality of music... I'll get to each of these in turn...

Ok here goes... way back inthe days of yore the musicians that made it in the music world were the true musicians... the guys who learnt to play an instrument and was exceptional at it. The main reason for this was the fact that getting the music published was expensive and people did not have the infrastructure to distribute the music very easily... i.e. Internet, Radio, TV, Music stores etc. People in general did not have the money to pay for the records back then either. People are conservative by nature, this was more pronounced back in the 60's and 70's than it is now. this also forced the next generation of music i.e. Elvis, the Beetles, CCR, Deep Purple, Queen etc to make good quality music otherwise they would be shot down as CR*P much easier and even by the people that actually listened to them. Nowadays the music almost plays second fiddle to the performance or the act that can be put together. One of the reasons I have for this is the fact that people with brilliant voices are told, at Idols, that they just dont fit the image... I wonder what Jethro Tull would have been told at the Idols? or Freddie Mercury for that matter

Now what I am saying is not that all new music is bad and that there are no more good songs being written. Metallica, The Darkness, Good Charlotte, Creed, Lifehouse, Seether, Live, Evanescence etc. still write beautifull melodic songs. (this was just chosen form my band list, by the way and there are many others out there in many other genres)

One of the things that has surfaced over the last couple of years is the cloning mentality of the music industry, Britney does good with a couple of songs and then suddenly Christina Aguelera, Charlotte Church etc gets on the same band wagon. Same with eminem, after he started rapping big time rap was the in thing and nowadays you see white rappers everywhere... Not all of them are good however. Punk Rock and metal is a very good example of this, especially in my town. We have a couple of punk rock bands and a metal band or two. These guys are not musicians, they make a lot of noise and they cant sing... They have a huge following, because of the fact that they remind the people of Simple plan, Greenday, metallica etc. but that does ot make them good... By Cloning i am not saying that If you play a hardrock song you are trying to clone Metallica. It is the people that truly try to clone the sound and look of another...

Lastly I think that it has a lot to do with people having false ideas about their abilities. Parents are to blame for this I think. I dont watch Idols as I think it is a bunch of hog wash, but the odd occasion that i have seen it I have been faced with a boy or girl crying their eyes out because the judges said they cant sing and their parents said they could. Now who is the judges to break the hearts and dreams of all the stars out there?

Lastly I would like to add that I have respect for the older music as well as the newer music. As long as it has strong melodies and harmonies... I listen to hard rock, metal, rock, contemporary, jazz, blues etc. but I find that I switch off the radio when they are playing a bunch nonsense...

In the end It is the melody that makes the best stick out...

[737blues]

I think it's pretty simple really. The corporation decides what is going to make the money this month and the spindoctors of the media make it so. It has to change often 'cos kids get bored quickly and are constantly looking for more 'bang'. That usually means the more trashy and offensive it is, the more likely it will sell.

P.S. I love metal, real metal that is ... Sabbath, Iron maiden, etc!

[WernHalen]

737, I agree unforunately the youth is easily influenced by things the media throws at them. What I find insterresting is that most genres they like eventually die but every couple of years the rock, hard rock and metal genres surface again even if it is with a little twist...

Just goes to show that the real music is uthereal...

[cshude]

8LU3- no offense meant to any Tool fans. I recognize that those guys can really play, no question. My point is that much of what you hear on the radio will not have the staying power of the Beatles (or the other "supergroups"). WernHalen is right when he says it is all about the "melody". My dad always made the comment that the bands whose music would always be popular were the ones whose songs everyone could sing along with while driving in their car. And for the most part, that seems very true, and is a key reason why bands like the Beatles, the Who, Queen, etc. have had the staying power for so long. You only need to hear their songs a few times and you can sing the tune for the rest of your life.

As far as metal goes- I'm a fan of early 80's metal, especially Anthrax. I think it's their sense of humor that always got me.

[737blues]

Its quite logical really. Good quality endures whilst rubbish quickly dies. Great from a corporate point of view, throw out the old and sell the punters something new. Just consider what happens with all the movies aimed at the young. Watch the movie, buy all the overpriced cheap trash from it and six weeks later do it all again for the next one. I think the same thing is happening right across society.

I agree wholeheartedley that when it comes to what makes the good music so, it is the melody.

[nocat]

Originally Posted by 737blues

I think it's pretty simple really. The corporation decides what is going to make the money this month and the spin doctors of the media make it so. It has to change often 'cos kids get bored quickly and are constantly looking for more 'bang'. That usually means the more trashy and offensive it is, the more likely it will sell.

P.S. I love metal, real metal that is ... Sabbath, Iron maiden, etc!

I couldn't have said it better, my friend... The big boss dictates, the underlings quickly
scatter in obedience and the masses consume...!!!

Conspiracy....???

FACT...!!!

I've been alive for a while now, and in my life I've seen some disturbing changes...
I remember, as a teen, individuality was of the utmost importance, and we would
challenge every attempt to make us conform..."If I have to wear a tie, the knot is
gonna be somewhere in the vicinity of my navel, and the average size of a melon...
And purple with green polka dots...!!!".

We used to look forward to the new album by ______, because we knew there was going
to be some stuff in there we hadn't heard before...!!!

It seems to me that, with only a few exceptions, the offerings we get to choose from
today, are basically regurgitations of what has already been done... Or stuff that makes
you wonder, "How is this possible...?!?"

Take a look at the music industry's top sales charts. Listen for 10 minutes of top 40
radio. And then ask yourself... How is this possible...???

Nothing ever happens for no reason... We live in a mass media generation, and one
thing the media has always done well is influence young impressionable minds... In
subtle ways... Kids don't dress weird because they want to be different. They do so
because this is what the media promotes. And who controls the media? The owners
of the media... And who are the owners? 6 or 7 corporations that basically also own
the planet...!!!

In a way it's kind of a sad statement that kids have to resort to the 60's and 70's for
inspiration, but that is pretty much when the change started to happen and the ground
was being broken...!!!

Can it be true that we are now at the stage where everything has been done...!?!

*steps down from soapbox*

[Jove d'Ark]

8L3U writes,
by noise no one understands i assume youre talking about metal.
And you assumed wrong kid!
I teach music and in doing so I have to have a very open mind and ecclectic taste. Music no matter whether it is R and B, Blues, Punk, Rock, Heavy metal, etc has to have INTEGRITY. Meaning that the performers have to prove they have done thier homework and are not just Intervals masquerading as Harmonic creativity.
Then there is this greatly misundestood thing called wisdom. And I will bet my life that if you seriously persue the understanding of our great Love MUSIC, when you in decades from now, are at the age I am now, you Will Not be humming Tool.
And I am not saying this in anyway to offend you. I was once young and I understand what grabs you. But as I said if you truly aspire to great Musicality, one day you will admit that what grabs you now was really quite primitive.
And WernHalen has very correctly pointed to some very serious woes within the world of..Popular Music.
As to cloning I think what is really being said is what nocat referred to. Individualism. It seems to me that the music industry these days is set up to replicate a formula, and all I am hearing is that young bands can no longer write there own stuff. All we are hearing now for the most part are second rate covers. Also known as Sampling I believe. We come upon this new term Sampling as though it is will somehow legitimise new musical science. all it is doing is hiding the truth. The truth that greed keeps churning out deficient undereducated musos structured to a formula, and who cannot produce anything original, legitimate or worthwhile. They can only sing a very poor imitation of the original.
The only other thing we are Hearing is mostly Gangsta Rap. And what is this. Some serious criminal element who have made thier lolly by peddling violence and drugs, try to Legitimise themselves in the eye of the beholder by procuring a Music Recording studio, which allows them to masquerade as Legitimate honest businessmen, when in fact all they are doing is corrupting the young and gullible into flinging even greater sums of money into thier already bloated bank account. A bank account whose foundation was built by evil deeds.
And someone else here alludes to a very serious tragedy. Once upon a time the MUSIC was the ulitmate Importance and the Video or "Clip" as it used to be called was a secondary tool to convey the artists intent.
I defy anyone to tell me that in these modern times the Video has not become paramount and music runs a sad last.And what are the "Clips" these days other than vile pornography. Sex Drugs and Violence is the constant theme, and if you call this High Art, then sadly You have much still to learn.

[8LU3]

wow, this thread is really heated. sorry about assuming wrong, i just get crap from people all the time about listening to metal and hem not being able to make out the different instruments and not being able to hear the singer because hes screaming. it really, really makes me mad.

[cshude]

Has anyone noticed how the lack of originality in so much of today's "popular music" is paralleled by a similar lack of creativity in movies? Seems like everything that comes out now is either:
1) a remake (which rarely if ever lives up to the original)
2) based on a tv show
3) based on comic book/graphic novel
4) sequel made purely to try to squeeze some more money out of the "franchise"

I remember listening to a song someone made on soundclick.com called "Everything Sounds Like Coldplay". That pretty much hit the nail on the head in regards to what is played on the radio. I usually liked the songs that weren't released better than those that hit the charts. They are typically more musical and not "dumbed down" for the preteens that drive the pop music charts.

Ok, I think that's about it- almost gave me an episode of IED (which, in case you haven't heard yet, is Intermittent Explosive Disorder, formerly known as having a conniption fit or a bad temper. Apparently, the "victim" mentality has gotten to the point that it's not your fault that you can't control your temper- it's now a "syndrome". I think shrinks that spout this nonsense are second only to trial lawyers in my most hated professions list.)

Whoooooo. I feel better now. Later!