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In Reply to: There's plenty of fine music out there... posted by musetap on March 3, 2007 at 12:55:10:
"There's SO MUCH competition for the entertainment bucks, there's SO MUCH to choose from, that it can't ALL be great, original, or even terribly satisfying. It's a false memory to think it was really much different in the past."I could not disagree more....
The other day, I was waiting on maintenance work for my car, and in the background played a mainstream pop station. Since I had nothing better to do, I really focused on what was going on. And almost all of it had vocal pitch correction, automated beats, melodies that sounded more similar than different, no stylistic individualism. Cyclic, monotonous basslines with zero improvisation. Even the rhythms lacked depth. Supposedly what most of this type of music hangs its hat on.
The lyrics were maybe the only redeeming quality, but I could not get over how much of it involved "self-victimization".....
I personally think what sells today is mainly two things- Erotica and messages that people want to hear.
"The cream rises to the top (sometimes it's sour cream...) and the wannabes fall into distant memory/oblivion."
Once again, I cannot disagree more. One recent band in my recollections that I thought could have been something special was Ian Thomas' Boomers. Incredible music (in my opinion), but otherwise too honest and no fancy packaging to impress the mainstream.
"Seems the older you (we) get, the more we experience, the more our tastes become "refined", the more difficult we are to please, or find new/higher planes of musical satisfaction."
Possible. But I hear a lot of great tunes for the first time, only to find out they're not so new. More often than those that are new.
"Nobody said it was going to be easy!"
That I do agree with. But the weird thing is the music of recent time that I *do* like was mostly stuff that I was fortunate to come across from others' tastes rather than me finding gems on my own.
Follow Ups:
"The other day, I was waiting on maintenance work for my car, and in the background played a mainstream pop station."Yeah, and if you were doing the same thing 35 years ago, listening to an AM pop station you would have heard music that could have easily been as equally ...forgettable. Maybe the production qualities then were better in some regards, and possibly the writing a bit more interesting, but most of those songs you would have heard then would probably sound pretty crappy now.
Peruse some old Top 40 - 100 radio station lists from 20-35-50 years ago and you'll see MUCH crap, pop songs that were inane then and haven't improved over the insuing decades.
I didn't hear any of the production shenanigans you mention on the new Ry Cooder, the new Lucinda Williams, the recent Los Lobos, the recent Dixie Chicks, etc. Mind you those aren't Top 40 artists, but the music on " a mainstream pop station" is not generated for my particular demographic, so there is really NO point in my listening to one. Doing so would just make me miserable. But, I'll bet the audience it's geared for loves it.
So that IS NOT the place for me to seek new music, just like it seems it isn't the place for you to seek it. That music is specifically produced for a certain market, just as the pop music I listened to 35 years ago on AM radio was. I could relate to much of it then because I WAS THAT MARKET, but most of it sounds pretty crappy now because it was, and is, pretty crappy pop music.
Pop Radio never really was a great way to get exposed to new and interesing music. Good, but not great. FM was until the mega corporation got their greedy hands around its' throat and instituted strict programming. Honestly though I haven't listened to radio in some 20 years and don't depend on it for new or exciting music. Reading, familiarity with a wide source of musics, friends, WOM have been sufficient for my discovering new or different recordings for the past 10-15 years. I also know what I like. That helps.
Then again, Ry Cooder's new CD sounds for the most part like it could have been recorded 30 years ago, so maybe I'm just living in the past in some regards. There is plenty of new and exciting music, I buy about one new release a week. That covers almost all genres of music. Plus I'm still discovering new to me older recordings, most recently "classical". There is good and new music out there. I just put some effort into it and am thankful I'm not dependant on radio to lead me to lt.
"I always play jazz records backwards, they sound better that way"
-Thomas Edison
"Peruse some old Top 40 - 100 radio station lists from 20-35-50 years ago and you'll see MUCH crap, pop songs that were inane then and haven't improved over the insuing decades."I cannot speak for others, but when I listen to "oldies" stations, I hear a lot Four Tops, Supremes, Beatles, Queen, etc.. It's the kind of station I'm tuned into quite often..... The stuff I don't care for is more an individual style (like Frankie Valli, the Stray Cats, Springsteen) than an "across-the-board void" like today. And none of that "sameness" and "generic" character I hear all the time today. And of course those lesser known artists like Booker T and the MGs, Tommy James and the Shondells, the Animals, etc. ....
"I didn't hear any of the production shenanigans you mention on the new Ry Cooder, the new Lucinda Williams, the recent Los Lobos, the recent Dixie Chicks, etc. Mind you those aren't Top 40 artists, but the music on ' a mainstream pop station' is not generated for my particular demographic, so there is really NO point in my listening to one. Doing so would just make me miserable. But, I'll bet the audience it's geared for loves it."
Note the station I heard was playing rock as well. Recall tunes by Korn and System of a Down. But basically the same thing plugged into rock. Higher energy behind the generic presentation.
Ry Cooder is more like Ian Thomas and Eric Clapton. And the type of artist who I think has put out most of the decent stuff today. I'm personally referring to artists who originally came out since 1990. What you're referring to are mostly holdovers from "classic" rock and pop that was more the norm before 1985.
And take the Dixie Chicks, one of few good acts of recent time. They're just another group who has fallen into the trap of vocal pitch correction (Clark Johnsen gets credit for my awareness of this), and it's permeated the country music scene as well. They too sound more "generic" than before.
I always thought Los Lobos was decent. That band's kind of a "tweener".... I think they came out in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I think I'll look more-closely here.
"Then again, Ry Cooder's new CD sounds for the most part like it could have been recorded 30 years ago, so maybe I'm just living in the past in some regards."
Maybe true, but then again, he actually did so 30 years ago....
Take the song, "Te Sone" by Aleks Syntek. People tell me they thought it was likely a remake or cover of a classic 1960s song. I told them no, it originally came out in 2003, penned by Syntek himself.... An artist who entered the music scene around 1990. (I'm thrilled he's around, but I just wish there were others.... The song "Duele El Amor" is starting to attain that "timeless" status that I just don't see occurring much anymore. There are already about four cover performances on YouTube, and even a "Weird Al-style" parody as well.)
"There is plenty of new and exciting music, I buy about one new release a week. That covers almost all genres of music."
I've been doing likewise. I trumpet the few good ones I come across. The latest was a fabulous CD called "Endless Wire" by the Who. But still, yet another band that's been around forever.
The top two CDs and four of the top five I cited from 2006 were by artists that originally came out at or before 1980. The previous year, I had a top 10, and half of them were by such artists. The perspective is complete when you realize the tiny percentage of releases overall. (And the tiny percentage of the releases I purchased.)
"Plus I'm still discovering new to me older recordings, most recently 'classical'. There is good and new music out there. I just put some effort into it and am thankful I'm not dependant on radio to lead me to lt."
Now that I agree with you wholeheartedly. But even there, aside from Charles Dutoit, there aren't many conductors or orchestras today that excite me.
"that "sameness" and "generic" character I hear all the time today" you would have heard on Pop radio almost all along. Big Band, 50's popular vocals, the early 60's pop/rock...the Twist songs/knockoffs...the English Invasion stuff, 70's Soft Rock, Disco, etc. Everybody rushed to catch the popular wave to the golden road to success, to sound similar in order to get airplay. So, the musical sameness has always been there. The sonic sameness is the result the simplicity of modern technology and of laziness Different labels would even concurrently release the same song by different artists...My "cream to the top" statement earlier was in direct reference to what one would hear on an "oldies" station in the past 25 or so years. Most all the other songs released the same week as "Green Onions" for example (and there were most likely dozens) have fallen by the wayside for lack of popular interest, which doesn't mean they weren't "good" per se, but probably weren't very good. Surely payola and favoritism played (plays?) into what gets spun, but I like to think (probably naively...even after all these years) that the "best" songs get played on oldies radio, etc. So, what you're hearing on the oldies station is, if not the "best", the...better? songs. Do maybe even 5% of all songs ever released ever get any regular rotation on ANY type of radio? I wonder...
I don't listen to radio because of the "sameness" of sound. It's just like TV with the same basic 3-4 plot oultines for shows....the same laugh tracks... Generally speaking of course; there's still indy radio and well, HBO. I actually haven't listened to the Dixie Chicks THAT closely (my wife is a big fan, so they are kinda in the...distance), but I do like them and need to listen more closely, see if I can discern that... Haven't heard "Endless Wire" yet, the jaded part of me is still leary of a new Who recording, but I'll come around. I just bought The Beatles "LOVE" yesterday. Was VERY leary of that project, but it is absolutely marvelous! Great reworkings of great songs done with love and respect and the integrity of the tunes remains intact. FANTASTC sound quality as well. Makes me think if they remaster yet again and meet that sonic quality, I may actually buy Beatles CDs (have orig. UK LP pressings of the LPs I like...).
I need to listen to more Aleks Syntek: I heard one CD by him and thought it pretty good (don't remember the title...), but the potential for future enjoyment was certainly there...
Been listening to much music from Mali lately, the recent (in the USA) Balleke' Sissoko "Tomora" is lovely, and "Heritage" by Mamadou Diabate is about 90% great. A great new "rock" record too, is "Ce" by Cateano Veloso. Avoid "Victor Krause II" like the plague, as dull and vapid as any recording I've probably ever heard (except the track with Lyle Lovett, that's nice). Too bad, he's a great player on other's recordings. I'll check that YOUTUBE link later...
ENJOY the evening!...
"I always play jazz records backwards, they sound better that way"
-Thomas Edison
Ian Thomas is a lot older than I thought.... I just found out he had stuff out in the early 1970s.....
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