Why Does Modern Music Suck As Badly As Music Has Ever Sucked?

[Paco]

Paco, I know what you're saying, but I always have a knee-jerk reaction to statements such as these.
...

Ken, first that is not what I was saying. What I was saying is people that say they do not like electronica because it is not "real" do to me as you state I do to you: Zzzz...
Now that shit is beyond old and boring!

Second: I have tried to stomach some mainstream stuff, and some of my stuff ends up there. I simply hate 99% of it. So?
Not for me. If th@'s for you GR8!

Third: I never said I was "underground" as I know it's been swallowed up by the big monster. What I said was many do not go to underground clubs, because they are different (dark, no booze, EXTREMELY LOUD and THUMP THUMP thumping).

Of course people should listen to what they like - I never said they shouldn't. What I did say is: just taste the other flavours!

Hmm - I guess I need to start weaving in a straighter line as it seems many can not follow my stitching.

p.s. If you think I am "angry" or a "pessimist" you oh-so very wrong!
But I do not blame you as I know you can not see my pragmatic smile

[XXXWriterDude]

Ken, first that is not what I was saying. What I was saying is people that say they do not like electronica because it is not "real" do to me as you state I do to you: Zzzz...
Now that shit is beyond old and boring!

Second: I have tried to stomach some mainstream stuff, and some of my stuff ends up there. I simply hate 99% of it. So?
Not for me. If th@'s for you GR8!

Third: I never said I was "underground" as I know it's been swallowed up by the big monster. What I said was many do not go to underground clubs, because they are different (dark, no booze, EXTREMELY LOUD and THUMP THUMP thumping).

Of course people should listen to what they like - I never said they shouldn't. What I did say is: just taste the other flavours!

Hmm - I guess I need to start weaving in a straighter line as it seems many can not follow my stitching.

p.s. If you think I am "angry" or a "pessimist" you oh-so very wrong!
But I do not blame you as I know you can not see my pragmatic smile

No worries, Paco. Like I said, I have a knee-jerk reaction to hearing someone criticize the mainstream. It's become such a "trend" to devalue or dismiss anything "popular," and I just find it to be really, really tiresome and dumb. I wasn't trying to attack you personally. I'm sure you're much more well-adjusted than that. I was more speaking out in general than I was directly to you. Your statement just gave me the jumping-off point to speak my mind.

[Paco]

Ken - all is good! I understand (and know) that I am a somewhat forceful every now and then.

Thanks for putting up with me.
~Placido

[DonMike]

Wow Space Glider, looks like you hit a nerve.

Yay!!! :donmike:

I love when people get into discussions like this one. Excellent job.

Now, one thing that nobody seems to have hit on... Space Glider... what kind of music do you like? If you are saying that today's pop music isn't as good as the new wave and punk from the 80's and 90's then we may have an entire different discussion than if you are saying Brittney Spears and Christine Agublablabla aren't as good as Prince and Madonna Mach 1.

Ken, I went through a period of being one of those snobs who reject everything mainstream. But I've learned to take things at face value. I still hate most of the popular music today, but only after actually listening to it. I mean, I heard SexyBack by Justin Timberlake and wanted to rip my ears out. There's no music there, no melody, no heart and no soul. However, I could listen to O Superman by Laurie Anderson for hours and there you have a monotone vocal sample that runs through the entire 8 minute piece, sparce keyboards, and an almost spoken vocal. Hardly "musical" but I love it. Although I think it has a lot more heart and soul to it then Sexyback. Okay, I will say it. I usually hate commercial music because I know it's all formula crap made just to sell records, but you know, sometimes I find beauty in a billboard, sometimes I sing commercial jingles all day long and sometimes I like commercial drek that is made just to sell records. It's what Ken was saying, if you like it then like it, no matter where it came from or what the intention behind it is.

Now, (catching a breath) Space Glider, I was feeling the same thing you were, very unhappy with the state of music today and frustrated by the inability of finding ways to hear new music. Then I discovered the All Things Go music blog. Now before anyone goes crying about the whole filesharing issue, keep in mind that although you can get a lot of free music here, they intention of the blog is to expose people to new artists and I have gone right to my iTunes and purchased music from bands I've discovered here because I would have never heard of them otherwise. And the fun thing is that they put together "MixTapes" which is like when your friend gives you a CD (or a cassette like back in the day) of songs they want you to hear, with a custom made DIY cover. They actually reproduce this on the site. You download the songs, print out the cover and make your own mix CD. And if you like the songs you check out more by those artists.

I hightly recommend this site for anyone who wants to explore new music way better than what they play on the radio (in my humble opinion, of course).

[SPACE GLIDER]

Now, one thing that nobody seems to have hit on... Space Glider... what kind of music do you like?

Oh wow, my tastes vary. Beach Boys (from Pet Sounds onward) Talking Heads. Beatles (from Rubber Soul onward) George Clinton and all of his bands (Bootsy's Rubber Band, Parliament, Funkadelic, Brides of Funkenstien etc.) Queen, The Gap Band. Relevant Rap of the past (Ice Cube, Digital Underground, De La Soul and all the "Native Tongues", N.W.A.) Earth Wind and Fire, Kate Bush, Sly and the Family Stone, Joni Mitchell, Outkast, the Bee Gees, Tom Tom Club, Spandau Ballet, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, B-52's ... I like so MUCH. But I've found, to my surprise, that my tastes are nearly as varied as some people

[desslock]

Wow Space Glider, looks like you hit a nerve.
Yay!!! :donmike:
I heard SexyBack by Justin Timberlake and wanted to rip my ears out. There's no music there, no melody, no heart and no soul. However, I could listen to O Superman by Laurie Anderson for hours and there you have a monotone vocal sample that runs through the entire 8 minute piece, sparce keyboards, and an almost spoken vocal. Hardly "musical" but I love it.

I'm giggling. You know - O Superman and "melody" .... I've never really associated those two together. Well I guess so. And I do have trouble thinking of anything today that would compare to 1980s avant garde.

O Superman Video on YouTube

I was amazingly fortunate to just happened to have had a group of friends in school who were amazingly smart, and we fed off each other nicely with music such as this. In fact to this day, if I ever dream and remember it, I'm back in Arlington, Texas.... a place I haven't physically returned to in years.

Comparing Justin Timberlake to that is like apples and oranges. Don't forget that while we were listening to Laurie Anderson, most people were listening to David Lee Roth and Quiet Riot.

My friend, you and I probably going to be the last still standing from that old school.

Steve

[DonMike]

Oh, I didn't mean to compare Justin Timberlake to Laurie Anderson by any means, I was just saying that my arguments against some of today's pop music could very well be used against me in my own music. It's like when Michael Jackson's Black or White came out. I was bitching to high hell that the repetitive guitar and the samples bothered me but then my favorite song at the time was Rush by Big Audio Dynamite which had, you guessed it, a repetitive guitar line and samples. So when called on it, I learned not to make generalizations.

But I have hope, dear friend. The fact that Laurie Anderson's epic saga of United States parts 1 though 4 is available on CD and not even out of print. So there's gotta be something to the fact that they are kept in the Warner Bros. catalog.

I didn't have other friends to expose me to cool and unusual music. I somehow latched on to Blondie and The B-52's early on, and the soundtrack of Pretty In Pink got me to seek out and explore bands like The Psychedelic Furs, The Smiths and New Order when I'd never even heard of them before. And my one saving grace was a show called "Alive From Off Center", which exposed me to a lot of avant garde performers. It was here that Laurie Anderson did a whole episode where she created a digital "clone" of herself, only to have it turn out as a three foot tall man.

I do find it ironic that my earliest exposure to underground and avant garde music was on Saturday Night Live. For those of you who weren't around in the 70's and early 80's, decades before the musical guests of SNL were pop stars de jour, you could find bands like Sun Ra, Capt. Beefheart, The B-52's (before Rock Lobster became a frat party fav), Talking Heads and many other unusual acts.

Oh great, I'm gonna have O Superman in my head all day now. LOL!

[desslock]

Alive from Off Center.

See.... how telling. How many 16/17 year old teenage guys were sitting at home late late on their Saturday night watching PBS? :bow:


Steve

[SPACE GLIDER]

The B-52's (before Rock Lobster became a frat party fav)

It's funny but "Rock Lobster" was my least favorite B-52 song. And I don't think any of the songs on my favorite B-52 album "Bouncing off Satellites" became even minor hits.

[XXXWriterDude]

Don, I was lucky enough to have an older gay friend who turned me on to TONS of strange, weird, avante garde music, like Jane Siberry, Meryn Cadel, Mary Margaret O'Hara (sister to actress Catherine, FYI), Marianne Faithfull, and yes, Laurie Anderson. I actually saw Laurie in concert twice in D.C. She was great. I have a very deep love of anything unique and underground, as long as it's actually GOOD. I don't love it just for the sake of it being underground.

I have to disagree with you about "SexyBack," though. Even though I, too, disliked it upon first hearing it, I've since grown to totally love it. It's repetitive and hooky, yeah, but upon hearing it a third and fourth time, it started to get into my head, and now I find it to be very melodic and totally sensual and aggressive in its sexuality. Which I love. It's total pop, but as a pop song, it's great. The rest of the album is great as well. Justin really did bring the sexy back.

[DonMike]

Ken, in order to bring sexy back you had to give it away in the first place, and he thinks he's doin' us a favor. I don't think so. (tee hee)

The reason that it's stuck in your head is not because it's good it's because all those bleeps and blips are specially constructed to embed themselves in your brain. Haven't you seen the Manchurian Candidate??? My God, man! Save yourself!!!!!!

But seriously, Space Glider, given the type of music you like, I think you'll dig that blog I was talking about. And Rock Lobster will always be one of my favorites because it was the first B-52's song I ever heard. But She Breaks For Rainbows is right up there along with it. Bouncing is a great album but it's a little sad for me because it sounds like a collection of solo tracks from each of the members instead of the band working as a whole, and Tony Mansfield's Fairlight keyboard detracted from the band's signature sound. But there are songs that I absolutely love on it, and Summer of Love will always take me back, strangely enough, so the summer of 1986. I got the 12" that summer as a pre-relase promo for the album which would be released later that year and I played it to death. Do you like remixes? I made my own mega-extended mix from the 12" remix and dub tracks. Let me know and I'll send it to ya.

[SPACE GLIDER]

Alive from Off Center.

See.... how telling. How many 16/17 year old teenage guys were sitting at home late late on their Saturday night watching PBS? :bow:


Steve

I didn't watch PBS on Saturday night, but I did watch it a lot. Things about it disturbed me. Like how no one noticed Sesame Street was a slum. And no one can tell me that vampire wasn't a pimp ... complete with chicken whores. The Spiderman on Electric Company looked better than the Spidey on the the Amazing Spiderman TV show ... and Mr. Rogers was coming HOME at the beginning of each episode which took place in the early morning. Where had he been all night??

Yes, my parents worried about me.

[SPACE GLIDER]

sometimes I sing commercial jingles all day long

I am a huge fan of comercial jingles.

think my top 10 is loosely:

1) Mr. Bubble in th Tubble
2) There's Nothing Like Something With Milk
3) Mama's Got the Magic of Clorox 2
4) Wrigley's Spearmint Gum (with the lyrics "Take a sniff ... pull it out ... the tastes is gonna move you when you pop it in your mouth" ?!?!)
5) Zoom Zoom Zoom
6) The Snack That Smiles Back (Goldfish)
7) My Buddy
8) Mervyn's Department Store("Dear Mr. Mervyns, I hope you're alive ... but if you're not, I'm sorry")
9) You Can Roll a Rolo
10)They Call that Kid a Crackerjack

Honorable Mention: That's Life (Sanyo)

[DonMike]

I am a huge fan of comercial jingles.

think my top 10 is loosely:

1) Mr. Bubble in th Tubble
2) There's Nothing Like Something With Milk
3) Mama's Got the Magic of Clorox 2
4) Wrigley's Spearmint Gum (with the lyrics "Take a sniff ... pull it out ... the tastes is gonna move you when you pop it in your mouth" ?!?!)
5) Zoom Zoom Zoom
6) The Snack That Smiles Back (Goldfish)
7) My Buddy
8) Mervyn's Department Store("Dear Mr. Mervyns, I hope you're alive ... but if you're not, I'm sorry")
9) You Can Roll a Rolo
10)They Call that Kid a Crackerjack

Honorable Mention: That's Life (Sanyo)

Did you make those up??? LOL! Okay, who are you? Where are you from? You are just too damn cool.

[XXXWriterDude]

I am a huge fan of comercial jingles.

think my top 10 is loosely:

1) Mr. Bubble in th Tubble
2) There's Nothing Like Something With Milk
3) Mama's Got the Magic of Clorox 2
4) Wrigley's Spearmint Gum (with the lyrics "Take a sniff ... pull it out ... the tastes is gonna move you when you pop it in your mouth" ?!?!)
5) Zoom Zoom Zoom
6) The Snack That Smiles Back (Goldfish)
7) My Buddy
8) Mervyn's Department Store("Dear Mr. Mervyns, I hope you're alive ... but if you're not, I'm sorry")
9) You Can Roll a Rolo
10)They Call that Kid a Crackerjack

Honorable Mention: That's Life (Sanyo)

Your parents aren't the only ones who are worrying about you...