Garbage music

Subject: Garbage music
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 04:56 PM

I don't care what anyone says: Today's music sucks. Today's music fans suck. I know, I know...there's still good music out there, I know. I've been grooving on the Carolina Chocolate Drops a lot lately. And Gillian Welch. But most music today is shit. SHIT!

Although I am not a fan of Kiss or Crue, I'm glad they said it. It's about time someone did!


Thank you

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: alex s
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 05:01 PM

wateva...........

you sound like my dad.
(are you?)

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Gurney
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 05:31 PM

Right, Alex. I remember my dad saying that about Rock-n-Roll.
"But, there's no Melody!"

He's gone now, but I still hear him coming out of MY mouth, sometimes.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: pdq
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 05:38 PM

The current "music" simply reflects the current state of our society: rude, violent and degenerate.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 05:44 PM

What else is new? Popular music, in my book, peaked about 1900 & became despicable about 1940 (speakerfilth -- first gangster sleaze, then mechanized tantrums).

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 06:05 PM

My old man's a dustman?

Oh, soory, thought you were looking for examples!

DtG

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,C-Sharp Miner
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 06:21 PM

Not to put to fine a point on it, josepp, but even though you said today's music sucks, the examples you gave were of things you liked. What's up with that?

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Jon Corelis
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 06:29 PM

Lest we nostalgically over-idealize the music of the past, let us remember that in 1967, a year in the midst of the most glorious period of American popular song, the top selling album in the United States was More of the Monkees.

Jon Corelis
Songs by William Blake

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: John P
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 10:09 PM

Mechanized tantrums! Perfect description of current dance hits. Could also be a band name . . .

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 10:16 PM

"But, there's no Melody!"

No melody? There's no life, no soul, no intelligence, no nothing because it is all an illusion being packaged and sold to retards who buy the shit because they're either too stupid to know any better or too brain-dead to care that they are wasting money on shit. And if it was just them, I wouldn't give a damn. But because these idiots buy this shit, I have to have that same shit crammed down my throat everywhere I go, everytime I turn on the TV or walk past a magazine rack. And Tommy Lee is right--hate to say it--but he's right: the Grammys and other awards shows are nothing but glorified versions of "Idol".

No melody?   I often listen to NON and Merzbow who are pure noise--no melody, often no beat--just pure noise. I LOVE noise. No melody doesn't bother me a bit. This mainstream crap has melody--I just can't stand the sound of it. It grates on my nerves. It's faceless, soulless and has no substance. It is empty, vapid, devoid of any meaning than to make money off stupid asses. This is the generation of the utterly soulless.

The Monkees? I like the Monkees. I'll take the Monkees--no problem. I'll take the Monkees--you take Rihanna, Chris Brown, Kanye, Taylor Swift, Susan Boyle, Adele, Justin Bieber and get em the hell out of my sight and off my airwaves.

////Not to put to fine a point on it, josepp, but even though you said today's music sucks, the examples you gave were of things you liked. What's up with that?////

So some smart-ass doesn't tell me I'm listening to all the wrong shit. No. I'm not. I'm listening to the only good shit. But these acts I'm talking about--they have no right to be famous, no right to be recognized and fawned and cooed over by dummies who don't know any better. These people offer nothing. They are phonies and frauds and scoundrels and they are ruining whatever is left of our culture. But I guess we deserve it because we not only allow it to happen, we are making it happen by demanding nothing better.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Jon Corelis
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 10:29 PM

So then, you do not, if I understand you, care for most of today's popular music.

Jon Corelis
Poems, Plays, Songs, and Essays

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 11:02 PM

It all started when the Beatles decided they could write their own stuff (or pretend to) and cut out the songwriters and composers who were getting a cut of the profits. Apparently the Beatles had the talent to carry this off.

Since then, all the boys and girls have thought they could do the same. The result is barrels and buckets, reams and gigabytes of mediocre, predictable music. Since the music has nothing much interesting at its core, they subsitute effects to get attention - loud volume, dizzying lights, outre costumes, gyrating drummers.

Feh!

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 11:21 PM

"Right, Alex. I remember my dad saying that about Rock-n-Roll."

'Rock and Roll will never last!'

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 11:23 PM

That was me.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,David E.
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 11:34 PM

Funny enough, I remember getting so upset with my parents in the 60's because they said they couldn't tell the Stones from the Animals. I turned off the radio in the mid 70's and found jazz and classical and folk and what today is called "world music" so I really have little knowledge of what the trends have been since. But yes, most everything popular today now sounds the same to me, the beat goes boom boom boom boom boom boom boomity boom and the women singers yowl like Tarzan... (I'm going to lay that at Whitney Houston's door because she was the first singer I ever heard do that)... but some things don't change, like if you want to hear good creative music by genuinely talented people you'll probably need to dig deep beneath the surface of what is being promoted. There is good music out there and with the internet, it's easier to find than ever before. Happy digging!

David E.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 11:47 PM

josepp, what you say has some truth if you refer to what is played through the public media! Much of it is indeed garbage, and somewhere some shit-for-brains faceless idiot programs the radio station's bots to play it. The solution that I have found is to use the off switch and play what I want to hear from a recorded source. However there is live music being played everyday that may meet your taste but you just have to find it. It ain't all garbage!

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 11:58 PM

David E: Fuckin' A!

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 21 Mar 12 - 11:59 PM

Maybe just me, but I can't be bothered wasting time and energy getting all worked up hating things..

If I don't like stuff - I mostly just find easy ways to avoid or ignore most of it.

So much of modern cretin culture has ceased to exist as far as my day to day perception is concerned.

A life strategy of benign indifference also helps manage stress & high blood pressure..

.. and I can still exercise my 'educated' discernment to pick and choose the latest frivolous pop culture tripe
I'm happy to enjoy on my own terms...

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 12:09 AM

////So then, you do not, if I understand you, care for most of today's popular music.////

Do you? You first.

////Since then, all the boys and girls have thought they could do the same. The result is barrels and buckets, reams and gigabytes of mediocre, predictable music. Since the music has nothing much interesting at its core, they subsitute effects to get attention - loud volume, dizzying lights, outre costumes, gyrating drummers////

And don't forget the 25 dancers onstage all dancing in synchronized step. Gee, could they show me that one more time, I just can't get enough of it.

But, really, while I agree with you, it's not really that which bothers me so much. We've always had the mediocre with us. It's that the mediocre have became the cultural norm. It's no longer even a pretense of "It's what I listen to for fun" it is now all they listen to. It rakes in billions annually and so it has clout. For example, when Donny Osmond was a teen heart throb crooner, there was no illusion that he was anymore than that. He wasn't a serious contender to win a Grammy in any category of importance. But look at Justin Bieber--worse than Donny Osmond ever was and actually considered an important artist!!!! What the hell is Carlos Santana doing playing guitar for this asshole. I hate Carlos Santana for that. Fuck him. Same with Tony Bennett. I've always like ya, Tony, but singing with Bieber makes me hate you. Putting earrings and lipstick on a hog doesn't give me an erection, it's just grotesque. The only things worse than his music are the idiots who listen to it. Listen to one talk sometime and imagine that having babies. God help us. Why would Bennett and Santana want a cut of that market of complete numbskulls?

////Rock and Roll will never last!////

Well, your dad was right, wasn't he?

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 12:15 AM

/////Maybe just me, but I can't be bothered wasting time and energy getting all worked up hating things..////

Thank god, I still have enough energy that I can.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 12:29 AM

You are all forgetting Theodore Sturgeon's indispensable, and infinitely adaptable to other media, Theory Of Science Fiction ~~

90% of sf is crap; because 90% of everything is crap.

When the Beatles, or the Monkees, or whoever [or for that matter Dowland or Schubert or G&S or Bateman&LeBrunn or PorterTheGershwinsBerlinMercer] were writing/performing their songs, they only represented 10%. Likewise Adele [who imo should not be in above list].

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 12:46 AM

seriously.. ok it drives my wife nuts.. but I've developed exceptional ability
to filter out all cultural pollution 'communicational' stimuli I'm not the least bit interested in..

Leaves far more room in my mind to get blissfully lost in vintage guitar rock and classic era bubblegum pop...

Sadly, I had to learn to give up addictive perpetual anger and despair at the wicked stupidity of mankind
back in my mid 30's when the the physiological effects of years of 'carrying the weight of the worlds problems on my shoulders'
came too close to collapsing my health...

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,David E.
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 12:48 AM

@Guest999: "Fuckin' A!" Well,I had to look that one up. Thank you internet! (laughing)

David E.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 03:01 AM

My late mother told me that her mother used to say to her in the 1920s "I don't know what you see in the Savoy Orpheans, it all sounds the same, just plink-a-plunk-a-plink-a-plunk".

My mother used to say of the Rolling Stones "It's their horrid common voices that I can't stand".

There is some really creative modern music out there. Lots of metal and its sub-genres carry both the eternal fight of the young (ish, in some examples) against their parents and political messages. Mobo I find less admirable - but that's because largely of its socially unacceptable messages: in some cases there are fine harmonies behind, in others creative rhythm tracks. It isn't all rap, and not all the rhythms are relentless four-square.

It's a bit like the folk process in a way - 90% of what gets churned out by the machine is dross, and as time passes we remember the 10%.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 03:26 AM

I hate to admit this, but I have lived a long life without ever understanding what "fuckin' A" means. Can somebody tell me?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 03:35 AM

darn tootin'

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 04:20 AM

Joe ~~ Got from googling that Fuckin'A simply means "Fucking awesome". Can that really be all?

~M~

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 05:02 AM

The Romans had it: bread and circuses. Panes et circae. Give the masses what they want and the music money-making machine rolls on.

So don't listen to it. Don't bother with most of the radio or TV. Buy records selectively. Make your own. I play with other musicians most evenings a week and we make what believe is great music. Who needs the media?

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Megan L
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 05:18 AM

I remember in the sixties and old man who used to visit our family(a first world war soldier) who despised all the muck those oversexed overpaid Johnny come latelys brought over here. Was he talking about rock and roll? NO it was Tommy Dorsey , Glen Miller and thier ilk.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: alex s
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 09:31 AM

Richard Bridge is the voice of reason.
So is Will Fly.
Read them and learn.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 09:40 AM

I'm not often accused of that!

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 09:48 AM

So don't listen to it?

It's in almost every restaurant and every store, Will.

My Walgreen's is troubled by hobos who pester customers for money in the parking lot. I say, why not give them microphones and let them sing in their hoarse, damaged voices about how life has treated them badly and they have completely messed up? We could give them money for singing, and they would sound exactly like most male pop singers of today.

The next Bruce Springsteen could be right there at 39th and Main.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Tootler
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 10:07 AM

I think MtheGM hit the nail firmly on the head with the 90:10 ratio of crap to quality. I don't think today is any better or worse than other times in my memory. The ratio may vary a bit from time to time say between 85:15 and 96:5 but the overwhelming output of popular music of any era is crap. Simples.

I don't get today's pop music either but then my dad didn't get rock music so what's different? I certainly am careful to try and avoid the "Years ago when everything was perfect" mindset which trap I think josepp has fallen into.

You also have to avoid falling into the trap of assuming that just because you don't like it, it must be crap. I don't particularly like Brahms' music but there's no way he could be considered crap, simply his music does not appeal to me. Likewise with Frank Sinatra who I dislike intensely.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Elmore
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 10:22 AM

Life is too short to subject one's self to garbage music. It can easily be avoided. There's a world filled with great music, be it classical, opera, folk, jazz or something else. If something sounds like garbage to you, turn away from it.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 10:24 AM

Nothing I enjoy better than a bit of euphoric electronic dance music, love repetitive synthesised beats. Lots of fun. In this respect I'm much in accordance with artist Jeff Koons who maintains (including through his art celebrating the banal) that nothing which brings one joy should be considered embarrassing or in any way lesser than anything else. Still, I think there is of course much music of ALL genres (and certainly including folk!) which is kinda formulaic, dull and uninspiring, but if genuinely someone digs it, then good for them.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: PHJim
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 10:36 AM

"There are only two kinds of music - good and bad." That quote has been variously attributed to Richard Strauss, Duke Ellington, and probably numerous other musical figures, but it's all subjective.
Far be it from me to defend Justin Bieber, Kiss, Rhianna, The Monkeys... It's not my type of music, therefore I don`t listen to it, but I know it`s a waste of time to try to convert their fans to my type of music. I've been in enough car pools to realize that a lot of the music that I love to listen to drives some others crazy. Different folks listen for different reasons and that's fine with me. I'm glad we're not all the same.
It would be great if Karen Dalton, Vi Redd, Oscar Brown Jr., Todd Snider, Bob Snider, Gabor Szabo... had the success of Justin Bieber, but would their music be the same? I appreciate the music that came from the early part of Elvis' or Dylan's careers. I don't begrudge them their success, but I don`t appreciate the music they produced after they became hugely successful. They have (or had, as some folks believe that Elvis is dead) no obligation to play music that pleases me.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 10:42 AM

An aside here: I realized the other day why I never learned to like Sinatra- it's because no song of his ever betrayed a discernible emotion. imo

I grew up with country (first called 'hillbilly') and I still like a lot of the old stuff because of it. (Today's country is misnamed; it is country pop.)

But truth be told, much of the themes and lyrics of the old days was simplistic, shallow and just plain dumb.   

I like a good deal of classical and semi-classical music but I think I came to it too late. After awhile I turn it off.

I like a lot of folk music because most of it deals with the human condition. Even the funny pieces at their core tend to be more rueful than simplistic.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: pdq
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 11:15 AM

...most everything popular today now sounds the same to me, the beat goes boom boom boom boom boom boom boomity boom and the women singers yowl like Tarzan... (I'm going to lay that at Whitney Houston's door because she was the first singer I ever heard do that)... ~ David E.

That is the "garbage music" that people are talking about. The Grammy Awards mostly go to the pervayors of this drek since it sells and makes lots of money.

The repetitive and formulaic sounds of Ricky Nelson, The Monkees and other PreFab groups sound rather good compaired to a drug-crazed Rapper screaming vulgarities over the top of a nauseating drum machine.

No need to bring in Sinartra, Brahms or Ellingtom. They all made fine quality music. If you don't like them it is a matter of taste.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Acorn4
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 11:50 AM

I call it "Twitch Music" because all you can really do is stand there an twitch to it - it has the same rhythm " rubadubdub dubadubabubub dubadubadubdub, which becomes "dumph, dumph, dumph," when played through the blacked out window of a car pulled up beside you at traffic lights.

Music to Twitch To


You can discover some good stuff though - a singer called Emily Sande is well worth a listen, and I particularly like Greenday's lyrics and some of Radiohead.

Just ignore anything featuring baseball caps worn at peculiar angles.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: alex s
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 12:14 PM

"There are only two kinds of music - good and bad."

Another man said:
"There are only two kinds of music - country and western."

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 01:16 PM

Next subjective topic:

What is art?

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,999
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 01:36 PM

Never mind what. WHERE is Art?

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,C-Sharp Miner
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 03:05 PM

Don't kid yourselves--the people who create that "drek" are smart, talented, and motivated. The music that they make is intended to appeal to a specific audience, which may not be you (or me), but they know what their audience wants, and know how to create it.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,Guest, pedant
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 04:03 PM

Will (22 Mar 05:05):

_Panem et Circenses_.

O Tempora, O Mores. O Bviously.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: pdq
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 04:05 PM

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 06:26 PM

I was at an early music workshop once where we were doing Italian music from the 1500's and 1600's. One day the professor said that Italian music was brilliant for a while, then it went dead for 150 years.

I think we are in a dead period, too.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 07:04 PM

This is the kind of stuff I listen to so I can cleanse myself of the putrid, mainstream, commerical filth that pollutes our brains and minds. Join me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGqzaPzrQG8&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFUGdcIgNnc

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 07:05 PM

The above poster being me, of course.

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 07:13 PM

Its the music industry today. funny thing is, I will sit in the park and play some oldies and the HS kids go wow, what kind of music is that, I never heard it before. You see all they get is what the record companies push down their throats. If all you ever hear is rap growing up, you will be a rap fan ... hopefully I gave my kids a wide range of everything from opera to folk and big band and everything else. Today if you are a woman and don't have size D's and a size 3 body you will never get a contract even if you have talent. If you have no talent and fit the above mold, you will get a contract cause others will sing for you ... Likewise with the guys and the looks. You just don't see a mamma cass anymore or very rare.

There is very little modern music I like, there is some great artist out there today but the bulk is pretty much cookie cutter. One Nashville promoter told me that it cost 300K to get started with a new act. Hence the music does sound a lot alike because it is a system that worked and hence profit. Kinda nuts actually

Subject: RE: Garbage music
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 22 Mar 12 - 07:15 PM

But then again what do I know, hell I am a guy that refuses to use a battery watch. Mine has to be a 100 year old windup .. so I am a throwback