General Music Chat

Although I cant hear the track in question I have been thinking about the general premise some.

Hell, NKF is "new rock" ... arent we ??

I was hearing a lot of good stuff from members of this forum that is "new rock".

Perhaps this issue is not "new rock" at all ... but pop sales gimmickry.

What's truly new is being played on the streets of America. Mostly undiscovered unpaid and unrecorded.

Let us musicians and artist step away from the McDonald's of music and fire up the back yard grill.

I'll bring the beer.

Nicely put Sans.

I think the big problem with modern rock is in its subject matter more than anything else. What's with everyone wanting to be some kind of tough guy? Seems like whenever I listen to a modern rock station, every other song has a singer who wants to beat me up.

true and hilarious. It's like all the tough guy band photos. Nobody smiles anymore.

Thats funny. I always smile when I'm kickin ass.

Im with George nothing like kicking ass and smiling.

When I want to listen to music I tend to lean toward 70s material. Lately Ive been listening a lot to Sly and The Family Stone. If you listen to this music they really use dynamics and different voices to enhance the music. On the other hand I have a side of me that loves Nickleback, I love the guys lyrics and delivery. He must have an oxygen line pushing straight into his lungs. Just try to play RockStar a little too fast and spit all those words out. A mistake Ive made a few times in my acoustic show. When I listen to Nickleback they have a lot of subtle instrument textures like the old 70s bands did, but as everyone has said it all compressed to the hilt. Its like when you watch tv and you get to the commercials and the commercial is twice as loud as the show you are watching.

I would prefer the old dynamics and the stereo spreads of the 70s, but time moves on and its jsut a sign of the digital age.

Here's an article that is kinda related to this thread.
"Foo Fighters' Hawkins laments technology in rock"
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_ ... or_hawkins
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It mentions pro tools, compression, and stiff.
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But, here's a direct quote from the article (AP):
"Hawkins said overseas audiences have a special appreciation for rock that appears to have been lost in the United States."

"America is tough for rock music," he said sadly. "Rock 'n' roll used to be the main music for the youth, and it's not so much anymore. It's hip-hop and stuff."

Along with dynamics loss, compression makes some songs sound as if they are "Yelling at you" even at low volumes. When I hear that I just skip the song. A lot of material is so over compressed that when you look at it on a scope (Or analyze it with a wave form editor such as Sound forge or Cool Edit} it looks like a solid block. No peaks and valleys which translate to dynamics. Compression kills music. Unfortunately the brain dead don't even realize that. If they did studios would stop over compressing.