General Music Chat

Right now there doesn't seem to be anything major happening in the world of music. No rock and roll revolution, no British Invasion, Disco, Rap, Alternative, we're not in any musical "era." Where's the next "big thing" in music? Where's the next big sound coming from? Have we become so diversified in our musical tastes that there can't be a next "big thing?" Are there too many genres and sub-genres? Seems to me we're in a huge rut, a grand funk.

I'm in love with a girl
I'm talkin about

I think we all know that music, along with nearly every other human activity, is devolving. Look at the line-up for Coachella, how many of these bands do you know and would care to see?

Friday, April 13, 20
Alesso
Amon Tobin
Arctic Monkeys
Atari Teenage Riot
Band of Skulls
Breakbot
Cat Power
Datsik
Dawes
Death Grips
EMA
Explosions in the Sky
Feed Me
Frank Ocean
GIRLS
GIVERS
Hello Seahorse!
honeyhoney
James
Jimmy Cliff & Tim Armstrong
Kendrick Lamar
LA Riots
M83
Madeon
Madness
Manchester Orchestra
Mazzy Star
Neon Indian
Other Lives
Pulp
R3hab
Refused
Sean Kuti & Egypt 80
Swedish House Mafia
The Black Angels
The Black Keys
The Dear Hunter
The Horrors
The Midnight Beast
The Rapture
The Sheepdogs
Wolf Gang
WU LYF
Ximena Sarinana Yuck

Saturday, April 14, 21
A$AP Rocky
Andrew Bird
AWOLNATION
Azealia Banks
Black Lips
Bon Iver
Borgore
Buzzcocks
Childish Gambino
David Guetta
Destroyer
Destructo
Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg
Feist
fIREHOSE
Flying Lotus
Gary Clark Jr.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Grouplove
Jacques Lu Cont
Jeff Mangum
Kaiser Chiefs
Kasabian
Kaskade
Keep Shelly in Athens
Laura Marling
M. Ward
Martin Solveig
Miike Snow
Mt Eden
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Pure Filth Sound
Radiohead
SBTRKT
SebastiAn
Squeeze
St. Vincent
Sub Focus
Suedehead
The Big Pink
The Head and the Heart
The Shins
The Vaccines
tUnE-yArDs
We are Augustines
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Zeds Dead

Sunday, April 15, 22
AraabMUZIK
At The Drive-In
AVICII
Beats Antique
Beirut
Calvin Harris
Company Flow
Dada Life
DJ Shadow
Dragonette
Fanfarlo
First Aid Kit
Fitz and the Tantrums
Florence and the Machine
Flux Pavilion & Dr. P
Gardens & Villa
Girl Talk
Gotye
Greg Ginn
Housse de Racket
Justice
La Roux
Lissie
Metronomy
Modeselektor
Morgan Page
Nero
NOISI?
Oberhofer
Porter Robinson
Real Estate
SantiGold
Sebastian Ingrosso
Sleeper Agent
Spector
The Gaslamp Killer
The Growlers
The Hives
The Weeknd
Wild Beasts
Wild Flag
Zedd

Yea Jimmy, you just confirmed my post.

I disagree - vehemently. You could prowl Youtube and find twenty outstanding bands you've never heard of in an hour.

the difference now is that it's so big - so world wide and so connected. No more Beatles or Elvis owning everything. But it's a very large pie and there are slices for everyone.

As an example, I doubt some of you have heard of Finnish Symphonic Metal rockers Nightwish but they's sold 17 million albums and play to gigantic audiances. (very good band)

there are many others in many genres doing first rate work.

I don't pretend to understand this new market but the same books I'm currently studying for business reasons are pointing at a "Tipping Point."
Everything is changing.

JimmyD - as to your example? Never heard of them but I'll wager at least some of them are pretty good. And don't we all want a shot a getting heard? This is there shot.

Talbot

To be fair, there are a number of pretty big bands on that list - Radiohead, Dr. DRE, James, The Shins, Madness, Squeeze, etc. But there's a lot B and C list groups too. Sure there are a lot of good bands out there, and finding them is both easier and harder than it used to be.

Yep, it's just one giant "grand funk railroad" now.. LOL

I've seen exactly three bands that are on that list: Arctic Monkeys, Buzzcocks and The Hives. I would love to see James, and Radiohead I suppose.

POP music of it's day no matter what that day is / was is a rut because it is aimed at the minimal thinkers of the world.
The mass consumer ... the teen with her daddy's credit card.

Music on the cutting edge is ... well ... on the edge.
The edge of society like rock music was before the "arena era".
Like the blues or Jazz was before the speak easy.

Music ...
My philosophy.
Do what makes me happy.
Some will love it. They will be my fans.
Some will shun it . They are ...irrelevant.

When it seemed all the world had gone Disco, even my own Senior Prom.
I was out in the outback on a million miles of rural oil top petroleum lease roads listening to real rock music or real blues, and many other genre' / sub genre' because it is what moved ME.
What moved the masses was then and is now truly irrelevant to me.

I play a lot of songs in a style that few listen to. The truth is that though I would like people to enjoy what I am doing it matters not in the long run. I play music because I enjoy working out songs. So I play for my own amusement, and I chose amusement because it is amusing at best at times.
You don't have to be good to get paid, a lot of bands have proven that. If you aren't creative and don't enjoy music simply for the satisfaction it brings when everything goes right, then music isn't something any sensible person should seek out as a profession. For all the millions trying, very few actually hit the mother lode. It is what it is. Skill and accomplishment are worth little without promotion these days. So I guess I'll just enjoy what I can get out of it.

IMHO ...
We know there was a time when "song-writing" (as opposed to composition) wasn't even on the map as a vocation.

When you think about it, The Beatles and the Elvisis, Chuck Berrys and Little Richards were the pioneers for what really amounts to "marketable, cutting edge" methods of filling the airwaves between commercials and FCC regulated news broadcasts air times..., (The FCC ruled that the open lines of communication had to be up during certain hours every day/night.... )

Well How do ya kill time during those hours....Jingle after Jingle...
Songs were not even viewed on radio as 'ordinary " entertainment.... in the beginning It was specialized... disciplined and left only to the true, musically endowed professional musicians. Remember the Big Band era? Only after then, did song-writing start to creep in as both an art from, and viable entertainment...enter Skiffle, R & R, etc...

So, Bob, to answer your question... I believe, the art of song-writing got buried under mediocrity. How did mediocrity evolve? Simply put, After the Beatles, Ed Sullivan, Ted Mack , Rowan & Martin, everybody and their mother suddenly wanted to live the lives and fame of "Rock 'n Roll stars" And worse...everybody and their mother was conned into it; sold by a dream.

I remember a time when it wasn't so damn easy to buy a guitar...I Had to save my money... had to work my ass off ,..had to contemplate if i was actually worthy to pursue such an investment. (Only now, have i given myself permission to engage)

Mediocrity... Bob... Mediocrity....That's what happened.

So, the next real question is, How can we get back to the days when songs were good, actually meant something and would carve, mold, shape our social styles.

DO you know how many people scoff at Beatles or Little Richard music today? Its kinda sad...In my book, there aint a single MF out there, who can top their ability to write a good song... But the really really critically sad part about that is...Aint too many MFs that are even "trying to"... They have convinced themselves that because the aforementioned artist's work is outdated...it must not be valid anymore...or its gay... or whatever macho-piece-of sh*t excuse they dribble out...
My point is... How can musicians advance themselves and rise above mediocrity, if they discard and dismiss all the mastery that preceded them, before mediocrity took hold? DUHHH!

Finally, nobody knows how to cry anymore... America forgot that the highest honor to both consonance and dissonance...is that lil thing we call...EMOTION...
You can pretty much bet, that with most American music ...we got a lot of the same old lifeless mono-drone coming out of a lot of 'muzak'... Everybody wants to be thought of as a ''bad ass'...(Sorry all you shredders , but Good lick-pickin makes not a real song writer..). When I turn on the radio, its one more f**k - ing bad-ass yelling at me , telling me how bad-ass his conflict is...I then ralize that radio is made up of a bunch of bad-asses, who thought it was cool to make a whole industry out of shredding, which necessarily requires the themes to center around being bad-asses... Sorry Folks, but we get 31 flavors of Bad-ass on the radio now... and lately each flavor is starting to taste like sh*t...

Ok BoB ...thass muh 2-pence

I kind of agree there isn't a real revolution happening. If there is... I missed the boat on it.
But so much has changed. We use to have radio and TV to find out what is new and happening but once the internet became the source for your music all hell broke loose.
The industry is still trying to figure itself out.
I don’t feel music itself is in a rut just how you find it.
I also find new artist on you tube. The problem to me is that it's overwhelming. Now it’s word of mouth or random searches. I'll even sit with Rolling Stone mag and do searches for artist based on reviews.
You Tube would be a better service if they created the fine little categories like we're use to like radio stations etc...
Then if you wanted to hear pop you go to the pop site Blues to the Blues site etc...

There is a revolution right now! You guys are just missing it. It's the AutoTune Revolution baby!



Okay, that was funny. You gotta admit....


As far as music being in a "rut" - I'd argue that in the past, when all we had was radio and MTV - that was the real "rut". We got fed the same crap day in and day out. The record labels were able to DICTATE what we listened to! And they kept feeding us the same B.S. over and over... That was a rut, for sure.

Now, the game had changed. For the better. As a music lover, I feel blessed to be alive at this period in time...


In all seriousness, I think we DO have a revolution right now. The Information Age has revolutionized the way we listen to music. We aren't prisoners of the radio or MTV anymore. We're free. And we can go wherever our ears wish to take us.

Options like "Pandora" and "GrooveShark" have changed the way we can listen to - and more importantly DISCOVER - music!

I mean, I have never heard so much new music that I would have never been exposed to before had it not been for Pandora. What an awesome vehicle! I've bought CD's and downloaded songs off iTunes for bands I would have never known about otherwise. Discover-ability is off the charts now.

And there is GREAT music out there! I think the musical age we're in right now is absolutely flooded with great music. We have more "good" music now that we ever had before. And we have much more "access" to it; it's far easier to find great music now. YouTube, Pandora, etc... We're not trapped by the radio.

I kind of agree there isn't a real revolution happening. If there is... I missed the boat on it.
But so much has changed. We use to have radio and TV to find out what is new and happening but once the internet became the source for your music all hell broke loose.
The industry is still trying to figure itself out.
I don’t feel music itself is in a rut just how you find it.
I also find new artist on you tube. The problem to me is that it's overwhelming. Now it’s word of mouth or random searches. I'll even sit with Rolling Stone mag and do searches for artist based on reviews.
You Tube would be a better service if they created the fine little categories like we're use to like radio stations etc...
Then if you wanted to hear pop you go to the pop site Blues to the Blues site etc...

Jahva, not to hijack this thread but has anyone ever told you that you bear a strong resemblance to Anthony Bourdain aka NO RESERVATIONS>?

I disagree - vehemently. You could prowl Youtube and find twenty outstanding bands you've never heard of in an hour.

the difference now is that it's so big - so world wide and so connected. No more Beatles or Elvis owning everything. But it's a very large pie and there are slices for everyone.

As an example, I doubt some of you have heard of Finnish Symphonic Metal rockers Nightwish but they's sold 17 million albums and play to gigantic audiances. (very good band)

there are many others in many genres doing first rate work.

I don't pretend to understand this new market but the same books I'm currently studying for business reasons are pointing at a "Tipping Point."
Everything is changing.

JimmyD - as to your example? Never heard of them but I'll wager at least some of them are pretty good. And don't we all want a shot a getting heard? This is there shot.

Talbot

I agree with Mike! Nobody is huge but a lot of people are big.