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Location: south east Michigan | I've been thinking about this since the Beatle thread started.
We'll never again see such a creative, evolutionay burst of music like we saw between '65 and '75. I've waited not so patiently through disco, punk, grunge, new wave, and rap for the cycle to come back around. Instead the public at large has gone back to the old stuff.
Anyway... there was an article in todays Free Press that hit the note I was looking for.
It's two pages so don't cut your read short.
Today\'s Pop Music
There is the possibility here to stray into forbidden areas. I trust that we can give those boundries a wide berth so Papa Miles and Uncle Al won't have to step in.
Be good. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | by Slipkid:
We'll never again see such a creative, evolutionay burst of music like we saw between '65 and '75.
I've waited not so patiently through disco, punk, grunge, new wave, and rap for the cycle to come back around. Instead the public at large has gone back to the old stuff. That's cuz Owsley ain't making that good acid any longer... :eek:
One pill makes you larger... And one pill makes you small... |
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Location: NJ | interesting article
but I don't buy it.
check out youtube and my space and facebook.
it is now easier than ever to get music out there and there is tons of music out there.
sure much of it is horrible but there is a bunch of good stuff to.
go to a local open mic or join a local songwriter group. I am floored by some of the stuff I hear.
the good stuff is out there you just need to seek it out.
mtv and the radio just aren't playing it but if you take some effort you can find it |
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Location: NJ | oh yeah owsley didn't hurt any either |
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Location: Flahdaw | For me, digitization(?) is what screwed up music. It started with moog synthisizers and went downhill from there. Oh I know, ELP and others did some creative things when it all first started, mixing acoustics with synth's, but soon it started going crazy. That started the whole disco thing, and real instrument playing became irrelevant. Now so much music has a digital base that it's not even real anymore.
But I do think it's coming back. It started with country, then the crossover artists, now it's moving into mainsteam.
I no longer care about trendsetters breaking new ground...I'm happy that singer/songwriters are coming back into vogue...playing acoustic guitars. |
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Location: Michigan | Ditto that.
Today is seems if you have a Stetson you can be cosidered a "country artist". You rap, carry a Glock and you can be a "gangsta", blonde hair and a shape and you are a "diva" Heck you dont even have to write your own lyrics. American Idols have taken over the charts and that is why CD sale plummet. It aint about the music.
I also agree with Al that there are incredible players out there waiting to be "discovered". But, I believe the days of artists writing and preforming stuff that will be played for decades is "long gone" as Ernie Harwell would say. |
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Location: closely held secret | Elvis, Chuck and Little Richard pioneered the idea that music could and should also be a tool of cultural revolution?
Uh... that just might be giving them a little more visionary credit than is due them... |
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Location: south east Michigan | Ernie Harwell.... sigh
I see your point Al, but you/us/we tend to be music people to begin with. We/us are the type to seek out what we are looking for. But gone are the days where a song or group can nudge the entire culture one way or another.
As popular music's ability to shock has declined, its attempts to do so have only become more naked and needy. I submit we actually have no shortage of conditions that still require rebellion. What we lack is the will to act. That's sad.
Once upon a time, music was brave. Now we have only echoes of the bang. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Totally 100% agree with Al. I saw a local group play their first gig on Saturday evening. All original tunes (well 'cept for one)..
I'll skip to the chase.. one of the tunes they played inspired me for the first time in nearly 15 years to write two songs. I have had writers block for those nearly 15 years. Even taking the Sammy Hager method of "just write about anything, it doesn't have to be good, just write" didn't work. I haven't written them yet.. but they are in progress.
Also... I also do not subscribe to the idea that music "should also be a tool of cultural revolution." It certainly could be, and it has been... but I think "should be" is just nonsense..
Music "should be" whatever the performer or listener wants it to be... nothing more... nothing less.
Finally If all you listen to is MTV, VH-1 and the Radio to get your music... don't whine about a lack of material... you are getting full value of what you paid for... |
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Location: closely held secret | +1 |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | There is good stuff out there, it's just that finding it is harder, we got to do the searching, the record companies don't serve it up to us anymore.
I get tired of the search because so much of it is crap, and just noise.
I guess that's why I like acoustic much more than 25 years ago.
Having a friend like Debanjo to tell me who IS making it happen helps too.
As far as music having the worldly impact that the Beatles and other bands of that time frame did, I really doubt that will happen again.
I'd like to be wrong, I think(so long as I actually like the new music!) |
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Location: south east Michigan | Big picture gentleman... big picture.
Individuals have made an effort to search the nooks and crannys. Al, Miles, Bill, Wabbit and Jeff to name just a couple. It used to be that you didn't have to look. It was right there like low hanging fruit.
I think that the idea that great music, whatever its form used to have an air of danger about it. All the way back to Woody Guthrie and up to CSN&Y "Ohio". Yes... that's the revolutionary part but remember when, for good or evil, we listened to and sang American Pie pretty much as a nation.
edit:
Having a friend like Debanjo to tell me who IS making it happen helps too. Yes indeed... it's nice to have a trail guide thru the wilderness. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | As an outside observer, some may think that "Music Shaped A Generation"...
But that is backasswards. The revolution was in the hearts of the writers, not the other way around.
The 'Movement' came before the Music.
The music just gave voice to the spirit that was in the writer.
Contrary to media-hype... Woodstock marked The End of a Period... Not the beginning.
The beginning was when you had to search for a Ten Years After album, not when you could buy a Beatles album in Woolworth's. When you had to go 'into town' to find a little Head Shop to get some decent music. Or stay-up late to hear good music on the "Underground Pirate Radio" beamed outta the University's AM Radio station... Cranked-up to illegal power levels late at night.
Remember, when The Grateful Dead finally got a song on the Top 40 (Touch of Gray) they said that they must've done something Wrong.
Jimi Hendrix had to go to England to get famous.
The Ramones played to Packed Houses for Decades and never made it on MTV, or the Top 40.
(Not that I am a big Ramones fan, just an example...)
Now 'The Times There Are a-Changing' is the theme song for some Diet Munchies or a HMO.
Some of the best musicians I've heard in my Life were Street Musicians that nobody ever heard of...
[And Brad, remember they wanted to Lock-Up Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger] |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | This is the same discussion that our patents had 30 years ago. Get over it, OUR generation is not the best. It only seems that way to us. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Gallerinski observes:
This is the same discussion that our patents had 30 years ago. Get over it, OUR generation is not the best. It only seems that way to us. :eek: OUCH! :eek: |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I remember my Dad complaining about what meaningless crap was on my Black Sabbath album and how it wasn't music.
Alas, he was right.
I agree there's a lot of junk out there, but there's plenty that meet my standards of what music should be. I agree with some of what that article said, like nothing is really shocking anymore. That doesn't mean that being the first to sing "who the f--- are you" meant your album had meaningful or revolutionary lyrics, anymore than a rapper sells albums by filling it full of obscenities. Obscenities are just a substitute for an intelligent vocabulary.
OMG, the transformation is complete. I have become my father. |
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Location: south east Michigan | That doesn't mean that being the first to sing "who the f--- are you" meant your album had meaningful or revolutionary lyrics, anymore than a rapper Very true.
And I will say that I have gone back and listened to some "classics" and wondered how in the world I ever wasted time on such drivel.
A lot of it holds up. A lot does not. |
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Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | I've been thinking about this off and on all day. I stopped listening to commercial radio back in the late 70's and didn't turn it on again until the early 90's. I liked Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and some of the other bands that were big then. It seemed like the first time in a couple of decades that something soulful, heart-felt and original was happening. But that didn't last long.
I usually just listen to my local NPR station. Classical in the morning, jazz in the evening. I thought maybe it was just that my musical taste had matured. I can't remember the last time I heard ANY piece of music without thinking of it in terms of "how would I go about playing this on my guitar?" I guess what I'm saying is I'd rather play than listen. And most of the new stuff I play is stuff I wrote. I loved 60's music in the 60's, and early 70's music in the early 70's. But I really don't want to listen to it any more.
That's one of the great things about the OFC. Yeah we learn alot about guitars, and of course we make good friends, but every once in a while someone posts something so thought provoking that, I at least, learn something about myself. Now I have to figure out WHY it is that I really don't like listening to music anymore. I mean, the classical stuff in the morning is great music, but it's just background while I'm getting ready for work, and most of the time I shut it off so I can play guitar. The jazz at night is just background while I read or do a crossword, and most of the time I shut it off so I can play guitar. I guess I just want to play... |
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Location: south east Michigan | I loved 60's music in the 60's, and early 70's music in the early 70's. But I really don't want to listen to it any more. Almost the same here only I'd much rather play it than listen to it. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Originally posted by Old Man Arthur:
As an outside observer, some may think that "Music Shaped A Generation"...
But that is backasswards. The revolution was in the hearts of the writers, not the other way around.
The 'Movement' came before the Music.
The music just gave voice to the spirit that was in the writer.
Contrary to media-hype... Woodstock marked The End of a Period... Not the beginning.
The beginning was when you had to search for a Ten Years After album, not when you could buy a Beatles album in Woolworth's. When you had to go 'into town' to find a little Head Shop to get some decent music. Or stay-up late to hear good music on the "Underground Pirate Radio" beamed outta the University's AM Radio station... Cranked-up to illegal power levels late at night.
Remember, when The Grateful Dead finally got a song on the Top 40 (Touch of Gray) they said that they must've done something Wrong.
Jimi Hendrix had to go to England to get famous.
The Ramones played to Packed Houses for Decades and never made it on MTV, or the Top 40.
(Not that I am a big Ramones fan, just an example...)
Now 'The Times There Are a-Changing' is the theme song for some Diet Munchies or a HMO.
Some of the best musicians I've heard in my Life were Street Musicians that nobody ever heard of...
[And Brad, remember they wanted to Lock-Up Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger] WELL SAID old man....WELL SAID! |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | A- 90% of everything is crap. But the crap fades away.
B- Music has had several little exciting peaks. There was one in the 50's, 60's, 70's(punk/new wave) and on and on....and before that and before that too.....
C - Many of us here don't know the coolest current stuff because WE'RE TOO DAMNED OLD! (I for one thought I'd be dead long before now, when I was 19)
D- Y'wanna stay current? Find someone who's obsessed with current music and go visit him in his parents basement once in a while to find out what's the what. Twice a year works for me. :rolleyes: |
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Posts: 494
Location: Location Location Location | I think Al's right. There's a ton of good music out there. Music just isn't as important to as large a segment of the population as it was to those of the '50's, 60's and, I guess, '70's.
There are too many diversions available now, computer games, twitter..texting..all that crap. And that's a shame, because never have musician types had such a wealth of great information available. The ultimate irony I guess.. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | It's all that Damn Guitar Hero's Fault!
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Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | It's all that Damn Guitar Hero's Fault!
OOOOPs! :eek: I didn't mean to quote myself, I meant to edit. Pushed the wrong button...
Which is another reason why I will never play Guitar Hero! :p |
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Posts: 747
| Originally posted by Old Man Arthur:
The 'Movement' came before the Music.
The music just gave voice to the spirit...
As I was reading through this thread that is the thought that was forming in my mind such as it is.
A lot changed after WWII and it wasn't just because of music - things sort of brewed through the 50s and boiled over in the 60s but it was coming whether there was music or not. The music just galvanized or reflected what was happening and in some ways reflected it badly. Woodstock and the surrounding hype was naive idiocy - that was my opinion then and it hasn't changed. CSN&Y, to my mind, were a collection of fat boys all full of themselves whereas people like Townes Van Zant or Blaze Foley said more with one song than CSN&Y achieved with their entire careers.
So, with that said, I'll just slink off to the bad dog box..lol |
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The relevance of todays music
