Todays music

[ruotwocone]

Bring back the 60's and 70's (cried the 19 year old)

They did, and they're called the White Stripes.

[diode_dirigible]

eh, sort of. Wolf Mother also did an ok job

[cheez.wiz]

The whites stripes are pretty much hit and miss. Get behind me satan, anyone?

Oh, and their irish styled songs on Icky Thump.


The 80's had Samantha Fox. Just because you don't have a clear view of what is good and what isn't in contemporary music doesn't give you the right to whine endlessly to how much better music was "back in the days" (and i'm not really that much older than you are) since: a) it's a matter of tastes (wich differ for everyone) and b) you probably listen to a fraction of what was composed and diffused in the 80's, not all of it.

I also disagree with Twobuy, and with that "oh, rap is crap, amirite" bandwagon, but that's no matter i can actually fix.

[diode_dirigible]

The 80's had Samantha Fox. Just because you don't have a clear view of what is good and what isn't in contemporary music doesn't give you the right to whine endlessly to how much better music was "back in the days" (and i'm not really that much older than you are) since: a) it's a matter of tastes (wich differ for everyone) and b) you probably listen to a fraction of what was composed and diffused in the 80's, not all of it.

I wasn't dissing 80's music, I meant that by the end of the 80's, there wasn't much being released that has caught my interest

[cheez.wiz]

music died horribly in the 80's, everything since then has been its death rattle

I wasn't dissing 80's music, I meant that by the end of the 80's, there wasn't much being released that has caught my interest

I never even vaguely thought that you were dissing the 80's music. I was merely saying that just because you haven't found anything in modern music that catches your attention doesn't mean that there isn't anything that could. Alternatively, i was making the point that there was just as much shitty music back then than there is now. You might not realize that because of the passage of time, wich definitively does filter some of the less interesting ideas.

Anyways... Stating that music died at some point is completely dumb, and that's all.

[Lethal Interjection]

And of the four, this one is meaningless: The composure of the lyrics is writing a song with a meaning.

Screw all you folk-music kids and your "lyrics". What the frontman says is irrelevant, all that matters is his/her voice as an instrument.

PS, there is LOTS of good metal being produced these days. It's like a second coming really.

I'm definitely a lyric-guy by preference, but I don't consider meaningful lyrics to be a definition of music.

[mountainmage]

Normally I don't care about lyrics. But I love when bands make concept albums and the lyrics actually have contextual MEANING. Examples: The Wall - Pink Floyd, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence by Dream Theater, Anything by Rhapsody of Fire, Days of Future Passed - The Moody Blues, Eldorado or Time by Electric Light Orhcestra. I guess what I'm saying is I like it when the lyrics tell a story.

[TwoBuy]

I was merely saying that just because you haven't found anything in modern music that catches your attention doesn't mean that there isn't anything that could.

So true. I largely hated music in the 90s until a couple of years ago when I found a bunch of back-label stuff from Germany and Skandinavia that just never got air time in the US so I didn't know about it.

Normally I don't care about lyrics. But I love when bands make concept albums and the lyrics actually have contextual MEANING.

I'll agree there. Concept albums are great. I really love the Flaming Lip's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and W.A.S.P.s The Crimson Idol.

[HARDKORE]

I started listening to Japan music. I dont understand the first thing in most songs but at least most of it has a nice techno beat.

[mountainmage]

Woah, hardkore is back?

[Cirtur]

Techno is utter tosh.

Clearly someone who hasn't heard Phantom. http://www.last.fm/music/Justice/Cross/Phantom

[AHMETxRock]

I need to establish something. I am completely, 100 percent straight. I have nothing against people that are gay. I kinda don't like men who think they're women, because I feel your genetics dictate who you are more than hormonal imballances. I am not a bigot, but not gay. Okay?

I think the Pussycat dolls should cover up.

If you're wondering what I'm saying, I'm talking about the techno aspect of their songs being very catchy. That one song song, I wanna be famous or something, where the background singers go "Ah Ah Ah Ah' really quickly was a very cool sound effect, and an excellent choice. And how much can I criticize them for wanting to have boobies?

That being said, I cannot really respect them as musicians when it's their "performance" that sells. Performance meaning cleavage.

Techno can be very cool. But there is a line where you stop singing to a song and start singing to a techno. Where am I going with this? I don't know. But techno can be fun at times when it's done well.

The first video game opening musics were techno, and they were good enough for megaman.

[Lethal Interjection]

If you're wondering what I'm saying,

Every post, man. Every post.

That being said, I cannot really respect them as musicians when it's their "performance" that sells. Performance meaning cleavage.

Sure. I mean, I have had this discussion many times before. Their music might be catchy, fun to listen to, whathaveyou (them being commercialized pop music that mostly sells the image rather than the music), but I have a hard time respecting it if all it does is try to sell. And not all of it is strictly like that, but the fact that I can never tell whether it is actually their song or they bought it off of David Foster (in the case of adult contemporary pop) or Timbaland (75% of female pop singers, plus all the rest of the hip-hop, r/b, etc. community), tends to turn me off of the more commercialized music. Some recent "rock" band (I can't remember who, but they've arisen out of the post-punk pseudo-indy scene) has a song called "This song is written by a committee". Which is definitely meant to be ironic or somesuch, but I can't help but feel the double-irony when that song sounds like so much else that has been released in the same timespan.
And that is why my playlist generally consists of people who are outside of a genre, so to speak. They tend to be more obscure, are more involved in their music, and are better in my opinion. I mean, I don't want to hear this band emulate this other band, I want to hear artists with a voice of their own. People like Ben Harper who draw influences from rock, blues, jazz, gospel, old country*, folk, reggae and so on.

*I say old country, because I respect it, and therefore want to make a distinction within the "country" genre. "New country" is the most deplorable sin of the music industry. While so many genres have been bastardized by the commercial music industry, none hold a candle to country. "New country" has been around for over 20 years, and has barely changed over this time. The same crap Garth Brooks churned out in the mid 80s is being repackaged in the newer artists.

[AHMETxRock]

Country music is supposed to be the older, better behaving brother of rock. However, red neck ignorance, beer, and whores that can ride horses instead of mechanical bulls don't make much of a difference anymore. New country is extremely bad.

[mountainmage]

I just don't like the "sound" of country music, the southern accent coupled with the same instruments being used in the same way every song just doesn't appeal to me.