I agree that music radio sucks and has for quite some time. The reason, I believe, is that the value of a radio station is so high that only large corporations can buy them.
Large corporations don't like to take chances, so they hire program consultants to put together playlists and they are very leery about playing any artist that is not a proven commodity. So, we just get the same old artists over and over.
As far as new music is concerned, I think there is more than ever and this site is a good place to start finding it. Look at the thread "What Music Do You Want to turn people onto" Look at some of the answers and go check them out on Amazon.com or some other site that has sound clips. When you hear something you like buy it.
Although I haven't tried it, my Daughter likes Launch.com. You provide feedback on songs you hear and then it starts to learn your tastes and suggests other stuff. |
Corporate weasels in the music business is nothing new. Even back in the days of AOR, the vast majority of radio stations fell into the catagory of top 40 in whatever genre they covered. But at least there were a few people who wanted to break the mold and try to do something new and innovative. Unfortunately, labors of love have become almost non-existent.
I'm a huge Disney fan (in addition to being a music lover and audiophile) and it's sad to see what's happened to the amusement parks and animated features. Bottom line thinking has swamped the legacy that the artists and craftsmen left behind.
From my perspective, the shortage of true innovation has come from the faster/cheaper mentality of the corporate world. Companies view themselves as being at war with their competitors and are unwilling to take the risks or the added time necessary to come up with something new. The result is a repackaging of the same old crap (usually in a watered-down form).
Listen to some of the kiddie punk band like Blink 182, Sum 41, Lit, etc. They all sound the same and are pathetic extensions of the punk bands of the 70's. Yet they're being marketed as the cutting edge of alternative music. |
As the French say, you cannot mix business and art. What has happened to radio has happened to school music programs, has happened to the whining bullies of the recording industry, blaming their abject failure on MP3. Consentration of ownership kills beauty, courage and freedom. Look at the news and look at our candidates. As with news and alternative radio, the internet is the refuge of the small, the brave and the seekers of beauty and truth. A few inner cities have enough free spirits unafraid of the future to cultivate something like culture. |
I didn't open and read all the posts so this may already have been mentioned.
http://www.cdbaby.com/
This place sells independent releases, lets you sample it and has some really interesting browsing methods check out the flavors section |
Darrylhifi- is the governor a DJ? |
AOR is Album Oriented Rock. The stations that played it would play any track from any LP, not just the ones that made someones top 100 or whatever. |
Was wondering why on one state run New Jersey Radio Station they keep playing Elton John, Barbara Streisand , Liza Minelli and Culture Club. |
HEY NOW! I didn't say I didn't like LOOKING at Brittany! Isn't that more evidence for what's wrong with commercial muzac? Get a bimbo or bimbob, put 'em in spandex, and process in some real singers to "thicken up" lame vocals. Same story with that country singer Shania Twain. She sounds better on TV than radio. |
Being in education I observe and supervise young people as part of my job. Where before there was some concensus among young people about "good music" and "good bands," this does not exist today. When I mentioned the Doors to a group of students last year, several said they were big fans and had several albums. Others had never heard the band. When I was in school, if someone mentioned the Doors, we would have said they were old and not as good as our current favorites. The students just do not have a common favorite band or type of music. Many no longer listen to popular music. This is not just about getting old, there is something more to it than that.
When chaperoning a dance, the DJ used 80's and early 90's hard rock tunes to get the students going, then switched to more modern tunes. When the modern tunes were played the dance floor was markedly less crowded and less energetic. It did get crowded again later, but I suspect only because the participants wanted the bump-and-grind of bodies that is modern MTV-style dancing and not because of the music. The students did not seem to realize why they enjoyed dancing to the older rock so much and could only bump-and-grind and/or STAND AROUND ON THE DANCE FLOOR to the newer music (yes there was simple standing by some).
When I was younger there were 4 radio stations in my area that played primarily top 40 hits. Today there is only one radio station in the area that plays top 40. This speaks for itself that times and the music have changed. It is not just that we are getting older. |
Nrchy, you hit the nail on the head this time. Blame Clearchannel for destroying radio and Sony for wiping out the recorded music industry. The good news is that with the latest technological advances (eg internet, etc.) many new artists in the US are choosing to forego the established recording industry. Volume of sales is lower, but the profit to the performer is, in many cases, slightly higher since the record companies don't pay squat to anyone but an established mainstream artist. The only down-side to this is it makes great music hard to find if you don't know exactly where to look. The time is right for some enterprising individual to set up a categorized link site for as many of these artists as possible with links to their sites (maybe it already exists?). Anyway, another point I'd like to make is that harder rock-n-roll didn't die, it moved to Finland. And other countries outside the US. Here, listed by country, are a few bands from outside the US that most people in the US have never heard of. Check them out, you may find a new favorite:
Finland -- Nightwish, Thyrane
Italy -- Lacuna Coil
Sweden -- Freak Kitchen, Passenger, In Flames
Croatia -- Ashes You Leave
On a much softer note, check out Holly McNarland from Canada or if you find yourself in a Sisters of Mercy mood, try out The Cruxshadows from that other foreign country---Florida!!! You get my point. Good music is out there, it's just harder to find. That's why we have to rely on each other to find it. I realize this is predominantly a gear site, but maybe Audiogon should/would consider a way for members to list what types of music they prefer. That would make it alot easier to know who to ask for new music recommendations. Just a thought. |
Heh.
Ya know, as much as i hate brittany spears music, every time her video Toxic is on, i have a hard time changing the channel. ;)
that girl is so freakin hot it's annoying. ;) |
Dunno Slappy, I guess I'm an old man at 44 cause I'm feeling much like Nrchy regarding music in America. You may take a listen to Jim White's music if you haven't heard it. I think he may strike a chord with you if you like those lyrics. I do like White's music. He has a similar sense of humor, but I'd say was a better poet than the dude who wrote Jesus Loves Me But He Can't Stand You. And where do you turn to hear Jim White, Tom Waits, Over the Rhine, Patty Griffin (a few of my favorites), and others contemporaries who are writing meaningful lyrics and are gifted musicians? There are precious few independent radio stations playing the likes of these artists. NPR would likely have highlighted any one of them at one time or other. But for every NPR channel in any given metropolitan area, if you are lucky enough to have one, there are a hundred more channels on by corporate America playing dreck like N'Synch and Marge Simpson (or is it Bart?). Even NPR seems pretty predicatable at times and leaves many stones unturned, but at least it provides some alternate relief. As far as rap, it's pretty primal and basic. I can take it or leave it myself, but I wouldn't necessarily patently dismiss it. I seldom find myself in the mood for listening to RAP so you won't find much in my collection. Guess that qualifies me for the Geritol contingent according to Slappy! BTW, my dad actually bought Beatles albums and enjoyed them when I was a kid. My grandpappy was dead at that point, so I don't really know how he'd feel about that music. I agree with Chris too that there are plenty of good artists out there, it's just that they just get precious little airtime compared to the septic waste passing for music that fills the airwaves. That's not just limited to pop stations either. The classical stations also have an endless loop of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Barber's Adagion, and other overplayed and boring standards. I'm sure it holds true with rap stations and country music stations as well. Maybe it's that people don't want to have to think anymore...they just wanna be spoon fed their processed carrots and have their heart rate regulated by a subwoofer.
Marco |
Hey Nrchy- what is AOR? Short for aorta? Music with heart?There is still plenty of music with "edge." Much of it rap. Of COURSE much of rap is mysogynistic, L.C.D. (lowest common denominator) poser crap...but you have to separate the WFTC (wheat from the chaff), just like T.G.O.D. (the good old days). College radio has bands with an edge. Once again, you have to sort through acres of crap. The jewels of the sixties play everyday, but thankfully the crap is rarely played. (I suppose "woolley bullie" was somebody's 'special song'). There will always be sugary brittany crap, and somewhere, in the midst of bad art, bad music, and bad literature, some real meaning to those who still have the energy and impulse to search for it.
That was my SOTD (sermon of the day) |
Jsonis- how the hell did fred durst get so famous? Who does he know? He is so full of himself he'll chase A list actresses who want nothing to do with him. How many more minutes of fame does he have left? Sorry...ranting again. |
P.S.- am now listening to http://www.wazee.org/ which is streaming alternative rock. I have no doubt you can get metal, whatever. Ain't the internet grand? |
There's old slappy, sittin' on a bench.
Starin' down those young punks
who pay him no respect!
"Kids these days!
I think they're all on drugs- don't listen to their elders- they're stupid and they're smug!
Their minds are rotted out
from they're music and they're porn!
I wish they could hear classics
like metallica and Korn!"
Hammy
Ps. Metallica? Taht was old news twenty years ago! You're old already!
Hammy |
Odd that the same people that dismiss Rap groups, buy music from Rock groups who incorporate rapping in their music. Talkin'about groups like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit ( DJ Lethal was in House of Pain previously.). Guess it's like all the people who didn't buy Chuck Berry's music until The Rolling Stones covered it. BTW when those groups I mentioned incorporate rap into rock songs it sounds horrible and contrived. Fred Durst? He's like that kid in Malibu's Most Wanted. |
I will probably get a ashtray as big as a big brick thrown at me for this, but here is the biggest reason people do not believe that quality rock music is made anymore.
Yer gettin old. ;)
The current rock music is made by younger people, and they sing and rock about what they know. Thier viewpoint is different from many "adults" because they did not grow up in the same social/economic situation as many "adults" (by adult im generally refferring to 40yrs and up)
It has nothing to do with low quality lyrics, it has nothing to do with lack of creativity, the crativity and lyrics are there (well, maybe not in brittney spears or N'sync, im talking about ROCK BANDS) it is the fact they they grew up in different times and cannot relate to your youth any more than you can relate to thier youth.
Remember when you were a kid listening to the Beeatles? And yer dad/grandpa is sittin there saying "This is all a bunch of trash, people dont know what good music is anymore"
Well WERE the beatles Trash? I dont like the beatles. I respect them, and i appreciate what they have done to the music scene, but i really dont care to listen to them. The main reason is i can not relate to them, i dont find anything truly inspiring in them either. Probably because i wasnt around untill 1977.
Just remember the adults when you were young saying "This aint music, it is nothing but garbage" And dont even try to say "It is different now" cause it aint. It is the same thing.
One day, even ol slappy will probably be sittin on on the porch, the hard years of life showing like a roadmap of wrinkles, proclaiming "Music today is trash! whatever happened to wholesome bands like Metallica and Korn?"
Just remember that music aint trash because you cannot relate to it. Keep an open mind. By Denouncing everything new yer just setting yerself up for complete conformity at the old folks home.
KEEP ROCK ALIVE!
but N'sync still sucks. |
Slappy- chk out "the string cheese incident" http://www.stringcheeseincident.com/htsound.htm or the "Austin Lounge lizards" demented hillbilly Pink Floyd cover http://www.austinlizards.com/songs/brain_damage.mp3 How about their lyrics to: "Jesus Loves me but he Can't Stand You" I know you smoke, I know you drink that brew I just can't abide a sinner like you God can't either, that's why I know it to be true that Jesus loves me--but he can't stand you I'm going to heaven, boys, when I die 'Cause I've crossed every "t" and I've dotted every "i' My preacher tell me that I'm God's kind of guy; that's why Jesus loves me--but you're gonna fry God loves all his children, by gum That don't mean he won't incinerate some Can't you feel those hot flames licking you Woo woo woo I'm raising my kids in a righteous way So don't be sending your kids over to my house to play Yours'll grow up stoned, left-leaning, and gay; I know Jesus told me on the phone today Jesus loves me, this I know And he told me where you're gonna go There's lots of room for your kind down below Whoa whoa whoa Jesus loves me but he can't stand you . . . You want humorous UNcorporate music with social commentary, these guys are it. Highway cafe of the damned is hilarious. Too bad it's not on the website. |
Darryl- do you live in New Jersey? My governator can whip your governor's butt- he's just afraid your guy will like it.
Hammy in CA. |
Much of it is VIDEO. Yes, it killed the radio star. Janice would not have looked good on MTV. Of course, you don't have to limit yourself to clearchannel or mtv. My wife belongs to a house party music club in Berkeley. Every week new folk artists come to perform to the audience of about 20. Why wait for radio play that will never happen? Afew clicks of the mouse will research whatever genre you want on google. Here's folk: http://www.jg.org/folk/info/artists.html#Amost of these sites have music to listen to. Bypass the corporate filter! |
Slappy, I never thought I would disagree with you, but the bands you mentioned are all very negetive and hateful. I remember liking some of the angry music from my own youth like The Who. Behind Blue Eyes among other, but they were not nearly as nihlistic as so much of the music people put into their heads now. I'm too old to believe that what goes into your head is neutral, and does not affect the psyche. I have enough problems without living those of Marilyn Manson et al.
Jsonic do you really think people over 25 have not listened to the rap music they dislike. I have heard too much of it and I really don't think any of it was any good Since Grandmaaster Flash was doing it in the 70's. Maybe my life is just not trivial enough to be interested in other peoples sex lives or who they want to kill.
Even Classic Rock stations are so locked into what they play that the vast majority of what was recorded and heard in the 60's-70's, and was played on AOR stations cannot be heard anymore. The playlists are so narrow that it's only a few hundred songs available. The stuff I heard on the radio in the 70's would land a DJ in jail now because it was just too wierd! And we loved it! Most of the time.
I wish I could start a station that was not controled by Viacom or Cumulus. I would play the old wierd/fun stuff along with the new talanted artists that cannot geta second of airtime on corporate radio. Although I wonder if a station like that could succeed. Most people turn the dial (I must be old!) when a song comes on that they don't like. How many people wouyld sit through Careful With That Axe Eugene, or Stargazer, or a twelve minute song by Yes or Jethro Tull? |
There is more great music than ever being released these days. Unfortunately, finding it is the hard part. Much is recorded and released on small labels and ignored by the mass media outlets. I'd recommend listening to some internet channels. Find one that caters to the sort of music you want. It won't be audiophile quality, but you may find just what you're looking for. One big outlet covering a large variety of styles is http://www.live365.com Their service is free,though they'll keep asking you to upgrade to VIP access, which gives even more choices, and stops all the ads. You can even start your own station there if you want. Other choices are the cable TV music stations, and satellite radio like XM and Sieius. It takes more of an investment and is not as "grass roots" as many of the internet stations. Will be much more diverse than the regular radio airwaves. Great music is out there are needs your support. But don't expect that it'll find you. I hope others will suggest good outlets. Just my 2 cents, Roger PS I have no affiliation with any of the businesses I mentioned. |
I agree with you Nrchy. Here are some of my thoughts:
Trend #1: After MTV started making LOTS of money (early 80's), it was taken over by the marketing types. It stopped being about music and more about making money. This meant that talented musicians were passed over for "marketable" musicians and videos were done by less creative (and cheaper to hire) directors with lower budgets. At the same time, deregulation meant that the record companies not longer were dependent on promoting music through local radio DJ's. They could just buy the radio station and play the songs they wanted to promote. I am not much of a lyrics person, I more enjoy the melody of the music. In my opinion the Rap/Hip-Hop influence has killed the melody in most modern rock songs.
Trend #2: I am also an educator and I see another trend that has happened here in the U.S. Most high schools now have greatly reduced band and orchestra programs. Some high schools have eliminated them altogether. I belive this trend has been seen by Viacom, parent of MTV, VH1 etc. I say this because VH1 has been giving grants to keep music programs alive in the schools. I think they realize that without the music programs in the schools there may not be a VH1 in the future. It may be a lost cause because many of our students no longer have the patience to learn music through a high school band program. Why should they be a "band geek" for years when they can pick up a guitar and be cool right away? Never mind that they many times lack the basic musical background and talent to make something meaningful with their instrument.
Trend #3: After the Monkeys it was very uncool to have someone else write songs for your rock group and to have very talented studio musicians help out your sound in the studio and on tour. After Milli Vanilli it became almost impossible. (Even though this incident was an overt fraud, the lesson that was retained was that you must write and play your own music.) Sometimes talented instrumental or vocal musicians are not very talented at writing music. How many excellent orchestral musicians write symphonies? Very few, but almost all of our rock musicians insist on writing their own music. Sometimes this works with the right talent, but many times these musicians would be better with a compromise. Write a few songs of your own, do a few covers, and play a few new songs written be others.I know there are some artists that do this, but I think the ego of many current musicians and some of the Monkeys/Milli Vanilli history of rock and roll prevents this from occuring in a natural way for many artists. I see no problem with occasionally using other people's music for you performance as long as proper credit is given to the creators.
I hope that this era is just a low ebb in the creation of good rock and roll, but I am increasingly pessimistic that the U.S. rock scene will improve. Some of my favorite music lately has been from elsewere. For example, I really enjoy the soundtracks from the anime series "Cowboy Bebop." Most of the performances are done by a Japanese group called the Seatbelts. The styles vary from rock to jazz to vocals. These are talented musicians, but just as importantly they do not seem bound by the culture into playing only one form of music such as hard rock, new age, jazz, etc. They seem to be just having fun playing great music. In contrast many of our talented artists are put into a cultural and corporate straight jacket that is not conducive to the creative process. |
Yes here in the New York / New Jersey area , their really is not a clear channel , all can hear , radio station that caters to "new rock and roll" . You would have to go out of your way to find a station ie a small independent or college station, then get a strong antenna and hope you could recieve it. So where I am , its basically alternative rock, pop, or classic rock. Again College stations are a good way to go.
Another issue, and this one is just opionion, is that if a new Rock band manages to somehow penetrate the media , I see people jumping all over them as copycats. Case in point the Band Jet. I like them, great to hear some new rock n roll. But I have seen many post they are an AC/DC ripoffs or comments similar. Well if we used that logic "in the good old days" we could have said Hot Tuna was a rip off of Ten years after , which was a ripoff of Grand Funk Railroad , which was a ripoff of Bad Company...well you see my point.
My third point , and this one we will put under a "Crazy Darrylhifi theory" , is that we are never going to hear music like that again, because musicians are not taking drugs like they did in the mid 60's through the late 70's.
Seriously some of this genius, was influenced by LSD and other mind altering substances. Im not advocating kids start taking LSD, just they were different times where getting high was the norm of the hipee culture.
And finally, I have a son , who will be 12 shortly. He would love to be a baseball star. When I was 12 , I was equally split between dreaming to be a baseball star and a rock n roll star. Their is no longer that glamour to want to grow up and be the Beatles , or be the Rolling Stones, so without the desire of kids to get into Rock n Roll , we are left with William Hung and American Idol.
The times, they sure have changed. Long Live Rock. |
Having nothing new to contribute to your points about corporate effect,I'd like to consider the end of the Cold War.
As the most abstract art,music is the most difficult art to censor. A totalitarian government would rather have its free thinking,creative people making music that writing pamphlets and making trouble,so it steers many persons into music.(Kodaly's music curricula that were used throughout the eastern block are now catching on in the west.)
With the end of the Cold War,with freedon to travel,a generation of great players is more visible that it was a decade ago.
There are more great players out there than perhaps any time in history. Cuban jazz is blazing new paths that more will travel when that government changes.
The modern composers don't get commercial airplay but many orchestras slip some of their works onto their programs.
Many cross over to work in the studios for hourly pay but art musicians pushing forward their art outside of the commercial mainstream is nothing new. |
It kills me how dismissive this group is of Rap music. It's hardly a "slow period " in music. It's been around since '79 and has crossed over to every segment of the population. It is not my first choice in musical preference. That will always be classic rock. I guess I also prefer classic rap like Run DMC, LL Cool J , Eric B. and Rakim, EPMD and Public Enemy to the overproduced pop of Puffy and Jay Z. Newer stuff like Biggie, 50 cent and Snoop and Dre is also a great listen. Living in NYC, I think this music has brought a lot of ethnicities together. One image that comes to mind is this "posse" of lily-white blonde girls from Conneticut singing in unison to MOP's song "Ante Up!" and copying Rap gestures. Absurd ? Maybe, but I'm feelin it. Maybe you guys should check out Def Poetry Jam on HBO Sun . nites. It's kinda like Rap with no music and more meaningful lyrics. |
The problem, for older audiophiles especially, is that a lot of the new developments aren't in traditional rock genres; they're in electronica. Which they ain't' 'gonna listen to. |
I sometimes find it a bit difficult to relate to these threads because I never ever really listened to radio that much,I don't drive either which is possible for me to do and still lead a normal life here in Glasgow,Scotland!
Also here in the UK the situation has always been different.
There are so many aspects to this though.
One is that there is more music than ever to listen to but arguably now it's harder to find,more compartmentalised and has less chance than ever of being original.
In my book it is not fair to compare the artists of the 60's and 70's because they were working on a blank canvas.
Nowadays so much of popular music has been covered.
How easy is it to write the perfect pop song when you need to take on Burt Bacharach,Mowtown,Brian Wilson et al?
Get your acoustic out?
Dylan,Young,Mitchell et al might put you off.
The good news that there is still plenty of inspired youngsters about.
The whole Rap/modern day massive in the States thing is another can of worms which I'm not going to get into at this stage.
I might even say there is so much wonderful music already available that we might not even need any new stuff!
I read a lot about music and listen to tons still but another part of the problem is we simply cannot turn back the clock.
I know I will never wear out pieces of black plastic like I used to, I know that it is unlikely I will ever absorb music into my very being the way I did in my teens and twenties.
We got older and our passion changes, our lives become more complicated and time much more valuable but harder to find.
Nrchy it is your post and similar types of posts that have inspired me to start work on the Audiogon music news and reviews,things are coming together in the background, where we are preparing music reviews,articles and opinions from myself some friends and some well known Audiogoners so that perhaps there might be some more focus on music here.
Arnie is also interested in developing things on this front and hopefully we can really work together and develop things even further.
Whilst it would be impossible to keep everyone happy on an Audio site with what we are working on-I have made one thing essential;that everybody that is writing for Audiogon irrespective of their writing talents is both knowledgeable and passionate about the music that they have found and are finding.
However this thing pans out and for however long; if it reaches even a handful of people and turns them onto something new (to them) then it will be worthwhile.
Keep the faith. |
There are some exceptions but the rule is exactly as you describe. Public access radio is where it's at but it takes a ton of voluteer effort not to mention fund raising on a continual basis. College radio is very good in many places. Both of these examples have varied genre's. Perhaps the digital age will allow enough licenses at affordable prices to bring the good old days back.
I listened to an incredible young talent this previous weekend. Ned Evett is known for his fretless guitar work. He plays and sings his own material which is exceptional. The few songs he did of other artists work was done in a fashion that was very different but still honored the original intent. He has apparently won some type of international competition of some sort and I could tell why. The fretless guitar is a radically different instrument than what you would expect. Knowing the characteristics of the guitars, if they had frets, and amp this fellow played rocked my boat with each of the voices being replaced by something very new. You might want to check out his website at Nedevett.com.
If there is a producer reading this (I know, I'm just one lugnut) please, do yourself a favor and pick this fellow up. If what I heard live could be reproduced on CD we would be watching this fellow and his two band mates on Letterman and Saturday Night Live very soon. Seriously, this is as refreshing as the first time I heard Dire Straights. |
Nrchy, I agree.
I will also suggest that there have been only a few in the past decade or so, but you are right, that they are becoming fewer and further between.
Personally, I think Rock'n'Roll is going through one of the droughts that occurs every 15 years or so. These periods seem to have occured when lessor forms of rock music (IMHO!) were prevalent. It seems like the late 50's to early 60's (Bland rock period of Pat Boone type bands), late 70's to early 80's (Disco, 'nuff said?!), and now the late 90's to early 2000's (Hip Hop and Rap), have all been drought periods. Periods where only a few decent groups made good albums, before some big new type of music broke the drought. Bands such as the British groups of the early to mid 60's (Beatles, Stones, Who, etc..) which lead to the psychodelic era, and the Seattle bands (Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam) lead to a good run of Alternative rock music. (Yes, of course there a few good bands that did start up in the drought periods, such as Supertramp in the 70's or REM in the early 80's, but they seemed to be few and far between.)
Currently, I would recommend Wilco as a top notch group, which you would probably appreciate. They are lead by Jeff Tweedy, and talented singer and songwriter. They are a somewhat experimental group, not so much as to be avantegarde (ie. too bizarre to be more than a footnote), but not straight rock n roll either, such as Godsmack or Creed. Wilco's latest album, A Ghost is Born, is very good as were the last two or three before that (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Being There, Summerteeth).
My opinions of course, but I am pretty sure if you give Wilco a shot you will like them. (If you like them, you might want to try Uncle Tupelo (Jeff's previous band, in which he had a partner - Jay Farrer) or Jay's subsequent band, Sonvolt. (Personally, I don't much like Jay's stuff, but I think I will give it another shot, as I too am desperate for some new GOOD music.)
Good Luck! Maybe others will have some other good ideas!
Cross your fingers that maybe something will break this drought soon! |
Nrchy
Was thinking about this thread and it reminded me of a KORN video i saw, it was a bunch of people trashing a record store and it kept displaying all these tidbits. It said that there are on average 100 songs released each day by record companys, however, only 4 songs get added per week to record station playlists.
There are really alot of real good bands out there that DO hit the billboard charts that do in fact have pretty provative and thoughtful lyrics. KORN, believe it or not, is definatly one of them.
Here is a short list of other "HARD ROCK" or top-40 bands that really do have deep meaningful lyrics. of course, sometimes you have to have the lyrics to understand what they say. But Musical taste/ability aside, these are all very insightful bands that sing/scream/yell of all sorts of controversial issues from a rather educated standpoint.
Rage Against the Machine (major advocate for human rights)
Metallica (anything from war, to prison, to hate, to love)
Tool (social issues, things they view as wrong in socioty)
A Perfect Circle (social issues, very similar to tool of course.)
Korn (lots of songs involving current social issues, anger, betrayal, learning about oneself and dealing with emotions and pain)
KMFDM (very political, lyrics about corruption, greed, power, government etc)
Marilyn Manson (check out an interview with this guy sometime, he will really suprise you, the guy is extremly bright/intelligent. yeah he is goofy, but in any interview ive ever seen him in where they try to make him look bad/weird he makes the interviewer look like a complete moron)
Linkin Park (insightful lyrics to the angst of growing up as a modern teen, hard for older people to relate, but lyrics are dead on with many troubled youths, and very well done)
Skinny Puppy (very political, abortion, vivecection, war, etc)
Rollins Band (lots of self awareness issues)
Limp Bizkit (various issues revolving around sex, growin up, and anger, betrayal)
Seems to be a pretty obvious theme here though. Most of the current bands producing intelligent/meaningful/insightful lyrics are usually Metal/hardrock. It is easy to dismiss these bands as unintelligable moronic guitar-rock bands, but scratch beneath the surface and you will see alot of meaningful insightful lyrics. Most of the real insightful songs are pretty filled with anger/angst, which is probably a result of musicians who feel changes are needed, or have standpoints on issues but feel powerless to do anything other than sing about it.
This is not a very long list, but it only took 2-3 minuits to come up with these bands. I challange anyone to say that there is nothing insightful to these bands and thier lyrics. In my view anyone who assumes that they are not insightful or intelligent is obviously close minded enough not to explore other genres of musical expression, and therefore missing out. Nobody has to like the music, but to dismiss something as unintelligent because thier taste does not cover that type of music, is showing who the unintelligent person really is.
But i aint saying all thier music is insightful, of course they do have songs just for fun, like any other band in the planet
Of course, this is only a small percentage of the crap that radio and MTV vomits out on yer plate and calls music.
i bet a few heavy bricks get thrown at me for this one. |
NRCHY, they are everywhere, the only problem is finding them.
Here are a few to check out.
Nick Cave and the Bad seeds
The Legendary Pink Dots
Never heared either of these on the radio, both excellent groups. Nick Cave has a somewhat twisted sence of humor though. |
