steve0
Still Wears Diapers
Posts: 23
|
Post by steve0 on Mar 27, 2008 21:51:07 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the most unpopular opinion among the metal community is, but I think I have it.
Here is my opinion. Not only does commercial NOT equal bad, I'm beginning to think commercial might = better.
Here's why:
Think about those emo bands, the ones that sell a million records a year to the teeny-boppers and such. They're hated among metalheads for being emo, sucking at their instruments etc.
So if the metal bands are so much better, then why do they all sell drastically less? My Chemical Romance is a band that has broken (hugely) in a music industry era in which it is nearly impossible to break a band (even with all the money a huge label can throw into marketing and promotion).
I don't like them, they aren't a band that I would listen to typically, but the vast majority of rock listeners in the US are disagreeing with me right now. How can we call them wrong just because the band is popular? Is it because we resent that, say, Blind Guardian sells in a year what MCR sells in a few hours, even when we know that Blind Guardian is one of the "best bands".
Led Zeppelin were huge in their day, but how do we know that they weren't overshadowing some band that was drastically better, albeit much less popular? Led Zeppelin represent a sacred cow in music, they are worshiped and idolized, but really only because our parents worshiped and idolized them and they were big enough that even today we still know about them. We listen to them and think they were huge because they are amazing, but they may not have been amazing. They may have just been the biggest seller of the day.
20 years from now, My Chemical Romance will be worshiped, and people will look back and go "Man, that band defined an era." and those among us who idolize them will pass on that music to their children.
My point is this, we can't really say they suck because of two reasons:
Music is entirely subjective, and that goes for emo too.
And because the vast majority of the population would rather listen to them than Blind Guardian. How can we say they're a bad band simply because we "know" they suck?
Of course I'm generalizing drastically to make a point, but I hope you can see what I mean.
My point is this. The point of music is to effect people emotionally in some way. To entertain them, to inspire them, to make them sad or happy.
MCR is doing that a lot more efficiently than just about any metal band out there. They aren't my preference, but they don't suck. Lets take this to a further extreme:
Britney Spears outsells MCR constantly. 50 Cent outsells Britney Spears. We can't just say that less people know about "metal band x" and that's why they're still underground. We have myspace now. The playing field is practically equal. There are no more underground talents. If they're that good, you've heard about them now. The fact is that the carefully constructed and marketed hooks and production of the latest 50 Cent album is more accessible, listenable, catchy and meaningful to the vast majority of people than the latest Dream Theater album, no matter how much we know that Dream Theater carefully crafts and writes their own songs.
There's is no concrete way to say one band is better than another, it's a matter of opinion, but if it came down to a matter of POPULAR opinion, 50 Cent is better than Dream Theater. I'll get into the reasons for this in a minute.
Beyond that, pop has a lot more going for it than we might think. Look at the Slayer and Metallica songs that have made it big. There is a lot of pop in those songs, whether we notice it or not. There are "hooks".
Go see ten medium sized metal bands this year, and watch them play ten songs each. After the concert how many musical moments that just catch you and stick with you so that you remember them days after the concert will you have? Probably none, if your experience is like mine.
Metal is dying, whether we like to say it's making a comeback or not, because metal doesn't evolve. Metalheads want their metal pure and simple and no different than any other metal. We don't have any new catchy and original metal coming out on a regular basis. The closest we have to a new great metal band is a new metal band mixing some other more obscure form of music with metal. Polka-metal. Pirate-Metal. Bluegrass-Metal. (As a sidenote I find it, then, strange that anyone has a problem with "Rap-metal" because it's the same damn concept going in a slightly different direction.)
Wanna know the best fuckin' death metal band of the last ten years?
You're not gonna like it (generalization for emphasis, once again).
It's Slipknot. No solos, kinda rap vocals, cheesy masks. And they have hooks. I can listen to a Slipknot song and tell it from every other Slipknot song after the first time I hear it. I can listen to Vital Remains every day and most of their songs are indistinguishable.
Pop has it's merits. Slipknot is big because they affect people. People hate them because they say, "Why Slipknot, and not Band X over here? Now that's a true metal band!" but the reason is most likely because Band X is just that, indistinguishable from all the other Band X's.
We can talk about how hardcore and metalcore pound their open note breakdowns the same way in every song, but the metalheads at large out there aren't doing much more than that themselves. The same thrash riffs recycled, the same badass solo, which was badass when the last 50 bands played it.
I wanna hear a metal band that throws a fucking recognizably unique hook around at least once per song. That's the band I wanna listen to. Chances are that band is already big, and probably treated with distaste and "poserism" amongst the metal community.
But you can bet that I can sit down (as much as I wouldn't want to) and listen to the new Britney Spears album, and learn 10 times as much about writing a catchy, memorable song than I would in the last ten 2007/2008 metal albums I've listened to combined.
Boiled down, my point is this. Music is entirely subjective. We say this a lot in the same breath as bashing trendy emo (even though emo bashing is a bigger trend than emo itself). But the difference between couldn't-play-a-solo-if-they-tried My Chemical Romance and new crazy-fast-technical-godly-guitar-metal-band-X is that there are hooks, and the average person can tell the difference between the songs, and enjoy the songs, even if it's their first time listening to them.
Maybe it'd be a good idea to start looking at what Slipknot and Korn and System of a Down and Nickelback are doing right, than focus on how posery and commercial they are, because personally I'd rather listen to any of those bands than sit through one more fucking album of the same metal riffs rehashed.
Metal is inches from dying out and becoming total shit, because nobody wants to be the sell-out. We need some more metal bands that will sell-out and let some Swedish pop producer put some fucking hooks and memorability into those songs, because they sure as hell aren't doing it themselves and I can't tell the difference between them. It's pure stagnation, even the bands I love are stagnant.
It's probably time to stop grasping at straws and reaching for that one bit of originality by adding a flute player to a death-metal band, and actually just write some non-technical riff that really sticks out.
Vital Remains isn't doing it, Dream Theater isn't doing it, Symphony X sounds so stale I can't listen to their new album. Blind Guardian's new album was mostly crap to my ears. Outworld is a pretty good band but they're already sounding stale just because they aren't different enough.
But take this little band called "Scissor Sisters" or this other little band called "She Wants Revenge"... they sound pretty fresh and memorable to me, and I don't get an "Oh shit not more of this" headache every time I hear them.
Just sayin'.
Probably nobody read all of this, but if you did I hope you see my point.
|
|
steve0
Still Wears Diapers
Posts: 23
|
Post by steve0 on Mar 27, 2008 22:00:16 GMT -5
P.S. Case in point.
I listen to the single from Tim Yeungs new band the other day. It was awesome and the drumming was amazing and all. But I can't remember a word from it.
I listened to the song "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance one time, like two weeks ago, and it was a total rehash of the same pop-punk dreck, but it was catchy and I could sing it to you right now, having heard it only once.
|
|
|
Post by pcsmall on Mar 27, 2008 23:17:38 GMT -5
yeah i agree with you steve0. metal bands can only do so much stuff so many times over before it starts sounding like that song from that album they did so long ago, or that album the OTHER band did so long ago.
I seriously think the best metal band out there right now (when you compare popular opinion to technical capability) is probably Avenged Sevenfold. Now, when I give my opinion on this, most metalheads I know (definately some on this board) give me the "that's nice..."kind of response. How many other bands that are as technically advanced as these guys (at least one of them went to Musicians Institute, and it was Synyster Gates, the lead guitarist, if none of the others) can get THEIR videos to be played on TRL, much less find the $$$ to have a video made to a song? I had their album Waking the Fallen from back when they were kinda metalcore-ish for like a year back when i was in high school until my CDs were stolen out of my truck, but 4 years later I CAN STILL SING AND/OR PLAY HALF THE SONGS OFF THAT CD! I've heard their song Bat Country maybe twice and I can sit here and listen to it in my head over and over...and it never gets old. They're relegated to the "poser/sellout" section by the majority of metalheads i've known, but I can sit in a room full of people and play the intro or main riff to Beast and the Harlot, and everyone will know exactly what song it is, where as if i sit down and play even a relatively popular "true" metal tune, they'll say it's badass, but i'd have to tell them which song it is and even sometimes who did it and then get the "oh, yeah, that's right!" response.
|
|
|
Post by Torkin on Mar 28, 2008 11:02:12 GMT -5
Why do you say metal is dying? I agree to you man, especially when you were saying that music is to inspire and so on. Well as I have probably discussed 10 times before, we cant judge musical styles to say which one is better. We CANT say that technical death metal is better than emo and we cant say the other way around. Dont forget that playing an instrument is about expressing your feelings, and one should not write (IMO ofcuz) a song constantly thinking about how well the record will sell. "OK I need to change this part cuz its not catchy enough, though I like it this way" is just WRONG. Musicians who are in this kind of thing arent musicians but rather businessmen. Everything in this world is relative so if a band X is one mans favourite band that he enjoys listening to, that band is good. If 10 mens favourite is band Y, that band is good. But that doesnt make band Y better than band X! Music lives in your soul man, and since we are so different we will all like different music. My favourite band is a melodic death metal band Wintersun. All of their songs have the same feeling and some parts sound similar, but that is because artist focused on making the tracks sound cold and well, dont know how to describe it. Hell, one of his songs is called Sleeping Stars, and when you listen to it, it sounds majestic and the breakdown sounds to me just like as if I was looking into the night sky while the cold wind was blowing in my head! But Stef here on this forum hates it. He likes e.g. a band that I dislike (though it is totally badass, I just dont like their music much). I can't tell him that his band is worse than mine because it would be WRONG. We cant judge bands that are different, because different people like different music. And metal won't die. I just can't see that, not in the current generation at least. For me some bands will continue to exist, I and many other people will continue to listen to the artists' work, and the music will live. Even though these artists will have smaller and smaller sales, and will live poor, their music will live and that is what they are after, not the money. Its all about expressing your feelings, be it sadness, anger, or love or whatever. Music was just turned into business, and thats why people sometimes judge bands by their sales. I like some mainstream bands, but I also like many bands who cant live just by selling their music. And frankly, I have more underground bands on my playlist than mainstream. The essence of the mainstream bands is to change their music in the direction of the mass'es evolving tastes, and although some artists like this change, I can believe that some want to play different music, but still compose while having the $$$ in mind. And I read your whole post man
|
|
steve0
Still Wears Diapers
Posts: 23
|
Post by steve0 on Mar 28, 2008 17:31:22 GMT -5
Thanks for the responses.
I agree about Avenged Sevenfold. The guitarist is a sock-mute using cheater live, but they write good songs and I like to listen to them, so that's it, posers or not.
And I agree that commercial music is bent to appeal to the masses, and there may be no artistic expression at all behind a lot of the commercial music, but I think two things about this.
1. Sometimes music isn't art, it's just music. It's just entertainment and it's nice to listen to.
2. If music is to be art, someone needs to be very selfish and in a creative black hole where they don't have people around them (or bands they listen to) influencing what they write. They have to play from the heart. That makes it art. It doesn't mean it's good, it doesn't mean it's listenable, but it's art. A truly great songwriter will get the audiences attention (and keep it), have something to say, and say it without using one too few or one too many notes.
I think someone can express a lot of shit through music, and sometimes being original isn't called for. Sometimes that 12 bar blues with 15p12 is just what's needed, but that's writing music for the self, which is selfish.
Writing music only to please other people is equally selfish though.
All I'm saying, is I want to hear people that aren't afraid to do something different, but do something that isn't different for the sake of different, but unique because it comes from their soul and everyone is unique. If metal bands would stop worrying about what the metalheads are going to think of them, or if they're going to be regarded amongst the "true" metal, and just start writing songs that they really care about, things could get better.
I want to hear death metal bands writing happy songs in major keys, even if they're brutal.
I want to hear Tobias Sammet record the new Avantasia album just how he wants (which he did) and not care when all the metalheads say "Lost in Space" sounds like Matchbox 20.
That's what's gonna pull us out of this slump, IMO.
|
|
|
Post by pcsmall on Mar 28, 2008 23:16:49 GMT -5
Thanks for the responses. I agree about Avenged Sevenfold. The guitarist is a sock-mute using cheater live, but they write good songs and I like to listen to them, so that's it, posers or not. And I agree that commercial music is bent to appeal to the masses, and there may be no artistic expression at all behind a lot of the commercial music, but I think two things about this. 1. Sometimes music isn't art, it's just music. It's just entertainment and it's nice to listen to. 2. If music is to be art, someone needs to be very selfish and in a creative black hole where they don't have people around them (or bands they listen to) influencing what they write. They have to play from the heart. That makes it art. It doesn't mean it's good, it doesn't mean it's listenable, but it's art. A truly great songwriter will get the audiences attention (and keep it), have something to say, and say it without using one too few or one too many notes. I think someone can express a lot of shit through music, and sometimes being original isn't called for. Sometimes that 12 bar blues with 15p12 is just what's needed, but that's writing music for the self, which is selfish. Writing music only to please other people is equally selfish though. All I'm saying, is I want to hear people that aren't afraid to do something different, but do something that isn't different for the sake of different, but unique because it comes from their soul and everyone is unique. If metal bands would stop worrying about what the metalheads are going to think of them, or if they're going to be regarded amongst the "true" metal, and just start writing songs that they really care about, things could get better. I want to hear death metal bands writing happy songs in major keys, even if they're brutal. I want to hear Tobias Sammet record the new Avantasia album just how he wants (which he did) and not care when all the metalheads say "Lost in Space" sounds like Matchbox 20. That's what's gonna pull us out of this slump, IMO. INDEED
|
|
|
Post by Stefvorcide on Mar 28, 2008 23:31:00 GMT -5
Steve-O, I'm sorry but i couldn't read you whole first post (more than half tho), but I really think you really missed the point..
I just wanna say one thing: saying that if more people like something is a fallacy (Sophisme in french) so it has NO ARGUMENTAL VALUE. Music is fucking art. most people are just too fucking dumb to 1. understand what's going on in a tune. 2. look for new "talents" instead of listening to whats thrown down their throat (MTV and radio) 3. only want something that they can sing-along (especially when they dont play music i.e. lack of musical intelligence.) 4. are just chicks who wants to dance on a slut-ish song. 5 want to like the song THE FIRST TIME THEY EAR IT. Hell at work, the fucking radio plays the same songs ten times a day (they're just catchy, but nowhere near ART or good music with a feeling, its just to enhance the singer.) Beside, pretty much all those who gets popular, are just because of their freaking IMAGE.
Popular opinion is stupid anyway and everyone (fallacy again..) knows it is stupid.
Just listen what YOU LIKE and don't care for what other people think. Anyway metal isn't accessible and isnt made to be accessible and avalaible to anyone. Most people don't like classical music also, and it's prolly some of the best compositions ever done (Bach bwv 565, 1004, beethoven's symphonies,, Shostakovich, Bartok, brouwer, stravinsky)
Name me ONE pop artist that can give me the same feeling or excitement that Spawn Of Possession, Theory in Practice, Gorguts, Neglected Fields, Augury, Martyr, Emperor, Spiral Architect, Atheist etc.. gives me.
I like simplier music, don't get me wrong but this verse-choruse and Eminor thingy BORES ME TO FREAKING DEATH. (even Death, the band bores me cause its too predictable..)
MUSIC IS ABOUT EXCITEMENT, FEELING, INTENSITY.
/end ran
|
|
|
Post by thenotshredder on Mar 29, 2008 13:33:00 GMT -5
I agree with Stef on the INTENSITY EXCITEMENT FEELING bit, which is why I fucking adore Outworld.
But on the other hand, there's nothing wrong with hooks and memorable bits. I just got the Outworld album... two days ago, and I can't stop listening to it. The "oh oh oh oh" Pachelbel's Canon part that gets repeated once or twice is one of the best moments in metal, ever.
|
|
|
Post by Stefvorcide on Mar 29, 2008 14:22:34 GMT -5
Pachelbel's canon is intense, it's nowhere like pop man ;p
|
|
|
Post by thenotshredder on Mar 29, 2008 16:44:33 GMT -5
I fucking hate Pachelbel's Canon. Fucking fucking fucking fucking hate it. It's extremely poppy and obnoxious. Except in Riders.
|
|
|
Post by Joel Wanasek on Mar 30, 2008 12:28:01 GMT -5
SteveO, I've been feeling the way you do for a while. Why else would I have grabbed a radio rock singer and switched my band's sound to Nickelback/Seether/hinder etc. I'm finding I'm having more fun "rocking" than I ever did "thrashing." It's not like my guitar playing has gotten any worse or less technical either. I just enjoy getting up there, rocking my ass off and having fun. I still get to do cool solos here and there. Life is good! I still love metal, but I find that recently I love pop music as well. Dare I even say that I can listen to something like Britney Spears all day. I love the hooks, the songwriting, the chord movement, the arrangements, the production, etc. Its good music and its freaking catchy. I was also shocked to find Nickelback was heavier sounding than most of the metal bands I listened too. It seems they release all there soft songs on the radio, but some of the tracks on their records are super heavy. The production itself is second to almost none imo too. I've opened my own horizons a lot in the last few years. I listen to everything now whereas I used to listen to mostly shred metal. Still love metal, but my heart wants to rock now and I freaking love playing in a radio rock band. It is so much more fun for me. p.s. I was joking the other day with a friend who was joking with me that I sold out by switching to radio rock. I explained to him that I am the true nonconformist. Since everyone is conforming to being nonconformist by trying to be so anti mainstream, I figure that it is now trendy to be nonconformist. So the real nonconformists are the people who are mainstream. haha. It was worth a few good laughs.
|
|
|
Post by thenotshredder on Mar 30, 2008 20:54:43 GMT -5
p.s. I was joking the other day with a friend who was joking with me that I sold out by switching to radio rock. I explained to him that I am the true nonconformist. Since everyone is conforming to being nonconformist by trying to be so anti mainstream, I figure that it is now trendy to be nonconformist. So the real nonconformists are the people who are mainstream. haha. It was worth a few good laughs. I used to use this argument all the time, before I decided to just give up and do whatever I wanted without excusing myself or any apologetics.
|
|
steve0
Still Wears Diapers
Posts: 23
|
Post by steve0 on Apr 1, 2008 1:07:41 GMT -5
I see what you're saying, and I feel the same way about music being art, but it seems in artistic music (specifically hardcore jazz, "real" metal, and progressive music) there's the same mentality as in arthouse films. They have to be cerebral and "non-first-listen friendly" and "truly artistic" and they're condemned if they're entertaining. I absolutely love Symphony X's "Divine Wings of Tragedy" and that's so far from mainstream radio rock that I doubt it's ever been played on so much as a college prog rock station. But when it comes down to it, I don't feel like a lot of metal bands are taking the time to be catchy and original. It's like "must be heavier, more technical, more epic, more complicated, more whatever" and it's simply boring to listen to. I'm not saying that radio-rock is THE artistic medium, and that metal is all shit, and I'm not saying that radio-rock is really original, because it's practically all shit that's been done a thousand times. But I do know that radio rock, however unoriginal, is catchy and listenable, whereas 90% of the metal I hear lately is equally unoriginal, and not catchy at all. Even the original metal that comes out (which is practically never) is so divorced from what makes a simple and catchy song so great, that it's usually just as dreck as everything else that comes out. But take System of a Down, they're heavy, complicated, non-mainstream (when they got big anyway) and very original. They're also very catchy, and everything is a hook, from the bassline to every vocal harmony. They're also widely hated amongst the "real" metalheads. There are a few metal bands out there that can be as heavy as they want and be catchy. I believe that Gorod is one of those bands. They dispense with the "ZOMG metal is serious business" attitude, and manage to sound cerebral, while at the same time making their heaviest, most brutal riff, roll through the ears with the swiftness of a clean pop-hook. That's more of what I want to hear. Mostly I think the problem is that the metal community takes itself so seriously, even when they're being tongue in cheek, they view it as an "insiders" tongue in cheek, that the "posers" wouldn't get. I can absolutely see your point of view, and I'm definitely not saying every single metal band sucks. I'm just saying that a very very small percentage of metal to come out in the past few years has been memorable. Sure, metal has something to say, which most radio rock doesn't, but damn if all the metal bands don't seem to be trying to say the same thing they were 10 years ago. And to Joel:
Yes, I know how you feel. I play in a very radio-rock band myself. We never feel limited artistically by trying to make everything catchy and fun to play. We all have our metal and prog influences in the music, but it's arranged and organized in a way that makes in fun to listen to and rock out on stage to. I still get my shred solos, my odd time signatures, my this-and-thats, but it's something that doesn't try to be "artistic" and over peoples heads. I find it more fun to play music with hooks and a little wider appeal anyway. And on the Britney Spear topic, I've been listening to her a lot lately. I'm not really into her "sing sultry, like you're running out of breath" thing she's got going, but the hooks and production and the songwriting are just amazing. There is a reason that she got so huge, and it wasn't just her sex appeal and her fashion sense and such, it's because her music rocks, even though it's cliche and intellectually void. Basically my point is this: Music should be a good novel, not a history book, not a newspaper, and not a fashion magazine. It should tell a story, and entertain. It shouldn't be focused on what came before, it shouldn't be "forced-originality" or trying to fight to be "the newest thing", and it shouldn't be strictly whats fashionable, with no artistic merit whatsoever. It just needs to tell a good story, be it through lyrics or instrumentality, and it should entertain. If it does that, it can be cerebral or simple, and I'll probably like it either way. I don't want artistic music, I want music that is art. There is a difference.
|
|
|
Post by endless on Apr 1, 2008 16:10:05 GMT -5
Commercial does not mean bad, but you have to admit there are a lot of bands that don't get millions of dollars thrown at them in promotion, marketing, etc. People buy junk all the time due to image and advertising, why would music be any different? There are people so influenced by TV/radio that they don't even know what emo is. Not everything out there is bad, some is actually good, but it's not famous because it's good. The 90's was the last decade of decent music being 'allowed' to make it big. Garbage has amazing songs (it's a band of pro producers), Smashing Pumpkins, are another. Rammstein, Rob Zombie, Manson, and numerous different genres, were all on prime-time MTV/Muchmusic... now there's Evanescence (Which I don't mind) on Much Loud (a supposedly metal show), and nothing but pop/rap on standard programming. Songs from the 70's, 80's, 90's, still get played on radio all the time, but they won't play a song from 2 years ago, because its 'old news'. In truth, it's over processed, over played, trash. You'd think the internet would help get music out there, but most people don't go looking for music, so it doesn't. Only the intense music fans your discrediting go looking, and thats why they have the opinions they do. Labels have more control now than ever. They need money now, not integrity, or longevity. The hit bands never have the same fan base for long, and new bands rise up to take the old fan base soon after. It's all part of todays disposable culture...it's easier to burn out a bands usefulness and get a new one, than to maintain an old one. Make millions while giving the band no leverage...it's a perfect system. Quantity, not quality. As for Nickelback, I live an easy drive from their hometown...all the alt/rock bands around here sound like them, but the labels picked them, cause Kroeger is a formulaic, predictable songwriter with few non radio influences in his songs. Most of these bands disappear after a few years. No one remembers half the bands of the 90's, even those that sold millions. They don't have good songs, they have cheap novelties that get stuck in your head, but with little value beyond that. They don't last. Look up "How music really works"...the dude is a hit producer, and he's telling you how to write good songs. He says outright that all the 'hits' today are cheap regurgitated crap, an offence to the art of songwriting. That and many metal songs and pop songs have the same structure, with just as many hooks. It's simply because of metals intentional abrasiveness that they don't sell. People are offended by death vocal styles, even if your singing about butterflies and flowers. We got a local DJ to play a terribly written joke rap song with brutally gory lyrics, and allusions to rape, but he won't spin any band with screaming/growling, because it's "offensive", and "scary". You also forget that in Europe, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico, most of this stuff is not any more popular than anything else. In Scandinavia you can buy hit compilations with HIM, Britney Spears, and Nightwish all on the same disc. I hear what your saying about different styles being subject to opinion, but 90% of the bands on the radio are shit. There's probably some emo band, totally unknown, that would kick the shit outta every other one out there, except they're ugly, so no money for them. In GW magazine, they had an article on getting signed, and the label guy they talked to mentioned this. He has refused to sign amazing rock bands, because the singer was fat, or the lead guitarist was 'ugly'. Before seeing one band, he said he was blown away by every song. He tried to convince them to drop their main songwriter/guitarist when he saw them, because he wasn't "marketable". Much of what you hear on the radio is a direct lift from other styles. Canon in D has been used in so many modern radio hits, I saw a comedian who based his whole act around it, guitar in hand. If they have all the great hooks/originality, then why are they using set formulas/chord progressions to write songs? To be on the radio, you can't have long intros, you must use the A/B/A/B/C/B formula, no solos, 3:33 song length etc. This is what producers will turn your songs into these days. Metallica's "One" breaks all these rules, yet it was a 'hit', and many people still remember it. It's the video MTV likes to break out when talking about the band to this day. St. Anger sold lots too, and it was total crap. Surprise, surprise, no one plays it anymore. I heard Nothing Else Matters on the radio the other day, though. It's all: Image Radio Payola Marketing "this is cool" brainwashing Conformism Ever seen the movie Airheads? "If those bands are so good, how come nobody knows about them?" Answer? "Cause you don't play them!!" The big companies are not going to invest in a band that they can't control. They hire songwriters (who know the shit they give out sucks), and pick a person with a 'good' image to pretend to sing. I listen to a massive range of music. I can barely be considered a metalhead with all the stuff listen to regularly. Lately I've been listening to more folk/medieval music than anything. Some post-punk/goth/dark pop stuff. What folk has taught me, is that "progress" is an illusion. It doesn't matter if a bunch of bands sound similar, as long as they're good. Incidentally, all the bands you mentioned have many bands that sound almost identical to them. Much of what your suggesting would make metal, not metal anymore. Should we take out all the trademark bits of Classical music so that radio will play it too? Cut out the dense harmony, multiple instruments, melodic and rhythmic motifs, and ornamental flourishes, and you have the base for any song, in any genre. Your advocating pop music, not songwriting. I agree that music is about emotion, and painting a sonic picture. If you want good sad songwriting, for example, there is classical, doom, goth, post punk, etc. Why is a sad emo band any more relevant? It's not less relevant, but I've yet to hear a, supposedly sad, emo band (again, probably due to the industry) that captures absolute sorrow like Shape of Despair, or Chopin. They aren't famous because they connect with people, they are famous because they look good to the current group of kids, and fit with what they've been told is cool. The lyrics are always about breakups, parties, hanging out, minor family issues, etc. Or some attempt at being weird, "dark n scary", or Nightmare before Christmas-ish without the wit/execution. I will continue following the methods that folk and classical set forth, because I trust a 100-1000 year old song made for love of music, more than I trust one that is "the latest hit" made for money and fame. Everyone on the planet can hum a traditional folk tune, Christmas carol, and classical piece from memory, even if they hate all those forms of music. The same can't be said for radio stuff. Follow trends, and you'll always be 2 steps behind. Here's your metal wind instrument bands, BTW: youtube.com/watch?v=iijKLHCQw5oyoutube.com/watch?v=2DYKsQqQgSkyoutube.com/watch?v=2xmLGC1P1tYyoutube.com/watch?v=qz8EfkS4KK0youtube.com/watch?v=4dZKV7nmi5cyoutube.com/watch?v=KxESCQZ-o8oyoutube.com/watch?v=3yM3XJZDV0Y
|
|
|
Post by pcsmall on Apr 1, 2008 16:52:52 GMT -5
|
|