Is great music dead?

[skonopa]

Here is an interesting piece written by one of the youth correspondants of the local newspaper.

The thing is that I tend to agree with alot of what he is saying. Probably why I don't listen to FM radio anymore or watch MTV anymore. I now listen almost entirely to XM radio. Also why I haven't bought any albums from any of the so called "major" artists. The only ones that I bought in the past two years were a couple of A Perfect Circle ablums and a couple of Tool albums. Most of the stuff that I have bought in the past couple of years were pretty obscure or nobody just heard of them. After all, how many people on here have heard of Edguy or Nocturnal Rites? Probably no one unless they listen to XM-41 (The Boneyard), and enjoy that kind of music (power/prog metal). No FM station would ever play Edguy, at least none of the ones around here.

[m00n]

"YES"

That answers your topic question.

[PKuziel]

I agree Skonopa. The music today seems to be complete shiet. None of these "new" artists have any longevity, they maybe have one good song (Most likely a remake) and the rest of their CD SUCKS! I listen to some pretty obscure stuff too (Ottmar Liebert, David Benoit,etc.) I think this is the REAL reason the music industry is in a hole. Here in CT I have to listen to a radio station out of Long Island NY because the ones we have here suck. I considered getting XM Radio but I still can't bring myself to pay for radio.

[Colin]

which why I listen to jazz, the songs may not be great, but most of them are not bad!

[skonopa]

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On 6/10/2004 10:31:39 AM PKuziel wrote:

I considered getting XM Radio but I still can't bring myself to pay for radio.

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That was my original thinking, but after having it had it for the past few months, I don't think I could do without. I am finding it is well worth the $10/month not having to endure all the retarded advertising, not to mention just the sheer variety of music. It was almost a whole week before I heard my first repeat on XM radio, whereas, on regular FM broadcast, it was not unusual for me to hear the same song two or three times in one day. It also seemed like I was hearing the same 6 songs everyday on FM radio, and 5 of them, I did not even like. That is not the case with XM radio. Also, the quality is much better than FM radio, plus not having to channel surf when I lose a station on a long drives make it even better.

[damonrpayne]

The attached graph shows human goodness as a function of time. As you can see, I have created a complex mathematical model that indicates we can expect far more bad and less good as time moves on.

The whole world is marketing now. You are, at any point in time, either selling or being sold to. We are being marketed to in new ways all the time, the level to which advertising permeates every type of media or other thing we look at is astounding. As such, the only thing Corporate America deems worthy of being produced is that which is marketable, easily marketable with good margins on said investment. Any form of art that is actually interesting, honest, or good will only become widely known if it is also profitable and will march to the drummer of Finance. Any "movement" in music will be snatched up by Pepsi Inc. and exploited faster than half the target audience was ever exposed to the unadulterated material.

Much of the best music in the world was written more than 80 years ago. However Mr. Mozart is not a 23 year old heart throb wearing sunglasses, doing drugs, and telling us not to eat animals, so I don't get a music channel where I can watch an orchestra perform honest emotional music. "Tool" is only widely known because, well, they are incredibly good at what they do.

It makes me wonder, is this a new phenomenon of our commerical society, or has it always been like this? Were there "underground" musicians in the 1700s who wrote things more sincere and "real" than the things we know about from that time?

I used to be very into a lot of music: rock, electronica, metal. The only CDs I've bought for over a year are classical, or maybe something that's 10 years old and I just got around to buying it. I've given up.

[Colin]

It is true that we seem to be in more of a evolutionary period rather than a revolutionary one, but it is nor for lack of talented artists, witness the best female singer thread, we have Melissa Etheridge & Delores ORiordan belting out the rock tunes, Norah Jones and Diana Krall crooning melodies. Perhaps what is missing is the technical innovations that inspire new forms of music: EL34 tubes in guitar amplifiers, electric guitars, synthesizers, the influence of acid and other drugs. Perhaps what we need a new instruments or drugs!

[damonrpayne]

Well, in the electronic world creating any type of sound is possible, yet innovation has slowed down to a crawl in that realm just like all others. There are unique off the wall musical groups, but the more strange something is the more likely it is to be considered just a novelty even by the 'fans'. Take Savage Aural Hotbed for instance: their live show and studio albums are rythm and melodies created by playing skill saws on oil drums, banging on various metal items with various other metal items, and running chainsaws up and down steel springs while someone spot welds item A to item B. Unique, yes, completely free from the shackles of corporate marketing! However too off the wall to be anything but a novelty.

Perhaps new drugs is the answer then, or something that show us entirely new ways to arrange the sounds we know how to make today.

[garymd]

The last good music to hit mainstream IMO, was the grunge rock of the early 90s. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, STP, etc. Nothing since does anything for me. Glad I discovered jazz & classical that's been out for ages. I DO have new music to listen to thank goodness (new to me anyway).

[boomac]

Great music may not be dead but it seems to be dying. There could be a cure so perhaps, there's hope.

[Colin]

See, beauty IS in the eye of the beholder, grunge rock of the 90s was exactly what I was thing about when I agreed that there doesnt seem to be a great music around lately!

[BBB]

No, No. Music isnt dead at all. Just the heads that are buying it.

*Billboard Top Independent Albums* June 10, 2004

#1 Ying Yang Twins, Me & My Brother

#2 Sugarcult, Palm Trees And Power Lines

#3 Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz, Kings Of Crunk

#4 Masta Killa, No Said Date

#5 William Hung, Inspiration

[nicholtl]

Someone needs to kill William Hung. This fool puts asians back 10 years in terms of reaffirming stereotypes. Jackie Chan too.

[thebes]

A few thoughts. Creativity and social change tend to come in bursts. We are probably just in a trough concerning widely popular well known groups with good musical chops. We may also have conditioned ourselves to only hearing the greatest growing up in the era of the rock gods, while conviently forgetting how much dreck was out there at the same time. Remember bubble gum music?

There are still a ton of people out their creating music, sure most of its junk, but there are still finds to be made. Perhaps we are really coming in to the global village McLuhan talked about and the best music is really just down the street from us either physically or on the web. There's still a lotta local groups that are well worth checking out at your local music venue.

Gotta agree with the universal disgust of music lovers over the scum who run radio. At least there's still a few good college stations. Economically music lovers are locked out the broadcst biz which is now a defacto monopoly. Unless some really fanantic music loving billionaire comes along and buys a few radio stations were screwed. The mom and pop radio stations that catered

to us in our youth are all gone and any one trying to start one without a ton of dough is locked out.

[fini]

Damonrpayne,

Brilliant first post! Nail on the head!!

A lot of you guys sound like my Grandpa (probably YOUR Grandpa, too)! I remember mine complaining about the no-good shaggy-haired Beatles. We're all getting older. And now we're even older. And now we're older still.

[picky]

Is great music dead?...yes, partially...Ray Charles passed away today.

[wheelman]

OH i think it's starting to come back. Rockin combacks and new bands that are rock bands. Can't beat that. Jet's cold hard ***** really rocks. Let's face it i remember being young and saying i would never just listen to your classic rock. Now that's about all i listen too. I like all music, and I am really only talking about rock here. I don't think Elton John will come out with another tiny dancer.

[Audible Nectar]

It isn't dead, but it is dying.

The music industry is falling prey to the same thing that causes the lack of choices in other goods - control by the MegaCorps.

Clear Channel controls over 80% of venues nationally, and owns over 1600 radio stations nationwide. If your new band wants to make "the big time", they must convince the powers that be at CC that your band deserves to be heard.

Clear Channel has TREMENDOUS power to control even the most popular bands. This summer, "The Dead" (surviving members of the Grateful Dead) attempted to book the venerable Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA (a non CC venue) for three concerts. As the tour was being put together, the powers that be at CC decided that they wanted The Dead to play a larger and CC controlled venue, Shoreline Amphitheater in nearby Mountain View. Since CC was in charge of other venues The Dead was playing on this tour, CC had LEVERAGE to say, "if you don't go along with us on the Greek/Shoreline issue, we can pull the plug on the OTHER shows. But if you DO go along, we will pay you a nice bonus".

Now you see how CC controls the bands. If you ask any "DeadHead" where he/she would rather see the show, Berkeley's Greek Theatre wins every time.

Clear Channel is the same behemoth that organized the Dixie Chicks boycott, by having the stations run promos accepting Dixie Chicks concert tickets in trade for other goods (usually another concert), and bashing the DC's for thier opinions. Not many listened (less than 1% responded to any/all CC offers regarding the Dixie Chicks, and sold the whole tour out). Now maybe you are of the political persuasion who agreed with CC, but what if CC turned against YOUR FAVORITE BAND and tried to deny you access, or tried to control thier artistic license? You may not be aware of it, but they often do (although you rarely know this is happening, because you don't really know what the band had in mind at the album's inception vs. the end product).

Clear Channel is also the same behemoth who, at the iron hand of the Federal Gov, began shutting off Howard Stern (six major markets). The Gov just fined CC 1.5 MILLION dollars for Stern's on air comments. It's interesting, however, that the Gov didn't turn on Howard/CC until Howard went "anti GWB" - a subject he rarely ever touched on until recently.

So now you have a direct attachment of the Federal Government to CC, where the Feds are twisting CC's arm to go along with thier agenda. The result is more government control of the airwaves and thier content.

These are the bastids that are controlling your music. But you have a tool to circumvent all of this......and you are using it now.....your internet connection. Let your fingers do the walking. These bands may not be as popular, but you will often find out that FREE EXPRESSION is always better than filtered by CC, and just because these bands aren't popular, that has no bearing on how good they are.

The only use for my FM tuners is NPR. For the real music hunt, turn off your radio dial, hop on the web, and START LISTENING:)

So, to quote Eric Cartman, I say to Clear Channel, "Screw you guys". Or to quote a shirt designed by a fellow music lover that he distributes:

"You can control the bands, you can control the venues, BUT YOU CANNOT CONTROL US.........CLEAR CHANNEL SUCKS".

[D-MAN]

Cream always rises to the top.

The "top" however has been covered by hype and celebrity to the point that is has very little to do with music...

The point being, that there is (presumably) a market driving the facination with celebrity rather than being a strictly musical market.

When the perception of the market changes to the commercial powers that be, so will the music world.

It's basically the fodder to feed the entertainment industry (like People magazine, etc.), its not the music.

It hasn't been the music itself for quite some time.

But the top is still in there, it's just covered in alot of you-know-what...

DM

[Fish]

The answer is NO,but it is OLD and on life support.