Top 40 music thoughts

[Colin]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/10/music.top40revisited.ap/index.html

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[jacksonbart]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/08/09/showbuzz/index.html#0

[Colin]

Bumpity comment, shameless designed to float this topic to the top! Come on guys! Any comments?

[oldbuckster]

As a Man closing in on 60, the Top 40 does nothing for me, I am out of touch with most of Today's Music.............I Don't like it,..........I Don't have to.............Let me ramble for a minute..........What people call Country today, is a joke...........Tim Mc Graw, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts,......Please, they aren't Country......Pop Rock with a Twang is more like it......Rap, can we fit in any more swear words, or what............Urban, Hip Hop, what ever happened to Soul Singers, Black Women that are Black Women and not made up to look, well, white............Singing instead of shaking...................and my favorite Rock, is NickelBack the best they can do........Yuk..............but, the Top 40 isn't about some old fart in upstate New York, it will continue without OldBuckster, So carry on Music World, pollute the air waves, I'll go down to My Basement Room and just listen to more Classic Rock, and let my brain get destroyed some more, and maybe some forum members will send me some Jazz to give my old mind a rest, Nah, I love to ***** and complain.....................

[toddvj]

I was reading rolling stone magazine the other day, and looking at the top 40 (albums), and I thought to myself, There is not a single album here that I would be interested in buying. And they wonder why record sales are down.

[oldbuckster]

I was reading rolling stone magazine the other day, and looking at the top 40 (albums), and I thought to myself, There is not a single album here that I would be interested in buying. And they wonder why record sales are down.

Isn't that the truth............................Don't you find Rolling Stone to be to middle of the Road? There was a time when Middle of the Road got blasted in Rolling Stone, not any more..............Use to really enjoy getting it, but canceled years ago, because I felt they lost their edge...........I guess I should realize it's a different Music scene out there now............

[skonopa]

I was reading rolling stone magazine the other day, and looking at the top 40 (albums), and I thought to myself, There is not a single album here that I would be interested in buying. And they wonder why record sales are down.

You know, that I was thinking the exact same thing. There is not a single song that I have any intersest in the so-called "top 40". And this has been the case for at least the last few years. I just simply don't like where mainstream music has gone and pretty much jumped off that band wagon some 5 years ago!

I never cared much for country to begin with, but the crap they got today? I'd rather hear a cat screech in heat in the alley than what they got on the radio these days.

And don't even get me started on rap and hip-hop. That $#!+ just plain has to go! Nothing more satisifying than pulling up next to some punk louding thumping his rap crap at a light, only to give him a healthy blast of Iron Maiden or DragonForce (did that just the other day - the look I got! [6]). As they say - you can't spell "crap" without "rap".

And what is this piss-poor excuse for "rock". I'll put the likes of Sonata Arctica up againts Nickleback or Green Day anyday. I am quite certain Sonata Arctica will school those guys as to just what "rock" is, not to mention bury them in just shear talent! It has gotten to the point that I don't even bother with the radio anymore. As that one article said:

Culture's splintering has made the Top 40 less influential. Hundreds of

radio stations cater to individual tastes. If that's not good enough,

you can program your iPod. If you want to ignore the Top 40, it's quite

easy.

That is precisely what I do now. I just load up the trusty ol' iPod and I am set. I can now pick and choose through the music that I am interested in, not what the radio thinks that I need to hear.

As to the music itself. I have found out so much new music from exploring on the internet. I found that I am mostly listening to power and progressive metal, as that seems to be the genre that has really "clicked" with me. When I was younger, I used to (and still do on occasion) listen to a lot of Styx, Pink Floyd, The Cars, Yes, Asia, and so forth. It just seems that the power/prog metal is a natural extension of that - cool to hear something like Styx again, but with a bit more "kick in the ***" with it! Once I got into hearing bands such as Pagan's Mind, Brainstorm, Altaria, Sonata Arctica, Stratovarious, Kamelot, and so forth, I am just blown away at the shear talent and musicianship that is exhibited here. Not to mention the lyrics actually are a bit more interesting than the usual "boy meets girl and girl meets boy, and then break up" tripe. I am not even close to exhausting the possibilities just in the power/progressive metal genre. I have a list of over 100 albums/bands that I still need to check out as well as get, and continuelly finding more. I don't need the stupid radio and thier crappy top-40 anymore! Also from the article:

Rappers often feel they have to soften their approach by dueting with women singers.

Too

often it's the only musically interesting thing in their work. Rap

dominates the culture, and it's empowering that hit songs can

essentially be made by one person and a machine. Minimalism is no

excuse for laziness, however. It's numbing how many rap songs consist

of little more than a repetitious synthesizer hook and electronic

percussion.

That is one reason why I cannot stand rap - I just find it so boring musically. I mean like, big friggan deal! It is just some dude talking to a beat - where is the "music" in that? It just has no susbtance whatsoever as far as I am concerned. When I mentioned to one of my friends how I cannot stand rap so much, he asked me "why?" I basically told him that there is just something appealing to me about seeing and hearing an actual band, playing actual instruments, with an actual singer, singing actual lyrics that does not contain cuss words at every other word, as well as singing about something a bit more profound than shooting at cops, f'ing "ho"s, or doing drugs. I heard one of his rap albums. I told him that I don't think my entire collection of metal albums contain as many instances of the 'F' word as the first two minutes of the first track of that album did (which is about all that I could stand before I told him to turn it off)!

And like Toddvj said up above - "And they wonder why record sales are down".

[jheis]

"Top Forty" is whatever Clear Channel will play. It's Micro$oft for the ears.

The triumph of mediocrity. You have to look elsewhere.

James

[Audible Nectar]

"Top Forty" is whatever Clear Channel will play. It's Micro$oft for the ears.

The triumph of mediocrity. You have to look elsewhere.

James

Yep. Lowest common denominator. There is some merit to the "splintering of culture" and the mass of choices, but when you look at the music being pumped through the mass channel methods, the bands are just anemic. Somebody at these record companies needs to find some real talent scouts, instead of the "manufactured" product that is so prevalent in the "chart toppers" of today. The executives are getting in the way, instead of letting the cream rise to the top. The "top" is mostly determined for you to a large degree. It's no wonder that the "top 40" is so lame.......

I don't see it as a generational thing. I often see music when 3/4 of the crowd is half my age, and they hold much the same opinion of "manufactured pop" as I do. In rock music's heyday (60's-70's), there were lots of BIG BANDS that were universally respected. In recent years, there have been fewer and fewer "big bands" that have that notoriety and respect. And the quality of all the genres (at least on a mass level) seems to have decreased. The most productive rock band of the nineties was Phish, who did it the hard way.....by earning a reputation for blowing people's minds on the live stage and using the internet for word of mouth. The radio/mass media barely noticed.

There are a lot of EXCELLENT bands out there right now.....but you have to look elsewhere to find 'em. I prefer to "look" at rock music festivals and other live settings, where I can sample multiple flavors and acts. My favorite up and coming band who is "going places", yet flying under the radar? Umphrey's McGee - and see 'em LIVE.

[theryugobuddy]

The music of today all seems like the right beat will make it a hit. I don't hear melody, harmony, and songcraft anymore. When I watch Beyonce's videos, I'm amazed that her music is so popular. All the star singers don't sing as much as wail some love cliche or vocalize sexually under their breath. Christina Aguilera doesn't sing an entire melody--she just runs vocal scales with intense heartfelt overwrought feeling.

I don't get it, the old grouchy bugger that I am. Even that new song Crazy by Gnarles Barkley sounds good at the start, then the monotony settles in and it deosn't seem to reach any higher height than the first verse throughout the song--I don't think they knew what to do with it so they just played the same riff ad nauseum--

Snort, fart, scratch, belch--

[oldbuckster]

Funny..............Didn't our parents say the same things??????????????

LONG LIVE ROCK.........................................Classic Rock that IS.....................

[Steve_L]

This is a good topic.

I have two children that are young adults, 25 and 22. They both love music and both were actively involved with their college radio stations. My son, the older, likes a little rap but not much. My daughter won't listen to it at all.

They seem to find the the talent that in my day would have been called the FM alternative, people like Beck, The Pixies, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, The Decemberist.. a bunch of groups and bands I never heard of.

The interesting thing, is that the both love all my old music. The love it! It's like, they have their own music, but my son's favorite artists are, Springsteen, Paul Simon and Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison. My daughters favorite band is The Beatles. I never liked my parents music.

Today, from what I'm told by my kids is that one or two major corporations own 95% of all of the FM radio stations, so the garbage that gets played is kinda like the drone coming from the speakers in Orwell's 1984, nothing but mindless drivel to make you keep moving on in a mindless way. But, there are so many alternatives on the internet, college and public radio, and home-grown recording studios that a lot of good talent is out there too, but the problem is it rarely reaches the mass market.

We need more independent radio in this country. Maybe the satellite boom will help.. I dunno. I wish we could get the range of stations that satellite provides, but with Hi-Def 5.1 sound, when is that coming to the airwaves?

Okay, enough of my rant.

Peace all!

Ride safe and rock on!!

[skonopa]

There are a lot of EXCELLENT bands out there right now.....but you have to look elsewhere to find 'em. I prefer to "look" at rock music festivals and other live settings, where I can sample multiple flavors and acts. My favorite up and coming band who is "going places", yet flying under the radar? Umphrey's McGee - and see 'em LIVE.

I agree with this. In my case, the festival that I am interested in and am actually going is ProgPowerUSA in Atlanta. Other than that, good ol' Jaxx just north of here in Springfield is where I've been seeing quite a few acts in the past couple of years. Just this past May, I've seen 4 concerts there in one week (Gamma Ray, DragonForce, Spock's Beard, and Evergrey/Nevermore). Just a week ago Tuesday, I was up there to see Cellador. I currently have tickets to go see Kamelot/Epica, Stratovarious, and Helloween. As soon as they become available, I'll be grabbing tickets to go see Blind Guardian there as well. As a result, I've also manage to befriend (as in actually personally spent time to hang out and share a drinks with - one case in the course of a couple of repeat visits), many of the bands that I've seen play there, most notably Sonata Arctica, Stratovarious, and Cellador, as well as a few local acts, such as Odin's Court, Division, and Enagage. So, yes, I have a very good local source to see the kind of live shows that I am intersted in.

But I'll also admit that the internet is also quite a valuable resource for seeking out and discovering new music. A good bit of the music that I now listen to, I'd never would of heard of it if not for the internet. It was also because of the interent that I even found out about the ProgPowerUSA festival, since no radio station promotes it. Now, I just wish there was a decent record store in the immediate area that actually stocks this music, short of having to drive up into D.C. or down into Richmond, or using mail/web order. Thus as a result, I tend to use a download service to get the music that I am interested in and then get the actual CD's when I get the oppurtunity (such as the vendor's area at ProgPowerUSA, where the labels themselves - most of who are independent, setup booths - thus you name it, you could get it in terms of Power/Progressive Metal, including new albums that are not to go on general sale until like a month later, as well as some rare imports - not unsual for me to drop over $200 on CD's there).

[skonopa]

The interesting thing, is that the both love all my old music. The love it! It's like, they have their own music, but my son's favorite artists are, Springsteen, Paul Simon and Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison. My daughters favorite band is The Beatles. I never liked my parents music.

I've also noticed this phenomenon. I've did like my parent's music either, accept for some of the old 50's "golden oldies" stuff they listen to at times. However, although I don't have any kids myself, but I've noticed that whenever I mention some of the bands that I listened to when I was a kid, such as the Styx, Yes, and Pink Floyd, I often get alot of approval from the teens of today. I've actually went and asked around once to see what people are thinking about the current music. Many of the kids today also agree that the modern music is so lame and found themelves getting the old Led Zepplin, Rolling Stones, and the like. Although the record companies keep trying to blame on-line piracy such as the P2P download networks on the decline in record sales (never mind that they convienently seem to ignore the fact that during the hight of the "Napster" days, record sales were at an all-time high), I honostly think the real reason is just that the music that is now out just simply plain flat out sucks! Got to any forum or blog site about this topic and you'll see the same general concensous, many of which were posted by the very teens this is supposed to be marketed to.

Today, from what I'm told by my kids is that one or two major corporations own 95% of all of the FM radio stations, so the garbage that gets played is kinda like the drone coming from the speakers in Orwell's 1984, nothing but mindless drivel to make you keep moving on in a mindless way. But, there are so many alternatives on the internet, college and public radio, and home-grown recording studios that a lot of good talent is out there too, but the problem is it rarely reaches the mass market.

We need more independent radio in this country. Maybe the satellite boom will help.. I dunno. I wish we could get the range of stations that satellite provides, but with Hi-Def 5.1 sound, when is that coming to the airwaves?

Unfortunatly, your kids are correct. The largest being Clear Channel Communications. There are at least two Clear Channel stations here, and they both play the same format! It got ot the point that I start to call them the "McDonald's" of radio. Predicatable, and bland. It still irks me to this day when they took over 102.1 out of Richmond. That was my favorite station and they played much of the old Styx, Rush, Yes, and the like. After Clear Channel took them over they changed thier format to an all "alternative" format, as well as fired all the DJ's that were there (a couple of whom where actually good friends of mine). Since then, I don't even listen to it anymore (despite the fact that I still got the "#1" button on my car radio programmed to it).

To bad they firewalled/blocked streaming audio at work, as I found quite a bit of good stuff on the "internet radio" that I really enjoyed listening to. Everything from "Progged Radio" to "Hard Rockin' 80's" to the "Power Metal" and "Progressive Rock" stations on AOL radio. Sucks that none of it works at work, where I tend to do most of my radio listening. Thus, the iPod again saves the day for me (I am beginning to think that handy little device is one of the best $400 I've spent.). I would personally love to have a local FM station that does nothing but play progressive rock and metal, ala that Progged Radio site - or hell, even an XM radio station that did that - I'd renew my XM subscription in a heart beat if they did that!