Nipple ring!! I just always wanted to start a post with that.
Question.. Do you still like popular music? Do you even like the popular music from your teenage years?
Okay, that being said, I must admit I am not watching the Grammy’s tonight. Its not that I don’t like awards shows.. I watch the oscars and golden globes religiously…
Really, its that I have lost my taste for popular music.
I watched the debacle last Sunday on the twilight of my anniversary, and I was bothered before I ever saw Janet’s Ninja Star Clad boobie. Justin Timberlake (with whom I share the first nine letters) doing New Kids dances or dirty dances with Michael’s sister and having her naked by the end of the song.. while Janet’s rhythm nation has become just commonplace and boring..
So, really, I don’t want to watch Beyonce do a Beatles tribute tonight, and I wouldn’t cry any tears if Shania were to suddenly “Feel like a woman (who gave up music)”.
I remember my father hating Martika and Tiffany and The Escape Club, and En Vogue (but I will stand by Cutting Crew till the day I die). I thought he was just old..
But no, I think he was right, all that just seems gummy to me now.. I find myself liking artists with a little more punch and a little less glitter (sorry mariah).. and that extends to today’s artists.. I may be tired of Evanescense, but I still dig that song.. and Eminem gets me worked up when he’s worked up.. and BNL and Ben Folds hit me with advanced (and sometimes absurd) concepts that challenge my mind and my heart just a little more.
What about you?
Modern music
They say the heart of rock and roll is still beating, and from what I’ve seen I believe them. The old boy may be barely breathing, but the heart of rock and roll, the heart of rock and roll is still beatin. Yeah.
The things I dig about modern music is that there are people really experimenting with unique chord progressions that actually work. There are some amazingly talented performers, and the overall performance level and professionalism of the industry seems to be at an all-time high.
But yeah, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found I want music with more meat on its bones. I began enjoying classical and baroque music in college, and find that I enjoy it more as I get older. I also enjoy different, edgier music, but I’m much less tolerant of overall foul language and debasing music than I used to be.
The main thing I think is pretty cool in today’s music is some artists getting into “modern” atonality and atonal progressions. It’s a bit tough for most people to listen to, but it’s been interesting to me listening to a few very atonal songs that I realized were intentionally so, and not just crappy songs. Or maybe they were just crappy, and I haven’t the wit to tell the difference.
Then again, they are about a hundred and fifty years late on the “atonal” bandwagon, too. Only so much you can do with 12 notes, I suppose.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Huey lewis..
Excellent..
All that being said.. I’m digging the really driven songs with the really intense lyrics.. and sometimes that’s rap and sometimes that’s punk.. and sometime’s that’s really complicated stuff like “Bring Me To Life” and sometime’s thats “Superman” by Five for Fighting.
It just needs to grab me more emotionally these days.
My likes are all over the place….
My musical interests change so much depending on my mood. My top 3 bands that i have followed and think are worth mentioning are:
– Sting
– DMB
– Carbon Leaf – a local band that is very up and coming…
There are many more, but these seem to have that stick to the ribs sound that i like listening to.
~Jon
Jazz/Funk/Soul
I started getting into groups like Soulive, Greyboy All-Stars, and John Scofield.
To answer the original post, I’m not really a fan of modern rock/pop. I think it shows in that all the wedding, Top 40 bands I hang around aren’t playing anything recorded and popularized within the last 5 years.
—
Sammy G
The Dent
If you’re at all into pop music still (“Power Pop”, guitar-based stuff), check out The Dent on Garageband sometime. We bought their “Farewell” album, and it rocks.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
music sux
Most of what I listen to is stuff no one else has heard of.
Jonatha Brooke, Susan Werner, Rufus Wainwright, Ben Folds, Paris Combo, Jeff Buckley, Joss Stone, etc.
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
Clarify
I’d like to clarify the premise of the thread, because there’s a continuing sourness on the state of music here at good ole’ barnson.org. Let’s agree that we’re griping about the pop-commercial, short form composition, studio produced, radio intended, individually-branded US artist or group. Because there’s a ton of tremendous music getting created out there, it’s just not in the genre that we instinctively look to.
I’ve become a huge fan of instrumental jazz (The Bad Plus i.e.) that lives on extending a basic groove across different harmonic and instrumental arrangement within the same “song”. Also, I’m big into Latin big band stuff (Arturo, Goodwin) originating in Central America that’s blowing away anything done in that genre. I know Ben’s into all the new Opera stuff that’s getting done.
I’m not impressed with the commercial marketing musicians anymore and into real artistry and development of sound. Just wanted to clarify that my statements on “music sucking” are based on that narrow dimension and not on the global music scene.
BTW, Ben, I’m playing with this guy from NYC out here that was close friends with Jeff Buckley. This guy is the most insane guitar player and his stuff is mesmerizing. We have our first gig Wednesday, I need to get you a recording.
— Sammy G
I’d like to clarify the premi
Agreed.
Excellent!
—
Ben Schuman
Mad, Mad Tenor
Non-music perspective
All,
Since I have absolutely no musical training or ability, except to remember the lyrics to almost every song I’ve evr heard and sing them off-key, my opinion may be from a different angle than yours…but the result is mostly the same.
The new rap/R&B/alterna-scream does bore me most of the time. Some songs I can listen to for a week or two, but then they’re old. I listen to talk radio much more than music nowadays.
But, that’s radio’s fault more than the artist, IMHO. If I only heard a new song that was good once or twice a week, I wouldn’t get sick of it as much. The same with the old stuff…didn’t Zepplin make over 100 songs? Then why do I only hear about 5-8 of them EVER? Same with AC/DC, the Stones, Beastie Boys, etc.
I personally think that No Doubt’s remake of “It’s My Life” is awesome, if only for the fact I have a penchant for Bootsy-ish basslines and that song has a good one. I also think Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” was good, but I’ve grown tire of it. Does that mean they’re not good songs, or that I’ve heard them too much too soon?
I think it’s human nature to get bored after a while. We’re all close to 25-30, and we’ve been hearing what the radio throws to use for quite a while now, and we know what we like, and what we don’t. Problem is, what we do like we get swamped with, so we need to move to music that’s not on th radio to find something new. This doesn’t mean the music on the radio is any better or worse than it’s ever been, just that we can only hear so much of it before we need something different.
My $.02
P.S. My musical abilities DO include the same grade as Ben in “History Of Rock-n-Roll” at UMBC, which is funny since he was in a Rock-n-Roll band 🙂 But I AM also admitting I receive college credit for just such a course…