New music isnt doing it for me

I find it interesting that we've had a couple of months' worth of pretty cool threads about new music now.

The Arcade Fire, Dinosaur Jr. and Apples in Stereo, to name a few, have all had threads devoted to a single band or album. That was just about unheard of on this forum as recently as a couple of years ago.

In addition, there have been numerous threads about what new music you've been listening to, how are those Matador vinyl remasters, what are your top 30 albums of the 2000s, etc.

All of these have been pretty celebratory of new music in general and favorite bands in particular.

We're all welcome to our own opinions, of course, but to suggest that all new music sucks flies in the face of a lot of views from folks on this board whom I consider fairly informed on the subject.

Sorry if the rest of you guys don't like anything new, but you're the ones who are missing out.

Jeff

 

Missing out? On music we dont like? ok....

Look, noone is missing out. If you generally dont like new music, theres PLENTY of old music to choose from. More than you could ever listen to, in fact.

 

It's a lost cause, Jeff. We have to put up with an "all new music sucks" thread every 6-8 weeks as part of our membership here. Just a fact of life.

 

You do realize that that is (sort of) like a guy in the 60's obsessing over Glenn Miller right? I'm close to your age, I was in high school from '89-'93 and while I obsessed about the Beatles, Zep, and Floyd I was equally interested in Nirvana, the Chili Peppers, Teenage Fanclub, etc.

 

I can't imagine ever making such a generalization about anything, much less something as amazingly diverse as music.

Is Dylan's recent music old or new? If it's old, how come it doesn't sound like anything he's ever done before? If it's new, how come it sounds like it could have been written in the 1930s?

I don't care if you close your ears or minds to some terrific stuff. But it's ridiculous to keep adding to a thread that basically says something is awful simply because you refuse to listen to it.

Jeff

 

Sad but kinda true, Greg. Keep rockin, buddy.

Jeff

 

I posted this over the weekend and I guess it got lost in the shuffle...I hope you all don't mind if I repost it in this thread. Fits in with the subject of this thread.



Well there I was listening to my Motown, Beatles, 60s & 70s pop, soul & rock...that's what I grew up on and what I love. Now, my son and I discuss music a lot, he's a musician and he loves the Beatles (Lennon especially) and a lot of the music that I do but he's into his own thing too and I wish I could get behind some of the music he listens to but I find it hard...I guess some of it got tagged with a label they call EMO ( he's kinda vague on that..guess it's short for emotional?). Anyway, I just find that some of the bands that play that style all sound the same, seems you could interchange the lead vocalist from any other band and you wouldn't know the difference. We have our disagreements, I'm alway lamenting the death of rock&roll, how radio sucks, yadayadayada....he recently told me...Dad, your starting to sound like some of those guys on that music forum your always reading. So I come home from work last night and he's waiting for me and tells me he wants me to check out something. We go on 'youtube' and he brings up three bands...


The Hold Steady:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isvn_Dsj2bA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-0fb...elated&search=

The Kooks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecc9pcjJTpk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxNRf...elated&search=


Arcade Fire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-wEBmLht5g

(Check out that by the end of the song everybody is on their feet!, and yeah it brought tears to my eyes)


So I asked my son how come I don't hear him playing these bands and he says " I do...your just not listening"(wiseass)...he has the cds and the music goes right on his ipod.

Anyway...radio still is terrible(at least where I live), we agree on that. I don't hear any of this on the radio, even college stations. I think these bands are terrific and I'm gonna pick up their cds too. I don't post much but I have learned so much from this forum and I wanted to share my "educational experience" with you all. If your like me and don't think there's much going on music wise I hope this will enlighten you like it did me. Start 'listening'.

 

Awesome post, jbg. I've had a similar experience with my son (who's 21) and the Arcade Fire.

He and I have had some "issues" recently ... much as my dad and I had a lot of disagreements in the late '70s.

At that point in my life, Springsteen came out with Darkness on the Edge of Town, a record that deals with father-son relationships like none other I can think of until ...

I heard the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible.

The song Windowsill brought home so much of the conflict I had with my dad and what my son and I have been going through lately. It even opened my eyes to the fact that I was pretty much assuming the role my dad played 30 years earlier.

Wanna guess who turned me on to the Arcade Fire?

Yeah. That would be my son. It's amazing how easy it is to talk about things -- even difficult things -- when there's a common ground in music.

Jeff

 

Great post Jeff. Keep fighting the good fight.

 

Interesting. I've never heard of rateyourmusic. Not sure what it is all about, but I assume that anyone can log in and rate music. Of course, the fact that only three people have bothered says that either the site is lacking in members or the ones there have not heard the group. Too bad for them. They're in my Top Five all-time.

Frank G

 

This is my favorite song from the last few years- The Importance of Being Idle by Oasis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-1E6UEAZRM

Reminds me of the sixties, but it is still "new".

 

To add to the above...I really think the problem is the state of radio today. There was a radio station in NYC in the 70s, I believe the call letters were WPIX 102.1 where they successfully blended the old with the new. A typical three song set would be something like Sheena - Ramones, I Can't Help Myself - Four Tops (I actually remember that sequence), then maybe a Stones song, another current song and so on. Great, great station which only lasted a couple of years with DJs that knew their history of the music and what was happening at the time in music. I remember when they locked them out of the studio the day it ended. Now that was really a day when the music died What we need is something like Little Steven's Underground on a fulltime basis!

 

Checked out your listings of 2006 albums. The Candi Staton caught my eye. I'm going to check out the others I have missed from your list. Am especially curious about the Frances McKee. Read good things but never got around to it. Headslap. Thanks.

Frank G

 

Hey, thanks! We're getting there, man. At least the kid knows how to rock.

Jeff

 

Thanks Jeff...pretty amazing isn't it! When we were checking out The Kooks I said 'hey they sound a little like The Kinks and I punched up the video to Sunny Afternoon and he was amazed, then we went to another site to check on that and sure enough one of the main influences of the Kooks was...The Kinks! Score one for dad.

 

Well, now I definitely have to check out the Kooks!

But wait ... if they're "new music," they must suck, right?

Seriously, that's very cool. And I really like the other band you mentioned, The Hold Steady. Great ghosts of Springsteen there.

Jeff

 

Cool tune. Very Kinky (no pun intended).

 

Actually Chris, I thought about this today while doing my job (don't tell my boss!)... I've met lots of Gen Y people who can't stand (much of) today's pop scene, and are obsessed with Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Free Design, the Velvets etc. I think it's largely Boomers (i.e. people my age) who are in the cranky old man mode. "Kids today don't have it as good as we did..." "Get off my peoperty!!" etc.

To which I say: hand over your women!

(I know, that makes no sense.)

Keep showing me the new music. I am an old dog, but can turn new tricks. Ehhh??

 

Well that's a matter of perception isn't it. Maybe to us it might not be but to them it's exciting. And that's what matters. They find it exciting.

If it was a choice between no more rock music and what we have now I say let's take what we have now.

I think there is a lot of great stuff out there that I listen to a lot and don't get bored off.

It could be better but it could be a lot worse. At least people are playing instruments now (I love electronic music so I am not making a judgement just happy that people are playing guitar, bass and drums in a bands again).

Eddie

 

I would agree it could be worse and there is the chance that some band or artist could break through and offer something new and great. I have not closed the door to hearing something really great come along.

I have not listened to commercial radio for my music fix in 30 years. So I won't blame radio for any of this.

 

Where's the problem?

Also, your analogy doesn't quite ring true because I grew up hearing all three of those bands on MTV and the radio all the time when they were current. In fact, I had owned two Talking Heads albums and two Devo albums before I became a hardcore fan in high school. So in my mind, I was just revisiting and further exploring them.

 

well... I bought 3 new records so far in 2007

Dream Theater - SC
Rush - S&A
Tori Amos - ADP

 

My definition of "new music" is just any music that I haven't heard yet no matter when it was actually made. By that score there will always, always be something out there for me to enjoy and that includes a lot of current acts too.

 

Interesting angle. And just one of many many reasons why you can't compare today's music, or the music of the last at least twenty years, with the earlier stuff. Back then the artists created the music. It was the real deal. These days, the music, creates the artist. And that's if they are lucky enough to even have music in the equation of what is driving the motivation for making it.
I spend a lot of time and money listening to the new bands and artists. There are a lot of bands at least trying to be creative and musical. A few succeed quite well. But to try and compare them to something that is so different in so many ways is irrelevant almost.

 

Not that it matters (People like what they like.) but if I started a thread "Old music isn't doing it for me" many people would assume that it was just the generational bigotry of the young and dumb, but they would never even consider the possibility that this is the generational bigotry of the old and dumb, because "That's the way is was and we liked it!"

Incidentally, I'm 30. My favorite artists are The Beatles and Bob Dylan. My favorite Dylan album was released in 2001. My favorite Beatles album was released in 2006. My favorite album was released in 2004 (Admittedly, it was written in 1966. Well, most of it. Let's not get into that.) . And I've heard at least 3 2007 albums already that I like more than Pet Sounds. (Yeah, the gold disc. I sold it, actually.)