REVIVAL: Your True Opinion On... (Music Edition)

HEY GUYZ.

Remember those "Your True Opinion Threads" I used to write about Video Games in order to incite some interesting discussions about various game franchises just to see how jaded we all were?

Me neither.

So, I'm reviving that forgotten memory with a new topic that's also probably close to most of our blood-pumping hearts: Music. I mean, where would we be without music? Without music, we couldn't skateboard and shred rails to Bach. We can't do the huff-puff to Beethoven. Where would we be without gut wrenching rhythms of Mozart to guide our itchy trigger fingers? Imagine a world where we couldn't lull out children to sleep with the soft harmonious sounds of Anthrax or Pantera. I don't think I want to live in a world where I can watch a beautiful bride stride down the aisle without "Ten Seconds to Love" playing on the organ or "Drag-U-La" blasting out the speakers of the 'Just Married' limo.

We kind of need this shit, whether that's scientifically proven or not (Because I don't care).

Instead of focusing on a specific genre at a time, it'll instead be a collection of about three bands or so, just to hit a decent range of artists in a particular genre. I'll try to pick the more popular of a genre, but odds are I'll just pick my favorites, mmkay? (Odds are, you'll just skip this part, though, and just look for the main top and write something). Odds are, it won't always be rock. So, get your modern day music bashing hats and keep them close.

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Lets start on Easy mode, eh-kay? (These are what you write your intelligently written and well-thought out opinions too)

==IRON MAIDEN==

Here's one we all probably know. Perhaps one of London's best sons, Iron Maiden has been playing since 1975 up until the present day, with a library of albums and hits under their belt.

Sampler:

==Motley Crue==

Recently over (according to the tagline for their last Summer Fest appearance), Motley Crue still has a pretty large following. I mentioned it above, ofc.

Sampler:==Avenged Sevenfold==

A more recent metal band that in it's early days was relegated to the dreaded title of "NuMetal," but they later adopted a hard rock sound. I mention them here solely as one of their albums ("Nightmare?") was proficently compared to Iron Maiden's work. I liked the album, I remember, but I didn't see the likeness.

Sampler:

The mainstream modern music industry is an enormous talentless cash grab that focuses entirely on good looking tv-friendly individuals. Past generations had talented groups like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd mainstream as well as talented underground acts. Nowadays you really have to dig around for quality bands because autotune and computer generated beats have turned supermodels into "musicians."

This is why I look down on the mainstream music industry today. I could say the good old days (1970s to 1990s) were much better than the pervasive use of autotune in bullshit pop and generic 4/4 beats used in modern rap or simplistic drum notes in generic alternative rock with lame whiny lyrics on love or heartbreak.

The underground is where the real talent is these days.

RUSH said:

Past generations had talented groups like Led Zeppelin...

They were God-tier in their ability to perform those songs they stole

I foresee a lot of jaded dad-views coming into play during this thread

RUSH said:

Past generations had talented groups

They did. They also had a lot of crappy bands that are long-forgotten.

In thirty, forty, fifty years, people will rave about the super cool music of the 2010's and how these five or six groups were über-awesome, far better than the crap they will have then.

RUSH said:

The mainstream modern music industry is an enormous talentless cash grab that focuses entirely on good looking tv-friendly individuals. Past generations had talented groups like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd mainstream as well as talented underground acts.

Ever take a look at what was actually mainstream "way back when"? Here's the Top 100 list from the week Dark Side Of The Moon was released. With few exceptions, it reads like a Carnival Cruise cover band setlist.

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1973-03-03

This haunts my dreams and nightmares.

I'd rather listen to the pop music of the 80s than the shit they called "Metal" and "Hardcore" during the 2000s. I remember back in middle school, before the 9/11 era; a lot of kids were listening to the classic big 4 bands; Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. It was an awesome time. But then that shitty band Slipknot came out; and thus it started the decline into the bro-core bullshit that would define the next decade. It started off with a bunch of wigger-like bands trying to be "innovative" with a bunch of crappy off time garbage, plagued with annoying pitch harmonics. Eventually, by the time hard music was over-saturated with these shit-bands; many of them had also adopted that hideous emo look, as well as those muleing pathetic emo-style singing parts. They falsely called this shit "Metal", or "Hardcore", or "Metalcore". People who liked these bands would probably be called "mallcore fags" during those times on places like Metal-Archives.

This was the horrendous formula for bands:

E-town Concrete + At the Gates + Screamo = Shitty 2000s Metalcore.

All of this is fucking bullshit. A true Metalcore (Thrashcore if you will) band would be the Cro-Mags; Carnivore; or Stormtroopers of Death. They had combined what real hardcore punk and metal would sound like. This is the great irony for me, because I love the combination of metal, and hardcore punk. But the bands that popularized the 2000s had managed to totally eliminate all of the aspects I liked, and magnified all of the aspects I resent; while adding more shit to the toilet for "innovation".

FURTHERMORE:

Here's evidence that the popularity of Emo in the 2000s was just a mass conformist trend, that was "OKed" by the status quo, because it was safe enough for a post-9/11 world. There is absolutely nothing Rock n' Roll, in regards to that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo

Andy Greenwald attributes emo's sudden explosion into the mainstream to media outlets looking for the "next big thing" in the wake of the September 11 attacks:

The media business, so desperate for its self-obsessed, post-9/11 predictions of a return to austerity and the death of irony to come true, had found its next big thing. But it was barely a "thing," because no one had heard of it, and those who had couldn't define it. Despite the fact that the hedonistic, materialistic hip-hop of Nelly was still dominating the charts, magazine readers in the summer of '02 were informed that the nation was deep in an introverted healing process, and the way it was healing was by wearing thick black glasses and vintage striped shirts. Emo, we were told, would heal us all through fashion.

So fucking lame.


Ergo, the 2000s were probably THE WORST time for rock music IMHO.

I can't speak much for the contemporary state of rock music; but do high school kids, and early 20s somethings even listen to rock music anymore on a viable scale?

Every era has had tonnes of shit music. I'd agree with your opinion stating that current POPULAR music isn't as good, but good music is still there. With the advent of the internet and services such as soundcloud you can find so many interesting new talents in all sorts of genres.

Every decade has had schlock and novelties. Let's not kid ourselves when we say that the previous generations were all magic and sparkles and hair. From the terrible slew of novelty songs of the 60s, to the cheesy schmultz and easy listening of the 70s, the numerous awful rock ballads of the 80s, to the 90s not knowing what the fuck it wanted to do with itself. Remember that for every classic song, there is a countless number of terrible songs released in the same time period.

Also, the pop charts are the pop charts for a reason; people buy those songs. If you want to see the pop charts improve, then you need to start buying singles from the current artists that you love - and don't tell me there is NO modern music that you enjoy because there are so many people covering every genre currently that it is near impossible for there to be literally NO current artist out there that you enjoy listening to.
</rant>

Proof no one reads OPs these days.

Clonehunter said:

Proof no one reads OPs these days.

You were expecting a thread on EE to not get derailed? At this point I just decided to roll with the punches and take up a good outlet for a rant.

Edit: While we're on topic.

Kate Bush
A fascinating artist with a wide variety, with a heavy slant towards the artsy. I'd highly suggest her spectacular "Hounds of Love" album.

Hanson
Yup, the kids who sang "Mmmbop" managed to mature into a pretty good band all things considered. You have to have done something right when Weird Al agrees to cameo in your video.Beach Boys
I'm not breaking any new ground here but the Brian Wilson years were really good to the Beach Boys, with his unique approach to songwriting. And of course "Pet Sounds" is untouchable, though I would also highly suggest one of the various forms of "The Smile Sessions" kicking about, the album that never got truly finished due to Wilson's well publicised mental breakdown at the time.

Gez said:

They did. They also had a lot of crappy bands that are long-forgotten.

In thirty, forty, fifty years, people will rave about the super cool music of the 2010's and how these five or six groups were über-awesome, far better than the crap they will have then.

This. What we are saying about music today is the same thing people have been saying for years. There were old farts back in the 60s quacking about how the music of the day was absolutely horrible in comparison to the music from the 30s, 40s, or 50s. Same thing in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Every older generation thinks that the current music of the day blows in comparison to the music from previous decades. We're no different. Truth is, every decade has its decent bands and its decent songs. Every decade also a bunch of bad bands and bad songs.

Kontra Kommando said:

Here's evidence that the popularity of Emo in the 2000s was just a mass conformist trend, that was "OKed" by the status quo, because it was safe enough for a post-9/11 world. There is absolutely nothing Rock n' Roll, in regards to that.

Interesting how 9/11 had such repercussions even on the mainstream music scene.

gaspe said:

Interesting how 9/11 had such repercussions even on the mainstream music scene.

It certainly facilitated a cultural paradigm-shift away from the late 1990s.

gaspe said:

Interesting how 9/11 had such repercussions even on the mainstream music scene.

Apparently 9/11 directly inspired My Chemical Romance, somehow. They even wrote a song about it.

Iron Maiden is badass.

Motley Crue used to be good, but nowadays they're just mediocre. And Tommy Lee is a right overcompensator with all the show-off shit he pulls with whatever he has moving his drum kit around.

Avenged Sevenfold is decent, but Hail to the King sucked.

Iron Maiden is one of those bands I respect more than I actually listen to... =P Killers and Powerslave are my favourite albums by them, I think, even though Killers comes before Bruce Dickinson enters the fold. Powerslave has that fantastic Rime of Ancient Mariner tune as well as some hits so that's essential to me.

the other two bands don't really appeal to me at all! I can only take so much stodgy, sleazy rock music and frankly the closer that intake gets to zero the happier I am, with some old GWAR tunes excepted.

The album Paranoid by Black Sabbath is an all time favorite for me. It's like the perfect balance of rock and metal, and is far superior to Ozzy's solo stuff (and even Sabbath's later stuff, honestly.) Modern audiophiles tend to have a whine about the recording quality or whatever, but to me, that just makes it more 'real'. I can't stand that plastic, over produced sound that plagues a lot of rock and metal these days.

I'm very partial to Axis: Bold as Love by Jimi Hendrix as well. I don't really think I need to explain this, but I will anyway - Once again a perfect balance is struck, this time between sweet, soothing melodies and a raw, rough sound. I'm all about that shit.

Another perfect hour-or-so of music was brought to us by the one and only Frank Zappa, with his 'Does Humor Belong in Music?' gig from 1984. Excellent guitar, keyboard, singing, drumming, bass and even saxophone - all wrapped up in a hilarious parody of the then-current wave of music. This gig will slam you in the face with 80's while simultaneously making you laugh your ass off. All of Zappa's live stuff is impressive, and I love how each and every one of his songs tells a story, and usually makes you laugh. That guy really was a gem.

I'm still just a loser who listens to shitty metal all day.

Voivod

CoronerAnacrusisAnd a lot more, but those are the most frequented dudes.

Oh and Faith No More is the bee's knees:Secret's out -- Pavera has shitty taste. Bye.

Pavera said:

Secret's out -- Pavera has shitty taste. Bye.

I've never heard of any of these bands, but the stuff you posted is pretty damn cool.

Except (sorta) Faith No More.. I'm not big on them, but probably because a freind of mine overplayed the shit outta that band a few years back.

Since my last post was more about classic rock, I'd like to make a post about the 'heavier' spectrum of music, as there are a lot of lesser known songs out there I think deserve more attention than they recieve. There's a lot more but I can't think of them off the top of my head..

Long story short I like all kinds of stuff. This thread is really making me miss being in a band..!

EDIT: For any death metal fans out there, I think Illud Divinum Insanus was Morbid Angel's best album, apart from the tracks 'Too Extreme!' which was just fucking stupid and 'Radikult' which was sorta cheesey.

The rest of the album dared to be different from their discography up to that point, and in my opinion it's their best yet. I'm especially partial to 'Destructos VS The Earth'. I'm glad they had the balls to do things a little differently. This is one of those rare times where I can say "screw the haters" and actually mean it with sincerity.

A scientific study suggested that pop music utilized less variation in melodic quality and overall timbre over time, suggesting that contemporary popular music is generic and homogenous.

Doomkid said:

The rest of the album dared to be different from their discography up to that point, and in my opinion it's their best yet. I'm especially partial to 'Destructos VS The Earth'. I'm glad they had the balls to do things a little differently. This is one of those rare times where I can say "screw the haters" and actually mean it with sincerity.

I would argue that it's pretty weak, because neither the industrial nor the metal elements were particularly strong, except for a few brief moments here and there. I've heard both genres handled much better, both by themselves or in conjunction with one another. It to me sounded like the band was naive on the subject matter of incorporating electronic elements. It is an album that could have been far more adventurous.

GoatLord said:

A scientific study suggested that pop music utilized less variation in melodic quality and overall timbre over time, suggesting that contemporary popular music is generic and homogenous.

that's easily provable without science - popular music used to frequently fall into orchestral 16-bar ballad format and now we have four chord synthy loops without cadence :D but that's the start of an argument against the decline of popular interest in music rather than a complete one in and of itself

PS: i reckon a few more people should read the opening post

GoatLord said:

I would argue that it's pretty weak, because neither the industrial nor the metal elements were particularly strong, except for a few brief moments here and there. I've heard both genres handled much better, both by themselves or in conjunction with one another. It to me sounded like the band was naive on the subject matter of incorporating electronic elements. It is an album that could have been far more adventurous.

I kind of like that they didn't go "balls out" with the blastbeats and stuff and that the electronic aspects were done in a fairly minimalstic way. I had only heard Where The Slime Live before getting a copy of Illud though, when I went back to their older stuff, I still really liked it but found it a bit too heavy for my taste.

I do get where you're coming from though. It would have been pretty disappointing if you were and oldschool fan who already knew what you wanted. It might've been a better idea for them to have started a "side project" band for that album, because then people would know to expect something quite different. It's like the St. Anger of Morbid albums (though, maybe not THAT bad.)

About pop music though... I can tell that just from listening to it, as yakfak said. I can't tell one of these "artists" (using that term VERY lightly) from another, they all have the same fucking voice and same "music". I can say one thing for sure - If the Beatles were considered pop in the early 60's, then pop music (not necessarily all music) has gone way downhill.

Doomkid said:

The album Paranoid by Black Sabbath is an all time favorite for me. It's like the perfect balance of rock and metal, and is far superior to Ozzy's solo stuff (and even Sabbath's later stuff, honestly.) Modern audiophiles tend to have a whine about the recording quality or whatever, but to me, that just makes it more 'real'. I can't stand that plastic, over produced sound that plagues a lot of rock and metal these days.

I actually just bought Paranoid. I agree that it's probably their/Ozzy's best release.

Kontra Kommando said:

I can't speak much for the contemporary state of rock music; but do high school kids, and early 20s somethings even listen to rock music anymore on a viable scale?

Speaking as one of them, yes. I know quite a few other people who fall into your description that do as well.

I've been hooked on rhytmic noise and industrial for the last few years or so. Also, I don't really care about music philosophy. Bunch of random picks -

Doomkid said:

I kind of like that they didn't go "balls out" with the blastbeats and stuff and that the electronic aspects were done in a fairly minimalstic way...

..It would have been pretty disappointing if you were and oldschool fan who already knew what you wanted.

Regarding Morbid Angel, I feel like they used up all their good ideas in the first few albums. It's not that they needed to be super heavy for Illud, it's just...the riffs fucking suck for the most part. Melodically speaking, it's rarely ever exciting. And minimalism isn't the problem. The electronic aspects simply do not carry much punch. So this isn't about "already [knowing] what [I] wanted," this is about expecting more from a band that used to be one of the more creative acts in death metal and metal as a whole. Having followed their music for 15 years, I felt like the last one was sub-Rob Zombie material. Ho-hum but not god awful.

I definitely understand where you're coming from. I wasn't trying to be a dick with the "knowing what you wanted" thing either, I meant it more along the lines of the entire fanbase being disappointed about how different and non-Morbid the album is.

Going back to the St. Anger thing for example, I was looking forward to some new Metallica songs, not... Whatever that was. It was way too different and cheesey for my liking (not to mention it just sounded terrible) and I could see why long time fans would feel that way about Morbid's latest release as well.

Metallica stopped impressing me when I discovered the thrash metal branch of the metal tree. Metallica are plenty talented...but James's voice is absolutely grating and even their earliest releases weren't as driving or intense as their contemporaries. They helped kickstart thrash, but I would argue that many of the major players in the genre really kick their asses and leave them in the dust, particularly Exodus, Overkill and Possessed.