Sypha Nadon on 17/5/2008 at 04:29
H'mm, I should say though that I do appreciate what Reznor's doing, even if I'm not 100% crazy about the end results. A free album to the fans is a nice gesture, and I also liked how the "Year Zero" remix album let you pretty much remix the entire album if you really wanted to... that was pretty cool. I guess my problem with the band is I just don't feel as religious towards them as I did a few years ago... now I just enjoy it. Which isn't really a bad thing... even 10th rate NIN is still preferable to most band's best material.
Silkworm on 18/5/2008 at 17:40
Quote Posted by Aja
And the word "pop" itself has nearly lost all meaning. How descriptive can it be when you can use it to refer to anything from CSS to Olivia Tremor Control? It's like a catch-all for "music with happier undertones"... kinda pointless now.
verse-chorus-verse-chorus etc.
I think people use "pop" to refer to the structure of a song, and in this context I think he's right. NIN's formula for success was always well written melodies + inventive sound. Every album since the fragile has been missing one side of the equation. With teeth was absolutley unbearable, and Year Zero was only slightly better. Even The Fragile had issues with song structure and repetitiveness, and as far as I can remember its instrumental tracks were not really all
that great.
Aja on 18/5/2008 at 22:41
Quote Posted by Silkworm
verse-chorus-verse-chorus etc.
But rock, jazz, reggae, metal, and a host of other genres also use this structure.
Angel Dust on 18/5/2008 at 23:26
And if you study music you'll find alot of that music does come under the 'pop' banner.
As I was taught, pop music is just generally verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus with a big emphasis placed on the chorus. There is more too the definition than that of course but basically most of the music we listen is pop from a musicologist perspective. Pop is just another structure like the 12 bar blues, the jazz improv loop (I can't remember the proper name but we did study the general form of the jazz song) etc.
Of course I am guessing we all know that in the beginning pop music simply meant what was popular. It still does but musicologists have found that it all follows certain patterns in structure, rhythm, harmony and melody. If you take the most popular bands from metal, reggae, rock or even jazz you'll most likely find the bigger they are the closer they follow the pop structure because that is what is popular.
Rogue Keeper on 19/5/2008 at 08:55
Quote Posted by Vernon
saying they were ever Avant-Garde is so far off the mark as to be farcical.
Of course yes, in their prime they were always pushing the boundaries of their respective music boxes. Nobody said Avant-Garde must always be indie and non-commercial, just as well indie isn't automatically avant-garde.
Oh and I think some Calvin wouldn't hurt...
Inline Image:
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/4696/calvinmetaljw6.jpg