Well I'm Back. Again. - by fett
Jason Moyer on 25/3/2021 at 11:10
That's fine and everything, but I'd like to hear some theories on why skiffle and ragtime aren't popular anymore.
Also welcome back Fett! And congrats on getting out of Pennsyltucky.
Kolya on 25/3/2021 at 13:12
PigLick, I'm just going by what's popular in the music mags, on content distribution platforms and what the kids listen to in the streets (and in the park in front of my fucking window at 2 in the morning!!). And that's not rock.
june gloom on 26/3/2021 at 01:38
Rock is dead and good riddance.
I'm being facetious, but there is a serious dearth of creativity in rock music that has persisted for some time. Oh, sure, every ten years or so it changes, but then it does the same thing over and over for the next ten years. It really makes the rockism that a lot of certain older and/or more hidebound rock fans engage in just that much funnier -- and more blatantly racist.
I only listen to ten kinds of music: jazz, vaporwave, and Ulver. I'm over guitar-oriented music in general.
fett on 26/3/2021 at 04:43
I pretty much agree with what Kolya said, though he articulated it better than I can. It's a weird thing for me because I have no aptitude for hip-hop, despite preferring it over most rock/guitar music of late, yet the guitar/drums/bass - the "rock" thing is my main framework for self-expression. It's also part of the reason I loathe most of what's being produced right now. The only choice seems to be going backward to more honest artists - which only reinforces the narrative that I don't like new music simply because it's new.
But PigLick is right- most younger people (my kids included) gravitate toward stuff like Zeppelin, Hendrix, Metallica, Alter Bridge, etc. I still find stuff that appeals to me from time to time but it takes more digging than I have energy for. I get why its easier to just listen to Top 40 XM or whatever and turn your brain off sometimes because I do it too. Transatlantic just released an album that consists soley of a 90 minute song. I love that band but I just don't have the energy.
I'm old guys.
june gloom on 26/3/2021 at 04:51
Where is the 80s muzak samples and guest Soundcloud rappers, is what I want to know.
fett on 26/3/2021 at 05:05
That's my next album.
PigLick on 26/3/2021 at 05:45
rock is about rebellion, plugging a guitar into an amp and making a loud stink noise that annoys the hell out of your parents.
fett on 26/3/2021 at 15:23
I don't think it ever has been for me. Banging on a guitar or drum is certainly cathartic and everyone has their own reasons. I think I got stuck in a prog abyss for so many years because that part of it just got old. There's a whole other side that's more celebratory or cerebral than rebellious. I spent many years lost in my own head digesting Yes, Genesis, Spock's Beard, Symphony X, Dream Theater, Rush, and the like because I enjoyed listening to people who'd mastered their craft to that degree. Then I got bored of that and bounced back to a lot of 80's pop that I ignored because I was a metal head. I think I've finally centered on bands like The Winery Dogs (Ritchie Kotzen, Mike Portnoy, Billy Shennan), Jellyfish, Big Wreck/Thornley, the new Kip Winger stuff (more like World music) and his band thing which leans hard into prog even more than it did before. Just bands with guys that can play their asses off and smoke instrumentally, but have figured out how to bottle that into 3-4 minute songs with hooks and actual melodies and refrain from the masturbatory bullcrap of most prog. Between that stuff and some particular recent pop and hip-hop, I'm pretty happy with what I have to listen to - and I don't enough time to really sink my teeth into a lot of it, so it's more than enough to keep me satisfied. I think this is the point where I really do turn into the old guy who just wants to sit and listen to his Beatles records and ignores the rest of it. I don't want to turn into that but the effort to find things that resonate with me musically far outweighs the reward in a given year. There are nice surprises sometimes like a Bruno Mars or Opeth album, or even country like Brothers Osbourne that feels genuine to me, but overall it sounds like the same producers using the same hi-hat/snare samples and the same recycled melody from last summer than people already forgot because there was no substance to it.
I've realized at this point I have 'Life Music" - things that have become my soundtrack, so there's nostalgia wrapped up in it that makes it better to my ears and emotions than it objectively is. For instance, I hate My Chemical Romance, but I heard The Black Parade album about a week after I was told I needed a transplant. I guess the album is a bit of a concept thing about either Gerard Way's mother or aunt slowly dying of cancer (maybe?). Either way, I listened to it so much during that whole ordeal for 6 years it's just part of me now - I kept that CD at my bedside through years of hospitals stays and live-ins because it was just comforting to have it there in physical form (I don't even own a CD player anymore). King's X was my 20's and 30's, leaving religion and getting older. Big Wreck and Neal Morse was my 40's, raising kids, figuring out marriage. Some of it, like King's X and Kip's stuff has been woven throughout. It makes it tough to wander outside of those artists very far because it seems like now I'm just looking for things that sound like my life, whatever that means. I just force myself to do it anyway but very few popular artists resonate with me the way these older things do. Hard to explain. I just let it be what it is.
Same thing has happened with my own output. I was very focused at different times on challenging myself to emulate people I admired or stretching outside my comfort zone to see if I could pull off a genre that wasn't natural for me. Disasterous at times, but fun. Everything from AOR to Power Pop to really spot on 90's post-grunge stuff, trying to sound like Galactic Cowboys. I was trying really hard to avoid my metal and southern rock roots, but I just did whatever was natural this last time and I have so much more fun playing those songs and I'm more confident in them because they feel right, and I don't apologize for it sounding like Dad rock or whatever. I know I can play metal or sing R&B because I've done it successfully, but it's not where I live, same as what I tend to listen to. It sucks that I couldn't figure that out in my 20's but I'm glad I finally have because it takes a lot of pressure off in terms of output.
Medlar on 26/3/2021 at 16:44
I have missed your posts, good to see you again.
fett on 26/3/2021 at 21:43
Hello Medlar! Yeah, seasons change, etc. The chairs are comfier here most of the time and they don't water down the drinks...