An open letter to young hippies

but bob dylan doesn't really have the "singing voice"

 

OMG! NO! U Dint Say That!

 

Wash Your Mouth Out With Soap And Water Young Lady, Then Go To Your

Room For A Week....:elf:



Cheers Glen.

 

haha, i was just sayin! I do like his songs and sometimes he sounds pretty good, but i've heard a few... off?... songs

 

^^Sorry I missed the part where you agreed with me. I can get combative when I'm tired. Anyway I'd rather hear a bad singer sing good songs than a good singer sing bad songs.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

you aint kiddin- -and with Bob- its always been the content anyway,- I would imagine they woulld have thrown him off this Amerikan idol show, insulted him and gave him a ticket back to "the Village"- - haha

 

I know what you're saying. Bob wrote alot of great stuff. There are also alot of great singer songwriters out there that no one has heard of yet you can't escape Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, or Katy Perry whot to me are just pretty packages with nothing in them.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Why would a serious artist with meaningful lyrics and a specific sound do an audition at an "make me a popular artist, i can't do it the normal way" show. That being said, even if Bob Dylan would have to start his career in these days the normal way he might not get any commercial succes at all. Same with lots of other of the mega populair 60's artists. It does not mean we have bad taste these days, it just means the times have changed indeed (just for the record: like it always did).

 

of course serious artists wouldn't- -just fucking around

 

The only reason music is the way it is today is because it's human nature to always want more and want better.

Vinyl didn't sound good enough, it was too big, so they went to the tape. The tape warbled, broke and people could record doubles for free, so they went to the cd.

Reel to reel recording was replaced with digital because digital is easier, sounds more clear, is more compact, and doesn't cost as much.

That explains the change in actual sound over the decades.

As for the artists. Back then artists didn't have to sell themselves, their music spoke for them. The album covers were good enough for fans.

Then acts like Iron Maiden and KISS came along (don't get me wrong, I like IM) with their big stage shows and lights and Eddie. Fans ate it right up.

Pretty soon bands who had those small, normal acts weren't as entertaining. Welcome in the glam years.

The music changed and became an auditory extension of what the artists looked like and what they were doing. If they were doing coke and fucking woman and wearing leather, you had to know about it in their next radio hit.

Fans loved this because the style of it all was something interactive that they could share and have in common with their favorite bands and with other fans.

Look at the punk music of the 70's and 80's. Two bands come instantly to mind. The Sex Pistols and The Misfits. Both are all about image and costumes, so the fans mimicked that and expected that level of interaction from then on.

Then the 90's saw a sort of pretend movement against the corporation. Nirvana came along and spoke out against appareances and stage shows and costumes. Yet tattered jeans and smashing gear nightly became the most well disguised corporate package of all time. And people ate it up.

Boybands. All look, no talent, computer generated. Enough said.



It's not necessarily that music has gotten shitty. It's that our expectations of artists have changed greatly. So much so that when a really great, talented artist does come along, they go unnoticed because they aren't loud or shiney enough for most people to notice them.

Don't blame artists, blame fans. After all they're the ones who ultimately decide what is good and isn't good. Artists just do their thing. It's the fans that make them what they are.

Don't like Lady Gaga or Britney Spears? That's not their fault. They're simply doing what their fans have told them they like through millions of dollars worth of sales. If fans didn't like it, we'd never know who they are enough to complain about them in the first place.


But still, nothing sounds as good and as real as Bob Dylan's shitty old out of tune guitar on every one of his old tracks. It's irritating as hell to play along with, but so great to listen to.

 

Don't blame artists or fans, go look for the good stuff and ignore what you don't like. I actually hate to talk about the underground scenes and laugh at hipsters but what I really really love is that there's something for everyone out there these days. It's just all split up which is why the stuff that would be gigantic in a certain era isn't nearly as big nowadays. Besides, to use Dylan or perhaps Jimi Hendrix as an example, that stuff is old, it doesn't get the attention in the media. They've been there and done that. We're just in a period of time where we have the option to choose the kind of media we want to inform ourselves by, now we have to learn to do that So even though Dylan's stuff got old (for the media, good music is timeless blabla etc. obivously ) the times still are changing as rapidly. Now you have to use it to your advantage.

 

that pretty much sums it up...nothing sounds as good or as real. It doesn't matter that Bob Dylan doesn't have cheesy powerhouse vocals on perfect pitch like american idol has taught us to expects from singers these days. His lyrics and the emotion behind his music are raw and I think people ultimately connect with raw passion over technical skills.

i also think we're living in a great time musically. The difference is in the 60s all you had to do was turn on the radio to find great music; now you have to dig around on the internet a little bit to find something to connect to. Standard FM radio is essentially becoming obsolete, and just in time too. Have you guys heard the shit they play on top 40 radio these days? it all sounds so computer generated. absolutely no soul.

 

Well if Dylan were around today they would Autotune the living shit out of him. I'm going to plagerize myself from another thread in response to lunverce:

As someone who interns in a recording studio I have this conversation on a regular basis. Realise that the music business is a consumer driven entity as such there are certain trends that are easily trackable. Here are some things that I see happening that I really don't like:

First there has been this really weird trend of paying more money for lower sound quality in the name of portability. Records sound great and are cheap but not portable. CD's don't really sound as good and are a little more expensive but more portable. MP3's sound like shit, are more expensive but are more portable. It's only a matter of time before there is a player that is about the size of your pinky nail sounds like a fart in a windstorm and the cost makes owning one out of everybodys league.

Second, we have modern recording studios closing down left and right with experienced, competant engineers going with them. The reason being that anyone can buy Pro-Tools and use their plug ins in their own home to make a "Professional" recording. The problem is that you have morons who don't know shit about the science of recording who think that a $50 Sure SM57 sounds like or as good as a $10,000 Neuman U47 and that an
LA-2A plug in sounds like an LA-2A compressor. They also believe that recording and mixing in their bedroom studio with cheap gear will sound as good as recording in a professional recording studio designed for recording and mixing music.

Third, because the technology is so easily available and easy to use musicians don't actually have to be good anymore. Think about it your singer doesn't have to be able to sing anymore we can record 150 takes and edit together the best parts of each take then autotune the living shit out of it. We can program all of the synth/sequencer backing tracks so they will be perfect every time. If we actually use a drummer his time can be absolut shit because we can easily edit him and move him around on the grid until it is perfect.

Fourth one fact that we need to face on a regular basis is that Aretha Franklin sounds like Aretha Franklin but Beyonce doesn't sound like Beyonce. What that means is that if you put a mike in front of Aretha Franklin and say "sing" she will sound like she does on the record. If you try the same thing with Beyonce it won't soud a fucking thing like the record. Beyonce is hidden behind so much compression, delay, reverb, pitch correct, double tracking, modulation, and harmonic exciter that you don't know what she sounds like. And don't tell me you've seen her sing on TV. You've seen her lip synch on TV. Beyonce is an entertainer not a singer.

Fifth, the MP3 has set the buisness of selling music back about 60 years. 60 years ago they didn't have many long playing albums. They had 45s that was 10 minutes of music 2songs one on each side. You only bought 2 songs at a time. The artist didn't have the challenge of filling up a whole album. Instead of having to write 12 good songs to fill an album you only have to write one to sell as an MP3.

Sixth, a general lack of quality control. Every time a new medium comes up to share music the Record industry blames that new medium for its decline in sales. In the early
80s it was the home cassette recorder. In the late 90s it was the CD burner. In the early 2000's it was file sharing. But here is what the industry doesn't take into account they only count the first sale. What that means is that when they calculate how well analbum is doing, calculating royalties, etc. they only coundt when it is sold new. Used CD's are not counted. I have heard some music I've liked over the past few years. Almost none enough to spend $13 to buy the CD. I'll spend $5 and buy it used. I know it screws over alot of buisness people but good burn baby burn. If it was better music I'd pay full price.

Finally, I've heard it said that the music industry is run by a 14 year old white girl from the suburbs. The reason that this is said is that demographically they have the most "disposable income." They take their babysitting money and go to the store and buy whatever the man on tv or the radio tells them is cool. Why do you think that Twilight is one of the highest grossing movies in America right now? Why do you think that Justin Beiber is damn near unavoidable. This is the way Corprate America works.

In closing I don't see it changing anytime soon. The music buisness is just that. It is also consumer driven. If it were to change it have to be a consumer driven change. As people who buy music the ones who buy the most would have to change their buying habits and seriously threaten the profits of the industry. Unfortunately the industry panders to 14 year old girls who want nothing more than to be "cool" and the entertainment industry dictates to them what is cool. Every year another generation crosses that threshold where what was cool last year isn't cool this year. and there is another generation of consumers there to take their place. Long story short. We're fucked.

Peace Out,
Rev J
__________________

"Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

I think people connect in different ways to music. That's why I don't like to instantly blame or judge anyone who likes Britney Spears or Lady gaga. Of course there is a certain amount of people who listen to this stuff because it is the mainstream and popular thing and it's just the thing they hear on the radio and tv but some people just also like it. Why should I bother about that. What unfortunately does terribly annoys me are people who are convinced they like the good stuff and dismiss everyone who listens to other music like pop, dance, techno, glam rock, emo etc. etc. as losers, phonies, wimps or last but not least as people with bad music taste. Music preferences are so subjective, even Bob Dylans sound isn't for everyone.

 

I really can't be bothered with the music industry anymore although I agree mostly with Reverend JC's explanation of how it rolls. The majority is indeed the issue but since I discovered that lots of quality music is being made regardless of this issue and thus proves to me lots of artists are not just in it for the money I choose to focus on the good stuff. Let the industry go on fuck itself.

 

!!!!
Hell yeah dude. This is so true!

 

The music in the sixties was definitely very good and it had alot of influence on what was happening at the time. But- here's a really silly piece of trivia: before the mid-sixties all groups that performed wore clothing [costumes] that were identical to each other but the bands of the mid sixties started wearing their own clothing. They were individuals .

PAX

 

Here's another interesting fact the week that Love Me do by the Beatles came out the Number one hit on the charts was this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH4-tOqLH94"]YouTube - SSgt Barry Sadler, Ballad of the green beret

Scary isn't it.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Rev, I have no doubt that everything you said is true, but I think you're being a little hard on those 14-year-old girls.

Music is a business, and businesses change. One thing that I'm frequently asked by younger people goes something like this ... "doesn't it suck that music/movies/television/books were so much better back in your day?"

My response is ... I'm not so sure they were better, overall. Selective memory can be a wonderful thing .. lol ... but we tend to forget that most of stuff on the radio in the 50's and 60's was crap, too. But the crap doesn't get played on oldies stations now. They selectively play only the best music of those times, which is fine but it gives a distorted view of how it was.

One thing I do know, though ... artistic quality will never go out of style. Music that is actually musical and that speaks to our humanity will always find favor, and by implication, will always find a market.

It's like the old cliche ... there are only two kinds of music, good and bad. I don't know the details of the recording industry like you do, I just know that good stuff will always be good stuff, whether it's 50 years ago or 50 years from now.

 

He didn't blame it on the 14-year old girls, he described them to be the main aim of the music industry.

Excellent point! And also about the 60's in general, if you haven't lived it your view is mainly created by the media which of course also gives a distorted view.

In the end it's about what a person likes and then it should indeed be as simple as this :2thumbsup: