Mainstream music, a joke?

(sigh)
The song was called "Young Lust"
It is from the album "The Wall"
...a Concept album.
Do you Know what that means?
The song is part of a story, a sad and depressing story about a fictitious rock star named "Pink"
( it has been postulated the character was based on Syd Barret )

Though a great rock tune on it's own, the lyrics are contextual to the story. Interpretation outside that context is fallacy.

About a bazzillion light years in meaning from bitches in da club, or girls,girls,girls.

All songs in Em huh? What about Am, Dm, etc...?
jeez man, what the fuck. :biker:


ZW

 

Funktastic, I'm 19 and I love modern music as well as the older stuff. I just fucking hate modern CHART music... There's no thought behind it.

I get your point about bands just jamming and coming up with random shit - yeah that's how it happens most of the time. But decent musicians then take those ideas and take them 10 steps further. For instance, 80% of the chords you'll hear being played in the charts will just be standard major/minor. No 7ths, 9ths, diminished, dominants etc. That's why it all sounds the same, there are no distinguishing little traits, no flavours.
Making music without chord extensions, or different rhythmic patterns, harmonies etc. is like cooking without seasoning: bland as fuck.

Of course there's more to it than that. Lyrics contribute a shitload, as zombiewolf pointed out, and can make a big difference to the song even if the technical aspects of the instrumental parts aren't that great, but you don't get that with "Bitchez in da club", because they're shit lyrics that mean fuckall.

 

There is a lot of great music out there. It just does not get played on top 40 radio. I am happy with that. I get burned out on music when its shoved down my throat. I prefer that the music I listen to be kept away from the mainstream.

 

Yes, music is made for people to listen to it, if you don't like it, don't listen to it, you are completely right about this. But we're talking classic audience here and I study musicology and somehow I have to listen to everything if I want to keep myself in picture, understand music etc. And I found out that about 80% of "mainstream" music is so bad, that I developed zero respect for it. And that's not opinion based on stereotype or something, I also worked in a recording studio and recently I saw a software that "makes beats" (theres alot of these softwares) and I got used to the fact, that you don't need an instrument to "make music" today. But with this software you don't even need any basic musical knowledge. You just click and click and click. And you can consider yourself as a musician - a beatmaker. This is what bothers me.

Or people who make music on such a basic principles, that writing one song takes like 20 minutes. Take for example some real composers of a better calibre. Deaf old man Beethoven who lived 200 years ago and there is a common belief that music is constantly evolving. It doesn't seem like it. When I listen to Beethoven I think that if it was true, we should have insanly mind blowing symphonies, awesome bands everywhere etc by now. And that's when here come the few bands, that actually play music that has origins in classical masterpieces and these bands are ALL rock and metal and deffinitely are not today's mainstream.

 

I'm not going to disagree with you about the dynamics of mainstream music, but there are some modern singers that actually right their own music and have a background with music.
Lady Gaga has a degree in music and writes her songs, that's the only one I can think of atm. lol

 

What does that say about the standard of university education? We're all fucked!

 

Thank you...I really dig it when I hear this from someone your age...:cheers2:
IMHO It's one of the reasons why pop music is degrading so quickly.
Cats got no skills.

I am familiar with these softwares. Pop music is so formulaic these days it's not hard to develop algorithms that will satisfy at least several very popular genres I know of...

As a person who has spent most of his life making music on conventional musical instruments, I have great difficulty understanding how anyone could get any satisfaction out of making music that way.

On the other-hand, Frank Zappas "Civilizations" is a masterpiece and it was all realized at a Synclavier Console...of course Frank was already a world-class guitarist and composer before any of this was possible so yeah, skills.

Yeah like plopping a melody and lyrics on some same 'ol chord progression.
( Dillon got away with it, learn three chords on the guitar and you can play most of his catalog)
Also I hear a lot of infantile melodys these days in all pop genres. As if they went directly from nursery rhymes to song writing...

ZW

 

ok, i get what you guys mean...

...music is (at least it seems) getting simpler if you see it in a music theory way... i really get that... i'm not really into beethoven, but i can see more some real music theory 'applied' in Satriani (mainly), Randy R and Malmsteen songs... and you dont see songs like that today.. that is true...

but, its just that for me (not saying its right, wrong, better or worse) music can be simple... i mean if a baby accidentally picked a piano and beat his head in the keyboard in a way that the sound produced (NOT by the babys head hitting the piano!) made me feel fine, i'd listen to it, just as i do with satriani songs i like...

...so... music is getting simpler and theory is used less - true.

i dont care (call me a luddite whatever), but if you care, im totally okay with that. :2thumbsup:

of course i know, thats why i said pink floyd is deeper than most... i actually am a pink floyd fan myself, and been listening to them since really young... (actually, that song really is my all-time favorite)

and (off of the 'todays music' subject) the meaning of that particular song is kinda unsure (at least for me)... if you listen to the album, the calls at the end imply that someone (a woman, his wife?) is trying to talking him, but he cant because his too busy in an orgy....

but if you watch the movie it seems his wife is cheating on him, and while everyone partys outside he just sits and does nothing... just watches, apathic, uninterested...

...Pink was based on syd barrett? i always thought the Wall was inspired on waters' life? as it was made almost entirely by him ... whatever... that doesnt really matter for the 'todays music' subject

i didnt say all songs are in E minor (thats what i understood what you said)... i said all songs in E minor arent really songs made with effort... (i guess i explained before why i think that(?) and since there is a LOT of songs in E minor...

dont wanna start a fight or anything here

 

nah, they're out there, not mainstream anymore though...

we're talking about pop music, not all music, remember.

not trying to be an ass, but please look up the meaning of "Luddite"

"call from mrs. floyd to mr. floyd... click...he hung up!?" (or something like that) of course those aren't lyrics in the song, but one of those creepy little sound effect snippets Waters loved so much. When Rodger recorded the phone call used on the original demo for "Young Lust", He didn't tell Nick Mason, the calls intended recipient what was up; Mason assumed it was a prank call and hung-up the receiver in anger...
The call is a direct reference to an incident during the band's "In The Flesh" Tour, when Waters's call to his wife Judy was answered by a man's voice.

I think I get ya'... It's mostly due to the lay-out of the fret-board and the way a guitar is tuned, the patterns of chords are easier to see in E, when playing rock or blues based stuff anyway, (which tends to explain the popularity of the capo amongst amateur acoustic guitarists IMHO.) you just clamp the thing on another fret and viola! you can play another key without changing patterns.

ZW

 

yeah... i looked it up hahahah definitely not what i meant... dont know which word to use in the place of it though

so in the album pink is being cheated too... thanks for clearing that up i always thought it was the opposite and that was crazy because it made the album different from the movie

thats what i meant!

and what makes me think even more Em is (mostly) pure laziness... its because guitarists that tune(d) in Eb (like hendrix, slash) play most songs in Ebm!

so its not about the Em key itself... its about playing chords with open strings and soloing on the 12th fret!

if guitars were tuned in like F#, the most common key would be F#m

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ&ob=av3n

This just came to my mind.
I love these guys and I really like alot of what you can hear in the video. But it says alot about music and that people are actually willing to listen to the same thing just transposed differently and they will tell you "This is the best song ever", then different song will come, with the same progression and you hear again "This is the best song EVER". It's just pure recycling. It's not such a great example tho, cos most of the songs in the video are 90s and you can't hate 90s :afro:

And also every song in the video is guitar pop, but what I really can't like is rnb, hip hop and this modern stuff. Not only I hear how simple it is, but somehow it always acts like it's so awesome. If you take for example Lil Wayne and try to compare it with Satriani, it's like music of cave men and it's actaully winning awards.

 

I do agree that most of modern mainstream music is rubbish. I never listen to it. That being said the whole singer/songwriter thing does grate with me. I don't believe you have to write your own material to be a musical artist.

Really the singer-songwriter thing is relatively new. Just think about some of the of greats who never wrote a thing in their life. Sinatra for a kick off.

 

I don't mind simple music - I love reggae and you can't get any more simple than that.
What I hate is manufactured music. There are millions of incredibly talented musicians out there who spend most of their lives trying to make it in the business, who have dedicated their lives to understanding music and write their hearts out... but they get ignored over some randomer who does what he's told, sells out, drops off the face of the earth after 6 months, and then some other randomer pops up to fill their place.

Grr..

 

Stringed instruments display their full harmonics best when played in open positions anyway...Playing Rock guitar in Em is really just a whole lotta fun!

Crank it up, get a little feedback going, turn on yer inner Hendrix and rock out!...:guitarist:


I say if music moves you in a way that you like, it is good.

Explore as much different music as possible, your taste is not going to evolve if you only listen to rock guitar shit, or whatever...

And try not to be hasty in your judgment... some of my favorite music,
I know I didn't necessarily appreciate on first listen.

Edit: damn i forgot we're in the media forum not the music forum...

Ok, to conclude,the mainstream reflects what music most people are consuming currently...or maybe they dictate what people are consuming...

I don't really care either way.
Mainstream music went to shit for me long ago :wheelchair:

ZW

 

I agree music these days is about the same crap, and the teens flock to it. Gettin dem bitches n' hoes, and smoking weed.

I also think mainstream music has a satanic occult meaning but thats just my conspiratorial side showing

 

Gee indielove you're so original. My 14 year old niece was just telling me the same thing. I remember my roommate in college (1981) screaming the same tale one drunk night

 

I get about the artists who put effort in music not being recognized, yeah thats true, theyre not mainstream anymore...

never seen it that way... its better to see it that way anyway... fun > lazy

 

Yeah, I've been saying this type of stuff for a long time, too. I want the era of music back when mainstream music was a good thing. Back when The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, etc. were mainstream.

Indie music can be crappy and generic, too, so it really depends on the artists and finding the right music.

@p0ly Animal Collective and Radiohead are amazing. I've been digging into them, as well. They've given me a lot of hope for the future of music. I'm usually a 60's/70's guy.

Animal Collective have definitely taken psychedelics. Their album "Merriweather Post Pavilion" came out in 2009, and yet it's an absolute psychedelic masterpiece. Builds a lot off of 60's psychedelic music. Their earlier stuff is different and more indie, but still experimentally strange and really good.

There's good electronic music out there, too. You just have to find the right type. Stuff like Aphex Twin or Daft Punk.

Or the dub techno genre (not to be confused with crapstep): deepchord presents echospace - Sunset - The Coldest Season - - YouTube "The Coldest Season" is an amazing album to dream, relax and voyage into. Underground masterpiece.

 

yes all they do is repeat the same word to a lame beat where are the lyrics? makes me wanna puke when i hear mainstream

 

LOL what a noob thing to say. glad someone cleared it up.