OK I know this is going to tag me as an old fogie but how original is music today? I'm in my mid-thirties and when I listen to my local alternative station almost half of the time they play music from when I was in high school and college, The Smiths, The Cure, Violent Femmes, Pixies and etc... On top of that a lot of the music played on the radio today doesn't seems very original. I don't mean its bad but it sounds like stuff that would've been popular before. The music of Jet could've been come out of the early 70's, The Fountains of Wayne the early 80's, Republica The early 90's. Compared to the kind of stuff that people like Hendrix or Beck were doing when they first hit the scene it just seems to me like music isn't as original now.
If your local alternative station is playing The Smiths, The Cure, Violent Femmes, and the Pixies...I must say that is the best station EVER!
I'm with above....what local radio station plays the Pixies and the Violent Femmes alot cuz I sure want to tune in to that station. Pop music is pretty much cyclical and what's being played on the radio today doesn't necessarily reflect the real state of music. It's just advertisers paying the bills and what's easy on the ears. And almost all bands reflect to the previous bands they were influenced from. Without The Cars, would there be Fountains of Wayne? Then they almost always experiment with their sound and branch out to a different sound yet still churn out the radio hits in order to be still "relevant" in the public's eye. Then the fact you can only do so much with a guitar that hasn't already been done...so of course the earlier stuff will sound more original....and I'm with the group that says that 60's music were the tops as everything branched out from there....that was the big bang era of music.
There is TONS of great music out there. It is just harder to find because radio has become so homogonized. If you look around, check out different websites or iTunes, try satellite radio or webcasts of different indie stations you can find some great stuff out there and lots of good bands and musicians. Radio is not a good place to go looking for good music.
If you're talking about rock, I agree completely. It isn't as original, in the main. Most of the stuff today is recycled music that was stolen from other recycled music. I'm just spoiled, I guess. Just about all I did from 1967 into the early '70's was go to concerts, girls, party, more girls and concerts, more parties, combinations of all three, giant parties at Paleface Park, where I was famous for inventing and constructing Wild Armadillos. (yes, that was me, for anyone who knows what they are) It was all fresh and original back then, and many groups who later became famous were opening acts. You went to concerts with 3 or 4 groups, like Canned Heat, Vanilla Fudge, and Joe Cocker in the Music Hall, for example, every weekend, it seemed. Don't get me wrong, because there is still some terrific, original stuff coming out, but not nearly, heck, not remotely like it was then. Blue Cheer, Moby Grape, Hendrix, the Doors, the Who, Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention, Ten Years After, the Byrds, the Kinks, the Airplane, the Doors, the Animals, Traffic, Cream, Big Brother & Holding Company (Janis), the Grateful Dead, the Elevators, Deep Purple, Steppenwolf, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Traffic, the Steve Miller Band, Iron Butterfly, Country Joe, Procol Harum, Captain Beefheart, and others I'm forgetting, were groups I saw back then. As for today? Where's the beef??
To me its all relative to what you know. If you look through my cd case or hardrives on my computers you will see many types of music new and old. But as far as today you have so many sub genres of music that to hear the good or original stuff you have to give effort. The types of music i like would include underground hiphop, spoken word hiphop, industrial, death metal, jungle, techno, two step, house, progressive, trance, punk, some emo, indie rock, jazz, classical, plain ole' rock n roll, and quite a lot of stuff from other countries; for example India, Germany, Brazil, Japan. I have personally never liked too much country or blues. And in all those types of music i have found original stuff that i have liked a lot in the recent past. And as far as the radio i really just dont listen to it. I think if your referring to J Lo, 50 cent, Lindsey Lohan, Good Charlotte, Puddle of Mudd, or any crap like that then yeah thats completly unoriginal stuff. I could go into more detail really though every once in a while i like stuff that is played on the radio, but for the most part the Radio SUXX.
I moved to San Diego about a year ago and there are two alternative stations that seem to strive flying in the face of corparate programming. Most gratifyingly, they are both very successful. The Violent Femmes are played like Zep was (and still is I think) played on KLOL. The Smiths, Pixies, and The Cure are in constant rotation. I was so disconcerted at first to hear The Sex Pistols not only once but over and over that now I take it for granted. On top of that, unlike Houston there is a VERY heavy favortisim given to local (or So Cal) bands. Bad Religion (old friends of mine) get as much air play as other so called alt stations play Maroon 5. Social Distortion is revered as well; and the unexpected play list just goes on. It is completely common fare to hear 'Dear God' by XTC, followed up by 'It's a Shame About Ray' by The Leamonheads and Search and Destroy by Iggy and the stooges... It really is quite amazing. Other local bands they blatantly
I accidently posted my comments before I was finished - I know, when will this dud shut-up? But I wanted to address Changs contention that there is no longer anything original like Hendrix or Beck. Without doubt it is probably impossible to do anything completely original any longer. Music simply recycles over and over and I can guarantee your favorite new band is drawing (knowingly or not) on what happened before, and maybe even better done then. I do however acknowledge Hendrix as a ground breaker. Sure even his music was a result of pioneers like Robert Johnson, but dude expanded and adapted with his unbelievable talent to truly create something new as he created a whole new style of guitar play AND its role and context within any particular song or arrangement. A true groundbreaker was he
I'm 27 and can't stand to listen to any music stations. I haven't in probably 3 years. Rock, pop, hip-hop, R&B, Rap; it all either sounds exactly like I heard 5 years ago or the artists seem as if they keep shoving their one or two hits down our throats. The latter I call the "Ja Rule Rule". Once he had that first hit with J-Lo, all he did was release single after single of a crappy rap track with the 'flavor of the month' female singer doing the chorus. Everyone of Nelly's songs sound just like Country Grammer, everyone of the teeny-girl singers sound alike, etc, etc. Anyway, I digress. Side note: What the hell happed to Kelly Clarkson? I'm not a fan at all, but I at least once respected her in that she actually sang her crap and had her own style slightly. I happened to hear her latest single the other day, and she sounded like an Ashlee Simpson knock-off.
All you living in Texas complaining about bad radio stations can bite me! I can catch only 3 radio stations that play something other than country or pop garbage 2 of them play roughly the same 30 songs each week Boston- More than a Feeling and Lynyrd Skynyrd- Freebird get played at least once every. single. day. on both of them I've heard More than a Feeling on all three at the same time more than once *hanging myself* if I couldn't catch 106.1 out of Beaumont, I'd just toss my radio out the window I don't even like "New Metal"... but at least they play a few songs I haven't heard 10,000 times
Try: Radiohead ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead Interpol Clinic At the Drive-In/Mars Volta/Sparta (in order of sweetness) Arcade Fire I often get bored with rock, so I'll put on some rap. I'm a total simp when it comes to hip hop though, so I won't even begin to recommend anything...Jay-Z, ahem. www.pitchforkmedia.com is usually a decent source for good new music, though the stuff they review is oftentimes really obscure. And snobby.
It all depends on what radio station you are listening to. If it is primarily pop music stations, then I agree with you 100%. The problem with pop music is that it is all about image - what you look like instead of how much true talent you have. With the Pro Tools, anyone (it seems) can become a "pop music" star, especially if they have family connections (I'm talking to you Ashlee). For me, the radio station I listen to the most (which admittedly is not very often) is a classic rock station out of Nashville.
Commercial radio is dreadful. As far as originality in music, well I don't need for soemone to re-invent the wheel for me to be entertained. In fact, I knid of prefer older "Americana" styles the best. I was wondering if anyone had tried Mercora? http://www.mercora.com/ Basically you can broadcast your computer's music collection with this product and it is currently free. I've played around with it for a few days under the name OldSwampy.
For those interested the station that I was referring to is: http://www.drive105.com/ in Minneapolis-St. Paul. I usually listen to NPR but have been listening to other stations during pledge drives. I've noticed the same thing too on the U of MN radio station which will play some more obscure stuff every now and then but still plays a lot of stuff that was college radio when I was in college more than a decade ago. As for my own musical taste I've been listening to more roots music lately as by the CD's I've bought in the last few years, Zydeco (Chris and Sean Ardoin and Beau Jacque), Country (Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash), Blues (Albert Collins and Albert King) and Irish Bar and Rebel Music (The Tim Malloys, The Clancy Brothers) Other than that listen to a pretty wide range of stuff.
