Whoa.... What can I say but it had been prolly 10yrs since I had watched ... I saw the commercials for it a few days ago, then saw another, moments before it was going to air.... Guess the stars aligned... All I can tell you is the whole show seemed to be so hollow, so bereft of genuine energy.... Is this whats to be considered the state of music in the here and now???? If so, I'm sorely disgusted.....From the Pussycat Dolls basically doing nothing but syncopated bump and grind, to rapper Snoop Dog aimlessly mumbling as he threw dollar bills about the stage and stroked his 'bling bling' medallions; it was a complete abomination of what I feel is the magic and message of 'good music'... The only saving grace moments (imho) were from the new country alt band Rascal Flats (not great by any means, but moderately OK) and the song John Mayer played live (very nice, edgy)........... Did anybody else have the misfortune and stomach to view this crap??????? ---sal
Most of pop music has always sucked, though it seems more so in recent decades. Avoid them, those music shows, Sal, but never believe there isn't good music happening today, right now. I find enough to play three dozen new albums a year on my show...it's work, I listen to a lot of crap, but the magic is out there, it can be found...
Remember what Phil Spector said about the Spice Girls? The only difference between the Spice Girls and a porn flick is that the porn has better music! The more things change........
Cen, I total disagree about pop music always sucking. The 50s,60s and 70s were the golden age of pop IMHO. I mean even if you take out the obvious like the Beatles, what about Motown, all the great Philly stuff (Stylistics, O'Jays ect) Atlantic Records (Ray Charles, Aretha) all the soul coming out of Memphis.
I totally agree about whats happening now. Except for a few anomalies like John Mayer, who is just so undeniable it isa vast wasteland out there.
PS I never watch awards shows.
i just got a glimpse of Gwen Stefani doing Wind Me Up (wind it up? - don't recall) on the AMA and switching channels to MTV there she was doing the same song in a clip. Well, live is live, so that caught my attention.
i got a glimpse of Jay-Z and a dancer of amazing skill - jazz bling.
There was Paris Hilton shining with make-up and legs and mumbling something undiscernable.
And Sean Paul was saying thank you. Red Hot Chili Peppers were thanking from long distance London.
and then it was time to leave the TV.
it's funny how fashion looks to this rather naive eye. no one does those shiny hip hop way expensive suits round these parts. And the effects and background big screens. woh! not in kibbutz anymore.
nice visit but i wouldn't wanna live there.
Isn't fashion weird? I think the designers sometimes are prankng everyone and laughing their balls off
Unfortunatley people listen to music with their eyes not with their other orrifices. The kids say: "an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance"
Yep Cen, I agree there IS some great stuff to be found. (if'n one actively looks around and has the committment to weed through all the banal offerings).... I've found that more and more, what I consider 'tha good stuff is found in obscure solo performers/singer songwriters.... I agree with JRL that John Mayer is a gem..... As far a pop being empty of value, well yeah, it's pop 'ya know.... I've always looked on it (pop) as being a label the mass marketers etc used to promote all the drivel such as The Cowsills, AbbA, etc.... To my way of thinking, those golden Motown years were not pop, nor classically soul.... Just great music.... Wishing all a sonic superworld!!!!!--------- sal
Quote from: "JRL"Unfortunatley people listen to music with their eyes not with their other orrifices. The kids say: "an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance"
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Jeez, that just needed another looksee----- :shock: -------- Ahhh, great prolly true, maybe even profound line---------- sal
Right. I just wnated to clarify. There is a lot of good music being made, but most of it is in niches. These days you can make your own record and market it yourself, unfortunatley most don't have the savy to produce a great sounding record.
So there is a huge glut of "product". Like both you guys said, you got to wade through a lot of stuff to find the gems.
Threads like this help://http://www.spiritplants.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2212
My view on Art in general is most of it is crap, derivative, made by people ripping off a few. For every Beatles or Mozart or Jackson Pollock, there's a thousand imitators. It's how it's always been. The good news these days is that there's more access to music than once upon a time, thanks to the Internet.
Oddly, this morning, KD had on a bunch of video channels and most of it really really REALLY sucked, but then a few good songs popped up. I hadn't seen videos in awhile, and most of them suck too.
But I can name you a couple dozen good to great albums that were released this year, and I'm only mostly into rock. I'm sure there's jazz, electronica, ethnic music, bluegrass, etc out there to fill anyone's hours with happiness.
What something like that show does is pick the most popular bits to showcase. And there is where JRL has a point. In the older days, there was a great lot of great music on the good old radio, which wasn't then divided so evilly into corporate drone stations. The Beatles ruled, Motown, what was at the top was the top, the best. Not all of it, but a lot of it. And so more kids with guitars heard this great music, and learned the high bar. Now, the shit on the top sucks, there's little really good music up there.
The stuff I like tends to get called indie rock, used to be called college rock, long time ago it was just rock because rock ruled the world, and motown, and jazz fusion, and good country right along.
So I search harder for the music, but damn if I don't find it. I do. Always have.
Then there's shows. We saw the Decemberists in Seattle recently and loved them as always, great musicians. We saw the Dixie Chicks not long ago, and they were great too, just fantastic was their touring band.
It's always there, but the corporate owned media has little clue. Art will outlast all them fucking suits anyway.
Don't despair, Sal. Or Jude, or JRL. Right now some kid is picking up a Dylan album for 50 cents in a thrift shop, and is going to follow his line through to Beck or Bright Eyes or Radiohead etc and is going to make the great music of tomorrow.
It never ends. They jingle the coins they have and we don't to keep us shut up and mute, we climb the fence out back with guitars and weed, and play loud, or listen and know....
Yep, gone are the days when the best records sold the most copies, though there are some good ones up on the charts.
One thing I could add will encourage you all. So many of my young students come in eager for the real deal, many knowing it, many feeling it but not knowing where to look.
Seems most of my real punked out students fall in love with jazz believe it or not. Another guy, 12 now, has been with me for a couple years. He loves Dylan, Beatles, Hendrix, the Stones ect. Lucky for him, he plays in a band with his dad and pop's friends. He would be so frustrated with playing with kids his age.
Another thing I do is the Blues in the Schools program. We go around to high schools and middle schools and do presentations and eventually let the braver kids come up and sit in. The thing is, the kids just love it and they get it. I love playing for them. it feels important. You gotta preserve real American culture when you can before the corporations destroy it.
It's thing's like these and people like you guys that keep me working so hard and caring so much.
Let there be songs to fill the air!!
MMMmmm--- Tasty thread.... I just get such a charge outta thinking about some young kid, lurking 'round the music in a thrift shop; picking up a coupla old Animals cassettes, 'n Miles' Bitches Brew... He goes home,, rummages through his dads closet until he finds that ole cassette deck... In his room is that battered Hagstom guitar he bought at a yard sale cuz it would look cool hanging on his wall.... He plays the cassettes, and just fer kicks, he pulls that axe offa the wall---------- Fast forward 3-4 yrs later.... He's gigging a few nights a week... His musical horizons and abilities ever expanding..... Nah, he's not got the chops to make it the the industry or anything, but dammed if his life isn't so much more rewarding... He looks at the world with a more discerning, creative eye... He sees and hears the possibilities, in the moment... He's alive, in a world of wonder.................... sal
My story includes episodes like that. My love afair with jazz was jumpstarted when I was on my first tour at age 18. I was in Great Falls, MT and in a junk shop I discovered these gems: The Essential Charlie Parker, The Osacr Petersen Trio with Clark Terry, and Duster by Gary Burton.
BTW, IMHO chop[s are only one ingridient to make it in the industry, more important is work ethic, focus, ambition, and people skills.
My friend Scotty, who was with Dwight Yokum and now is producing Merle Haggard said: "Being a great player is only the first 5%"