Classic rock/pop music and today's rock/pop music

[smurfpiss]

if you're sick and tired of the formulaic major label garbage, listen beyond terrestrial radio (ruined by the pricks of clear channel).

In this day and age where just about everything has been done, it's just so damn hard for people to top what all the greats before have achieved.

 

[ahkiatt]

The Beatles vs. Jo Bros.

Discuss.

 

[THOA]

To quote my friend who told me of his opinions, "there are more imitators than innovators in music today." I fully agree with him

Ah but who ARE those innovators, if not imitators themselves in their own way.

In fact, Jimmy Page has been accused of stealing riff works from other bands (eg Intro to "Stairway to Heaven" was said to be the same to "Taurus" by Spirit). I believe there's another track that had similarities, but I forgot which one.

We're all guilty of borrowing ideas from somewhere and making it our own. You can't help it really. Rock and Roll in general can say it has credits to give to blues, which were "innovated" by the early African Americans who took part of their traditional native voodoo music. In another school of thought, some would term metal as the bastard child of classical.

The ones we know today are just a few of the bands that stood the test of time. I'm sure when Beatles came about, you can pretty much see a trend of guys trying to form a band that's just like the Beatles. Thing is only the Beatles managed to stand out till today. That what makes them different. That's why we know about them today, and not the other bands that are imitating the Beatles.

40 years from now I can bet you some of the modern bands of this age will earn that same legacy as the classics we revere this day. If they really are imitators, I highly doubt they would last so long either.

At the end of the day, good music is good music, irregardless how that music came about.

 

[slumdogmilonaire]

yeah man.. good music is good music without a doubt. But every1 has a different taste n different ideas.

 

[balloons]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-GGy-4kCKk&feature=related

This song was created in 1964, let's see which kids cover Jonas brothers in 2040s?

 

[lamaj]

come on man.. lets do a music some justices... don't some legendary band and Jo Bros in the same sentences. It is an OUTRAGE!!. hahaha.

Jo Bros are rich dudes who can buy expensive branded guitars and all the do is strum. Just strum. Even a newbie can do that. haha. They might be good for pre teens n teens around 13 to 14. But not in this forum man. Here is where inspiring and true musicians of S'pore are..

So keep all the bad music away and keep Soft clean n green. haha.

 

[tim098]

You know, the above post gave me a thought. By the way I'll have you all know I am no advocator of Jonas Brothers. I barely know their names and don't have a single song title in memory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScXLHgPcZuc

Now I youtubed 'Jonas Brothers' and thats the first video I got so I clicked it. Ignoring all the music video shenanigans and listening ONLY to the song, I cannot fault them. Sure, this genre and style may not be my personal preference but they have groove, the band sounds very tight, the singer doesn't sing off pitch, the lyrics would probably be a hit with their target audience.

Imagine hearing a local band posting an audio clip of this song in the 'Open Mic' section, and ask us to rate it. I honestly believe there will be EXTREMELY little or no criticism at all. So why the double standards? Because they are 'mainstream'? So what? They wish to earn money, let them. They had the brains, the effort and everything else to do it.

So why criticise them so much? Is it because subconsciously or perhaps even consciously, some of us are jealous of them?

Seriously objectively speaking, if we do what the person above me says and 'keep the bad music off soft', I think at least 80% of softies wouldn't deserve to be here. This is assuming that Jonas Brothers' standard of music is bad.

Basically my point is, why criticise artists like these so much when they are achieving their goals clearly? Jonas Brothers SO OBVIOUSLY targets the young teen crowd and do a great job at it. What, we are criticising their goals? Then the teens should criticise The Eagles and AC/DC for going so old school and releasing old school albums in current times. Same logic what.

 

[Plastic]

come on man.. lets do a music some justices... don't some legendary band and Jo Bros in the same sentences. It is an OUTRAGE!!. hahaha.

Jo Bros are rich dudes who can buy expensive branded guitars and all the do is strum. Just strum. Even a newbie can do that. haha. They might be good for pre teens n teens around 13 to 14. But not in this forum man. Here is where inspiring and true musicians of S'pore are..

So keep all the bad music away and keep Soft clean n green. haha.

The beatles used pretty gear like rickenbackers. They also mostly play chords, and pop music. So what's your point?

 

[Ized]

Everyone seems to love slagging off bands like jonas brothers and A7x these days

Its just the cool thing to do.

yours sarcastically.

 

[ahkiatt]

A point that I'd like to make is the target audience. The Beatles audience back then was a bunch of screaming teenage girls, much like the Jo. Bros today.

I guess my stand in this is. For the money that's invested in the Jonas Brothers and all the hype and publicity they are getting, they should be making better music than this. I agree with what Tim098 says, most of us are blinded by our prejudice towards mainstream pop. The Jo. Bros. actually produce some decent songs. I just wiki-ed them. They actually write their own songs(they are also called a boy band). While they may be good at creating catchy music, they are certainly nothing fresh.


Three good looking kids singing songs while playing guitar with no musical technicality(I feel this is the wrong word to use but whattheheck, I'm tired) whatsoever, didn't N Sync try that a while back?

 

[Weiht]

Music now is more packaged to sell and be marketed to the mass for profit, so in some sense they sacrifice some serious rock/balls to appeal to the general public. I guess they r more interested in making radio frenly music, something that wld gain airtime and have a tune that most probably will get stuck in ur head the whole day. I mean there are alot of nice bands n music today, but personally i like the rawness n the simplicity of just rocking hard.

The bands of the past were proud to play their music, and they were really very much jamming on stage rather than putting on a performance thats v professional.

 

[eieio]

i always thought playing originals was the way to go..
but even great beatles were copying & both led zep is legend no doubt abt them
then i realised to be great 'innovators' you got to be great "imitators'... billy sheehan told me that hehe =p

 

[iwantdigimon]

well doesnt really matter if other people are not making "music" by personal definition; its pointless to waste time arguing here while your instruments requires the much needed brain juice.

 

[THOA]

The bands of the past were proud to play their music, and they were really very much jamming on stage rather than putting on a performance thats v professional.

Yup. And that pretty much gave them that appeal; the rawness of it all. Black Sabbath's first album was recorded in one day, and mixed the next!

I wonder if modern bands were to pull something like that off today... would we be as excited and forgiving about it, or would we think it's a load of crap?

 

[Mobius]

Radiohead is a innovator. Listen to Paranoid Android, the chord change and tempo change there is killer. And Pyramid Song, the time signature changes is killer. But inovation comes with a price, the 2 above songs are not quite known or accepted by the public, but the musicians can relate to those 2 songs

So all in all, music is about connecting. So if u play pop u connect with the general public, there's a niche for every type of music, its just that pop music has a larger niche.

 

[Weiht]

yup radiohead is really innovative but as a result of that, they have not gain mainstream recognition except for that few songs which isnt really wat they r abt.. For instance extreme, they r best known for a song which doesnt really reflect wat their music really is in general. Nowadays its abt profit making more than the music.

I was just watching to queen n paul rogers concert and u really respect ppl like that, i mean paul is alr 60 or so but his vocals in a live session can still put many to shame.

 

[triplet76]

Preferences

It all boils down to preferences, for each of us. I enjoyed the stuff from the old days like Led Zep, Hendrix; I even miss the hip hop of the old days...Public Enemy, A tribe called quest and de la soul and others...in my opinion that was a place and a time of another era and the events then could have shaped music the way it was...my knowledge of today's rappers is limited but they weren't rapping angry rhymes like the once mighty Public Enemy, and Public Enemy can't go on rapping about the same stuff over and over again...

Although I miss the old bands...I am discovering some great bands today...the Mars Volta, Between The Buried and Me and many others. listen to these bands carefully and you'll find the beatles and Led Zep under the layers of the songs...they are every bit a music fan like you and me and they are expressing their appreciation in these songs today...there are great acts out there...

 

[hifi_killer]

I dont think its has alot to do with preference. Preference isnt inborn, as such it has alot of influence from the environment, peers and the media. It wouldnt adequately explain why most of the younger generation on soft listen to music generations before them since they're likely to be more influenced by the present culture than the past.

i think it has more to do with the mainstream effect. Imagine if all the radio stations started playing classic rock 24/7, and everyone starts talking about classic rock. Would you have felt the same about classic rock as you would now?

I guess for most us musicians, consciously or not, we want to be associated with an exclusive selection of music that is different from what the usual crowd listens to. Because being 'different' makes us feel good about ourselves.This especially true for adolescences.

 

[windogate]

Maybe we can have another thread just for classic pop/rock/metal lovers? sort of like a club etc.. That way faizal_rockz can find his kakis easily,