Regardless of personal preferences, can you really say the scene is worse off because of bands that you don't like?
If you don't like Leeson because you think they look/sound too Brit-pop, you don't have to listen to them. If you don't like YAWA? because you think they're a Radiohead ripoff, you don't have to listen to them other. If you don't like Armchair Critic because of reasons that you can't explain, more power to you!
However, I put it to you that it's better for our scene to have them around. There's more diversity, more choice and more culture. Musicians learn alot from listening to one another, especially when the guys on-stage come from a different style. I've learnt so much watching bands like Juxtapose, The Nerves, Oshiego, Allura- the list goes on. Listeners get to broaden their horizons.
To simplify my argument in a nutshell- the positive benefits of bands like Leeson to listeners who like them and to other musicians who learn from them FAR OUTWEIGH the negative- which is to people like you, who can simply choose not to listen to them if you don't want to. =)
I didn't say any of that.
Leeson is simply bad pop. I never opposed their lack of originality because I know some bands just want to write songs to entertain and there's nothing wrong with that. If they wrote good pop, I wouldn't be saying anything about them.
I'm not against any genre either. For example, I dislike Paramore's music a fair bit. But I am able to acknowledge that they play their type of music at a good standard.
YAWA can't rip off Radiohead, I said that the lead singer thinks he's thom yorke, big difference if you don't know what that means then oh well. Their stuff is also mostly very linear and just keeps droning on.
Armchair Critic, ok I should explain.
Bad predictable monotonous vocal melodies which are all filler ,chord progressions are very typical and even then no effort is put into making it sound more interesting, structure of songs are also very dull, sometimes different arrangements of the same thing are there but again their very contrived and boring, progression of all songs are linear, lyrics are bad/predictable seems that one of you just sings random words during recording and those words stick, guitarist is a bad vocalist. Summary:all filler, no killer.
I can honestly say the scene is worse off with alot of bands. There are good ones, but all the bad ones ruin the scene. They bring down the standard. To avoid being personal I'll use midnight marvel as an example, how the hell did they get into baybeats? If a band at such at a level can get to attain some form of status, all the other shitty bands will think their okay. Being self-critical is extremely important, because if you don't put your own music through quality control then who the hell will?
People like me might criticize horrid bands, but if people will just point me out as being too critical and to ignore me, then they'll just go on being horrible. I won't heckle them, but if they ask me for their opinion to my face, I will tell them honestly what I think about them, if their willing to listen. Good bands are self-sufficient, their critical of themselves. But people can be made to be self-critical, this is through other people criticizing them and not just showering them with love and giving them comments that encourage them to keep on making shitty music.
You can go on saying "It's your opinion", but really, I'm not the only one talking about how much the local rock music scene is shit. Some singaporeans, such as you, have seem to become accustomed to the low standard that is set in Singapore. Ask music lovers what they think of the music made in Singapore, music lovers that actually know their shit. They'll tell you it's bad, I'm so damn sure of that, if they actually know what the international standard is (knowing their shit so to speak).
If a musician sees a good band playing good songs and putting on a good live show they will think to themselves "I want to do that." They will try and achieve the same effect, with their own music. It probably won't work if the band is just starting out, but it's all about trial and error, they will work harder to achieve the standard. Criticism should only make them work harder.
With the standard in Singapore being so low, any band will think they can stand on stage like statues stare at the crowd and play their boring songs. When that happens... well it's a chain effect. Bad band performs = people say local bands suck and don't support them + fellow musicians think it's okay to suck and go on sucking. There's probably a much longer list of the effects and the effects that the effects have on etc etc etc, you should get it by now anyway.
At least we're all trying.. whether good or bad, ripoff or original. This "scene" we talk about is still relatively young. So give everyone the benefit of the doubt, they'll surely find their own creativity/originality and place in this little island of ours.
I mean... you mentioned Muse. Weren't they also labelled "the younger copycat of Radiohead" when they started out with their first releases by the British music press?? It took them a few years and a couple of albums later to find their own "brand" and sound.
Slowly but surely, with enough exposure, and most importantly "support" from both the haters and the lovers... everyone will, hopefully, improve in time. What you don't want is a bunch of young dreamers who get knocked down by their first "criticism" and lay down their guitars cos nobody believes in them.
If they give up on music because of criticism, then really, they should just get the hell out of music. Because if not me, someone else will rip them apart if their bad.
Firstly, the British music press are idiots. Muse don't sound anything like Radiohead, anyone who listens to both bands will know this. The only similarity is the use of alot of falsetto.
I'm not saying "OH GOD THE SCENE IS DOOMED WE'RE ALL DOOMED TO HORRIBLE MUSIC FOREVER." The scene does have decent bands. Just that there are also lots of horrible/bland bands that somehow obtain some sort of fame, and this is horrible for the scene.
