The State Of Music

[TV Lenny]

I have very ecclectic musical tastes. Everything from field hollers to Sinatra to Husker Du & Mudhoney to Motorhead to SRV to Hendrix blah blah blah. I'm 28 and was wondering if I was just getting older when I started to not enjoy the majority of music played on the main rock station in my area. The station recently changed format to 70's through now rock. Apparently I was not the only one that would turn it off after the morning show. I'm just not into System of a Down, Nine Inch Nails, etc. That's not to say there aren't a few songs of theirs I find something in them I like. But I wouldn't buy any of their albums. These are only two examples I can think of. I have done many recordings of lousy local bands and I always find something in their music that I like. Good thing for me, these bands are very much punk and I have a love affair for punk.

I'm curious to know what you think. Is there a lull in creativity or do I need to give these bands more of a chance? Funny thing is there is so much great music on indie labels and being self released. Just difficult to find. Drop some names of great bands you like that we can all check out.

Tom

[mjau]

In my lifetime, there has never been a time that I can remember when mainstream radio was cranking out song after song that I liked. Most of the time, it's been a case where there might one or two new mainstream songs that catch my ear, and the rest is filler. Even during some years where I thought some great albums were being released (mid-90's), the radio was full of some really lame stuff.

[TV Lenny]

Excellent point! I also realized I posted this in the wrong catogory. Sorry

[pantone247]

Funny thing is there is so much great music on indie labels and being self released.

Majors won't take a chance on something that won't sell bucket loads within a week of beingf released... So while they're busy chasing downloaders, buying up air time, giving each awards and sticking themselves on the covers of their own magazines... the indies are having a field day, singing amazing bands, allowing them to make the records they want to make, accepting the fact songs will be leaked, using that as a pormotional tool and putting out exceptional records..

IMHO Fiery Furnaces new record is the most incredible, challenging rock record in years, Howe Gelbs Snow' Angel is amazing, the master work he was always promising, Jeff Lewis last few records have been great, The Spinto Band, Herman Dune, most anything on Merge... it has to be some of the best times since the mid 80's for indie rock! Long may it last!

[KennyLusk]

Screw what's on the radio man. Start clicking on people's weblinks below their signatures here at TOMB and you'll find some of the coolest recordings and tunes you've heard in a very long time.

[8th_note]

was wondering if I was just getting older when I started to not enjoy the majority of music played on the main rock station in my area

You hit it on the head. As we get older our base of experience increases and our tastes get more refined. We develop a firmer sense of what's "good." Radio songs are for young people because they are the ones who listen to the radio. As you get older you have to be more proactive to find the music you like. Fortunately, being in the recording game I'm exposed to a lot of music from my musician friends that I would not hear otherwise.

There's so much amazingly good music out there that it's impossible to keep up with it all.

[wayne kerr]

I have very ecclectic musical tastes. Everything from field hollers to Sinatra to Husker Du & Mudhoney to Motorhead to SRV to Hendrix blah blah blah. I'm 28 and was wondering if I was just getting older when I started to not enjoy the majority of music played on the main rock station in my area. The station recently changed format to 70's through now rock. Apparently I was not the only one that would turn it off after the morning show. I'm just not into System of a Down, Nine Inch Nails, etc. That's not to say there aren't a few songs of theirs I find something in them I like. But I wouldn't buy any of their albums. These are only two examples I can think of. I have done many recordings of lousy local bands and I always find something in their music that I like. Good thing for me, these bands are very much punk and I have a love affair for punk.

I'm curious to know what you think. Is there a lull in creativity or do I need to give these bands more of a chance? Funny thing is there is so much great music on indie labels and being self released. Just difficult to find. Drop some names of great bands you like that we can all check out.

Tom

Lenny? From Milwaukee? Do you still hang around Squiggy?

[TV Lenny]

Naw, Squiggy actually OD'd on the big "H" a few years back. And I don't mean heroin. He bought a Harrison board and got his pointed hair caught up in it. I got there just in time to save the board though.

[creature.of.habit]

money is more important than ever..it's just not music, everything is like this nowadays, profit oriented, no room for other principles. screw and profit or get screwed and be broke.

i havent listened to the radio in 15 years. i'm 25.

[TV Lenny]

Well anytime you have a business you need to generate profit in order to stay in business. I have to do this as well as any major corporation does. I fully understand that when you take an artform (in this case music) and try to make it appeal to the masses, there will be sacrifices made to the original artistic vision. This of course changes with an indie label (usually!) and a self-released project. Profit isn't a bad thing. I have to make money at what I love doing in order to justify continuing doing it. I disagree with how major record companies screw bands & artisists and take advantage of them. I also disagree with how idiots within said record companies push moronic ideas on the band which hurts the music.

But I am wondering more in terms of the level of talent and creativity that is out now on the bands side. There has been a lot of good points brought up on this thread. Keep em coming! Do you think that 5-10 years from now the next big album will tout being entirely recorded on tape? Or using all real amps and not simulations? Keep adding bands you like too.

[JGriffin]

This comes up from time to time on this board, and I think the answer is always the same...there's always good music being made, it's just that the good music and the music on the radio are not always the same thing. It's wonderful when they are, but rarely is this actually the case.

I agree with this:

In my lifetime, there has never been a time that I can remember when mainstream radio was cranking out song after song that I liked. Most of the time, it's been a case where there might one or two new mainstream songs that catch my ear, and the rest is filler. Even during some years where I thought some great albums were being released (mid-90's), the radio was full of some really lame stuff.

Likewise, there's some really good stuff from the early 1980s, or even the 1970s...two periods I generally think of as "mostly crap." But that's just from looking at radio playlists, which were indeed mostly crap. Looking beyond the Top Ten Hits is where you're gonna find the actual good music from those times.

[AstroDan]

First, I agree that as you get older, your tastes change and stuff that is touted on the radio just doesn't cut anymore. It would also be ignorant to say there is no good music made anymore. There is.

I just think the wonder of recorded rock music is fading. It's human nature to be in awe of the newly developed technology of recording, documenting, and distributing an exciting and new form of music, like it was fifty years ago. Now, they're a step away from putting full recording studio packages on the front shelf of convenience stores next to the Tic-Tacs and cigarettes. Good for the kids. But not that exciting.

There also seems to be a smugness and lack of balls. After decades of ridiculing hippie psychedelic nonsense, classic rock drum solo's, metal hair bands, Eddie Vedder clones, and nauseating pop punk, bands today are like unwilling to stick their necks out and be original in fear on themselves getting ridiculed. If they do, they're like "Hey check me out. I'm wearing Billy Joel's circa 1981 outfit and doing Simmon's drum fills. It's funny."

Bitter!

[TV Lenny]

I agree. I am waiting for them to release a "Baby Band" where goo's and gaa's are sampled and put to some lame ass hip hop beat. Perhaps Brittanys new kid could be the heart throb...

[lsn110]

I agree. I am waiting for them to release a "Baby Band" where goo's and gaa's are sampled and put to some lame ass hip hop beat. Perhaps Brittanys new kid could be the heart throb...

Perhaps this will satisfy your wish for now:

http://www.babyhiphop.net/aboutbhh.html

There's some scary stuff out there.

OT: I once heard someone say that releasing a CD is Gen X/Y's equivalent to the baby boomer's "Writing/publishing a Novel". There's more amazing music recorded than ever before. Unfortunately, there's also more crap to wade through than ever before. And radio...Radio is so far gone it's hardly worth worrying about. My radio is mostly tuned to 87.9 these days which is where my iPod broadcasts. That or NPR.

[TV Lenny]

Well I very VERy seldom listen to music on the radio anyways, and I think I would rather listen to top 40 than NPR. No offense...