I'm reaching an age....

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Julia

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where I'm real tired of the angst, sturm and drang in music; the superficial pop productions; the anger in r&b. I like optimism. Life and getting old is depressing enough.

Listen to the lyrics of this song:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onb1CrGRkvY

The best is yet to come..... how much more optimistic can you get. You reach an age where you need that optimism.

Or this one (when women sounded like women and not little girls):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0ANPn0x94Q

They don't write lyrics like this anymore.

or this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZBUb0ElnNY

I start thinking about how many kids were conceived in the back of a '57 Chevy with Elvis on the radio vs. the number of kids conceived while listening to Death Metal, Hip Hop (yeah, like the misogynistic or just simply angry lyrics are going to get me in the mood), modern Pop where many of the acts are a lot of mediocre dancing + mediocre vocals that you can go see if you've got $125 + parking, and I could go on and on and on and on. I think Western Civilization peaked in 1967 and it's been downhill since.
 
+1
And life was valued. The worst thing anyone in the creative arts can do
is to tie their sense of personal worth to their success or lack thereof in
their art. At this point, I'm 61 and married to the best person I know,
I can say that love and romance do still exist despite society's best efforts to obliterate them. Play the music that is good for your soul.
Bright lights and neon signs are just that, and nothing more.
 
kc2eeb said:
+1
And life was valued. The worst thing anyone in the creative arts can do
is to tie their sense of personal worth to their success or lack thereof in
their art. At this point, I'm 61 and married to the best person I know,
I can say that love and romance do still exist despite society's best efforts to obliterate them. Play the music that is good for your soul.
Bright lights and neon signs are just that, and nothing more.

Very well said...
 
Well,


I hate to rain on anyone's parade.... :lol:

But junk music has been around for a very long time. So has depressing music! Think Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, or even Barry White...doh!
Plenty of the other too, think British Invasion.

Now, does the sampled/electronic bologna of today compare with the ensemble compositions of those storied days? "Hail to the no!"

The reality is that a good chunk of the great music of today completely escapes notice in our beloved USA. Thanks to commercials, airwaves are divided between what us old farts grew up on (the money carriers), and kid's stuff (the money deciders). If you study your marketing, it's all in there.

The cool thing is that on other continents, a concert composed of old and new bands is an "all ages" show, and you will find people cheer for Molly Hatchet and Morbid Angel in one sitting.

I work at an elementary/jr. high school, and I can tell you that hope is not lost; plenty of kids like their parents music, and this greasy kids stuff too. Granted, just not as many as the latest offering from Disney.

I used to get this way, until I played a gig opening for Static X a few years ago. I figured we were doomed, old guys playing metal. However, it was quite the opposite; everywhere were t-shirts of bands I considered "metal", and our reception was just fine!

But, I am with you, don't listen to the radio or watch TV!

Cheers!
 
I understand both sentiments. I notice that I am buying less and less "new" music. I've heard it all before, or I don't like the sound of it (the monotonous kickdrum beat from House comes to mind). But I am also sure that your parents think the exact same about the music you grew up to and admire.

One of the things I noticed in my musical endeavours is that I only buy keyboards from the previous century. When you get a new synth the manufacturer fills it with sounds that are very usable in Dance and Industrial stuff, but I just hate these sounds. Give me an old overdriven Hammond anytime, though I am sure my mom would shake her head and wonder whatever happened to Benny Goodman and the good old days.

Personally I think that there is still a lot of great music out there but there simply is such an enormous amount of music out there as the "old stuff" doesn't get obsolete either. In other words it only accumulates. And thus the discovery of something good in the haystack is getting more and more difficult.

I love the days of Hard Rock and NWOBHM I grew up with (though these days they call it Classic Rock/Metal), so I play a lot of Purple, Maiden, Priest, Sabbath, Zeppelin and such. But I also have stuff like Pantera or Dream Theater and Amaran's Plight in my collection which are decidedly newer. And that is just the Rocky side of things, because as a keyboardist I am also hooked on the whole 80s synth revival, so there is a whole lot of those things as well. Just as Classical music, Jazz, Symphonic Rock, AOR, records by the various one-hit-wonders, mindless pop, etc.

But I agree that in the Days Of Auto-tune and increasing computer power the quality of music is deteriorating.
 
what I'm getting at in some cases is that, yes as a mainstream artform music has gotten extremely commercial and all sounds the same.

Yes, depressing songs have been around for centuries. There still is some good music out there and some good performers, but they're not represented on radio anymore. You've got to wade through tons of crap to find them because the industry is no longer interested in developing artists. They're interested in short term profit and that's it. So most music produced goes completely unnoticed.

Jazz died in about 1980. That's when it went either Avante Garde, which is quite inaccessible to the majority of people, listened to by few, and essentially to me becomes a wall of noise. Or it went to elevator music with "smooth jazz". I can't stand either of these.

Rock has seen its day. It had a good run of 50 years. But now what's left is a very few groups: Rammstein is quite accessible as an example; but many of the metal bands ... sorry guys i just can't get past the cookie monster vocals. I can't hear what they're saying. Part of it is age related hearing loss where the whole thing becomes a wall of noise. I've heard some really good metal bands today like Ensiferum where I can actually understand them, and they have melody, good harmony, but most of the rest? Keep it. After a while it becomes a wall of noise (just like Avante Garde jazz does which by the way is played by people my age).

There is little in the music world that is going to shock me. I've kept up. What would shock me is a return to melody. Modern day "classical" music is mostly unlistenable. No melody. Totally inaccessible to the general public and exists pretty much only for academia. I studied at a music conservatory.

I've got a couple keyboards from the previous century. One is no longer what we'd call vintage -- it's now a relic -- made in 1916. And another is more recent 1996 stage piano + synths, but this is strictly a midi controller for me now since I can get better sounds out of the virtual instruments.

Now this brings me to styles and fashion trends in modern culture -- plastic. Please bring back styles of the late 40s and 50s. Men's suits looked great, and bring back Fedoras. And the women back then really knew how to dress, and those hats. Put a modern twist to them. And take the plastic out of fabrics. Cars also had style. Today they look like bugs (not VWs, but insects -- mostly cockroaches).

There's my rant for the day.
 
Well,

ok then. I don't know about clothes, but yes, cars have sucked for YEARS! About '72 to be exact. The nostalgia look is in for cars, but they are missing something big; earth ores, bka CHROME!

Yes, the golden era of radio in the USA is long gone, and never existed around the world. I was sad to see it go, esp. since I was so very young when it happened!

I wonder if the writers of history will figure it out. "Then in 1962 the first Wal Mart store opened..."

Have fun!
 
Julia next post will be a story about how the **** neighborhood kids keep playing on her lawn, lol!

I think there is plenty of good music out there, problem is there is SO much music out there that there are lots of bad & mediocre too. Regroup and hit the search engine, chances are you'll find plenty of like minded people you can groove with

Surprisingly, I vote YES to fedoras!
 
Julia said:
bring back Fedoras.
Me and my friend Steve are working on it :lol: dragging some other friends in for the ride too! From closest to farthest: Me, MadHatter_Lurch, our friend Tenchman.

13664_223480702462_613102462_4108155_5316312_n.jpg
 
Julia,
I can really understand what you're saying. I am a musician and I am ALSO a student of history and culture.
What is unusual in todays music is the romantisism of DEATH. Wether it's gangsta Rap or Death metal..or even Goth or emo....there is a strong urge to romanticize death.
This is new. So far as I know, this has NOT existed with such prevalence before. Consider it a message.
And If I may be so bold: the messsage is this: Human beings need authentic culture to survive. The actual feelings of belonging,happiness,respect and purpose..it turns out..are needed in order for the individual to thrive.
And in this world of plastic, and in-authenticity..where there is authority BUT NO LEADERSHIP, Marketing but NO CULTURE, TRIBALISM..but no family....in this enviroment people do not thrive. Their lives are pessimistic and worried.
I play cover songs that represent earlier times (upbeat stuff 1960s- now) and its amazing: people repond. Its a very real thing. Its reproducible. People dont all the sudden become wonderful..but there is a bond ..and within it, people support and believe in virtue,family and that happiness, itself, is actually pretty COOL.
I think more and more people are deciding to come over to this... all the time. You reading this are invited as well..cmon over. The scene is fine. Pull back from the scene that extolls death. Death is neither good or bad, it just IS..
anybody hyping THAT... is avoiding the obvious: LIFE.
GtrGeorge
 
Hi, Even though this is getting to be an old post, I wanted to say bravo and cheers for excellent ,insightful comentary. There is hope after all.
I play in a variety band. We pull stuff out of the old days all the time and the people do love it. We use a set list as a guidline but try to play almost every request we get. Songs with a good message or that we're innovative back in the day always get a great response. AJ
 
Personally, I've rocked harder as I've gotten older; go figure!

But I do agree about the optimism vs pessimism thing; it seems as if depression has become trendy, which I find a little disturbing, and, as another forumite pointed out, an utter fascination with death...

The 'death' thing I ascribe to the violent times we're living in. Nowadays, because of multimedia, people are bombarded with images and stories about it; as a species, we've become enurred to it (unfortunately)

Also, death had always been kind of a taboo subject in music, but now the "gloves are off", so to speak, and we're experiencing the result of that...
 
Yes, it's the 24 hr news cycle. There's always been violence, death and destruction, but now we hear about it every day 24 hrs/day.
 
GtrGeorge! said:
Julia,
I can really understand what you're saying. I am a musician and I am ALSO a student of history and culture.
What is unusual in todays music is the romantisism of DEATH. Wether it's gangsta Rap or Death metal..or even Goth or emo....there is a strong urge to romanticize death.
This is new. So far as I know, this has NOT existed with such prevalence before. Consider it a message.
And If I may be so bold: the messsage is this: Human beings need authentic culture to survive. The actual feelings of belonging,happiness,respect and purpose..it turns out..are needed in order for the individual to thrive.
And in this world of plastic, and in-authenticity..where there is authority BUT NO LEADERSHIP, Marketing but NO CULTURE, TRIBALISM..but no family....in this enviroment people do not thrive. Their lives are pessimistic and worried.
I play cover songs that represent earlier times (upbeat stuff 1960s- now) and its amazing: people repond. Its a very real thing. Its reproducible. People dont all the sudden become wonderful..but there is a bond ..and within it, people support and believe in virtue,family and that happiness, itself, is actually pretty COOL.
I think more and more people are deciding to come over to this... all the time. You reading this are invited as well..cmon over. The scene is fine. Pull back from the scene that extolls death. Death is neither good or bad, it just IS..
anybody hyping THAT... is avoiding the obvious: LIFE.
GtrGeorge
Yes, yes and yes...
Wow, George. Eloquent, soulful, and right to the point. I feel you on this all the way bro. We must find acceptance for the reality that life "is". It is all part of something that we have the unique opportunity to experience once and we get to choose it freely. Our perceptions form our reality and our values. Let's choose to focus on loving each other and really searching to understand where different people are coming from. The media will always be bombarding us with negativity because it makes a more sensational headline. I found that I can do more good by taking care of the people that the universe puts in front of me each day. One thing that helps me out is being kind to the people that serve me. From the gas station attendant to the grocery checker at Safeway, I try to make small talk and send out positive vibes. It makes things so much better when you try to make other people feel good. I love it when I can see that someone is having a rough day at a **** job and something goofy I say or do makes them laugh. The next time they see you they recognize you and smile. :)
 
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