Bands that matter and why, and this is the best thread ever (1 Viewer)

[sfidc3]

For those in the audience who don't know Duke Ellington, can you go into a little more detail? Is it the name Duke, or the last name Ellington that means more? Do you get what I'm saying?

The Duke....Stevie Wonder wrote a song just about him. The man inspired almost every jazz great after him....I'm sure Guido can expound more fully....

 

[Zack Lee]

I like bands that have the why built in. Tool, AIC, The Cult, Juanas Addiction.

 

[mambodeath]

i think those who are 'in" music can't help but approach music as a composition - like they can see the mechanics at work (I know i'm that way with theatre and dance - i immediately see process way more than product)

This is so true!
When I first heard Prince's I Feel for You (demo version) I immediately knew he had been listening to Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage and adopted the use of the dominant 7 sus 4 chords

 

[sfidc3]

To me the most important artists (not my favorites necessarily but in the mix) are Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Total originals, song writing geniuses, solid musicians and Joni did the artwork on a lot of her albums. If there is a more talented woman out there, I would like to know who that is....

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

To me the most important artists (not my favorites necessarily but in the mix) are Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Total originals, song writing geniuses, solid musicians and Joni did the artwork on a lot of her albums. If there is a more talented woman out there, I would like to know who that is....

Bjork - that’s not a joke

 

[sfidc3]

Bjork - that’s not a joke

It sounds pretty funny to me....

 

[sonicboom]

Bjork - that’s not a joke

Bjork matters. Very creative artists, with fun songs, and also was with the Sugar Cubes.

 

[sonicboom]

Bands that matter?

Tool.

Radio Head.

Metallica

Alice in Chains

I'll write the why a bit later when I can get on a PC and type.

Promises-promises.

 

[sonicboom]

I really like Kurt and Joey. They have a lot of similarities in they were both tortured souls in their fame. They were both pretty introverted people and I would imagine fame is hard for people like that.

I think Joey was more distinctive and original than Kurt, but Kurt was probably a better songwriter.

"End of the Century" documentary of the Ramones is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Supposedly The Ramones and Joey Ramone created punk rock music, and Nirvana and Kurt Cobain created a new style of punk.

My opinion they were hardly tortured souls due to their fame, more like tortured due to health problems, and hardships growing up. I think both Kurt and Joey signed up to be a rock star, so if they were tortured due to being famous, then I'm sure those royalty checks balanced it out.

Who do you think had a better voice?

 

[tomwaits]

Supposedly The Ramones and Joey Ramone created punk rock music, and Nirvana and Kurt Cobain created a new style of punk.

My opinion they were hardly tortured souls due to their fame, more like tortured due to health problems, and hardships growing up. I think both Kurt and Joey signed up to be a rock star, so if they were tortured due to being famous, then I'm sure those royalty checks balanced it out.

Who do you think had a better voice?

I think they both had physical health and mental issues.
Joey also never got over Johnny stealing his girlfriend, hence "The KKK Took my Baby Away" was written.

I like Joey's voice better but I am glad both existed.

 

[sonicboom]

I think they both had physical health and mental issues.
Joey also never got over Johnny stealing his girlfriend, hence "The KKK Took my Baby Away" was written.

I like Joey's voice better but I am glad both existed.

Yeah, I remember watching a bit on how Joey lost his girl to Johnny. Talk about bad blood, that isn't something that you just forget normally. Didn't know that the song was about that, interesting.

Agreed, glad both existed.

I'm taking Kurt's vocals over Joey's, but it's a difficult one to say, who is better. I think they both enriched many lives, with great music.

 

[sonicboom]

Lap and Rubber were way more significant/important bands than Nirvana...

Why? Can you post your favorite song of each band? Never heard of them.

 

[tenordas]

Can we talk about the statement I have heard many people utter: "Music is so important to me"? I've heard it many times and almost verbatim to exactly how I phrased it every time. Why do you think people feel this way? Why do you think they say it? Have you ever said it? We have so many of these types of threads I'm almost certain most of us at least have had the thought.

But I've never heard it said by a person I would actually define as a "musical" person meaning someone who performs or creates music either prolifically as a pastime or avocation or as a livelihood. My entire family has always been "musical" (mother was a music teacher, sister played flute and was a music teacher. None of us has ever sang professionally but always sang a lot whether in the choir, sometimes in church as a family together, mom in opera when she was younger, or just, you know, recreationally) and I can't remember any one of us ever stating that phrase but music certainly WAS and is important to us.

Classical music is important to me because I frequently call it my "attitude adjustment". Some composers' works just change my brain chemistry so profoundly I can feel it when I listen to it. Some contemporary bands/singers can do the same thing but on a smaller scale.

You almost answered your own question.
I'm sure I'd never be able to find it, but I read an article in JAMA way back in the 80s discussing the effects of music on the brain. Music, in fact, makes our brains react on more levels than any other stimulus. Our brains react along the frontal lobe all the way down to the brain stem. This is why people have such strong reactions to music, why it's "so important to them". And those reactions can be positive or negative. It's why some people absolutely love some music while they find other music absolutely intolerable.

As for we musicians, we tend to hear music with the right side of the brain while non-musicians hear it with the left. That's because we spend so much time analyzing the music and techniques when we're learning our instrument(s), and then implementing our techniques to the music we're performing, the brain defaults to that track whenever we listen to music. Personally, that's a big reason I only really enjoy music that is complicated rather than simple. My brain has a blast listening and analyzing it while it gets quickly bored with simpler music.

 

[Saint_Ward]

Promises-promises.

I wasn't able to get on the computer. My kid is a camper...lol.

 

[tenordas]

Answering the OP questions:

1) YES - They married classical, jazz, and rock styles together to bring "rock" music to places no other band had even considered before.

King Crimson - The '80s version in particular. I can only describe them as a hard rock jazz combo. Again, no one was doing anything like this. The combination of unique guitar ideas and techniques from Fripp and Belew would have been enough to be exceptional, but put together with the inventiveness of the greatest percussionist in the rock world and the other worldly amazing Tony Levin playing the Stick just made for music that blows one's mind.

2) Joey Ramone. To me this isn't even a contest. The Ramones are an outlier for me: decidedly not complicated music in any way, but the sheer raw emotion and honesty of the Ramones is what makes them stand out. Nirvana was just another band performing music if you understand my meaning. Not to say they were bad (or good), just that they were performers, while I felt like the Ramones were just being who they were.

Last thing, The Ramones did not invent Punk Rock, but I can make a pretty good argument that they perfected it. Inventing it belongs simultaneously to MC5 and Los Saicos. In 1964, MC5 in Detroit and Los Saicos in Lima, Peru (having no knowledge of each other if I am not mistaken) both began the punk rock movement. Not that they intended to start a musical genre, they just played what they played and others were influenced to follow their lead.