The best music yet to come? (1 Viewer)

[Saint_on_Helium]

From a personal perspective, music in the 60's and 70's was really changing society and American culture from being conformist to idealist like the counterculture, protest music, and songs that really were wide gapping. You had the Rock revolution begin in the 50's with Elvis and Little Richard, then the explosion began with the Beatles and then the acid rockers on both sides of the continent. I see Madonna as a person who came along at the right place at the right time. she is not a Jimi Hendrix or a Pink Floyd type talent, she knows how to market herself very well but she still what isn't like the Floyd or the Dead are in my ball park. Madonna would have sucked at a place like Woodstock or Monterey festivals. That in itself sums up my opinion of today's music. It sucks quite frankly. Its too commercial and too slick and corporate. Even if someone tried to shake it up, they fall into the same trap of commercialization. It happened in the 80's and the same way with the grunge bands and alternative bands of the 90's and they thought they were really different. Now look at them, even Pearl Jam.

Your perspective seems kind of narrow, and that's my whole point about great music is always happening right now. You say the "Rock Revolution" of the 60's and 70's, but what about the Jazz Revolution of the 20's? What about the Hip Hop revolution of the 80's? There has always been a commercial, plastic, lowest-common-denominator mass-marketed form of culture and a counter-culture underneath it. If you think today's music sucks then I suggest you look at the Lollapalooza and Coachella line-up. Just glancing at it I see many legendary, current and amazing musical acts.

 

['79 Saints]

Actually, you nailed. Bands that use the internet as their marketing and distribution will keep the record companies from controlling the market. It's already happening and theres no censoring of it too.

Some smart record exec will figure out how to get that market too... it happens. It's the nature of the beast.

If someone is willing to buy it, then someone is will try to make money off of it.

 

[dchalona]

No one has mentioned Jazz. Now i know a lot of moans went up but jazz influences all music born from blues. It's sad to say the only real evolution in music has been hip hop or the raping, sorry i meant rapping over other musical scores or generic beats. That is one reason i worry about music going no where. But, the big hairy but, many new artist have returned to the brutal truth of the blues and the just make it yours in the moment stylings of jazz and at least pay homage and allow it to influence there production now. I only wonder what is left for music, and i don't mean a new album or song but where will it go? Technoish with dirtect mental stimulation ( you know all that sci-fi junk), new instrument allowing greater free flow playing, or maybe a birth of new interpetation like jazz was to blues?

 

[killah]

Temposhark is getting much good pub right now. They have a new record coming out that some are saying is going to be one of the best this year.

 

[MSUSousaphone]

The best music comes when people devote their lives to it. That's why the most intricate stuff was done in the classical and romantic periods with the likes of Berlioz and Wagner. Compared to todays artists, they lived and breathed music.

Some people have mentioned the 60's and 70's, think about the lifestyles of the bands. There was less to do in the World and more time to devote to music. As time goes on, there will be more and more things added to our lives taking more and more time away from our devotion to music. Its the same thing with archetecture and stuff. If someone said they were going to build something great but it would take decades, even centuries, the project would never get off the ground.

No one wants to devote most of their lives to a piece of music. The best has happened.

 

[TPS]

>>I certainly think some of the best music ever written lies in our past, but I'm far from depressed...

I pretty much agree with this. Rock hit its artisan peak in 1973 and 1974. Jazz hit its artisan peak a few years later.

Having said that, I'm somewhat of a Fripp disciple in that no one creates music. Music is a language all its own in all of its nearly infinite possibilities. No one creates the music because it already exists both in theory and in possibility. Only the most hardheaded idiot thinks they came up with something clever or whatever because ultimately they think they are doing something which already exists. Sorry, some people don't like looking at things that way. Just the same, the honest person who is channelling or playing the music can certainly add his or her own stamp or signature to what they are playing.

I know.

TPS

 

[St. Widge]

The best music comes when people devote their lives to it. That's why the most intricate stuff was done in the classical and romantic periods with the likes of Berlioz and Wagner. .

I understand your point coming from your perspective, but I'm not sure that more intricate music is necessarily better music. Sometimes the more intricate it gets the more like math it gets. To me, that misses the point of music which is to express feeling, emotion or thought. Often times when it gets too intricate that is lost. Of course when the two are combined it's great, but IMO intricate does not always mean better or even good.

 

[St. Widge]

>>I certainly think some of the best music ever written lies in our past, but I'm far from depressed...

I pretty much agree with this. Rock hit its artisan peak in 1973 and 1974. Jazz hit its artisan peak a few years later.

Having said that, I'm somewhat of a Fripp disciple in that no one creates music. Music is a language all its own in all of its nearly infinite possibilities. No one creates the music because it already exists both in theory and in possibility. Only the most hardheaded idiot thinks they came up with something clever or whatever because ultimately they think they are doing something which already exists. Sorry, some people don't like looking at things that way. Just the same, the honest person who is channelling or playing the music can certainly add his or her own stamp or signature to what they are playing.

I know.

TPS

I had no idea you were a Platonist.

 

[geauxboy]

Music is a universal language in which the indivual/group expresses in their own unique (we hope anyway) way. People are different the world over, so there has to be untapped genres and sounds that have yet to be born and instraments yet to be made.

The math of it all is a do or die concept to me. I can appreciate the level of math introduced into a song like classical or jazz just the same as in rock or blues even. Math is a facinating thing especially when expressed through music. It's as if you are seeing the band at a chalk board and you can see the formulas come together before your eyes and ears. But, there are times when math sucks hardcore and takes away from the natural instincts of just ripping off a tune without a care in the world for math. Do whatcha wanna.

It's the beauty of math that gives us the complexities of jazz. It's amazing how they keep themselves in time while they're all off on their own tangents. But, when the song comes to a point where everyone comes together, it fits so amazingly perfect as if the world's problems have been solved.

Classical really set the tone for that. Jazz perfected it and (most) rock has forgotten it. But that's ok. Not everything has to be of such ridiculous complexity. Just play what you feel from heart, mind and energy. Find the perfect harmony between the two is what makes a great band IMO. There are exceptions to that rule, but for the most part, mixing oil and water like that successfully is an amazing concept of self expression and proffesionalism.

 

[TPS]

>>I had no idea you were a Platonist.

Frippertroni(c)st The key being the humbleness of the musician and the honesty that he brings as a channel for that, music, which is greater than he. In that regard, there were many times Fripp just plugged in and played whatever he did. I'll never forget the time he went on Midnight Special (76 or 77?) and said, "It's a brave thing you are doing here because I have aboslutely no idea what it is I'm about to play." Then he proceeded to channel some beautifully haunting melody. Of course he is a god among musicians in that he truly understands the craft of the musician is to pay respect to the music itself.

Fripp


TPS

 

[St. Widge]

>>I had no idea you were a Platonist.

Frippertroni(c)st The key being the humbleness of the musician and the honesty that he brings as a channel for that, music, which is greater than he. In that regard, there were many times Fripp just plugged in and played whatever he did. I'll never forget the time he went on Midnight Special (76 or 77?) and said, "It's a brave thing you are doing here because I have aboslutely no idea what it is I'm about to play." Then he proceeded to channel some beautifully haunting melody. Of course he is a god among musicians in that he truly understands the craft of the musician is to pay respect to the music itself.

Fripp


TPS

I meant Platonist in the sense that the true "forms" of things, including music, already exist and we just need to find them. Although for Plato, we can never really see the actual form of things we only grasp shadows, some being better representations of "the real" than others. (See the "Allegory of the Cave.")

So, maybe Fripp is a Platonist, but since I don't really know who he is, you'd know better than me if he thought that way.

 

[TPS]

Yeah, I know what you meant. And I think (????) I understand some of where Plato was going with with his concept of forms, true beauty and perfection. Perhaps infinity and perfection do exist in the abstract waiting to be uncovered or perhaps they only exist in the universal mind or even the mind of God, but since you are not going there, neither am I.

TPS

 

['79 Saints]

I mention the Allegory of the Cave here at work, and I get blank stares... I mention the Fallacy of the Happy Savage and I get bovine expressions...

I need to work with more humanities majors

If you discover old music, it's new to you... I've been doing that for about 20 years now, working my way backwards in different generes (country, rock, doo wop, big band, etc.)

 

[obwhiteo]

Music is getting better and better. Exhibit A:

i hope, wish and pray that this is sarcasm...... Fall out boy is better music to you than what??? New Kids and the Backstreet boys? 98 degrees?

 

[HouDat]

i hope, wish and pray that this is sarcasm...... Fall out boy is better music to you than what??? New Kids and the Backstreet boys? 98 degrees?

I think he was referring to The Police and Norah Jones.