Quote: (05-22-2014 01:01 PM)soup Wrote:
Quote: (05-22-2014 12:51 PM)Cunnilinguist Wrote:
^^ Exactly. Musicians complaining about being underappreciated and whatnot automatically get the eyeroll from me. It should be a hobby these days, not a profession.
You will drown in a sea of shitty music.
Rant mode.
This. The signal-to-noise ratio is ridiculous now. We are drowning in an ocean of utterly-average music, that the last 'new' song that challenged me in any way as a listener, (to the extent I had to run to the piano to figure out just how it was put together), was in
1999.
There's male hamsterisation going on here that music is somehow disconnected to everything else we're talking about.
Successful musicians are rationalised away as being 'talented' and not expect reward for their work. It's the old bitter shrug: "They can only do that because they're talented. I could do that too, if I had talent. It's just entertainment. It's not a job."
Bullshit. 'Talent' is simply the result of endless, unseen hours of hard work and effort. If you think the other way, you're just like a fat chick demonising fit girls for 'starving' themselves. "Oh, they just have good metabolisms," she says, eating a cronut.
There's thread after thread of people on here decrying the cowardice of people and organisations not standing their ground for their beliefs, due to advertisers instantly-folding to any pressure groups. Do you really expect any unpopular ideas to be given voice in music, if advertising owns it? Imagine if Roosh had a guitar, rather than a blog? Would you have heard of him in this climate? How quickly would he be dropped by a record label if he wrote a song called 'Water Takes The Shape'.
So, what we've currently-ended up with: rap guys and r&b girls both concerned with fame and conspicuous consumption, rather than anything political, like rap used to be. The guys are all alpha bragging about all the pussy they're getting and all the toys they can buy, the girls are all offering self-empowering crap: "you're a star! you're a firework! you're a starship! you run the world!"
The listeners hearing all this lose themselves in the fantasy, but knowing it's not the reality of their lives, are deeply-unhappy because of it. Unhappy people spend more. The aspirational brand names to be purchased to guarantee happiness are in half of the songs.
Do you really think you're hearing the best of what is on offer? Do you want to know how things really work now?
A famous old music writer mate once spoke to me about Delta Goodrem (Sony - hugely famous in Australia) before her success: "It doesn't matter what I write about her.
It has been decided that she will be famous, so she will be."
A music producer mate: "You're called to meetings between the record company and the radio guys, and they listen to the music, and all decide who will be famous.
There is no chance in this process."
The artist who pledges loyalty to the company and is the best team player is rewarded. Sound any different to your average feminist office drone?
My album producer, who was on a major in the 90's, after they'd spent a cool million recording his album: "I got called in by the label execs. They'd been focus testing my songs. Sat me down and said they'd consistently gotten 5 out of 5 scores from the testers. I think this is great. They shake their heads, and explain, 'no this is very bad. Radio won't touch you'. I asked why, they said 'they love your songs *too* much'. They explained the problem: when the song ends, the listeners are wondering who the song is by and wanting to find out, and
not listening to the commercial after it.
You can't be more exciting than the ads.
"What we want you to do now," they said. "Is to go back, and write some 3's."
Don't tell me the indie kids are going to save the day. Because it takes money to have any kind of career in music now, all you get are the bored, low-resilient dilettante children of the upper class: hipsters. Combine a life of comfort and lack of personal challenge and you end up with a bunch of solipsistic drivel, and a herd mentality. These kids are born sold out, and have no integrity to lose.
We are drowning in a sea of utter dreck. Venues now don't pay live bands: "It's good exposure for your band. We're doing you a favour." Most music reviewers are unpaid, ("good exposure"), so you end up with people with a casual understanding of music writing about bands who only have a casual understanding of music, meaning everyone's 'best band ever' or 'boundary pushing' has already been done, and better.
It's dark ages for music, man. I'm not sure why I'm putting a record out.