well, if we're talking about the suckage of recent rock music

Rock has lost a lot of its bite because doesnt really have any drive attatched to it right now. It seems to have had these major phases:

a) initial youth rebellion era, which tied in with rock and roll as anarchic blend of pop and sexuality
b) protest phase where rock was used as a public medium against war, the establishment, etc; segue into what we call "classic rock"
c) punk rock introduced, which blended both of the above and gave rock the most liberation it had ever had
d) post punk, nu wave, etc - people allowed to experiment with more advanced equipment, former punks writing new music with influences from every aspect of music

At this point music shifted in the pop world and the in the "underground" (fuck that's a dumb word). the "punk revival/alternative/grunge" phase happened in pop music which was a retread of past ideas; for most, rock music shifted to pop music and became more and more digital-centric. we are still basically seeing this in the popularity of emo music and alternative music by the dave matthews band and about 400 other people who would like to be the dave matthews band.

In the non-pop world the most interesting and driven stuff to go on from this point was post-/math-/noise- rock which all came out of basically nowhere and what a lot of us at EA consider the apex of rock so-far. but since then... not really a lot has happened.

it makes sense to me why rock would hit this point. where do you progress from here without resorting to stuff that is breaking off from what we call rock? my favorite "rock" cds in the last 10 years are almost all stuff that really do not fit into the category of rock without stretching it (like newer postrock and electronic stuff) or could have concievably been done in the scene 20 years ago (i mean come on, bellini and deerhoof are even prasied for bringing back the post-punk attitude).

so in summation the problem for me is that rock is kind of stagnating and has been for a while. part of that is cause it lacks a movement now, part of it is cause at some point you just have to look for non rock places because we have done practically all you can do with the tools, alone, to make rock music.

fuck i feel like tmh. sorry.

If it makes any difference this is my perspective as a high schooler, so if my views on how rock music developed are out of context then that's probably because i didn't actually see most of the fun parts as they happened.

Well, when I feel like music is really sucking in general, I think about the fact that there are lots of others like myself, and many of them make music. At that point it becomes an issue of energy; do I have the resources necessary to research new music, or am I going to rely on the same sources of information (in my case, my friends) that I usually do.

To truly research what I would call new music, you would really have to assign a significant amount of time to the task. Lotsa music out there, and I can't be the only cool asshole on the planet, right?

That being said, the current model of pumping mediocre bands with lots of PR makes it difficult to divest any quality information from the bullshit factor. You lose through sheer volume.

if anyone could take the time and effort to second-guess my tastes and psychology, and make the appropriate recommendations, I would certainly appreciate it. Thanks.

apparently i started this thread.

i don't remember doing it now.
i think i was trying to win an argument on another forum and was asking everyone to do all the leg work for me. i don't think it worked, in fact as i recall it escalated into a big fight between me and a load of metal-heads who called me a 'faux-intelligent cunt' for liking deerhoof.

look, this thread is shunned by it's creator!

tommydski wrote:apparently i started this thread.

i don't remember doing it now.
i think i was trying to win an argument on another forum and was asking everyone to do all the leg work for me. i don't think it worked, in fact as i recall it escalated into a big fight between me and a load of metal-heads who called me a 'faux-intelligent cunt' for liking deerhoof.

look, this thread is shunned by it's creator!

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:I disagree vehemently with these "music sucks because anyone can make a record now-a-days" people...

i don't think music sucks now, but i do think everyone being able to make and market a half-assed record has certainly increased the volume of suckiness, or at least the volume of suckiness one is likely to come into contact with.

Ally In Exile wrote:

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:I disagree vehemently with these "music sucks because anyone can make a record now-a-days" people...

i don't think music sucks now, but i do think everyone being able to make and market a half-assed record has certainly increased the volume of suckiness, or at least the volume of suckiness one is likely to come into contact with.

Judging by the amount of intensely half-assed music that exists, I think this statement is inaccurate.

how so?

do you think my statement is too conservative?

Ally In Exile wrote:how so?

do you think my statement is too conservative?

They've been making half-assed records forever. Many of them made millions of dollars. Nothing new there.

Two years ago I was talking to someone at a guitar shop about a show my band was about to play at a local coffee house. He sort of winced when I said the place, and when I asked why he just responded, "That's a tough crowd there. Unless you're making your music with a Fisher Price lawnmower, noone wants to hear you."


I thought that statement might apply to this discussion.

I think there is definately more crap now. Some would say there was always lots of crap, but it's just more visable now. I disagree. There is more crap now than ever. More kids are buying guitars than ever because of all the cheap chinese manufacturing and mass marketing. And the ability to pirate music software. School of Rock was an entertaining movie, but I felt kind of shitty when I had to make a trip to Guitar Center and saw cardboard cutouts of Jack Black everywhere.

But still it's worth it. Having a neutral landscape where everyone has a similar accessability has helped me to find out about more good music than ever.