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Music Villains (1 Viewer)

James_Welch

Agent
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Jan 28, 2004
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33
Jason,

I agree with you about kids having bad taste in music. My kids are raised with a constant diet of everything from Beethoven to the Ramones including every great classical, jazz, blues, motown and rock albums from the beginning of the record industry to today. And the truth is I do not even think they process what is being played. In fact, they will be singing one of the latest pop songs or marketing jingles (or are the two one in the same) while other types of music is being played.
 

Rob P S

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2002
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2,005
Real Name
rob
My villains:

Clear Channel

MTV

Diane Warren - for creating the most soulless, banal, interchangeable Top 40 power ballads

Eminem, 50 Cent

Hillary Duff, Christina, Britney, etc.

Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey

Madonna

Cher

Justin Timberlake

American Idol

Ryan Seacrest
 

Chris

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Jul 4, 1997
Messages
6,788
Yoko Ono.. for being on one of my fav Lennon albums and giving me an unlistenable Side B :)

American Idol ... enough said.

VH1's "One Hit Wonders" - for trivializing musicians by highlighting 'their one big hit' which undermines good careers by any (for Pete Sake, Bobby McFerrin one grammies and has had million seller albums since then, people.. the world doesn't end when they stop doing snappy videos!)
 

Kraig Lang

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 28, 2000
Messages
199


Absolutely!!

And one of my biggest villains:

People who tell me that my musical taste and opinion is wrong.
 

gregD

Second Unit
Joined
Jan 16, 2003
Messages
420

Let's add Brian Wilson's father Murry to that list for a real one-two punch.

Actually, it looks like Wilson will have the last laugh... while Love lugs around the questionable oldies lounge act using the official BB name, Bri is performing the real deal, as he is touring Smile in Europe to rave reviews... speculation is that some kind of CD / DVD release will follow... reviews on the BW site are predictably positive, but it does seem like something special is happening: http://www.brianwilson.com/smile.html
 

Rob Gardiner

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Feb 15, 2002
Messages
2,950
Entering controversial territory here:

GEORGE MARTIN for remixing several early Beatles albums for their CD release.

The Beatles catalog on CD is a disgrace. What other act of such stature is still represented on the market by 16-bit 1987 masters?
 

Colin Jacobson

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Apr 19, 2000
Messages
13,328


What is this, one of those "which one doesn't belong?" puzzles. No way Madonna belongs with those other three shrieking skanks...
 

John Wielgosz

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Sep 3, 1998
Messages
154


Here, here... :)

My personal villain(s) would be the current culture that seems to prevent the creation of new long-term acts. I simply can't see the current industry allowing another U2, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, or (insert name of favorite act here) to grow beyond three albums. The last two rock acts that caught my long-term interest were Pearl Jam ('91) and Radiohead ('93). Just about everyone else I've been getting into recently have been fairly well established, with a back catalog ready for me to dive into.
 

TheLongshot

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 12, 2000
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4,118
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Jason


The disappointing thing is, the "three shrieking skanks" used to be good singers. Unfortunatly, you can't have good pop singers anymore...

The real villan should be the person who defined these people as "divas". They don't know what the meaning of the word is...

Jason
 

Mike Broadman

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Aug 24, 2001
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You know, up until very recently, I would have agreed with Aaron D's rant, but I thought it through, and here's the score:

The older one gets, the more he/she will start to develop and refine their tastes. So not only can it be "better" (whatever that means), but it will be more specific.

There is just so much music out there. A music fan will start out like anybody else: exposed to the pop stuff and little else. Then when they get a bit older, they'll start seeking out the music that moves them. But since different people will have different tastes, everybody goes off in different directions.

So you can't compare top 40 acts with lesser-known bands and complain that the former does better in sales.

The question is, how did that band get their singles so big in the first place? Most of us know that if a major label wants to, they will get that single out there, do or die.

So I'm putting the "blame" back on the shoulders of the industry. As an idealistic music lover, I have to believe that people will appreciate good music if they hear it. I just have to.
 

John Watson

Screenwriter
Joined
Jul 14, 2002
Messages
1,936
Blame the business or the audience? Hard to put it all on just one or the other.

But what are we exposed to, what is treated with respect in our "culture". Well, for the large part we are exposed to excess. If it isn't huge, expensive, loud, and celebrity-suffused, the masses won't hear it. And worse, they don't want to hear it!

I grew up when top 40 music (as they often tell us), was very diverse. Louis Armstrong or the Beatles or country song, or even some light jazz (Girl From Ipanema), could all feature in the top ten, and be heard on the same station by the same diverse audience. Ed Sullivan would stumble drunkenly from his intro to an opera singer to "and now, something for the kids". I don't know if that experience is all that makes me open to different music now, but it may have played a role.

Now we have much more focused music "cults", and corporations have huge budgets to deliver the audience to the product that a major label has invested in. Does anyone know what the musical listening habits are of the decision makers who steer these big corporations? (I'd guess FAUST is probably not their favorite opera :))

Anyway, as Mike says, there will always be individuals getting older who will get bored with their environment, and seek out the different. However, lucky the person who has a forceful mentor, or a good friend, who may broaden his/her musical horizons. Or who has parents who listen to something other than what the kids listen to (assuming the kids are victims of massive pop fever), or even better, make some intelligent remark (as opposed to vague put-downs) about what the kids listen to, which can make the kids take the remarks a bit more seriously.



PS : As the author of the comment on engineers (I was expecting more reaction here, but it seems only Aaron bit), let me elaborate - popular music has been turned into a technology driven geek show, when huge boards with levers, "programming" of instruments, routine tweaking of sound, spectacular amounts of cutting and pasting (layers, multi-tracking), plus fabulous budgets, and inordinate lengths of time, result in boring albums of overblown "shrieking skanks" (we are allowed to use such terms?)

Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin or Coltrane? could record an album in a couple of days or a week. I presume the trend to "massiveness" started with the Beatles, when the making of albums turned into a folk opera (or a team sport?) in its own right.
 

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