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What happened to bands being popular?

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Sad thing is that the best Beatles solo albums with the exception of Ringo's were the debuts (Plastic Ono, McCartney, All Things Must Pass), and it was pretty much downhill for each of them after that.

i made a pretty cool playlist with songs from their early solo efforts

it almost like another beatles album
 
They were much better as the format.
You know, the first fun. album is actually pretty good. But yeah, I can't believe they got mainstream popular with such a terrible song and album.

So anyway, I listen to indie and there's plenty of stuff to listen to. There's too much good stuff to listen to. There's bands actively making music right now that are some of my favorites, and are so much better than the shit I listened to as a teenager. Fleet Foxes, Beirut, The Civil Wars, The Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend. You have bands like Mumford & Sons selling over 2 million records. It's never been easier to find good music, and there's never been more of it out there. We've just finally broken out of the radio/MTV cage of the past.
 
How did you set it up?


kEwdT.png


i actually stole it from another forum

i liked it cause it doesnt just pick their obvious hits and some thought went into the ordering of it

like paul/lennon taking shots at each back-to-back (dear boy / how do you sleep)
 
It's never been easier to find good music, and there's never been more of it out there.
Yeah, but people who primarily listen to radio will never be much more willing to look for the good stuff than they've ever been. They then remain ignorant and won't even take suggestions for new music from others who have broken away, because they're comfortable with what they have, sadly.

"What's good is what's popular" is still the mindset of the majority. To me, this would be limiting and frustrating, but to many others it's just the natural way.
 
It's all about EDM now. Tiesto, Avicii, Skrillex, Axwell, Nero, Armen Van Buren etc. There is a huge rave sub culture that's getting more popular by the day. Lots of these ravers remind me of hippies in the 70s. I personally call them Neo Hippies.
 
i really liked 'beautiful boy', and this video of paul crying while listening to it is pretty touching.


'look at me' is pretty much 'julia' part 2 or something
 
I could rant for a very long time about how amazing music is these days, but I don't think it would go very far.

Just watch this daily.

It's incredible. We have everything and it's immediately accessible. Still plenty of mainstream uber-produced stuff for those who like that, but there's a constant stream of amazing new acts all the time. I have discovered so many new groups and awesome songs since I started using services like Spotify and Rdio, and just searching the Internet in general.

Not only that, but we also have all of the amazing classics available at our fingertips. It's just great.
 
Black Keys are pretty popular, Kings of Leon, I dunno they are still around you just haven't heard of them.


It's all about EDM now. Tiesto, Avicii, Skrillex, Axwell, Nero, Armen Van Buren etc. There is a huge rave sub culture that's getting more popular by the day. Lots of these ravers remind me of hippies in the 70s. I personally call them Neo Hippies.

I would replace that with Wolfgang Gartner, Justice, Pretty Lights and some dub step stuff like Rusko. I'm from NY tho but that seems to be what the EDM kids by me love.

O and bassnectar
 
There's plenty of good music, but mainstream culture represents the worst music in our history, which really makes the world a less enjoyable place.

I wish it was the 70s or the 90s again, man.
 
When I went to buy my tickets for the Clockwork Angels tour Live Nation was all "DID YOU MEAN BIG TIME RUSH?!?" and I was all "Dafuq?"

Then, on the drive home from seeing Van Halen with special guests Valerie Bertenelli and David Lee Roth, I had the radio on a pop station and during the time between San Jose and Vacaville I heard "Call Me Maybe," a song I think was by Adele (I honestly can't tell the difference between her, Duffy, and Amy Winehouse and you could easily convince me they're all one person) and a song by Katy Perry on what seemed to be a continuous loop, as if some teenager made a "songs I bought on iTunes" playlist and then hijacked a radio station.

What I'm saying is I'm fairly out of touch with modern music. I live in my own music bubble, supported by my iPhone and my local classic rock station and I'm generally pretty happy with it. Except when I hear "The Eagle presents the next generation of Classic Rock" followed by a song I remember being new when I was in middle or high school. YOU BASTARDS ARE MAKING ME FEEL OLD!!!

Not saying I don't listen to pop; I had an ex who loved Top 40 and I did buy a few songs and an album or two myself, but it was more of a "Goddamnit, I can't get California Girls out of my head" situation than a "I genuinely like this and would like to support this artist" thing.
 
When I went to buy my tickets for the Clockwork Angels tour Live Nation was all "DID YOU MEAN BIG TIME RUSH?!?" and I was all "Dafuq?"

Then, on the drive home from seeing Van Halen with special guests Valerie Bertenelli and David Lee Roth, I had the radio on a pop station and during the time between San Jose and Vacaville I heard "Call Me Maybe" a song I think was by Adele (I honestly can't tell the difference between her, Duffy, and Amy Winehouse and you could easily convince me they're all one person) and a song by Katy Perry on what seemed to be a continuous loop, as if some teenager made a "songs I bought on iTunes" playlist and then hijacked a radio station.

What I'm saying is I'm fairly out of touch with modern music. I live in my own music bubble, supported by my iPhone and my local classic rock station and I'm generally pretty happy with it. Except when I hear "The Eagle presents the next generation of Classic Rock" followed by a song I remember being new when I was in middle or high school. YOU BASTARDS ARE MAKING ME FEEL OLD!!!

Not saying I don't listen to pop; I had an ex who loved Top 40 and I did buy a few songs and an album or two myself, but it was more of a "Goddamnit, I can't get California Girls out of my head" situation than a "I genuinely like this and would like to support this artist" thing.

Hey, I just met you
And this is crazy
But I'm not Adele
My name is Carly.
 
Music from about the year 2000 up to today sucks ass. Maybe tomorrow something will change.
I'm pretty sure not a single person who listens to music outside the Top 40 could agree with you here.

By believing such a thing you're really doing a disservice to yourself as a listener. Music is as good as it's ever been, but the landscape has changed, and there's a lot out there. You have to search for what is good (and good to you), but the process is very easy due to technology, and the payoff is really satisfying.
 
I'm starting to see that I'm reaching the age (37 now) that I listen to new music less and less and just fall back on the greats from the 90's of grunge and alt rock as well as the classic rock from the 70's and some 80's.

Thankfully, services like Steam, GoG, Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, etc have proven that it's super easy to dwell in the back catalog of entertainment and be satisfied for the rest of your life.

So I'm perfectly happy ignoring the Biebers of the world and I still have lots of music to listen to.
 
You know who really makes me cringe? Niki Minaj.

not only is she more makeup than human, but her songs have the worst messages. I couldn't think of a worse role model for my eleven year old sister. She was singing "You're a stupid ho" the other day and my dad and grandfather got livid, to say the least.

Ya know, its alright to sing and write about these themes but have some maturity and gravity behind them, they aren't light subjects. I think that's what bothers me about a lot of this shallow rap music, other than boring rap (people need to listen to more J5), they just treat these slurs and themes of prostitution gangs and murder like its perfectly alright and acceptable.
 
The Strokes, Mumford and Sons, Arcade Fire, The Killers. I guess they aren't popular on the scale that some bands were in the 80s and 90s, but they are pretty big.

I think a big difference is that pop music stations would play big rock bands more back then. They stick to the solo pop artists now. Hip hop is bigger among white suburban teenagers now more than ever before as well.
 
You know who really makes me cringe? Niki Minaj.

not only is she more makeup than human, but her songs have the worst messages. I couldn't think of a worse role model for my eleven year old sister. She was singing "You're a stupid ho" the other day and my dad and grandfather got livid, to say the least.

Ya know, its alright to sing and write about these themes but have some maturity and gravity behind them, they aren't light subjects. I think that's what bothers me about a lot of this shallow rap music, other than boring rap (people need to listen to more J5), they just treat these slurs and themes of prostitution gangs and murder like its perfectly alright and acceptable.

Not to mention the complete lack of genuine emotion. I have no idea what the average person sees in all of the auto-tuned crap that gets played so constantly. It's just so...boring. It lacks humanity and feeling.
 
You know who really makes me cringe? Niki Minaj.

not only is she more makeup than human, but her songs have the worst messages. I couldn't think of a worse role model for my eleven year old sister. She was singing "You're a stupid ho" the other day and my dad and grandfather got livid, to say the least.

Ya know, its alright to sing and write about these themes but have some maturity and gravity behind them, they aren't light subjects. I think that's what bothers me about a lot of this shallow rap music, other than boring rap (people need to listen to more J5), they just treat these slurs and themes of prostitution gangs and murder like its perfectly alright and acceptable.

The declining quality of popular music is directly proportional to the rise of hip hop. It's a shame.
 
Not to mention the complete lack of genuine emotion. I have no idea what the average person sees in all of the auto-tuned crap that gets played so constantly. It's just so...boring. It lacks humanity and feeling.

Its alright to autotune for artistic creativity if done right, like with electronic music, but when its done to make you sound better than you actually are, it just grinds my gears.

The same with Artists that aren't good live. Once I hear them live, if they sound like shit... I lose interest in the band all together.

The declining quality of popular music is directly proportional to the rise of hip hop. It's a shame.

No I don't think so, these popular bands have always been around in different forms, different eras. Most rise and fall.

Also, what do you mean Rise of Hip Hop? Hasn't hip hop been on the decline for a while.

This is real Hip Hop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqj1Q1a2mzU Do give it a listen by the way. Its great, artistic, creative.
 
Not to mention the complete lack of genuine emotion. I have no idea what the average person sees in all of the auto-tuned crap that gets played so constantly. It's just so...boring. It lacks humanity and feeling.

You'd never hear a pop star of today record a song like "Time Stands Still" or "Under the Bridge."

The best you can hope for is a song like "With Arms Wide Open" that went from "A song Scott Stapp wrote about what fatherhood must feel like" to "A song Scott Stapp wrote about what fatherhood is like." The difference being that year or so between the tour in support of their first mainstream album and their second.
 
You'd never hear a pop star of today record a song like "Time Stands Still" or "Under the Bridge."

The best you can hope for is a song like "With Arms Wide Open" that went from "A song Scott Stapp wrote about what fatherhood must feel like" to "A song Scott Stapp wrote about what fatherhood is like." The difference being that year or so between the tour in support of their first mainstream album and their second.

I'm not a huge fan of her voice, but I would argue Adele is pretty good.
 
A lot of the popular dance pop and pop rap songs are shallower than drops of water.

I'm all for "just letting go and having fun" when it comes to hearing some of this stuff in the clubs, but being bombarded with it on a daily basis is a different story. At that point I'm wondering why every song basically requires me to turn my brain off. The messages and subject matter are played out, and the lyrics are so simple they're mind-numbing.

People who listen to this stuff don't believe in "context." Like I said, I think this sort of music fits the context of clubs and parties just fine, since dancing is a particular kind of experience and background music for parties isn't a big deal, but I don't get how typical pop/dance/pop rap music is fitting for the context of pure listening.

I don't see how listening to the same thing every day, regardless of the situation, is satisfying. Then again, music for me isn't the same experience as it is for others, I guess.
 
I'm not saying they are great but what happened to pop bands?

When I was growing up in the 90s it was Nirvana and Green Day that I got from older brother.

In the early to mid 2000s there was still Green Day, Blink 182, Sum 41, Fenix TX, RHCP and countless other punk/indi bands. Where did they all go and their popularity.

MTV stopped playing videos, so that was a thing. And most local alternative or rock stations died out during the late 90's. In Austin we had 3 of the 4 modern rock stations die within 2 years.

With the Internet now, we have thousands of bands competing, when before we had a couple of hundred artists hand selected by the studios making up the music scene.

Napster was the beginning of the end of traditional radio play and record buying. And now we are here where you get the occasional big seller like Adele, but the industry as a whole is super fragmented. Tower Records and Virgin Megastores are dead. No more midnight sales for albums like OK Computer.

I am not sure whether or not it is a good or bad trend, but buying a physical copy of an album vinyl or cd has been replaced. It is a feeling that the current and next generation will not experience and that is sort of sad.
 
I have a BIG question

With every rap album released post 1999ish have 37 rappers on the album...how the fuck do they tour?

Seriously?

I pick up any rap album now and EVERY single track features no less then 1 rapper besides the main artist.
 
I have a BIG question

With every rap album released post 1999ish have 37 rappers on the album...how the fuck do they tour?

Seriously?

I pick up any rap album now and EVERY single track features no less then 1 rpper besides the main artist.

Holograms
 
I have a BIG question

With every rap album released post 1999ish have 37 rappers on the album...how the fuck do they tour?

Seriously?

I pick up any rap album now and EVERY single track features no less then 1 rapper besides the main artist.

Playback and the rapper will rap along/emphasize some parts.
 
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