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What happened to bands being popular?

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The wanted are popular, arent they?
turn the lights out now. now i take you by the hand. hand you another drink. drink it if you can. can you spend a little time. time is slipping away. away from us so stay. stay with i will make, make you glad came.

The fact that i can repeat this whole song from memory makes me sad. So dumb:

Anyway since evryone has diverted thsi thread into a thread about good music:

Can we please all hype about St. Lucia from now on?
http://vimeo.com/28024824

And Perfume Genius?
Dark Parts

And Edward Sharpe and the magnetic Zeros?
Man on Fire
 
fritolay said:
Really? Because I have been wanting to find new music and just can't find much. Here is some music I liked in the 90's and later, and listen to some today - Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Mad Season, Seether, Rage Against The Machine, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Toadies, Staind, The Offspring, White Stripes, etc.

Please suggest me some music that is any place like those bands, that is new in the last decade.
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Jack White just released a solo album and has released 4 albums with his 2 side project bands, The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs. And you should also check out The Black Keys as they're the garage rock/blues rock hotness of the moment.


As for those other bands, yeah, alternative rock and grunge is dead. A few old bands might be making new music, but it's all about indie rock, indie folk, and indie pop these days.
 
Kusagari said:
Real hip hop:
bc1W7.jpg
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FTFY ;)
 
I enjoy theses band from Australia but have never heard anyone say anything about them.

Karnivool
and
COG

LOVE these two songs by Karnivool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OIABR6I0tI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUmARJ0o6Hw&feature=related

and this one by COG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX1hcxqWq4A

Used to talk about them in the old Toolshed.down.net days but I havent anything about them in years and I dont think they even ever came close to making it in the states. Not sure hwo they are regarded in Australia but I always enjoyed them. I used to alwasy hear Australi had an amazing music scene.
 
Music is not as important anymore mainly because it is competing with so many more forms of entertainment. When I was a kid I could spend all day listening to a new album. I mean everyone used to spend hours warching MTV. There is too much competing for kids attention now. There are still music lovers and great music but it doesn't impact as many people.
 
You grew up is what happened, OP. Band/artist popularity is still a big deal with kids and young teens who have nothing else to think about.

For the rest of us the music scene is so over saturated that's there's not really a point in keeping that mentality. There are so many musicians now and e ease of acces is at a higher level than ever.
 
animlboogy said:
People, intentionally or not, just sort of filter out the shit from the era they like.

I remember thinking that would be impossible with the 90's, I mean, come on, the era of the New Kids On The Block and the Backstreet Boys and the general takeover of pop by people from some fucking Disney show?

But no, every thread is full of grumpy 20/30-somethings pining for the better days of the 90's, and comparing the good bands of that era with Justin Bieber now, as if that makes an ounce of sense. "Aw dude we had like Nirvana man not this Jonas Brothers shit and we never had pussies like One Direction we had like Alice In Chains."
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See the problem Im having with bands now, being a grumpy 30ish year old, is they all sound and look like art school dropouts and theres seems to be an incredible lack of bands with "teeth"
Seems like no middle ground between hipster sound and straight metal, both I dont like too much.
Its like the the 3 things you need in a band now are: Scarf, Wayfarers, and a lone girl.
 
CoffeeJanitor said:
pretty much

people just have to complain about something, bitch about how their generation was better etc
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hot_100_number-one_singles_of_1970_(U.S.)

I think people just long for a music industry that can sell some of their best artists to the entire country and aren't relegated to finding the artist on SoundCloud where only 400 people know they exist. Look at some of the pop songs from the 1970s that hit number 1. There is a lot of turnover. The Jackson 5, Sly & The Family Stone, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, The Guess Who, The Carpenters, Edwin Starr, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. There were songs about their death, songs about love, songs about war.

Simon & Garfunkel

The Jackson 5


The Beatles

Diana Ross

The Guess Who

The Carpenters

Edwin Starr


All of these songs were at the top of the charts during 1970.
 
Meh, I'm not into pop music but I always hear something different every month, even though some artists manage to be at the top for months.
The turnover still exists.
 
Lijik said:
Hold the fucking phone
It took six writers for that?

I can only imagine the writing meetings were the stuff of legend
"Now guys, just how many times should we repeat this "Who run this mother?" lyric.
Click to expand...

And how did none of them notice that there was an 's' missing from the end of run?
 
It's easy to forget that the airwaves "back in the day" were saturated with shit pop music too. No matter what decade you look at. Your memory just kinda erases those and fills in the blanks with stuff you liked.

Even in the "best" year of the '90s (not sure which one), I could look at the MuchMusic Countdown each week and only maybe a third of the songs were any good. The rest of the decade, even fewer would be good.

But radio... you're right, it's a whole different matter today. Over the last two decades, accountants and statisticians have sucked any last ounce of joy out of that. There's TONS of good music out there, but radio has pulled its head into its turtle shell and gone into "safe" mode to survive against iPods and streaming.
 
Izick said:
Rap is pop right now.
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Pretty much.

With the exception of Adele, and a small handful of others, top 40 (or pop) is nothing but dance and bubble gum music. If it doesn't have enough electronic beats to dance to it in a club - it doesn't get played on pop radio. Guitar music is dead on top 40.

Its a shame really, but early-mid 90s pop radio was awesome compared today. It had a lot more variety and a little something that could appeal to everyone. Not so today. Mid 90s pop radio had everything from Michael Jackson (Janet too) to Nirvana, to Pearl Jam, to Celine Dion, to Wilson Phillips, LL Cool J, and many others.

Now days though if you aren't into clubbing or dance tracks, top 40 radio is not for you.
 
People keep mentioning top 40 and pop radio stations, but I just have to wonder: why would anyone with the brain power to access the Internet even listen to such shit?

You can load your phone/mobile device with thousands of songs that you like, or use any of a dozen services to stream music based on your tastes. Why would you ever tune into a bullshit radio station these days?
 
Yeah, there's definitely been a lot of change in the dynamics of band popularity. I think there's a ton of awesome music coming out these days though.

Especially in the last few months. The Walkmen with Heaven, Beach House with Bloom, and Dirty Projectors with Swing Lo Magellan... it's been fucking awesome.
 
Bands are still popular, the current popular genre among kids is post-hardcore/metalcore. Bands like Asking Alexandria. I guess the sound is just not mainstream enough.
 
I bought tickets to the Offspring for next weekend, and while they became pre-packaged pop crap at one point I'm hoping the show will just be the good stuff they had in the mid to early 90's. I miss good/decent bands, but it seems like all we get these days is pre packaged pop versions of everything. We need a little music revival in this country, everything is big business these days.
 
Kurita said:
2012 = dubstep
Click to expand...
Yup.

If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I'd have said I didn't think dubstep would catch on. I've always been into electronic music but it never seemed to break fully into the mainstream. Techno, chip tunes, etc. I guess dubstep was more clubby in a way that appealed to people.
 
HOOOOOOOOOLD up. People still listen to the radio?

There's this thing called the Internet. Music is decentralised because of it. I'm sorry your favorite genre is not the most popular thing right now, but the music industry has gone through many changes. Every genre is a niche now. Piracy was a big thing. Record shops are pretty much dead. You can buy music from the internet legally through bandcamp or iTunes and other avenues.

Now you can actually search for music you like instead of relying on radio/TV overlords, but I guess some people still like being spoon-fed what music to like. :/
 
Messofanego said:
Now you can actually search for music you like instead of relying on radio/TV overlords, but I guess some people still like being spoon-fed what music to like. :/
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Nobody over the age of 30 who has a career, wife/husband, and kids has time to sit there and search for hours trying to find music by listening to 30 second samples. But I guess that's why the industry overlords don't bother catering to that demographic anymore.
 
bill0527 said:
Nobody over the age of 30 who has a career, wife/husband, and kids has time to sit there and search for hours trying to find music by listening to 30 second samples.
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All I hear are exaggerations and excuses.

You're basically saying that people don't have time to find their true taste in music. That's kind of sad.
 
Mr. Serious Business said:
Although I could be wrong and maybe McCartney made a better album than his debut. TBH I haven't listened to most of his solo stuff precisely because it's generally awful.
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Try Paul's RAM, recently remastered and rereleased. Songs like "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," "Monkberry Moon Delight," and "The Back Seat of My Car" are excellent, especially for someone just having fun in their home studio.
 
Zefah said:
People keep mentioning top 40 and pop radio stations, but I just have to wonder: why would anyone with the brain power to access the Internet even listen to such shit?

You can load your phone/mobile device with thousands of songs that you like, or use any of a dozen services to stream music based on your tastes. Why would you ever tune into a bullshit radio station these days?
Click to expand...

Some people don't have time to sift through endless piles of garbage to find a few good songs.

That has been my problem anyway - its very difficult to find music I really like as you have to really dig to find it. Most music I come across in general is terrible, and usually filled with bands trying to hard to be original.
 
bill0527 said:
Nobody over the age of 30 who has a career, wife/husband, and kids has time to sit there and search for hours trying to find music by listening to 30 second samples. But I guess that's why the industry overlords don't bother catering to that demographic anymore.
Click to expand...

This is crap. If you have time to post on neogaf, you have time to find good music.

Substitute posting on neogaf with watching dancing with the stars/ 2 1/2 men / your professional sport of choice.
 
There is still great music out there if you look. There were shitty bands in every era, but people see new bands they don't like and look back with rose tinted glasses. Nothing has changed.

Xeke said:
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.
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Hey, Sum 41's still alive and kickin'.


Pkm said:
Used to talk about them in the old Toolshed.down.net days but I havent anything about them in years and I dont think they even ever came close to making it in the states. Not sure hwo they are regarded in Australia but I always enjoyed them. I used to alwasy hear Australi had an amazing music scene.
Click to expand...

We had a REALLY amazing music scene. the 70's - 90's produced some really great talent, and then the pub scene died down and the laws about Australian content on the radio got repealed. There are still some gems out there, like Grinspoon, but its not what it was. A lot of the major commercial stations just play commercial American pulp.
 
Concept17 said:
Some people don't have time to sift through endless piles of garbage to find a few good songs.
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Endless piles of garbage? You have a lot of resources for proper music suggestions at your disposal, so you should use them. Music journalism exists. Recommendation threads exist. These things help avoid the crap (though you still might not find exactly what you want right away). Doesn't hurt to narrow the search a bit.

I'd rather search for good music that I like than ever let popular radio determine what I listen to.
 
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