Why the Inexcusable Ignorance About the Pop Music of the Past ?

[sleepingbag]

Originally Posted by JP11

Ironically, he and Dangermouse are no strangers to the music of the 60s and 70s (or the fashion, for that matter...)

Yeah, probably because they don't waste their time TAKING SIDES ABOUT WHICH IS BETTER AND RATHER ENJOY IT ALL!

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by chrisso

Yeah, chrisso, just completely turn off the turning off of melody, harmony, instrumental skill and natural vocal skill.

yeah, turn off the dumbing down which is virtually omnipresent.

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by JP11

you dismissed Eleanor Rigby

Anyone who does anything near that is melodically impaired and unaware.

[sleepingbag]

Originally Posted by JP11

Are you talking to me? I never rolled my eyes...and as I recall, you dismissed Eleanor Rigby, so....

Are you saying I haven't heard Cee Lo and the Black Eyed Peas?

I don't believe I've said anything bad about any artists, unlike the people who keep dismissing so much music from the past...

So what is your point then? I didn't get the impression that you thought that it was reasonable to compare Black Eyed Peas to ABBA, but maybe it's the case that you did and actually wanted us to go down the entire list and create analogs for every artist....?

Sorry man, I dunno, I just don't get the impression that we're on the same page even the slightest bit, I don't know if I have much more to add to this discussion. Just maybe try to keep an open mind and not think that people who listen to whichever certain type of music are stupid or whatever, it's kind of an unproductive attitude.

[initialsBB]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

Anyone who does anything near that is melodically impaired and unaware.

Anyone who disses wooly bully forfeits the right to ever talk about rock and roll again for the rest of his life.

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by sleepingbag

Yeah, probably because they don't waste their time TAKING SIDES ABOUT WHICH IS BETTER AND RATHER ENJOY IT ALL!

Oh of course, it's all good. The melodies nowadays are all good, the chord patterns they are based on are all good, the unnatural vocal deliveries are all good and the overwhelming lack of genuine instrumental sounds/skills are all good.

That's right, the decimation of music is all good ! Yippee ! Fun for all at all times ! Park your brain at the door and carnivalize !

[sleepingbag]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

Anyone who does anything near that is melodically impaired and unaware.

It's a dreadful song and I'd rather never hear it again, is what I said. I didn't say it was badly composed or didn't contain a long melody that will appease someone who judges music by how many notes it has.

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by initialsBB

Anyone who disses wooly bully forfeits the right to ever talk about rock and roll again for the rest of his life.

It's drunken party music totally unrepresentative of the songwriting standard of the time.

Dismissing Eleanor Rigby is clearly not in the same league as dismissing Wooly Bully. The former is serious crafting of melody, chords, poetry and naturally beautiful vocal delivery, the latter is it's antithesis.

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by sleepingbag

It's a dreadful song.

That's only after you throw the importance of melody, chords, lyrical poetry and natural vocals in the garbage. IOW, once you attempt to celebrate the destruction of real music, only then you can dismiss Eleanor Rigby.

[MarvinDog]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

Well, I'm glad you are having the same forgettable mindless fun that is the norm in today's pop music.

Any discussion of how much better music was in the past reminds me of something said by one of the greatest philosophers of recent years--

"'Remember when' is the lowest form of conversation." --Tony Soprano

[initialsBB]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

It's drunken party music totally unrepresentative of the songwriting standard of the time.

seriously, stop. go sit in the corner and think about what you've done. <- there's your rock n roll dunce cap

[JP11]

Originally Posted by sleepingbag

Sorry man, I dunno, I just don't get the impression that we're on the same page even the slightest bit, I don't know if I have much more to add to this discussion. Just maybe try to keep an open mind and not think that people who listen to whichever certain type of music are stupid or whatever, it's kind of an unproductive attitude.

And your attitude is productive?

My comments regarding people being stupid was a joking response to your sarcastic and productive little story about kids listening to Neil Diamond instead of Skrillex...

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by sleepingbag

Black Eyed Peas to ABBA

Sure, compare them.

BEP couldn't carry the jockstraps of ABBA..... and I'm speaking of the *girls* jockstraps.

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by MarvinDog

the greatest philosophers

And the greatest musicans in pop music of today are ? Well, name them.

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by initialsBB

seriously, stop. go sit in the corner and think about what you've done. <- there's your rock n roll dunce cap

I know, you're happy when rock, jazz, classical and all forms of music are destroyed and disrespected.

You are Happy Unmusicalfan.

[sleepingbag]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

Oh of course, it's all good. The melodies nowadays are all good, the chord patterns they are based on are all good, the unnatural vocal deliveries are all good and the overwhelming lack of genuine instrumental sounds/skills are all good.

That's right, the decimation of music is all good ! Yippee ! Fun for all at all times ! Park your brain at the door and carnivalize !

LOL you are so ridiculous it is impossible to have a conversation. You win. Modern pop music is the decimation of music and it destroyed my brain and made me like Kanye West better than Eleanor Rigby. If I was smarter (or is it 'if I were smarter'? I'm so dumb, I don't even know!) I'd be able to determine which is actually better by measuring how many notes each one has and how beautiful each one is, but I'm too dumb to come to that conclusion. Because the pop music destroyed all music forever and made me dumb. Congrats on winning!

[JP11]

The irony of these threads is that people who are supposedly defending "music" do as much if not more dissing...

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by JP11

Neil Diamond instead of Skrillex...

Skrillex has 0 songwriting skill. Neil Diamond is the Mt. Everest of songwriting skill. Call him skillexcellent.

[sleepingbag]

Originally Posted by JP11

And your attitude is productive?

It's productive for me, if all I listened to was Neil Diamond and the like I wouldn't be able to make music with clients for a living. I wouldn't be able to work with interesting and current artists. I wouldn't even be able to consider myself a music fan. I can't imagine what it would be like to look at all modern music and be like "nope! not for me". That is frightening to me.

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by sleepingbag

You win.

Don't even think of saying the decimation of music is a win. It's a loss for all. And when you even mention Kanye in the same context as Stevie Wonder or The Beatles, then you know music has been destroyed.

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by sleepingbag

if all I listened to was Neil Diamond

You'd learn what songwriting is.

[initialsBB]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

I know, you're happy when rock, jazz, classical and all forms of music are destroyed and disrespected.

You are Happy Unmusicalfan.

Yeah that's me. I think you have no idea what kind of music I actually listen to. I also think it's clear that you don't "get" rock and roll or pop music so it's pretty funny that you would accuse others of "inexcusable ignorance" on the topic. And for the record I have been to a Neil Diamond concert.

[JP11]

Originally Posted by sleepingbag

It's productive for me, if all I listened to was Neil Diamond and the like I wouldn't be able to make music with clients for a living. I wouldn't be able to work with interesting and current artists. I wouldn't even be able to consider myself a music fan. I can't imagine what it would be like to look at all modern music and be like "nope! not for me". That is frightening to me.

Who told you to listen only to Neil Diamond...listen to whatever you want...you seem to be making up posts to respond to...

[initialsBB]

Rockism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by initialsBB

I also think it's clear that you don't "get" rock and roll or pop music

Of course. I don't support throwing melody, harmony, lyrical poetry, natural vocal skills, natural instrumental skill in the trash bin so that means I don't get it.

[Happy Musicfan]

Originally Posted by initialsBB

Rockism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oooh, like The Beatles and every other rock band are supposed to be celebrated when their approach has been bumped off the modern pop music scene entirely.

It's not rockism. The other side has been banishing rock. That's the situation.

[Dean Roddey]

Originally Posted by sleepingbag

Both of those artists have material that is weirder and more classic than you will ever give them credit for, which is not surprising, because you haven't listened to them. The Black Eyed Peas had some cool songs on their first few albums, definitely very forward thinking stuff, before they went on to write seventeen thousand calculated megahits.

From 2003:



Cee-Lo's solo albums are funky as hell. The first two are great. And of course, everyone seemed to like Crazy.

I don't dislike that or anything. But, I think you pointed out the difference. Cee-lo is seriously funky. That song has no real funk. It's probably been heavily gridded, and that kills the funk, IMO. Part of the problem, I think, is that so much of that music derives from rap, which moved the complex rhythms from the music to the vocal, where it cannot possibly have the same butt shaking impact. That made sense when the point of rap was to get impossible to sing social commentary into the music. But when it became just the defacto style for almost all that sort of music, I think that that wasn't necessarily the right move.

Cee-lo, even when rapping, retains a serious sense of funk, and that makes it so much fun to listen to, makes you move your head and butt, etc... all the things that funk was created to do, and which has been heavily lost in modern music. All of my friends from high school used to love funk, and there was so much good, funky music. But you just can't have serious funk with gridded music, IMO.

Maybe it's also partly due to the fact that the above issue collided at some point with overly-slick R&B production as well, I dunno. That kind of music should be nastier, and not in a 'put a Nastifier plugin on it' way either.

[MarvinDog]

Originally Posted by JP11

The irony of these threads is that people who are supposedly defending "music" do as much if not more dissing...

Again, I'm not defending modern pop music. You're saying that I somehow need to defend modern music if I'm saying that there was garbage music in the past. And that's not the case. This isn't a zero sum game.

I'm saying that there was just as much garbage in the past as there is today. And glorifying the past at the expense of today becomes sadly self-limiting.

Sent from my PG86100 using Gearslutz.com

[MarvinDog]

Originally Posted by Happy Musicfan

Don't even think of saying the decimation of music is a win. It's a loss for all. And when you even mention Kanye in the same context as Stevie Wonder or The Beatles, then you know music has been destroyed.

Funny, my parents said the same thing about The Beatles.

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[JP11]

Originally Posted by MarvinDog

Again, I'm not defending modern pop music. You're saying that I somehow need to defend modern music if I'm saying that there was garbage music in the past. And that's not the case. This isn't a zero sum game.

I'm saying that there was just as much garbage in the past as there is today. And glorifying the past at the expense of today becomes sadly self-limiting.

Well I'm not saying there's garbage at all...(I'm not all that much interested in garbage...)

And I'm not glorifying the past any more than Cee Lo or Dangermouse or any of the other artists who continue to look at the music from that time and the great artists from then as the pinnacle of rock or pop or whatever you want to call it...that era doesn't have to be glorified...

It just seems obvious that that was the time...there were so many greats...and in this thread people can barely mumble up a couple from the present that seem pretty good...

Is it worse to appreciate the past, or to dismiss it? Isn't that what the thread is supposed to be about?