Yes I agree with you Zaikesman, with your Elvis comparison.
Elvis couldn’t help himself. It was an expression of how the music moved him, plus maybe a little showmanship. I liked Elvis but you have to admit, it is not the same today. They have pushed it way to far in my opinion. It is not dancing, it is smut.
(There I go again, but it is how I feel)
"the glaring lack of anything else in the way of creativity and expression"
This is really a sad state of affairs, I totally agree!
This WGON idea may be the Ticket, I will investigate this further.
Cheers Ron |
Oh, I'd bet whatever kids listen to while their teens will be playing in their retro-minds and considered, in some way, classic 35 years from now. While I personally think you are overstating Top 40 1965, there is no doubt it is better than present Top 40, and that my initial corresponding post would be better off deleted. |
Over the last year I have driven through many states for various reasons. Radio is incredibly homogeneous across the country and can be divided into 4 groups; AM talk radio, FM Country, FM Classic Rock and FM Pop - the latter having a couple of sub-categories. The problem is finding a station not built to "pander" to a target audience.
Back in the '70s I remember listening to an "album rock" station that would play anything from the Moody Blues to The Cars or from Janis Joplin to REO Speedwagon. It was the "rock genre" but not sliced into "Classic, lite, Grunge , Alt", etc, etc. Stations that painted with a broader stroke like this were able to expose someone to a lot of different styles within a genre and were also able to aviod repeating the same artists songs over and over again! Today all sounds the same because, as so many others have pointed out, the media conglomerates have emphasized (too much) what their marketing departments tell them, all in order to have "documentation" to help in their sales of advertising.
I say bring back the radio station who turns you on to all types of artisis, SPONSORS LOCAL music events with LOCAL artists AND has DJ's that actually can tell you about the music you are about to (or just) heard! Media conglomerates owning a bunch of stations doesn't bother me as much as some people but I just wish the people at the top would wake up and allow the station managers to call thier own shots in their local market. This could make radio cool again IMO. Regards, Tony |
Well said Zaikesman, 1965 AM radio (all we had) delivered the goods. Yes, we suffered with commercials and reverberated Disc Jockeys. We had to endure if we wanted to hear:
the Byrds
the Zombies
the Kinks
the Animals
Them
the Rolling Stones
Bob Dylan
the Beach Boys
James Brown
the Yardbirds
the Moody Blues
the Supremes
the Beatles.....just to name a few. Yes, radio today sucks hard.
Still buying new music, RichardZ |
A lot of kids arent exposed to good music thorugh the radio, but young kids that actually want to make music are being exposed to whatever they want to hear.
The internet allows anyone to find out about any artist they want to, whether they heard them on the radio, or live, or from a friend, or from AudiogoN, or from another group's mailing list, or from XM or Sirius, or from Kazaa. You don't need a DJ to tell you about an artist today, you go look at their website, or the website a fan made about them.
Radio is no longer the only way to spread music. I have gleaned 99% of my music collection from non radio sources, most of which were listed above.
Kids are still making great music and radio has sucked for the last 20 years.
I am not in the least bit worried.
There is more accesible music available today then there was 20 years ago. |
Hey Ohlala---don't retreat. I love it when someone who is eloquent can take folks on.
I just got back from a very good friend's home. He lives about two hours from me. His daughter graduated from High School so I went down for the event. The point being that her 16 year old brother is developing his interest in the guitar and it turns out that he has been waiting for some time for me to pay them a visit. While anyone who knows me can see I would never buy his music, I can appreciate it. He put a DVD with some group called 'CORN' --or was it KORN?--anyway it seems he couldn't wait to get my opinion of the group. These guys played on their feet, bent over at 90 degrees at the hip. The vocals were abusive---the kids were swaying and shouting and loving it. My friend's son asked me what I thought. I said "Sweet Jesus---that guy on bass is one of the best I have heard in a long time" The kid jumped up into the air, slapped me a high-five and yelled "Yeah, yeah, I knew YOU(!) would see it!" As a matter of fact the bass player is really good. But as too many of our parents were distracted by Alice Cooper's dress, this kid's parents couldn't get past what the group looked like. I really don't care for the music, but folks, there is plenty of talent out there. We are just stuck in here!! |
Some of the above posts sound like middle age people rambling on about how good things were back in the day. As far as I'm concerned there was great pop/rock music being made in every decade since the 1950s and it's continuing thru the present decade. It's never been easier or cheaper for musicians to record and distribute, at least on a limited basis, their music. Rock/pop is youth oriented music and half the point of youth oriented music is that old people won't like it. It's music created by young adults for teenagers and other young adults. Some of you are just old, deal with it. |
Thanks, Unclejeff, nice of you to say. I was wrong about equalizing the 1965 and 2000 Top 40, but neither represent what I consider the best music. While I don't care for Korn's songs (maybe I'm too old by six, seven years), they definately can play their instruments. The 7-string Ibanez is very difficult. Even Sum 41, covered Metallica's "Master of Puppets". I sure can't play that song! Being frusterated when my elders complain about my generation, my point is that there are cool, smart, talented youngsters running around. Their efforts are just not on Clearchannel. And I think a lot of talent, with less music-purist mindsets(not to judge them at all), are being currupted by commercialness. |
The commonly held theory about getting too old to appreciate something new just doesn't hold up under scrutiny. That is, if you construe "something new" to mean something new to the listener - which is what is pertinent - and not necessarily to mean only the latest thing. Looked at that way, it becomes clear that we never lose our capacity to keep expanding our musical horizons as we grow older. Don't believe the hype (and yeah, I think Korn sucks, no matter how many strings their bass has). |
First off I'm not THAT old - Hell, I'm "ONLY" 35! That said, the suggestion that getting on-line to go to different websites, download the music or go to a band's website is a little bit like the suggestion my old man had when I couldn't spell a word; "Go look it up in the dictionary". My answer was "but I don't know how to spell it!" The point is that a little too much effort is required to "find" new bands and music. My point about radio when I was growing up was that the only "effort" involved was flipping on the radio and tuning into a station. Today it seems you have to "actively" be exposed to new music. As I said before, I think radio today is so fragmented that you just can't get the diversity that you could back in the day. I've got satellite and there are 30+ digital music channels. The way they have these broken down into so many categories almost requires that you constantly flip channels to get any diversity at all! This trend, unfortunately, is found in almost all mass media these days - radio or otherwise - THAT is the problem with radio today IMO! |
The argument about what is random novelty fails to take in to account that what is "new" (as in the "new" that is relevant in my argument) is often outside something like a culturally born critical taste boundary. Age is cultural condition in which particular tastes are influenced. The times one grew is quite an influence on taste, actually. And, aging does make ones tastes more rigid. Evidence is abundant on this one. Anyone can think of exceptions, but stepping back what I describe is a powerful generalization. Z-, your notion is not scrutiny, but an excision of certain realities which require personal effort to overcome.
Oh, its 7-string guitar, btw. And, in a rebuttal against an above-posted idea that no youngsters know how to play instruments anymore, we or I were/was talking about technical proficiency, not song quality. |
Well the current pop scene is dominated by RAP, how many of them can play something besides a 1200.
"I saw some PC/Internet radio software for $20 on Amazon"Ohlala
Is this software made so I can stream my tunes on the Internet?
Topic,PoP Music
While I cannot be so nieve as to say, Age does not have a part in the type of music you like. I agree with the Z man.
When was the last time you heard a good guitar solo or some good keyboards someone who didn't think screaming was singing. (This is a generalization I know) but that is my point. The Quality of current day musicianship (for the most part) is not nearly of the same caliber as the late 60's early 70's etc. |
I cna just hear my grandparents writing the same thing Rockinroni just posted 35 years ago.
"Those Beatles kids just scream and yell and play that god awful distortion laden electric guitar, they sure can't play proper instruments like strings or horns like they used to. That Mick Jagger has a horrible voice, and his guitarist only knows three chords! And don't even get me started on Bob Dylan" |
i just found a couple of good (for my taste) internet radio stations
at this link (Ozzy metal gods)lots of older heavy metal (which since getting my ass back into the gym I have started listening to again)
http://www.live365.com/stations/161835
--------
at this link (www.slappa.com) a huge mix of all kinds of music--I like this while at work
there are lots of good internet radio stations
|
"Is this software made so I can stream my tunes on the Internet?"
I don't know how great it is, but yes. Let me know if you start a station, you already have your dj name. |
Rockinroni I'm going to guess you grew up listening to "The Buzzard" just based on the names cited in the original post.
FM today doesn't play music. Noise is what I call it.
Life is bad when AM talk radio is more entertaining than FM. |
Ohala,Thanks buddy ya I guess, it's my eBay name too but had to settle for rockenroni. The guys at work gave me that name cuzz I always had tunes playing.
I will look into getting something started.
One of my buds is serious about this idea.
This is one Idea (internet) that had not occurred to us old tech farts.There May be a problem as I only have one computer.
Mutahman, thanks for the link.
Hbarrel, No their names were, Reed Dickie and Ziggy Zapski
on CFRW/FM
"FM today doesn't play music. Noise is what I call it."
Thank You for your support,
"Those Beatles kids just scream and yell and play that god awful distortion laden electric guitar"jposs
The key word is they could still PLAY the guitar.
I know what you are saying and I hate becoming my Parents but I love music and stopped looking to the present media because of the noted points.
As I said at the top,I have been very fortunate to come up with some new tunes all 69/74 in the last 6 months like
Dr, Z,Can,
Gravy Train,Dragonfly,Finch,Magna Carta,Caravan,
Daddy Longlegs,Druid,Embryo,Patto,Gomorrha,Brainbox,Gandalf,
Khan,Sweetsmoke,May Blitz.
I have had these others for years Groundhogs,Beggars Opera,Triumvirat,Camel,Amon Duul,Audience.
Just to list some, lots of good tunes out there having fun looking. So much more,but can be expensive on LP. It would be nice to find a site or something that plays this kind of music so one could become acquainted with more tunes.
Ron |
Ohlala: Your response is not without validity (or predictability), as far as it goes. But it ignores our ability to develop tastes for musics from cultures foreign to our own, or from eras that can be described likewise. If familiarity with the elements (or lack of same) was the only litmus test for acceptance or appreciation of "new" (to us) musical styles, then it would fail to explain both why I don't like most of today's radio pop, as well as why I do like many kinds of music that were not a part of my upbringing or cultural background. |
