The Chatterbox, Random Music Discussion

Originally, exactly what you would think. You have a 7" vinyl disc played at 45 RPM (or a 10" shellac at 78 RPM) with only one song per side on average, nearly always less than four minutes.

Technically speaking, a lot of modern singles are E Ps by older definitions, or when speaking of dance sides are better referred to as maxi-singles—wherein each side would last about as long as one side of an LP.

I recall the Pet Shop Boys (in the liner notes of their b-sides collection Alternative, IIRC) acknowledging that the "CD single" is functionally identical to the vinyl EP of yore.

edited 11th Jan '16 7:54:57 PM by MetaFour

And the simple digital download of a new song from the album the modern 7" single, I suppose.

Just wanted to say Disintegration is a wonderful album. I've always enjoyed what I've heard of The Cure's songs, but couldn't really call myself much of a fan because I only knew of their most mainstream of mainstream songs.

But this album has an absolutely incredible soundscape. Brilliantly gloomy and atmospheric, and enjoyable from beginning to end.

I'm going to look into their other albums in short order.

I don't know if anyone here are doujin music enthusiasts, but who will succeed Chata as the queen of doujin music? She's in her 30s already and will retire in 10 years at most. The same applies to Haruka Shimotsuki, who is one of her contemporaries.

My bet goes to Mitsuki Nakae, thanks to her recent collaboration with Haruka Shimotsuki which culminates into the former doing voice over for vocal parts of the latter's concert, on top of breaking into doing seiyuu roles. However, Rokugen Alice, Kishida Kyoudan and The Akeboshi Rockets, Rekka Katakiri & Linked Horizon (a spin-off of Sound Horizon) have more mainstream releases, not to mention the BEMANI musicians, but that's an entirely different beast. Even Yukacco (or Mayumi Morinaga, for that matter) isn't quite ready to take the throne.

edited 12th Feb '16 7:18:25 AM by murazrai

Is "doujin music" the Japanese equivalent of the indie scene?

Technically, no. Japan makes a distinction on indie and doujin as in indie works are released through mainstream channels while doujin works are released through their own separate channels such as fan conventions, doujinshi shops, web markets specializing in doujinshi.

Finally listened to Blackstar. Outside of me rather enjoying the soundtrack to Labyrinth (a movie which I saw not that long ago actually), I was never really into David Bowie, so it feels a bit weird starting out from the end, so to speak. But it's a pretty interesting album, I really feel like the acid jazz works in its favor and it's one hell of a farewell. Rest in peace, dude.

Anyone got any clue what the backing vocals in this song are? They're very buried in the mix, and I can't make out a word of it until they're the same as the lead vocals.

A News Genius editor has written an article saying that N.W.A. is more rock-and-roll than Kiss ever was. This is in response to recent articles where Gene Simmons said that he "looking forward to the death of rap," among other things. And Ice Cube said in N.W.A's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame speech that they are indeed rock and roll, while Gene shot back with a tweet saying something like "let me know when Jimi Hendrix gets inducted in the hip hop hall of fame."

Here's an excerpt of the Genius article:

Rock and roll is about rebellion, storytelling, defying authority and creating something original from a limited palette. NWA does all of those things superbly; KISS doesn’t do them at all. The Complex / Yahoo Music coverage of the story doesn’t grasp this and instead argues that NWA should be included, because, hey, diversity. It cites Robert Johnson as an example of a Hall of Famer who isn’t a “purely ‘rock’ act” despite the fact that he invented rock as we know it:

Insert embedded annotation about Robert Johnson being a rock-and-roll act here

NWA’s inclusion is not part of a charitable outreach of the Hall of Fame to other genres: they embody the spirit of rock and roll. The proof is in the lyrics. Let’s take one of the most famous NWA verses, and the chorus from KISS' biggest hit:

Screencap of some lines from N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton"◊

Screencap of some lines from KISS's "Rock and Roll All Nite"◊

What do you guys think? Agree or disagree with Ice Cube and/or Gene Simmons?

edited 12th Apr '16 12:21:29 PM by Nettacki

The comparison of lines is a pointless exercise, tbh. It's not about use of vocabulary, it's about the raw emotion and intelligence when singing or delivering those lines.

Gene Simmons has pissed away so much of his band's legacy and his name on reality shows, merchandising and so forth that I can't really take him seriously. And namechecking Jimi Hendrix sounds like a predictable example to use when it comes to genre entitlement/defense.

Anyway, for a good example of analysis/comparison of narratives between rock and rap (and arguably hip-hop culture as a whole), I'd recommend Simon Reynolds' Bring The Noise: 20 Years of writing about Hip Rock and Hip-Hop.

"Hardcore" hip-hop culture is arguably way more rockist than the better part of rock culture (and even hard rock and metal culture) at this point, by the by. Still, while I don't necessarily agree with the premise—I'm of the mind that rock music is simply rhythm-oriented electric guitar music at this point; attitude and worldview are really tangential at this point, even when they add flavour—I always enjoy seeing fuckwads like Gene Simmons get taken down a peg, particularly when he starts spouting whiny pseudo-élitist racially-tinged gibberish.

Gene Simmons is quickly becoming the equivalent of the annoying washed up somewhat racist uncle that you have to tolerate every Thanksgiving and hope he doesn't go past his eighth glass of wine.

edited 13th Apr '16 7:05:51 AM by StillbornMachine

He was *always* that guy. He just happened to surround himself with competent musicians and innovative gimmicks that distracted from this unfortunate reality. God, have you heard that Fresh Air interview?

Which one was that? Was he claiming downloading was going to destroy the music industry or...?

To be fair, "party" songs are just as valid as "story" songs. I mean, Rock Around the Clock and Twist and Shout are pretty much party songs with no real story being told, but nobody's going to claim theyre not important songs. Not every song has to have a narrative or spread a message.

Way, way older. We're talking late '80s. Look it up.

So what's some of the oddest radio edits of songs you've heard? Just yesterday I heard a version of Kid Rock's Cowboy that was just the first verse, the first chorus, and the last chorus, everything else was removed, including the cool piano part in the middle, making it practically an all-chorus song. Dont know what the point was with that.

My work used to put on an "adult contemporary" type station that played a mix of stuff from the 80's up to a few years ago, and I think in some cases they must have done their own edits of songs for content because I've never heard some of these edits before or since. A few more memorable ones:

Skipping an entire lyric in the first verse of fun.'s "We Are Young" for a probable drug reference ("my friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the empire state"). I mean they didn't just mute "higher" or anything, they removed that entire line and jumped right from "give me a second, I need to get my story straight" to "my lover she is waiting for me...", ruining the rhyme scheme and meter in the process.

Removing the word "sex" from Katy Perry's "California Gurls" by extending the "oh oh oh's" from the chorus, leaving "oh oh oh oh on the beach". Which is particularly funny because "sex on the beach" is just the name of an alcoholic drink, but either the word "sex" was considered offensive regardless of context or someone was taking it too literally.

Removing "what rhymes with hug me?" from Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines". Obviously this means someone got the intended Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion innuendo, but that sort of makes the song sound more offensive than it actually is. Oh, also for some reason they still kept an implied marijuana reference ("Baby can you breathe? I got this from Jamaica"), possibly just because his falsetto makes that part kind of hard to understand anyway.

One that's more notable for something they didn't edit: They played a version of Katy Perry's "Hot And Cold" that removed "You PMS like a bitch, I should know", as well as a version of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" that shortened "bitch" to "bit" ("I'm a free bit, baby!"). However, "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates was in rotation, and the word "bitch", which is part of the chorus, was left untouched. I developed two theories on this: 1) It's considered okay to use the word "bitch" if you're not using it to refer to a person; Katy Perry was comparing a male ex-lover to a bitch, and Lady Gaga was calling herself a bitch, but the Hall & Oates lyric is "it's a bitch, girl", or more likely 2) The station was just showing bias towards older songs because of its intended demographic: The same listeners who would be liable to complain if they heard Lady Gaga or Katy Perry say "bitch" might also be liable to complain if they edited "Rich Girl" because they'd be messing with a classic song from their youth. They could just side-step the whole issue by not playing that particular Hall & Oates song at all when so many other hits by that group fit the format, but I dunno.

Personal favorite example of an artist Getting Crap Past the Radar with their official radio edit: The album version of Cage the Elephant's "In One Ear" includes the line "The crowd will only like me if they're really fuckin' drunk". One of the radio edits re-recorded the line as "the crowd will only like me if they're all smacked up". So they technically made it safe for airplay by removing the curse word, but also replaced a reference to alcohol with heroin.

edited 16th Dec '16 2:38:22 PM by MikeK

Speaking of questionable lyrics, while this may be kind of a crude question, i have wondered it, what was the first song released on a major label to have an f-bomb in the lyrics (im sure there were hundreds of obscure or indie songs to include it)? Earliest i could find was "Bodies" from the Sex Pistols (Never Mind the Bollocks came out on Warner Bros.), but there must be one that predates that.

Before there was "Show Biz Kids" by Steely Dan ("They don't give a fuck about anybody else"), 1973 I think.

The one I could find is Eddy Duchin's cover of Louis Armstrong's "Ol' Man Mose", released in 1938. The song contains one "fuck", which incited a moral outrage and caused the song to sell 170,000 copies. Keep in mind, this was during the Great Depression, when a major hit would often sell about 20,000 copies

edited 13th Nov '16 12:17:16 PM by Xeroop

I mean, part of the reason stuff like the Hayes Code and other neo-Comstockery came into force in the '50s was the relative raunchiness of certain kinds of popular entertainment during the Depression era and earlier. It was a reactionary backlash.

In the trope pantheons ZUN is more or less the god of doujin music even though it is listed as god of doujin games. Now, with Chata is still the Queen of doujin music, who is the king?

My bet goes to either DJ genki, kors k or Tatsh of BEMANI fame or Sakyuzo of Diverse System. But if an actual singer is needed, it is probably Rute of Absorute Zero. What do you think?

THE KLF ARE COMING BACK YOU GUYS

2017: WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?