Hype Backlash in Music

...A language's rules of grammar don't just magically change from one place to another, or at least not the core parts of the rules like subject-verb agreement.

edited 14th Jul '12 12:57:35 PM by 0dd1

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Chuck Schuldiner proved later on to be more of traditional heavy metal songwriter than a death metal one, oddly enough. Later Death is nice but honestly, rather overrated.

Only Death Is Real

English has more than one form of subject-verb agreement, one based on grammatical number (formal), the other based on semantic intent (notional). "Death" is a collective noun, and can take either the singular or plural form of a verb depending on which type of agreement is intended.

Given that you're American, I'll let it slide this time since notional agreement has fallen out of common use here.

Memento Mori

">The Marshall Mathers LP >mediocre"

Very mediocre.

The smartest idiot you will ever meet.

You're more likely to be called a pleb for not knowing that NMH has two albums.

Unless you're deliberately alluding to the way that In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has completely overshadowed On Avery Island.

Don't care much for KISS. "Detroit Rock City" is an okay song, but Alice Cooper did the "uber-theatrical rock with clown makeup" thing first, and he did it better.

Somehow you know that the time is right.

I just found it incredibly boring. I need more harmonic movement or melodic development to sustain my interest. Preferably both.

I recently started listening to two albums which are both regularly picked as the "greatest album ever". And I found them to be... well, really good, but nothing exceptional.

One is Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys; the other is Revolver by the Beatles.

First off, Pet Sounds. Good stuff. All the songs are really pleasant to listen to. And you can hear that the Boys really knew what they were doing: it's well-composed, well-sung, well-produced, everything. Also, as pop/rock interpretations of traditional folk songs go, "Sloop John B" (which I've known a lot longer than the rest of the album) is one of my all-time favourites.

But in my ears, it doesn't come anywhere near the revolutionary, awe-inspiring hurricane of sheer beauty and talent that most critics seem to think it is. What am I missing?

I could ask the same of Revolver. It's a really good album - Lennon and McCartney (and to a lesser extent Harrison) were incredibly talented songwriters, and it shows on Revolver. The world hasn't seen many musicians who could write songs like "Eleanor Rigby", "And Your Bird Can Sing" or "For No One". But then I've listened to the Beatles for so long that I've kind of grown to expect supreme songwriting from them.

And the album has its weaker points, too. "Yellow Submarine" is one of the most cringeworthy songs ever. "Tomorrow Never Knows", which, according to The Other Wiki, 'is often considered one of the greatest songs of all time,' sounded like a gratuitous, masturbatory showing off of studio effects to me.

Again, I'm not hearing the revolution. Maybe this is because Seinfeld Is Unfunny and Revolver was innovative and groundbreaking in ways I can't fully appreciate because I'm hearing it 46 years after it was released. But anyway, I like Rubber Soul a lot better, and with Abbey Road (the only Beatles album which, for me, truly lives up to the hype), there's just no comparison.

So yeah, what am I missing?

edited 5th Nov '12 1:52:09 AM by MidnightRambler

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...

People kept on acting like Arghoslent was supposedly the savior of melodic death metal and that their edgy "racialist" views were elegant lyrical poetry but when I listened all I was left with was what sounded at best like just somewhat more aggressive US-power metal riffs over mediocre drumming from the man IMO is more or less the best drummer in death metal (I managed to PM him over facebook and he told me he regretted playing with Arghoslent). Oddly enough at times they sounded bluesy (so much for the whole master white race bullshit) and I think they later tried to say it was "bluegrass" they were influenced by rather than blues. Didn't help that the lyrics just felt like purple prose ridden snooty alternate history fanfiction.

Basically, just a crappier version of The Chasm's post-1998 material, lyrically and musically.

edited 3rd Nov '12 11:44:35 PM by StillbirthMachine

Only Death Is Real

It's Seinfeld Is Unfunny, definitely. You already said it about Revolver, and what you said about Pet Sounds works in the same way—pop music was not "well-composed, well-sung, well-produced, everything" to that point by that point in history, especially considering that previously they were more or less nothing but a surf pop band. The experimentation done in Revolver is what was revolutionary, notably with automatic double tracking, reversing stuff (e.g. the backwards guitar solo on "I'm Only Sleeping", or the backwards vocals in the single "Rain" recorded during the same time), tape loops, singing about drugs rather openly, other stuff (e.g. nothing but vocals/string quartet on "Eleanor Rigby")...

Very passionate about The Beatles, sorry. I do prefer Abbey Road and Rubber Soul like you, though.

edited 4th Nov '12 11:03:29 PM by 0dd1

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I enjoy the late-60s Beatles. My favorite album of theirs is Magical Mystery Tour.

I don't understand the love for the Foo Fighters or Pearl Jam. I'm not a fan of post-grunge.

I just watched Magical Mystery Tour a few hours ago, heh.

RE: The Foo Fighters: You ever listen to Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace? It's got a good balance and isn't purely post-grunge. Maybe check out "Statues" from it.

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Pearl Jam is "Post-Grunge?"

Corrected.

edited 17th Nov '12 10:07:43 AM by Alichains

Can I say Dubstep as a whole? To me it just sounds like someone tossing random crap together, It's literally painful for me to listen to.

"Grumge"?

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You and five thousand other people. I'd even go so far as to say it has as many detractors as it does fans. Maybe more.

edited 16th Nov '12 8:28:24 PM by PhysicalStamina

It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.

That's a relief, I though I was the only one.

I feel like some sort of idiot, but I can't understand what makes Bon Iver appealing. It's a dude warbling with a guitar in the woods. OH MY GOD SO AMAZING. [/sarcasm] And it's not even that I don't like folksy music - I'm currently in love with like-minded Punch Brothers, but I feel like Punch Brothers actually understands melodic structure, singing, and how to perform without being coma-inducing.

I swear to God, when SNL did that Baby Blue Ivy sketch where Bon Iver put himself to sleep with his own singing, I was unbelievably glad I wasn't the only one thinking it.

I still haven't listened to anything by Bon Iver yet, despite owning a song or two or three...*checks iTunes*...despite owning a single song by him. A song that I got from some cheap Starbucks compilation from 2008 that I won from eBay.

*listens to it now—the song is "Lump Sum"*

• (Beginning) I didn't know church music incorporates out-of-tune acoustic guitars and a steady drumbeat now.
• (Later) His vocals...it sounds like he sang it through, then overdubbed a harmony part that doesn't mesh well at all with the original part. Part of it is almost the same note, but ever so slightly off-key, and the the other part just doesn't sound good with the main melody line.
• (Verdict at the end) That was...interesting. Well, no, it wasn't really interesting. It was wholly uninteresting. And not very good. I dunno, maybe the lyrics are good, but I wasn't able to pay attention to the lyrics. All I was able to really discern from them was a refrain of "Soooo DEEEES WAH."

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So Black Flag is apparently awesome. I skimmed through some of their songs and thought they sucked.

It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.

(Yay! My first forum post!)

I've always been underwhelmed by Bob Dylan's music. All I've ever heard is how great and revolutionary his music was, and while I don't actually dislike it at all (some of his songs I enjoy listening to), I just find it to be pretty middling, to be honest. His lyrics have never "spoke" to me like they have to others, apparently.

Most of Bob Dylan's music works best if you think about it in the context of the time in which it was made. (Though I will say, regardless of time or place, his New Morning album is one of my all-time favorites.)

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That's true, it's hard to for me to understand the impact a song like "Blowin' in the Wind" would have had during the 1960s. I think it's like that with a lot of older music - it's just a different time and place (though I am a fan of several other 60s bands, including a few mentioned on this thread, so just a difference in opinion?)

(Sorry, I'm on a different account, this is the previous poster Sunshinechild)

edited 28th Nov '12 8:20:39 PM by sunshinegirl

Could be that too. I know plenty of people who simply just don't like him. Most of them on account of his voice (though who could blame 'em? ).

(I figured as much.)

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I never, ever understood what was so great about Pavement. Everybody talks about them like they're the kings of indie music but I see them as being very mediocre.