do you want to know the REAL reason why modern popular music sucks?

[datasuspect]

release date: 1-6-1976

went plantinum 6 times.

made the "money" people take a good look at the rock business.

prior to this album, the industry was MORE OR LESS artist-driven, with lots of money spent on A&R.

Frampton Comes Alive made the money people take notice because of the sheer volume of sales. it switched the focus from "talent" to "marketing."

that's when you had dog food companies and shoe manufacturers looking to buy record companies.

the FUNNY part: for mid 70s chart topping pop music dreck, the music is listenable and frampton does have some discernible talent.

[Beer Snob-50]

1. frampton has a ton more talent

Then the crap that is out today. Justin timberlake and the rest of his ilk are not fit to hold peter frampton's jock strap.

[datasuspect]

2. he is very talented

it is unfortunate that his one record changed the music industry.

his record was the equivalent of star wars in the film industry.

[mainegreen]

3. Glad you have 'popular' in the title. There is good music today.

Most of it is not popular. But then, some is.
Bebel Gilberto is popular, and she's very good.
Radio Bemba Sound System was rather good and quite popular.
There's more but...
:shrug:

[datasuspect]

4. most modern popular music is utterly soulless

and uses many similar formulae that transcend genre.

i call it the "generic eddie vedder affect syndrome"

[mainegreen]

5. I think one problem today is people want to grok songs on the first listen.

Few people really want to take the time to really get a song that might be more challenging. They go into a song already knowing what they want to hear.

[datasuspect]

7. if it is music, it has to MOVE me

stir my spirit.

competent formula-driven technical proficiency that is an ironic commentary on some music genre from the 80s just don't do it for me.

don't get me wrong, i'm not talking in particular about any one band. and the "challenging" aspect of much music that sets many hipsters all a-twitter has some usual banal derivative origin.

honestly, i don't know what i'm trying to say.

i survey popular culture offerings and much of what i hear that is currently being made leaves me cold. i can't relate to it, it does nothing for me.

the last foray into non major label modern music was when my ex gf turned me on to destroyer some several years ago.

it was alright, but way too navel-gazing and more like a commentary unto itself. i tried really hard to get into it. but then i figure if it didn't hit me viscerally at first listen, why bother?

and there has been some challenging music i've listened to that DID hit me at first listen, and it was made 30 years ago.

other than that, i don't have the patience to ferret out what might be good, if i assume that 90% of what i have to sort through will be garbage.

but that doesn't mean i am not open to suggestions.

can you provide the names of some of these bands you're talking about?

[mainegreen]

11. Hmm. Wells here's a few.

But musically, if it doesn't strike you, well, taste is really a matter of taste isn't it? ;)


Badawi - Soldier of Midian
Middle eastern percussion with a really rhythmic beats. Very unusual.


Secret Chiefs 3 - Book M
Amazon's description: Book M is mostly made up of Indian/Asian-sounding melodies overlayed with wildly cavorting techno rhythms and a tiny bit of metal, infused with a sense of mystery and paranoia from the thematic artwork based on number theory and assumedly Hindu belief systems. The production and musicianship here is top-notch. Mimicry.


Lovage - Music to make love to your old lady by
Sexy, smooth, damn. Did I say sexy? Sexy. You really can make love to your old lady to this music.


Hurdy Gurdy - Prototyp
Well, take two hurdy gurdies and mike them up the wazoo, and capture the rather driving mix of modern and medieval musical pieces. Really unlike anything else. Not 'oooh celtic' music. Seriously, it's not.


Asian Dub Foundation - Community Music
UK Pakistani Electronica. (Yes I like eastern sounds. I know I'm biased)


Portishead - Dummy
'gloomy, tormented, and wildly melodramatic'


Mouse on Mars - Idiology
They used *gasp* actual instruments on this one! ;) Not really for everyone, this one.


Unkle - Never, Never Land
...a record that connects the dots between the creeping melancholy of Talk Talk, the scaly electronics of Massive Attack's Mezzanine and the grand sky-bound epics of the Verve. Like its predecessor, there's a proliferation of guest appearances: Jarvis Cocker, Josh Homme, Brian Eno, Ian Brown, Massive Attack's Robert del Naja. But the vocals are assimilated much more successfully here, ensuring that guest never overpowers song. Lavelle still has a fine eye for casting his songs in the grandest narratives: "Panic Attack" samples the robotic pulse of Joy Division's "She's Lost Control" and overlays it with blurred electronic shimmers and driving bass. Mind you, it might be the understated numbers--"Glow", "Inside"--that provide some of the record's loveliest moments. --Louis Pattison


Dream Theatre - Scenes from a memory
From Amazon: Amazon.com
Progressive rock has long been the most devalued currency in popular music, perhaps due to the culture's dumbing down, too many conceptually knotted triple-albums, or merely a Greek chorus of critics parroting the emperor from Amadeus: "Too many notes!" Maybe that's what makes Dream Theater's Scenes such an audacious rush (no pun intended). Here we have a two-act murder mystery examined from a hypnotic dream state and parlayed by "The Orchestra," as the band refers to itself here. Andrew Lloyd Webber hasn't written anything as focused--or musically audacious--in decades. And if the band attacks feverish shift meters and plows through enough structural modes and, yes, notes, to make the aforementioned emperor's head spin, they manage to keep things concise, focused, and largely effective. The addition of keyboardist Jordan Rudess has freshened the band's tack, infused now with the odd, playful ragtime piano quote and sitar sample. Vocalist James Labrie, meanwhile, amply proves that Queensryche's Geoff Tate isn't the only drama queen in prog metal. --Jerry McCulley


Mr Bungle - Disco Volante
I know, I know, Mr. Bungle, but I really can't push this album enough. It's brilliant. Sheer genius.



Hope something here catches your attention.
:hi:

[EstimatedProphet]

6. Yes, but...

Remember Donny and Marie? There's always been a market for bubblegum fluff music. The kiddie singers as a craze I don't think really started until Tiffany. after that the industry turned into a vehicle for people to sing to preteens (and those who will always be preteens).

[Steerpike]

8. I don't believe the artists are to blame.

I think it is the influence of the record companies.

[wildhorses]

9. corporate raiders have sucked the soul out of the whole world

and left us hollow and bloodless.

mere shadows of our former selves.

[Richardo]

10. I would also submit that the manufacture of 'The Monkees' indicated the shift...

...from artist-driven to business-driven music.

Which of course was a rather cynical, business/financial attempt to re-create the phenomenal success of the Beatles.