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Post by G on Jun 10, 2009 19:22:29 GMT -5
Okay, it's no secret Rock is long gone in the past for having the mainstream listening audience on the airwaves and all other forms of media. But it's kind of been like that for a long time and still Rock just kind of shrugged it's nose at the haters and kept doing it's thing. I mean, when the Rock Euphoria 80's died out, it was still replaced with sounds that still rocked! I mean, Grunge certainly had a lot of heavy rock and metal built into it. And even when the Alternative buzz seemed to kick in in the mid 90s, there was still a lot of underneath rocking to it. Even the turn of this decade had a few bands cranking out heavy tunes with attitudes. But lately, I can't hardly take it anymore. It's like Rock has totally wussed out. Nobody sounds mean and gritty and nasty anymore. Now it sounds like all rock bands getting airplay are trying to sound like a bunch of heartbroken or heartbreaking lovebirds with song electric twang in the back to call it rock. I can't get in the car and drive anywhere without hearing Nickleback. I don't care if I drive to the 7-11. By time I do a round trip, I'm going to hear them. And it just seems like all the bands are pussing out. The hottest song right now in Rock is Shinedown's Sometimes Goodbye is a Second Chance. Okay, granted....it's not a bad ballad. But where is the cranking rock? ? Doesn't anyone jam anymore? I remember when bands who I didn't think particularly where jamming bands would punch out some kick ass tracks like Smashing Pumpkins. They could crank when they wanted to. Hell, even REM could get edgy. I could bang my head to some of it. I'm talking even the known wussier bands still could rock. Now the heaviest bands getting airplay now are just plain posing puss bands singing pretty girl tunes. Damn, would someone like Ted Nugent crank a song out with like a 3 minute solo? Would somebody thrash or rip something heavy to where whenever you hear it, you instantly crank the volume up? It seems just like everything, I can remember it being better in the past. Damn, it's just hard to let go of how ass-kicking the 80's REALLY were. It's almost like you took it for granted thinking bands would always kick some ass. Now it sounds like they are ready to hide the sausage in their bandmates. Shit, even the 90s rocked. I'd settle for a rock level equal to the 90s. Even the beginning of this decade wasn't too bad. But certainly the last 3-4 years. Rock aint shit man. Every time I turn the radio on, I find myself landing on an oldies station and gritting my teeth through another acceptable alternative but not quite heavy enough satisfaction as my normal "Rock" station spends hour after hour playing the same rock wuss ballads over and over with the every decreasing playlists of the same tunes they've played for years repeated everyday. Damn, when you finally hear a cranking song you ain't heard in forever, you're like...... instead of those same "classics", why don't they throw that jam on? I mean there is far more jams in existence than what gets played over and over. Even Metallica's recent albums seemed to fizzle quickly. Where is the Megadeths and Korns and Faith No Mores and Ozzys and Tools of the world? Did everyone retire from asskicking???
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Post by defiant1 on Jun 11, 2009 17:10:49 GMT -5
The dreaming has been my favorite band since Stabbing Westward broke up. Not really looking for anything heavier than that.
I filmed this last November...
defiant1
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Post by G on Jun 12, 2009 10:03:19 GMT -5
That's a good song and certainly it has heavy riffs in the back. But it's not really what I'm talking about. I don't want this to be a personal preference kind of thread because each of us has preferences. I'm trying to say that bands just seem to be shying away from shredding and rocking purely for the sake of rocking. Where singing is only a necessity to get airplay. The main ingredient of the song is to rock and do some head banging. Now please don't take this as an endorsement (although this is stuff I personally like), or a "It needs to be like this" or this is the perfect way. I'm not trying to list it like this. I'm purely trying to use this as an example. But this to me is an example of bands focusing more on jamming, rather than the singing.... Now there is nothing earth shattering about this. I can actually play this on bass note for note. The thing is....it's fun to play. Because it's only purpose is to rock. It's simplistic, but that's what it's about. It's about head banging. Here's another example. Again, nothing earth shattering about this song. It's just meant to be a jam. It's once again easy to play. The lyrics are an absolute afterthought here. It's only a necessity. This song isn't even that great, but it gets it's point across. The only purpose here is to bang your head. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm only using it as an example to make my point and not trying to be anything beyond that.... My point is, we've always seemed to have had jams that was strictly meant to shred as far back as jamming goes. How bout this in 1970.... Yeah, obviously old. But the whole point of the song is to kick some ass. Just jam. The main point of the song is guitars blazing. Speaking of which. You remember when guitar was king? When solos was a chance for rockers to prove their worth? Something like this? The whole focus is the jam. The slashing. The guitar rules here. I remember seeing a movie with Metallica making the St. Anger album. It's a pretty good movie as it chronicles a 2 year period of making the album. Well as you know, now we are in the age of we don't need no stinking solos. So there is Metallica listening to the track and they are debating whether to leave a guitar solo in and it's pissing Kirk Hammett off. He's like...."I know if you put a guitar solo in, it's like everyone thinks it's so dated. But my point is, if we leave the guitar solo out, it's going to automatically date this song. I don't want a solo to be in because it's part of the formula. And I don't want to leave a solo out because it's part of the formula. I want a solo to be in or out on the merits of whether it enhances or takes away from the song." My point is. I know these aren't everyone's Idea of what a jam is. It's different things to different people. My examples are just out of thin air. I could post 100 more. But you might find a different 100. The thing it should have in common is it's number one purpose is not to be a pretty song. It's to jam. My point is... Where is the jams? ? Ain't no body rocking anymore. Aint no body shredding it up. Ain't no body kicking any ass anymore. Yes, there is plenty of good songs. Even today I can find them. But what I'm finding is missing is those moments when a band is going after putting my head into a wall and crushing my skull with some guitars or something head banging. Far too often I'm just getting pretty singing with guitar choruses and backup. The guitar has taken a back seat. Jamming is dead.
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Post by G on Jun 12, 2009 10:07:20 GMT -5
Suddenly 3 out of 4 of my videos had embedding disabled. Damn!
Sorry, I don't have time to fix it at the moment. So please excuse this for the time being.
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Post by defiant1 on Jun 12, 2009 18:46:03 GMT -5
Suddenly 3 out of 4 of my videos had embedding disabled. damn! Sorry, I don't have time to fix it at the moment. So please excuse this for the time being. I get the idea. This was my favorite song for many years.... it's long.
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Post by G on Jun 14, 2009 11:45:23 GMT -5
That's a song I feel like I may have heard before, but if so, maybe only once or twice. I do like that as the song progressed it became more and more about the music. Maybe that is the missing ingredient today to me. It's become a lot more about the singing and the lyrics these days. While that is always important, it seems the music takes a major backseat. It's not like there is long guitar parts and musical pieces anymore.
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Post by defiant1 on Jun 14, 2009 17:44:15 GMT -5
That's a song I feel like I may have heard before, but if so, maybe only once or twice. I do like that as the song progressed it became more and more about the music. Maybe that is the missing ingredient today to me. It's become a lot more about the singing and the lyrics these days. While that is always important, it seems the music takes a major backseat. It's not like there is long guitar parts and musical pieces anymore. Well, the main reason is radio. Radio wants to keep songs down to 3 minutes so people won't get bored if they don't like a song. Also they can cycle their commercials through more easily. What you miss is jamming. That CT song is a musical roller coaster ride. It pulls you in slowly and alters your mood for you. I used to make mood tapes that would build up slowly into something intense and wind you back down by the time it was over. I could pop those cassettes into the player and even if I wasn't in the mood for it when it started, I'd sync with it at some point and never feel like it was the wrong tape to play. This song was never on their albums, but they jammed in the middle and the bootleg I had made it one of my favorite jamming songs... Unfortunately in the video they axed a lot of the bass track because portions had feedback. There was a lot mare going back and forth between the bass and the guitar. Of course Rick is sloppy on stage, but he still hit the important notes.
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Post by G on Jun 15, 2009 10:55:57 GMT -5
Well, the main reason is radio. Radio wants to keep songs down to 3 minutes so people won't get bored if they don't like a song. Also they can cycle their commercials through more easily. What you miss is jamming. That is what is missing, and for me, that is what is making radio boring. Either I'm hearing the old songs I've heard WITH the jamming played for the 10,000th time in my life, or I'm hearing new songs sounding all wussed out and sissy. Around here, about 2 months ago, we lost our only other hard rock station when it could no longer compete using the format of rock. Truth of the matter is, they kept the other, older more established rock station on their toes. But in the end, the more established as always, won out. So guess what they tried to replace the station with? Kung-Pow radio! Yep, Japanese restaurant music!!! It lasted all of 3 days when everyone said every song sounded exactly the same (and boy did it). So then they replaced that with more dance-hits type music. You know, teeny bopper/night club dance hits. We already have like 4 stations doing that crap. So now down to 1 hard rock station with no competition, so they havent been this bad in 6-7 years. They used to play heavy new stuff, but they now seem to almost be a Classic Rock station with a few bones thrown in here and there. The Classic Rock station we already had (owned by the same Rock Station) has almost gotten to the point of being an Oldies Pop station. It seems in all instances, the rock or the heavy jamming stuff is gone.
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Post by defiant1 on Jun 16, 2009 3:51:04 GMT -5
I noticed this change in the 80's. Perhaps because some bands I listened to just stopped jamming. Another thing which changed things was MTV. Attention span dropped to nothing as they flashed short burst of information to people at a steady stream.
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Post by G on Jun 16, 2009 8:53:06 GMT -5
Have we become a society that is no longer capable of listening to a 6 minute or above song? You certainly appreciate the fact that an 11 minute song is an extreme risk, but you also have to remember that some of the best songs seem to have not been tied down to time constraints.
MTV shouldn't be part of the equation anymore. I even long for the days when they actually played videos and had MTV VJ's. No longer in existence it seems and no signs video will make a come back. As videos progressed from the 60s to finally come to mainstream in the 80s, it seems we have regressed back to no need for videos today. True, I wouldn't be into seeing a bunch of soul and hip-hop videos anyway. But if you brought back videos like they were in the 80s, I'd be flipping channels and watching from time to time.
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