Worst Period In Rock/Pop Music History???

[Unregistered]

I agree with jamiel but i thought i should add some other groups like jurrasic 5, talib kweli, blackalious, tribe called quest, mos def, dj shadow, brother ali, MF doom and jedi mind tricks. this is not rap its hip hop. rap is now associated with **** like 50 cent.

 

[mwheelerk]

Disco

What more can you say. It is on the same level as processed chicken noodle soup. The picture is good but not much substance. Although it would be hard to disagre with the 1960 - 1963 period, but from a personal standpoint my musical interests was fairly minimum at that time (little league baseball was all me) so the disco era had more of a negative impact on my pleasures in music.

 

[RGCriss]

Why does todays music suck...Two words "American Idol"

I can't believe the american public goes absolutly ape over this cookie cutter crap. 14 year old girls are the target audience for the record companies to hawk their "star of the hour". I think it is an RIAA plot to infuse a subliminal message to turn them into zombies thats sole purpose is to create "we love ruben" or "we love clay" signs and march upon the tower record stores as if they were really stars (let alone talented).
Freakin' William Hung gets a record deal (and an acting gig!) Man somebody drop a big one on them and maybe from the ashes some real talent will finally come forward!!!

 

[shokhead]

Todays music sucks in rock at least because nobody can carry a tune. Any Beatles,Beach Boys,CSNY out there?

 

[20to20K]

No doubt the early 80's...

It was right around then it seemed all my favorite bands/musicians fell into the high tech trap. Over the top synthesizers, programmed drums, synth bass, it was ugly. No one was safe. Rush, Earth Wind and fire, Stevie Wonder, Doobie Brothers, I could go on...

This is when I pretty much abandoned pop/rock music altogether and did nothing but listen to jazz. A few newer bands (U2, Police, REM) where still making good music...but they were outweighed by the high tech crap...particularly on the radio.

During that period I found myself mostly listening to 70's rock and soul and 60's cool jazz.(Miles/Trane/Monk).

Some of the great bands from the 70's tried to come back to their roots in the 90's and post 2000, but could never capture that 70's magic. Steely Dan, EWF, Doobie Brothers, Rush, and Stevie Wonder come to mind.

Thank god it's all recorded and still sounds great!

 

[jaxvon]

Hmm, I'd have to say early 80s onward. With a few notable exceptions (such as Steely Dan and Donald Fagen), there has been a nonstop flow of crap coming out of the recording studios. Unlike the 70s where musicians were still largely in control, everything now is run my management and marketing. Though, I don't think this is the reason that the newer Steely Dan albums can't step up to the original run from the 70s.

There are a few bands around today that are okay (IMHO), like Maroon 5. Their ablum is kinda same-ish sounding, but it isn't bad.

And 20to20k, what did you think of Gaucho and Nightfly? Those were both done on programmed drums.

 

[cbraver]

Rap is like any other genre, a few winners, a whole lotta losers (2x, in raps case). But, 2Pac, if you listen to some of his lyrics, actually has some rather powerful messages. Nas, has a lot of the blues in his music because of his dad. And actually recently did a song with him. That said, majority of it is crap. It had it's place until 2Pac died. That's my opinion, but... I think rap as a whole died with 2pac. There is some talent left, but it's far and few ...and poorly produced.

But, in general, Rap is party music for the young, it's written and intended for young people to party with. The majority of it is not intended for listening the way we listen to music.

-Chad

 

[20to20K]

Gaucho and Nightfly...

You sure about that Jax? I'm pretty sure (without pulling the liner notes) that Steve Gadd and Bernard Purdie are playing drums on most of Gaucho...and Donald has several different drummers on Nightfly.

I admit that both over laden with tons of very bright synthasizers and sequencing...but I'm pretty sure most of the drums are the real deal.

I know your a big SD fan so I'm gonna check the liner notes now.

Stay tuned...

Oh, but to answer your question I LOVE both albums...probably Gaucho more than Nightlfy....but not by much. Gaucho came out in 80...and it was their last CD until the mid 90's Live in America (which was awesome) and the two post millinium studio efforts which I found to be just so-so (even though they ironically won a ton of Grammys for them).

 

[raceskier]

Disco!

I'm suprised there has been little mention of disco. I heard a great quote from Cuba Gooding Sr. (Main Ingredient) today. He called disco the musical equivalent of the Holocaust

 

[jaxvon]

To reference the "Complete Guide to the Music of Steely Dan" by Brian Sweet (ISBN: 0-7119-6623-0 )

Since Becker and Fagen's desire for an absolutely perfect drum track was causing them such frustration and delay, Nichols took it upon himself to design and build a drum machine. Working every spare moment, he came up with an 8-bit machine which he called Wendel which could emulate all the inflections of a human drummer. Although the computer did play quite extensively on the album, the live drummer recieves full credit in each case, with Wendel being relegated to the sidelines, under "Sequencing and Special Effects".

Now a quote from the Liner Notes from the Remastered 'Gaucho' CD:

That's when the business with the computer started. Roger Nichols had this toy--we thought of it as a toy--but one day he came to work and told us that the toy had become a man--one helluva man, in fact. A very talented man. A steady man. A man for all seasons--call him Wendel. A man who, in the absence of a usable track after a zillion tries with "read bands", could nicely simulate the most elusive elements of the basic track that we would need to bring out little song into the world, i.e., drums and maybe a simple keyboard part of some sort, and that's all. Because, once we had that--the toy, the man, the track-- we could do all the rest with little or no problemo, thank you very much. Unfortunately, at this primitive stage of the evolution of the computer and its requisite software, even the most minute event had to be programmed in the gnarly and unforgiving 8085 Assembly Language, described in its baffling hexagesimal-base numerical system, which ultimatedly became the only language Roger Nichols spoke or understood, at least for a time. As it turned out, the simplest imaginable manipulations--we are, after all, simple guys-- ended up adding perhaps 7 or 14 monts, all told, to our already Augean labors, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to our monstrously swollen budget. And so was born the era of sampled drums and sequenced music--"The Birth of the Cruel", as we now think of it. History--read it and weep.

Okay, there's another section in the Brian Sweet book talking about Wendel, the upragraded version that featured 16 bits, and its use on The Nightfly. But, that was a lot of typing I just did. So you should just trust that I'm not lying .

 

[20to20K]

That may be but...

Here's what I got directly from the "Gaucho" CD liner notes:

Babylon Sisters - Drums: Bernard Purdie
Hey Nineteem - Drums: Rick Maratta
Glamour Profession - Drums: Steve Gadd
Gaucho - Drums: Jeff Pocaro (RIP)
Time out of mind - Drums: Rick Morrata
My Rival - Drums: Steve Gadd
Third World Man - Drums: Steve Gadd

No where anywhere in the liner notes is any reference made to
computerized, synthasized, or programmed drums.

Here's Nightfly:

I.G.Y. - Drums: James Gadson/Jeff Pocaro
Green Flower Street - Drums: Jeff Pocaro
Ruby Baby - Drums: Jeff Pocaro/James Gadson
Maxine - Drums:Ed Green
New Frontier - Drums: Ed Green
The Nightfly - Drums: Jeff Pocaro
The Goodbye Look - Drums: Jeff Pocaro
Walk Between the Raindrops - Drums: Steve Jordan

Again no mention of drum machines anywhere. The closer here was a synth bass on ...Raindrops!

 

[jaxvon]

20to20k, check out my last post. I have some very telling quotes, both from a biographer and from Fagen and Becker themselves.

 

[jmgillespie]

I'm 20 years old and I also think that music is at a stand still right now and nothing much is good out. I listen to some rap but only when I'm driving to pick up chicks. Here's a list of some rock and hip-hop bands out right now that I listen to and think are good:

Audioslave - I love this band saw them live once and they rock. Chris Cornell from Soundgarden is the singer and the band from Rage Against The Machine. Band really jams together and Chris's voice is amazing. They sound like Soundgarden and Rage of course but also have their Zepplin moments such as "Like a Stone" very dark song if you listen to the lyrics they are influenced by a Edgar Allen Poe poem. Other good songs are "Shadow of the Sun", "Cochise", "Show me how to live", "Highway", "Hypnotizer". New cd coming in June.

3 Doors Down - New cd is awesome just came out today a lot better altogether then previous albums. A mix between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bob Seger. Mostly medium paced songs with good lyrics and music but also have harder rockers. Good songs: "Kryptonite", "Be like that", "When I'm gone", "Away from the sun", "Here without you", "Right where I belong", "let me go", and "landing in london (featuring Bob Seger)".

Silvertide - First cd came out this year. All 19 to 20 year olds started band and 6 weeks later were opening for Aerosmith then for Van Halen where I saw them. 70's hard rock music featuring guitarist that is influenced by Halen, Page, and Slash. Lyrics are punk/rock like GNR's Appetite for destruction. good songs "ain't comin home", "Blue jeans", "you want it all", "mary jayne", "foxhole J.C.".

N.E.R.D. - Mix between hip-hop and rock what I like to call Ghetto rock or maybe better Rock and Hop. Nerd is the neptunes alter ego rock/hip hop band some of the songs off their second cd fly or die are influenced by the Beatles actually. You have to hear it to understand. good songs "things are getting better", "Provider", "baby doll", "rock star", "stay together", "she wants to move", "breakout", "wonderful place", "drill sergeant", "thrasher", "the way she dance".

Tech N9ne - Rap good production cool lyrics. Absolute power and anghellic are his their only two records but seem to have been around for longer. "industy is punks" "slacker" "keep on keepin on" "t9x" "worst enemy" "yada, yada, yada" "i'm a player" "stamina" "psycho *****" "suicide letters" "einstein".

Take a listen give me some feedback on what you've heard.

 

[20to20K]

Your uncle "Dizzy" is rollin' in his grave!

But seriously,

I listened to rap as recently as about 10 years ago...I thought "A Tribe Called Quest" was a very talented and very cerrebral band. Used some obscure samples from 60's BlueNote Jazz and blended in some very smooth lyrics.
Sure, they had a decent dose of youthful bravado and sexual conquests describe in detail...but hey...that's part of the genre. I find myself listening to their stuff still today. Trips my wife out to her me go from Joni Mitchell to Miles to Bob Marley to Mozart to Tribe. But good music is good music.

During that same error I also listened to a lot of Rage Against the Machine. Again I thought that band stood out in that huge sea of metal/rap bands.
Very energetic and they sounded great...particularly the bass player. The
guitarist only knew two chords...but he played the hell out of them! Evil Empire had a few particular nice cuts.

In these types of music it's difficult to seperate the typical radio play crap with the few diamonds in the rough. I think it's potentially possible for any genre of music to exibit excellence. My journey will be complete when I prove this theory with Country and Western!

 

[Rex]

I disagree with EdR somewhat in that what emerged from the 70's classic rock were more refined offshoots that became some really great Metal groups and rock groups with much talent. You also had alot of Punk that emerged from the end of the 70's into the 80's and alternative styles. However, most of the Metal and Rock bands that existed in the late 70's and 80's were talented musicians and composers of original music. Now, what came about in the 90's was the Garage Grunge you refer to and the emergence of Rap into the mainstream. Both of which have absolutely NO TALENT and NO POSITIVE contribution to music of any generation.

 

[mwheelerk]

That Is Way Too Easy

Whenever Disco existed

 

[JJMP50]

<font color='#000000'>Please, please everyone. Let's get our facts straight. Bob Dylan invented Rap music with the Subterreanean Homesick Blues.

Johnny's in the basement mixin' up some medicine
I'm on the pavement thinkin' 'bout the goverment....
...the pump don't work cause the vandals stole the handle.</font>

There's a good argument for that but I believe Gil Scott Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is considered the first "true" rap song. Unfortunately IMO it wrecked a great "jazz" career for Gil.

 

[MDS]

Rappers Delight by The Sugar Hill Gang is widely recognized as the first Rap song. Today's rap is much different and alot worse...

 

[Duffinator]

Green Day American Idiot

I disagree with EdR somewhat in that what emerged from the 70's classic rock were more refined offshoots that became some really great Metal groups and rock groups with much talent. You also had alot of Punk that emerged from the end of the 70's into the 80's and alternative styles. However, most of the Metal and Rock bands that existed in the late 70's and 80's were talented musicians and composers of original music. Now, what came about in the 90's was the Garage Grunge you refer to and the emergence of Rap into the mainstream. Both of which have absolutely NO TALENT and NO POSITIVE contribution to music of any generation.

The late 80's and early 90's were bad. Thank God the Grunge movement came along and woke up the music scene just like Punk did in the late 70's when Rock was bigger than life and bloated. Clearly Nirvana had no talent and the millions of American Idiots that purchased Nevermind can't tell talent when they hear it. Smells Like Teen Spirit single handidly woke up the American music scene with only three cords. IMO Nevermind is one of the best rock albums of all time. I try and listen to all types of music, Rap, Jazz, Classical, anything but country and am always looking for something new to perk my interest.

And what's really had my interest for almost six months now is American Idiot by Green Day. I own a couple of their earlier CD's and don't consider myself a big Green Day fan. The song American Idiot has gotten a lot of airplay along with a couple of other songs from the CD. But the more I listen to the CD the more I like it, in fact maybe my favorite CD since Nevermind. Really sharp lyrics, political of course and I don't agree with everything Billie Joe writes, and some very catchy pop tunes to match. And I really like Jesus of Suburbia, a nine minute song that I skipped over several times because it is so long. It's now my favorite song on the CD, I even heard the full nine minute version on the radio the other day. The Grammy's make some wierd choices for album of the year but American Idiot was very deserving of the honor. During his acceptance speach Billie Joe said something like "Rock n Roll can be dangerous and fun", this CD is both. Music always has it ups and downs and with American Idiot it way up for me. Anyone else like American Idiot?

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Wow! I can't believe the universal dislike of country & western music.