Topic: What are you listening to right now?

Why is it that some people think there's some kind of quality divide between genres? I've lost count of the number of times I've been on a page on the internet somewhere and some guy is going on a rant about how derivative "band music" is. Inevitably some fans of heavily sampled music have to validate their like of that music by going on a rant about how derivative rock is.

And you know what? Every genre has good and bad music. If you think everything in a particular genre is garbage then maybe you're just not looking hard enough.

It's ignorance, mainly, but also the deliberate and conscious attempt - by some "authoritative" sources such as Pitchfork - to publicize other genres of music at the expense of more traditional genres.

If you look at Pitchfork's Top-100 records of all time through the years, you'll see that each new list features more and more hip-hop/r'n'b artists at the expenses of rock bands. This was a true process of de-rockization that transformed Pitchfork from a pretty okay website that got some things spectacularly right to a pop-hiphop-r'n'b e-zine where the unfortunate readers are bombarded with articles and reviews about the genius of Jay-Z or Beyonce and totally ignore what happened in music before 2007.

This of course has caused quite a rift between audiences, especially people who started listening to music only in the last decade, who are frequently presented with biased, if not incorrect, information on the history of music. But all music, in a way, is derivative - and the more you know, the more you can find traces and influences even in true originals (Captain Beefheart, mentioned before, is a perfect example. A true genius, a visionary, but whose influences are highly visible even if they are chewed up and regurgitated in seemingly impossible forms). If people can't trace back and spot the derivations in the music they listen to, it simply means they don't know much about music.

It has been FAR too long since I posted a music video on here, so here I am to remedy the situation. I mainly listen to music nowadays via YouTube Red; YouTube is mainly where I listen to most of my music so being able to automatically download it offline works really well for me. Song below is one of the most greatest Italo-Disco songs ever, a genre of electronic disco music from Italy in the 80s. Pure bliss.

Magic Carillion - Rose (1984)

http://www.alexistaylorsolo.com/

Been listening to his album Piano.

Rock music being for squares is also justified by the fact that there hasn't been a HUGE rock band in ages, one that could mean something to different people from different social classes, like U2 were in the 80s or Nirvana in the 90s or again Oasis in the 90s, at least for us europeans.
Doesn't matter where you lived or what social class you were from - if you were alive when these bands were at their peak, you'll probably know With or Without You, Smells Like Teen Spirit or Don't Look Back in Anger.

You realise that rock has lost its place in our culture when you can't name one single universal rock tune released in the last 20 years that most people know. Maybe The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army, but I don't know how well it's known outside of Europe. On the other hand you realise how rock music was centric to people lives in the past. Little anecdote: a while ago I was in the car with my mom and Money by Pink Floyd came in on the radio and she started to sing along, pitch perfect, word for word. My mother never had a record collection, can't speak english and hardly listens to any music nowadays, but the fact that a middle aged italian woman could sing along such a song because it was important in her life is just beautiful. I mean, rock music used to be the world for the people of her generation.

Not to mention, the younger generations are so used to awful, harmless, non-artistic characters in music that it's probably not their fault for not being into it. I mean, back then an "artistic statement" would have been Neil Young scrapping a masterpiece (Tonight's the Night) in order to release another masterpiece (On the Beach). Or Bob Dylan going electric and being booed by his hardcore fanbase.
Nowadays what passes for an "artistic statement" is Kanye West changing the tracklist of his album after it was released on iTunes (...). Can you really be more uninteresting than the people in music today?!

Listening to some reorchestrated tunes from the Zelda universe this evening. Termina's Demise has never sounded so good.

First time I'm actively listening to something while I'm on NLife:

@skywake - I think a lot of people who’ve been reasonably far down the blues wormhole have been first dumbfounded by the influence of the genre, then outraged by the perceived lack of “credit” the genre receives/ed. As with anything, partial knowledge can be dangerous. If you commit, and push all the way through the genre and reach its pre WWI American Primitive beginnings; you’ll hear the confluence of sounds from around the world that define the genre and realize it too materialized from influences that came before it. I guess that’s the struggle in all art, desire to create versus our creative capabilities. It’s what breeds innovation. I don’t feel like there’s a lot of derivative music or artists out there, just those that drift further from their influences into innovation.

@MegaTen - A fine album to dedicate. I wish your friend well. You’ve posted a lot of good information and recommendations, I always look forward to what you have to say here.

Last weekend, I unearthed my forgotten copy of Fire in My Bones: Raw + Rare + Otherworldly African American Gospel, 1944-2007 from storage in the basement, and I’ve been playing it ever since. It’s a pretty incredible three disc comp of the entire genre including country and blues gospel, choir, electric funk, rhapsodic call and response sermons, circular singing, organ and more.

I looked around for links, and realized I may be recommending a unicorn. There’s not much out there on it right now, couldn’t find it streaming or on YT, and NIB and used CD copies are going for outrageous sums. I’m pretty sure it had a small vinyl pressing when it released, so I can’t imagine what prices might be on that. If the genre interests you, and you can find a copy for a reasonable price or at the library; I strongly recommend. I’m not a religious person, but I enjoy gospel music, and this is a nice comp spanning many decades and sub genres.

@Solea - I can’t make sense of that post my friend. Care to elaborate? I’m just picking up an aggressive tone with shades of ignorance. I was responding to a question with “derivative” and “band music” in the text, and that immediately made my mind jump to the influence that 40’s to early 60’s blues music had on 70’s rock music. As you can see from the variety of answers, others were inspired in different directions. Hopefully you’ll have some good regional recommendations for us as Ethiopia is one of the world’s great music hubs.

@bimmy-lee
I should probably make a point of saying that my comment wasn't really about music so much. It was about people's attitudes towards certain genres of music. Specifically the idea that there's no talent in music that heavily samples or equally as obnoxious jabs at "band music" just being the same four chords. Any trivial exploration of any style of music will reveal that that's clearly not the case.

Especially when you consider edge cases. I mean if you really hate "sampled music" with a passion and only like "rock" and "alternative"? You will likely still like Blur. And if that's the case how can you not also like Gorillaz? And if you're happily dancing along to Superfast Jellyfish I don't know how you can say you hate hip-hop.....

@Solea - Ah, I’m sorry. I’m usually half decent at detecting humor/irony/sarcasm on the internet. I see what you were getting at in your first post now, and I ruined the joke. Chalk it up to my own personal neurosis about the world view of Americans. On the message boards, I’m all about a good joke, but I guess I’m taking things a little too seriously on this forum.

At any rate, we found out we have a similar interest in blues music. From my perspective, if you trace the lineage of the genre back to your continent, and then explore the varieties of music there as well; the universal nature of blues begins to reveal itself. The sounds and stories in the songs are ancient and can resonate with us all. Fred McDowell is probably my favorite artist and guitarist, but it almost seems silly to pick one person like that.

I’m not saying blues is greater than or less than any other genre, I’m just making a statement about the blues and the universal nature of music.

@skywake - I see. I also don’t understand how someone could just shut off entire genres. A lack of curiosity I guess. It seems especially weird if you think all music is just a step or two removed from early humans clacking rocks together. It all flows from the same spring, so it seems strange for someone to get bent out of shape about a categorical label we apply to a sound of music.

Some food for thought on the topic...

@MegaTen funny you mention Oasis as yesterday I was going to write a long post about Liam's album, which was released yesterday, and Noel's album, which is out in a few weeks, but I wasn't in the mood for writing and deleted the whole thing. Incidentally, my first concert ever was also an Oasis show, a couple of years after yours, in Italy. Absolutely stellar.

Anyway, Liam's new record is out and from what I've heard it is pretty promising. It's not going to change the balance of the universe but if it does well I'll be rather happy, as we desperately need a character like Liam around and straight simple guitar rock in the charts. Of course Pitchfork has already slayed the record - cos you can't release an album without drum loops, a black singer or pointless walls of feedback and still expect it to score more than a 5 on Pitchfork. From what I read, the review is also comically bad as it doesn't really describe anything, it just points to other tracks/bands that sound like the songs on the album, which is terribly amateurish music journalism. The Allmusic review is, as usual, much better written and more informative, despite being only one third of the length.

Anyway, I'm really happy as I managed to find the record I wanted (Nirvana - The Story of Simon Simopath, 1967) for €15,34 - which is the highest I have paid for a single album in years but it's still a good price for that CD. Now my magic pentacle of british psychedelic pop (Pretty Things - Tomorrow - Blossom Toes - July - Nirvana) is finally complete and I'm ready to summon the spirit of Syd Barrett!

By the way, isn't it great that nowadays you can get most of the CDs you want for less than €20?! I mean, in videogame currency €20 is nothing, but in music you may get albums that you'll be listening to for the rest of your life for that amount of money!

Judas Priest came up earlier, and it must have subconsciously guided me to listen to Rocka Rolla last weekend. Looks like I need to check out Immortal.

Right this very moment, I’m listening to The Original Sound by Roy Orbison, released by Sun Records in 1969. Roy is probably one of my favorite vocal talents of any genre. He’s 33 here, and on point. My favorite track is first, Rock House. It’s a delightful hillbilly greaser track. I found an original pressing about five years ago in the $10-12 range, and it’s permanently in my current rotation.