crillemannen
Member
Checked a few clips sounded like playback to me, really. Something fishy about it for sure.
Music Industry Predictions for 2015
- Thread starter HOFX
- Start date
Checked a few clips sounded like playback to me, really. Something fishy about it for sure.
Loren Littlejohn
Lover of all boobage.
lol not sure if srs
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/05/137530847/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-hit-song
I could go on. Sure there are good songs among the jungle of shit that has been this decade. The very talent are the marketing guys. inb4 they are musical geniuses that know how to make people dance lmao just LMAO
not sure if srs
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Clockwork
Bass playing guy.
Not to derail things too much but how does the current Sumerian Battle of thee Bands fiasco reflect on the label situation in 2015? Interesting words from Ash.
http://lambgoat.com/blog/601/band-calls-out-Sumerian-Records-for-Road-To-The-Sphinx-competition
http://lambgoat.com/blog/601/band-calls-out-Sumerian-Records-for-Road-To-The-Sphinx-competition
Machinated
Member
to the people who aren't sure if I'm being serious - if it's that easy, why is it they're making hits and we aren't?
it's not the 60's any more. we aren't going to get unexpected chords/modulations in pop songs. we aren't going suddenly find an undiscovered sequence of chords. pop is all about writing under the constraints of only a few chords. keeping it simple and easy to digest but simultaneously interesting and fun to listen to. the cleverness isn't going to be the chord progression, it's what you do within those parameters. having a strong melody is SO important in pop.
regarding the videos above, it's easy to scoff at them but if you purely focus on their musical knowledge and overlook what they're actually good at then you'll just end up missing the point. on the other end of the spectrum there's some incredible pop writers who've played jazz piano since the age of 5, blitzed their way through Berkeley and write songs with 3 or 4 chords as well.
if it's so easy, try writing something as good or better.
it's not the 60's any more. we aren't going to get unexpected chords/modulations in pop songs. we aren't going suddenly find an undiscovered sequence of chords. pop is all about writing under the constraints of only a few chords. keeping it simple and easy to digest but simultaneously interesting and fun to listen to. the cleverness isn't going to be the chord progression, it's what you do within those parameters. having a strong melody is SO important in pop.
regarding the videos above, it's easy to scoff at them but if you purely focus on their musical knowledge and overlook what they're actually good at then you'll just end up missing the point. on the other end of the spectrum there's some incredible pop writers who've played jazz piano since the age of 5, blitzed their way through Berkeley and write songs with 3 or 4 chords as well.
if it's so easy, try writing something as good or better.
It's not about writing something good or better. Plenty of people can write shit that people are going to listen to. It's all about meeting the right contacts, pr and marketing. It's always been like that, it just happens that most easy listening music it's been shittier this decade. Sure there's plenty of talent but pop music is plain simple to make.
Pop artists have some sort of appeal outside music ( I haven't seen anyone being a complete potato). I also haven't met a single person that likes pop/rock that disagrees that this decade in pop music is mainly of replaceable music and suddenly someone on a metal forum disagrees? It just seems weird.
btw melody isn't as important it's the beat that makes most of the appeal.
He's Dead, Jim
Member
I have a predisposition to sort of think whining about labels is stupid, because they're middlemen and everybody hates middlemen. This article basically confirms that. The Sumerian guy is articulating things clearly and coherently, and this electrojazz vocalist idiot is just responding with vague and pretty unwarranted complaints that sound more like hurt feelings/egos than actual points of legal, financial, or creative contention. Yeah, the terms you get offered when you win a contest are somewhat less favorable than those you get when Sumerian notices you out of the blue. Deal with it. Labels have to walk a fine line between making sound investments and not restricting the creativity of their artists, and I don't really envy them having to make those sorts of decisions.
egan.
daylightdies.com
I didn't watch the video but all of Ash's responses in the comments are 100% in line with my label experience. My guess is that the band hired a lawyer unfamiliar with the music business. Ash may be (I have no idea) a saint or a scumbag but the reality is that all of that contract stuff is boilerplate and it is completely reasonable that the label would want to wait to announce the "winner" when a band actually signed a contract. Maybe this whole contest was a scam or maybe these kids are just really green. Every contract I've negotiated (Relapse, Earache, Candlelight) had A+R clauses, membership clauses, and rights of refusal.
Anyway, it is entirely possible to exist as a band without a label but it requires a coincidence of prowess in music, social media, marketing, business and often times production. That's a really difficult road.
Labels are a mixed bag. My experience has been that they've given us recording budgets, gotten us tours, given us tour support, given us video budgets and gotten us press. In exchange for that they take the lion's share of record sale profits. I've little doubt we could have made the same money on our own but I doubt I would have had the same opportunities and IME that was a worthwhile trade.
Machinated
Member
check out the background behind guys like ryan tedder, max martin, dr luke, steve mac, kevin kadish. what they do may sound simple, but it certainly isn't within the grasp of most. it sounds easy because they're using common chord progressions and simple discernible rhythms. the clever part isn't that though, its working within that.
the beat is definitely important but the killer melody is what people like max martin obsess over. its why top lining exists as its own entity, and even why they get a 50% cut (mental really).
obviously knowing the right people is crucial, but its not like these songwriters have made it based purely on luck. they're at the top of their game, churning out hit after hit and a label doesn't have to gamble because the risk is less going with the guys with a reputation. the same way CLA/serban ghenea/costey/stent etc get repeat mixing work.
check out the background to people like ke$ha/gaga/taylor swift/pharrell/akon/meghan trainor - they maybe whiny and annoying pop singers but they've got a ridiculously long list of songwriting credits and come from backgrounds where they've been practicing it for years. they most certainly have a more vast musical knowledge than what you might expect.
I don't think pop music is in a particularly good place at the moment either, and its most certainly not the music I personally like. I wouldn't call it easy or simple to make, and the vast majority of songs in the charts have SO much talent involved that I couldn't call it shit as much as "not my thing". I find it kind of naive to write it all off as terrible and put any success it has down to luck and everyone on the planet being a complete idiot.
He's Dead, Jim
Member
Doesn't Gaga write her own music? That's always been my impression, and one of the reasons why I don't really mind her at all. Could be wrong though.
Keregioz
Kimon Zeliotis
You can find good and bad songs and talented or untalented musicians within all genres of music. Pop music is more popular simply because it's much more accessible to the average listener.
Clockwork
Bass playing guy.
I guess I find it interesting because the general perception for a lot of folks is that it seems that labels are out to screw the musician which makes me wonder whether there will be some reconciliation of that in the coming years. Right now it seems like people have almost as many misconceptions about DIY as they do about being signed, perhaps events like this will help people understand what makes both methodologies commercially viable (maybe not IDK). Lots of bands tout the DIY title without really understanding how to do it themselves. Maybe better communication with artists is what's going to allow labels to keep a stronger foothold in the future. If people understand more that they are trading money for opportunity maybe there would probably be less misconceptions and hurt feelings.
Personally I like Numbers as a band and they are cool dudes (plus I like Aaron Smith's mixes) so it sucks that people are labeling them as whiny just because they felt like they got a raw deal. However, Sumerian can't be that scummy or I doubt they would have some of the artists they do signed to them.
LeSedna
Mat or Mateo
Stromae has probably more talent than anyone posting in this thread and by far. Don't underestimate pop artists !
LeSedna
Mat or Mateo
She does, she writes everything, up to the point of production where she then co-produces the song. Examples :
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Poker_Face_(Lady_Gaga_song)
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Born_This_Way_(song)
for comparison, I didn't search too far but that is what I could find with a 1mn research :
Rihanna
If It's Lovin' That You Want
Composed by Jean-Claude Oliver / Lawrence Parker / Makeba / Samuel Barnes / Scott La Rock
Justin Bieber / Ludacris
Baby
Composed by Christina Milian / Christopher Bridges / Christopher Stewart / Justin Bieber / Terius Nash / Terius Youngdell Nash
Britney Spears
(You Drive Me) Crazy
Composed by David Krueger / Jörgen Elofsson / Max Martin / Per Magnusson
IMO lady gaga is the most interesting pop superstar right now. She knows how to write a song in a catchy yet interesting way. She is definitely a rare talent, and you won't find another person with that whole package so easily. You can find a tremendous pianist, or a vocalist, or songwriting, or performer, etc, but it is much more difficult to find someone with all of those qualities together, even if less extreme taken separately. In fact she's not the best at either of those things, but the whole formula is almost unique.
In fact she is a product not only of herself, but of an aggressive "search for the next new superstar". The girl who found her just got her paycheck after a 7 or 8 years court battle. I actually saw that on Slate's fb !
EDIT :
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