Radio rock ?

[edgeofthorns]

I am talking about new radio rock even on the shitty ass clear-channel stations. As opposed to their being really "metal" it's more like a hard rock/metal hybrid ala AC/DC. Nickelback is a good example. I have seen them picked on before and thought their "hits" were ok, though nothing great, but my wife liked them so I bought "The Long Road." They are pretty heavy with guitar solos and even some double bass. The biggest problem with new rock is lyrical content. It's teen angst or bad relationship stuff often. Nickelback is all about the bad relationship stuff, but that's the only negative to that CD. It ri[ps. Fuel's "Natural Selection" is another good one. I didn't buy it for the wife. I thought the song "Hemorrhage(In My Hands)" was so good radio stations would be playing that twenty years from now and out of curiosity I bought it. Excellent disc.
Certainly the two discs I mentioned are exceptions to the rule, but the smae goes for metal. There are a lot of so-so releases and a few great ones along with a few piles of dung. I'm not trying to turn people onto radio rock as a way of life, only to make people realize, it's getting better and better.
Aside from the metal aspect, there is a resurgence of good hard rock. Three Doors Down is a good band. Not much metal in their style, but those Southern boys play good rock and roll. Metal was evolved out of rock and roll. The "alternative" weird shit is phasing out as the rap (so it seems) mixed in with the rock. Metal's time is coming again.


Bryant

Well, I'll probably receive an ass kicking for this, but here goes. I've said for awhile now that Alter Bridges song structures are very close to traditional rock/metal. Tremonti even does solos in every song. Now he's starting to use the Zakk Wylde type accents on his playing too! If you've not heard Alter Bridge's Debut, your missing out on some pretty cool stuff! Their lead singer Myles Kennedy kicks Scott Stapp's ass too!

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

Some people just aren't interested in music as an art form. I've gotten over that and trying to "convert" everyone to listening to something they're just interesting. Same thing with all art forms, some people will always to prefer something they can go have fun with for a bit of time and be done with, to something that makes them think, etc. Between the two, I'd much rather tear down walls between artful music genres than have "metal" or whatever go out and meet mainstream listeners in the middle. One of the big issues I see in music now is having barriers between genres. I don't care about "metal" or "rock" or "jazz" "classical" or "rap," I see the perfect musical world as just everyone has the set of skills, and they do something with them. Genres are just a way of classifying what people make so you can look for something, they shouldn't be walls between people and you can only work in the "jazz" or "classical" field or whatever. One example is with the G3 tours with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and a guest guitarist. I was annoyed from reading the forums about "who would you want for G3" and people said that you can't have x person because "they're not rock." I don't know Robert Fripp, but apparently he was booed because he didn't play "rock" like Satriani and Vai did. I don't like it. I know Vai has the skills for jazz.......and really it's a set of skills you learn that can apply to anything, so there shouldn't be any barriers. There shouldn't be a "genre" issue with having Pat Metheny or Al DiMeola or Trey Spruance or whoever on G3.

So......there are bigger goals I see for the music scene accomplishing than killing creativity so it can be on the radio.

And on the note of the "big evil record companies," I've gotten past hating them, because they're not the reason what's on the radio is on the radio. They play whatever is popular. If a good chunk of MTV's audience suddenly fell in love with Merzbow, then we'd have noise 24/7 on MTV and reality shows based on it. "Wheels make the machine," as Daniel Gildenlow wrote...

 

[Kenneth R.]

You are intelligent and well spoken. I like your post, but I disagree on a couple of points. The culture of the 80's WAS music. MTV was huge. Even into the early 90's that was true. Even with the "information age" we have now, people that grew up with music as teens will remember 90's music quite well as well as those that were teens in the new millenium.
As fans of an elite form of music (I think the same would apply to say a prog rocker or modern Jazz enthusiast) we tend to stand off a little toward "popular" music, but I think the 90's had it's share of music heroes. I'm no fan of alternative, but Pearl Jam's "Ten" rips. I can say that in the 90's I was practically anti-radio and popular music so I can't give the best examples, but certainly the Pearl Jam counts for something.
Every decade will have it's music because music will always be important to people. Certainly, it has it's ups and downs. Bands have a hard time selling out shows right now, but I think things will work itself out.


Bryant

oh no no no, i do love alternative and most every genre of music. i don't consider prog "elite" at all. if anything, no musical genre is more "elite" than another.

what else you've said confirms what i have been talking about. the 90s had an image and collective dream, but it was losing steam and come millennium, it was dead with nothing to replace it...

 

[Kenneth R.]

90's = grunge!

Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Soundgarden....need I say more?

of course! but what would you say 00's =?

and i'm not isolating this to the scope of music, but the entire pop culture...

 

[kittybeast]

No worries at all my LA brother!

. The people that evaluate the music know what to play and know what to listen for before releasing them.

so how do you explain that American Idol Wang kid getting a record deal? In that case it's evident they don't listen well enough!

I have probably turned 200 people on to Tad Morose (before PPV) and Vanden Plas each because I like them so much, but what does that amount equal to in the grand scheme of things ?

Again that those people "in charge" wouldn't know good music if it bit them in the ass.

I still believe that radio is controled by payola....I completely get where you are coming from though that their is a change in the "popular" rock scene and those bands are getting heavier and edgier.

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

Again that those people "in charge" wouldn't know good music if it bit them in the ass.

I still believe that radio is controled by payola....I completely get where you are coming from though that their is a change in the "popular" rock scene and those bands are getting heavier and edgier.

As I already said......"those people in charge" aren't who control what is popular, it's the majority of people who give money to "those people in charge." Whatever is popular, that's what they mass produce and put everywhere.

 

[mtlheart]

Ironically, Nickelback would have been my example of all that is wrong with modern music. Nickelback's music lacks energy, intensity and the smallest shred of an original voice. They are the epitomy of Corporate Rock. They are the perfect representation of what happens to music when left to people who wear suits, study trends, and keep one eye on the bottom line. Perhaps their sound is preferrable to that of Spears, Simpson, and Timberlake. However, it's only preferrable in the same way that a doctor using one finger instead of two, during a prostate exam, is preferable.

Zod

I agree. Eddie Murphy makes the point in his video "Raw." If you give a starving man a saltine cracker, he'll think that saltine's are the best food in the world. Naturally Eddie was talking about sex as usual, but the same's true for music.

 

[Pellaz]

And on the note of the "big evil record companies," I've gotten past hating them, because they're not the reason what's on the radio is on the radio. They play whatever is popular. If a good chunk of MTV's audience suddenly fell in love with Merzbow, then we'd have noise 24/7 on MTV and reality shows based on it.

Aieeee. I flee.

Funny (" ") that you mention this....

When our radio station got a copy of the Merzbox compilation, they played it.

--In its entirety.

--It lasted for DAYS.

--It even made the local papers.

--Not in a good way, either.

I'd rather have my fingernails pulled off slowly, or have my nuts repeatedly kicked, than listen to that for an hour, let alone sixty.

Our metal show, WREKage, was the first "normal" programming to resume after the Merzbow marathon completed. We fielded dozens of phone calls thanking us for playing something -- ANYTHING -- else. (And we're playing stuff like Dimmu Borgir and Slayer and Children of Bodom and Iced Earth. Go figure!)

 

[edgeofthorns]

of course! but what would you say 00's =?

and i'm not isolating this to the scope of music, but the entire pop culture...

So far, bands that churn out the emo sound. You know, the bands that have a guy singing through his nose, with some mediocore hard music in the background. I think the rap core stuff is dying out though.

 

[edgeofthorns]

I feel like more of the "traditional" stuff will come to the front again. I'm not sure in what form, but there are a few bands trying to incorporate more melody in their sound, etc. I've not heard the new Disturbed song, but I've had several people to tell me that it sounds more melodic/traditional.

 

[thedelicateflower]

...radio rock?...isn't that an oxymoron?...