Trends and the current state of music.....

[ZANEX]

Is it me or does the current state of "popular" music suck or what? Everything goes in trends, even now. I'm 29 and when I first got into music it was Kiss, Black Sabbath, and Van Halen when I was about 6 or 7. The trends I've witnessed include "hair bands", "grunge," and "rap rock" to name a few. It seems like if one band takes off, there's a hundred more like them. Examples: The "gun" bands (Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns, etc...) the "cat" bands (Faster Pussycat, Cats N'Boots, etc...) the "white" bands (Great White, White Lion, Whitesnake, White Tiger, etc...) then "grunge" (Alice In Chains, Sound Garden, My Sisters Machine, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, etc...) Today its the same. All the shit sounds the same. Examples, the "pop/rock" (Creed, Fuel, Nickelback) the "number" bands (Sum 41-they did a cool cover of Dio's "Holy Diver", Blink 182, SR-71,etc...) bands with DJ's (Limp Bizkit, No One, Incubus, etc...) and the "nu"-metal crap (Disturbed, Drowning Pool, Cold, Coal Chamber, Korn, Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Pressure 4-5, Saliva, etc...) there are too many more to mention. Also, nobody has guitar solo's anymore. Some may think Systematic and Staind are nu-metal but at least they have guitar solo's. I've just go back and listen to the old standards like NEVERMORE, SLAYER, PANTERA, DEATH, ANTHRAX, QUEENSRYCHE, OZZY/BLACK SABBATH, TESTAMENT, ARMORED SAINT, TOOL. I think I want to move to the U.K. because it seems like metal is more available there because here in corporate America everything is commercialized and packaged, or is it the some way "across the pond." I can't wait until the new NEVERMORE or something else to break because music is becoming stale except for the few consistent bands I've mentioned. In closing, before there was nu-metal there was Fear Factory, V.O.D., and Ministry and Nine Inch Nails, before there was rap rock there was Biohazard and Anthrax/Public Enemy. I think all these younger Korn and Limp Bizkit fans should do there homework and find out were this shit came from and that there not so innovative. Some of my favorite new records this year were new SLAYER, HALFCOCKED, AND THE CULT because they have GUITAR SOLO'S, WHAT A CONCEPT. I'm still undecided about System Of a Down because its so different its good, or am I striving for something good I'm just accepting S.O. A.D.? Cheers and take care.

 

[RETIREDTrapped]

Hey Zanex, where you been dude??

I agree about 'new' music. Give me Death or Nevermore anyday...!

 

[jimbobhickville]

Yeah, popular music has always sucked. If we disregard popular music, I think metal has actually gotten quite a bit better in the last 10 years. I've really appreciated the bands branching out into different areas (i.e. incorporating classical elements, folk, jazz, choirs, orchestral arrangements, etc). Don't get me wrong, I still love the 80s thrash bands (Forbidden, Testament, Vio-lence, old Metallica, Watchtower, etc), but the incorporation of new elements has been a welcome breath of fresh air in the metal scene. I'd take the current scene with nu-metal ruling the airwaves and bands like Nevermore, Aghora, Lacuna Coil, Therion, The Lord Weird Slough Feg, etc, occupying my cd player over the hair band scene of the 80s any day. Sometimes I think that if bands like Nevermore became the mainstream stuff, people would say that only Death and Black metal were true metal. I really think that a lot of people only like what isn't the norm. I'm not one of them, and I'm not accusing anyone here of being one, but I have seen that opinion implied in various places. It's too bad, because that opinion is no better than people liking something simply because it is popular. Anyway, this has really been a tangent, so I'll shut up now. It's too bad more people don't listen to metal, but I worry that if they did, record companies would produce billions of generic metal clones and ruin the metal scene anyway.

Later.

 

[Emperor Norton]

Great words, expresses some of my sentiments.
I once made a Korn fan listen to death metal for a straight hour...it was funny watching the expressions on his face

I think the reason mainstream music is so watered down is that it's all image based, you've got Blink 182 at the awards shows next to some hot chick who makes a softcore porn video for every song(elaboration ) You've got Slipknot, who wear stupid masks, and want you to think that what they play is death metal...it all thrives on image, not music.

 

[voice of treason]

NO MORE BALD GUYS WITH ACOUSTICS CRYING ABOUT HOW THEIR GIRLFRIENDS LEFT THEM. when i was growing up, you where tough if you had a bald head, now it just makes you a big sissy( hahahahahahhahahahhahahhahhahahahhahahha)

 

[TexasFriedCriminal]

I guess my musicla tastes are highly varied, seeing as they include the whole range of metal music as well as a broad strip of folk, celtic, gothic and that singer-songwriter stuff so popular in the 60s, some hip hop, classical music, and in talking about metal I take the whole total from Uriah Heep to Morbid Angel to be included somewhere in there.

but oddly the corporate mass music has always offended my feeling for art.

 

[RETIREDTrapped]

haha.

It seems a bit strange how they all say how 'fucked up' their lives are, yet they are all billionaires living in mansions...

now THAT is funny.!

 

[spawn]

You do realise of course that by saying there is no good music around today that you sound like your fucking parents

If you actually give bands like Slipknot etc. a chance you might enjoy them, stop doing the whole mob mentality of "they wear masks/face paint/play in dropped b so they suck" thing and give it a go

 

[alexseretis]

if u wanna listen to some metal listen to the new album of Kreator...If you need something more melodic but still heavy listen to the new My Dying Bride or Opeth. If you wanna listen to black metal listen to the last albums of Emperor and Dimmu Borgir...but not fucking nu-metal...
and btw, the last slayer sucks big time...

 

[ZANEX]

Don't get me wrong, I don't think all new music is crap. I'm just amazed at how the majority of new bands on MTV, MTV2, AND MTVX sound alike and that nobody is really original. All the "nu"-metal bands sound the same or sound like something that's already been done. I think the market is flooded with "nu"metal and "pop/rock" crap. I hate the way that whatever is trendy gets copied to death. I think this "nu'-metal crap will die out just like disco, grunge, and "glam metal or hair metal". I'm pretty open minded and listen to classic rock(Zeppelin, The Doors, C.C.R.) classical (Beethoven, Mozart) some country (George Jones, Hank Williams Jr.) bluegrass (Stanley Brothers, Allison Kraus) but my main love is Metal/Hard Rock whether its Black Sabbath, Kiss, old Van Halen, old Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Deicide, Death, Control Denied, Fates Warning, Six Feet Under, Fear Factory, Dream Theater, Savatage, Armored Saint, Testament, or NEVERMORE. As I mentioned before, new releases from Slayer, Halfcocked, The Cult, Systematic, System Of A Down, and the O" Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack are my favorites from 2001. There's others but I can't think. Like the Sacred Reich song "31 Flavors" mentions, "don't just be a Metal Dude." Also, I'm not putting down anyone who listens to only Metal. I'm just saying be open minded. Cheers and Take Care.

 

[spawn]

Well, everything on MTV always sounds the same no matter what year it is, everyone knows they find something popular and play it until you want to scream Its just the way things work with the music industry, you cant do anything about it! With the internet nowadays you can find the bands that play the kind of music you like anyway, so you dont have to rely on mtv/tv in general to keep you informed!

God Hates Us All **rules**

What bands are on the oh brother where art thou soundtrack?

 

[romolus]

i like all that nu-metal crap for one reason: by contrast it makes the metal i like sound all that much better.

 

[Vylance X]

A good majority of the crap out there today is just put together by corporations to make a dollar... and when I mean "put together" I mean signed to the label. They figure that if one label is successfull with that sound, then they might be also. Hence the BSB & N*Sync theory. There are FAR more boy bands out now than in 1998. It's all a trend. It will fade away with time.

Life is like clown shoes. Don't ask me how, it just is.

 

[lumen]

I like Korn!

There, I said it.

But of course you have a million bands now that all sound the same. You always have to have watered down, popified versions of everything to feed to radio and tv. And it's proven that formulas sell, so unless a band is producing a sound that is known to pay off (ie trendy) they have a hard time getting signed.

Such is life.

 

[RETIREDTrapped]

Life is like clown shoes

...Big and floppy??





(...I reckon you should see someone about that dude, it can't be healthy............?)

 

[IcedNeonFlames]

I remember that a few years ago, there were actually some interesting, original and bizarre videos(tool, radiohead, G'n'R). Now, every single video I see is the same damn thing. Popstarts dance around like strippers, rappers just swing their hands up and down and throw money around, all this "nu-noise(i refuse to call it music, much less metal)" show them in an abandonned warehouse or something similar.

Make something original, dammit!!

 

[metalized]

Originally posted by ZANEX
I'm just saying be open minded. Cheers and Take Care.

ZANEX i am open minded. I Listen to all kinds of metal. (that is actually "i only listen to all kinds of metal" )

Stay metal dudes.

 

[ZANEX]

Hey Metalized! No problem with listening to "only all kinds of METAL". IcedNeonFlames, I agree. I'm waiting for something original too, and can't wait until this happens. Cheers and take care.

 

[RETIREDTrapped]

There is plenty of good metal bands out there, you just have to find them.

take MARTYR for example, they are one of the most incredible bands i have ever heard, yet they are totally unknown.

 

[metalized]

Originally posted by Trapped
There is plenty of good metal bands out there, you just have to find them.

take MARTYR for example, they are one of the most incredible bands i have ever heard, yet they are totally unknown.

are you their manager? wherever you stand you mention them...