Wankery in music

[Towedwart]

Serious thread. Is it solely found in guitar and bass playing? Can wankery be found in genres other than metal/rock? I'm debating someone about this. he says if a band like Godspeed You! Black emperor throws a 10 minute drone section in, that is wankery. Or Autechre is wankery. All these random things. I see wankery as nothign more than a guitarist going to town with a crazy solo that does nothing but please himself. Thoughts?

 

[Pethical]

GY!BE is wankery? w. t. f.

there is deffinately wankery in blues and jazz, and even classical. i'm sure its everywhere

 

[Alex78]

Sure there's always been wankery..as for classical, listen to Paganini or Locatelli's "Arte del violino".

also let's not forget keyboard solos.

 

[stefan86]

Wankery can be found in any music genre in many shapes really. Just like guitarists who solo for seven minutes, bands can go out of proportion with many things. Long song structures, pretentious concepts, weird time changes etc.

 

[AshDLS]

You've unleashed the focking fjury.

 

[affinityband]

Wankery can be found in any music genre in many shapes really. Just like guitarists who solo for seven minutes, bands can go out of proportion with many things. Long song structures, pretentious concepts, weird time changes etc.

so pretty much opeth then lol

 

[stefan86]

meh not in that sense. all of those things can have both positive and negative aspects, it's all about how the songwriter structures it

 

[all_sins_undone]

so pretty much opeth then lol

lmao

 

[affinityband]

''Long song structures, pretentious concepts, weird time changes etc.''

If i was to sum up opeth to someone who i thought may like it. that is exactly what i would say.

 

[Travis]

Bebop was basically invented because the swing musicians were tired of not being able to solo

 

[stefan86]

''Long song structures, pretentious concepts, weird time changes etc.''

If i was to sum up opeth to someone who i thought may like it. that is exactly what i would say.

haha. didn't think about opeth when I said that actually but I see what you mean. It's all about how you apply it and Opeth mostly does it in a positive sense. I was merely trying to point out that my negative definition of wankery is when you blow things out of porportion to the point where the function and feeling of your work suffers.

 

[Scarlett Letterman]

keyboard soloing should be made illegal

 

[affinityband]

oh yeah definately. Most of the time opeth is all positive for me.

 

[soundave]

I'll submit that wankery isn't even limited to music: there are wanktastic books, films, paintings, etc.

 

[NubianGoddess]

Dream Theater comes to mind.... I like many of their "songs" but some are just plain ridiculous. and I agree with soundave. Much wankery all around us.... even on this forum....

 

[soundave]

Dream Theater comes to mind.... I like many of their "songs" but some are just plain ridiculous. and I agree with soundave. Much wankery all around us.... even on this forum....

Hahaha! Goddess, you're awesome....

 

[stefan86]

Heh. Dream Theater are actually kinda unfairly bashed in terms of wanking. They have done some real high quality songwriting on "Awake" and "Images & Words" IMO

 

[LightningLixxx]

I find Necrophagist a little annoying because of the wankery. It seems they can't even play a riff more than once without jizzing all over the fucking fretboard.

But in reality, I wouldn't call every solo that contains a sweeping 6-string arpeggio a wankinig solo. Some can use these incredible skills and techniques to make music, some can't.
That's the difference between shred and good music.
Take for instance Michael Angelo Batio and someone like Al di Meola. Total wanker vs. total wanker with taste. Jazz fusion is clearly better than a backing track with a solo over it.

 

[coolsnow7]

Al di Meola is a watered down John McLaughlin.

 

[Death_To_False_Metal]

Flamenco, Jazz Manouche, Jazz Rock, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Lidst, Paganini, brutal death metal, Paganini, shred guitar a la yngwie