I don't get...music? (AMA's)

[DlxNashvilleLuvr]

I've got boxes and boxes of CD's, several amps, several guitars, if I go out on the weekend it's to see live music or to an instrument shop, then I read guitar forums inbetween. So why is it watching the American Music Awards I get this feeling I dont "get" music?

Three Doors Down, System of a Down, Fall Out Boy, Good Charlotte -- who are these people? Why was Lindsey Lohan permitted to "sing," filling in the Anna Nicole Smith role from last year? Hillary Duff?

I don't know if it's age or what, but I'm still stuck on Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes, The Who...maybe I'm naive and the same machine was at work then, but that stuff seems so much more organic. Now everybody sounds like Diane Warren wrote their hit and look like a team of gay hairdressers* streaked their hair, spiked it up and dressed them in a pair of 1981 Gloria Vanderbilt ass-grabbing jeans.

Willie Nelson doing "I'd Have to Be Crazy" still strikes my ears as genius. Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw strike me as jocks trying to look cool at a karaoke bar.

I could rant more, but I'll leave it there.

*Not that there's anything wrong with it.

Edit to add "ass-grabbing jeans" phrase.

[gls500]

Please subscribe me to your newsletter :D

[RockinCarl]

I'm with you about "today's" music... Here's the thing:

I'm 14. I'm a Rockabilly freak-- Carl Perkins, Danny Gatton etc. I listen to all of the CLASSIC country, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, etc. And all of the Blues and rock bands such as Led Zeppelin. (People say I can pick a Telecaster too.... Ask Elviscaster :D)

I don't understand today's music, never have never will, and honestly, I don't want to. Give me Carl Perkins, Merle Haggard, or Zeppelin anyday. :D

[genelovesjez]

Originally Posted by DlxNashvilleLuvr

I don't know if it's age or what, but I'm still stuck on Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes, The Who...

Yeah, those old awards shows that featured Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes, and the Who were really great.

[andrew]

Originally Posted by RockinCarl

I'm with you about "today's" music... Here's the thing:

I'm 14. I'm a Rockabilly freak--

I don't understand today's music, never have never will, and honestly, I don't want to. Give me Carl Perkins, Merle Haggard, or Zeppelin anyday. :D

I'm 25 and feel the same way.

[txspreacher]

Originally Posted by genelovesjez

Yeah, those old awards shows that featured Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes, and the Who were really great.

Greeeeaaaaaat, and effective use of sarcasm!!!
I agree with the others here, but that's a great point! At the apex of their (Zep, Who, etc.) popularity, if we recall the awards shows, there were some pretty lame winners/performers at that time, too. Not all of them, of course. But, AMA awards shows have always been designed to appeal to the masses and the top 40 charts. While tons of music fans were rocking out to "album-oriented rock" others were watching Elton John, Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, and Kenny Rogers, etc. on the awards shows....

[benhenny]

It's about the money. Producers only invest in advertising proven formulas, because taking a risk on real talent takes courage and the willingness to lose money if people don't dig it.

Check out the program that can predict hit songs. God help us.

And I think it's hard for talented musicians to resist a zillion dollar contract that forces them into the money making mold. I can think of several who had a killer early albums only to be stifled by fame, never again producing anything better than mediocre.

Best thing - stay local. Buy independent.

[Joel Terry]

Originally Posted by DlxNashvilleLuvr

Now everybody sounds like Diane Warren wrote their hit....

I would laugh if that wasn't so pithy. Man, don't get me started on Diane Warren's vast catalog of regrettable, inane tunes....:?

Originally Posted by genelovesjez

Yeah, those old awards shows that featured Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes, and the Who were really great.

Now, that made me laugh and then some.

Joel

[DlxNashvilleLuvr]

Originally Posted by genelovesjez

Yeah, those old awards shows that featured Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes, and the Who were really great.

Do you have any of those on tape?! Hee hee. True, they were never on those shows. However I think Green Day won somethingaruther while I was in here typing. Actually my disaffection for today's music extends to whenever I turn on MTV and hear Nickelback or some such. Aren't guys like Nickelback and Fallout Boy (what's with that name?!) supposed to be today's Who, etc?

On further reflection its not just because I'm in my mid-30's. When I was 18 I was thrilled to have made the acquaintance of Mr. Townshend and Mr. Page while everyone else was listening to Skid Row and Poison.

Los Lonely Boys' appearance was the highlight of the show. That guys Strat sounded light years better than Santana's PRS.

[Colo Springs E]

Originally Posted by DlxNashvilleLuvr

I don't know if it's age or what, but I'm still stuck on Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes, The Who...

Remember when you thought your parents were old fogies (sp?) because they didn't like "cool" music?

Well, you have officially become your parents!

:)

[Chris S.]

Keep in mind, record (now there's a dinosaur of a term... ) companies, radio stations, networks like MTV, etc., are NOT in the "music" business – they're in the "moving products for profit" business. The fact that their products contain music is entirely incidental. If instead of music it was say, <u>pictures of people picking their noses</u> that would entice large numbers of people to buy their products, then they would all be in the "nose picking picture" business, and we'd be watching all manner of odd individuals with fingers jammed into their faces. :-|

The awards shows, "Top 40" lists, trade industry magazines, etc., are all about glorifying <u>which product sells the most</u>, not what music is "best," or "most original" or "well written," "well performed," or anything of the sort, despite whatever pretentions the industry dresses itself up in.

Yes, it's especially frustrating to us as musicians, because we can hear and appreciate the difference between "good music" and "popular product" – and only very seldom do the two seem to coincide. :-\ Would more people buy "better" music if they were exposed to it? Maybe, maybe not. But the industry invariably pushes what their experience tells them will <u>sell</u> the most – they're in it to make money, after all – the content is irrelevant.

So no, you probably DON'T "get" music – neither do I – but that's because we're musicians. ;-) (Or that's how I console myself, anyway...) Hee. CS

[J-man]

I'm 17, new music does suck, not all of it, but there's very little coming out at the moment that can compete with Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd etc.

You should watch the UK Music Hall Of Fame Awards, it was on ITV1 or Channel 4, I forget which, last week, Black Sabbath, The Who, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, New Order etc etc all got inducted this year.

Slash did a Hendrix tribute, he played Hey Joe (with a Hendrix style improvised outro), with Jimi's drummer, Sabbath played, Ozzy played with Zakk Wylde aswell.

Now that's what an awards show should be like. :D

[Chimp #6]

Chris S pretty well nailed it.
Awards shows are basically just Infomercials.

[Twin Reiver]

Yeah, of course. OF COURSE.

Maybe the point of threads like this is really for us all to just pat ourselves on the back for liking more authentic music, but there is plenty of good music out there. Not a ton of it, but plenty. You just have to go out and look for it a little bit. And the nice thing now is that it is easier than ever to find it. I'm baffled by somebody who turns on prime time network TV searching for great new music. It just seems so lazy. And not only is it a totally ineffective way of finding good music, when you make judgments about how there is no good music anymore based on what you see on an awards show, it further marginalizes all the great bands who are slugging it out on tours and in bars, and on message boards and alternative radio, to get heard. "Oh, I didn't see it on the American Music Awards, so it doesn't exist." Boy that must feel great to some guy killing himself to get his band heard. That some listeners will deny his very existence because he's not on network television or a major label or whatever.

But like I said, maybe the point of the thread is to just vent. But pointing out that Lindsay Lohan is not much of a musician is like saying that a Twinkee is not much of a meal. If you're crying to be spoon-fed, don't complain when you get formula.

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by Colo Springs E

Well, you have officially become your parents!

The difference is that now, kids like the same music as their parents.

When I was 16 or so, my parents hated the music I listened to and I hated what they listened to. Now, go to a Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen concert and you'll see an age range of 15 to 55. You'll even see some kids there WITH their parents.

Jim

[Oskar]

You just have to go out and look for it a little bit. And the nice thing now is that it is easier than ever to find it. I'm baffled by somebody who turns on prime time network TV searching for great new music.

I think the state of music and its availability in this day and age is better than it has every been before, and will get even better. There isn't a day that doesn't go by where I don't find some really good and at times really great music on the internet. Thousands of small bands have websites and most have clips or whole songs for listening, or even taking and some of it stands up to and even exceeds much of what is popular today, and that includes much of the "well-respected" music out there.

The AMA, Grammys, CMA, and other award shows are purely promotional vehicles for the BBMC (Big Bad Music Corporations). Pretty empty productions with a few carrots thrown in to have us tune in, only to be disappointed, time, after, time after time.

I've always maintained that the Internet will eventually open music to a state where it has never been and make much more music available to many, many more people.
Remember, it's a big world out there and we're mostly exposed to what is happening in this country. Our overseas friends here can attest to that and often they promote bands from their country that are quite astounding. The Internet will definitely bridge that gap.
I just don't waste my time with the Lindsay Lohan's of the world, or energy complaining about it. Same types were there in the past and there will be more in the future. The only thing different is we will have much greater choices on what we want to listen to.

[jumpnblues]

Word...money.

[Mark Davis]

The only music I heard was Los Lonely Boys and Santana all the rest including the host was CRAP. But I expected that.

[Hey Joe]

Originally Posted by Twin Reiver

If you're crying to be spoon-fed, don't complain when you get formula.

That about says it all.

[Tim Bowen]

Originally Posted by txspreacher

While tons of music fans were rocking out to "album-oriented rock" others were watching Elton John, Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, and Kenny Rogers, etc. on the awards shows....

HOLY WOW, BROWN COW.

I've read the list of artists contained within this thread, and in my opinion, no artist mentioned here made better records or wrote better songs than did Reginald Dwight and Bernie Taupin, for the first 8-9 records of their collective career. Nobody! The Beatles were done! If anyone here can name a better song than "Amoreena", or "Burn Down The Mission", or "Where To Now St. Peter", or "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters", or... countless others - I'll send you a digital facsimilie of an adult beverage, for your virtual indulgence.

Surely I must take this out of context, it simply has to be... if not, go buy a copy of Tumbleweed Connection immediately! Hate me now, thank me later.

[Oskar]

Couldn't have put it better myself.

[DlxNashvilleLuvr]

Originally Posted by Tim Bowen

If anyone here can name a better song than "Amoreena", or "Burn Down The Mission", or "Where To Now St. Peter", or "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters", or... countless others - I'll send you a digital facsimilie of an adult beverage, for your virtual indulgence.

"No Quarter" and "The Rain Song." Please make that a vodka and orange juice.

Oh, I don't look to be spoon fed! The best shows and CD's I've ever gotten were by bands no has ever heard of, often local guys. And these days I'm surfing GarageBand.com a lot, hoping to find someone worth my ear and dollar (check these guys out: http://www.worldclassband.com). But if someone's on network TV and filling up stadiums I expect there to be some sort of engaging quality there and I'm not seeing it.

I've figured out what the difference is, I think, which I will elaborate on in a second post.

[Oster]

The fact that awards shows of yore awarded the likes of Barry Manilow and Leo Sayer (Chris Cross, etc.) while the equivalent of today features Fallout Boy and Three Doors Down speaks volumes not only about these newer band's actual place in the scheme of things - but of their professed influences as well.

Alt-Rock and its antecedents has long prided its