SEVERE OT: MTV Musicless TeleVision

[Andy]

I accidentaly turned to Mtv just now and caught Christina Agulara's video (had to stop because of the skin!)  and I noticed that they were using the lyrics from an 80's song "Can't Hold Us Down" by a group that slips my mind at the moment.  It's sick how the new "artists" can rip off true artists of the past by "modernizing" the songs and get away with it from the RIAA and people are getting sued by the RIAA by downloading (possibly) the same songs only in original form!!

What happened to the GOOD music of yester-year?  What happened to originality?  What happened to..

Just thought I'd waste space by getting that off my chest and onto the chest of others.

[Rob Strand]

I feel the same way.  I can't watch, eh make that listen, to a lot of MTV type stuff these days, I think I'm just getting old - nice booty but forget the rest.

[Peter Snowberg]

When EmptyV was launched, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys said, "they finally found a way to get people to watch commercials 24 hours a day."

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Television: bad for music, bad for you.
I don't have a set!

[Joep]

you're right about the music, but "the Osbournes" is a cool show!!

[gez]

What happened to the GOOD music of yester-year?  What happened to originality?

To listen to some of the best (and worse?) new music around, check out Mixing It every week.  It's an eclectic mix of stuff, and some shows are truly awful, but quite often you'll hear some astoundingly good, and original music!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/mixingit.shtml

Check out the 'select artist' drop down menu for some of the best stuff they've had on recently.  The Legendary Stardust Cowboy was one of my favourites (just listen to the cool trem the guitarist uses!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/newmusic/lineup.shtml

PS they walk the fine line between brilliant and crap

[Thomas P.]

What happened to the GOOD music of yester-year?  What happened to originality?  What happened to..

Well, there is good music!!! Maybe not everyones taste, but there for sure!
Maybe the WhiteStripe (What an original sound they've got) or maybe Coldplay or Raidohead to count a few (and the BlackCrowes). But one thing is right: You don't find the 'good' stuff on MTV. And I belive you wouldn't find it on an ordinary radiostation either...
But you know that's the thing with 'pop-music'! Normally it's not the good thing that suits the masses - it's the easy stuff.
But that isn't a problem because there is and there ever was good music beyond.
For example take LedZeppelin (I'm a really big fan of them!). They were played on the radio and I believe MTV would have played it, but not because they did good stuff - they played it because they were pop. Nowerdays you wouldn't say LedZeppelin's pop because they aren't but back in the days they truly were pop. Same goes with the Beatles, the Stones and many others.
And imagine how many casting bands and 'jump on the running train'-bands did 'music' in the 50's, 60's and 70's. I would say there aren't more mainstream-shitty-bands then ever before.

!!!Just search and you will find good music!!!

Regards,
tomboy

[Arn C.]

I find that the "majority" of music today(pop/rap) is geared for the 12-15 year olds,  rap for the boys, the girl-crap for the girls......
Just my vision.....and it all sucks!
Peace!
Arn C.

[petemoore]

I find the messages of todays celebrity artists extremely shallow for the most part.
 There are vestages of intelligence [even on mtv] but they are so few and far between...and the rest of the mindless garbage permieates the waves incessantly.
 I find this 'American' stuff to be very irritating.  over and over it says don't think...consume!!!
 YOU want a big house and huge RIMS and a big butt like Jay Z and J lo...it gets harder and harder to tell who bought who and blatant consumerism and the selling of 'Americana' abounds.
 Most of these groups to me are 'Managers Specials'...shoveled slop that some corporate boardroom 'headwigs' cookid up...ya know T&A stuff, crack sales instruction, Gleaming Rims in a fisheye, Throwing money out the window stuff...not a dang thing I can use for anything positive.
 The rest is just a buncha marketting. Who got the money, who's got the biggest house/most exotic cars...who spends the most for parties etc etc etc et cet c......who's got the biggest, or  shows the most __ on camera...
 Someone in above post wrote of radio head/coldplay...there are deep groups who break into the MTV...Ya just gotta know what to look for and be willing to sit through seemingly endless [irritating IMO] sales pitches to see them.
 rant rant rant...MTV is sukki !!! that 1,4,5 clicktrack stuff never did it for me .

[Arno van der Heijden]

There are still lots of cool bands, but mostly not on MTV. Indeed the aforementioned bands like Radiohead, Coldplay or the White Stripes, but also bands like The Strokes and The Coral who both have some kind of 'yester-year'-vibe (check 'm!).
My personal favourite band is MUSE!! They make really great music and are a really GREAT live band. Their new cd 'Absolution' is absolutely brilliant!! Go see them! :mrgreen:

And then there's also Queens of the Stone Age, System of a Down, etc., etc.....

[jrc4558]

Let the plebeians listen to their music.

Good (that is us) is and will always be in minority.

[hank reynolds 3rd]

i'll go with muse (guitarist/singers has a 'brian may with broken fingers' thing going on....this is meant as  a compliment!!! )
also check out tortoise and papa m...
if you want really cutting edge music,try aphex twin and squarepusher....not much in the way of a 'song' but amazing music ...makes me sit there and just go 'what the @#$%?'



sam

[Chris R]

I've had Wilco's 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' in my player for a good week now.  Anyone else have that cd ?  

Watch out.. it's addictive.

C

[gez]

if you want really cutting edge music,try aphex twin and squarepusher....not much in the way of a 'song' but amazing music

I'll second that!

Incidentally, have the charts EVER been that great?  Were the golden years REALLY that golden?  I don't know about the States, but here in Blighty, during the British 'Beat Boom' the charts were full of the likes of Rolf Harris, Engleburg Humpledink (spelling?..as if I give a f*ck!), twinkle, etc etc.  In the 70s (more my era) there was nothing but bloody glam rock!  And prior to the Beatles the charts were full of slushy, sappy pop - as bad as anything today!

It seems to me there have been a few 'blips' in chart music where decent stuff permeated the main stream, other than that, it's always been pretty dire.  

And...relax...ahh

[hank reynolds 3rd]

don't forget the eighties!!!
currently doing the rounds with hipsters again....
asymmetrical haircuts,plastic earrings etc...
i bet phil oakey is in hog heaven (giving him 'props' as he is a sheffield lad!!!)

you could've bought most of those nasty ass clothes and plastic earrings from a charity shop for about 20p,.....now they're like 40 quid from topshop (not that i've been in there.....honest!! )

watch for a massive influx of requests for nailing that 80'sdodgy chorus  sound!!



sam

[JohnM]

Christina Agulara's video (had to stop because of the skin)

I agree with everything you said unless you are implying that this woman is in any way attractive.  To me, her image is being sold as part of the package.    It's ALL being sold to me by someone who understands what makes $money$ not good music OR GOOD PEOPLE.  These "artists" are soulless and ugly.

What happened to the GOOD music of yester-year?

If you don't have a huge collection, you can go out and buy a lot of old stuff.  My attitude is that if I haven't heard it, it's new to me!  

It's sad to me that many of my favorite songs are never played on the radio even on the "classic rock" stations.  You'll here the songs from the album that some executive thinks will sell the most commercials.

Way, way off-topic:

I feel that our values are being shaped by some out of control homogenizing and degenerative force.  Look at how much $money$ a professional athlete makes.  When was the last time you saw a live, "post-game", interview with a cancer researcher who was wearing $500 sun-glassess and shoes, and a $10,000 suit?  That is my definition of obscenity.  That's a whole other subject: we can't have naked people on TV, yet much of what is on TV is blatently sexual, and sometimes the non-sexual stuff is the most obscene.

For me, the thing to do is to refuse to believe that I can not make a difference.  I make a habit of trying to recognize when something is being sold to me.  I then make a conscious choice as to whether I will "buy" it.  Sometimes the majority will think I'm strange for making a particular, seemingly insignificant, different choice.  This practice provides its own satisfactions, but if I cause one person to think "Hey, why did he make that strange choice?", then that is something.

It's no wonder I need the distraction of stomboxes...  is it?

[petemoore]

I've got a Rolph Harris record here...lol,,,and have fond memories of family sing alongs/house partys my parents would play Rolph and we're considered 'hip' to the new beats at the time...
 I still like the Beatles and Stones better though...my brothers turned me on to the use of a stool [I was a short sukka then] cueing records was one of the first complex tasks I remember mastering!!!

[gez]

I've got a Rolph Harris record here...lol

If truth be told, I probably had a few as a kid too!  :oops:

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I'm with JohnM on this... it's kind of sad, that almost everything we see (signs, tv, crap architecture) or hear (music,ads) or eat (from bottles and packets) is because someone wants to make money from us.
You can have too much of anything, even capitalism!

[petemoore]

That's one thing I was never a fan of.  To me it just sounds mushy, and many of the players that were using it seemed to utilize the 'mushefkt' to cover a sloppy attack rate in their right hand [Im probly being biased and a little too scathing and generalizing...] but I never was able to appreciate [still don't] that 80 "mush' chorus/distortion vibe.