I think one common theme among the greats is that they were battling inner demons (not just drugs) and the best way to express what they were thinking or feeling was through their instruments.
I think like early Carlos Santana and others were conflated with contemporary movements but their actual musical performances were an homage to something greater.
You have to strip away the hippy dippy contemporary affects to see it though.
I just don’t see that in music anymore.
Exactly.
By what criteria?
No idea how old you are and it doesn’t make a difference to the point I am making. “OK, Boomer” (in my opinion) is not really a reference to a literal age group and more a point that you are now part of the group of people complaining about how kids these days are stupid, lazy, disrespectful, etc.
I’d also point out that Taylor Swift is practically a non-entity for young people today. According to this: Many of Taylor Swift’s fans are middle-aged. Why do they love her so intensely? - ABC News
" While 45 per cent of Swift’s US fans are millennials — like the 34-year-old herself — 21 per cent are Gen X and 25 per cent are Boomers, according to That means nearly half of her millions of fans are likely over 45."
Mathematically, this means that less than 20% of her fans are under 28. Perhaps the reason that pop music is dumb is that there are too many old people in it.
For the most part, I think that the internet has allowed complex music to fragment. There is still lots of it, perhaps more than there ever was. That just makes it difficult for any particular bit to become dominant across a huge fanbase. Also, the internet has created a way for other forms of art and expression to be more accessible to creators and thus made music less important as a channel for protest and subversive messages.
I feel like we’ve always had crap music but these bands/artists mostly get forgotten
They can actually play their songs live. Lars writes good drum parts, but his technical abilities are lacking. The producers did a lot of work to get drum tracks for albums. Lots and lots of takes to get the drum sections, then they were spliced together.
I am not trying to hate on Lars. I wish I could write drum parts as well as he does. But he is objectively sloppy. He has gotten worse over the last few decades. I think he just doesn’t practice how he should given he plays drums for the biggest metal band in the world. It feels like a waste when he can write so well, but can’t play solidly. His time is bad, but that is covered pretty well by him not being the time keeper (it is James). James has very good time, so it works, but it might sound atrocious if Lars tried to play with a band in which the drummer had to be the time keeper (which is like 99%+) of bands. He also has a lot of unintentional flams in his playing which is the result of just not practicing. If you are playing with Metallica, you should be able to hit your right foot and right hand at the same time, or your right hand and left hand at the same time.
There are many drummers that could step in to play with Metallica, and they would sound better live.
As a former teacher, I can objectively say they have taken typical young people behaviors to absurd levels. Keep in mind, my generation wasn’t shooting up schools, wasn’t overly medicated, didn’t have any normal kid behavior labelled a psychological disorder, we had no concept of my truth (we had reality), we weren’t addicted (literally) to screens, and we could tell the differences between males and females. I forgot to add the higher rates of suicide and suicidal ideation these days. Sorry, but the kids are not alright.
Regardless of Swift’s fan ages, and I’ll address that in a moment, you haven’t refuted that it’s crap. You haven’t addressed any of the points brought up, only offered ad hominems.
And here is the survey you mentioned:
Number of respondents
356 respondents
Age group
18 years and older
Special properties
among self-identified avid Taylor Swift fans
So of course you won’t have kids mentioned as they were not part of the survey. And only 365 people were surveyed.
They’re there, but they’re about getting young people to spend their money on crap.
Regarding messages in music, have you guys seen “Under the Silver Lake” yet?
Metallica sincerely delivers some of the best live shows on the planet.
Would again have to disagree. Ulrich may not be the best metal drummer, but I highly doubt Grohl could keep up with Metallica or write their caliber of songs.
Grunge is pop with distortion and an angsty twist.
Here’s the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 today, August 19th 2024. I had never heard of this artist or his song until just now. It is a cross-genre bar anthem that seems calibrated to appeal to as many people as possible. In this effort it may have succeeded, but at what cost? There is very, very little about a composition like this that can’t be spontaneously generated by AI and maybe doctored up by a slick producer a little bit.
I don’t mean to pick on Shaboozey since I just learned about him a few minutes ago, but he’s an embodiment of everything wrong with the monetization of our culture. I expect to hear this song next time my kid hooks his phone up to the boat’s sound system. He and his early 20’s buddies are the target audience.
Before we all succumb to the urge to declare past music to be better, which it is, let’s hop in the wayback machine to look at pop music on this day 10, 20, 30 and 40 years ago.
#1 on August 19, 2014: “Rude” by Magic!
I regret un-forgetting this song by looking it up, but it’s at least a talented artist making something original-sounding.
#1 on August 19, 2004. “Slow Motion” by Juvenile. I have fond memories of this song in my 20’s.
#1 on August 19, 1994 was Lisa Loeb. She’s talented enough I guess, but I’m pretty sure she’s been cloned and installed into nearly every local school committee in the country in the last 30 years.
#1 on August 19, 1984 was “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr. I actually remember this being all over the radio. Great film.
I’m not claiming that Taylor Swift music is good. My point is that Taylor Swift’s fans are mostly middle aged and older women. I have a 10 year old and a 14 year old and neither of them know anyone that likes Taylor Swift. My wife, on the other hand, knows multiple people that are dedicated swifties. This is clearly anecdotal which is why I looked for more data on the subject.
You claim that my “Okay Boomer” is an ad-hominem attack, but go on to rant about how “the kids are not alright.” As I explained, that was my entire point. You’re clearly in the group of people that think the rising generation is failing.
And they had to pay Huey Lewis.
Care to refute the points I brought up? And here’s the problem, or rather your problem. You take this criticism, that is based on facts, as some sort of personal attack on younger people. I was a teacher. Was that because I hate kids? I’m a father. Did I choose to become one because I hate kids? I was in Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Maybe, just maybe, what you interpret as hate and anger and a sense of superiority towards young people is actually concern. All of these issues I see, and let’s be honest, a lot of people see them too, were created by greedy older people who see people in general as merely providers of revenue. They have no problems with damaging young people to make a buck.
If you paid attention, you would see they feel that way too.
I don’t disagree with you. Just IMO, Lars should be more on point. It isn’t even that he is awful or anything, it is that he could be better.
Grohl has played in lots of bands. He has played in a metal band (IIRC, he was in one with Lemmy of Motorhead). Nirvana wasn’t about flashy playing, he can play faster crazier stuff too. The drumming on The Queens of the Stone Age song No One Knows shows off a bit of that.
The same has been said about Kirk. If I were to judge Metallica on musicianship alone, relative to genre, then Megadeth is clearly superior. I would say Pantera were as well. But who has sold more records?
If only Dave Mustaine didn’t sound like that…
What do you mean?
As a kid I thought he sounded a little high pitched and whiney. And just sorta weird. So I couldn’t take the music seriously.
I was the same way about Iron Maiden.
You’re really reading into my comments a lot of depth and malice that I didn’t intend. My original response wasn’t even directed towards you and was mostly intended to facetiously point out how older generations always think the next generation is going to end the world.
I also talk to lots of young people and would say that, like every previous generation, they are very far from monolithic. I’m not exactly sure what points you want me to refute. I don’t fundamentally disagree that there are problems for young people and that those problems may be different than before (and in some cases more serious).
Blackmore is awesome. The perfect guitarist for Deep Purple, no doubt about it.
They’re not my cup of tea either. On that note, that is also why I never really warmed up to Steve Morse in Deep Purple. May be technically better than Blackmore but I find that all that wankery actually makes the songs worse, whereas Blackmore, well…
They just fit, didn’t they?
I don’t think we ever had that in any other era.
Audioslave? Not really the same thing.
That’s not what I meant.
