Old music is better than new music

jibi

HJ1976 wrote:

What song beats Queens 'Don't stop me now' when you are doing a nice round 70 down an empty motorway?

The Chain.... Fleetwood Mac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csatmi34YEk

Used to be the theme tune to Formula one on BBC (the bit at 3:04 miins on this vid)
george

sonicred007

Rhythm Thief wrote:

sonicred007 wrote:

I'd love to know what music over the last few years represents 'definitely improved'. I can't think of a single album in the last 10 years that is likely to be wanted 10 years from now

What about "Mule Variations" or "Orphans" by Tom Waits? Or "Chutes Too Narrow" by The Shins? Or The Libertines' albums? Or Modest Mouse's "Good News for People Who Love Bad News"? Or The Kills' "Keep on your Mean Side"?
As others have said, the stuff you hear in the mainstream (radio, telly, etc.) is generally rubbish (and yes, I am including the Killers and similar bands in that). But search out the more obscure stuff and you'll find a lot of it's very good.

The libertines haven't made any decent albums... ever

Chutes too narrow is good thought

nicklouse

i was listening to ELO in the van this afternoon.

Red Lemon

HJ1976 wrote:

What song beats Queens 'Don't stop me now' when you are doing a nice round 70 down an empty motorway?

By "nice round 70 down an empty motorway", do you mean "nice round 90 down an empty motorway"?

Moose11

I'm 25 but I prefer the older stuff mainly. Dont get me wrong the new stuff is good right now and rock music is going through a good rivival this decade after a decade of being run by boy/girl bands (a dark era in music). With bands like Killers, Snow Patrol etc. the future is bright but when you have 60s bands like Beatles, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Jimmi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Rolling Stones and 70s bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin etc. it's hard to beat.

Saying that each decade has always had it's share of great bands.

Rolling Stones top 100 artists of all-time:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/ ... irst_fifty

Says it all when you see what decades a lot of them high up the list are from.

sonicred007

Moose11 wrote:

I'm 25 but I prefer the older stuff mainly. Dont get me wrong the new stuff is good right now and rock music is going through a good rivival this decade after a decade of being run by boy/girl bands (a dark era in music). With bands like Killers, Snow Patrol etc. the future is bright

Snow patrol is stretching it somewhat

Moose11

sonicred007 wrote:

Moose11 wrote:

I'm 25 but I prefer the older stuff mainly. Dont get me wrong the new stuff is good right now and rock music is going through a good rivival this decade after a decade of being run by boy/girl bands (a dark era in music). With bands like Killers, Snow Patrol etc. the future is bright

Snow patrol is stretching it somewhat

Not at all. Snow Patrol are a fantastic group.

sonicred007

I should qualify my original claim in this thread. when I say old music is better, I mean in the sense that the old music is new to me, not something I've always listened to and these new kids don't know nothing rant.

I am constantly trying new music as it were... Bobby Conn's latest is superb as is F**king Champs VI... and Battles latest on Warp is another fine album in 2007

However, when I hear another Libertines, Razorlight, Snow Patrol dregs getting swept up by another derivative band under the never say die 'indie' banner I shudder. Therefore, I think my dismay is more with the unadventurous, tired music industry thrusting second rate, faux rock stars on me

It's much more interesting as a fan of music to listen to discover new music that's highly acclaimed (but missed by you) like The Band, pre-1975 Rod Stewart, Creedence Clearwater, Marmalade, Neil Young, America, Neil Diamond, Bob Seger et al vs ploughing through piles of talentless t*ss

babyjebus

Moose11 wrote:

sonicred007 wrote:

Moose11 wrote:

I'm 25 but I prefer the older stuff mainly. Dont get me wrong the new stuff is good right now and rock music is going through a good rivival this decade after a decade of being run by boy/girl bands (a dark era in music). With bands like Killers, Snow Patrol etc. the future is bright

Snow patrol is stretching it somewhat

Not at all. Snow Patrol are a fantastic group.

Snow Patrol used to be alright when they were slavish Sebadoh copyists, but now they are exactly what's wrong with present day music- i.e. they saw a niche in the market (when Coldplay, themselves weedy copyists of more interesting music, were taking a sabbatical) and cynically changed their style to exploit the opportunity. Of course, you might think that's fantastic. But they have nothing to do with music and everything to do with marketing. I've met them, and not just in passing, and yet I can't remember what any of them look like, which says it all really.
But the Reindeer Section records are both good, far better than anything else Lightbody has managed.

jackhunt

I'll tell you why old music is better:

You had to go to a shop (where you would meet your mates and hang out. I had my first fag upstairs in Syd Booth's records) and buy a physical product. There would be at least 2-3 record shops in the smallest of towns and they would stock different ranges of music and if you shopped around you might be able to save 50p.

You had discovered band from John Peel or recommendatiions from your mates. Not from a billboard, a sunday magazine supplement, a ring tone or a TV advert from a mobile phone company.

You would then strut around town with your new purchase and the friends you meet would want to have a look at what you have bought (but not allowed to get the record out because they might damage it) and would give their judgement accordingly.

You would pore over the cover, the pictures, the sleeve notes, the lable, even the grooves on the bus back home and the anticipation would almost be unbearable.

You get home and put on your vinyl (which will always sound better, I don't care what anyone says) a crackle, and then the song you've been hankering for for ages comes on. You play it back-to- back eight times whilst looking at the cover again. You phone your mates to come round and listen to it. They bring some of their records. You spend and afternoon disecting the record, the genre and the state of music in general. You read a few NME's which are written with some real intelligence and insight.

You listen to the Top 40 on Sunday (along with every other kid in the country) and are bitterly disappointed that your record hasn't moved higher despite your purchase.

You would then buy a ticket to see your favourite band (for about the price of an album) from your record shop and go and see them ay a local theatre type venue rather that a corporate megta-barn. And people their would get down and boogie rather than spending the whole fricking time taking pictures on their soddin mobiles.

You would then repeat the whole process the next week.

And THAT my friends is why old music will ALWAYS be better than new music.

jibi

If I may take you back to the early 60's.

Pearl and Teddy Carr, Alma Cogan, Andy Williams, Lonnie Donegan et al

Boring safe music and then I....... heard this guy,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux6N00CwudA

Howling Wolf playing the blues, it wasn't this song it was "Smokestack Lightning "

But the effect was electric. I had never heard music like this, and I still love listening to the Blues played this way

even their names were fantastic

Big Bill Broonzey, Lightning Hopkins, Muddy Waters

Here is "Smokestack Lightning" played by The Who

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mahxhAo9SVs


The rest they say is history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues

george

jackhunt

And another thing...

We are 7 years into this decade but how many truely great (rather than good) 'noughties' acts can you name?

Some might say Coldplay
I'd include the White Stripes
The Killers look promising.
I'm a huge fan of Arcade Fire but 'Great'? Not yet.

I'm struggling with the rest.

jackhunt

jibi wrote:

If I may take you back to the early 60's.

Pearl and Teddy Carr, Alma Cogan, Andy Williams, Lonnie Donegan et al

george

Lonnie Donegan 'boring and safe'? He changed the face of British popular music. Without LD there would have been no Beatles.

Plus the most mesmerising thing I ever saw was watching him on TV (it might have been the Wheel Tappers and Shunters Social Club) - belting, and I mean BELTING out 'Rock Island Line' without once taking out the fag in his mouth.

Rock and Roll Baby!

jibi

Yes but back then Mr Donegan was playing

My old man's a dustman
Cumberland Gap

Not really exciting music, compared to to Memphis Blues

george

sonicred007

I'm loving this debate. The description of buying a record is brilliant. Mr Lester bangs himself penned a similar process sin friends coming around.

Because it's so easy to get music these days, a friend of mine joked that there should be a 3 months cooling off period, before you can have the music, that way you slow the process of releasing music.

Another friend said there's not enough heckling going on these days at pub gigs and too many cr*p bands are progressing too far instead of giving up the ghost

babyjebus

jackhunt wrote:

And another thing...

We are 7 years into this decade but how many truely great (rather than good) 'noughties' acts can you name?

Some might say Coldplay
I'd include the White Stripes
The Killers look promising.
I'm a huge fan of Arcade Fire but 'Great'? Not yet.

I'm struggling with the rest.

I second White Stripes, and nominate Queens of the Stone Age and LCD Soundsystem/DFA recordings. I can't think of anyone British. What went wrong? I blame Bliar.

passout

With the possible exception of dance music and rap there is no new music. The same old styles and ideas are re-hashed and this never ending vortex of doom will never ever stop. We are in a postmodern remix hell or greatest hits heaven, take your choice.

My recommenndation - folk music and morris dancing.

alecstilleyedye

the best bands of today sound like the bands that influenced the bands that influenced them.

personally i think pop music has got to the point where nothing is remotely new, so all new stuff just sounds like i've heard it all before. and, for my money, i preferred it first time round when it at least was interesting then.

heavymental

There's some amazing music about these days. What do you think? That the talent dried up in the 80's!? That once the rock dinosaurs became extinct there was nobody else with any musical ability? Please. In every genre (both long established and recent) there are people making beautiful music and brilliant albums. New technology and techniques have opened up the possibilities of music not even thought of in the 60's. There exists albums where all the percussion is performed using the human voice, haunting melodies flow from microchips and production techniques produce mind blowing results. All this occurs whilst at the same time the traditional genres and techniques continue to produce music as good as there's ever been whilst benefitting from the new technology available to them.

The trouble is there is so much music about and so many outlets for it that it becomes hard to see the good stuff among the rubbish. If you go looking you'll find stuff out there that will interest you. And if not, well hell, you can still listen to old music. It has its place. But if we were all still listening to the Beatles we'd be sick of it by now. Pop music is always going to be repetitive to some extent because its formulaic. Thats what makes it popular because its doesn't challenge the senses but look around and you'll find stuff that pushes the boundaries a bit more.

heavymental

passout wrote:

With the possible exception of dance music and rap there is no new music. The same old styles and ideas are re-hashed and this never ending vortex of doom will never ever stop. We are in a postmodern remix hell or greatest hits heaven, take your choice.

My recommenndation - folk music and morris dancing.

Funnily enough, I get the feeling that if some new genre did come along you wouldn't be rushing to the clubs to get in on it and downloading the newest sounds onto your Blackberry

passout

No Heavy me old mate, conservative with a small 'c'.