Noel Gallagher with a mention of George Ez-zzzzzz-ra.

Kevin PeatKevin Peat Posts: 3,232Member
edited April 2018 in Guitar Chat
https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/18860/noel-gallagher-todays-bland-music-doesnt-reflect-times

How I'm enjoying Ezra's face at every stop board.

Staying at Tamara's

Well it wasn't going to be Staying at Debby's was it.

Comments

  • MegiMegi Posts: 7,207Member
    Maybe he's got a point, or a bit of a point - I do find a lot of the current pop stuff a bit on the bland side myself. The other day I tried listening to some Ed Sheeran stuff because everyone seemed to be going on about him, and I honestly didn't get it - the songs have this kind of stock vocal style to them, and seem very unadventurous - often just based around a few melody notes and very simple repeating chord sequences that don't go anywhere. Not for me anyhow.

    But having said that, I do manage to find current artists that I like a lot, and I think there is good stuff happening, even if it's more minority-interest. I guess what we've lost somewhat is the great mainstream pop music thing that was going on in the 60s/70s/80s/90s. The thing he says about reflecting the mood of the times - hmm, I don't know about that - I've never been a huge fan of overtly political lyrics really, and don't like being told what to think.
  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member
    The thing with pop music is that it's so generational - there is absolutely nothing in today' pop music that inspires me to listen to it, and why should there be? I'm at the far end of middle age. Pop music should be, and is, about teenagers. With that in mind, do today's teenagers want to rebel and kick ass, or do they want the latest iPhone and app? The ones I know seem to have anything but a savage existence at the moment. They seem to be living a very comfortable, alcohol-rich, consumerist lifestyle. It certainly doesn't feel like the atmosphere that 40 years ago created punk.

    Like Megi, I gave Ed Sheeran a go and found nothing there. But I come back to my starting point - why should there be?

    As to home recording, yes, I agree. I know so many people who are very good players, very good song-writers, who create entire arrangements in their bedroom studios and have no interest in going out gigging or forming bands. The world moves on... I still maintain that in a matter of years the computers will be able to do all that. Maybe then the reaction will be a move towards bands again.
  • MegiMegi Posts: 7,207Member
    Derek_R said:


    Like Megi, I gave Ed Sheeran a go and found nothing there. But I come back to my starting point - why should there be?

    Why should there be anything there? No reason I guess, he can make vapid, bland music if he wants to of course - I defend his right to do so, not that I care very much. But why should anyone want to listen to it is what baffles me.

  • Kevin PeatKevin Peat Posts: 3,232Member
    edited April 2018
    It's not that I don't 'get this music'. The problem is that I do when really I shouldn't.

    VANILLA !

    The Glastonbury couger *Boomer* festival-going market is on the rise - so safe is this stuff grannies are going for it.

    Punk was a revolt against self indulgent Prog Rock, not politics. Grunge (cue Gallaghar) was a revolt against Scot, Aitken and Wossisname.

    And don't get me going about the repetitive da-da-daa-da-daa-da-daaa of cRap music which (unlike all other genres) has gone on for decades now.

    Expect something really disgusting to hit the mainstream soon.

  • MegiMegi Posts: 7,207Member
    Ha! - I rather like prog rock, or at least a lot of it - and I say that knowing full well it could be pompous and self-indulgent. And I'm still not a huge fan of most of the original wave of punk bands - Sex Pistols, Sham 69 etc. - it all seemed a bit brainless and moronic to me at the time, and much of it still does. The Slits were good, having said that, although I've only discovered them more recently. Change is inevitable though - the prog was never going to last for ever anyway, and I do appreciate the influence punk had on what came after.

    But there is never just one thing happening anyway - there was all the soul, funk and disco stuff going on in the late 70s for example, some of which was great imo. And the rock stuff. And ABBA... Actually, whatever the era, there's probably always a whole load of forgettable crap being produced as well. Like Stock, Aitken and Waterman, or indeed Ed bleedin Sheeran. I'm sure you're right re the really disgusting thing about to hit...
  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member
    But why should anyone want to listen to it is what baffles me.
    Why would anyone who was aged 50+ want to listen to the music we listened to when we were 15 ? I'me sure my dad used to say it was rubbish. The kids relate to the music and to the performers in a different way to us old-uns. Maybe it's just me, but I still relate to artists who are, within reason, my own age. I think that's why I'm oblivious to the charts.

    Re. punk. I still have some punk singles that I thought were great. Vibrators, XTC, Rich Kids, Stranglers, Damned...It may have been a reaction against prog rock but it sure felt very political to me. My memory may be playing up - it was a long time ago.

    I still haven't got into Abba. We do Waterloo on occasions at gigs and I think it's a great song. But Abba... nope. I don't know why.
  • Kevin PeatKevin Peat Posts: 3,232Member
    I got into Abba ... and then out of it sharpish when I had children.

    It was the perfect music for toddler parties where the mums (the same festival cougars now) could get soused on white wine while the kids OD'd on Haribos and had tantrums.


    WAHHHH - terlooo !
  • LesterLester Posts: 1,730Member, Moderator
    I never thought of punk as a reaction against prog rock; I thought it was a reaction against glam rock in a similar way that rock 'n' roll was a reaction against the crooners that dominated the charts in the early '50s.

    I can see how we have evolved from disco to '80s electronica to EDM. At the same time, there have been many karaoke type contests on TV so the natural result will be for singers to emerge, eg. Will Young, Susan Boyle, Leona Lewis.
  • Screaming DaveScreaming Dave Posts: 799Member
    The whole purpose of pop music is to annoy the previous generation. People of our age (I get the impression we're all folks who've been around the block a few times) aren't meant to get it, and part of the irritation, to me, stems from the younger generation's adamant insistence that new music is brilliant, and everything that's gone previously is crap, without any real frame of reference because they won't listen to anything else. By rights anyone who's into Ed Sheeran (I quite like some of his songs) and listens with an open mind would also get something out of Cat Stevens, Nick Drake, John Martyn .... the list goes on, but their not due to have that particular epiphany for another 20 or so years yet.
  • MegiMegi Posts: 7,207Member
    You all make decent points - I was, for some reason, in the mood for a rant yesterday. I don't suppose I'll ever get Ed Sheeran, and that's probably a good thing, for me and everyone else. I do find the whole history of rock and pop music kind of fascinating though, and have found things to like and appreciate in most of the eras and sub-genres. It sort of seems a shame that I can't really relate to or understand much current pop stuff in the same way - perhaps in ten years time, things will seem clearer.

    And as I said, even as an old fart, I do find things I like that are happening, and that young people are doing now - Youtube is very good for searching out new stuff. But it's all a more underground/minority kind of thing really, and to some extent music does now seem to be more fragmented into lots of sub-genres. But if what passes for today's mainstream pop is Ed Sheeran, George Ezra etc., then yes, I don't get it, and why should anyone care that I don't, it's not for me anyhow, I do agree. :D
  • Screaming DaveScreaming Dave Posts: 799Member
    Rant away, Megi, rant away. I was working on Bournemouth Seafront yesterday and there was a dodgem car set-up that was playing constant Rock 'n' roll, but not the good stuff (so maybe not, strictly speaking, R 'n' R) but when you listen back to that stuff, you think of that era as being all Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis - stuff with a bit of balls. But, Tommy Steele, Little White Bull ffs!??! He was meant to be Britain's answer to Elivis!!! It just made me realise how we glamorise each era of music, but most of it is pants, whatever decade you look at. Joe Dulce, Shut Up A Your face was a number one in the famed Summer of Punk, ha ha!
  • ESBlondeESBlonde Posts: 980Member
    I don't listen to Ed Sheeren and his music does nothing for me (I wouldn't recognise one of his hits on the radio). But he grew up local to me and his work ethic was incredible, he would gig constantly anywhere just to play. He developed that small accoustic guitar and loop box think into his own art. He would travel across the country to do a gig on the train with no idea where he would stay the night or he'd play the local cafe on a tuesday evening with one man and his dog for an audience.
    So the fact that he is succesful is testiment to his determination as much as his talent (common to many stars that stick around).
    What the pop charts seem to have lost is any kind of adventurousness, the music all uses the same safe hooks and gadgets. In days of yore there would be mad cap singles like leutenant pidgeon, Agadoo, brown girl in the ring, Grandad, etc. as well as a good selection of favourites for the mums with Andy Williams, Carpenters, Perry Como, Bing etc. having huge hits alonside the regular pop stars like Abba, Chic, Boney M (biggest sellers of the decade by the way). All the stars of those earlier eras had thier own styles and contributed to the evolution of modern music, sadly today that evolution seems to be strangled.

    Phew I need a sit down and a Cocoa.
  • Kevin PeatKevin Peat Posts: 3,232Member


    Compared to...



    I like both very much.
  • LesterLester Posts: 1,730Member, Moderator
    edited April 2018
    If you fancy a read of the Rolling Stone article As Boomer Musicians Retire From Touring, Concert Industry Faces Uncertain Future you will see that concern about the music industry is not really about the music but about the money: the revenues and the profit. I find that sad.
  • ESBlondeESBlonde Posts: 980Member
    Lester, it's called the music business, and business is the bigger word in that title.
    Sadly musicians are too often seen as people to be put upon rather than supported. Unfortunately the 0.05% of name musicians and the attendent business make nearly all the money while the 99.5% of musicians get the opportunity to do free charity concerts all summer long.
    I seem to be preaching to the converted!

    Peace.
  • LesterLester Posts: 1,730Member, Moderator
    I did not say as much but my thoughts were distinguishing between a normal business model (where everyone needs to cover their overheads and provide some profit) and greed.
  • Kevin PeatKevin Peat Posts: 3,232Member
    edited April 2018
    Well bands and stars (if they're big enough) become corporations with lots of staff and overheads. They have to keep going and going. Then there are the reunion gigs and revivals deliberately concocted to sell tickets.

    I wouldn't be keen to see MUSE again as they've become too work-a-day. Highly honed and professional but they've come off the tightrope of risk and pushed limits.

    It will all be going virtual anyway. We'll all be wearing headsets and hotpants in our gardens. Our avatars will all be our young selves and our young wives girlfriends back with fit bodies and we'll look at each other and laugh.

    Personally I get just as much of a thrill out of going to a local festival with beer tents and half decent bands on so long as you can walk around on grass. I mean mown grass btw.
  • ESBlondeESBlonde Posts: 980Member
    Live gig ticket prices have risen something like 35% (I don't recall the actual) in the last 3 years. This on top of the 'booking fee' and 'Debit card fee' being charged. It's become BIG business all of a sudden, but it won't last more than a decade IMHO. The Old stars will Die/retire and the up an coming probably have nothing to offer thier audience after the initial hit(s).
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