I have no problem suspending my disbelief where 'manufactured' pop is concerned but I DO need some amount of effortlessness in the final product to get there. Which may be rockist who knows. But I don't really like rock music that strikes me as 'meta' either so there could be something consistent in this.
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link
You see, that's what Otis Redding did, except it was the manner of his bleat which mattered, and the emotions behind it, plus the Stax beat was anything but a dull plod - I mean, Al Jackson FFS!
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link
I also have trouble listening to music where "the drummer sucks". However, I don't feel I'm missing as much there.
― Dominique (dleone), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link
I love how the poptimist Nazis never ever ever recognise that maybe, just maybe, they're being as small-minded as the people they bitch about AND THEN SOME.
― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link
lots of stuff! almost everything that isn't wilco! i want to save people with brains from wilco! cuz their is SO MUCH stuff out there that is truly memorable and vibrant and entertaining and exciting, and they have always struck me as deadly and dudly. but that's cool. yeah, we are all different. your home looks like my home.
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link
feh.. R'n'B is just pop with a bit more 'soul' (in the black sense) to me. The hardest thing to get your head around is just that there's a whole different canon of approaches to writing a sappy love song that if you've grown up an indie kid take some getting used to. Sounding like a huge r'n'b fan myself now... I don't go looking for it, but then I don't go in search of good indie rock like it actually matters these days either.. both are a little peripheral to my general tastes.
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:41 (seventeen years ago) link
what? the attitude of all poptimists i know, dom and ed o apart, to the charts is basically "botherd. do people still buy cd singles?"
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― except she got a little more ass (cis), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link
The Rolling Stones had some cool singles.
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:45 (seventeen years ago) link
And there's no indie rock or metal or nu-emo that presses these same buttons for you?
― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link
x-post
― Dominique (dleone), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― wogan lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:49 (seventeen years ago) link
The trouble is the flipside of that for a lot of house people seems to be the deathly dull purism and real ale soul/jazz/funkateer-ness of the "been there done that I NOW KNOW MYSELF FULLY" tedious worthiness crowd.
In the middle I guess would be Inaya Day.. who I can get along with fine.
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:51 (seventeen years ago) link
-- DJ Mencap
no, there's tons!
and I'm not even going to start on emo/nu-compression-rock (i.e. whatever the hell kids punk about to lately).
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:52 (seventeen years ago) link
But what I find with most older R'n'B and Soul is that the songs actually touch me and don't just contain empty paens to nothing at all. "He's Mistra Know It All", "Ain't No Sunshine", "What's Going On" to name but three which actually have well thought out lyrical content. And although my knowledge of Otis is pretty slim, as you say it is the manner of his singing which matters whereas many of the female (and male) R'n'B groups coming out are carbon-copying what has gone before with the emotion disappearing each time.
― wogan lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:54 (seventeen years ago) link
Most of the sins that I feel that I had when I was younger I think I've shed. I used to consider myself an elitist gladly, while listening to the metal/industrial hybrids of the '90s (KMFDM, Stabbing Westward, etc.), something that embarrasses me now when I go back to listen to those bands. But what I'd feel most sucks now is that I always feel like I have a really superficial understanding of music, especially music theory as it relates to the music I like. I like a lot of skronk jazz or weird psych or even radio pop, but I frequently stumble on explaining why I like it. I also don't like that people around me still seem to think of me as a snob when I try really hard not to be. I think that I give things a fair listen (though I'll also confess that I rarely give music the type of deep alienated attention that I did when I was younger), and then either I like 'em or I don't, and I don't ever feel like I'm telling other people that they can't like something (though I will admit that when I write my column that I tend to be overly-dismissive some times), but it's rare that I actively hate something. Far more often I'm just bored by it. I've been told it's because I'm not a musician that I can't understand why Wilco is so great, but frankly, they (especially recently) just bore the hell out of me. I kinda wish that I got it and could get the same thrill that other people seem to, and that's a recurring longing. I remember feeling it when hearing about Notwists' Neon Golden. The album just bores me, and I'd like to be able to understand what other people get out of it, but I can't. And again, I've been told that this is because I don't play an instrument, so I don't understand how music is constructed. And I worry, because more and more music that I see lauded feels the same way for me: not bad, just unexciting. I get a thrill out of Christina's No Other Man, but the whole Paris Hilton album leaves me cold. I want to be able to hear it the way Lex does, but I can't seem to.
― js (honestengine), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:58 (seventeen years ago) link
OTM. Yes, extreme Rockism is tedious, I don't count myself as Rockist because I listen to almost everything other than "commercial" pop and R'n'B, but a lot of the Poptimists do literally go around like a gestapo. The Lily Allen thread is absolutely incredible - I still don't know if some people were joking or not about her not being "real" and then banging on about Girls Aloud being "real". I mean, that's just Rockist ideology superimposed onto pop isn't it?
― wogan lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 7 September 2006 13:59 (seventeen years ago) link
(I sort of agree about the carbon-copying but not to the point where I'd feel comfy making it a blanket statement, as I say I don't listen to that much r'n'b!)
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:01 (seventeen years ago) link
"Macho" is the wrong word. I want to say something politically incorrect like "House is for girls and gays" to paraphrase matey-boy upthread.
― wogan lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― wogan lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:08 (seventeen years ago) link
I know that it's been through the consumerist mill and therefore I can take that into account in listening, therefore I don't have to treat it with any exaggerated respect that might get in the way of my loving it or taking part in it. I can get my claws in and tear it open and build myself a nest inside and make up my own ideas about what it means, and who for. All of that fuss and bother happened so that I could have a relationship with this one song! It's pretty beautiful, when you think about it.
Also, dudes, it just sounds better.
― except she got a little more ass (cis), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:09 (seventeen years ago) link
still not really sticking up for r'n'b with this tho'... main difference with nu-soul (I think that's what ILM calls it ;) ) stuff is it doesn't have the _steel_ in the production which I suspect also helps to dehumanize the lyrics for a lot of people.
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link
The probable reason why more people don't confess to being lukewarm about contemporary R&B is fear of the racist card being played.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― except she got a little more ass (cis), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link
haha this is so ridiculously otm and also the entire text of an entirely separate email discussion i've been having today!!!!
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― except she got a little more ass (cis), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:23 (seventeen years ago) link
I disagree.
What matters is what the LISTENER gets out of the end product, regardless of what the artist put into it, and the process by which s/he did so.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― except she got a little more ass (cis), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link
haha, sophie h
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link
When I listen to "Good Vibrations" I don't think about Mike Love flicking wet towels at the back of Brian's head, nor of the state of Brian's mind at the time.
When I listen to "Be My Baby" I don't think about its singer being kept a prisoner in her own home by the guy who produced the record.
You impose your own interpretation of what these records mean as combinations of sounds, as unions of words and music, so subjectively it doesn't matter how much blood was spilt in their making.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link
I'm not sure it matters to me anymore that I don't like much new club dance music tho this was bothering me for some time.
Doglatin's posts still kinda depress me tho.
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:31 (seventeen years ago) link
Me too. Absolutely without question.
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:32 (seventeen years ago) link
you do both. it depends on the context in which you hear the record. if you hear eg 'stars are blind' on the radio without knowing who is singing it, obv you will hear it is a good/bad record and this reaction will be 100% divorced from your sense of who paris hilton is. but that's NOT the way we hear most records - with most of them, even if we're not coming at it with the pre-listening baggage of what we think of paris hilton as a celebrity, we will be coming at it with some...expectation which has nothing to do with the actual sound. this could be "last time i heard this artist hey sounded like this" or "last time i read about this artist she was splitting up with her boyfriend" or "what i've heard about this album makes me excited to hear it" or...any amount of information which is already in our brains about anything to do with the product.
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― just say no to individuality (fandango), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:38 (seventeen years ago) link
but surely when you see Brian perform Smile you're influenced by knowing what went before?
If Syd Barrett had decided to release a record 5 year ago wouldn't you approach it with more than "I wonder if Syd's new record's any good" in your head.
When you reviewed Aerial didn't you have "12 years in the making" in your head as you played it for the first time?
― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:45 (seventeen years ago) link
totally true.
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:46 (seventeen years ago) link