i agree their first 4 albums are the best, but i really liked S&M and the new Death Magnetic album is easily the best since Justice. my point is that they've consistently changed their sound, they weren't content with pumping out the same album over and over again. some worked, some didn't
Totally agree on the first four albums point.
S&M was a cool idea, but just not something I would go out of my way to listen to/buy. Thats just me.
Ive heard Death Magnetic, and think its miles better than anything they have released since the early 90's... but still doesn't do anything for me. Guess Ive been alienated to the point of not caring anymore. Again, lots of people will disagree with me, but thats just how I feel.
There are many old school thrash bands, from the same era, that have eviolved without changing to a whole different animal. Bands that have stuck to their guns and are still writing killer music. Testament... Overkill... Kreator. Sodom. Annihilator. List goes on and on and it doesn't include rock bands like Metallica.
S&M was a cool idea, but just not something I would go out of my way to listen to/buy. Thats just me.
Ive heard Death Magnetic, and think its miles better than anything they have released since the early 90's... but still doesn't do anything for me. Guess Ive been alienated to the point of not caring anymore. Again, lots of people will disagree with me, but thats just how I feel.
There are many old school thrash bands, from the same era, that have eviolved without changing to a whole different animal. Bands that have stuck to their guns and are still writing killer music. Testament... Overkill... Kreator. Sodom. Annihilator. List goes on and on and it doesn't include rock bands like Metallica.
but none of the bands you mentioned are top 10 billboard popular. my whole point was that popular artists can still be very good, if they make the music for themselves instead of what would sell the most albums
but none of the bands you mentioned are top 10 billboard popular. my whole point was that popular artists can still be very good, if they make the music for themselves instead of what would sell the most albums
Sorry, I guess I missed that point. And I would agree. For example, fusion bands in the late 60's early 70's were the top drawer act. Bands like Aerosmith used to open for Mahavishnu Orchestra before fusion was deemed disco, and then by public opinion, died.
I see your point, but I guess my point is that Metallica did an about face with the Black album when they decided not to "make the music for themselves" and instead released a thinly veiled pop album. It only got worse with the releases of Load, Reload...
Commercial success and originality are not mutually exclusive, however they rarely run hand in hand. In Metallica's case, Im sorry but I dont see what is "good" about their music anymore. Its very cliched. It's rock music. And there is nothing wrong with that. I guess its just disappointing for the fans that loved their old style to hear their direction. Again, I realize many people would disagree with me. If you like Metallica, thats cool.
arguing about music is completely pointless. Everyone thinks their music is the best. It's all about opinion. You're never going to convince someone else that their music is bad, or that your music is good if they don't think so. Why would you want to? There's really no reason to look down upon someone because of their musical taste.
I listen to a fair range of music. I find that music that is catchy or easy "to get" right off the bat, usually has the shortest staying power in my musical interests. Therefore, I tend to listen to mostly more complicated and less formulated music in general.
I'd be lying though if I said that I never listen to pop music (which tends to be really simple). It's just that I find that I dispose of it quickly.
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I'm a hobbiest guitarist, and I listen to a broad range of stuff, from Flamenco to Jazz to death metal. If it has percussively strummed stringed instruments in it, I'll probably listen to it.
I don't think NB are virtuoso musicians at all. Are they my favorite band? Not even close. Not even on the map really, except maybe as part of the background music at a mediocre summer BBQ. I often refer to bands like NB as lawn mowing music - the stuff you can listen to when its 80% drowned out by the noise, and not miss much.
If you take acts like Nickleback as a baseline for contemporary pop rock, I think they are pretty darn good at what they do. They have put together a catalog of music that entire stadiums full of people will go to listen to. I think being able to write catchy pop rock tunes is harder than it looks. How many bar bands have you watched that play one of their own tunes, and it blows. If you had a band of NB's calibre playing that bar, they'd blow the roof off, relatively speaking.
If I could write pop rock tunes that would sell millions of copies, I most certainly would. But I can't...it's not as easy as it looks.
It's the same thing here on CP - we can talk about career minor league players all we like from the comfy confines of CP, but the reality is, even a mediocre minor leaguer is head and toes above most other people that play hockey.
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Most stuff by TOOL is definitely NOT formula music, their timing is all over the place. They are my favorite band and I respect that fact that they make great music using crazing timing. Brilliant band.
However, I also like Deftones and their riffs are some of the easiest. I have a LOT of respect for bands who can make simple music sound so damn cool.
Artists like:
Nirvana
Deftones
Kyuss
Easy music to play but amazing they can make it sound so cool.
so i keep hearing about how bands like Nickleback are just a formula and they all sound the same and therefore should be mocked.
and i counter with, ya they do, but so what if i like it?
so, that said ... can someone please enlighten this serf, what non formula music sounds like?
what would the counter culture errr. ... real music fans, consider good music?
it reminds me ...
what takes more genius:
1) writing and performing complex scores
or
2) making music with every day kitchen items
I get into this with people at work alot. Bands such as Nickleback and AC/DC have been on the radio and I've had coworkers call me a "music snob" because I said I didn't them. Music is completely subjective, as may have said. I personally don't like Nickelback but I don't care if anyone else does. If a song has a positive influence on you, then by all means listen to it until you pass out (or not).
Here are some of my favourites (no idea how to embed youtube, sorry! Edit: Success!);
Id also like to add that these 3 are very different from each other. Give them a shot, if you'd like.
I think there are two key types of musical artists (actually this is true of a number of forms of art): innovators and refiners. I've brought this up before in terms of the classic Radiohead/Coldplay debate. Radiohead is an innovator in the purest sense: a lot of ideas, many of them sounding a bit unfinished, and at least some stuff that's a complete miss and some stuff that at least a few people (and sometimes a great many people) will find brilliant. Coldplay has an idiom - guitar and keyboard dominated british pop - that they stick to pretty religiously and attempt to produce the best pop-songs possible with that. And they're successful at it. But they're a diametric opposite to Radiohead in what they're attempting to do. Most musicians aren't one or the other. You can think of it as a scale along which every musical artist fits. One isn't superior to the other, and musical progress sort of needs both: the innovators to go ahead and forge new ground and then the refiners to come along and fill in the gaps. In my music collection, I'd consider bands like Hold Steady, The National, Peter Gabriel, Suzanne Vega, Wilco, and Ben Folds to be very good refiners; while Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, LCD Soundsystem, Pixies, Nick Cave, and Tom Waits would be some of the better innovators. Anyway, I think that refiners are sometimes called formulaic, and unfortunately that sort of detracts from the complexity or importance of what they're trying to accomplish.
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