Now everybody is going to show how awesome and alternative they are in this thread, but it's probably kind of warranted if you're a NB fan. Here are some more alternative bands you should check out, though.
writing and performing an entire theatrical production with household items as instruments.
What like Stomp?
As cool and technical as Stomp are, it is quite easy compared to performing something like Mahler's Ressurection Symphony which requires 300+ musicians.
However, I think there is a difference between "formula music" as you call it, and structure. Calling it formula music is a slap in the face. All music has some sort of structure to it. The only kind that doesn't is pure randomness and the argument could be made that that isn't music but rather just sound, or noise.
The Baroque period of music from the 1600s to 1750, was very mathematical in nature. J.S. Bach especially. The following Classical period had very rigid rules as to form, harmonic structure and such. The Romantic period brought with it more technically elaborate music, as well as chromatic harmonies all in the name of trying to be less structured and more emotional. Yet they could never escape structure completely.
The past century and this one has brought with it serialism, which is very formulated though in a different way, and chance music and randomness. The point here is that over the course of history, we have continually attempted to escape structure and the "rules" governing music. Yet as a society we end up right where we began. Because what is more popular today - the music of John Cage or the music of Lady Gaga? Yup...it's the music with the same 4 chords in it that we still listen to.
People love to pretend to be music connoisseurs but at the end of the day Nickelback still is one of the most artists around. Why? Because music in nature IS structured, it DOES have certain formulas....the formulas vary by genre and that's where our tastes differ....but we can't get away from formula music in general, because by in large, that's what music is. Some may have more basic, closed, rigid "formulas" to them (ie the same 4 chords) whereas other music is less rigid and more diverse, but all music is structured in one way or another.
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Now everybody is going to show how awesome and alternative they are in this thread, but it's probably kind of warranted if you're a NB fan. Here are some more alternative bands you should check out, though.
Modest Mouse - Dramamine:
Pixies - Bone Machine:
And Tool...definitely listen to Tool.
K, I guess I really just don't get it, because the two bands you listed sound like garbage to me.
Shouldn't music be about enjoyment to the listener rather than how "complex" and "technically superior" the musician is?
Now everybody is going to show how awesome and alternative they are in this thread, but it's probably kind of warranted if you're a NB fan. Here are some more alternative bands you should check out, though.
Modest Mouse - Dramamine:
Pixies - Bone Machine:
And Tool...definitely listen to Tool.
here is the thing, i can respect that this music is interesting to you, but frankly it meant nothing to me. i dont feel the desire to hear it again.
so then would i be justified to mock it? i dont think so.
right now, this is the playlist that i have on my ipod:
Ace of Spades - Motorhead
Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake
Burn it to the Ground - Nickleback
Dead & Gone - TI & Timberlake
Dynamite - Rokstarr
DJ Got Us Falling Love - Usher
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Can I Sit Next To You Girl - AC/DC
Efilnikufesin - Anthrax
Mountain Top - Bedouin Soundclash
Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks
So .... who cares, but I never understand how anyone could actually determine good music from bad, isnt it entirely up to each brain?
all artists use formulas and copy other musicians to some extent. but to rip off yourself and rebrand it as a new song? that is super lame
What hasn't been done in music by now?
Everything could be said to be loosely based on something else, if we were to look hard enough to find a similar previous song.
Better that than to "rip off" someone else I guess. That's why it's pretty tough to nail anyone for plagiarism in composing these days; everything has probably been done one way or another by now.
edit: predictably this thread is turning into everyone posting their playlists and why their fave music is awesome, instead of engaging in a very enlightening debate.
here is the thing, i can respect that this music is interesting to you, but frankly it meant nothing to me. i dont feel the desire to hear it again.
so then would i be justified to mock it? i dont think so.
right now, this is the playlist that i have on my ipod:
Ace of Spades - Motorhead
Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake
Burn it to the Ground - Nickleback
Dead & Gone - TI & Timberlake
Dynamite - Rokstarr
DJ Got Us Falling Love - Usher
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Can I Sit Next To You Girl - AC/DC
Efilnikufesin - Anthrax
Mountain Top - Bedouin Soundclash
Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks
So .... who cares, but I never understand how anyone could actually determine good music from bad, isnt it entirely up to each brain?
Yeah we have opposite music tastes for sure. I like Gnarls Barkley, but the rest of your list doesn't appeal to me at all.
Yes for sure...I was more responding to one of his questions, which was something to the effect of what does non-formulaic music sound like.
If I liked Nickleback, I'd listen to them, too.
Sorry dude, I meant no disrespect at all to your taste in music. I've always held the belief that music is subjective and people have different tastes.
It just annoys me when I see music snobs tell me the music I like listening to (the mainstream stuff on the radio) is crap and the sophisticated stuff that they listen to (which no one has ever heard of) is so much better, and they tell me like this is fact rather than their opinion.
And just to be clear, I'm not saying you're a music snob at all. My comment is actually directed at a couple people I know.
Who cares? People are going to like whatever sounds good to them. People who are music snobs because it's "uncool" to like mainstream music are more annoying than cookie cutter bands/artists.
Musician Catherine Schmidt-Jones for example defines art music as "a music which requires significantly more work by the listener to fully appreciate than is typical of popular music." In her view, "[t]his can include the more challenging types of jazz and rock music, as well as Classical."
While earlier musicological approaches tended to consider art music in an elitist way, stating art musics superiority over other forms of music (for example Adorno[16]), many modern musicologists (most particularly ethnomusicologists) dispute the notion of superiority. In a recent international musicology colloquium dedicated to music and globalization,[17] some ethnomusicologists such as Jean During insisted that no matter the technicity and difficulty of music, every musical tradition has the same dignity and no one can claim any superiority over another
Theodor Adorno offers an influential, philosophically sophisticated account of the nature of twentieth-century popular music. He is the single best source for the view that popular music is simplistic, repetitive, and boring, and that it remains this way because commercial forces manipulate it in order to placate and manipulate the masses who passively respond to it. Although a Marxist orientation influences almost all of his arguments, his influence is apparent in many writers who are not explicitly Marxists. Unfortunately, Adorno is a notoriously difficult writer. His writings on music are subtle, dense, and fill many hundreds of pages.
Richard Shusterman has produced several essays that challenge these standard dismissals of popular music. Bringing a more balanced perspective to the philosophical debate, these essays demonstrate that popular music is philosophically more interesting than modernism suggests. Inspired by Dewey’s pragmatism, Shusterman argues that the social distinction between high and low music does not correspond to any distinctive aesthetic differences. He offers no analysis of either “popular art” or “popular music.” Instead, he focuses on highly selective examples of popular music that achieve “complex aesthetic effects,” thereby satisfying our “central artistic criteria” (2000b, pp. 215-16). Good popular music satisfies the aesthetic criteria routinely used to praise serious music. Although Shusterman concedes that a great deal of popular music is aesthetically poor and may have negative social effects, he argues that at least some of it succeeds aesthetically while offering a socially progressive challenge to prevailing cultural biases.
Last edited by troutman; 11-22-2010 at 04:44 PM.
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Everything could be said to be loosely based on something else, if we were to look hard enough to find a similar previous song.
Better that than to "rip off" someone else I guess. That's why it's pretty tough to nail anyone for plagiarism in composing these days; everything has probably been done one way or another by now.
edit: predictably this thread is turning into everyone posting their playlists and why their fave music is awesome, instead of engaging in a very enlightening debate.
how much has Nickleback varied their sound from album to album? almost zero from what i can tell, to me their goal is to simply make as much money as possible, the music comes secondary. they follow the same formula from album to album because they know that's what sells, they refuse to take risks or expand their range. that's why i prefer music that's off the mainstream, artists that play music they love and enjoy and aren't worried about trying to top the charts
however just because a band is popular does not mean that they suck. Pink Floyd, Tool, Metallica, all are bands that have huge followings but none have stuck to the same formula for their entire existence
Who cares? People are going to like whatever sounds good to them. People who are music snobs because it's "uncool" to like mainstream music are more annoying than cookie cutter bands/artists.
You don't know sweet eff-all about what music is and how it works do you?
alternative to formula music?
