"Let the ugly people sing" - thanks for that. Superb
There was a time when you could catalogue your life by the songs. Every week some new revelation or two. A song plays and you remember you were hanging upside down off the deck railing with friends when this song came on and everyone screams and someone turns it up.
I'll be in the supermarket with my son and some '80s music will start playing and it's doubly disconcerting for me because I was out of the country for the first half of that decade and only knew the hits from pirated tapes I bought in Peshawar. My memories are some strange landscape.
Thank God for your sister-in-law! What a horrible, horrible 16th birthday memory Neil Diamond would have been. Sounds like something my parents would have come up with. 🤢
El Gato Malo supposedly one of our peeps (I don’t like him and his all lower case pretension) just wrote a long boomer tier essay today mooning over bands like Foreigner, I literally wanted to barf.
Was responding on my share, didn't realize it would echo here, lol.
So this is a comments section the point of which is people other than the author get to chime in on the subject. And I have a lot of thoughts on it as someone who listened to and played music for decades.
my friend had the first foreigner album, I liked it. The second one Double Vision came out, I bought. I hated it. Not sure why I ever liked the first one. I guess it had some hooks/ novelty. But once I heard the robotic soulessness of it, that's all I hear now
I see two separate issues: (perhaps) a lack of new ground breaking musical genres, but IMO there is no lack of artistic people making good > great music. It's out there on Spotify, etc. But the folks force feeding us woke bullshit TV /Movies are not the ones we should be expecting to feed us good new music. You have to find it on your own.
Heard one of my 70’s favs - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band “Old Time Rock & Roll” at a party up the street from my house. I was reading, heard it thru my window and immediately started mouthing the words (which every single one of us do). These were squealing high school kids tho saying “wait, stop! Oh, I love this song - you’ve heard it?”. So I think kids still have an ear, kinda, they’re teachable but perhaps not reachable. They all have cell phones now…they literally have streaming access to music from all over the world. And they chose Bob Seger! Yes!
probably around Napster / Youtube. I have a friend in the music industry- his view is that no one works in isolation anymore. Everyone hears everything on Youtube/Spotify. So its very hard to be original
Commercial music may have died, but then it always sucked, The Monkeys and Sha-na-naring any bells? Jew record company owners rigging radio playlists with payola ring any bells? Meanwhile more people than ever are recording music as art for arts sake, now that a professional quality recording software will run on an e-waste 50 dollar Craigslist laptop or a 5 year old smart phone.
I am an Oberlin College philosophy grad and own my home outright, so do not condescend to me in that way. And you? Wage slave and renter or mortgage slave in the Jew wage slavery/debt slavery tread mill perhaps?
Authenticity sums it up in a word. My kids are in their 20s, and they tell me all the time that they only listen to my generation's music. They envy me for getting to grow up with it.
My daughter has a fantasy of driving down the road in the 1970s with the windows down, wind blowing through her hair, listening to CCR, and she's in a bad relationship.
Yep. My kids are in their late 30s. It’s really pretty funny, but sad in a way. They listen to the stuff I listened to when they were growing up. 70s and 80s stuf(, with an occasional dip into the late 60s and early 90s.
I am sad for the young generation that they feel too defeated by life to create new genres of music and instead listen to Boomer and Gen X retreads. And I am an almost boomer aged Xer right on the cusp barely into Gen X, so I get to say that.
The failure of the artists to make authentic music is one thing. The fact that many young people know how to recognize and appreciate great music when they hear it means all is not lost.
Yes, but see that is a total lie. There is more great authentic music being made now than in any time in history. But you have to seek it out, it isn't going to be spoon fed to you by media or social media.
Agreed. And that illustrates the problem. It's not necessarily that individual artistic genius no longer appears. It's that we've constructed a society that buries quality and elevates unimaginative, insipid drivel.
Wrong attitude, seek out the great and ignore the mainstream which has always sucked. Gen X and Boomer nostalgists would do well to look at the charts in the 70s to remind themselves their childhood had a lot of shit music in it too like Sony and Cher, Donovan, The Monkeys, and Captain and Taneil (sp?). The Brian Enos, King Crimsons, and Frank Zappas were the exception not the rule.
Imagine the previous generation before that had said "fuck it, we are never going to make anything as great as Elvis and the Beatles," then there would have been no Sabbath etc. Imagine the Beatles had said we are never going to be as great as Count Bassie or Sinatra, etc, etc, all the way back to Palestrina. Nostalgia is deeply destructive to new creation.
This is no different than 8 zillion super hero movie spinoffs which everyone gets is terrible, why don't people also realize this is also terrible?
the leader of then band Deerhunter says his muse was to imagine he was making one his favorite bands next albums. Deerhunter has a pretty original sound, so...
Yes but they were corny boomers who wore fringe leather jackets and thought using black blues bends on their guitars made them "cool." It's not that there were wasn't good music made during this time period, it's that this isn't that.
This is cringe nostalgia crap, and I say that as a 59 year old man. And yes I loathed this AOR radio and MTV friendly middle of the road stuff when it came it out as well. It has no heart unlike punk rock.
well, ofc, there is good punk, and there is an endless amount formulaic punk. I've listened to a LOT of college rock on Boston college radio. WMBR (MIT) said they played both types of of music, "punk and hardcore". :) I think it was 4 hours of that Mon - Fri 8am - 12 noon on their Record Hospital show. Always seemed a bit much to me.
But man, don't leave out the testosterone. Live Aid 1985 Freddie had it cascading from every pore and yes I knew how he swung. But still. Even the masters of androgyny like Bowie never let you forget they were real men no matter how they postured onstage.
And the best women musicians of the era knew how to run with the boys without crying. Raw vocal cord to raw vocal cord, the match-ups were always thrilling.
I can't name one Taylor Swift song, wouldn't recognize one if I heard it. But every time I see that girl in photos I think she's the perfect android synth. Started out as everyone's little sister and is slowly becoming the porn star you bring home to mom.
The only ones I can name are her early ones - like when she was barely a teenager - because I liked and still like them, but nothing since then. And I'm 64.
She lives in my town, but I only just found out Taylor is a girl. Shows how out of touch I am. Having recently heard her "music" I plan to stay that way.
Agreed. I didn't realize it until about a decade after her heyday, but Madonna was a real artist, and the modern internet has brought us some great stories from the session musicians who worked with her.
Bassist Guy Pratt says that she was constantly on patrol for the session boys trying to sneak little bits of jazz into her songs (in the 80s that was a thing because everyone had Weather Report envy) and would call them out on it. So for "Like A Prayer" Guy went yuuuuge. If you pay attention, the bass line for the second half of the song is an extended Jaco Pastorius homage. And she didn't say a thing.
What I find more troubling is shooting everything in murky shades of gray and that everyone in every movie and TV show, here and in European-made productions, is smoking again.
I think that plaintive rock sort of ushered in the woe is me, I’m stronger than all of you -I don’t need you era of music. So brave. And it killed rock ballads and all that was great about tough guys admitting that their hearts hurt.
I am so grateful to born in 1966, with three older brothers’ record collections to raid growing up. I was thinking of the “Let ugly people make music again” meme a little ways into the post, and Steely Dan are the ultimate example in my book.
I bought the Zevon album just to own “Werewolves of London”. Possession is nine tenths of the law, I’ve been told. 😘 Happy trails, Kitties!
If you are old enough, there is The Brady Bunch episode where Greg is going to be a rock star. Spoiler alert, they 1970’s autotune him, he says it doesn’t sound like him. They chose him because…he fit the jacket.
It's hard to escape it if your goal in art is making money and pissing champaign into a pool, sure. OTH there musicians even in the dark wilds of depressing low IQ Africa making amazing music on found guitars most thrift stores would throw out.
A lot of our so called greats are kind of assholes. Bob Dylan for example, amazing poet, shitty ass human being, not surprised at all he got entranced by record sales. The musicians most normies know about are the ambitious assholes, while true geniuses like Satie, Harry Partch and Moondog labored in obscurity making music so harmonically complex and full of genuine feeling pop stars can't even fathom it.
And such is the case even today, the white pill is any broke ass musician can put their music out there at professionally engineered CD quality for anyone who wants to hear it now for the price of dinner for two at a mid restaurant for a basic used laptop. I think that's far better than the old Jew owned record company payola system of making and breaking a very few arbitrarily chosen stars to promote.
True. I love a great indi jazz band in a corner club. None of those dudes in Africa will make a gato post on music because large numbers in the west will hear what they’re playing. It costs money to bring music across the world to other civilizations.
I don’t disagree with you overall. Also that many well known musicians, Hollywood types, and politicians are colossal a-holes. Seems to come with the territory.
But it’s a catch 22.
Humans must decide their priorities. I won’t buy Chobani yoghurt because it’s owned by Soros. I won’t listen to modern crap tubes either so in that sense I get off easy on the dilemma and don’t have to think about my money going to a jerk. That said, I understand that Stan Getz was horrid to Astrud Gilberto. How irritating that my bubble perception has been broken.
"It costs money to bring music across the world to other civilizations."
Not anymore, have you heard of this little thing called the internet? Even street musicians in third world shit holes are on Jewtoob now, now that literally everyone has a cell phone that is also a little recording studio and tv studio. And I am not even saying that as an insult, there is some great music made by toothless bums in third world shit holes, really virtuosic stuff that shames Taylor Swift and other talentless millionaires shilled by Jew media.
My high school years were 75-79, and my undergraduate years were 79-83. Didn't realize at the time how good I had it. For example, Foreigner's self-titled debut, the whole album just flows. Same with The Cars self-titled debut. What you've offered on music could be a metaphor for creativity and innovation in so many spheres. My take is that Janis Joplin would agree with the entirety of your post.
‘75-77 here…and yeah, until gato brought it up I just assumed that it was my personal view that today’s music (and yesterday’s) (all of it) sucks. oouu grunge rock…that was the worst, my daughter listened to it endlessly in the 90’s.
El Gato and his fans are unironic Foreigner fans, no wonder I always thought his shit sucks,. even though supposedly we are more or less in the same "dissident right" political camp.
The worst times are when I go into some place like the eye doctor's office, and I'm the only one who was alive when the song we're listening to came out.
LOL I had that a while ago at a store where 60s songs were playing - the Monkees, and the like. I was happily singing along (very silently) but some kids passed me by probably thinking I was 100.
Except today in the doctor's office it's usually a bland cover of a once great song. Guess it's cheaper to play that way, lower royalties. Fortunately around here there are a lot of local talented people that play their own music and write their own songs. That's the future of music, in my opinion.
What a great observation. It still strikes me as surreal to hear head banging music or the Cure at the grocery store. I always wonder what the musicians (while in their youth) would think about a bunch of overweight and unattractive people pushing their shopping carts around treating their music as muzak? And thank you for giving me an alternative to my conclusions that I am just an old fart that I don't like new music. Today's music, is as you say, just a product where the musicians can easily be replaced. As a side note, driving by a billboard for movies to be streamed, they were all remakes. How about a drop on that?
The people who were making music back then were mature at 15, they were mentally adults. They snuck out and went to underground music venues and played their guitars until their fingers bled. They were latchkey kids like us. Today, twenty year olds don’t even have bank accounts. They are scared of everything and anything. You can’t write soul touching music when you don’t even know you have one. We all fell in actual love with someone by the age of 17, and had experienced a true soul crushing break up by 18. We knew love, and pain, and heartbreak. Without that suffering, there is no soul in your art. Soulless music is just that. Music lost its soul to profit. The great ones made music for music’s sake.
what a great quote. A few years ago when the kids were wearing 80s clothes and listening to the music, I told my kid that we may have been wearing black but we weren't mopey. Was it because we had a paternal dad in Reagen?
I've listened to The Cure's "Burn" while re-watching "The Crow", but never heard it at my local supermarket. Know why? The Produce aisle would undoubtedly suffer squished Everything.
oh I used to like them - I bought an LP quite some time ago, but since I never play records, I ended up giving it away again. Only 2or 3 songs I know. Our house, and Psycho killer.
Irrespective of what you think of the style of music (I’m not overly impressed with either; calling Zappa a “classical composer” is, I suppose, somewhat abusing the notion of “classical”, although The Yellow Shark had moments of merit in my view, to whatever genre you may ascribe it. Regardless, there was nothing “classical” about it since it was defined by its Zappa-esque unconventionality), the musicianship of both was of very high quality.
Steely Dan is commercial pap very, very well performed. Listen carefully.
Zappa, unfortunately, was a great talent hindered by oppositional defiance, in my opinion. His “anti-“ approach let whatever he was against define him. Nonetheless, he demanded, and got, very high standards of musicianship from himself and the members of his ensembles. When I listen to Zappa I somehow feel mixed admiration and disappointment.
Some can hear it while some have a little cruder feel for musical craftsmanship and can’t appreciate the subtleties.
Not at all. But if you are all in, either for or against, you’re still being defined by it.
If you run in the opposite direction of the herd, your direction is still determined by the herd. You have surrendered your freedom and thus your creativity.
No it’s not that simple, you oppose the bad things driven by greed and selfishness, and accept the good things. It’s only difficult if you have a boner for bowing to authority right or wrong, which apparently you do. Yes I am saying you are a bad person and you should be ashamed of yourself.
I agree, I am still shocked at myself that I switched to country a few years back. Never was on my radar when the bands mentioned had so much good music. And I love Luke Combs, who doesn't fit the mold. Jelly Roll either. We do watch YT videos of all the good bands, and it's amazing just how good they were.
We recently moved to Tennessee and became southerners. Going in and out of stores and happening upon country music pretty often, I'm surprising myself that I'm beginning to like country music. I'd love some advice about who to listen to - maybe some albums to buy. Please?
For me, that pop influence started about the same time the cat mentions here. Now I find I listen to the rock of my youth, or the country of my early adulthood. Talented new artists are few and far between
He got most of the points, but one thing I might have missed is the huge contribution made by gospel music. This music in turn had its roots in people who had nothing but their music and were slaves.
right, Steve, I noticed that the bandwidth (sic) of names dropped was narrow. However, we can ride with the paunches, being a bit old and overweight. The main point stands.
And just in passing, toxoplasmosis, like cats, has an undeserved bad reputation.
I started out with Country and then went on to blue grass, country rock, jazz, and finally in my 40’s tuned into some heavy metal - great work out music. Now I’m a hula girl. I’ve always loved music! Lmao
In the mid 80s, my husband's baby sister- in high school- was telling us about this new band she found. When we asked her the name, she said "Creek...Cree...." We said "Creedence Clearwater Revival?" "YES!!!" oy...
Oh, boy. Oh, Boy! OH, BOY. You caught me just at the right time: GF is P.O.ed and here I am on a Saturday morning, rainy (helps with the angst), and what I do is reach for the good bourbon and find all my faves on YT with a JBL speaker assist. Old songs such as you played, Riley, they crank up the emotions until pegged at eleven. And it's not just R & R--you wrote "and the jazz died". It most certainly did NOT. And I've seen hardened oldtimers tear up at a Patsy Cline tune in a Drinking Man's bar. Listen: At seventy-two years young, I'll continue listening to the music that stirs--nay, GRABS-- my soul...until The End...but that's just another Doors tune for another day.
I love hearing older folk music e.g. Cat Stevens with minimal (if any) production. You can hear his voice, his breath, even the occasional mistake. Sounded in person like they did on the radio. I think we’re all aware of the “perfection” of auto-tune and post-production which makes the music less impressive. Bring back MTV unplugged!
Buddha and the Chocolate box - a present from my older sister one Christmas - I was about 14 and she knew I loved all her Cat Steven’s albums. Of course, he was (still is) a very, very handsome man….but even if he was ugly I still would have thought he was gorgeous just because he wrote Wild World (and so many other wonderful songs.)
I'm a bit older than you, and I have to smile at your premise. Many my age think things went irretrievably bad in the late 1970's, and rock sucked by the 80's. I gravitated to blues and jazz by that point, as I thought more interesting things were happening in blues, and the ocean of jazz is so vast as to be almost inexhaustible. But then blues became socially conscious, which often ruins the music. I listen to mostly jazz now, in part because it's something my wife and I both enjoy. But there are still a few who turn the amp up to 11 and can actually play: Joe Satriani comes to mind. We certainly agree that most of the moderns really suck. Crude for the sake of being crude, formulaic crap. Several years ago I became concerned that so many young people preferred Classic Rock, rather than anything genuinely "their own." Then I listened a little to what's out there and I understood why. Personally, I'm happy to live in the past. If they "drop the big one" I've got more than enough archived to last 'till the Second Coming. If the youngsters want in, let them come. (Remember Dr. Johnny Fever from WKRP inn Cincinnati? "But who'll tell the children about Bo Diddly?!")
the difference being that in the 80's, kids were not listening to music from the 40's or 50's and today, kids are listening to music from the 80's and 90's, the music of a generation 40 years their senior.
that seems like an objective difference.
one could argue that it's just "the last music that didn't suck" and i'm not sure one could prove that not to be so, but they certainly have access to music going back further, and like my generation have chosen not to listen to it.
Not to be deliberately argumentative, and some transgressive jazz is quite wonderful, but so is much of The Great American Songbook. It's melodic and accessible, and timeless. What comes through is a sense of innocence completely absent from modern music. (Maybe it's sappy, but "I'm in heaven when we're dancing cheek-to-cheek.") So-called "Smooth Jazz" annoys me a little. I suppose its elevator-like. Take a hook, repeat endlessly, beat it to death, and take another 1:30 to fade away. But hey, it's ultimately a matter of personal preference.
I definitely think things went south in the late 70s, the earthy, primal and powerful spark withered into over produced, synthesizer infused drivel. Aside from a few wonderful highlights the 80s were a wasteland for rock n roll. I consoled myself with punk and jazz. Things improved greatly in the 90s to early 2000s then went downhill again
I can’t tell you how much I loooove this post. Those are all videos of MY youth! I’ll never forget the day I walked onto the job site painting houses one summer in my youth. I was kinda over the hair metal and the new wave scene. One of the guys was playing The Pixies Doolittle album. it kicked off with Debaser and I was like, “ohhhhhh yeaaah!” I was home.
My daughter is now 18 and I brought her up right. Her taste in music is impeccable. We drove cross country this summer and never once had to chastise her for her DJ set. It’s firmly rooted in what I’ve never stopped listening to. But yeah, apart from Arctic Monkeys, Cage, Jack White, Tame Impala and a few others, it all sucks. Though there’s some good stuff in the jam/blue grass space if that’s yer taste.
Hey man, be sure to catch Bassnectar at the trash fence at 2a tonight! 😆
Tame Impala!!!! I am a believer that there is still good music out there but you have to search far and wide for it!!! However the Bad Cat is on point here! I would love to go back and stay there.
I began that first video and about two seconds into it my spouse in the other room said "Feels Like the First Time."
The music was real. The bands had real talent. They didn't need auto tune. The lyrics were relatable. The melodies were memorable.
It was the best of times, musically.
And now spouse is looking for the Cars CD. Thanks gato. 😂
"Let the ugly people sing" - thanks for that. Superb
There was a time when you could catalogue your life by the songs. Every week some new revelation or two. A song plays and you remember you were hanging upside down off the deck railing with friends when this song came on and everyone screams and someone turns it up.
I'll be in the supermarket with my son and some '80s music will start playing and it's doubly disconcerting for me because I was out of the country for the first half of that decade and only knew the hits from pirated tapes I bought in Peshawar. My memories are some strange landscape.
For my 16th birthday, my brother was thinking Neil Diamond. My sister in law said no, The Cars. She was a great sister in law...
Thank God for your sister-in-law! What a horrible, horrible 16th birthday memory Neil Diamond would have been. Sounds like something my parents would have come up with. 🤢
My mother in law was a huge Neil Diamond fan, in her 50s. So not cool when you're 16.
No doubt!
The best of the bad lot he posted along with Sabbath. Hair metal OTH was always cringe, and Foreigner is just horrible corporate formula "rock."
“Foreigner” <shudders> 🤢
El Gato Malo supposedly one of our peeps (I don’t like him and his all lower case pretension) just wrote a long boomer tier essay today mooning over bands like Foreigner, I literally wanted to barf.
Was responding on my share, didn't realize it would echo here, lol.
We are Gen X. Go ahead and barf.
So am I at 59 years old, the thing is I didn't let my spirit of curiosity die, sucks to be you.
I would suggest that the point was the individual SONG and its recording.
You might have others you would have chosen, but you are not the author.
So this is a comments section the point of which is people other than the author get to chime in on the subject. And I have a lot of thoughts on it as someone who listened to and played music for decades.
Hair was cool. RATT, Dokken, Y&T. They had style.
my friend had the first foreigner album, I liked it. The second one Double Vision came out, I bought. I hated it. Not sure why I ever liked the first one. I guess it had some hooks/ novelty. But once I heard the robotic soulessness of it, that's all I hear now
My theory is life is too short for mediocre music. If you can’t find new good music then at least listen to old good music like jazz and classical.
I see two separate issues: (perhaps) a lack of new ground breaking musical genres, but IMO there is no lack of artistic people making good > great music. It's out there on Spotify, etc. But the folks force feeding us woke bullshit TV /Movies are not the ones we should be expecting to feed us good new music. You have to find it on your own.
Two out of Three ain’t bad.
Isn't it something when you haven't heard that song in 20 years and when it comes on you know at least half of the words?!?
yes, even the lame ones...it's like "HOW do I know this?"???? hahaa
Heard one of my 70’s favs - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band “Old Time Rock & Roll” at a party up the street from my house. I was reading, heard it thru my window and immediately started mouthing the words (which every single one of us do). These were squealing high school kids tho saying “wait, stop! Oh, I love this song - you’ve heard it?”. So I think kids still have an ear, kinda, they’re teachable but perhaps not reachable. They all have cell phones now…they literally have streaming access to music from all over the world. And they chose Bob Seger! Yes!
Even 50 yrs. It immediately reminds me of where I was, who I was with and whose party we were at.
<It was the best of times, musically.>
Styx in my head for the rest of the day.
We'll take the best, forget the rest, and one day we'll find ...
Another few minutes and we're gonna need to set up a real big conference call.
These are the funnest comments that i have been a part of in a long time.
Our host runs a great establishment.
bad kitty does indeed.
oh yes I remember them ! Lady.
Yes. And gato nailed the exact year when music died:
2005
probably around Napster / Youtube. I have a friend in the music industry- his view is that no one works in isolation anymore. Everyone hears everything on Youtube/Spotify. So its very hard to be original
Yeah. You nailed it.
The only thing I remember about 2005 is, my Mom died.
I'm truly sorry. That will mark 2005 for you forever.
Thank-you. You are correct.
Commercial music may have died, but then it always sucked, The Monkeys and Sha-na-naring any bells? Jew record company owners rigging radio playlists with payola ring any bells? Meanwhile more people than ever are recording music as art for arts sake, now that a professional quality recording software will run on an e-waste 50 dollar Craigslist laptop or a 5 year old smart phone.
"Jew" record company owners...
I see you set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public again, son.
Whatever you say Jew. No one likes you people for a reason, it's you, not us.
I like Jews a lot. It's not them, it's you.
I keep wondering how pathetic someone has to be to imagine secret cabals of Jews, and I keep watching the bar get lowered.
what's a group of Italian criminals called? Mafia
What's a group of Mexican criminals called? Cartel.
What's a group of black criminals called? Gang
What's a group of Jewish criminals called? A coincidence.
I am an Oberlin College philosophy grad and own my home outright, so do not condescend to me in that way. And you? Wage slave and renter or mortgage slave in the Jew wage slavery/debt slavery tread mill perhaps?
"Holocaust enjoyer" in your bio? That's all I need to see. Bye!
Authenticity sums it up in a word. My kids are in their 20s, and they tell me all the time that they only listen to my generation's music. They envy me for getting to grow up with it.
My daughter has a fantasy of driving down the road in the 1970s with the windows down, wind blowing through her hair, listening to CCR, and she's in a bad relationship.
Yep. My kids are in their late 30s. It’s really pretty funny, but sad in a way. They listen to the stuff I listened to when they were growing up. 70s and 80s stuf(, with an occasional dip into the late 60s and early 90s.
I am sad for the young generation that they feel too defeated by life to create new genres of music and instead listen to Boomer and Gen X retreads. And I am an almost boomer aged Xer right on the cusp barely into Gen X, so I get to say that.
The failure of the artists to make authentic music is one thing. The fact that many young people know how to recognize and appreciate great music when they hear it means all is not lost.
Yes, but see that is a total lie. There is more great authentic music being made now than in any time in history. But you have to seek it out, it isn't going to be spoon fed to you by media or social media.
Agreed. And that illustrates the problem. It's not necessarily that individual artistic genius no longer appears. It's that we've constructed a society that buries quality and elevates unimaginative, insipid drivel.
Wrong attitude, seek out the great and ignore the mainstream which has always sucked. Gen X and Boomer nostalgists would do well to look at the charts in the 70s to remind themselves their childhood had a lot of shit music in it too like Sony and Cher, Donovan, The Monkeys, and Captain and Taneil (sp?). The Brian Enos, King Crimsons, and Frank Zappas were the exception not the rule.
Imagine the previous generation before that had said "fuck it, we are never going to make anything as great as Elvis and the Beatles," then there would have been no Sabbath etc. Imagine the Beatles had said we are never going to be as great as Count Bassie or Sinatra, etc, etc, all the way back to Palestrina. Nostalgia is deeply destructive to new creation.
This is no different than 8 zillion super hero movie spinoffs which everyone gets is terrible, why don't people also realize this is also terrible?
the leader of then band Deerhunter says his muse was to imagine he was making one his favorite bands next albums. Deerhunter has a pretty original sound, so...
You forgot Stairway to Heaven.
Whipping Post
Cocaine and Layla
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
The guitar is incendiary.
That!!
Another result of the corporatism of everything.
EVERYTHING is captured.
They were the best of times, period.
Yes but they were corny boomers who wore fringe leather jackets and thought using black blues bends on their guitars made them "cool." It's not that there were wasn't good music made during this time period, it's that this isn't that.
This is cringe nostalgia crap, and I say that as a 59 year old man. And yes I loathed this AOR radio and MTV friendly middle of the road stuff when it came it out as well. It has no heart unlike punk rock.
well, ofc, there is good punk, and there is an endless amount formulaic punk. I've listened to a LOT of college rock on Boston college radio. WMBR (MIT) said they played both types of of music, "punk and hardcore". :) I think it was 4 hours of that Mon - Fri 8am - 12 noon on their Record Hospital show. Always seemed a bit much to me.
It do be like that, Mr. Gato.
But man, don't leave out the testosterone. Live Aid 1985 Freddie had it cascading from every pore and yes I knew how he swung. But still. Even the masters of androgyny like Bowie never let you forget they were real men no matter how they postured onstage.
And the best women musicians of the era knew how to run with the boys without crying. Raw vocal cord to raw vocal cord, the match-ups were always thrilling.
just a lttle somehting to break the monotony of all that hard core dance which has gotten to be a little bit out of control.
it do be like that.
I can't name one Taylor Swift song, wouldn't recognize one if I heard it. But every time I see that girl in photos I think she's the perfect android synth. Started out as everyone's little sister and is slowly becoming the porn star you bring home to mom.
What a perfect description.
The only ones I can name are her early ones - like when she was barely a teenager - because I liked and still like them, but nothing since then. And I'm 64.
SAME but I admit to intense curiosity regarding the breakup song if/when Travis has had enough. And yea, I’m aware they're engaged.
I’m picturing a wretched ballad abt a single mom who “used to be treasured” now left to raise
little Chesea Kelce and their little cat, solo.
The only breakup song I want to hear is from Greg Kihn band. They don’t write ‘em like that anymore. 😉
https://youtu.be/1FUyrnXJFJE?si=UP1FPh_0B6N3VJLG
Loved that song the very first time I heard it.
You young kid you.
Me, I heard the sad news today that Timmy's mom died. That should indicate my generation.
Those were the only good ones really
True!
Best description ever!
She lives in my town, but I only just found out Taylor is a girl. Shows how out of touch I am. Having recently heard her "music" I plan to stay that way.
YES!! Nailed it!
Same, & I tired. Down on me! (I’m old)
And while it's fun to watch, she will soon be the next Madonna. Won't that be fun.
I don't think she will. Madonna was genuinely fucked up and in my view Taylor is a carefully designed commercial product.
Commercial, political product
Agreed. I didn't realize it until about a decade after her heyday, but Madonna was a real artist, and the modern internet has brought us some great stories from the session musicians who worked with her.
Bassist Guy Pratt says that she was constantly on patrol for the session boys trying to sneak little bits of jazz into her songs (in the 80s that was a thing because everyone had Weather Report envy) and would call them out on it. So for "Like A Prayer" Guy went yuuuuge. If you pay attention, the bass line for the second half of the song is an extended Jaco Pastorius homage. And she didn't say a thing.
So funny--as I read your first sentence I thought of "Like a Prayer" and there you are.
She didn't have a great voice but on her best songs there was nevertheless a certain unique timbre I found very appealing.
But though I ain't no prude the oozing skeeziness she decided was her style ruined her for me.
I do think the weird Satanic shit in Hollywood and the music industry needs to be discussed….
What I find more troubling is shooting everything in murky shades of gray and that everyone in every movie and TV show, here and in European-made productions, is smoking again.
That is definitely very remarkable!
Funny when you have to explain an imaginary storyline to “Watermelon Man” to a non-jazz lover but they still don’t get it.
You’re not just dating your devoted readers?
Now that's what im talking about!
It was never supposed to smell like teen spirit.
😂
I think that plaintive rock sort of ushered in the woe is me, I’m stronger than all of you -I don’t need you era of music. So brave. And it killed rock ballads and all that was great about tough guys admitting that their hearts hurt.
Tween boy bands were a diabolical invention. Maybe not so surprising puberty blockers were the next step.
SCA, you are on a roll today...
Gonna need to listen to Meatloaf for the rest of the afternoon to clean that infernal natural progression out of my head.
But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you. So don't be sad ...
Two outta 3 ain’t bad
See my reply to your other comment.
Boy bands...Satan's lagniappe for signing the contract...meanwhile, in Hicksville: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FePTEMAnkP8
Dang
Yep. From Pat Benator to Chrissie Hynde and Exene.
And Grace Slick.
This one's after my heart, brother.
Every single point is point on.
I am so grateful to born in 1966, with three older brothers’ record collections to raid growing up. I was thinking of the “Let ugly people make music again” meme a little ways into the post, and Steely Dan are the ultimate example in my book.
I bought the Zevon album just to own “Werewolves of London”. Possession is nine tenths of the law, I’ve been told. 😘 Happy trails, Kitties!
1963 “kid” here, with older step siblings possessing great album collections — with the added benefit of both brothers playing guitar pretty well.
Poor kids these days…
I’m off to find my Dire Straits CD. JULIETTE— my
personal
fave.
Thx, bad 🐈⬛
My husband plays it on loop whenever he gets into the car.
You may have a winner there.
great song. heard it recently somewhere. Don't need to hear Money for nothing, though. Good enough song, but man was that overplayed.
And then you realized "Excitable Boy" and "Johnny Strikes Up the Band" were the best songs on the album. What a classic!
Oh, c’mon…Fagen and Becker could have been male models lol
Enjoy your turntable!
That song was (is) genius!
And "Lawyers Guns and Money."
Stop the sugar coating. It’s worse than you describe. It a noise industry, not music.
Now-a-days the ability to sing is not required, just a good voice synthesizer.
If you are old enough, there is The Brady Bunch episode where Greg is going to be a rock star. Spoiler alert, they 1970’s autotune him, he says it doesn’t sound like him. They chose him because…he fit the jacket.
Over 50 years ago.
Plus la change.
Makes sense. Hollywood was already a snake pit. Thanks!
For commercial music sure, but commercial music has always sucked.
Hard to escape it. Even the greats lived and died by ratings and sales. That’s fairly commercial.
It's hard to escape it if your goal in art is making money and pissing champaign into a pool, sure. OTH there musicians even in the dark wilds of depressing low IQ Africa making amazing music on found guitars most thrift stores would throw out.
A lot of our so called greats are kind of assholes. Bob Dylan for example, amazing poet, shitty ass human being, not surprised at all he got entranced by record sales. The musicians most normies know about are the ambitious assholes, while true geniuses like Satie, Harry Partch and Moondog labored in obscurity making music so harmonically complex and full of genuine feeling pop stars can't even fathom it.
And such is the case even today, the white pill is any broke ass musician can put their music out there at professionally engineered CD quality for anyone who wants to hear it now for the price of dinner for two at a mid restaurant for a basic used laptop. I think that's far better than the old Jew owned record company payola system of making and breaking a very few arbitrarily chosen stars to promote.
True. I love a great indi jazz band in a corner club. None of those dudes in Africa will make a gato post on music because large numbers in the west will hear what they’re playing. It costs money to bring music across the world to other civilizations.
I don’t disagree with you overall. Also that many well known musicians, Hollywood types, and politicians are colossal a-holes. Seems to come with the territory.
But it’s a catch 22.
Humans must decide their priorities. I won’t buy Chobani yoghurt because it’s owned by Soros. I won’t listen to modern crap tubes either so in that sense I get off easy on the dilemma and don’t have to think about my money going to a jerk. That said, I understand that Stan Getz was horrid to Astrud Gilberto. How irritating that my bubble perception has been broken.
"It costs money to bring music across the world to other civilizations."
Not anymore, have you heard of this little thing called the internet? Even street musicians in third world shit holes are on Jewtoob now, now that literally everyone has a cell phone that is also a little recording studio and tv studio. And I am not even saying that as an insult, there is some great music made by toothless bums in third world shit holes, really virtuosic stuff that shames Taylor Swift and other talentless millionaires shilled by Jew media.
My high school years were 75-79, and my undergraduate years were 79-83. Didn't realize at the time how good I had it. For example, Foreigner's self-titled debut, the whole album just flows. Same with The Cars self-titled debut. What you've offered on music could be a metaphor for creativity and innovation in so many spheres. My take is that Janis Joplin would agree with the entirety of your post.
Come on, Come on, Come on...
‘75-77 here…and yeah, until gato brought it up I just assumed that it was my personal view that today’s music (and yesterday’s) (all of it) sucks. oouu grunge rock…that was the worst, my daughter listened to it endlessly in the 90’s.
El Gato and his fans are unironic Foreigner fans, no wonder I always thought his shit sucks,. even though supposedly we are more or less in the same "dissident right" political camp.
The worst times are when I go into some place like the eye doctor's office, and I'm the only one who was alive when the song we're listening to came out.
Lmao! Same. Oh goodness
LOL I had that a while ago at a store where 60s songs were playing - the Monkees, and the like. I was happily singing along (very silently) but some kids passed me by probably thinking I was 100.
Except today in the doctor's office it's usually a bland cover of a once great song. Guess it's cheaper to play that way, lower royalties. Fortunately around here there are a lot of local talented people that play their own music and write their own songs. That's the future of music, in my opinion.
What a great observation. It still strikes me as surreal to hear head banging music or the Cure at the grocery store. I always wonder what the musicians (while in their youth) would think about a bunch of overweight and unattractive people pushing their shopping carts around treating their music as muzak? And thank you for giving me an alternative to my conclusions that I am just an old fart that I don't like new music. Today's music, is as you say, just a product where the musicians can easily be replaced. As a side note, driving by a billboard for movies to be streamed, they were all remakes. How about a drop on that?
to quote the clash:
they would think that "death of glory becomes just another story."
The people who were making music back then were mature at 15, they were mentally adults. They snuck out and went to underground music venues and played their guitars until their fingers bled. They were latchkey kids like us. Today, twenty year olds don’t even have bank accounts. They are scared of everything and anything. You can’t write soul touching music when you don’t even know you have one. We all fell in actual love with someone by the age of 17, and had experienced a true soul crushing break up by 18. We knew love, and pain, and heartbreak. Without that suffering, there is no soul in your art. Soulless music is just that. Music lost its soul to profit. The great ones made music for music’s sake.
Mediocrity, catering to the lowest common denominator. No passion, no heart, no soul.
Great point
what a great quote. A few years ago when the kids were wearing 80s clothes and listening to the music, I told my kid that we may have been wearing black but we weren't mopey. Was it because we had a paternal dad in Reagen?
You were a rebel of your day.
Jesus dude why didn't you use the Clash in the OP rather than fucking Foreigner which is the epitome of soulless corporate "rock?"
'giving me an alternative to my conclusions that I am just an old fart that I don't like new music'
Me too!
I've listened to The Cure's "Burn" while re-watching "The Crow", but never heard it at my local supermarket. Know why? The Produce aisle would undoubtedly suffer squished Everything.
Early DEVO. "Here's another one by Foghat".
Frank Zappa -- first-class musicianship maybe, maybe, approached by Steely Dan.
Emerson Lake and Palmer -- classically train and inspired, over-the-top bombast that was musically competent.
Kansas. No comment required.
Santana. Ditto.
ZZ Top. Keeping up with the times yet always sounding like ZZ Top.
ELO, Jethro Tull, Supertramp.
The glory days are gone, snuffed out by the suits.
There were only a few that came along later that I like. Talking Heads!
oh I used to like them - I bought an LP quite some time ago, but since I never play records, I ended up giving it away again. Only 2or 3 songs I know. Our house, and Psycho killer.
LOL Zappa was literally a classical music composer, Steely Dan is literally smooth jazz for impotent boomers.
Irrespective of what you think of the style of music (I’m not overly impressed with either; calling Zappa a “classical composer” is, I suppose, somewhat abusing the notion of “classical”, although The Yellow Shark had moments of merit in my view, to whatever genre you may ascribe it. Regardless, there was nothing “classical” about it since it was defined by its Zappa-esque unconventionality), the musicianship of both was of very high quality.
Steely Dan is commercial pap very, very well performed. Listen carefully.
Zappa, unfortunately, was a great talent hindered by oppositional defiance, in my opinion. His “anti-“ approach let whatever he was against define him. Nonetheless, he demanded, and got, very high standards of musicianship from himself and the members of his ensembles. When I listen to Zappa I somehow feel mixed admiration and disappointment.
Some can hear it while some have a little cruder feel for musical craftsmanship and can’t appreciate the subtleties.
LOL
Nothing wrong with being against a world gone wrong conformist.
Not at all. But if you are all in, either for or against, you’re still being defined by it.
If you run in the opposite direction of the herd, your direction is still determined by the herd. You have surrendered your freedom and thus your creativity.
No wonder you are so pathetic and weak and only have 6 subscribers, you are a fucking asshole.
Wow, that went over the top pretty fast. You are revealing a lot more about yourself than you are of me.
What is a “subscriber”? I gather it’s something you think is a reflection of personal worth.
Some rebel you are, in it for the “likes” and all. A real nonconformist, you, right?
No it’s not that simple, you oppose the bad things driven by greed and selfishness, and accept the good things. It’s only difficult if you have a boner for bowing to authority right or wrong, which apparently you do. Yes I am saying you are a bad person and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Country music still has creative people. Don’t see many references to those performers (past and present) in your article
I agree, I am still shocked at myself that I switched to country a few years back. Never was on my radar when the bands mentioned had so much good music. And I love Luke Combs, who doesn't fit the mold. Jelly Roll either. We do watch YT videos of all the good bands, and it's amazing just how good they were.
You have to go back to original country...white soul music. Real life. Real pain. Real joy in little things.
Not true. Have a listen to Tyler Childers
We recently moved to Tennessee and became southerners. Going in and out of stores and happening upon country music pretty often, I'm surprising myself that I'm beginning to like country music. I'd love some advice about who to listen to - maybe some albums to buy. Please?
Zach Williams is awesome…Christian and country mix.
Which album should I get?
Country music now sounds like rock. Not the old twangy shit.
Don't know him (him?) Haven't listened to country since the 70s.
I was never a country fan. Started listening to K-Love radio (which changed my life) and fell in love with Zach Williams and many others
So true. It was an original American art form. I dislike the heavy pop influence that has infiltrated country music.
For me, that pop influence started about the same time the cat mentions here. Now I find I listen to the rock of my youth, or the country of my early adulthood. Talented new artists are few and far between
I enjoy Turnpike Troubadours, Colton Wall
He got most of the points, but one thing I might have missed is the huge contribution made by gospel music. This music in turn had its roots in people who had nothing but their music and were slaves.
Country music? What’s that?
right, Steve, I noticed that the bandwidth (sic) of names dropped was narrow. However, we can ride with the paunches, being a bit old and overweight. The main point stands.
And just in passing, toxoplasmosis, like cats, has an undeserved bad reputation.
I had it, and dropped two stone in three weeks.
I started out with Country and then went on to blue grass, country rock, jazz, and finally in my 40’s tuned into some heavy metal - great work out music. Now I’m a hula girl. I’ve always loved music! Lmao
Agreed, I was thinking the same.
Something about this essay made me want to hold a Bic lighter outstretched above my head.
In the mid 80s, my husband's baby sister- in high school- was telling us about this new band she found. When we asked her the name, she said "Creek...Cree...." We said "Creedence Clearwater Revival?" "YES!!!" oy...
Oh, boy. Oh, Boy! OH, BOY. You caught me just at the right time: GF is P.O.ed and here I am on a Saturday morning, rainy (helps with the angst), and what I do is reach for the good bourbon and find all my faves on YT with a JBL speaker assist. Old songs such as you played, Riley, they crank up the emotions until pegged at eleven. And it's not just R & R--you wrote "and the jazz died". It most certainly did NOT. And I've seen hardened oldtimers tear up at a Patsy Cline tune in a Drinking Man's bar. Listen: At seventy-two years young, I'll continue listening to the music that stirs--nay, GRABS-- my soul...until The End...but that's just another Doors tune for another day.
Amen
I love hearing older folk music e.g. Cat Stevens with minimal (if any) production. You can hear his voice, his breath, even the occasional mistake. Sounded in person like they did on the radio. I think we’re all aware of the “perfection” of auto-tune and post-production which makes the music less impressive. Bring back MTV unplugged!
Right???? Like watching Freddie Mercury here on El Gato's post - he sounds AMAZING! No earpiece helping him stay on key, pure vocal bliss!
Cat Stevens, my very favorite.
“Oh, Very Young” was our graduation song in ‘77.
Buddha and the Chocolate box - a present from my older sister one Christmas - I was about 14 and she knew I loved all her Cat Steven’s albums. Of course, he was (still is) a very, very handsome man….but even if he was ugly I still would have thought he was gorgeous just because he wrote Wild World (and so many other wonderful songs.)
🤢
🤢🤮
I'm a bit older than you, and I have to smile at your premise. Many my age think things went irretrievably bad in the late 1970's, and rock sucked by the 80's. I gravitated to blues and jazz by that point, as I thought more interesting things were happening in blues, and the ocean of jazz is so vast as to be almost inexhaustible. But then blues became socially conscious, which often ruins the music. I listen to mostly jazz now, in part because it's something my wife and I both enjoy. But there are still a few who turn the amp up to 11 and can actually play: Joe Satriani comes to mind. We certainly agree that most of the moderns really suck. Crude for the sake of being crude, formulaic crap. Several years ago I became concerned that so many young people preferred Classic Rock, rather than anything genuinely "their own." Then I listened a little to what's out there and I understood why. Personally, I'm happy to live in the past. If they "drop the big one" I've got more than enough archived to last 'till the Second Coming. If the youngsters want in, let them come. (Remember Dr. Johnny Fever from WKRP inn Cincinnati? "But who'll tell the children about Bo Diddly?!")
the difference being that in the 80's, kids were not listening to music from the 40's or 50's and today, kids are listening to music from the 80's and 90's, the music of a generation 40 years their senior.
that seems like an objective difference.
one could argue that it's just "the last music that didn't suck" and i'm not sure one could prove that not to be so, but they certainly have access to music going back further, and like my generation have chosen not to listen to it.
Left out the greatest rock of the 60’s - 70’s. Cause you know it’s true.
Well my 14 year old listens to some 50s classics and myself, as a child of the 80s, have a deep love for 40s Big Band and 50s Doo Wop 🤷♀️
Jazz has to be transgressive. Make it PC it becomes elevator music.
Not to be deliberately argumentative, and some transgressive jazz is quite wonderful, but so is much of The Great American Songbook. It's melodic and accessible, and timeless. What comes through is a sense of innocence completely absent from modern music. (Maybe it's sappy, but "I'm in heaven when we're dancing cheek-to-cheek.") So-called "Smooth Jazz" annoys me a little. I suppose its elevator-like. Take a hook, repeat endlessly, beat it to death, and take another 1:30 to fade away. But hey, it's ultimately a matter of personal preference.
I definitely think things went south in the late 70s, the earthy, primal and powerful spark withered into over produced, synthesizer infused drivel. Aside from a few wonderful highlights the 80s were a wasteland for rock n roll. I consoled myself with punk and jazz. Things improved greatly in the 90s to early 2000s then went downhill again
I can’t tell you how much I loooove this post. Those are all videos of MY youth! I’ll never forget the day I walked onto the job site painting houses one summer in my youth. I was kinda over the hair metal and the new wave scene. One of the guys was playing The Pixies Doolittle album. it kicked off with Debaser and I was like, “ohhhhhh yeaaah!” I was home.
My daughter is now 18 and I brought her up right. Her taste in music is impeccable. We drove cross country this summer and never once had to chastise her for her DJ set. It’s firmly rooted in what I’ve never stopped listening to. But yeah, apart from Arctic Monkeys, Cage, Jack White, Tame Impala and a few others, it all sucks. Though there’s some good stuff in the jam/blue grass space if that’s yer taste.
Hey man, be sure to catch Bassnectar at the trash fence at 2a tonight! 😆
Tame Impala!!!! I am a believer that there is still good music out there but you have to search far and wide for it!!! However the Bad Cat is on point here! I would love to go back and stay there.
We must be the same age.
I actually got goose bumps listening to the videos.
If you were born in the summer of love then yup👍