The 365 Challenge
I was reading Bob Gentry's blog and re-read a comment I placed on a post a while ago about the lack of talent and mediocrity of current bands. Bob Gentry is a talented singer/songwriter in a more mainstream vein than I listen to, but my words were more in response to some of the other comments than Bob's post.
"The truth is you have all turned into your parents. Modern music is always rubbish to the previous generation. If you were aged 16 to 20 you would be finding great music that you fall in love with and that love would stay with you for the rest of your lives. I've got one blog that is following a number of bands around (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dresden Dolls, etc) as they tour - I post fans' reviews of their shows. You wouldn't believe the enthusiasm and excitement of these fans for the music. For them, this is the Golden Age of music.
"There seems to be a time in life when people search out new music, new passion. Then the urgency of that need declines in the person and in their whole social group. Gradually, it becomes a search for the familiar and the comfortable.
"Of course, there are problems such as the manufactured nature of much commercial music - but it was always that way, I remember The Osmonds! I'm no defender of Rap, but I will say that just about the only music I have heard in the last year that attempts to confront the existing Political and Economic system has been Rap. Ok, it mostly just complains about powerlessness just like 70's Punk did, but it is being made.
"As for me, I recently compiled a top 20 albums ever for my MySpace profile - starting in 1967 with The Velvet Underground and ending in 2006 with an album sent to me by three 15 year olds from a little rural town in England that have somehow made a record of snotty guitar rock that, IMHO, ranks along with of The Stooges, Nirvana, MC5. The great new music is out there, maybe it comes down to whether you have the energy to go and find it."
Now I am challenging myself to prove it. I am going to make a post every day for the next 365 days that recommends a band. The bands will be currently active and either unsigned or on a small independent label. They will be the sort of band that I don't expect most people to know. The qualification will be that I think they are good and should be heard by a much wider audience.
"The truth is you have all turned into your parents. Modern music is always rubbish to the previous generation. If you were aged 16 to 20 you would be finding great music that you fall in love with and that love would stay with you for the rest of your lives. I've got one blog that is following a number of bands around (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dresden Dolls, etc) as they tour - I post fans' reviews of their shows. You wouldn't believe the enthusiasm and excitement of these fans for the music. For them, this is the Golden Age of music.
"There seems to be a time in life when people search out new music, new passion. Then the urgency of that need declines in the person and in their whole social group. Gradually, it becomes a search for the familiar and the comfortable.
"Of course, there are problems such as the manufactured nature of much commercial music - but it was always that way, I remember The Osmonds! I'm no defender of Rap, but I will say that just about the only music I have heard in the last year that attempts to confront the existing Political and Economic system has been Rap. Ok, it mostly just complains about powerlessness just like 70's Punk did, but it is being made.
"As for me, I recently compiled a top 20 albums ever for my MySpace profile - starting in 1967 with The Velvet Underground and ending in 2006 with an album sent to me by three 15 year olds from a little rural town in England that have somehow made a record of snotty guitar rock that, IMHO, ranks along with of The Stooges, Nirvana, MC5. The great new music is out there, maybe it comes down to whether you have the energy to go and find it."
Now I am challenging myself to prove it. I am going to make a post every day for the next 365 days that recommends a band. The bands will be currently active and either unsigned or on a small independent label. They will be the sort of band that I don't expect most people to know. The qualification will be that I think they are good and should be heard by a much wider audience.
posted by Cool Noise at 10:06 pm
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