I had a 78 year old woman ask me what type of lube to use with her dildo yesterday at work. That has nothing to do with crappy singers but that comment just made me think of it. Good for her, I say. And for the record, I like Lady Gaga. I think she has talent as a song writer, performer, and musician. I think that her "schtick" overshadows all of that unfortunately.
That pretty much encompasses much of what I feel is wrong with music right now. There are tons of very talented people who you'll never hear of because they haven't repurposed half of the dumpster behind Marshalls to use as their new stage outfit. As far as female pop singers go, Adele is an enigma. Great voice, but a larger body type and normally wears some sort of simple moo-moo looking outfit. Pretty much the stark opposite of what everyone else is doing. I sincerely hope that's a sign that people are starting to get sick of watching these idiots impersonate models from Mugatu's "Derelict" campaign and can actually hear someone's voice and say, "Wow. She can wail" without asking where her parking cone hat is. As for the men, John Mayer gives me hope. He Your-Body-Is-A-Wonderland'd his way into the hearts of a nation of 12 year old girls and then, almost overnight, started to publically give Clapton a run for his money. The guy can really play--and while most of those 12 year old girls probably turned up their noses and walked over to the Jonas Brothers tent so they could continue to rub Hello Kitty on themselves all over again without feeling out of place, I like to think that a few stayed around and grew to appreciate something that wasn't created to be tossed in a 12 song repeating Top-20 playlist for some vapid DJ to fart out of a car speaker at them.
Bush (or as we called them up here, Bush X) is okay, their first album had some decent songs (especially "Little Things") and then they bought into their own hype, trying to be too smart for their own good with Razorblade Suitcase and THEN selling out because their (EXTREMELY overplayed) electronica remix of "Mouth" was a hit, so they made their entire thrid album electronica and it tanked. I saw them at the peak of their fame with Veruca Salt opening, and Veruca blew them off the stage. I always considered them an "average" band. Now Creed....FUCK talk about buying into you own hype. At first, I din't mind them, but as soon as somebody trumpeted "They're a Christian Rock band!!!" it rained blood, and by that I mean utter and total fakeness. Scott Stapp singing like he's standing against 500 mph winds, and lyrics so faggy they make you want to punch an otter in the face. It IS comforting to know that Scott Stapp is one of the biggest assholes in the entire modern era of music. Go pop some more pills n' booze, loser.
To a lot of people, they exemplified the sort of generic post-grunge sound that was everywhere in rock after 1994 or so. Grunge got harder with PJ, AIC, STP, etc. and sorta blended with hard rock/metal into this undifferentiable muddle of loud guitars and sorta-gravelly male voices. There are, in my opinion, some good bands in that subgenre (the Foo Fighters, for example), but a lot of the music strikes people as both derivative of previous stuff and difficult to tell one song/band from another. Examples without commentary on respective quality: Bush, Nickelback, Fuel, Daughtry, Three Days Grace, Creed, the Foo Fighters, Silverchair, Puddle of Mudd, 3 Doors Down, Finger Eleven, Breaking Benjamin. Without being able to know "Oh, that's ______'s voice", a person could be forgiven for mistaking a lot of these bands songs for each other.
I'll never forget seeing Mayer live in 2003 and his set was half churning out his pop hits, and half meandering blues jams and blistering solos. My friend and I were quite impressed meanwhile teen girls were getting antsy and bitching about why he was playing this boring stuff and not No Such Thing. At that time, we both predicted Mayer would get even bigger with one more pop album, and then turn into a blues artist. And voila. I privately hope Gaga does that same. When she's not repacking Madonna sentiment or careening wildly into fashion insanity without Alexander McQueen to guide her, she packs a fucking fantastic voice and impressive piano chops. Listen to her stripped down acoustic stuff and you realize she could give any female piano-driven pop/blues singers a run for their money, if not surpass with her ear for catchy melodies. Unfortunately, she's making $40mm a year and is one of the 3 biggest acts on the planet, and she's probably bought into her hype too much to step away from that. Boredom is the only thing that could push her in a positive direction. Hell, id settle for brunette Gaga banging out jams on a piano in lingerie like she did when I first saw her at Lolla. Id object to the Foo Fighters being in that group. They're the biggest true rock band of the 2000s largely cause Dave Grohl refuses to be a formulaic hack. Other bands sounding like them do so intentionally.
Agreed. I saw the same tour you're talking about and I thought Veruca Salt fucking killed it, even though I wasn't a big fan of theirs. I will say that Bush played really well that night, and I can appreciate what they do. The highlight that sticks out for me was when Gavin Rossdale was out on stage alone preforming Glycerine. He nailed it and the crowd responded accordingly. As for the Focus, I'd have to say the majority of hip hop. I can't even listen to it anymore because all I hear is how broke I am and how they have so much money. It's all auto tuned, no talent asshats that throw together some half hearted similes and metaphors and tout themselves the greatest ever.
OK, but this distinction boils down to "The Foo Fighters are exempt because I like them." I dig Grohl in all iterations (I own all or almost all of what he's put out), but the Foo Fighters are still a post-grunge band. The fact that they are one the better (or even the best) of a genre doesn't mean they don't sound similar to the others. It's not a matter of quality per as it is ubiquity of a certain type of sound. Also, as a minor point, several of the above mentioned bands pre-date the Foo Fighters in terms of formation.
I think the type of rock that I hate the most nowadays is what I call "We formed a band to get laid" rock. What bands best suit this category? Well, those "Lips Of An Angel" dinks known as Hinder for one, another is this octuplet abortion of a band, from Canada: Metrosexual poseurs that wrote a song about how strippers are SO AWESOME. Excuse me for a second. *ahem*.... A HA HA HA HAHA AHAH AHA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!! ...sorry. Seriously, I hate that shit. "Let's write a song about stippers, bros! Imagine all the chicks in the video pretending they want us!!"
It bothers me that my honkey Zakk Wylde played on that track. I hope the cash puts his kids through college. I also wonder how the hell they play his parts live. I know that twirp in the band can't play like that. What's worse is that song gets those fudge packers laid. I wish someone would Savonarola them in the public square.They're the perfect example of style over substance. It seems like these doofuses dress up like punk rock glamour models THEN write a trite song. They're just as bad as the 80s cheese dicks. In fact all those 80s cheesedicks dress like them still. Case in point: Nikki Sixx. You're 50, stop wearing eye liner. You're not as cool as Bowie anyway. Since I'm here, let me chime in with Hipster Music. I can't name a band, but you know the sound. Repetitive harmonies, bright distortion, and the singer just screeching over and over like a parakeet in the oven. To me it is the only example of anti-musicality out right now. They have no respect for their songs or instruments. They do not better themselves. It's just an excuse to be seen.
I seriously considered suicide the time I got that song stuck in my head. If she'd been close enough to beat to death with a shovel, I'd probably be in jail now.
Boy, Will Smith sure knows how to raise 'em, huh? A son who's more terrible at acting than Hayden Christiansen (which is impossible) and...and....this. I'm sorry, but my mind is made up. I am cutting the Fresh Prince's balls off. It's the right thing to do, before he creates another useless hack that he throat-fucks pop culture with. JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE FAMOUS DOESN'T MEAN YOUR KIDS SHOULD BE TOO. Sure, Donald Trump's son is just as big an asshole as he is, but being an asshole is easy. Being thrust to the top of the fame food chain isn't, and nobody should get a free pass just because their dad is the Aw-HELL-No UFO piloting robot-fighting cop from Six Degrees Of Separation.
I don't even know what to say about this shit, but apparently there are people out there who enjoy this: And in other news, Godsmack has decided they can't make their own music any shittier, so they've resorted to ruining other people's songs:
Am I reading this right? Their stage names are Redfoo and SkyBlu? Excuse me while AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA There's a lot of things you could say about Nicki Minaj (trashy, ignorant, clinically insane), but "talentless" is not one of them. God. Fuck that song and fuck anyone who likes it.
I like to listen to her verse in Monster and then put on Superbass and then just start feeling really sad.
She's just hard to predict. I have no problem with Superbass cause it shows that not only she can craft a pop song, she can do it without sacrificing her flow, which really is fantastic. Other stuff she's done like Stupid Hoe and Bees in the Trap, are just way worse. She has mounds of talent and a driven, if bizarre, idea of what she wants to do, its just a manner of if she keeps pandering to lowest common denominator pop garbage, or delivers an awesome rap album that people came to expect after her superlative guest spots.
The thing is that even on that same album, she still does stuff that completely eschews traditional song structure and comes hard. She may not be everyone's cup of tea on that song, but it certainly isn't pop. That being said....the second half of that album is mostly garbage. I think the idea that she's pandering isn't quite right: I think she actually has an earnest, deep-seated love for pop music that leads her off in that direction, with mixed results. Minaj is, at this point, someone who can't decide what she wants to be and bristles at the idea of being pinned down. She wants to do pop (because let's be real, pop is fun), but also wants to do songs with Nas. And occasionally experiment with how the mechanics of rap work, or how songs are supposed to be structured. The result is that she's all over the place, and tends to end up pleasing no one besides herself.
Am I the only one that thinks in a fairly shallow talent pool (The already mentioned pop country) Taylor Swift stands out in her shittiness? She can't sing. Her lyrics are the regurgitated whining of an especially stupid 13 y/o girls diary. And the next person that tries to convince me that bug eyed Auschwitz survivor is in any way attractive is getting punching in their floating rib.
She has a pretty think voice and sounds weak live, but I will give her credit where credit is due. She writes all her own lyrics and melodies and while it may be country-emo and sappy, she knows her market and writes songs that connect and has a pretty damn good ear for melody. Beats the hell out of alot of pop stars these days.