Unpopular music opinions

[Yeps]

I'm actually surprised...........it amazes me that people seem to like (they must do, since there's so much of it and it's all selling) the synthetic sound of autotune. I admit to having used it once or twice to correct a bad note, but not using it as a vocal processor with compression like most of these people. It also makes a great guitar effect, but I don't think it should be used as a primary way to record vocals.

I much prefer it be used as a vocal effect than to correct a note. Seems more honest, and I can't stand the sound of someone who I am supposed to believe is singing using autotune. I am fine with it being used when the person isn't really singing though. It is a fun little toy.

Seriously. Gaga comes out like she's gonna play music like the New York Dolls or something, but when you listen to her, she sounds like any old pop star.

Ms. Germanotta definitely can sing, but is by no means exceptional (well, she is in pop music because, well, she can sing). She actually sounds better in her live stuff than with all the studio effects. She knows the market and is playing it well.

 

[MissMittens]

The point is I hear what kids today are listening to, what they find 'cool,' and for most of it I cringe, just as my parents did when I put on whatever I was listening to at 13-or-so years old.

Haha! I'm strange that way, I'm not afflicted in the same way as most people, I get it from my Dad, who was born in 1920......and listened to the Stones (even though I hate them) and even understood and appreciated the punk movement....educated me on the Sex Pistols when I was growing up, and he was a wealth of musical information.....helped me connect the dots between genres....classical, bluegrass, jazz, swing, rock 'n' roll, metal. Things like early Metallica musically combined classical and rock into it's own kind of thing, speed metal was mostly classical phrases sped up and repeated...he couldn't stand the singer though even though I played a lot of it back around 1990.

I picked up a really bad habit from him, in that when I hear a song on the radio, I can oftentimes pick out a riff or a phrase and tell you what song it originally came from way back in the day.

I just like music that has artistic merit, that says something, or changes the way you feel when you listen to it, all the way from the late teens, through modern metalcore, there are elements and music that I appreciate, despite my age, and I can't see that ever really changing even as new, louder, more raucus music might appear. But I think we're going to see a paradigm shift in music very soon, in that you can't get much louder, heavier, etc, and there will likely be a backlash and we'll be in another singer/songwriter/folksy phase. I've seen a lot of kids with Johnny Cash on their iPods as well as Bring Me The Horizon

 

[Berlin]

That's why I'm wearing a hat in my picture LOL

I couldn't agree more on James Blunt. His entire singing range is like a bad Mariah Carey squawking

Hahah totally agree on that! They will make a terrible duet together.

fftopic:
Oh by the way! Wearing a hat, cán make it more worse for a man! Wearing hats frequently can make you bald! :eusa_doh:

 

[MissMittens]

Hahah totally agree on that! They will make a terrible duet together.

HAHA!!!!!

fftopic:
Oh by the way! Wearing a hat, cán make it more worse for a man! Wearing hats frequently can make you bald! :eusa_doh:

I've heard that, but I'm ok so far, even though I put it through chemical abuse as well by changing my hair from blonde to black recently, it's hung in there

 

[martinsantos]

I really discovered Kay Kayser in this forum. I had an LP from 90s with the allegued "Best of" him. But a lot of songs are pure novelties, with a very specific interest. I coulnt't like "Bell bottom trousers" or "Praise the lord". Songs that did not resist to time, and then I never put again the LP to play, as one from Sammy Kaye.

But the short clips I've seen here appears to me a very very nice and swinging sweet band, that can play (and used to play) seriously and sincerely.

I've only recently discovered Kay Kyser and the Kollege of Musical Knowledge, after finding a request for the song Hello Mr Kringle. I located it, added it to the Christmas radio stream and found out a lot about Kyser. He seemed to have pushed a lot of musical boundaries and played with composition in ways no one else had at that time

 

[Berlin]

HAHA!!!!!



I've heard that, but I'm ok so far, even though I put it through chemical abuse as well by changing my hair from blonde to black recently, it's hung in there

Well.. in that case, you can go forth for a while!

 

[RadioWave]

Are you familiar with http://www.kaykyser.net ?

I am now : ) I'm surprised that both Kyser and Miller released their own versions of "White Cliffs of Dover" at almost the same time (late '41), mostly because how of how similar their reed-sections sounded. I'm more partial to the Miller arrangement though, especially with the key-change he tossed in near the end. The back-up vocals on the Kyser track doesn't really do it for me. If the vocal arrangement at 0:59-1:07 had been present throughout the song, I think I would have liked it a bit better.

Miller - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHGaoSd693c
Kyser - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWJTkjFTtt4

I really discovered Kay Kayser in this forum... But a lot of songs are pure novelties, with a very specific interest. I coulnt't like "Bell bottom trousers" or "Praise the lord". Songs that did not resist to time, and then I never put again the LP to play, as one from Sammy Kaye.

Agreed. Songs like "The Fuddy-Duddy Watchmaker" did nothing for me.

Also worth noting: Ginny was gorgeous.

 

[MissMittens]

Well.. in that case, you can go forth for a while!

Haha! At least until my hair decides to seek revenge by going gray or falling out by the handful

We suffer for our art......sigh :eusa_booh

 

[MissMittens]

I really discovered Kay Kayser in this forum. I had an LP from 90s with the allegued "Best of" him. But a lot of songs are pure novelties, with a very specific interest. I coulnt't like "Bell bottom trousers" or "Praise the lord".

A lot of his songs were comedy, I think that's why he's been largely forgotten. Shame because as you said, his band were wonderful musicians

 

[MissMittens]

Also worth noting: Ginny was gorgeous.

Looks like she would have been an absolute heartbreaker. She was definitely a dish on occasion

 

[Amie]

I can listen only one song of Aguilera. She is a kind of Mariah Carey version. Alot of shouting. Hurts my ears.
But she has style, for sure!

Agree on the "hurting ears" part---she seems like she's trying to belt out much more than she can really handle. About her style however, I must disagree. Everytime someone becomes big, it seems like she tries to emulate them, only she's 2 steps behind. When Britney was big, Aguilera was trying to be another teeny pop star and when Gwen Stefani was big, she tried to incorporate more of the retro look. Now that Gaga and Katy Perry fever is hitting strong, she's fluctuating from the outer space look and lame retro waitress look. She'll always be second fiddle I guess.

 

[Berlin]

I second that. You are right.
She ís obviously emulating. And it was too transparent that her looks were changing, after Gaga fever had started.
The 'retro' look suited her so well. I've always wondered why she didn't clinged to it. It gave her more style than the trashy outfits she wore before that all.

But I can't deny that whatever style she is applying to herself; she sports it very well...somehow.
But Christina Aguilera is definitly not my thing, and never have been.

 

[MissMittens]

Bubblegum, whether it be Christina, or someone from another decade, just doesn't do it for me, no matter how you wrap it, it's still bubblegum

 

[LizzieMaine]

One single man has far too much influence in the latter-day view of the "Big Band Era" -- George T. Simon, whose book "The Big Bands" is still the most widely-ready single-volume survey of American popular music from 1935-45. It has influenced an entire generation of critics with its view that the Swing Era can be clearly delineated as having begun in 1935, and with its judgements on "good" big bands versus "bad" big bands. The bands Simon likes are, to this day, the Big Bands which remain familiar and commercially-viable -- the bands about which Simon is dismissive, which includes pretty much *all* popular dance orchestras prior to 1935 with the exception of Ellington, are still ignored today.

It is also Simon who almost single-handedly created the Glenn Miller cult which still exists today -- while bands which were every bit as good, and every bit as popular in their day, remain forgotten and overlooked.

Once again, George T. Simon, as entertaining a writer as he could be, has far, far too much influence for any one man to have over the public perception of a vast era of popular music.

 

[Lady Day]

I can listen only one song of Aguilera.
But she has style, for sure!

Style-ist, I think you meant.
Every part of these focus-grouped-packaged-performers is fabricated. I don't listen to any of them, but at least Gaga admits her 'style' all a show. There is no genuine style these people possess that is not marketed toward their image so it can later be used to market a perfume or clothing line.

I can't stand any of them. I hate that their 'look' precedes their 'talent', and I say that very loosely. It's one reason we will never have another Ella Fitzgerald, heck, Billie Holiday for that matter.

LD

 

[martinsantos]

I just can totally agree with you, Lizzie.

"The Big Bands" is, of course, a great book, one of those you can read and read again and again.

And it's hard to contradict him - of course he knew a lot about, and listened a lot of orchestras. A lot of them was almost impossibile to find records. I've been listening jazz orchestras for more than 20 years - but just now, with internet, I can compare what he wrote with the actual music. Well, they are his own preferences and thoughts - so, he put them in the paper! If we do not agree, let's write ourselves...

I like Glenn Miller, but his "cult" about him is sometimes irritating. I readed Miller's biography by Simmon. (Someday i will get another book of him, with his critics in Metronome.) But maybe he is the first to write about, and his book the most easy to find. And, anyway, Glenn Miller records (or new records over the same arrangements) are the easiest to find, at least here.

One single man has far too much influence in the latter-day view of the "Big Band Era" -- George T. Simon, whose book "The Big Bands" is still the most widely-ready single-volume survey of American popular music from 1935-45. It has influenced an entire generation of critics with its view that the Swing Era can be clearly delineated as having begun in 1935, and with its judgements on "good" big bands versus "bad" big bands. The bands Simon likes are, to this day, the Big Bands which remain familiar and commercially-viable -- the bands about which Simon is dismissive, which includes pretty much *all* popular dance orchestras prior to 1935 with the exception of Ellington, are still ignored today.

It is also Simon who almost single-handedly created the Glenn Miller cult which still exists today -- while bands which were every bit as good, and every bit as popular in their day, remain forgotten and overlooked.

Once again, George T. Simon, as entertaining a writer as he could be, has far, far too much influence for any one man to have over the public perception of a vast era of popular music.

 

[MissMittens]

Once again, George T. Simon, as entertaining a writer as he could be, has far, far too much influence for any one man to have over the public perception of a vast era of popular music.

Have not read this, but you can be sure I'll visit the library (give me something to do at the weekend) and see if they have a copy. Failing that, I'll Amazon. I just like to support the public library system vs a large corporation.

 

[RadioWave]

One single man has far too much influence in the latter-day view of the "Big Band Era" -- George T. Simon, whose book "The Big Bands" is still the most widely-ready single-volume survey of American popular music from 1935-45.

I found the 1960 printing of this book by sheer accident last year, and instantly loved it for it organization and presentation of material. A recommended read indeed. Ken Burns is another excellent source.

I think Miller was a very talented composer/arranger with an equally competent band, but I don't think they 'pioneered' any elements of jazz.

Unfortunately, as I was 'on the job' when found it, I didn't have enough time to finish the entire book...enough time to pick up some good facts, but not long enough to pick up on his skewed perspective. That really is a shame. Lizzie, do you feel that his contribution has worn-off considerably in the last 50 years? And that the book is still valuable if balanced out with other jazz-history sources?

 

[martinsantos]

I think Miller was a very talented composer/arranger with an equally competent band, but I don't think they 'pioneered' any elements of jazz.

Not pionered any elements, i agree. In fact, a very commercial band. Not against that, dance band is a business.

But was a great Orchestra, and with very complex arrangements! But to get full of it you must go out from those ever-heard records, as Kalamazoo, etc. And, of course, the sound of the saxes (and specially the sound get by the clarinetist) is unique.

Martin

 

[Fletch]

Dance bands were a business (I wish I could say are). But Glenn was their Henry Ford, or should I say their Ray Kroc. He standardized the sound and interpretation, I would say, a little too much. My favorite Miller records are from before he succeeded in this - say mid 1939.