...it seems there was some awards show on... We were visiting Mom & Dad G. to celebrate Sis G.'s birthday when the teevee started blaring out some "red carpet" nonsense - apparently last night was the Grammys, an award supposedly given to musicians to indicate some sort of audience approval. Or something like that.
I didn't recognize a single name.
My sister, a thirty-something attorney, looked at me like I was from another planet - how on earth could I not know who Jennifer Hudson was? Or Ryan Seacrest? You've never watched American Idol? While we do share a common genetic background, it's hard to tell we're related in that regard (she also got the "LOVE SPORTS" gene between the two of us).
I fell out of love with the popular music scene in the mid 1990s, when it seemed like every other band on the radio was trying to out-grunge Nirvana. Every other song had some whiny off-key twit wailing in what sounded like an airplane hangar about life's injustice, and all I could hear was Dennis Leary: "Life sucks. Get a f**king helmet". By the early 2000s, I was preoccupied with songs containing animal noises and twinkling stars, and I never got back into the current music scene.
I grew up a child of the 1970s and a teenager of the 1980s. I'm used to screaming guitar riffs, synthesizers, and lots of brass in my popular music. I also loved heavy/thrash metal, bands like Metallica (pre-sellout), Anthrax, Iron Maiden, etc. As "hair metal" (which often sucked but occasionally produced guilty pleasures like Motley Crue) faded into obscurity, it was replaced by grunge, which in the beginning was fresh and new. Over time, though, it got done to death - as anything popular will - and every other band out there was wearing flannel and whining about life.
So what's good out there in popular music today? Who's carrying the torch for hard rock these days? I should start paying better attention to the music scene - I noticed that TheBoy knew a good deal of the players showing up on the carpet last night, so I figured it would be a good idea to at least gain some familiarity with whoever's out there now. I've already begun the "you're not ready for that" battle with groups like Nickelback and "Animal" (although their mother has no such qualms...); at the very least I'd like to know what's out there to be aware of...
What bands can I listen to that won't make me reach for an ice pick for my eardrums within seconds?
That is all.
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My music collection includes rock from 1970 to 1990. Jazz. Classical. New stuff? Nope.
Oh. And Blues.
One episode of Jeopardy had a ROCK MUSIC category. Six answers without a clue what the question was. Thankfully Double Jeopardy had '60s ROCK. Ran the category.
Can offer no advice on modern music as I stopped listening to new stuff in the '90s.
I'll be in the corner trying to get my Walkman working.
I love Linkin' Park, Rammstein, hrm...that's all I can come up with that's relatively new. Most of the popular singers/groups I'm totally unfamiliar with. Ditto "celebrities" in general. I open up a trash-mag at work and don't know who 95% of the folks are. Works for me!
He was too old to rock and roll
And he was too young to die.
Gerry
I had similar tastes growing up. I still listen to a Judas Priest album every time I drive to NY to go to work.
I gave it up and listen to country now. In between the angry blond bimbette songs about fake feminine angst, there's some great stuff out there.
I went through a KISS phase recently, but my wife made me knock it off after she caught my boy singing "Dr. Love"
I don't know how "modern" and "popular" they are, but I've recently discovered the group "Krypteria". They're a sort of symphonic goth/metal band, and they're pretty good. I'm positive the lead singer has classical or operatic training, and applies it in their music. She has a very good voice, and they don't go in for the screaming, screeching garbage you hear in a lot of the current metal groups, except occasionally.
A lot of their stuff is on Youtube, so it's easy to get a good sampling of their music and style. "Victoriam Speramus" is a good one, as is "Why" and "For You I'll Bring the Devil Down".
Then again, I generally have odd taste in music compared to most people I know, so take it for what it's worth.
I put another one of their songs in today's post before I read this one, so you can check that out, too. [/shameless blog whoring]
Into techno at all? Rob Allen got me into some of the Drum n' Bass bands out there...
Motorhead is still rockin'. They'll be in Boston at the House of Blues (Avalon...wherever that is) on March 1st.
I'm a product of the late 1960's early 1970's. I've spent ungodly amounts of my income on high-quality sound reproduction equipment that all-but languishes for lack of fresh material. I bought the latest (vomit, as it turns out) from Neil Young based solely on the reviews. The geriatric rocker is done, finished, ka-put, save your spare change for ammo. Even the re-issues are being bastardized. Search: "The Loudness Wars"
Wish I had better news.
Metal may no longer be as popular as it once was but it is far from dead. Much of metal has devolved into a screaming match that is no more pleasant to listen to than pop. My preferred genre is progressive rock. It has all the great guitar and drum work that makes metal great but the singers actually sing(most of the time).
CHeck out opeth, dream theater, sonata arctica, dark tranquility, and nightwish.
King of Leon
I'll second that recommendation for Nightwish. Another group whose lead singer has a great voice.
"I fell out of love with the popular music scene in the mid 1990s, when it seemed like every other band on the radio was trying to out-grunge Nirvana."
Nothing new under the sun:
O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.
- - Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2
Who's carrying the torch for hard rock these days?
The same guys that always have. Literally. The five nominees for Best Metal Performace were Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer, Lamb of God (newer band), and for some reason Korn. Iron Maiden took the award.
Best Hard Rock Performance was the same way. Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Ozzy Osbourne (not metal? WTF?) and some nobody called Them Crooked Vultures who, for no apparent reason, won that award.
Still, it says a great deal about heavy music that all the Grammy nominees were doing arena tours while most of the winners were watching Sesame Street.
tweaker
Try this band:
http://www.within-temptation.com/
Lots of samplings on youtube.
Wait, Soundgarden is heavy metal these days? Soundgarden?
I'll echo Christina's suggestion of Linkin Park. Daughtry has a similar sound to Nickelback but isn't profane (usually). I also really like Everclear, but I dunno if they ever get played anymore.
Miss Tacticute has a hankering for rock music... but where am I to get some 7-year-old appropriate rock music?
Somehow, I found Rock Sugar, which seemed safe enough mashing up the lyrics of 80s pop with the metal of 80s rock. Unfortunately, you can't get their album anywhere (legal) because they had a permissions problem with one of their songs and had to pull the album from sale.
I hear they'll get that fixed soon.
The Grammys. Was that the show/competition, which when the cameras panned across the audience, showed men and women facing each other with a WTF expression? The winning music was from a tampon advert!
There was a reason that a lot of us stopped listening in the early 90's. Nothing worth listening then, nothing today. Thank God for Classic Rock Stations.
I'm starting over since today's music sucks. I like to show up at my daughter's elementary school, dropping her off, playing anything from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Leon Redbone. My 10yr daughter likes blues. Oh, and the Pyrates Royale. Nothing like a 5th grader singing "What shall we do with a drunken sailor?"
From the alt.rock genre, look into a group by the name of "Shine Down".
The music is pretty good. But the lead singer? Amazing.
If you remember the quality of Gary Powers' voice, you'll find a similarity there. Remember, Powers outsold the freakin' Beatles in 1968!
And while Nickelback's lyrics are certainly "you ain't ready for that!", lordy, they sure can rock.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
My tastes were more prog-rock than metal. I didn't get sidetracked by kids music so much, rather after Grunge ran its course Album Rock retreated and turned into Classic Rock, abandoning playing anything by a new artist.
I might have learned to like Alternative if I could have eased in, mixed with stuff I knew and liked--but instead, the stations were either old OR new, nobody played both and I wasn't ready for a steady diet of Alternative.
A couple months or so, the Cee-lo Greene song F-you was going through the gun blogs. He has some other interesting music out-mostly darker, but mostly with cleaner language. Jamie Lidell was described as similar, I think a bit more mellow. I also like Robert Randolph and the Family Band, more of a funk/rock blend.
I don't think any of these are classed as rock, but I don't think they would have been out of place on an album rock station.
Same boat, stopped listening in the mid 90's. The only new band in the last 10 years that caught my attention was the White Stripes, and they just called it quits a few days ago. Anything Jack White is involved with may be worth a listen.
Out here in Denver we have one of the last remaining real rock stations. They stream over the Internet at www.kbpi.com. Give it a listen and after an hour you should have 5 or 6 decent bands to look into. Currently I'm really liking Five Finger Death Punch. They have a kickass cover of Bad Company.
And over at Random Nuclear Strikes (by way of SayUncle), I've been reminded of the group Van Canto. A capella metal.
wv: plaxeses - A group of Plaxico Burrus clones?
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