When you need to rant...

[Mynameisdean]

I have to admit, Rock is dead, or at least the records being put out now aren't as popular as they once were, even from huge bands, and the quality is down in my opinion. I'd rather listen to the Van Halen, Aerosmith, Metallica, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynrd, etc. from their prime rather than what they might make now.

 

[fuzzygobo]

For a lot of bands that have been around a while, newer albums often pale compared to past glories. But said bands still make a decent living while touring.

There's not a lot in what passes for mainstream music that impresses me. But there's still good music being made in coffeehouses and small clubs, where bands press their own CDs and might make fifty bucks a night (handy, if not a fortune) playing for a few dozen people.
It takes a little searching, but there's still genuine talent out there.

Sometimes the new guys with small followings are the hungriest, and will put on a show for twenty people that will blow their socks off.

 

[Drtooth]

It's easy to make a living off YouTube, and a lot of people do it . . . but, there's really no room for originality on YouTube, or the internet in general. I mean, you look at all of the partner channels that get promoted out the wazoo on YouTube, and what do you see? Unboxing channels, top 10 channels, makeup tutorial channels, maybe an occasional Let's Play or review channel. Similarly, but not quite the same case, out of the hundred and thousands of webcomics out there, which ones are the most popular ones that get all of the traffic and attention? Westernized manga, stolen video game sprites, and LGBT comics.

There is nothing I hate MORE on Youtube than preschool toy unboxing videos. Toy collectors buying hundred dollar Transformers and reviewing them, I don't mind. I never watch those. But the level of just plain stupid the preschool unboxing videos get. They always contain either "surprise egg" or "Play-Doh" or "Play-Doh Surprise egg." And I get hundreds of them if I watch anything barely related to toys, usually for watching Transformers videos of the cartoons or even searching anything Sesame Street releated. Whatever else on Youtube that takes effort I have no major problem with. But for the love of Pete, I HATE those freaking kiddy toy unboxing videos clogging up my inbox.

It takes a little searching, but there's still genuine talent out there.

Sometimes the new guys with small followings are the hungriest, and will put on a show for twenty people that will blow their socks off.

That all comes down to how we get our music. On the plus side, those smaller bands are easier to find because of Youtube. They just don't get recognition or hits, or even some level of partnership recognition if the only videos they have are of phone videos from audience members.

D*Snowth hit the nail on the head. Youtube (and as far as I'm concerned, the rest of the internet) is the crappest of crapshoots. Untalented gimmicks get picked over earnest effort and talent. That's why Fred was a thing. A thing with 2 Nickelodeon TV shows (that bombed, but got pushed through anyway), three DTV movies, and merchandise when he was the worst thing on Youtube. Say what you will about the mediocre cartoon Johnny Test, even that show basically called him a talentless fraud. When Johnny Test savagely mocks you, you know you're crap. And Nickelodeon still thinks kids like him. Half their demographic wasn't even a gleam in their fathers' eyes when he stopped being "popular."

 

[D'Snowth]

Youtube (and as far as I'm concerned, the rest of the internet) is the crappest of crapshoots. Untalented gimmicks get picked over earnest effort and talent. That's why Fred was a thing. A thing with 2 Nickelodeon TV shows (that bombed, but got pushed through anyway), three DTV movies, and merchandise when he was the worst thing on Youtube.

I will say this: Annoying Orange actually had effort put into it, and it was, admittedly, a rather creative series . . . but, it got really old really fast, and it was clear it was growing stale because older characters that got sliced up in earlier episodes were being brought back to be sliced up again . . . y'know, kind of like how Eustace was always back to normal in the next episode of Courage? Just . . . less funny.

 

[Drtooth]

That said, there is one current genre of music I really don't like. I don't even know what it's called, so I'm just calling it Faux-Folk. I can't even remember the bands' names, or song titles. Like the one that goes, "I'm in love with you, you're in love with me, you're my sweetheart" and that other one that goes "Fo-o-o-r yo-u-u-u-u! fo-o-o-o-r Yo-u-u-u-u..." etc. Anything played to sound like it was written 200 years ago. Or as a promo for the FX series "Sex Drugs and Rock n' Roll" would call it, band made up of members that "look like they'd be shot for Civil War desertion." No thank you.

 

[charlietheowl]

That said, there is one current genre of music I really don't like. I don't even know what it's called, so I'm just calling it Faux-Folk. I can't even remember the bands' names, or song titles. Like the one that goes, "I'm in love with you, you're in love with me, you're my sweetheart" and that other one that goes "Fo-o-o-r yo-u-u-u-u! fo-o-o-o-r Yo-u-u-u-u..." etc. Anything played to sound like it was written 200 years ago. Or as a promo for the FX series "Sex Drugs and Rock n' Roll" would call it, band made up of members that "look like they'd be shot for Civil War desertion." No thank you.

Totally agree. It's people who grew up thinking the Dave Matthews Band was folk-rock and Dispatch was a band to be imitated. I try to realize that music taste is subjective, not objective, but I really fail to see any negatives that would have arised from the Dave Matthews Band not hitting the big time.

 

[Drtooth]

Totally agree about matter of taste not equaling quality. That banjo-y, ukelely ridden stuff does have its fans and that's okay. I just really hate that genre. I can't say I'm a huge fan of folk music, but I respect it. My dad listened to Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seager all the time. It sounds like those bands are trying to be that but just being a soundtrack to a fakey pseudo-independent movie.

That said, the only genre of music I find totally, unobjectively garbage is Bro-Country. That stuff is mindless garbage that makes even the most cynically produced club hip hop look authentic by comparison. And yes, that includes "Shake Your Laffy Taffy."

That's a song. it exists. It's terrible. But it's freaking Queen compared to Bro Country.

 

[charlietheowl]

Totally agree about matter of taste not equaling quality. That banjo-y, ukelely ridden stuff does have its fans and that's okay. I just really hate that genre. I can't say I'm a huge fan of folk music, but I respect it. My dad listened to Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seager all the time. It sounds like those bands are trying to be that but just being a soundtrack to a fakey pseudo-independent movie.

I think it happens to every genre of music, taking a couple of elements and putting a highly commercial gloss on it to ensure radio play and commercial success. It's been happening ever since Pat Boone tried to water down Elvis in 1956 or whenever. Probably the worst recent example is Macklemore, but he's his own special case.

 

[Convincing John]

that other one that goes "Fo-o-o-r yo-u-u-u-u! fo-o-o-o-r Yo-u-u-u-u..." etc.

Hey! I like that song!

"For youuu... I'd wash my hair with stinky glue, I'd fry my legs and eat them too, I'd put a spider in my shoe -- for yoouuuu!"

 

[Drtooth]

I think it happens to every genre of music, taking a couple of elements and putting a highly commercial gloss on it to ensure radio play and commercial success.

I agree, but don't much think that's the case with that specific genre. It affects the crap out of every other genre which gets to the "all new music is rubbish" rant, but I really don't know how to explain this music genre. It pretty much has me baffled. Folk is the only thing I can make the connection to, but technically it's not really but is...It's much easier to say I hate pop music than to say I hate this one genre of music that probably has a name, but isn't used much or at all. It sounds more like proper Country music than Bro Country, but not quite.

And then there's the whole subgenre of banjo/ukulele and whistling music they use specifically for commercials to make everything seem "homey" when it's the same junk food as it always has been, or at least some grainy thing passing for health food. I mean, like the new Sesame Street theme song. I'm not much a fan of that.

Seriously, if anyone has a name to put to this sort of Folk/Country, homey, bearded person type sounding music, please help me find out what its called and the name of some of these bands. Just so I can say "I do not much care for (such and such genre)."