07-26-2003, 07:52 PM
As far as the corporate-spurred intermixing of genres and terrible dillution of musical integrity goes, I could put a big fat slug in the ass of everyone involved. I meant pushing the boundaries in the sense of artists challenging themselves to explore what can be done with music itself. Trying to blend, say, rap and rock was an interesting concept it's true, and perhaps is classifiable as its own semi-genre, but the execution was lousy and the idea was thoroughly exhausted within a week. I am fully against the outright regression that intermixing of tired, old genres has become. Boring music + boring music does not equal excellence, but what I was talking about is when an artist begins to find other ways to express musical ideas that haven't been tried before or come from an original standpoint. It's hard to explain. It's not just that it's never been done that makes it good, it's, just... well... ok, examples:
Radiohead (hehe) found it was truly liberating to realize they didnt have to be bound by guitars and drums sets. They began work on Kid A/Amnesiac with a new mindset, using any and all sounds available, unashamedly, to create music more akin to the vision inside their heads. As a result the two albums (recorded simultaneously) are probably some of the best music mankind has ever witnessed. Completely new and original and still amazingly expressive and beautiful.
Same with punk music, had to start somewhere. A few guys who already espoused the ideas began to develop them into music. The newness and purity of the genre speaks for itself, (or did back then).
So I am all for creation, not for the procreation happening in most of today's scene. Bands like Sum 41 and Blink 182 are just cowards retreating into proven musical road-ruts. This doesn't mean that at one time the genre wasn't spectacular. Most all music is wonderful when it first exists, but flog that horse long enough and you get Nsync and the Backstreet Boys. Some things, like all corporate induced music, are born-into-sin and should not exist.
Well, another two cents in the hat... For some pretty different stuff you could try Mindless Self Indulgence. They might appear to be a rap-rock outfit, for about 1.2 seconds, but they meld the soundtracks of playing atari on extasy with being a ghetto pimp who hates authority figures and likes to be pee'd on, all this beinging comically tied in to the mix by the skinny white punker-gayboy singer affectionately called Little Jimmy Urine. I know it sounds like a mess, but it comes out to be a very origianl sound and instantly infectious and worthwhile or instantly hated. Either way it's not Avril Lavinge so Thank God.
Radiohead (hehe) found it was truly liberating to realize they didnt have to be bound by guitars and drums sets. They began work on Kid A/Amnesiac with a new mindset, using any and all sounds available, unashamedly, to create music more akin to the vision inside their heads. As a result the two albums (recorded simultaneously) are probably some of the best music mankind has ever witnessed. Completely new and original and still amazingly expressive and beautiful.
Same with punk music, had to start somewhere. A few guys who already espoused the ideas began to develop them into music. The newness and purity of the genre speaks for itself, (or did back then).
So I am all for creation, not for the procreation happening in most of today's scene. Bands like Sum 41 and Blink 182 are just cowards retreating into proven musical road-ruts. This doesn't mean that at one time the genre wasn't spectacular. Most all music is wonderful when it first exists, but flog that horse long enough and you get Nsync and the Backstreet Boys. Some things, like all corporate induced music, are born-into-sin and should not exist.
Well, another two cents in the hat... For some pretty different stuff you could try Mindless Self Indulgence. They might appear to be a rap-rock outfit, for about 1.2 seconds, but they meld the soundtracks of playing atari on extasy with being a ghetto pimp who hates authority figures and likes to be pee'd on, all this beinging comically tied in to the mix by the skinny white punker-gayboy singer affectionately called Little Jimmy Urine. I know it sounds like a mess, but it comes out to be a very origianl sound and instantly infectious and worthwhile or instantly hated. Either way it's not Avril Lavinge so Thank God.