Bob Ezrin says it all

There was plenty of dumbing down of musical tastes long before Disco was a thing. Let's pry open the sarcophagus and see what glittering, timeless treasures lie among the relics of the ancients...
Behold !



Plenty more where that came from and we all know it... And all this talk of "dumbing down" smacks of elitism anyway. If all our musical choices were based on purely intellectual considerations, we'd all be discussing Bach right now. I enjoy Bach but I also enjoy The Ramones. I don't see that as a problem. I think a lot of people here feel that way.

D.D.

 

When I heard "You Really Got Me" for the first time way back when, I wasn't thinking about what tempo it was in. Or the separation of instruments and the mix. Or if it was melodic or not. Or if there was some anthem or existential meaning I was supposed to grasp from it. It was pretty interesting, actually. I....just liked it.

Kind of like what happened when I heard "Loops" from Doldrums about two weeks back. Or "Straight" from A Place to Bury Strangers or "Institutionalized" by Kendrick Lamar last month. Process is pretty much the same.

 

I agree, and I don't understand how it is you couldn't bring logic to the table or follow the point logically.
Again, sidetracking the issue doesn't erase the point being made.
I think you just enjoy contention.

 

Taking my comments out of context very nicely.
Of course there was some contempt toward rock, there is some contempt toward all things new. That doesn't mean it is by the majority.

You miss the point entirely, which is that the contempt for music now isn't about the music itself so much as the horrible production of it and the way it is manufactured and marketed like the latest TV marketed gadget.

The older people I know for the most part feel the way I do about it, they find some new music that seems to be bucking the trend that is good, but it is not stuff that gets popular or reaches the masses the way rock music did.

As for the rest of your post..... yeah, my son played an instrument in school band. That didn't make him an authority either.
The fact he is out now being a practicing knowledgeable musician does.

 

The younger people don't apparently. Are the "rock age" listeners smarter?

 

I disagree that Bob Ezrin "said it all". He actually said very little about the reality of things.

 

How is correcting an error in something you posted "sidetracking the issue"?

 

Ah likes me some Bach:

 

Why would try to introduce the subject of pure classical music into a discussion of pop music? The only reason would be to try to change the subject or distract from how pop music has retreated to a wholesale focus on rhythm, hipping, and hopping at the expense of melody, harmony, vocal arrangements, and variety of musical instrumentation.

 

We like to pretend that that Joyce album cover, which has been posted about 500 times on this forum, never existed? How does that work?

 

Why would anyone repeatedly slag hip hop and yet give a shout-out to Rhianna's Umbrella as being their musical bright spot of 2007 ? You might want to sit down for this : That song...well...
Ahh the hell with it. Why ruin Umbrella for you ?

D.D.

 

That's because in your world it's impossible to like hip-hop and to criticize its place in pop music.

 

Quite simply, you didn't. You went off on some sidetracked exaggerated pointless post that had nothing to do with the comment I made.
BMG because huge, something far greater than the RCA label or what BMG was previously.
If you didn't get it this time, read it again until you do.
And, my point still stands.

 

Funny, as I was saying, these albums are never mentioned when the "golden age" is discussed.

 

I know I didn't. Danby Delight did. Do you know which comment you are responding to?

And, for the second time, hurling insults is not appreciated.

 

That Joyce album came out in 1983, which puts it out of the golden age .

 

That's probably because those records are wacky thrift store oddities that nobody ever really listened to.

 

Because no one ever said that every single album ever released within any certain period of time is an awesome work of brilliance.

Your trolling demonstrates that this "debate" is at its root very unserious. It's just another in a long, tedious series of "This forum sucks and I am above it!" threads.

 

This is the stand-out album of the 1970's, imo:

 

That "Time/Melody/Harmony" thang. You talkin' out the side of yo neck now, taking both sides of an argument and fighting with yourself. Time/Melody/Harmony points back to that 'classical' thing. Plenty of examples of Pop tunes that are derived from classical concepts or have classical concepts grafted to them. Silly to pretend that music of the Rock Era [which never existed in the first] was created in total isolation from the musical/cultural forces that surround it:

 

I could respond to the whole post (though if I did I'd just be repeating what others have already said several times here), but I'm just going to highlight this one bit at the end:

Nice to see you think you know more about my own life and musical experience than I do. Judging from this, I assume you think I'm just that tuneless kid who plays recorder in from of the parents at a school production. Firstly, for the record I'm a fully-grown adult (although I am younger than most other users on this forum, but on the plus side that means I don't suffer from Rose Tinted Glasses Syndrome…at least not yet ). So because you think I've done nothing more than "[play an] instrument in school band [sic]," that means I'm not qualified to judge music, know how the industry works or be on the same level as you or your son? How would you know what kind of orchestra or ensemble I play in (I've never played in a school band for that matter) or that I'm not a "practicing knowledgeable musician" myself? How would you know I've had no experience in the music industry (which I have, both in front of and behind the microphone, and in actual recording studios and live venues)? You don't, and jumping to conclusions about what I've done in my life and comparing it to your son's to try and make me feel inferior and one-up me on a personal level proves it. Again, the patronising holier-than-thou attitude that others have pointed out time and time again in this thread. "BSBSBSetc" indeed (don't think I didn't notice that).

In fact, forget about me for a minute, a lot of users on this forum aren't musical at all and haven't had any experience in the music industry. Does that mean they're not qualified to talk about music, be able to know how the industry works or be allowed to agree/disagree with Bob Ezrin and ultimately you as well? Are they, in your eyes, below you and your son too? So in order to even be considered as "an authority" on music or belonging on the same intellectual plain as you think you are on, you have to a) know who Bob Ezrin is and know his work inside out, b) fully agree with his (and your) comments, and c) have proper music industry experience. Oh please…

 

Beware of those who proclaim their own "knowledgable" status.

http://psych.colorado.edu/~vanboven/teaching/p7536_heurbias/p7536_readings/kruger_dunning.pdf

 

Thing is, those 'wacky thrift store oddities that nobody ever listens to' are about as visibly worn from playing and re-playing as the other records in the $1 bin at the thrift stores. The LPs I'm most likely to find 'mint' are classical. The next category is 'country'. The Andy Williams/Jim Nabors/Jackie Gleason LPs are as worn as that copy of "It's a Beautiful Day' or "Black Oak Arkansas'. When I make 'needledrops' for others, it's usually the 'wacky thrift store oddities that nobody ever listens to' that are brought to my house for transcribing. The range of taste in music for the whole population is much wider than any single person's taste in music.