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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: ronnierocketAGO]
#655069
07/11/12 08:34 AM
07/11/12 08:34 AM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
Lilo
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
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Ok you baby boomers. In the immortal words of James Brown...Give It Up or Turn It Loose!!!  Bias At Rolling Stone Magazine By JIM FUSILLI Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time is now on the newsstands. But if you miss this year's rendition, no worries: The top 21 albums on the list are the same as on Rolling Stone's list from 2003. To call it predictable or a cliché is to let it off easy. The magazine doesn't publish the criteria for judging what makes an album great, nor does it explain why it chooses 500 instead of 50, or 50,000, but the usual suspects fill out the top 10 slots: four albums by the Beatles, including "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at No. 1; two by Bob Dylan; and one each by the Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye and the Rolling Stones, all released between 1965 and 1972. Rounding out the top 10 is the Clash's "London Calling," the youngster of the bunch: It was issued in the U.S. in early 1980. This affinity for music of an ever-distant past may provide comfort for generationally biased boomer-era rock fans, but for the rest of us, it reinforces the fiction that popular music reached its zenith four decades ago. The Rolling Stone 500 would be easily dismissed as a marketing stunt were it not for the sad fact that the superiority of boomer-era rock is viewed by some as truth. These folks would agree with what Rolling Stone says about its top album: "'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' is the most important rock & roll album ever made"; it is "rock's ultimate declaration of change." No, it is not. It had predecessors that made it possible and that are thus at least as important. And "Sgt. Pepper" brought no greater change to rock and pop music than did subsequent recordings like "Crosby Stills & Nash," "The Ramones," Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," Michael Jackson's "Thriller," Nirvana's "Nevermind," Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet" or Radiohead's "Kid A." Sweep aside 45 years of almost-unchallenged praise, some of which has nothing to do with its 13 songs and 40 minutes of music, and really listen to "Sgt. Pepper." It is a great rock and pop album. But indisputably better than, say, "Kiko," a 1992 album by Los Lobos, or Björk's 2001 disc "Vespertine"—neither of which is among the Rolling Stone 500? Of course not. But the greatness of "Kiko" and "Vespertine" exist outside the confines of boomer-rock's narrow cultural context. (By the way, to understand the power of the calcified rock orthodoxy, consider that right now there are folks among us who would say "Sgt. Pepper" is better than "Kiko" and "Vespertine" without having heard the last two.) A look at the raw numbers shows how the list is skewed toward preserving the boomer-rock myth. Of its 500 albums, 292 were released in the '60s or '70s, a highly improbable 59%. Only 8% of the listed albums were released in this century; only two were issued this decade—and one of those, "Smile" by the Beach Boys, was recorded 46 years ago. The other listed album from the current decade is Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," which Rolling Stone's panel of "artists, producers, industry executives and journalists" rank at No. 353. Albums by the Yardbirds sit at Nos. 350 and 355. It is not only newer recordings that get short shrift. The Rolling Stone 500 is especially ugly when it ventures away from the commercial rock and pop canon. It gives lip service to jazz by including six albums: three by Miles Davis, two by John Coltrane and one by Ornette Coleman—the ones some rockers talked about in the '70s. There's no Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and no jazz recorded in the past 43 years. As for country, Hank Williams's "40 Greatest Hits" is down at No. 94 and there's nothing by Jimmie Rodgers. Nor is there anything by Louis Jordan, whose rockin' small-combo jazz ushered in R&B. Africa is represented only by "The Indestructible Beat of Soweto," a boxed set of South African music—meaning no Cesária Evora, Salif Keita, Fela Kuti, Youssou N'Dour or Ali Farka Touré. The closest we get to music from South America is "Getz/Gilberto," a 1964 tribute to samba by Stan Getz and João Gilberto. Gospel music? None. Bluegrass? None. Boomer-era rock and soul artists influenced by gospel and bluegrass? Much, as if to suggest the music isn't valuable until the rock world appropriates it. The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time? Phooey. In the introduction to the issue, Elton John writes: "In the Sixties and Seventies, you could buy 12 albums a week that were all classics." No you couldn't. Maybe one week a year, especially if you were catching up by buying those you missed. But not every week, not most weeks or even some weeks. Mr. John's memories speak to our sentimental attachment to the music of our youth. It's a powerful thing, but the power often resides in the sentiment rather than the quality of the music. That power can blind us so that we may delude ourselves into believing in the supremacy of one era in music, an era that ended more than 40 years ago.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: ronnierocketAGO]
#655522
07/15/12 06:15 AM
07/15/12 06:15 AM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
Lilo
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
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Motown Mystery: Who were those guys??? Barrett Strong remembers where he saw the Primes — who would eventually grow into the Temptations — at a club called the Phelps Lounge on Oakland Avenue. But who were those two white kids?
In 1959, Strong recorded a song called "Money (That's What I Want)" that became the first hit for Motown Records. Now he's 71 and he's had a … well, he won't call it a stroke the way his friends do, but the left side of his body just won't obey orders.
Even so, his memory keeps the beat. That place on Second Avenue where he used to do a Ray Charles act with a little band was the Dairy Workers Hall, and when the friends are trying to remember who sang "Cry Baby" back in 1963, he's the one who comes up with Garnet Mimms.
Those white kids, though, are a vexation. He remembers the recording session, and half a century later, we all know what came out of it:
The best things in life are free
But you can give them to the birds and bees
I need money (That's what I want)
But he never knew the white boys' names, and he can't picture their faces. All he knows is that two kids from Cass Tech stepped off a bus, tapped on the door of what became Hitsville U.S.A., and asked if they could sit in....
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: Mark]
#660065
08/14/12 05:59 AM
08/14/12 05:59 AM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
Lilo
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
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Interesting article, Lilo. As an artist, I understand the need to protect any piece one creates. A prime example of this is the song from Matthew Wilder in 1983; "Break My Stride". I'm sure when he recorded that he never believed it would be used in commercial for adult diapers 25 years later. On the other hand, all artists want their work to be seen, appreciated and remembered. I remember that song. I was a little too inexperienced to appreciate the whole angst over breakup lyrics but I liked the melody. Yup some artists/publishers are very picky about other people using their creations. Others don't care as long as they get paid.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: ronnierocketAGO]
#663573
08/30/12 07:40 PM
08/30/12 07:40 PM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
Lilo
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
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 Fort Greene Afro-Punk slide show Slamming together categories — and, when appropriate, bodies — is the ever-expanding mission of the annual Afro-Punk Festival, which returned last weekend to Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
It was an event summed up in action by one of its returning headliners, Janelle Monáe. She’s an indefatigable song-and-dance bandleader who gleefully draws on African-American showmen like Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and even Cab Calloway as her lyrics dip into science fiction. Her finale, “Come Alive (War of the Roses),” had a jitterbug-ready beat while Ms. Monáe crowd-surfed like a punk-rocker: off the stage, into the audience and back onstage for a few more snappy steps.
It was the eighth festival booked by Afro-Punk, though the 2011 lineup was canceled because of fears about Hurricane Irene. This year organizers estimated it drew 20,000 people to each of the free eight-hour shows on Saturday and Sunday. It was affable, not oppositional; for post-punk families there was even a children’s area. The festival represented a utopian face of Brooklyn and of New York City: as a diverse, welcoming, unpredictably multicultural picnic.
Following through on the spirit of the Black Rock Coalition, which since the 1980s has reminded listeners that rock has African-American roots and is still being made by black musicians, Afro-Punk was originally centered on punk and hardcore as played and enjoyed by African-Americans, defying the stereotypically white face of punk-rock.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: ronnierocketAGO]
#663588
08/30/12 09:09 PM
08/30/12 09:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
Lilo
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
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 For Zedd the migration from rock was an eye-opening change toward a less competitive and infinitely more popular genre. Despite lots of touring in Europe, he said, his band’s album sold a total of 888 copies; at his first night opening for Lady Gaga, in Seoul, South Korea, he played for 60,000 people.
“When I played in a band, people just stand there and look at you and criticize what they didn’t like,” he said. “But if you watch a D.J. show, people go crazy from beginning to end. Say what you want against D.J.’s, but you can’t deny that the energy level in the audience is for the most part far above what rock bands have.”..
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: ronnierocketAGO]
#664232
09/03/12 06:27 PM
09/03/12 06:27 PM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
Lilo
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
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Thriller Turns 30-Lessons Learned Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” turns 30 this year. It is still the biggest-selling album ever, worldwide, by a lot. As is the case with most biggest-evers, actual or perceived (“I Love Lucy,” say, or “Star Wars”), it’s hard to imagine a world in which “Thriller” didn’t exist. And who would want to remember the pre-“Thriller” days anyway, at least the stretch of months right before it was released, which were nasty ones for the music business? To paraphrase Don McLean’s “American Pie,” the year that “Thriller” came out, 1982, was the year the music almost died.
Since the beginning of time (1954, or when Elvis came along), there had never been a bleaker year for pop than 1982. Disco had been gone for a couple of years, but nothing — not punk, not new wave, not Journey — had replaced it as the music industry’s cash cow. Top 40 radio, the usual confluence of musical rivers, where Motown met Zeppelin, was in decline. MTV was ascendant, but black artists were routinely shut out there. There was no one place where an open-eared music fan could find Luther Vandross and the Clash and Grandmaster Flash and Tom Petty. Perhaps the clearest indication of the parched pop-music field, other than the fact that Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” was the summer’s biggest song, was that there were only 16 No. 1 singles that year (the average in the ’70s was more than 25). As Time magazine reported, the music industry was floundering among “the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop”; it needed a messiah....
And maybe “Thriller” wasn’t even the best album of 1982. A good number of critics would probably tell you that Prince’s “1999,” a double album released a few weeks before “Thriller,” was much more ambitious and that its pioneering electro-sex-funk was what kept the music business churning through the mid- and late ’80s. A similar dynamic existed between Carole King’s “Tapestry” and Joni Mitchell’s “Blue,” bellwethers of the singer-songwriter era that were released within a few months of each other in 1971....
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: Lilo]
#664235
09/03/12 06:31 PM
09/03/12 06:31 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 25,984
California
The Italian Stallionette
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 25,984
California
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I remember the excitement around Thriller. They had sold theater tickets to local theaters to see the 10-15 minute video. But damn 30 years ago?  It simply doesn't seem that long ago. I probably am among many who thinks the Thriller album is MJs best.  TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
"War is over, if you want it" - John Lennon
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: Mignon]
#666815
09/19/12 02:44 PM
09/19/12 02:44 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 25,984
California
The Italian Stallionette
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 25,984
California
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I had to go to the AF base today to get my military ID renewed, CNN was on and they had a story about if you want to go see a Barbra Streisand concert it's gonna cost ya $1500 a ticket. OMG who can afford that? When I was for my run today I heard she w/b appearing at the Hollywood Bowl (tho I don't know when). She always plays at "elite" type events and from the couple appearances I heard of you pay an arm, a leg, and a firstborn to see her. Comes off as a real snob. She's got a nice voice, but I ain't that into her. TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
"War is over, if you want it" - John Lennon
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: ronnierocketAGO]
#667635
09/24/12 07:01 PM
09/24/12 07:01 PM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
Lilo
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
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The Neil Young feature is actually quite good. The Quincy Jones one not so much. I mean you have a great producer and all you want to talk about is who he was sleeping with or his daughter's relationship with Tupac?  Quincy Jones Interview And I’m not into no men, man. I’m a hard-core lesbian. Are you kidding? All my life, all my life. I’m not here to sell things. That’s what other people do, I’m creating them. If it doesn’t work out, I’m sorry; I’m just doing what I do. You hired me to do what I do, not what you do. As long as people don’t tell me what to do, there will be no problem.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: ronnierocketAGO]
#668756
10/04/12 07:02 AM
10/04/12 07:02 AM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
Lilo
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
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Hall of Fame nominees Rush, Deep Purple, Public Enemy and N.W.A. are among the group of first-time nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
They join returnees Heart, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Randy Newman, Donna Summer and Kraftwerk among the 15 artists vying for entry.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: Lilo]
#668770
10/04/12 09:32 AM
10/04/12 09:32 AM
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,675
massachusetts
scarfacetm
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,675
massachusetts
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Hall of Fame nominees Rush, Deep Purple, Public Enemy and N.W.A. are among the group of first-time nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
They join returnees Heart, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Randy Newman, Donna Summer and Kraftwerk among the 15 artists vying for entry. That just proves the R&R HoF is a load of crap, i mean as much as i like NWA, they should not go in a hall of fame for rock and roll.
"Death is the answer to all problems. No man, no problem."
"I'd rather be hated for who i am, than loved for who i am not"
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Re: Random Music News/Musings/Debates Thread
[Re: ronnierocketAGO]
#668824
10/04/12 07:24 PM
10/04/12 07:24 PM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
Lilo
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,325
MI
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John Lennon beat womenWhen activists plastered Chris Brown albums with the warning "This Man Beats Women," the Internet (rightfully) cheered. But now that John Lennon albums are also getting stickered, the online response is a lot more conflicted. Abuse Sticks Out, the guerrilla campaign that flagged Brown's latest album Fortune in British retailer HMV, picked an easy first target. Pretty much everyone already hates Brown, and for good reason. There's even an app that conveniently makes him disappear from the Internet. Words like "nice" and "Fab!" were common reactions to the stickers.
But people have mostly forgotten that Lennon was also physically abusive towards women. "I used to be cruel to my woman," he said, citing the lyrics to "Getting Better" in a Playboy interview near the end of his life. "Physically—any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women." In his biography The Lives of John Lennon, Albert Goldman also maintains that Lennon was guilty of spousal abuse... Does this change your opinion of Lennon? Or does it make you more willing to forgive other abusers? What is your standard for bad behavior for artists? It's easy to condemn artists whose music or books or other output you dislike anyway. But what about when it's someone whose artistic creations mean something to you?
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
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