All The Right Reasons

[Daniel Sobota]

I think this its a bit extreme to talk down towards poo music like that. Writing a great pop song is an art form. It just has it's focus on different aspects of the song than metal and rock may have but that doesn't mean it isn't proper cuisine. That's my opinion maybe I'm weird about that.

I think he was generalizing a bit and talking mainly about the current cookie cutter pop format, in which case I definitely agree on that.

There's some great songwriting in pop without a doubt, but for me that's mostly old pop from the 90's and older.

Also to bring back the point Edward was saying - most of those people aren't even playing or singing the songs.

Again, I'm not talking down pop as a whole, just this fabricated side of it.

 

[Ed Seith]

I think the fact that Ids accidentally referred to "pop music" as "poo music" says what most of us feel, at least about the CURRENT and RECENT state of pop music.

Myself, I've been winding my way through Rush's entire catalog as a tribute. There's so much great material there, most of which I've never heard before. I'm in the mid-80s now as I work my way forward. Great, great band. Inhuman drummer. So much awesome.

 

[idssdi]

I think the fact that Ids accidentally referred to "pop music" as "poo music" says what most of us feel, at least about the CURRENT and RECENT state of pop music.

Woops, that's a typo. Pop music really never changed that much. There has always been good songs and bad songs in the charts. You don't know the bad songs from yesteryear because nobody talks about them, same counts for current pop music. Sure the fact that usually there are like 2 people who write all the songs so a lot of it the same and not rememberable at all but Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, Adele and Eminem to name a few still come around every once in a while and have some great songs in the charts. The 60s were lucky for having the Beatles(27 number one hits in 8 years of recording), Rolling Stones(8 number one hits in 7 years of recording (in the 60s)) and beach boys(2 number one hits in 7 years of recording(in the 60s) and that's just to name a few. Every decade has artists who topped the charts a lot and wrote great songs. There are just a couple things a song needs to become a pop song(don't bore us get to the chorus and more importantly really great hooks) and I think the way to be original doing that became harder so yes they don't play guitar, drums and bass anymore but electronic music is difficult to make just the same, it's still chords, rhythm and melody so essentially the creative process is the same.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

but electronic music is difficult to make just the same, it's still chords, rhythm and melody so essentially the creative process is the same.

The thing is that most of those electronic samples, beats and melodies all sound very same-y. It's the same chord progression in most cases, it's the same vocal effects, same type of over-compressed production (which gives you the impression something is better because it's louder).

And I get that every generation had both good and bad music, but it seems like this ratio has reversed in recent years. You said no one talks about the bad stuff from the past, but it's gotten to the point where we will talk about the bad stuff from now in the future, because of how influential and omnipresent it has become.

Btw this is kind of a cool video on the subject. I don't agree with everything but the man has some good points.

 

[idssdi]

The thing is that most of those electronic samples, beats and melodies all sound very same-y. It's the same chord progression in most cases, it's the same vocal effects,

You know I-V-VI-IV chord progressions are own of the most fundamental chord progressions in pop music? It is now and it was 50 years ago that never changed. Sure samples sound the same but I honestly feel the same about a lot of the high gain tone out there so none of those are an argument to me

What's a bigger problem is that there is like a select bunch of songwriters that generally write them but if you want to you can still find great music in the charts if your open to it. I just looked up the number one hits of the 60s a lot of it I either don't know or don't like so don't think the ratio has changed that much

 

[Daniel Sobota]

Sure samples sound the same but I honestly feel the same about a lot of the high gain tone out there so none of those are an argument to me

Most of those bands that use the same high gain tone aren't really doing anything though. They are just trying to sit in between being a rock/metal band and Imagine Dragons.

Most bands that are doing proper things right now sound very different. Avenged's tone sounds nothing like Slipknot's tone which sounds nothing like Tool's tone which sounds nothing like Mastodon's tone which sounds nothing like Behemoth's tone, and so on.

I guess we can both agree that there needs to be more variety and a stronger sense of individuality within music in general.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

By favourite satanic, folk, Viking band is back on tour!

Nickelback to launch 'All the Right Reasons' anniversary tour - UPI.com

Nickelback will celebrate the 15th anniversary of its album "All the Right Reasons" with a new tour featuring Stone Temple Pilots, Tyler Bryant and Switchfoot.

www.upi.com

Who's going?

I can now burn the photograph of me went I went to school in honor of their darkness

 

[Andrew Milner]

I just love how a topic about Nickelback sparked so much discussion . A testament to their might?

But yeah, with regards to pop music...I remember last year when I was at the seaside, we had music on the beach. And most of the time it was generic pop music, aside from an odd one-off classical or good song. I mean they were in the realms of Africa by Toto or I Love Rock And Roll by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts.

I mean, the radio guys said that it was based on user suggested songs. My theory is that they had a guy, let's call him Chad, that was chained, but would sometimes escape and change the playlist until he was chained again, but whatever .

And was that pop music annoying...no instruments, claps instead of snares and generic voices...nothing special about it. Soulless is in fact the perfect word for it.

As for variety in metal and not only...I don't want to open that Pandora's Box, but I feel that a common mistake made by most metal musicians nowadays is the constant use of extremely downtuned guitars. But that's another rant for another day I guess.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

I just love how a topic about Nickelback sparked so much discussion . A testament to their might?

But yeah, with regards to pop music...I remember last year when I was at the seaside, we had music on the beach. And most of the time it was generic pop music, aside from an odd one-off classical or good song. I mean they were in the realms of Africa by Toto or I Love Rock And Roll by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts.

I mean, the radio guys said that it was based on user suggested songs. My theory is that they had a guy, let's call him Chad, that was chained, but would sometimes escape and change the playlist until he was chained again, but whatever .

And was that pop music annoying...no instruments, claps instead of snares and generic voices...nothing special about it. Soulless is in fact the perfect word for it.

As for variety in metal and not only...I don't want to open that Pandora's Box, but I feel that a common mistake made by most metal musicians nowadays is the constant use of extremely downtuned guitars. But that's another rant for another day I guess.

Every pop song nowadays (minus the guitar of course)

But honestly I really agree with you although for me every now and then an artist can pull off a song or a couple that I like. I can listen to quite some Billie Eilish and Twenty One Pilots for example, because I find them to be a little more interesting than the rest of the radio sh*t. Still feel like older pop songs that still used instruments just can't be beaten by nowadays electronic based stuff. But then again people seem to like it.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

As for variety in metal and not only...I don't want to open that Pandora's Box, but I feel that a common mistake made by most metal musicians nowadays is the constant use of extremely downtuned guitars. But that's another rant for another day I guess.

Yep. But I'm not too interested in those bands anyway. My favorite genres are black, thrash and melodeath, and luckily bands in those genres don't use that much downtuned guitars that often.

But generally, metal is better than ever musically. You just have to dig deeper a bit, and you'll find some great shit.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

Every pop song nowadays (minus the guitar of course)

But honestly I really agree with you although for me every now and then an artist can pull off a song or a couple that I like. I can listen to quite some Billie Eilish and Twenty One Pilots for example, because I find them to be a little more interesting than the rest of the radio sh*t. Still feel like older pop songs that still used instruments just can't be beaten by nowadays electronic based stuff. But then again people seem to like it.

Completely agreed on this. Electronic stuff can be very cool (Depeche Mode, NIN, Dead Can Dance, Tangerine Dream etc), but when these "quasi-musicians" try to pass it off without knowing how to play any instrument, it's just pointless. That's the best way to say it, straight up pointless.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Completely agreed on this. Electronic stuff can be very cool (Depeche Mode, NIN, Dead Can Dance, Tangerine Dream etc), but when these "quasi-musicians" try to pass it off without knowing how to play any instrument, it's just pointless. That's the best way to say it, straight up pointless.

Well not exactly pointless. The point for the artist is to make money and to the radio listener to have some sort of sound in their car so they don't bore themselves to death on their way to work. I guess most people would be too tired anyway to deal with more complex music than this in the morning.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Yep. But I'm not too interested in those bands anyway. My favorite genres are black, thrash and melodeath, and luckily bands in those genres don't use that much downtuned guitars that often.

But generally, metal is better than ever musically. You just have to dig deeper a bit, and you'll find some great shit.

Also, I think downtune is perfectly fine as long as a song still consists of more than 0s and 1s. Melodic riffs make a metal song interesting!

 

[Andrew Milner]

But honestly I really agree with you although for me every now and then an artist can pull off a song or a couple that I like. I can listen to quite some Billie Eilish and Twenty One Pilots for example, because I find them to be a little more interesting than the rest of the radio sh*t. Still feel like older pop songs that still used instruments just can't be beaten by nowadays electronic based stuff. But then again people seem to like it.

People seem to like it. But I feel that they would like pop music with real instruments just as well.

But that kind of music barely exists anymore. I mean I enjoy myself some Ed Sheeran. Especially his X album. And some of his newer ones are good as well.

But aside from people like Ed, Adele, John Mayer and...maybe a few others, who actually use some form of melody in their singing and instruments in their songs, there aren't many others who do.

And with so many good FREE vsts that can emulate instruments, I find this to be pure laziness. And it really grinds my tuning knobs.

 

[Edward John]

Yep. But I'm not too interested in those bands anyway. My favorite genres are black, thrash and melodeath, and luckily bands in those genres don't use that much downtuned guitars that often.

But generally, metal is better than ever musically. You just have to dig deeper a bit, and you'll find some great shit.

Come on, Dan. We all know you love those genres, but you also jam to Dokken! Don't deny it!

 

[Edward John]

I can now burn the photograph of me went I went to school in honor of their darkness

I never could make it as a poor man stealing.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

People seem to like it. But I feel that they would like pop music with real instruments just as well.

But that kind of music barely exists anymore. I mean I enjoy myself some Ed Sheeran. Especially his X album. And some of his newer ones are good as well.

But aside from people like Ed, Adele, John Mayer and...maybe a few others, who actually use some form of melody in their singing and instruments in their songs, there aren't many others who do.

And with so many good FREE vsts that can emulate instruments, I find this to be pure laziness. And it really grinds my tuning knobs.

Ed Sheeran and John are definetly on my playlist too! Although I didn't really think of Mayer as I never Heard him on the Radio here

 

[Edward John]

I just love how a topic about Nickelback sparked so much discussion . A testament to their might?

But yeah, with regards to pop music...I remember last year when I was at the seaside, we had music on the beach. And most of the time it was generic pop music, aside from an odd one-off classical or good song. I mean they were in the realms of Africa by Toto or I Love Rock And Roll by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts.

I mean, the radio guys said that it was based on user suggested songs. My theory is that they had a guy, let's call him Chad, that was chained, but would sometimes escape and change the playlist until he was chained again, but whatever .

And was that pop music annoying...no instruments, claps instead of snares and generic voices...nothing special about it. Soulless is in fact the perfect word for it.

As for variety in metal and not only...I don't want to open that Pandora's Box, but I feel that a common mistake made by most metal musicians nowadays is the constant use of extremely downtuned guitars. But that's another rant for another day I guess.

I would love for the reactions of those same beach partiers when Something in your Mouth came on! Yes, Nickelback could create World Peace if they wanted, true metal gods! I agree about the downtuned guitars, should be played in standard. Pop music has no musicians on it because they would have to pay them money, it's as simple as that.

 

[Edward John]

Ed Sheeran and John are definetly on my playlist too! Although I didn't really think of Mayer as I never Heard him on the Radio here

Man … this John Mayer kid …

 

[idssdi]

Come on, Dan. We all know you love those genres, but you also jam to Dokken! Don't deny it!

Dokken is pretty cool!

I never could make it as a poor man stealing.

I think this I the first reference I actually know

Ed Sheeran and John are definetly on my playlist too! Although I didn't really think of Mayer as I never Heard him on the Radio here

In my country he's on the radio a lot. He also sells out the biggest concert hall(17000 people) in 5 minutes and adds another show which sells out within 5 minutes too with a lot of people wanting to get tickets still.