Posted on 01/07/2014 7:02:12 AM PST by Notary Sojac
This thread had its genesis in this one -
Millenial's Music Taste (vanity). Whats wrong with your generation?
- where a few of us made the case for really good music being made in the 21st century by artists who aren't retreads from the boomer era or earlier. It's a mission of mine to try to get my fellow boomers to break that fixation with the "oldies station" and listen to some new stuff.
I plan to make the case for a few artists here, and hope that more Freepers will chime in.
Please do so!! Give us a little info about the contemporary artists you like, with an album or track recommendation.
My tastes run to bluegrass, blues, swing, and what's now called "Americana", but any genre is welcome here. Except techno. Post any dance/techno recommends and you'll earn the Sojac raspberry!
To kick off:
Eleni Mandell is, like many of my favorite artists, not easily slotted into a genre. She has done country, pop, straight ahead rock, and classic '40s style lounge singing. But in every style her hooks are memorable and her lyrics witty.
Recommended album to start with: Miracle of Five, tracks "Moonglow, Lamp Low" and "Somebody Else".
Chatham County Line is a bluegrass outfit out of North Carolina. Straight up, tight bluegrass harmonies with a minimum of twang.
Recommended album to start with: Speed of the Whippoorwill, title track and "Coming Home".
Dave Alvin was, with his brother Phil, a founding member of The Blasters, the greatest roots rock group you've never heard of. Although his career with that group goes back to the eighties, most of his good solo material is post-2000. Dave perfectly rides the boundary between garage rock and country, a real sweet spot for me.
Recommended album to start with: Blackjack David, tracks "Abilene" and "New Highway".
I love Gillian Welch and since you recommend her I will check out your other suggestions.
Sorry, not familiar with her. I gave up on popular music and many aspects of pop culture a long time ago. Gave it plenty of chances. But it just seemed to get worse and worse with time.
My favorite song from 2013: Paul Burch — Couldn’t Get A Witness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gDQ7AaaLsk
Have you ever listened to anything by Drive By Truckers? Totally fits into the classic rock genre, IMHO.
And there lies the problem. Talk about looking for a needle in a haystack!
In any case, I'm perfectly content with the thousands of great songs I have in my collection now. I see no reason to go crazy sorting through all the crap that's out today.
Sorry, I haven’t. I’ll give a listen later. Thanks.
My unsolicited comment is that as long as you are convinced there is no good music being made today, you won’t find any of the good music that is being made today. : )
“New music categorically sucks.”
“Classic Rock was the pinnacle of music.”
“I have no need to further my listening breadth.”
As an aside, recovering disc jockey Jim Quinn (of Quinn and Rose fame) hosted a conservative syndicated morning radio show out of Pittsburgh until this past November. He's a terrific conservative voice - and he'll undoubtedly be back on the radio after a 6 month no-compete clause plays itself out.
But as a former disc jockey, his music knowledge and tastes are really wide. And one day on his show, he postulated something I wholeheartedly agreed with.
People's music tastes are formed and solidified based on the era of the popular music that was dominant at the time they last went to school. He posited that this would be true even if you're only a high school grad, or college grad, or if you went to school late in life.
His theory was that your final years in school were the last time in life where you had time to sit around and listen to music in a social setting or even if you listened to music in the background as you crammed for tests or did hours of homework.
Once you leave school, the music you listened to becomes set or ingrained as your preferable music.
So my question to the FReepers on this thread, are your music tastes tied to the last years of your educational experience?
I went back to school right around the turn of the 21st century and I will admit, my musical preferences seemed to update from classic rock to newer, alternative rock. Instead of Pink Floyd, The Who, The Cars, The Eagles, and so on and so on, I became a fan of bands like Blink 182, OK GO, Good Charlotte, Sugarcult, Bare Naked Ladies, and so on. I became very bored with the classic rock as it seemed no stations played what used to be album-oriented music to just the same 50 rock rotation. As an example, Dire Straits is an awesome band. But the stations only ever played Sultans of Swing. Great tune, but if I am going to go digging for deeper cuts (which I did), then I was going to dig for other music variations as well.
But again, the internet. Really finding new stuff you’ll like is easy now, there’s dozens of websites that WANT you to find more stuff you’ll like. You can go to All Music and look up your favorite band or album and over on the far right there’s a “similar” tab where you can find other things. Or go to Pandora and plug in your favorite song and listen to the “radio station” they build on that, which will eventually get to stuff you’ve never heard that builds off of similar structures, and some of it will be new. Look up a song on youtube and on the right there’ll be a list of other videos watched by people that liked that one. You don’t have to sort through anything, it will be spoon fed to you. Or just look up the new stuff by your favorite old bands, most of them are still making music and with decades more experience and significantly better technology to work with a lot of them are putting out some of the best stuff of their careers.
Staying stuck with the past is how you stop growing as a person. Discovering new things keeps you alive and vital. If you’re not growing you’re rotting.
Thanks for the post! I’ve already created 7 new Pandora stations based on recommendations to check out!
Try Matt Kearny.
I never seriously claimed there wasn't ANY good music being today. It just seems too extremely rare to justify looking for it. Besides, I simply don't need it. I'm perfectly happy sticking to the thousands of great songs from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s that I already have. I can't imagine ever getting tired of hearing them. I'm not going to waste time trying to find the 1 out of 100 new songs today that I can only tolerate listening to for a minute or less.
I have this one:
Diana Krall, from her album “Quiet Nights” (2009)
Track listing[edit]
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. “Where or When” Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart 4:10
2. “Too Marvelous for Words” Johnny Mercer, Richard A. Whiting 4:05
3. “I’ve Grown Accustomed to His Face” Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lerner 4:48
4. “The Boy from Ipanema” Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, Norman Gimbel 4:54
5. “Walk On By” Burt Bacharach, Hal David 5:03
6. “You’re My Thrill” Jay Gorney, Sidney Clare 5:47
7. “Este Seu Olhar” Jobim 2:45
8. “So Nice” Marcos Valle, Paulo Sérgio Valle, Gimbel 3:52
9. “Quiet Nights” Jobim, Gene Lees 4:45
10. “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry” Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn 4:59
11. “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” (bonus track) Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb 4:30
12. “Everytime We Say Goodbye” (bonus track) Cole Porter 5:18
As you can see, she does “classics”.
Yes, it is. Closing ones mind to new music is really a shame.
Many years ago I worked for a small company in which most of the employees were Baby Boomers. The only music they listened to was classic rock - thats it.
Whenever the two youngest people tried to introduce something new into the playlist at work these people would become unglued, frothing at the mouth lunatics. ( same reaction whenever politics came up - you can’t imagine how much they loved Bill Clinton )
I never understood how a group of people who experienced an entirely new style of music when they were teens could turn their backs on that approach to music. When did they just stop trying new music? Who knows but I swore I’d never do the same thing and so I’ll listen to just about anything new or a style I have never heard.
Personally, I hate classic rock. Can’t stand any of it with the exception of Pink Floyd and even then I like the later material. I walked out of a liquor store three days ago because Led Zepplin playing. Greatful Dead, Cream, Doors - can’t stand any of it.
I have been listening to a lot of electronic / chill out / ambient and trance music for some time now. Very limited amounts of lyrics if any at all. I’ve posted a few examples below.
Emancipator - When I Go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIHLo4tFfEk&list=FLsUa50GpxwrPy3sXSgfDQpQ
Conjure One - Into the Escape
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl8E8UDIbKg&list=FLsUa50GpxwrPy3sXSgfDQpQ
Carbon Based Lifeforms - MOS6581
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtPTvyjtx3g&list=FLsUa50GpxwrPy3sXSgfDQpQ
Babylon of the Occident - The Shanghai Restoration Project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSHTEH1kT1A
For about two years now I have been studying art full-time. Surprisingly the young people in the 3 hour model drawing sessions like oldies. I am sick of them! These stations play the same tunes over, and over, and over, and over,....and BARF!
I drown it out by putting buds in my ears and listening to books on tape.
NEW MUSIC !!!! ........PLEASE!
your list is a good list. Thanks for taking the time to list the bands out with your own notes. Very helpful.
I will follow your style and add a few more.
Jack Johnson: Guitarists at bars and beach destinations will play his single guitar/melodies as much as they’ve played Jimmy Buffet for years.
Fall Out Boy: Extremely complex (maybe even confusing) lyrics and hard rock rifs. Fun band with a unique sound.
The Offspring: A one-of-a-kind voice fronts this band. Their music is often a bit irreverent. They’re a 90’s band (you gotta keep ‘em separated) but they’ve continued to make music.
Paramore: Very young group (I think they were teenagers when they formed) with a solid female vocal lead who belt out edgy lyrics and hard rock beats. They also have some ballads.
Cake: They use a lot of different instruments in their music (trumpets, violins) and their lyrics are often hilarious. They make exceptional use of 2 channel sound, with competing instruments playing right and left channels against and with each other. Another band with a unique vocal sound as well.
Weezer: These guys are musical geniuses but they don’t take themselves too seriously.
Maybe that's the case with you. It certainly isn't with a whole lot of us. I guess you can describe us as "musically conservative", as opposed to "musically liberal", or "musically progressive". In short, if it works, don't 'fix' it.
“Today’s “music” is nothing but a bunch of research formula driven noise that has no emotion, no feeling, no passion and is as empty as a federal bureaucrats head.”
I believe Seger said it best: “today’s music ain’t got the same soul”.
Given the crap state of contemporary music (admitted generalization) i would welcome suggestions for new little known rock and blues acts. I am sure they are out there.
Amos Lee
Belle and Sebastian
The Wailin’ Jennys
Greg Brown
You won’t be sorry.
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