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I realise this may be bending the rules of posting on this website, but what the hell.
Personally i am tired of modern music - quirky, upbeat, jingly-jangly indie or ridiculous dull electropop, courtesy of Lady Gaga and the rest. On the other side, there is rock - or rather, what is left of it. This can be divided into three parts. First, there is rock itself - bands such as the Foo Fighters, Nickelback, etc. While the former is quite good musically, it lacks the element i am looking for, while Nickelback has used every rock method from the past 20 or so years to create a sound as generic as it seems possible to achieve. Secondly, there is metal - bands like Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, and so on. This part i will not touch, as it is seperate from what i'm referring to and irrelevant. Finally, there is emo - bands like My Chemical Romance, Framing Hanley, 30 Seconds To Mars, Alexisonfire, and so many more. This sub-genre comes closest to achieving what i want, but unfortunately all of the bands in this category are linked by one influence - hardcore. This serves to give the bands their generic-y, clean, detached sound.
I believe that it is time for a new (or old) type of music. The key problem is that rock does not include the emotional lyrics of emo or their delivery, while emo lacks the rock that should power such music. Bands such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins perfected this method spectacularly - just listen to Nevermind/In Utero/Siamese Dream/Mellon Collie.
I am in the process of creating a band to achieve this goal. However it would help me greatly if any advice could be given as to what musical elements we should include, so proper rock-charged emotional music can be returned to popularity.
Coincidentally, this post is probably aimed at readers in their teens/20s. Either post a reply or email me at stuartwilson717@hotmail.com. Thank you.
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Crazyhorse Wrote:I realise this may be bending the rules of posting on this website, but what the hell.
Personally i am tired of modern music - quirky, upbeat, jingly-jangly indie or ridiculous dull electropop, courtesy of Lady Gaga and the rest. On the other side, there is rock - or rather, what is left of it. This can be divided into three parts. First, there is rock itself - bands such as the Foo Fighters, Nickelback, etc. While the former is quite good musically, it lacks the element i am looking for, while Nickelback has used every rock method from the past 20 or so years to create a sound as generic as it seems possible to achieve. Secondly, there is metal - bands like Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, and so on. This part i will not touch, as it is seperate from what i'm referring to and irrelevant. Finally, there is emo - bands like My Chemical Romance, Framing Hanley, 30 Seconds To Mars, Alexisonfire, and so many more. This sub-genre comes closest to achieving what i want, but unfortunately all of the bands in this category are linked by one influence - hardcore. This serves to give the bands their generic-y, clean, detached sound.
I believe that it is time for a new (or old) type of music. The key problem is that rock does not include the emotional lyrics of emo or their delivery, while emo lacks the rock that should power such music. Bands such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins perfected this method spectacularly - just listen to Nevermind/In Utero/Siamese Dream/Mellon Collie.
I am in the process of creating a band to achieve this goal. However it would help me greatly if any advice could be given as to what musical elements we should include, so proper rock-charged emotional music can be returned to popularity.
Coincidentally, this post is probably aimed at readers in their teens/20s. Either post a reply or email me at stuartwilson717@hotmail.com. Thank you.
can i take this as the band are actually going to SING instead of scream into the microphone, so we can actually well what the song is about?
we can conquer this great divide-hanson
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Indeed :biggrin:
Well there may be the tiniest bit of a scream - as opposed to those bands which spent entire songs screaming. Really it'll be up to my vocalist, i guess. I'll just have creative input  mile:
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as disheartened as I am to say it... rock is dead, or what we recall of rock. what you are referring to, as in being able to replicate the attempt at the revival of rock through nirvana in particular was truly the brilliance on Kurt Cobain and his very deep influences. I mean his last recorded performance was a 50s Leadbeddy cover.
I however, do understand where you are coming from; but i'm sorry to say that this would be hard to produce. "Proper rock-charged emotional music"; what is that? I mean any true rock band is emotional but now it is hard to produce something good that people will appreciate without it being labelled pop or "another imitator!".
in my opinion, to create such a sound you would need to go back and see what Cobain did as a writer and he took the 70s punk influence; by being there to make a point. To play punk you didnt need no skill, or no money, but you needed a point and a reason for being on stage. So I guess the question is - what is your reason for doing this? what points are you trying to put across? Surely if you are trying to recreate an old sound, you will be called a ripoff; but to start, I would look back at the lyrics and points that punk, post-punk, new wave and grunge tried to put across in that 20 year period - starting from The Sex Pistols, onto The Cure (Robert Smith is one of the best lyricists of all time), Talking Heads, Joy Division and obviously towards Nirvana.
Start with your influences and build up. All the best, as I respect all musos who are trying something. Good Luck!
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jwee5467 Wrote:as disheartened as I am to say it... rock is dead, or what we recall of rock. what you are referring to, as in being able to replicate the attempt at the revival of rock through nirvana in particular was truly the brilliance on Kurt Cobain and his very deep influences. I mean his last recorded performance was a 50s Leadbeddy cover.
I however, do understand where you are coming from; but i'm sorry to say that this would be hard to produce. "Proper rock-charged emotional music"; what is that? I mean any true rock band is emotional but now it is hard to produce something good that people will appreciate without it being labelled pop or "another imitator!".
in my opinion, to create such a sound you would need to go back and see what Cobain did as a writer and he took the 70s punk influence; by being there to make a point. To play punk you didnt need no skill, or no money, but you needed a point and a reason for being on stage. So I guess the question is - what is your reason for doing this? what points are you trying to put across? Surely if you are trying to recreate an old sound, you will be called a ripoff; but to start, I would look back at the lyrics and points that punk, post-punk, new wave and grunge tried to put across in that 20 year period - starting from The Sex Pistols, onto The Cure (Robert Smith is one of the best lyricists of all time), Talking Heads, Joy Division and obviously towards Nirvana.
Start with your influences and build up. All the best, as I respect all musos who are trying something. Good Luck!
Thanks for the advice :biggrin:
What i'm really trying to do is bring back some kind of alternative rock. Obviously you've realised this, but i know i'll have to throw something new into the old 90s mix to get it going again. Obviously, i won't be using hardcore :biggrin1:
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There is plenty of fantastic rock music out there right now. Explore a little deeper than your radio. There was a ton of crap in the 90's too. It was far from some golden era of music. The past can look better ten years on because you forget. Has it been long enough to forget the abomination of rap-metal?
If you want a good sound for your band you really have to come up with it on your own. We won't be writing your songs. Now, after the fact outsiders can over up criticism if you wish, but we cannot determine your sound.
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i still go for the non screaming approach-nothing turns people who don't usually listen to rock off of it as fast as not being able to hear what is being said:wink:
we can conquer this great divide-hanson
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if you do happen to get one of those songs/albums, just check the album jacket or sleeve for the lyrics haha!
on a more serious note, getting back to alternative rock is not a hard thing as there are plenty of current alternative rock bands out there at the moment, that do it right. Just a lack of mainstream ones. Being able to look outside the box for music is how we discover and find new stuff.
If you are in lack of inspiration, I'd suggest Shoutcast and I use that extensively to find new music to listen to and purchase. Uh, what do u mean by the old 90s mix. Every era has their highs and lows and of course, the 90s was the beginning of power-pop (and leading to Emo), electronica and hip-hop while having its moments with garage rock, grunge rock and some really good indie stuff. You just need to know where to look.
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kerry101 Wrote:i still go for the non screaming approach-nothing turns people who don't usually listen to rock off of it as fast as not being able to hear what is being said:wink: While I do agree with you about the screaming, I do remember when the Beatles came out, all the old folks were whining about "you can't even understand what they're singing". Of course it was clear to those of us that were "in tune".
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Music Head Wrote:Of course it was clear to those of us that were "in tune".
ExACTly :biggrin:
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