fairly long post that I don't feel like cutting, cause I'm a brat tonight.

[timepiececlock]

The following is a post I've been thinking about for almost all week, trying to figure out how to describe.
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I've been highly unsatified with radio music as of late.

It all feels like...pop.

Now, I like pop. I listen to pop. Like, Coldplay. That's good pop music. Matchbox 20. But now even the rock bands sound like pop music.... or the definition of pop music has changed so as to include balad-like rock songs that have relatively politically correct content and easy-to-hum chords.

This isn't going to be easy to explain. But lately I've been listening carefully to my local rock radio station (104.9FM), and analyzing stuff when they play alternative music of 5 or more years ago, and the music of the last 5 or so years. There's an incredible difference.

Mostly, everything sounds the same.

The popular songs of Nickelback, Three Doors Down, Default, Incubus, Lifehouse, Goo Goo Dolls. All rock bands, right? And they all have songs that I've loved, at some point. And yet, they all sound the same. Some more (Three Doors Down), some less (Incubus), but there's this level of similarity in the songs they have that get played on the radio.

And that's not even touching on the new high school punk music. Good Charlotte? Go the fuck away-- "Girls and Boys" is a *pop* song. My mother liked that song. You are a pop band. So is A Simple Plan. Posers.

A recent trend is with bands like Trapt, or Staind, AFI, Creed...or something. I'm blanking out on particular names. But the music goes one of two ways: there is a melodic verse, and then a loud and incomprehensible chorus... OR.... there is a loud and incomprehensible verse, but a melodic and easy-to-sing chorus. Thought of an example: "Sweetness" by Jimmy Eat World.

There's little variation within a song. Little experimentation within, little changes. I was listening to Nirvana on the radio the other day, and I was shocked by how much different *stuff* they did within a song. The same with The Smashing Pumpkins. Pearl Jam. There wasn't (mostly) this loud-yet-easy-to-follow routineness in most popular rock songs these days.

And their subject matter is so... tame! Where's the subversiveness? That's what I really miss about Alternative. How come the radio isn't playing new songs that are more like "Rape Me" or "Jeremy" or "1979" or "Suicide Dream"? Where's the cool but weird yet instensely romantic stuff that Live used to put out? You know... "All Over You" and so on. Nine Inch Nails. I remember about 2 years ago being delighted with the lyrical explicitness of "Control" by Puddle of Mudd... that's damn mild compared to the imagery of the "Greedy Fly" video by Bush, or so many others. Stone Temple Pilots, with lines like "The dogs begin to smell her..." ...I don't even know what that means, but it's way more weird and twisted than whatever new Staind song it was that I heard on the radio this morning. And Creed. Gag me.

I was listening "Rooster" by Alice in Chains while driving about three days ago, and I relished it. That was a relatively slow song. And yet, it's got so much *to* it. Like "Plush" or "Yellow Leadbetter." Like "Ana Song" from Silverchair. It's not the same the whole way through. You can have a song that isn't constant crashing, and yet have it be plenty loud, and weird, and subversive, and dark, and *not* a romantic ballad. Although "Yellow LeadBetter" might be romantic-- I can never understand what he's saying, so I don't know. I just love the vocals and the guitar in that song.

Now, some bands are doing now exactly what they used to do then: Red Hot Chili Peppers; Beastie Boys, 311, Cake, Garbage, etc. That's cool. Keep doing that, you have all my love. They're not quite Alternative (except maybe Garbage, I'm not sure...), but they were there during it or near the end of it, and they stood out then and they stand out now.

There's also this other new trend: bands like The Strokes. Where the whole thing, especially the voice, is so synthesized that I don't even want to listen to it.

To think I used to hate rap-rock. God, I still hate most of it, but at least it doesn't... at least the ones that I hear aren't this tame.

I find myself really liking the White Stripes. Not because it sounds like Alternative-- it doesn't at all. But it doesn't sound like anything else I'm hearing on the radio either, so that's something. And I like Seether, which is kind of Alternative. In fact, Seether has failed to do anything yet to annoy me at all, or bore me. But then I've only heard two songs, one of which _was_ subversive enough to meet my tastes.

Does any of this rambling make sense? Does anyone get the feeling that I keep getting... that something is lacking that makes it all sound the same?

I was pretty young when Alternative was popular. It hit when I was in early elementry school, and lasted up until about the end of middle school. What I hear on the radio newly written right now is *not* Alternative-- at least, very little of it is.

In a drive from Yosemite to the Bay Area in the summer after 9th grade, I sat in the farthest back of the van, on the backward seat, and stared out at the receding road and listened to the song "Galapagos" by The Smashing Pumpkins for three hours and about 40 minutes, straight. I'm not kidding. I even changed batteries once in between, and went back to the same song.

I can't think of any new song on the rock stations radio these days that I'd do that with. And there's something wrong with that.



How is it that I'm 19 and I'm talking like an old fuddy duddy mourning their lost music age?

You know a song I ahven't heard in years? "So Help Me Jesus" by the Toadies. OR whatever that song was called. You know...."Take a walk with me, beside the lake tonight..."

Comments

[missatralissa.livejournal.com]

Okay first of all can I just say that thanks to this post I'm pulling out all my old cds and listening to them tonight. Second, all the old bands and songs you listed I love. I can remember the first time those songs all came out and when I heard them. Nirvana was my band, and I remember the day Kurt Cobain died, I cried all night. I can still remember most all of the video for "Greedy Fly" (I loved Gavin) and "Rooster" was my song in sixth grade. But what got me most about this post was the last thing you mentioned about "Galapogos", if you look at my journal you'll find the words to that song on the side. I love that song so damn much I think I cried the first time I heard it, and like you did, I still listen to it continuously all night sometimes. Also I love "Muzzle" which comes right after it, and number nine which is "Love". "Mellon Collie" was an important cd for me.

The music teen agers have to listen to in this day and age sucks. I'm sorry, but you're absolutely right, it's nothing but copycats. It's all the same and not even very good. Some of it is catchy and I do fall victim to singing along. I find myself listening to mostly classic rock stations, which some are starting to play 90's music which I don't think is classic quite yet. They played Dishwalla's "Counting Blue Cars" the other day and I wanted to scream, music that came out in like 97 is not classic. But my point is I try and stay away from the new music, it just makes me feel old because I miss the good old Alternative. ::sigh:: I think I'm going to go listen to my cds now, thank you for making me want to dig them out.

[bloodypoetry.livejournal.com]

Gah! Lj just ate my whole post. *sob*

Anyways, I was saying that I too loved all of the songs mentioned above (brain twins and all), and missed all the really awesome music videos of that time, ie the G-N-R trio, Jaine's Got a Gun, Jeremy, Greedy Fly, ect. Also, I was reccommending some new music to you.

AFI is pretty good, I like them mostly for the lyrics, and the album does have a great deal of songs that change a lot during the song. But I really think you'd enjoy what is called Emo rock. I think. Heh. Two examples that I am currently in love with:

Thursday: I adore this band. The lyrics are just amazing, and that's generally what draws me to a band in the first place. I highly reccomend Understanding in a Car Crash, Jet Black New Year, War All the Time, and of course, Signals Over the Air. That's sadly their biggest hit, but it really speaks nothing of the band.

Taking Back Sunday: This band seems to have TWO lead singers. Hee! There is no way you can sing along with them without picking a part to sing. Kinda punkish, with again, excellant lyrics. I reccomend Cute Without the E (Cut from the Team) and You're So Last Summer. (I actually wanted a Spuffy icon made to lyrics in that one, "The truth is you could slit my throat, and with my one last gasping breath I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt.." Hee!)

Not everyone's cup of tea, but I am in love with them currently. Also, Brand New is pretty good, Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades and The Quite Things That No One Ever Knows are pretty good songs. Plus? I have them all on mp3. Hee!

[octopedingenue]

My musical experience is this: I didn't listen to ANYTHING except country music until I was in late middle school/early high school. Almost everything I know about other kinds of music before then, I learned from watching VH1's "Behind the Music" or something. And even since I started listening to other styles of music in addition to country then I don't listen to the radio much; when I'm at home, I listen to country radio in my car, and when I like what I like what I like, which means my MP3 player has songs that I adore by artists from Rufus Wainwright to pop princess Hoku to Patty Loveless to Coldplay to Eminem to Bree Sharp to the Verve Pipe to the Rolling Stones to Garbage to Uncle Kracker to U2 to Israel Kamakawi'ole. I don't really care much about rock radio being sucky because I don't really know. ^_~


Now, I could definitely give the lecture on how country music radio has gone Way Too Pop... (why do you hate us so, Shania Twain! why! why! why!)

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Awww...I feel all old listening to you talk about all the old music I grew up on *g*

Alternative became a popular tag to describe music that was different from the status quo on the radio (and by Status Quo I mean AC/DC, Metallica, Guns-N-Roses, Poinson, Slayer, Slaughter) - some of these bands were better, some worse, but all becoming gentrified into the same sound over and over - I remember being sixteen years old and so fucking frustrated with the rock radio station out of Nashville that I listened too. Everything, including metal bands that I loved, was beginning to sound the same. It was frustrating and I was in a dark musical place.

And then I met Mark - my high school music pusher. Actually, he was older and lived in the city and on our first date we drove around listening to Pearl Jam's "10" and I was fucking floored. I was a little in love with Mark after that, but a lot in love with this album. And then Mark played Alice In Chains for me and it as if the skies themselves opened up - later on I found out about Mudhoney and the The Meat Puppets and The Screaming Trees and Sonic Youth and Mother Love Bone and it was all new and all different and all very, very real. And I dug it, oh yes I did.

And then Smells Like Teen Spirit became a Buzz Clip on MTV, Pearl Jam became regulars on "The Headbangers Ball" and the little fibbertygibbet girls were swarming the locker room talking about how "Jeremy" was their song with their boyfriend. It was the beginning of the end, and the so-called Seattle Grunge sound (dubbed Alternative because initially it was)was becoming popular. By my freshman year in college, it was the standard sound - You had Stone Temple Pilots (who at least ranged in the sounds they ripped of - sometimes a bit of Nirvana, but mostly a lot of Pearl Jam - I *hated* STP for years and blamed them for the cheapening of my music, took me years to get over it) and then you had Candlebox and Blind Mellon and all of these bands were responsible for the radio becoming bland again. Well, that and Kurt Cobain killed himself.

So, my advice to you - every 5-10 years popular radio will get shaken up and for a period of 12 to 18 months will play something different and refreshing. Other than for that brief window - it is not safe to listen to commercial radio. Listen to public radio or college stations - haunt the used bins at CD shops and bug everyone you know to pimp good music. The music is still out there and it is still fresh and it takes risks and god, it is honest. But you won't find it on the radio - at least not ususually.

[xionin.livejournal.com]

well, like i always say, you want good music - don't listen to commercial radio. unfortunately, you live in san jose. every time i visit the place i cringe at what they're playing to on the air. and of course we can't all run out and buy every 'underground' CD there is, but i find gems on internet radio like accuradio.com all the time. but if you really want to know what's good, check out the CMJ. http://www.cmj.com/

[dtissagirl.livejournal.com]

Are you a Netscape user? If so, you should try Netscape Radio (there's a link on the browser, or you can go to http://radio.netscape.com/ and download the player). I can't stand to listen to the regular radio stations in my city, so I've found Netscape Radio to be the best alternative -- you can pick which kind of music you want to hear amongst over 150 stations, and I don't think I've discovered so many new/previously-unknown-to-me artists I've come to love in such a short period (of about one year).

[thenyxie.livejournal.com]

I've been saying this for about a year now, maybe a little longer. I agree. There are about four types of music being played on the radio and all bands fit into those four categories and bands within those categories all pretty much sound the same. Like I can't tell the difference between most of them, and I'm usually pretty good with that. It's really gotten bad over the last three years or so. Yeah, the music all sounds kind of the same at the same time, depending on what's popular, but you could tell the bands APART and they had their own unique style. Like I would never mistake STP for Pearl Jam, no matter how much people insist STP ripped off their sound, or vice versa. The music was all kind of in the same genre, but it didn't all sound cookie-cutter cloned-copy the same. Yeah, I get what you're saying, and the way it is right now is the worst it's ever been, and it's only going to continue to get worse. It is, of course, the record company's who are making this happen. It's been slowly happening since the late 80's, early 90's, and now it's in it's glory days. We are listening to the "made" generation. People whom the record industry have picked and placed and made popular because their looks or their sound FIT whatever image they're currently trying to project. Like, Michelle Branch, for instance. no one knew who the hell this chick was, and then one day, out of the blue, people start talking about her like she's this huge pop star and she's appearing everywhere. This is because the music industry decided--not because she was so incredibly talented. And hey, when was the last time you saw someone singing who was not only popular and over played, but also butt ugly? It happens rarely, if at all anymore, and has been slowly happening less and less over the years. You want to be popular? You'd better be pretty, or the industry won't make you a star.

Anyway, this is yet another reason I hate the RIAA with a burning passion. I've always loved radio, my whole life, despite my tendency to also listen to bands who are considered oddball and/or will never be played on the radio. And I've always felt that radio music, formulated and canned as it can sometimes be, has something to offer, most of the time. But in the past year or so I've found myself thinking it's pretty much nothing but crap. No one's taking risks these day. It's all very formula, all very almost bland and blah with nothing that sticks out in your memory and hooks you. No music hooks at all. With music of the last year or more, I can't remember the last time I heard a guitar do anything innovative or interesting or wasn't faded into the background of the music. So it's not just you. I see a definite trend and I'm hoping like hell that the RIAA is going to fall apart soon and we can get people besides the 25 or so who are currently allowed to be popular aired on the radio.

[evemac.livejournal.com]

I haven't listened to the radio for the past...long time. Pretty much since Napster came out, which would be 1999?

Radio in the Bay Area sucks big things. The SF "alternative" stations are Live 105 [which used to be the epitome of all good things, playing Smashing Pumpkins and R.E.M. and Nirvana and Jane's Addiction] Alice 97.3, and...yeah that's about it.

And if you like the White Stripes? Rock on, sister. The reason I love Jack and Meg so much is that they're NOT "neo-garage rock" or whatever pop culture's trying to classify them as. Like you said, they're not alternative. If you can, download their song Ball And Biscuit, which might just be my favorite song of theirs. Right there, you've got blues rock. Jack uses the traditional blues chords and plays with them and all of a sudden explodes into smashing guitar solos. I still remember when I first heard it, I immediately felt I should be in Louisiana, sitting on a porch in the sweltering heat. You don't like the same pattern thing that all bands seem to do lately? The White Stripes blast that pattern out into space. Jack uses his guitar in a way that I haven't heard in ages. Sure, Radiohead has some amazing guitar lines but that's like comparing apples to oranges. Seven Nation Army was a bit of a "radio" song, but if you're listening to Elephant and turn to the next track it's Black Math which is almost punk but just so different. Their older albums [White Stripes and De Stijl] are even more bluesy and more raw. The thing about the sound of the guitar in their songs is how unprocessed, how unclean it sounds -- especially in comparison to most guitar-driven bands today. And there's White Blood Cells which is admittedly the most "radio-friendly" album, but each song is a completely different expression of music, refreshing. I mean, the final song is completely PIANO driven, almost cabaret style, and it's really sad.

Take a break from radio. Listen to some older stuff. Download the rec's you see on your friends list. And bring out your Sublime CDs again. They're perfect for the foggy days when you wish it was sunny. ;)

But in all seriousness, there IS a great deal of wonderful new music out there. It just doesn't get any MTV/radio play. You just have to look hard.