Get Your Musical Complaints Off Your Chest

[MalevolentJim]

The other thing that annoys me is the belief that an artist going mainstream and "selling out" is a very very bad thing and that anyone who does so is the NEW ANTICHRIST. (The previous one being the last band/artist to do so)
Two reasons why this is perfectly acceptable - if you choose to focus on music as a career, then if someone offers you lots more money for a slight tweak to your style, I think you're going to say yes.
The other reason is that an artist's musical style has to evolve - Green Day are a good example in spite of or possibly because of the vitriole they receive - and mainstream music isn't always as bad as some people seem to think.

Rant over.

Selling out is the single most abused term in music.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Green Day took a step in the right direction with their more recent sound.People may not always think it,but we all got into music through the mainstream.Green Day got me into music,American Idiot was my first ever album.So for this,I cannot really hate the mainstream.

 

[Brainplant]

I find Lil' Jon very grating, along with any other shouty rappers.

His "OOOKAAAY" is what I would hear in my personal hell.

 

[Lawyer105]

I did read it. What I was going to say, TheSentinel has pretty much said. There's no problem with disliking, or even hating types of music, but when you start to say that these types of music aren't even music can be seen as very insulting to people who do like said genres and styles, whose opinions matter just as much as yours. I don't mind people saying they don't like my music, but when they say my music isn't even worthy to be assessed as music, which you've basically just done to fans of certain types of pop, death metal and trash metal, it comes across as very insulting, especially since nobody's really in a position to judge such a thing, given how subjective music is.

Really? To me, it just looks like you're trying to find something to take offense at. Two mutually exclusive opinions can both be true, for the respective opinion holder. That's why it's an opinion, and not 'truth' (if there is such a thing). The only time it could be considered an insult is if I was implying that my OPINION is some sort of universal truth.

There are people in the world that consider locusts and snails to be great food. I don't. I wouldn't eat 'em unless I was starving and there was nothing else. To me, locusts and snails are sustenance in the absence of anything else. How is that insulting? It's just a statement of preferences. You can hate on my macaroni cheese all you like, and tell me that I should be eating locusts and snails. That's fine. It's your opinion, just like mac 'n cheese is mine. Neither is TRUE except for us.

 

[Hazzaslagga]

Mettallica songs makes me sleepy, even the good songs.
.....

Don't hurt me

 

[TheSentinel]

I did read it. What I was going to say, TheSentinel has pretty much said. There's no problem with disliking, or even hating types of music, but when you start to say that these types of music aren't even music can be seen as very insulting to people who do like said genres and styles, whose opinions matter just as much as yours. I don't mind people saying they don't like my music, but when they say my music isn't even worthy to be assessed as music, which you've basically just done to fans of certain types of pop, death metal and trash metal, it comes across as very insulting, especially since nobody's really in a position to judge such a thing, given how subjective music is.

Really? To me, it just looks like you're trying to find something to take offense at. Two mutually exclusive opinions can both be true, for the respective opinion holder. That's why it's an opinion, and not 'truth' (if there is such a thing). The only time it could be considered an insult is if I was implying that my OPINION is some sort of universal truth.

There are people in the world that consider locusts and snails to be great food. I don't. I wouldn't eat 'em unless I was starving and there was nothing else. To me, locusts and snails are sustenance in the absence of anything else. How is that insulting? It's just a statement of preferences. You can hate on my macaroni cheese all you like, and tell me that I should be eating locusts and snails. That's fine. It's your opinion, just like mac 'n cheese is mine. Neither is TRUE except for us.

Ye be persistent, ain't ye? Like I said, just because YOU don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't music. I don't care if you try to justify it as an opinion, it just ain't right.

 

[Brainplant]

Mettallica songs makes me sleepy, even the good songs.

I'm guessing your favourite is 'Until It Sleeps'.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

Let me start by going right back to ABBA. ABBA had some good songs that I still like. I think it's okay to like ABBA now. I think it's okay to like, recognise, acknowledge and enjoy the Bangles now. A lot of people seem to think this is completely unacceptable, because the songs were recorded too long ago. Really? So, graffiti's better than the Sistine Chapel because it's newer? Have the recordings changed or do they still sound the same? I got asked once: "Don't you like up-to-date music?" Is Eternal Flame out of date somehow? Do people just not have feelings now? Is Next Plane Out or It's All Coming Back To Me Now rubbish because the year has changed? Protest songs can go out of date. We Didn't Start The Fire could be brought up to date with a lot of new verses, but that would spoil the point if not the meaning. In Your Room is still just as relevant. Girls still feel that way and do that stuff and boys still like it ... right?

Back to ABBA. ABBA had some good songs but they also had Summer Night City. This is one of the earliest examples I've had the misfortune to encounter of a particular trend away from verses and stories and towards just repeating the same phrase again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.

Somewhere in the 80s, manners and decency went out of fashion. Somewhere around 1990, imagination did too. Some old, established acts stayed good. Iron Maiden did Afraid To Shoot Strangers after 1990 and even though it really needs more lyrics, at least it HAS lyrics.

Most stuff since then, if rearranged into alphabetical order would be easily identified and only slightly more repetitive. There was one being played 300 times per day (twice an hour on each of half a dozen radio stations, or thereabouts) recently in which some vaguely good-looking blonde went "Once" thirty-five times. The Police did one in which they repeated "I hope somebody gets me" and "message in a bottle" twenty-one times.

Seriously.

message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle message in a bottle

Then there was House Of Pain. Three minutes of six words: jump around up and get down.

Then Robbie Williams, trading entirely on his own ego, moaning about how much money he was making while the first four bars of You Only Live Twice played on endless loop in the background.

Back when I was tiny and harmless, there were singers who could stand on the stage in the Royal Albert Hall and sing an entire song in one go, with two hundred different words all sung correctly and in key and notes hit and held and they could be heard all the way to the back without a microphone.

These days people seem afraid to put the audience off by using too many words so they stick to eight, and most stuff seems to be recorded and electronically re-tuned and blended to make it seem as if they actually sang it when actually all they were doing was talking. Can't hold a note? No problem. Just talk. Can't even hit a note? Fine, we'll use the computer to fake it for you. Can't manage eight bars between breaths? No worries. We'll just record it in bits and stick it together in the computer and you can mime on stage. Can't think of anything? Don't worry about that. Just copy bits of everybody else's songs. Anyone remember "Abba-esque"? Right.

Then there are the lyrics of the ones that aren't just "whoo yeah whoo hoo whoo yeah," such as that romantic favourite, Don't You Want Me?:

You were nothing before I found you.
You were stuck in a dead-end job with no prospects.
I made you, *****.
Everything you've got, you owe to me.
If it wasn't for me you'd still be stuck in that shithole,
probably pregnant by some greasy loser.
Well you'd better fuckin' show some respect, *****,
or that's right where you're gonna be.
I don't fuckin' believe you're tryin' to break up with me.
You'd be nothing without me.
If you wanted to live that shitty life without me to make you into someone worth knowing,
you should have said so right at the start and saved me wasting my time on your skank arse.
You had your chance to turn me down, and you didn't take it, so you're mine now.
You are mine and you will bloody well put out when I say or I'll make you wish you'd never been born.

As someone else put it, our music has degenerated to the level of birdsong. You can ask Eddie Izzard [http://www.auntiemomo.com/cakeordeath/unrepeatabletranscript.html] about what birds are usually singing.

Then we have the biggest problem with all this noise: the people who like it. Yobbish teens with their jeans halfway down their arses and jeans with two tops so they can wear one set all the way down their arses while the other set holds the things up out of sight under an untucked shirt with kebab grease on it, screeching their tyres and racing up and down the street, throwing empty lager bottles into people's gardens and always, always, even if they don't do any of that stuff, ALWAYS turning the fucking bass all the way up to full in every conceivable way so the rest of the world gets to hear a rather simplified version of the tunes:
thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ... thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ...
thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ... thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ...
thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ... thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ...
thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ... thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ...
thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ... thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ...
thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ... thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ...
thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ... thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ...
thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ... thud thud thud thud thud thud thud ...
thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud, thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud,
thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud, thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud,
thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud, thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud,
thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud, thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud,
thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud, thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud,
thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud, thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud,
thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud, thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud,
thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud, thud thud thud ... thud thu-thu-thud,
thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ...
thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ...
thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ...
thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ...
thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ...
thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ...
thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ...
thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ... thud thud THUD ...

If I had super-powers I would fry them all.

Lady Gaga is actually a good singer.

People use her all the time as an example of how soulless music has become. If you want to use Ke$ha or Justin Bieber or 90% of the music you'll hear on the radio, then fine, but Lady Gaga has talent. If you've heard just her and a piano, you'll know. She is also one of the most prominent trolls in society, coming second to the collective force that is Anonymous.

Because seriously, she's suckering a lot of people into her nutjob person, when it's been shown that she has been just a regular person once.

The actual person is also pretty cool. The projected personality, if that's the right term, or "troll" as you put it, really is like nettle rash in my knickers and I would quite happily have no awareness of it at all for the rest of my life.

Something else I don't like: BnZ-GG, thrash-grunge, industrial house, black megbo, inthru-gobli, vaduli-mish and all those hybrid of sub-genres that can be distinguished only be the colour of the plectrum with which the singer never actually touches the string or which side of the stage the bassist stands. You can throw into this Black, Death, Industrial, Dark, Screech, Scream, Heavy, Rusty and any other kind of Metal. Just call it metal, will ya, guys? If you need to stick fifteen other styles in front of that to describe it, just name the frickin' band!

Emo and anything that ends with core.

That, too.

Also: I don't like baroque. Sorry but it really does all sound the same to me!

the one thing i would like to start seeing is a bar that doesnt play top 40 hits and plays rock that isnt mainstream... that would be awesome

There you hit a problem I have with CD compilations. You can get the top 20 hits of any long-running success story and the boxed set of the top 30 classical tunes As Voted For By You comes out every year but nobody seems to be selling the 21-40 or the top 200 as voted for this decade. I don't really need the complete works of everybody ever or ten copies of each of the few tracks that are on that album every year, so either way I end up with a lot of music I don't actually like sitting on my shelf.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Mettallica songs makes me sleepy, even the good songs.

I'm guessing your favourite is 'Until It Sleeps'.

Well played sir....well played...

 

[Lawyer105]

Ye be thick, ain't ye? Like I said, just because YOU don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't music. I don't care if you try to justify it as an opinion, it just ain't right.

So I'm just wrong because you don't like my opinion. And that's different from what you accuse me of, how? Can you truly not see the difference between a subjective opinion and an objective fact? I'd quote you "pot calling kettle", but I'm not the one insulting other members, so I guess I'm left with "back at ya".

 

[MalevolentJim]

Pretty much every time someone talks about rap and hip hop, dismissing it as a genre at all.
These people tend to be metalheads, and I find that metalheads seem to think they know everything about music.

I think you'll find that most of the people that talk about metal and dismissing it as a genre of music tend to be Hip-Hop fans.

Its a pointless argument.Both types of music have their merits,and flaws,but are still both good types of music.
I dislike it when a metalhead feels he/she is obligated to bash Hip-Hop just because he/she can.It's silly and ignorant,so I see why you're annoyed at them.

 

[lacktheknack]

Why on earth does Kesha's "Blah Blah Blah" exist?!? Couldn't she have released "Tik Tok" and just disappeared?

 

[TheLaofKazi]

This comic sums it up nicely.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CgBAHoOzEbQ/S3qI6jEA3cI/AAAAAAAAAKc/zGvNt8Wv0Uw/s1600-h/yesnocomic2.jpg

I'm not particularly a fan of a wide variety of electronic music (techno, rave, and so on). It just sounds like somebody broke out a synthesizer and started playing and didn't fucking stop, then some people get the goddamned nerve to make it ridiculously fast and it just sounds ridiculously horrid in the end (breaking one-thousand beats does not make you cooler). Now, I'm not saying that ALL electronic artists out there do this (there is probably an artist out there that I would like if I actually took the time to look), but some of the songs I've listened to have made me back away from this genre with a disapproving look on my face and letting a long, drawn out "meh" escape from my lips.

Here you go:

Spoiler

 

[tehroc]

I really dislike metalcore and screamo. Both different genres but share the exact same lack of vocal talent. All those bands sound exactly alike vocally, even death metal offer more vocal variety then those two genres. What happened to actual singers in metal bands?

OP was reported for attempting to impersonate a moderator.

 

[ReligiousNutEruption]

People that dismiss all rap or hip hop based on what they hear on the radio or see on TV drive me insane.

This is what good rap sounds like

 

[Lawyer105]

persistent

Well, well... a subtle edit 30 minutes later.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Oh and just as no-one seems to have had a go at them:

Classical, just because it seems to be a massive racket run by people just knocking out cover versions over and over. honestly, look at the top ten classical any week, and it'll be, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven etc, no original or new stuff.

Just because Simon Cowell gets away with recycling old cover versions as some kind of musical genius, classical artists shouldn't be sinking to his level.

Come up with some new stuff!

 

[TheSentinel]

You can't let me walk away from this thing, can you?

Okay, fine. You are objectively wrong. People say that opinions can't be wrong. They can. You're opinion fits the definition of opinion myopia. You cannot comprehend the fact that music you don't like is still music, because it goes against your opinion.

You. Are. Wrong.

 

[eelel]

Other than what has already been said about rap my biggest problem is Auto Tune. My problem with it is that now talentless hacks can sing in tune and make it harder for those who can sing in tune naturally or who have taken the time to learn how ti sing well to stand out. The other things that piss me off is the proliferation of bad pop music acts. That is the reason I listen to NPR so much is because no raideo stations in Northern Virginia plays anything other than that.

 

[Del-Toro]

I hate when people say they only like old or classic music when they are referring to classic rock. We all know or know of people who do this, if you're that guy, you know who you are. The issue I have with this trend is that it's incredibly myopic. After all, they make it sound as if the world didn't possess the almighty tune before Elvis Presly gave the world colour by swinging his hips(please don't think too hard about that statement, I know I didn't). More importantly, whatever "influence" they have now can't hold candle to the classical masters, as in the guys who set the foundation for western music as a whole, something eagerly forgotten as they are likely counted among the dead white men that university students are taught to hate. Aerosmith isn't that old (actual age of the members notwithstanding), they aren't from a completely different era than this one. Mozart and Tchaikovsky are (classic and old music ftw).

I also hate pop musicians like Lady Gaga, Kei$ha, Britney Spears and so on (it's not just women, they just come to mind more easily). They represent everything that is wrong with a society that justifies having less self control than a rabbit. Accuse me of planting flamebait and you are a liar. This is a complaint I have against a genre of music. My opinions are not popular, but I have never courted popularity.

Also that I have yet to meet someone else who thinks Metallica's acoustic work in otherwise standard metal songs makes the overall product better. I'm sure I'm not alone, but people who agree with me have yet to speak up.