What happened to great Rock/Metal Bands??

[Coopster]

Another thread full of people failing to realize that we live in the digital age of instant communication.

There is more music widely available now, then there ever has been. The age of radio is long gone. Your music won't be spoon fed to you through the radio. You get to go out and get it yourself, with a wealth of music available on a scale that blows previous times out of the water.

Like no other time before, people can be make music and have it available to the world without the corporate music monster getting in the way, and still have their music distributed. If you aren't listening to good music, it's because you aren't looking for it. Get with the times.

And another response failing to realize availability doesn't make the music good. Are there good artists out there, sure, but they're unfocused and need direction. New ways of doing things doesn't always equal better.

 

[racerevlon]

I think part of it may be generational, but also I think institutions like MTV and iTunes have precipitated this sort of "lightning strike" mentality. Everyone is so focused on getting that one million-selling hit to get into the big dollars that there's less focus on the integrity of the music. Music has become a vehicle for money instead of creative expression.

 

[Dr. Swamp]

Another thread full of people failing to realize that we live in the digital age of instant communication.

There is more music widely available now, then there ever has been. The age of radio is long gone. Your music won't be spoon fed to you through the radio. You get to go out and get it yourself, with a wealth of music available on a scale that blows previous times out of the water.

Like no other time before, people can be make music and have it available to the world without the corporate music monster getting in the way, and still have their music distributed. If you aren't listening to good music, it's because you aren't looking for it. Get with the times.

And another response failing to realize availability doesn't make the music good. Are there good artists out there, sure, but they're unfocused and need direction. New ways of doing things doesn't always equal better.

There is more good music available now than there ever has been. Not my fault if people are too busy complaining about the good old days to go out and listen to it. Just because it isn't coming through MTV or your radio (both of which are dead and dying mediums for music proliferation) doesn't mean it isn't out there.

 

[Atropos_Project]

The shit on the radio today is more like Five Finger Death Punch... yeah, "popular" music today has hit an all-time low.

Radio by it's definition has always been garbage, and always will be aside from some outliers. It shouldn't be used as a measuring stick for much of anything.

And another response failing to realize availability doesn't make the music good. Are there good artists out there, sure, but they're unfocused and need direction. New ways of doing things doesn't always equal better.

Yes, we need more *producers* urging bands to stick to tired old songwriting formulas.

 

[Coopster]

And another response failing to realize availability doesn't make the music good. Are there good artists out there, sure, but they're unfocused and need direction. New ways of doing things doesn't always equal better.

Yes, we need more *producers* urging bands to stick to tired old songwriting formulas.

Never said that. Today's producers don't stack up to me either. They're too busy twiddling knobs. A good producer will guide a band into doing things they didn't know they could. Coax a fantastic performance out of them, make them be a better musician. Not force them into a songwriting structure.

 

[BYTOR]

Some of you guys can make all the excuses you want about the sorry state of modern rock/metal.

I was a teenager in the '80s but that didn't stop me from recognizing great songs from the '50s '60s and '70s.
and i could recognize great songs by modern bands today if they were written.

I love music in general(not just rock/metal) and always have, and i have always followed what was going on in music.
Since the late '90s till now i have noticed a serious decline in good rock/metal songwriting. period

The songs by the best rockbands of today(late '90s till today) are not even close to the best of the '60s - mid '90s
It's not even debatable.

As for Metal bands - The best of Sabbath,Maiden,Priest,Metallica,Megadeth,Dio,Ozzy will destroy any current metal band you name. I'm talking songwriting, melodies(remember them) which is all that matters. Are you going to tell me the songwriting of Machinehead, Trivium, Shadows Fall, Lamb Of God, etc.... is anyway near as good!! Oh yeah i forgot these modern bands are more brutal and they tune lower and growl more evil. My bad

 

[thiswaythatway]

Some of you guys can make all the excuses you want about the sorry state of modern rock/metal.

I was a teenager in the '80s but that didn't stop me from recognizing great songs from the '50s '60s and '70s.
and i could recognize great songs by modern bands today if they were written.

I love music in general(not just rock/metal) and always have, and i have always followed what was going on in music.
Since the late '90s till now i have noticed a serious decline in good rock/metal songwriting. period

The songs by the best rockbands of today(late '90s till today) are not even close to the best of the '60s - mid '90s
It's not even debatable.

As for Metal bands - The best of Sabbath,Maiden,Priest,Metallica,Megadeth,Dio,Ozzy will destroy any current metal band you name. I'm talking songwriting, melodies(remember them) which is all that matters. Are you going to tell me the songwriting of Machinehead, Trivium, Shadows Fall, Lamb Of God, etc.... is anyway near as good!! Oh yeah i forgot these modern bands are more brutal and they tune lower and growl more evil. My bad

Opinion Opinion Opinion. I will say one thing, if you can't recognize that Opeth writes as evil sounding, as melodic sounding material as Sabbath, Dio, Maiden, or Priest, then you're just plain tone deaf. And I'm 42.

 

[BYTOR]

I actually bought the Opeth dvd of them at the Royal Albert Hall. I have not watched all of it yet, but i liked some of what i heard. Opeth first came to my attention in the mid '90s and i thought they were interesting but never kept up with them. He growls but it is somewhat tolerable. He has totally abandoned this on their new cd , so he must have come to his senses.

I can't call myself a fan of theirs but they are interesting, and i consider them an early '90s band anyway because they started in 1990 ( 5-6 years before the rock/metal songwriting talent gene was wiped from the face of the earth)

 

[thiswaythatway]

I actually bought the Opeth dvd of them at the Royal Albert Hall. I have not watched all of it yet, but i liked some of what i heard. Opeth first came to my attention in the mid '90s and i thought they were interesting but never kept up with them. He growls but it is somewhat tolerable. He has totally abandoned this on their new cd , so he must have come to his senses.

I can't call myself a fan of theirs but they are interesting, and i consider them an early '90s band anyway because they started in 1990 ( 5-6 years before the rock/metal songwriting talent gene was wiped from the face of the earth)

This isn't their first CD without the dumb growling. Damnation had all clean vocals but it's mostly mellow. I sometimes feel how you do about the state of music but when something gets soo high to a point, there's nowhere to go but down. Look at shred and hait metal. It got so watered down, overdone, tired, that it was only a matter of time before something came along like Grunge. And Clear Channel radio nearly destroyed any hope I had but thank God for my Sirius radio player in my car.

I just pick and choose what I want and I can't really keep up anymore with popular trends anyway. And there is a lot of decent metal still in Europe and elsewhere. Take a band like Kamelot, they would have a LOT bigger if they came out in 1987 or something.

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

i don't care how much talent is required to play songs...if they sound good they sound good. if you're not a fan of the music being released, start jammin and make some tunes you do like.

ps: 80s metal sucks

My brother from another mother

 

[pstar]

It's called sitting in the pocket. Exposure given to marketable bands with the formula prescribed by record execs so the music must be sitting in the pocket that the big boys THInk they can profit from. Been there, we were swallowed up back in the late 80's early 90's, do to the label execs. and producers, forced to change our style to fit the mould, so we did. Were still bitter to this day. We were very progressive but had to conformed to the
Mould. Originally dream theater, porcupine tree, Opeth styles backlike 12-15 years ago. When u sign that deal, u lose all rights to the record u want to do. biggest hit we had was a ballad, not to be on the lp, turn to gold for us, but that's not what we set out to do. Peope forget music industry is a business, profits are the decision makers when a band becomes a pro act. Alot of outside influences take control. If u want be a rockstar u gotta plAy by their rules. Simple formula.

 

[Inearthed]

There are plenty of awesome bands out right now not even counting the "extreme" bands. Your loss if you're not tuning in and hearing them.

 

[kasperjensen]

I find that when people look back, they have a really broad fairway so to speak.

Typically the artists that are mentioned have been in the light fro
The early 60's up to the early nineties. That's 30 years. How many bands have sucked in that time?

In another 30 years it will also be easy to handpick 10 bands that stood out, and claim it was a better time for music.

 

[BYTOR]

I can take any 10 year period of rock/metal music since the '60s and destroy the last 16 year output.

I will randomly pick 1975-1985( i will choose only some of the best albums/bands from these exact years)

Rush- 2112, A Farewell To Kings, Hemispheres,Permanent Waves,Moving Pictures
VH- 1st record,Fair warning,1984
Priest- British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance
Ozzy- Blizzard, Diary
AC/DC- Dirty Deeds,Highway,Back In Black,For Those about To Rock
Maiden-Number Of The Beast, Powerslave
Dio- Holy Diver, Last In Line
Journey- Escape
Eagles-Hotel California, The Long Run
Fleetwood Mac- Rumors
Def Leppard- High'n'Dry, Pyromania
Scorpions- Blackout, Love At First Sting
Floyd- Wish You Were Here,The Wall
Queen-A Night At The Opera,The Game
Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic, Rocks
U2- War, The Unforgettable Fire
Metallica- Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning
Motley Crue- Shout At The Devil, Theatre Of Pain
Thin Lizzy- Jailbreak
Foreigner- Head Games, IV
Sabbath W/Dio- Heaven And Hell, Mob Rules
Billy Squire- Don't Say No
Rainbow- Rising

I could go on and on but you get the point.
I could choose any ten year period from the '60s forward and the last sixteen years would be a laughable joke in comparison.
I am not happy about this. It is just a fact

 

[thiswaythatway]

I can take any 10 year period of rock/metal music since the '60s and destroy the last 16 year output.

I will randomly pick 1975-1985( i will choose only some of the best albums/bands from these exact years)

Rush- 2112, A Farewell To Kings, Hemispheres,Permanent Waves,Moving Pictures
VH- 1st record,Fair warning,1984
Priest- British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance
Ozzy- Blizzard, Diary
AC/DC- Dirty Deeds,Highway,Back In Black,For Those about To Rock
Maiden-Number Of The Beast, Powerslave
Dio- Holy Diver, Last In Line
Journey- Escape
Eagles-Hotel California, The Long Run
Fleetwood Mac- Rumors
Def Leppard- High'n'Dry, Pyromania
Scorpions- Blackout, Love At First Sting
Floyd- Wish You Were Here,The Wall
Queen-A Night At The Opera,The Game
Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic, Rocks
U2- War, The Unforgettable Fire
Metallica- Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning
Motley Crue- Shout At The Devil, Theatre Of Pain
Thin Lizzy- Jailbreak
Foreigner- Head Games, IV
Sabbath W/Dio- Heaven And Hell, Mob Rules
Billy Squire- Don't Say No
Rainbow- Rising

I could go on and on but you get the point.
I could choose any ten year period from the '60s forward and the last sixteen years would be a laughable joke in comparison.
I am not happy about this. It is just a fact

Well then, what do you want from anyone here. Go record an album and change the coarse of music. If you can't and you think rock n roll is dead then sell all your music gear, quit the forums, and then you can stop worrying about it. Problem solved.

 

[suhrimmetal]

Plenty of GREAT musicians still out there...I just don't think they get the recognition or their band isn't mainstream enough to be played heavily on radio or pumped into the media market...ie: Andy Wood, Marco Sfogli, Andy James..just to name a few. There are also a shit ton of so called shredders out there that couldn't write a memorable riff or song to save their ass..they could however run 3 and 4 note runs up and down Phrygian scale at 180 bpm ... that being said, music is music..whether some think the scene is 'dead' or changed or whatnot.. just do some searching and you'll find bands that inspire and captivate whatever feelings you had when listening to those 80's and 90's bands cranked up thru your car cassette player! As far as mainstream rock...Im plenty content and sometimes damn happy with Halestorm, Black Stone Cherry, Alter Bridge, Shinedown, Down from up, Sevendust, etc. Just my 2 cents tho

 

[the rossness]

There is good, new hard rock. Check out The Living End as well as Wolfmother. They're both from Australia and are fantastic bands. They're not brutal. They are melodic. They both write catchy riffs and are just great hard rock.


The guys from A7X aren't bad either.

I wouldn't exactly call Wolfmother and The Living End unknown Plus they're really more pop now than anything hard. I wish I could get into Airborne but they're just so damn derivitive I hate 'em. I think The Darkness had a chance at being a modern rock classic but like GnR, another one and done band.

I dunno man. The last ime I saw TLE and Wolfmother, they seemed pretty hard rock to me.

I agree with you about The Darkness. You could probably even count the Stone Gods in there as well. However, the darkness are back together and are writing a new album.

Airborne's first album was good, but their sophomore effort was lacking...and lacking.

There are older bands who still write good music. Ratt's last album was fantastic. The Impellitteri album from a few years ago is pretty good too.

I guess the whole thing is, that if you're a music junkie, like we all are, record companies now days aren't concerned with signing the next Beatles...er...Van Halen. They want to follow their formula, make a quick buck, and not contribute to what used to be good about music.

 

[BYTOR]

[/quote]
Well then, what do you want from anyone here. Go record an album and change the coarse of music. If you can't and you think rock n roll is dead then sell all your music gear, quit the forums, and then you can stop worrying about it. Problem solved.[/quote]


lol, i never claimed to have the talent to write great music but i sure can recognize it when i hear it. Sadly it doesn't happen much anymore except for a few rare examples here and there.

Why would i sell my music gear when i have a blast learning and jamming to all the great tunes recorded over the years.
Plus between my Axe-Fx II, my PT100se+ and my Splawn Quickrod as well as other amps and recording gear, i'm loving modern equipment and tech shit

I want me some new great talented Rock/Metal bands that inspire me and makes me want to learn their songs and riffs and gets me excited to go to their shows. I believe it will happen at some point

There is literally not a band in the last 16-17 years that makes me feel that way(except for maybe the Foo Fighters) And i am pissed off about it!! lol

I don't close myself off from new shit, i have Sirius/Xm in the car and listen to the new shit on there as well as from other people around. The songs just are not good!!

I don't expect you forum dudes to do anything about it(hell most of you can't decide what amp you like from week to week)
i'm just venting but i guess i should just be glad for all the great tunes already out there
And that i live in sunny Florida where i have a blast !!

 

[zuel69]

Your posts are right on..the golden age has come to an end.

Well then, what do you want from anyone here. Go record an album and change the coarse of music. If you can't and you think rock n roll is dead then sell all your music gear, quit the forums, and then you can stop worrying about it. Problem solved.[/quote]


lol, i never claimed to have the talent to write great music but i sure can recognize it when i hear it. Sadly it doesn't happen much anymore except for a few rare examples here and there.

Why would i sell my music gear when i have a blast learning and jamming to all the great tunes recorded over the years.
Plus between my Axe-Fx II, my PT100se+ and my Splawn Quickrod as well as other amps and recording gear, i'm loving modern equipment and tech shit

I want me some new great talented Rock/Metal bands that inspire me and makes me want to learn their songs and riffs and gets me excited to go to their shows. I believe it will happen at some point

There is literally not a band in the last 16-17 years that makes me feel that way(except for maybe the Foo Fighters) And i am pissed off about it!! lol

I don't close myself off from new shit, i have Sirius/Xm in the car and listen to the new shit on there as well as from other people around. The songs just are not good!!

I don't expect you forum dudes to do anything about it(hell most of you can't decide what amp you like from week to week)
i'm just venting but i guess i should just be glad for all the great tunes already out there
And that i live in sunny Florida where i have a blast !![/quote]

 

[MLE]

At 51, I spent many a year dropping the needle in the grove.

Look at the list from up above. I can remember sitting with friends and listening to those albums from start to finish. Were there songs that we didn't like on the albums, absolutely, but we knew them like the back of our hands...even the ones that we didn't like.

I have a 22 year old son who loves music...he doesn't play, but listens to a wide variety. When I hear a song that I like I have asked him about the rest of the album...he has no clue. I have talked to him about it and his answer was / is, there are too many different singles being thrown at us, or most of the other songs we heard from them are totally different.

As someone said above, recording is so much different than it was before. Not only the money spent in studios, but the time spent writing albums...and I said albums. I don't remember hearing an interview that talked about writing the next number one...it was about writing a great body of work.

Listen to some of the interviews from the big names on the list and you will hear about producers that would tell them that X,Y,or Z song doesn't fit with the mood of the album. Too many bands these days record on home based systems and hand a polished demo to the record company. Again, IMO, they lack someone with a track record telling them...this works...this is rubbish.

Or I may be full of S#*t

Today, and in previous years, we have been saturated by mediocre music. I have heard singles that I thought, I'm going to dig these guys...when I get the full album - the single is literally the only thing worth listening to - or the music has no flow from song to song. It's like they have no musical direction, they just throw stuff on the wall and see if it sticks.