Lady Gaga at the Oscars
- Thread starter mystixboi1
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IamSeaDevil
WTF? FTW!
Pop music to me is the fast food of music. Full of fillers and preservatives and not the least bit good for you.
McDonald's is the most popular restaurant on earth and I am sure most of us would say it's not very good food.
Pop music is just that popular, but just because it sells a gagillion records, doesn't make it good either.
I think the way radio and our popular culture works is basically programming you to like a mediocre product. With our short attention spans they need to make it simple. That's why the beats and hooks are the way they are. Repeating the same shit over and over. Find some poor singer that has some decent singing talent and auto tune and pro tools out all the flaws. Make sure they are known not just for their music but their tabloid and reality show lifestyle. Play it every hour on the radio so it becomes programmed in your brain. Since all the cool kids listen to it I must confirm to the herd like mentality that this music is good.
After the star gets built up to such a high level, it's time to tear them down, because nothing Popular culture loves more is a falling star. Make sure TMZ and the internet documents every second of their downfall.
Start all over with someone else
Thunder, thunderhorse!
Thunder, thunderhorse!
McDonald's is the most popular restaurant on earth and I am sure most of us would say it's not very good food.
Pop music is just that popular, but just because it sells a gagillion records, doesn't make it good either.
I think the way radio and our popular culture works is basically programming you to like a mediocre product. With our short attention spans they need to make it simple. That's why the beats and hooks are the way they are. Repeating the same shit over and over. Find some poor singer that has some decent singing talent and auto tune and pro tools out all the flaws. Make sure they are known not just for their music but their tabloid and reality show lifestyle. Play it every hour on the radio so it becomes programmed in your brain. Since all the cool kids listen to it I must confirm to the herd like mentality that this music is good.
After the star gets built up to such a high level, it's time to tear them down, because nothing Popular culture loves more is a falling star. Make sure TMZ and the internet documents every second of their downfall.
Start all over with someone else
Thunder, thunderhorse!
Thunder, thunderhorse!
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Gary Blanchard
beloved, local musician
Amen. I have seen this over and over through the years. Some people will use the pop machine to get in the public eye and will then try to shift into other areas; few really succeed, though. If Lady Gaga can move away from the meat dresses to meaty performances, good for her. She may not be my cup of tea, but I wish her well.
shoeless
Riffin'
Next thing you're going to be telling me is that Justin Beiber isn't the greatest talent to come from Canada in the last 20 years.
Seriously though, that's a pretty good analogy and I couldn't agree more.
Alex W
Pork and Beans connoisseur
Pretty much dead on. There is an episode of south park that describes the same thing beautifully.
Denverdave
Resident Ragamuffin
Pretty dead on. Just add that image is everything. And that is our fault (the general public). We accept the slop that the machine tries to shove down our throats. If it did not sell they would not follow that paradigm. Profit is king.
sunvalleylaw
Yep.
I started to watch that with my daughter and wife. Our family really likes the original movie and thought that this might be pretty good. Sadly, it wasn't. At least to our taste. I thought Lady Gaga did a much better job.She's no Carrie Underwood.
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IamSeaDevil
WTF? FTW!
That's why the Grammys have no value, they are just validating the mediocrity.
The Oscars as messed up as they are, still have much more integrity than the Grammys
The highest grossing movie of 2014 was Guardians of the Galaxy. I loved that movie because I am a huge Sci-Fi and comic book nerd. Should it have won the Oscar for best picture? No it shouldn't have and it wasn't even nominated for that category.
What won was for best picture was Birdman, which was fantastic, but maybe two other people on the forum besides myself saw it.
I had to drive 30 minutes to a tiny little art house and Indie movie theater. There was no stadium seating and reclining seats. It was shown in Dolby Digital Surround sound or THX. I think the speaker closest to me crackled just a bit.
It reminded me of all the shows I go see in shitty clubs in LA.
Good films take effort to even see, just like good music takes effort to seek out and discover.
The masses don't realize this and they never will
The Oscars as messed up as they are, still have much more integrity than the Grammys
The highest grossing movie of 2014 was Guardians of the Galaxy. I loved that movie because I am a huge Sci-Fi and comic book nerd. Should it have won the Oscar for best picture? No it shouldn't have and it wasn't even nominated for that category.
What won was for best picture was Birdman, which was fantastic, but maybe two other people on the forum besides myself saw it.
I had to drive 30 minutes to a tiny little art house and Indie movie theater. There was no stadium seating and reclining seats. It was shown in Dolby Digital Surround sound or THX. I think the speaker closest to me crackled just a bit.
It reminded me of all the shows I go see in shitty clubs in LA.
Good films take effort to even see, just like good music takes effort to seek out and discover.
The masses don't realize this and they never will
TomcatMF
Vetteless
It is also much more difficult and expensive to make a movie than it is to record some songs. With modern technology it only takes a modest investment for someone to record some music, and they can do it themselves at home.
A movie on the other hand takes much more, even independent films need a pretty sizable team to get the made. As a result there are less movies being made than there are records, so the gems are easier to find, and the nature of the outlets by which we consume films puts them right in front of us.
As for music, there is so much out there, that it has become commoditized., and much of it is downright disposable, and this is due to the reason I listed above, it takes a lot less effort to make a record than it does to make a film. (although some technical breakthroughs with digital video recently may reduce some of the need for an extensive production staff). Interestingly Hollywood is starting to feel the same pain financially that the record industry has suffered in recent years for the same reason. The internet has really leveled the playing field for getting your material out there. But in the long run this will make it much more difficult for truly artistic material to get recognized.
People only have so many hours in the day, and they can't necessarily be bothered with hunting for something to entertain them that would be of artistic merit.
I think the days of making a lot of money from entertainment may be coming to a close, and as result the quality will suffer.
vonbladet
r00b
My father was a trad jazz fan, while my mother prefers light classics. She actually saw an early version of the Rolling Stones when they played a hospital she worked in. Even many years afterward she took great pleasure in telling us they were unkempt, loud and out of tune.
Personally, I have always liked pop music, although some more and some less (which is the nature of more things than that). I never thought denouncing it as frivlous nonsense with no lastiing merit unlike Real Music you have to earn the right to enjoy would get a standing ovation in a guitar forum, of all places.
I are disappoint: all y'all have turned into, or turned out to be, my parents. If anyone wants me, I shall be playing my Katy Perry albums at antisocial volume in my bedroom.
Personally, I have always liked pop music, although some more and some less (which is the nature of more things than that). I never thought denouncing it as frivlous nonsense with no lastiing merit unlike Real Music you have to earn the right to enjoy would get a standing ovation in a guitar forum, of all places.
I are disappoint: all y'all have turned into, or turned out to be, my parents. If anyone wants me, I shall be playing my Katy Perry albums at antisocial volume in my bedroom.
Alex W
Pork and Beans connoisseur
Don't get me wrong I love a good Katy Perry song, but in the same way I love a bag of Funions. Both are delicious but neither one are very good for you. I can't really draw many parallels between Katy Perry and the Stones. Pop music today compared to rock of the 60's-70's... they aren't even on the same level.
Tig
Fucktangular
The cool thing about the Oscars is that it brings forth many of the excellent films that didn't have the big advertising budget and flashy CGI action that pulls in the big money (call it mass appeal for the pop tarts crowd).
I've tried to watch Birdman twice and had to shut it off a third of the way in. I'm not "the masses" and never will be, usually enjoying offbeat cinema. Birdman tried too hard in that aspect and made it unwatchable to me.
I've tried to watch Birdman twice and had to shut it off a third of the way in. I'm not "the masses" and never will be, usually enjoying offbeat cinema. Birdman tried too hard in that aspect and made it unwatchable to me.
vonbladet
r00b
The greatest trick the 60s ever played was convincing people that that's when time started. The Stones are good pop music, but it's just Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters laundered into an acceptable form of exoticism.
Srsly, if your criticism of pop music is that the relentless beats and bacchanalian cavorting disguise a lack of lyrical and harmonic complexity, are you quite sure you've got the Stones on the right side of the divide?
(I do rather like the idea that Mozart, in particular, would be on the Sensible-Shoe Army's side in the great war against showbusiness.)
I think the difference today is that pop musicians used to be musicians. There wasn't AutoTune and music generated by picking a key and clicking "OK" to start a beat. The Beatles at their bubblegum poppiest were still writing their own music and coming up with things designed to catch the ear. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best selling albums of all time and it still featured musicianship and effort.
Now you can stick the mic up your ass on Taco Tuesday, hit record, and then a few button punches later you have a single where 74 people get writing credits. There are "artists" that can't perform "live" without a pre-taped track to bolster them. Even David Lee Roth, no great singer, ever needed that. And this is what sells and is listened to.
I'm fine with artists like Imagine Dragons, Ed Sheeran, John Legend, Fallout Boy, or Colbie Caillat because they seem to spend the time and effort to put out something they like. That's not all that common these days, though. Pop isn't bad, but you don't have to be good to make music anymore.
wok
Nasi Goreng Afficionado
Its not exactly the same. I play metal at antisocial volumes
Pine Apple Slim
Armchair Expert
I like Gaga. She is talented.Not a fan of the dance beat stuff but lyrically it's better than most of that genre. I don't fault her for the put on persona and doing what it takes to make it big in this culture. When she sits down at the piano and sings an original ballad, or covers jazz standards, or sings movie music it just proves her real talent. Not saying I would buy her music but at least she is one of the more tolerable pop stars.
Gary Blanchard
beloved, local musician
It is funny to hear the "music in my day was much better" phrase that my parents always threw at us. Same as it ever was. 
I may not like much of today's music, but I am not going put it, and those that like it, down.
"People try to put us down, just because we get around.
Things they do look awful cold; I hope I die before I get old."
(Written by now 70 year-old Pete Townshend)
I may not like much of today's music, but I am not going put it, and those that like it, down.
"People try to put us down, just because we get around.
Things they do look awful cold; I hope I die before I get old."
(Written by now 70 year-old Pete Townshend)
IamSeaDevil
WTF? FTW!
I love a lot of today's music, I just hate the majority of what is played on the radio. I would rather watch you play banjo on a stage than be in the the enormo-dome watching a Katy Perry concertIt is funny to hear the "music in my day was much better" phrase that my parents always threw at us. Same as it ever was.
I may not like much of today's music, but I am not going put it, and those that like it, down.
"People try to put us down, just because we get around.
Things they do look awful cold; I hope I die before I get old."
(Written by now 70 year-old Pete Townshend)
Gary Blanchard
beloved, local musician
And as a matter of personal preference, there is nothing wrong with that. (Except maybe the banjo part.)