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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  3314 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why Do All Records Sound the Same?   ·  

This article has been bugging me for seven years.

See this pretty picture?

That's the JJ Puig room at Ocean Way... or it was. He pulled out about four years ago.

Buddy of mine? Yeah, he put it in.

___________________________________________________

For the record: this was an article about the Loudness Wars written in 2008, before Spotify, before anyone gave a shit about Youtube, before iTunes bought Beats, before Google Music, back when people still listened to the radio. And it had some points. Yes, production had gotten batshit. But back then, people still thought there was a hope in hell that the giant studios would somehow take things over again, thus the slavish "love the gear, want the gear, be the gear" rant . The author, by the way, sells overpriced, ringy shit at tradeshows that mostly appeal to kids that were four when the ADAT came out.

(I owned two)

The thing of it is, popular music has ALWAYS sounded the same. It's been so formulaic that those whacky kids from the KLF wrote a book about it.

#1 hits made by bands that explicitly admit they were literally following the book:

So quit blaming the technology. People write forgettable hits because people listen to forgettable hits and it doesn't matter if they're doing it on a wire recorder or a hit-shit Pro Tools system. Garbage In, Garbage Out and it isn't the fault of the shit that plugs into the wall if the people who plug into the stream have no goddamn taste.

And I can't quite explain why it all sounds the same... with no meaning...

And I don't understand why we throw up our hands without thinking

Cell phone in my pocket do you like it's the latest on the market

Heyyy how's it goin are you feelin' the love are you in the moment

Gotta keep movin' mustn't relax am I doin' this right?

Hair slicked with body and shine I don't eat much but I feel just fine





coffeesp00ns  ·  3313 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I hate badging your comment so early because I've noticed it sometimes turns a comment into a "Final say on the issue" and hurts discussion, but I've been typing this argument out in as many words for, maybe not quite as long as you have, but long enough. People have been complaining about this shit, quality AND volume for well over two hundred years.

This is ESPECIALLY frustrating because often classical music gets trotted out as if it's some sort of fucking paragon of creativity or some shit. But then they just fucking ignore how much classical music is legitimate turd (I know, i've played some of it), and how much of that legitimate turd is subsequently forgotten. We've had 200-500 years to lose the worst of the shit in classical music, and some it still won't wipe away. We're seeing a dietician about our fibre.

People like shitty music because it's happy, it's danceable, and they don't have to think about it. Not everyone is serious about music, but it's everywhere and a useful substitute for conversation when you're doing shit alone, so those people turn to music that you don't need to be serious about. I do not begrudge them.

And in terms of Volume? in the game of volume, Organs Win, and the rest of us just try to keep up with amplifiers.

    "After I die, I shall return to earth as a gatekeeper of a bordello and I won't let any of you enter."

    —Arturo Toscanini to the NBC Orchestra

kleinbl00  ·  3313 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    And in terms of Volume? in the game of volume, Organs Win, and the rest of us just try to keep up with amplifiers.

coffeesp00ns  ·  3313 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Why do you think Bach had so many kids? He needed them to stoke the boilers and use the bellows for his church organs in Leipzig.

cgod  ·  3313 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I've suspected that things might be going backwards.

Introducing the once in a lifetime organ virtuoso, who will unalterably change the face of modern classical music.

CrazyEyeJoe  ·  3313 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hahaha, what an incredible douche! He's even worse than André Rieu. I saw another couple of videos with him, and he's clearly a fantastic player, but I don't know if I could ever get past that absolute trainwreck of a personality. I must admit, though, that as long as I don't watch him play, I kind of enjoy listening to him.