jamesg1213
 
 
Beepster, you talk a lot of sense. Very well put.

Uh oh... when I start making sense something is very wrong. Please contact your nearest medical center or psychiatric facility.
 
;-p
 
But, yeah... I didn't realize it for many years but I almost exclusively went to and played shows in those microcosms. Whenever I'd venture out to a big show or play one it rubbed me completely the wrong way and I did not have any fun at all. I do hate overly large crowds though and I think there is a maximum size a venue can be before the sound starts to suck complete pickle shafts.

David Byrne's book "How Music Works" is an excellent read if you're interested in this subject. He writes a lot about scenes and how they come about. Great book.

SteveStrummerUK

jamesg1213
Where have they all gone?
 
Where are the musical 'tribes' these days?
 
What happened to the Zeitgeist?

 
They all got a mention in here...
 

 
 
Everything is pretty much the same these days, I know exactly what you mean mate.
 
First it was Stock, Aitken & Waterman, and now it's Simon Cowell who decides what gets recorded.
 
And part of the problem with sh1te like Pop Idol and X-Factor is that everyone wants to famous yesterday, without having to go through the 'sleeping in the back of a Transit and playing every night trying to build up a fanbase' right of passage.
 
I could almost watch X-Factor and its ilk if the contestants actually wrote their own tunes. Let's be honest, it's nothing more than Karaoke on TV.
 

 
To a certain extent, it was always thus (Chinn-Chapman cornered the market in the '70's, Holland-Dozier-Holland before them)..except things would burst through occasionally, and capture the youth imagination.
 
I know it's probably a middle-aged bloke thing, but I'm looking for any kind of 'movement' here where music defines the time, and I'm coming up short. The last time seems to me to have been Brit-Pop or Rave culture in the '90's.
 
 

sharke

Beepster
The underground hip hop and various dance sub genres seem to be the counterculture gathering points these days. I've been to some of those events and around the people so as somewhat of a foreigner to all that had some of the divisions explained and afterwards could tell the nuances when presented with them.

The problem with the dance scene now is that it's nothing new or revolutionary, so it's missing that whole vibe. I was there at some of those early acid raves and it was a wonderful atmosphere, something genuinely new. We'd see older guys of 30-40 at those parties who would tell us that it was like nothing they'd experienced back in "their" day. But if I went to a rave now as an older guy, could I say the same thing? Hardly - we've done it all before. To be honest if someone was to go back in time and play some of today's "hottest" EDM to us in the early 90's, we wouldn't have batted an eyelid. In fact much of it has that commercial pop tinge that we hated back then because it signified the rise of the cheesy superclubs and the egocentric big name DJ's toward the mid 90's.

I'd like to think that kids these days were experiencing something underground and revolutionary, but with the advent of the Internet and social media I'm not sure that's possible any more.

I bet if you poked around Manhattan you could find some creme de la creme in the back alley spots and warehouses. If it ain't there it likely ain't anywhere.

sharke
David Byrne's book "How Music Works" is an excellent read if you're interested in this subject. He writes a lot about scenes and how they come about. Great book.

Thanks for the reminder Sharke, you've mentioned that book before, and I'm going to order a copy.

jamesg1213

sharke
David Byrne's book "How Music Works" is an excellent read if you're interested in this subject. He writes a lot about scenes and how they come about. Great book.

Thanks for the reminder Sharke, you've mentioned that book before, and I'm going to order a copy.

Oh bugger, that's £10.49 about to be vacuumed out of my bank account

SteveStrummerUK

jamesg1213

sharke
David Byrne's book "How Music Works" is an excellent read if you're interested in this subject. He writes a lot about scenes and how they come about. Great book.

Thanks for the reminder Sharke, you've mentioned that book before, and I'm going to order a copy.

Oh bugger, that's £10.49 about to be vacuumed out of my bank account

mine too, just had the confirmation email...

jamesg1213

SteveStrummerUK

jamesg1213

sharke
David Byrne's book "How Music Works" is an excellent read if you're interested in this subject. He writes a lot about scenes and how they come about. Great book.

Thanks for the reminder Sharke, you've mentioned that book before, and I'm going to order a copy.

Oh bugger, that's £10.49 about to be vacuumed out of my bank account

mine too, just had the confirmation email...

Even though it wasn't a direct recommendation from you, it's still your fault.
 
Your thread, your fault.
 
If I was in any position to do so, I would administer you a sound rebuking.
 
 
 
 

 
 
Sorry, but I can't help pissing myself every time I see, hear, read, or even  think about the work "rebuke"
 
 
And yes, I know - 'see' and 'read' amount to pretty much the same thang.
 
 
 
 
 
 

sharke
A lot of the original punks are still around and still dressed exactly the same as they were 35 years ago, only with a bit less hair and a lot more wrinkles. I was in a band with some older punks when I was 16 and am still in touch on Facebook. You have to hand it to them - into their 50's and they're still living the lifestyle. A lot of them said they were "punks for life" back then and they clearly meant it.

When I read this, the smell of stale beer, mold, concrete, iron, leather and weed came to me.