MandolinPicker
As far as the comment "do you honestly think talking about online it is gonna make any real difference ?" let me ask you this - do you think staying silent will? We should be talking about it. Online, at concerts, anywhere we can. Because staying silent will ensure that it doesn't change.
 
Climbing down off of soapbox now

cclarry is doing that with IK over in the software forum. You can see how that is going. People are still buying ST3

paulo
I sort of see where you are coming from with some of what you say, particularly movies - nothing ever inspires me to want to go to the cinema any more and it seems at times like every other film is a re-make, but that said, I only glance at the mainstream stuff and have never bothered to delve deeper.

I'd recommend one of the streaming services..I would never have seen gems like 'Prince Avalanche', 'The Way', 'Into the Wild' or..umm..'Machete Kills' without having Netflix.

paulo
but that said, I only glance at the bapu posts and have never bothered to delve deeper.

 
TruDat.

MandolinPicker
 
As far as the comment "do you honestly think talking about online it is gonna make any real difference ?" let me ask you this - do you think staying silent will? We should be talking about it. Online, at concerts, anywhere we can. Because staying silent will ensure that it doesn't change.
 
Climbing down off of soapbox now

 ….hmm ……OK  
 
Staying Silent has absolutely nothing to do with it. A lot of people in every area of life can talk a good game 
 
The World is full off these types of people , especially the day after a sporting event , car race , movie premier ,….
or  just fill in the blank ….do you get my drift ? …if not , let me help clarify my point ...
 
As complex as human nature may apear …..
I usually run across two types of people when it comes time to get it done
 
The two types are …….Players and Benchwarmers  (btw... I've been both at one time or another  ) 
 
The Players are out on the feild dealing with the play as it happens …
the boxer throws the punch , the guitar player plays the song and hits the note , the software company develops a new plug…the football player drops the catch and his team looses the game …you get my drift  ?
 
Benchwarmers on the other hand are not in play unless they can get off the bench 
often times …...they appear to have all the answers ….why don't you just talk to one of them " the day after " and I'm sure you will hear a PHD level play by play disertation on how they would have run the play and won the game  
 
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
 
to whom it may concern ,  
 
Let me ask you this , 
Do you want to do something about it? ..
if you do , then by all means take a deep breath ….STFU , go to the store , and buy yourself a can of Goya beans ..
Then take the can of Goya beans and place it on top of your music rig or where ever you can always see it….
 
Now every time you look at the can of Goya beans why don't you ask yourself a simple question ...
 
AM I a Player ? or AM I a benchwarmer ?….
 
If you happen to fancy your self as a Player , then by all means take the information contained on the can of Goya beans
this formally top secret information has been declassified so it's perfectly OK to use that information to go out and" do something about it "
 
 
now some folks might not understand what I may be talking about …….so, let me spell it out  …..
 
GOYA =
…..…………….Get   
……..…………………….Off 
….…….…………………………...Your 
………….……………………………………...A$$ 
 
 
by all means ,  
feel free to disagree w me if you so choose , not everybody happens "to get tough love " in todays watered down world 
I would love to stay and chat some more if I could , but I got a John Wayne movie to watch 
 
have a nice day , 
 
Kenny

Cookie Jarvis
...sick and tired of the mediocrity of the current age?! Music, movies, books, painting...it seems like everything has degenerated into forgettable mundane averageness. Since when is dancing and rhyming speech evidence of musicianship? Loops?? Remixes(for those who can't create their way out of a paper bag...so much easier to have someone else actually create the music and then just edit it to be a genius)?? I've actually thought about creating an organization for those who write their own material...those who are able to read and write music...sing or play an instrument...the real musicians who have taken a backseat to the posers(DJs, remixers, loop manipulators, etc.). I realize this post will be polarizing but I have a feeling I'm not the only one who feels that way here :)
 
Bill

This isn't very polarizing because it is a rant you can find people over 40 making every day. It's called a generation gap and is often the result of rose colored glasses when it comes to viewing "our music" vs "their music". The 40+ generation when we were younger said similar disparaging things about what we liked. Ironically, many of the crcriticisms about modern music are either exaggerated, distorted our outright not true. Ever since the pop music era came into being, labels have pushed copycats whenever someone made a big hit, making pop music a horrible barometer for gauging the levels of musical talent in the world. The truth is more people than ever have access to instruments, musical training and recording than ever. That increase produces both good and bad. Focusing on the bad often blinds us to the fact that their are young people with a much bigger skillset than was even possible decades ago. That first chair violinist now knows how to use samplers as well as the collective knowledge of hundreds of years of the refinement of the art of violin playing. He/she can play a classical solo as well as anyone decades ago and can easily create a violin solo of genres that did not exist.

Some of the critiscisms are based mostly on stereotypes. The era where sample loop based music dominated charts was brief and passed long ago. Although the occassional hit will arise using a retro sample, the charts are dominated by non-loop creations. Not saying that makes the pop music any better or less monotonous. I have heard sample based music far more original and creative than some pop hits made from scratch. I'm just stating the fact that claims about loops are a bit of a misleading non-issue. Sure, software companies sell lots of loops to amatuers hoping to emulate their pop heros, but the odds of those loops being used in a an actual commercially viable hit is slim. These days when that does occur it is usually a very gimicky song that is atypical of current trends.

You also make the assumption that people who use modern methods do not know how to read or write music. My observation is the ratio is not much different. Of the kids I work with the absolute best pianist and best guitar player are equally comfortable using samplers. One girl I work with plays at least 6 orchestral instruments and is comforable using FL Studio to bang out beats. This same girl could go note for note on a guitar solo with most of the people who post here.

Benchwarmer?  Heck, I'm doing more than just warming it! 
(I've got gas too...)

I do get annoyed - quite a bit. 
 
But we need to remember - it's only pop culture, and its prominence is a recent phenomenon. Personally, most of what's out there these days doesn't have any appeal to me. So I try to focus on other things.
 
It's a common thing in this day and age to assume that we most constantly absorb the unfiltered products of this day and age's (pop) culture, that we need to like and buy new records, new books, new movies all the time. And we get sucked into that pattern.
 
Unsurprisingly, when we consider culture from such a consumer point of view, we end up feeding on empty calories or cursing them. Unless we assume that true creative genius is constantly producing equal quality work, we're bound to face some drought. 
 
And what's 40 or 50 years in history? 
 
The way I see it, one could spend their life studying the work of J.S. Bach or Mozart and not live long enough to go through Beethoven after that. 
 
If anything, every time I listen to a Beatles or a Black Sabbath record, I'm wasting an opportunity to discover the work of a classical master. 
 
Same goes for literature... I've spent the last 20-some years of my life studying the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, and I'll most probably keep at it the rest of my life. German philosophers alone could keep me busy for a dozen lifetimes. So I can't let it drag me down if Britney Spears' biography is the biggest selling book this month.
 
So, yes it annoys me to see that they're rolling out superhero movies by the dozen and recently discovered a  golden ticket called "rebooting" to further recycle the same dried up ideas.
 
But  maybe it's a good thing that there isn't much to distract me. As a man living in 2014, for a limited amount of time, I already have too much on my hands, even taking into account only what matters to me. The world is going to head where it's heading no matter what I like and what I don't like. So I focus on what's meaningful in MY life.

I was a player in 70's and 80's.
A bench warmer in the 90's.
A quarter player/benchwarmer in the 00's.
A half player/benchwarmer in the 2010's
A half wit player that loves to play and sing and not so much a bench warmer but my day job keeps me from really playing ALL the time.  
So I think that makes me a play-bench warmer?
Maybe a full time player in my heart that has to sit down more than in previous years?
 
 
Yeah, that's it.

 

craigb
Benchwarmer?  Heck, I'm doing more than just warming it! 
(I've got gas too...)

hhmm, I wonder ,
did somebody we all happen to know and love around here let the bacon jump straight out the frying pan ?
Or did they  go out and open up the can of Goya beans first ? 
 
Craig, here's an alternative option for you  this guitar is on our local C List ….. 

 
Kenny
 

Rain touches on something I try to do; focus on other things. Paying too much attention to pop culture can make you miserable and prevent you fron discovering the many gems that exist outside of the pop world.