Quote:
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud
Music is a matter of taste.
Being a great player is not.
You specifically mentioned "great players". Well, they just don't exist in today's music. There are no groundbreaking guitarists, bassist, drummers or singers. For the most part, these guys can barely ****ing play their instruments or sing, AT ALL.
Pro Tools and programs like it give audio engineers and producers unprecedented means to alter recorded sound. Drummer can't play in time? Use Beat Detective. Drums were poorly recorded? Use Sound Replacer and choose from thousands of well recorded drum samples.
Can't play your guitar or bass? Shift them in time. Can't tune? Use Melodyne Editor to properly tune. Can't get a "proper" guitar or bass sound? Take a direct signal and re-amp into a great sounding rig.
Can't sing? Use Melodyne or Autotune to "magically" put singers in time and in proper pitch.
All of this has led to bands that can't play, but yet sell records (i.e. Jonas Brothers, et al).
And you're probably right: I don't have much respect for people making electronic music because all it takes is a computer and a few software programs to "create" music, even though the majority of that music uses loops, prerecorded beats and pre-programmed arpeggios.
Again, go ahead an name some "great players" from this past decade.
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Dane, I always think of "great players" as bands that can play a set on stage and really switch it up, even with fairly minimal pre-recorded sounds. And I think there are plenty of bands who can do that if you dig far enough. I agree with you on Kings of Leon--saw a concert and every single track sounded as if it was straight from the album. But you have to dig deeper. There's a lot of really terrific indie bands that are doing a lot of really interesting things with experimental sound. And not all of it is electronic. I agree you don't have as many pure musicians out there. Though there are some--kills me to say it, but Dave Matthews' entire band (especially when coupled with Tim Reynolds and Bela Fleck) and John Mayer are insanely talented musicians. Wilco and Ben Folds are also pretty terrific, and their music is much better.
But I think you're missing out on a lot of indie bands that put on pretty amazing shows, even if they don't have a ton of electronics to muddle them up. I think what's been more impressive is the way modern music has been able to make a lot of instruments work together. The Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem have a bajillion players on one stage at any given time. You're seeing a lot of bands experiment with multiple drummers, with drummers who play other percussion (e.g. Why? has a drummer that can play drums and vibraphone at the same time, which is insanely difficult).
So I agree, it's a matter of taste. I think there are a lot of terrific musicians out there. I just don't think it's the style anymore in indie music for one guy to dominate the stage. I think you see a lot of bands that are doing amazing things with a lot of really talented musicians working together.