Fun with VH1

[danasgoodstuff]

I watched most of VH1's 100 greatest of the o-o's, or whatever they called it last night with my 10 yr old daughter, in part to see what her reaction was. Still a little girl, in a not very little girl-friendly world so we talked about how 'life is not a music video', etc. The music was pretty blah for the most part, a hook and a decent catch phrase at best - doesn't anyone write whole songs anymore? Even the riffs, played or sampled, weren't much to my ears. The really depressing part was the commentary from musicians, comics, C-list celebs and a couple of Mob Wives. "everybody loves that song", um no. "In the club..." large groups of drunks like anything at high volume. and the celebration of a recordings genericness, "Oh, that's really _____(one cliche or another)" Compared to this shit, Leroi Jones really is a freakin' genius. And yes I do listen a little beyond the hits, but most of what I've heard for the last several decades strikes me as vague approximations of music - most frustrating, the use of what I call 'barbless hooks' where a starts to get catchy but is then left unfinished, seemingly on purpose...

[Dave James]

I have a group of seven friends who are all into popular music. We all grew up within 10 years of each other, so our taste in music, while not in lockstep, is somewhat consistent. Since we all share this same interest, we've developed a contest based on the Billboard Top 100 songs of a given five year period. Each of us puts together a group of our ten favorite songs from that period, we play them anonymously and then vote on each song using a scale of 1-5. The winner is the one who accumulates the most points. We all go camping once a year for a few days and that's when we do this. It's a good excuse to throw back some road pops, play some golf, argue about music and insult one another. Anyhow, to make a long story short, we began several years ago with 1965 and we've now worked out way up to 1980. Those of us who have reviewed the Top 100's from '80-'84 have all mentioned the extreme drop off in the overall quality of music that seems to have begun around that time. Sure, there are still some good songs, but it's nothing like what we've had to work with up until now. The question I've asked myself is to what extent this is a reflection of technology. Granted, the internet was still in its infancy as was the manipulation of sound. As the '80's wore on, however, producers and engineers began to find new ways that started moving recorded music into what I'll call a more unnatural environment. To me, that was the dividing line, when the industry stepped onto that first slippery slope that taken us to where we are today.

[Shawn]

When trying to judge the merits of current music, the very first rule is to avoid the radio, VH1 or any other major label driven endeavor. If it's popular, most likely it's shit. Lots of good music still being made, you just have to dig down into the niches to find it.

Granted, I've never been a fan of "popular music", regardless of era.

Edited March 5, 2012 by Shawn

[.:.impossible]

Sounds like fun Dave!