Dizzy O Brian
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8/24/2007 6:56:38 PM
---- Updated 9/8/2007 3:23:12 AM
New? Music Release
Hearing about all the legal actions being filed over alleged song stealing brings to mind a professor of music history I had who made the claim that everything after Bach was a restatement. Seeing as how all the composers mostly used the same chords, this was difficult to argue.
In our day and age, most pop music is still being generated from the blues chord progressions of the fourties.
Some say, however, that a new version is a new version and this is a legitimate process. It does raise an interesting question about there being such a thing as new music.
Perhaps music, like fashion, just changes from generation to generation.
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8/25/2007 2:24:56 PM
This is an interesting topic. On one hand I totally disagree with the premise. Of course it's possible to write a totally new tune, despite the fact we all have a lot of influences. Sure you may use a common D - A - G or C - F - G chord progression but there are INFINITE melodies that have never been written yet to go on top of that. The problem is that sadly enough, many new songwriters only aspire to emulate, basically clone music they've heard and don't push themselves to actually attempt writing crisp new melodic phrases. They settle for making a piece of music that fits like a glove in some style, and for cryin' out loud, it's no wonder they think this is the way to go because that's what you get in today's rigid radio formats.
A striking example of this absurdity is in the death metal genre. One guy I think in the late 70s or early 80s, I forget who, started using the low voice which I call frogman, and I've literally (believe me on this, I listen to more bands than probably anyone on the face of the earth haha), have heard probably 500 indie bands with frogman singing. It's ridiculous. Can you be original with a froggy vocal ? hmm, I'll abstain from answering that one.
But I hear great new poprock hooks every day of the week. On this site. There are songwriters here that SHOULD BE dominating the mainstream CD charts. I could easily name 20, 50, 100 acts here right now that are better than any new band found in your mall CD store since Nirvana broke. But the idiots who run the major labels and do programming for the radio monopolies want to keep their jobs so they find PRODUCT that resembles their other top acts, playing it safe, regarding music like a brand of battery or breakfast cereal. David Crosby said the following and I think it's probably the crux of things and why indie music is demonstrably better than mainstream in this era. He said that back in the late 60s, early 70s which many regard as the hey day of pop/rock music, the artists themselves were in charge of talent for the record companies. And now, businessmen do that. Well the businessmen have been dropping the ball. It's our loss cause the music that dominates our society sucks and it's their loss too because they could be selling many more records if they had interesting music on the radio. They want to believe they know what people like but there's no way of proving otherwise, cause most people will buy based on what they believe their choices are and they are not being provided with the proper choices. heh But I digress, back to the topic.. there are many more great songs to be written and in all styles. People who think it's all been done before, well, they should hang up their headphones for a few years and come back when they really need music again.
Now I'd like to address another side issue of this topic which was mentioned briefly. I believe that, in reality, "new music" is music you haven't heard before. There are Beatles and Hendrix bootlegs out there, for instance, that will blow your mind if you're a fan. Don't try to tell me that an unreleased Beatle track rumored to be coming out in a few months isn't new music. btw, the indie music world is the perfect avenue for great artists who never got their due. If you haven't realized it yet, the people who love music the most are within our realm. Indie music fans go farther and beyond the call of duty to find music they're passionate about, it's a fact. The guy who goes on iTunes 4 times a year to fill his iPod with mainstream hits, oh looky, Mariah has a new one.. music is not the factor in his life that it is to most of us. That may sound a little opinionated but to some, music is an accessory. To others, it's the main thing.
Indieland is the perfect avenue to bring great music to the world when Clear Channel and other corporate tastemakers won't. Take Jim Carroll, for instance. He's inflential to so many artists, yet so many people have never h
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