'Why Can't Music Sound Like This?'
Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 12:01AM Every time I watch a classic Glam video on YouTube, there's at least 12 comments that all basically say "Why can't music today sound like this?" For years now, I've read those comments and just shook my head a little. Then, a few hours ago, it just sort of hit me: "Why the hell can't music today sound like [insert classic Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Aerosmith]?" Professional music is a business after all. It is driven by what the consumer wants and will pay for. It seems like a lot of consumers are asking for music that sounds like Hysteria... but are they just not willing to pay for it? Or do the labels just not care? Basically pop country has evolved out of the model of Glam metal (yes, seriously). I don't care for country at all, but it is a music format that works... and sells albums. I guess Hip Hop or R&B sell too because that's all you see on every music awards show these days. I watched the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night and I didn't know 80% of the acts... and I'm 34!
So what's going on here? Is it because labels all basically suck now and don't support their talent or put money behind them? Is it because artists can just make their own albums with a laptop and release via Facebook so there isn't a big marketing machine? Is it really because people just steal music? I'll be honest, all the people I know in real life buy music - none of my friends steal. Maybe it's because we're a little older, all grew up actually buying tapes and CDs and really appreciate music.
If an album came out today that sounded like, say, Hysteria, would it be successful? Would it reach a RIAA Diamond status like the real Hysteria? People say it's impossible to even go platinum these days, but that isn't true. Plenty of new acts have done it. Lady Gaga is a great example. She sort of came out of nowhere and made her own way. Then again, she's commercial pop, had a huge label pushing her and radio went "gaga" over her debut and subsequent tunes.
So do people REALLY want current music to sound like 1988 Whitesnake or not? Or is it just us rockers that know and appreciate real music (and talent)?
Reader Comments (33)
There isn't a chance in hell of a record made on somebody's laptop, in ProTools sounding anything like a quality record recorded in a good recording studio, with great mics on 2 inch analog reel to reel tape. The inherent "warmth" of analog tape compression can never be replicated digitally.
When we were listening to Hysteria in 1987, Stones fans were wishing for albums like Exile on Main St (I'm still wishing for one).
Times change. Plenty of youngins love 80's glam. Never gonna get that mix of debauchery, fun party vibe we had. 60's never came back.
Time keeps in ticking (ticking ticking ticking) into the future.......
To me, nothing will ever sound as good as Hysteria and a few other albums that came out around that time. It's not because people don't make great music anymore (they do), it's because I'm not 17 anymore. There is something about being young that makes you more able/open to fall head over heels in love with a band/song/album whatever. And it wasn't just music - there are movies, video games, books & other things from that time that I loved with an energy that isn't possible anymore.
I listen to new bands all the time and still get quite heavily attached to one album/band or another. But it's not the same. I analyze things more, I have 25 years of extra experience to compare them with, and I'm not going out every weekend to hear the music with my friends and actually bond over it.
Mainstream Rock n Roll that everyone likes doesn't exist right now, some songs have been close. Top 40 radio needs those songs to crack into their playlist. Video countdowns need those songs to be on their list. Enough of Katy Perry singing the exact same song, insert (rapper) with a crazy hook that is catchy as hell but you won't hear from again, the coldplays, etc...
There is such good rock n roll out there now, too bad it doesn't get played :( Instead we get, I'm coming at you like a dark horse ? And don't even get me started on "country" music. You said it perfectly calling it POP country. How many ways can you sing about getting drunk with the same 10 ways to describe it ?
Music has gone to complete shit, and I was not around in the 80s to be stuck up and ignorant about it. The way it has kind of been is that the rockers are kind of separated from everybody else. I am sorry but it takes no fucking talent whatsoever to take a generic singer, put his voice into a computer, and let the computer do all the work and filter everything out. It makes everything sound the same, generic, boring, and corporate. I am one to like a little country when I am in the mood. But country is nothing but pop with a twang. Taylor Swift is a brilliant songwriter, but they call it country? Hell no. Its pop. It gets filtered so much. On the rock side now, I have faith in Dave Grohl to keep on kicking ass and doing what he is doing. They sound so distinct from everybody else, and all of their tours sell out, AND they are selling albums. I'll get flack for some of the bands that I mention but what Corey Taylor does is what I am going to keep faith in too. His songwriting and emotion is enough to keep fans with both of his bands, and have the loyal fan base buy albums. Albums are still alive for some, but for bands like Stone Sour touring is where its at. They sell some, but they're road dogs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjqSDG7ygDw
Unless you are country, rap or pop...it's pretty pointless for the most part to make a full new studio album.
Teens were the major factor as to why all of the bands we love had huge success in the past.
Today's teens who are metal fans don't really buy CD's, they just buy songs off their computers, as evident by little to no metal bands ever being on the Billboard charts for years.
There will be no more landmark albums like 'Hysteria'.
No more real rock stars.
Kurt Cobain being the last one & he's been dead for 20 years. "Nevermind" (23 years ago) was the last CD to come out and shake things up.
All the successful Creed's & Nickleback's since have been safe/predictable, kid tested mother approved metal.
Bands like Motley Crue, Nirvana & Guns N Roses lived & breathed their music/lyrics.
The music/lyrics they wrote mirrored their lives.
All the crazy stories you read about them in newspapers/magazines were real & in their lyrics.
Most metal bands today talk about how they play cell phone video games after their concerts to unwind.
They live boring dull lives & it shows in their music.
Back in the day when metal bands blew up it was because teens went out in droves to but the new album/tape/CD.
Holding a album/tape/CD w/badass covers, cool band pictures & rebellious lyrics to look at is a lot more exciting way to spread the word about a band to your friends.
(as well as magazines like Metal Edge, Rip and Hit Parader)
Having a tiny device w/random songs on it doesn't hold the same allure.
Most teens these days could care less if they bought another CD & only care about buying a disposable song for $1 to put on there Ipod or MP3 player or whatever.
MTV was a major factor in the rise of all the big 80's/early 90's metal bands.
MTV today only plays music videos from 4AM to 6AM & every single one is either rap or club music.
"16 & Pregnant" & "Teen Mom" have replaced "Headbangers Ball" & "Beavis & Butthead" as the shows to watch.
Music isn't as special as it used to be to today's youth. When you hear about some new band having a big selling itunes song, it's just something you hear, it's not tangible.
Buying the physical copy of a bands album made it special. Still to this day I can remember what store I bought "Dr Feelgood" from or how I skipped school to buy "In Utero". Nobody's gonna look back fondly on the time they downloaded some song while sitting at home in their underwear.
It's all about the total package, the CD, the posters hanging on your bedroom wall that you ripped out of metal magazines, MTV being all about the music etc. Looking at stuff on the internet doesn't give off the same energy.
That's why Nirvana was the last band to give metal a kick in the ass. Soon after Kurt committed suicide "Headbangers Ball" was cancelled and MTV started airing reality shows and less videos. All the metal magazines started going out of business. N Sync and Backstreet Boys became all the rage and now rap and country have ruled the charts for more than a decade. Most teens now ask "Are you a DJ' instead "Do you play guitar"
And, I think your pricing for CD's is a bit skewed. $20? Since when? I'm not sure when you last actually bought a CD, but I know that when I did, yesterday, {the new Down N' Outz CD} it was $10.99, not $20.
Either way, I think you kind of missed the actual point of this thread.
Even if u paid $18 for a cd. I vividly recall paying something like $14.99 for a new LP back in '87. So considering were 25 years later; $20 or $18 for a cd in 2014 is not that bad.
Just don't buy music that much anymore. Unfortunately selling music is less important in an artists bottom line. So they tour, sell merch etc.
Streaming is growing faster than every other segment in the industry, and for the first time ever, digital download volumes are declining.
But none of this s really the point anyway... it's just distribution. At the end of the day, Hysteria is amazing because of the music, not because of how it was distributed.
I also regularly read a site dedicated to country music that bemoans the current state of that genre. As much as they seem diametrically opposed, there are a lot of similarities between those that long for 80's hard rock and those that long for a more traditional country sound.
It's still out there, for both genres, you just have to look to find it. Neither is going to be played on radio.
There is a move towards a mono-genre, where everything gets mashed up together and it all sounds, well, like crap. And when that happens, metal is ahead of the game because we have always been good at sub-genre-ing. (I know that's not a real word). Thrash, glam, hair, pop, black, speed, etc., etc.
All this homogenization of music is going to lead to a massive micro-genre split. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe not.
I thought my ridiculously long rant would have got some kind of response by now.
My whole point was that even if some new band comes along & makes a new CD that is just as good if not better than 'Hysteria' it wont matter because metal fans these days pretty much only buy singles (metal albums on the Billboard 200 just don't exist anymore & haven't for a long time)!
Some new band could come out w/a CD that is just as good if not better than 'Hysteria' but it wont matter because that whole CD will never sell like a Country, rap or pop CD would sell like this day & age.
Metal is dead!
Metal albums/CD's are dead!
Never again will there ever be another landmark album like...
'Hysteria'
'Nevermind The Bollocks'
'Appetite For Destruction'
'Dr Feelgood'
'Nevermind'
Buying single songs off computers is the sad future!
To quote the Sex Pistols...
"No future for you!!!"
Thing is, a couple of other posters (the names are redacted to keep things civil) are also making the same point, albeit in that “hey, you meddling kids, get off my lawn” sorta’ way. They want to be enveloped in the warm liquid sound of the past, while sitting in their hand-shaped chair, shag carpet tickling their toes, as . . . wait, Hot Tub Time Machine?!!? A sub-set of this group are even absent-minded enough to replace “I don’t like this new stuff” with “this stuff is crap,” recalling all the hullabaloo—and that is the best term—that rebel Elvis caused with his era’s version of “hippity hop.”
The issue of stealing is a thorny one. Recall an older set of posts where some of us basically noted (and this fits with Jakki’s point in some ways) that mix-tapes were an old-tech version of stealing that no one real got bothered about . . . just like VHS copies that people passed around of movies on Showtime or HBO. Thing is, it didn’t threaten a system that at that point was large and strong enough to set the larger terms (and economics) of the music industry. But the downfall of that system isn't solely to blame for the decline we suppose has happened, or even for the changes in music, or in distribution.
I suppose it is a matter of emphasis and shading here. Some are going to defend the act of stealing as a noble act of rebellion, acting like Rage Against the Machine when they are probably trying to sound a bit more like pre-Napster era Metallica. Others (and this fits with Bryon’s distribution point) are going to counter that there are more ways to support a band as the overall market has dried up, some of which are stealing under the most broad definition. Even some bands keep toying with the formula, out of frustration or out of interest in these newer methods of delivery.
If you want to get meta about it, I think it is simple: the albums we wish were (re-)made now won’t be made now because they are of their time . . . and so are we. They are “good” and “great” because of a host of things—the summer, the first listen, the heavy-petting, the whatever—that they inspired, inflamed, or help us even now to recall. Sure, a classic sound from a classic band is always welcomed (Ratt’s _Infestation_, Van Halen’s _A Different Kind of Truth_, as but two examples). But _Out of the Cellar_ or even _Women and Children First_? Nope. Never again.
And this isn’t an issue of stealing, or new styles and tastes, or even the system. We are, to put it bluntly, the old(-er or –ish) ones now. In another few spins of this ball we sit on, our kids are going to be bemoaning the loss of Slipknot or even Korn. I am not kidding and I don’t have to joke about that (even if I laugh at those bands). Why? Because I am now _that guy_ in the khaki shorts, watering my lawn, shaking his head, as another knucklehead rolls down the block blaring some “God awful music” while he mutters to himself: “if only they knew what real music sounded like . . .”
Let’s face it: for every Sex Pistols (itself a pre-fab slice of calculation), there is a Public Image Ltd. Times change. We change. But we don’t have to stop loving the music that helped get us to this point.
Coda: one of the things I like about music? It doesn’t get old if you don’t want it to and you can always find new music if the stuff you has does. People like Metalboy! are always pointing people to new things that sound like old stuff or put a new spin on the formula. It is one of those things that keeps me coming back to this site.
I also realize this Glam Metal Detox, which had me crawling back to 70's Classic Hard Rock for those 2 months, was a reaction partly due to RATT sputtering out right before the cruise, canceling their obligation to play on it AND subsequently, their careers.
But I want you all to know I'm now fully recovered, having gone to sleep listening to Crue's first album every night for the last 3 days. What a masterpiece even they could not top, and in the end, the one album that encapsulates a certain purity of impure thought, if you will, fully capturing the finest moment of the entire era we cherish.
You guyz want attitude? Here it is in full glory with every light and shade... "Too Fast For Love". As much as I love it, Def Leppard's "Hysteria" doesn't hold a candle to it because it's overproduced pop sheen masks it's honesty, something later Crüe albums suffered from, as did Poison subsequent to "Look What The Cat Dragged In". As much as I love the Tom Wermanizing or Mutt Langification of the sound of the 80's, it's Crue's true launching of the genre that is the way I really want to remember it.
There will NEVER be another "Livewire" or "Merry-Go-Round".
When the final chord is struck by Mick Mars on the final song of the final date of their final tour, it will mark The End of Rock & Roll as we all have chosen to remember it.
p.s. Jakki, extra kudos to you on your comments here. HIM, as usual, always an interesting perspective and I certainly appreciate the sentiments of your shout out, something I also feel about you and so many of you with all of your great suggestions of new and exciting acts to listen to. Allyson, you are our guiding light, constantly exposing us to the true diamonds of Glam, both new AND old (Slave Raider, anyone?). Hey, Kenny O! I'm on my way to "The Church of Rock and Roll" coming up soon -- That's right! Foxy Shazam right here in Orlando! Thanks for the tip! Maybe Rock & Roll ain't dead yet.
p.s. Also, one last thought... Bands, both new and old, should always aspire to make a whole album (not an EP), as that is a complete statement of Rock & Roll in it's purest form. So what if no one hears it or downloads it. They should make entire albums for themselves just the way Crüe did out of the gate with their first one. Who knew they would eternally inspire The Glam Metal Generation when they made it? RIP, RATT.