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Post by Kapitan on May 13, 2021 18:36:52 GMT
Here's a new column by local music critic (and RnR HoF voter) Jon Bream:
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Post by kds on May 13, 2021 19:34:49 GMT
Here's a new column by local music critic (and RnR HoF voter) Jon Bream:
Amen.
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Post by kds on May 17, 2021 15:26:40 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on May 17, 2021 15:43:45 GMT
Hmm. I agree with him in some ways: rock and roll is a big tent, and different people who prefer different subgenres are bound to be unhappy with other ones. I think the boundaries of rock are very blurry.
But telling people who disagree that they just need to open their mind--making it seem like their opinion is incorrect, that they are the problem, and they need to solve that problem by shutting up and going with the program--doesn't show a lot of respect for either music fans or the idea of a big tent with blurry boundaries.
One interesting experiment might be asking the various artists across subgenres whether they consider themselves to be making rock and roll. I suspect you'd get a lot of blues rock, AOR, pop rock, metal, rockabilly, traditional R&B, and other subgenres saying yes. I also suspect you'd get jazz and hip hop artists saying no.
Think about that likely reality: an artist who says she isn't rock and roll and whom rock and roll fans say isn't rock and roll being, in effect, told to shut the hell up because "I said she is."
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Post by kds on May 17, 2021 16:01:17 GMT
Hmm. I agree with him in some ways: rock and roll is a big tent, and different people who prefer different subgenres are bound to be unhappy with other ones. I think the boundaries of rock are very blurry.
But telling people who disagree that they just need to open their mind--making it seem like their opinion is incorrect, that they are the problem, and they need to solve that problem by shutting up and going with the program--doesn't show a lot of respect for either music fans or the idea of a big tent with blurry boundaries.
One interesting experiment might be asking the various artists across subgenres whether they consider themselves to be making rock and roll. I suspect you'd get a lot of blues rock, AOR, pop rock, metal, rockabilly, traditional R&B, and other subgenres saying yes. I also suspect you'd get jazz and hip hop artists saying no.
Think about that likely reality: an artist who says she isn't rock and roll and whom rock and roll fans say isn't rock and roll being, in effect, told to shut the hell up because "I said she is."
Exactly. I don't need some suit who has probably never paid for a concert ticket in his life to tell me that I need to open my mind because I don't think Jay Z is a "rock and roll" artist. That's a whole other gripe of mine, the whole "expand your mind" nonsense. Why? Because I don't like a particular artist or genre, that makes me "closed minded." That's horseshit. That's just telling me that my opinion doesn't matter.
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Post by Kapitan on May 17, 2021 16:21:30 GMT
I think "open your mind" is a legitimate sentiment sometimes, but really only when the "closed mind" is really an outlier, and harmful to someone. (For example, if you don't think women belong in the workplace and actively resist their leadership, input, contributions.)
But when we're talking about something as unimportant as musical taste and boundaries of genres? And what's more, when you're doing it in a top-down, elitist way to the people who happen to be the actual fans of that genre? Absurd.
(Also I should note I don't think telling people to open their minds really ever works. People don't take well to condescending orders whether the people are wrong or right.)
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 2, 2022 13:54:21 GMT
Seems like it's that time again: time for KDS to let us know what he thinks about the hallowed Hall. This year's nominees:
Beck Pat Benatar Kate Bush Devo Duran Duran Eminem Eurythmics Judas Priest MC5 Fela Kuti New York Dolls Dolly Parton Rage Against the Machine Lionel Richie Carly Simon A Tribe Called Quest Dionne Warwick
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Post by kds on Feb 2, 2022 14:02:49 GMT
I'm actually making an effort to not get worked up about things as insignificant at Jann Wenner Presents the "Rock and Roll" Hall of Fame.
Of course, I might think differently once Priest gets snubbed again.
I'm a little surprised the voters don't consider that Rob Halford was a closeted homosexual man in a very ultra masculine genre until coming out in 1998.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 2, 2022 15:07:01 GMT
I will say that at least most of these acts warrant inclusion in some sort of Popular Music Hall of Fame, even if only about a third of them probably would be considered rock and roll by most people's definitions. But there is something odd about lumping together Fela Kuti, Kate Bush, Dionne Warwick, Devo, Eminem, and Judas Priest as if they were all the same thing.
Even if you just expand the name "rock and roll" to mean "popular music," it seems there should be categories for inclusion. People like Fela Kuti and Kate Bush--and even the NY Dolls and MC5--are more influential than popular, while Duran Duran or Judas Priest were platinum-selling artists selling out arenas.
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Post by kds on Feb 2, 2022 16:03:18 GMT
I will say that at least most of these acts warrant inclusion in some sort of Popular Music Hall of Fame, even if only about a third of them probably would be considered rock and roll by most people's definitions. But there is something odd about lumping together Fela Kuti, Kate Bush, Dionne Warwick, Devo, Eminem, and Judas Priest as if they were all the same thing.
Even if you just expand the name "rock and roll" to mean "popular music," it seems there should be categories for inclusion. People like Fela Kuti and Kate Bush--and even the NY Dolls and MC5--are more influential than popular, while Duran Duran or Judas Priest were platinum-selling artists selling out arenas.
That's my gripe at this point. And, if Jann's Hall is really trying to include everything, then why such a bias against prog, AOR, and heavy metal? I try to not let it bother me, as by all accounts, most of the rock bands who are long time snubs have stopped giving a shit a long time ago.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 2, 2022 16:16:06 GMT
I was spiraling down one of those inevitable YouTube holes a few days ago and saw an interview with Paul Stanley, I believe from the first year of the RnR HoF, and the interviewer asked him whether he thought KISS would get in once eligible.
His response even then--so not after being snubbed--was along the lines of having a hard time believing any of the original rock-and-rollers could possibly care less about being feted at some corporate, black-tie event. It really is true to some degree that the whole idea runs contrary to the spirit of rock 'n' roll, an initially youthful and rebellious art of the common man.
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Post by kds on Feb 2, 2022 16:29:59 GMT
I was spiraling down one of those inevitable YouTube holes a few days ago and saw an interview with Paul Stanley, I believe from the first year of the RnR HoF, and the interviewer asked him whether he thought KISS would get in once eligible.
His response even then--so not after being snubbed--was along the lines of having a hard time believing any of the original rock-and-rollers could possibly care less about being feted at some corporate, black-tie event. It really is true to some degree that the whole idea runs contrary to the spirit of rock 'n' roll, an initially youthful and rebellious art of the common man.
Some artists don't even bother to show up for the induction. Most recently, I don't think anyone from Dire Straits attended their induction. Oddly enough, Black Sabbath didn't get the nod until either Ozzy Osbourne or Tony Iommi publicly said he didn't give a fuck about it.
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Post by lonelysummer on Feb 3, 2022 5:00:37 GMT
Hey, maybe Jann Wenner and co. can induct Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
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Post by kds on Feb 3, 2022 14:21:39 GMT
Hey, maybe Jann Wenner and co. can induct Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Wenner's club is OK with inductees taking illegal substances.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 14, 2022 19:25:26 GMT
What do you think about this, KDS? Seems Dolly Parton is asking to be removed from the RnR HoF list because she's not qualified, (e.g. not a rock and roll musician).
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