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Post by Kapitan on May 28, 2021 19:18:07 GMT
I don't totally disagree. Though of course there were plenty of prefabricated groups and stars in earlier decades, too, who were given material, given an image, and shepherded along the way, too.
My bigger complaint is really the lack of originality and personality that comes through manufactured stars, and in many, many, many cases, the reality that looks (especially with female artists) come first, second, and probably third. Then marketability of the created persona (good girl? rebel? sex kitten? empowered woman?). Then brand potential for perfumes, clothing lines, makeup lines, TV shows, movies, and such. And then eventually something related to music.
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Post by kds on May 28, 2021 19:22:14 GMT
I don't totally disagree. Though of course there were plenty of prefabricated groups and stars in earlier decades, too, who were given material, given an image, and shepherded along the way, too.
My bigger complaint is really the lack of originality and personality that comes through manufactured stars, and in many, many, many cases, the reality that looks (especially with female artists) come first, second, and probably third. Then marketability of the created persona (good girl? rebel? sex kitten? empowered woman?). Then brand potential for perfumes, clothing lines, makeup lines, TV shows, movies, and such. And then eventually something related to music.
No doubt, all eras have their manufactured acts. But, I feel like those acts are increasingly the ones who get pushed to the forefront.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 1, 2021 15:29:35 GMT
EDIT - whoops, I meant to put this in the Music News thread. Though if GnR wants to release some new music this year to make me look better for my mistake, I'd take it...
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Post by kds on Jun 1, 2021 15:38:19 GMT
I just got a notification about GNR's Baltimore show.
I will say if anyone is a GNR fan, and hasn't seen the reunion tour, it's worth seeing.
It's also really nice to be seeing concert announcements again.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 25, 2021 13:55:47 GMT
Today marks the release of another new Mountain Goats album--their third in about a year--Dark in Here.
I'm just listening to it for the first time now. Songwriter John Darnielle wrote of it, "The day after we wrapped [one of two 2020 albums] Getting Into Knives we drove from Memphis to Muscle Shoals and recorded another album. This had been our plan all along, but 2020 had a way of expressing its feelings about plans. All the outside world was wild dark news and the record we made over the next week reflects that."
The album includes legendary Muscle Schoals keyboardist Spooner Oldham supplementing the core band. It also includes some great song titles, as always. Of particular note is "Arguing With the Ghost of Peter Laughner About His Coney Island Baby Review."
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Post by kds on Jun 28, 2021 12:27:34 GMT
Journey just released their first new song in about a decade
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 30, 2021 14:13:08 GMT
Big Red Machine (a supergroup of sorts, depending on your idea of super, led by Aaron Dessner of the National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, plus whoever else they end up working with) has a new album coming soon. The first song is a mellow, pleasant song featuring Anais Mitchell on lead vocal.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 30, 2021 18:54:26 GMT
Same band, a day later, totally different feel. Big Red Machine's "The Ghost of Cincinnati," sung by Aaron Dessner and consisting basically of him and an acoustic guitar, sounds to me almost like an Elliott Smith song. I also hadn't realized how he was as a singer, as his brother sings in their band The National. I strongly prefer Aaron!
I quite like this song.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 7, 2021 13:49:44 GMT
It has been a frustrating 15 years or so for fans of Sufjan Stevens's chamber-folk-pop of the first half of the '00s, as he has spent most of that time going between long-form avant-garde non-pop electronica to New Age soundscapes to vaguely proggy work, but only rarely returning to traditional songs. In fact, around 2010 he said he was done with songs. Carrie & Lowell, a 2015 folk-pop album, was the one brief respite from what you could call experimentalism, ambition, or tedious masturbation.
This is all a prelude to the news that Stevens and Angelo de Augustine (a musician with whom I am not familiar) wrote and recorded an album, the product of a month-long songwriting collaboration in a friend's upstate New York cabin. A Beginner's Mind is due on Sept. 24 and by the sound of the two songs they released in advance of the project, includes some beautiful acoustic folk along the lines of what Stevens originally became known for (minus the orchestrations, etc., of his two "state" albums).
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 9, 2021 12:25:43 GMT
Jakob Dylan has a new album out today, Exit Wounds, under his band name The Wallflowers. I wasn't a fan of him/them back in their initial period of fame in the mid to late 90s, but I fell in love with his 2010 Women + Country. From what I've heard of this one, it's really enjoyable, sitting right in that Tom Petty Americana/roots rock territory.
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Post by carllove on Jul 9, 2021 12:47:43 GMT
Just in case you feel like "WAP" wasn't enough, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday's Pitchfork Rap Song of the Day, "Slob on My Kat." It is, yet again, just another explicit sex song that is sold as empowering because it's by a woman. And I'll say, yet again, that it is about as interesting as were 2 Live Crew some 30+ years ago, which is to say, barely at all unless you're 12, curious, and get off on being transgressive.
I'll also say again, it isn't in any way empowering or admirable to do the very thing you condemned in others. If men objectifying women for sex was wrong, so is the converse. To make the point on a bigger scale, if there is a roving band of murderers, the best solution isn't to become a murderer yourself. If something is bad, the solution isn't being allowed to do it yourself.
Lastly and most importantly, it's just a terrible song. I don't mean that it's offensive--not much offends me, particularly sexually: I'm not squeamish about that topic--I just mean that as a piece of music, it is excruciatingly dull.
Oh, and that isn't how you spell cat. I really hate misspelling for slang. Really. This is the old man, get off my lawn portion of the post, despite what you might think. It's not the explicit sexual lyrics part. It's that kat isn't a word, except as an abbreviation to that catastrophe of a basketball player on the Wolves.
Human kind is definitely devolving. As a Woman, I detest the double standard of Women who have had multiple partners and enjoy sex as being considered "slutty", but men are a "stud". Still - I would like to think that as humans, we have more standards than other animals, as we have an emotional attachment involved with the act. At least if you are going to make music in that direction, make it good, like Prince's Darling Nikki or Get Off. THOSE are some great songs. For some reason, they don't feel exploitive in the least. Darling Nikki is my kind of Woman empowerment sex song. I don't want to hear about genitals in my music. I want to leave something to my imagination.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 9, 2021 12:57:56 GMT
Well said. I agree entirely. (Except with the "as a woman" part, since I am not one!)
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Post by kds on Jul 9, 2021 13:21:09 GMT
Just in case you feel like "WAP" wasn't enough, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday's Pitchfork Rap Song of the Day, "Slob on My Kat." It is, yet again, just another explicit sex song that is sold as empowering because it's by a woman. And I'll say, yet again, that it is about as interesting as were 2 Live Crew some 30+ years ago, which is to say, barely at all unless you're 12, curious, and get off on being transgressive.
I'll also say again, it isn't in any way empowering or admirable to do the very thing you condemned in others. If men objectifying women for sex was wrong, so is the converse. To make the point on a bigger scale, if there is a roving band of murderers, the best solution isn't to become a murderer yourself. If something is bad, the solution isn't being allowed to do it yourself.
Lastly and most importantly, it's just a terrible song. I don't mean that it's offensive--not much offends me, particularly sexually: I'm not squeamish about that topic--I just mean that as a piece of music, it is excruciatingly dull.
Oh, and that isn't how you spell cat. I really hate misspelling for slang. Really. This is the old man, get off my lawn portion of the post, despite what you might think. It's not the explicit sexual lyrics part. It's that kat isn't a word, except as an abbreviation to that catastrophe of a basketball player on the Wolves.
Human kind is definitely devolving. As a Woman, I detest the double standard of Women who have had multiple partners and enjoy sex as being considered "slutty", but men are a "stud". Still - I would like to think that as humans, we have more standards than other animals, as we have an emotional attachment involved with the act. At least if you are going to make music in that direction, make it good, like Prince's Darling Nikki or Get Off. THOSE are some great songs. For some reason, they don't feel exploitive in the least. Darling Nikki is my kind of Woman empowerment sex song. I don't want to hear about genitals in my music. I want to leave something to my imagination. I couldn't agree more. They are tons of examples of female artists being sexy without being trashy. But, these so called artists like Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Doja Cat, Cardi B, etc probably can't even spell "subtle."
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Post by kds on Jul 16, 2021 12:54:57 GMT
Iron Maiden just released their first new song in six years.
Its good, and pretty much in line with a lot of the mid paced songs that have become pretty common in their 21st century output.
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Post by kds on Jul 19, 2021 17:13:46 GMT
A few days after releasing their first single since 2015, Iron Maiden announced their 17th studio album, Senjustsu, will be released on September 3. Maiden really like these late summer releases lately, this will be their fifth straight album to be released in late August / early September. ultimateclassicrock.com/iron-maiden-senjutsu/Since Iron Maiden is probably my favorite active band, I'm pretty excited. Although, I was hoping for a leaner, more efficient album. I guess going from 92 minutes to just over 80 (barely enough to justify this being a second straight double album) will have to suffice.
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