Music only gets heavier

If anyone has seen any particular trend in music over the past... well, ever since music's inception into popular culture... they'll have noticed a prevailing trend in all the popular music of the decades, from way back when, to the current day.

In short, that trend is that music tends to get heavier, harsher, and more agressive as time goes on. Within genres, least wise - though pop music will all be pop music, and so on with everything else, new genres will continue to exist, and they will continue to get heavier and heavier. This is starkly noticeable in the rock music kind of thing. There are of course fringe groups - in the same way that rock music breeds metal, and metal breeds death metal, and death metal breeds power metal, and so on, rock music will breed things like pop-rock, and indie rock, and everything else in that aisle of musical taste.

When you look at the heaviest music on popular music channels three or so years ago being Linkin Park, it's easy to see how things have changed. I think I may remember seeing some punkish bands, but that's when everyone was sure pop-punk was a real genre. In any case... what things are looking like now... well, there's still a lot of soft, alternative stuff, and their probably always will be, but I think everything is definitely sloping in one direction. In a couple years, stuff like Mudvayne and Alex Is On Fire (not a great example) will be lighter, and we'll have bands like Opeth and Arch Enemy... not them per say, but bands like them... well, they'll be on MTV. And everyone who listened to those older bands will be calling the music of the generations younger than them crap. It's a vicious cycle.

I was thinking about this in relation to noise music, and I realized something... that all music, is polarized into a set of kind of three spectrums, and that every set of music follows a certain subset of rules. If you have your popular music - that's the most treacherous field of any kind of music, because while one day might herald unbridled success, the very next day could bring anonymity and nothingness. When you have popular music concerts, even fans who have only heard the one song will come out to watch the band or artist perform - and a week later, may possibly not even admit they've ever listened to them in the first place. All fans are die-hards within popular music, but can revert to their normal states within days. There are no true hardcore fans.

Then there's your 'popular within unpopularity' scene. Any group in here inevitably has a huge yet underground following... they seem like they would be so popular, and yet your average MTV listener will never have heard of them. This is usually 'progressive', 'post', and 'indie' bands, as far as I can tell. Dream Theater, Rush... those are my two notable examples. Anyone who's heard of those two bands and is a real fan probably holds their idolized band members to God-like status, and yet it is probably true that three out of four people have never heard of the group or the members. I think there are some pretty wicked followings after groups like this. Mostly a metal thing, now that I think about it. Conventional metal is a whole different deal, but that's a sub-set...

Then there's your 'no one has ever heard of this music before, ever' sub-set. Which I think basically consists of a group or artist, and the 100-1000 fans who think they are the greatest thing that has ever hit the planet. Noise music and obsure electronica are really good for this - more often than not, in electronic music, you have a chance to associate with the person, not just the sound, and thusly, stuff like this is bred. Indie works too, I would assume.

So, then there are a bunch of rule benders... I'm not 'punk', so I can't speak largely there, but I don't think punk fans general care what they're listening to as long as it's... well... punk. And even if two people love all the same bands for all the same reasons, there can be one band they're completely opposite on for the stupidest notion. It's just weird.

Then there's your metal, where fans of bands that don't like each other or are slightly different can get into blood feuds and horrible brawls with each other. That's also a bit over the top... I blame this on the fact that metal artists like to propogate this thing on occasion... the notion of a lead singer proclaiming that a band is the best thing out there generally leads to other bands making the same claims getting angry, and then it's just trouble.

As for electronic music - in a popular circle, even one hit wonders never get any fans. The songs are known, not the artists, and that's just sad. Then the artist tries to capitalize, comes out with ten songs that sound exactly the same as the hit, and fade out of existence. Anyone trying to listen to them seriously gets stuck with recursive rip-offs.

That's a bit of a seperate thing from the whole 'future of music', but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. Maybe more thoughts on this kind of thing later.

Many days, and no business comes to my hut...

Today's track of the day is Nevermind by The Birthday Massacre. For those of you who haven't heard of TBM (Another band by that abbreviation is The Black Mages, who earnestly are quite a bit better. That TBM is a Japanese power-metal band organized by the acclaimed composer of most of the music for the epic Final Fantasy video game franchise, Nobuo Uematsu. They play mostly covers of FF songs, and are really good - I highly reccomend checking them out)... um, I was talking about The Birthday Massacre? Right. They're a bit hard to describe - not genre defying by any means, just... different. They're post-retro industrial tinged synth featuring metal. They're not very dark... they have quite a light-hearted, yet emotional and sometimes morbid quality. Really, they should be every teenager's dream band, as they sound like their lyrics are just for them.

This song is off their 2005 album Violet, which I haven't listened to extensively - a couple tracks stick out as decent picks. This song is nothing that will blow your mind, but it felt so uplifting and yet bittersweet at the same time, I thought it deserved a spot. This group really has something going for them - besides that, they did a really nice remix of MSI's Straight To Video, which is my favorite off that remix album... I looked into them from that, actually, and while they're a tad too... light-hearted for me to normally consider, they are actually mellow in a decently fun way. I'd go see one of their shows for sure. In any case, this song tells a story that doesn't make great sense, but is kind of poetic, and again, very mellow yet fun. Megaupload link is
here. Also, "Nevermind" is one of my favorite words to hear in song since the album of the same name by Nirvana. Yes, I like them, big deal.

One of the things I will never understand about music is the genres... and more in that, why certain genres are so much more elitist than others. If you listen to metal or rock, or punk or country or pop, you never really get into fighting about genres... unless you are a hard-core metal head, in which case, that is a whole different story. One of the worst genres for in-fighting, however is industrial, and I find it just stupid. Any given site on the subject will have ten different opinions on what 'real' industrial is, and every other poster will get flamed for liking a 'pussy' band that isn't 'real' industrial. I understand that there are limits to what a style is and isn't, but I do not get why it is cool to be so picky about divergences within genres. Looking at it this way, Black Sabbath, Opeth, and Rhapsody of Fire are all metal, and sound completely different, and while people will come up with different words to describe all those kinds of metal, they are still that; metal. Now, when people say something like "Oh man I love Opeth they are good death metal" and some wanker comes in and says "YOU FAG OPETH ARE PROGRESSIVE DEATH METAL OMFG STFU GHEY"... well, I think I've already ranted about this before.

Arguing aside though, it amazes me how divergent genres can be. The above of metal is a good example. Industrial also serves to be further... looking comparitively at Skinny Puppy and the more danceable EBM influenced industrial sounds of Frontline Assembly and such like that, it's crazy how two of the 'classic' groups of industrial sound so different. Also, if I get anyone commenting about how FLA isn't real industrial, the world will explode from the irony.

Trying to keep the track buffer going. Haven't listened to near all of my music, but am moving up slowly to the B's. Still no traffic... enjoy the songs though.

Bands and unlikely genres

This is sapped from another of my crazy music profiles. I love it so much though, I felt it needed posting.

" Ranting about crazy original genre conceptions. Original subject line: "Reindub Stoben Reigs". That subject line is genius. Now I know how Venetian Snares comes up with his song names. I chopped it because people might have thought this entry was in Swedish or something... >.<

Peerless Octane
Circuity Wheel
Linear Subconscious
Caustic Culture
Jagged Asylum
Anthem of the Jagged Rhyme
Minimal Plant and the Sanctity
Static Shower
Toxic Meditation
Massive Damage
The Great Green Silence
The Way It Sounds
Intestinal Psychology
Misguided Quasar
The Ethereal Dynamic
Undercover Worship
Act Hunger and the Deconstructed T(r)ail
Hide Behind Pole (And Look At Girl)


Ludicrous genre experiments:

Black Thrash-pop-core
Ambient Indie Powernoize
Post Post Progressive-death-metal-core
Post Jazz-trance-core
Psychedelic Acoustic Industrial

And of course...

Post Prog-post-hardcore-core

That one I think is my favorite. The hardcore musical movement after the 'progressive' branch of post-hardcore. What would it sound like? Take The Fall of troy, make them more hardcore, then double the profiency of all the instrumentalists involved, and then make the song length longer, make the lyrics about epic space ballads and psuedo-psychological issues, and voila! I had some other ideas for those genres too.

Black Thrash-pop-core: Britney Spears singing for a band that is a cross between Megadeth and Katatonia. (Note that Britney is not bolded because she is not a band. Lol.)

Ambient Indie Powernoize: This one is so hillarious it makes me want to die. Basically, 30 year old moog synthesizers and chip-tune generators (think The Postal Service) played in a plinky, melodic, soft fashion at over 250 BMP with abrasive snares somehow made to sound soothing. I don't even know who the fuck would ever come up with this, but I would listen to it for sheer novelty.

Post Post Progressive-death-metal-core: This one is a little boring. Basically, it is the punk laden vocals of a band influenced by a band that is influenced by Opeth and Dream Theater. This one is just a matter of time, I think.

Post Jazz-trance-core: I think Jazz and Trance need a fusion, as I haven't seen one yet. It's ridiculous, as every metal band (as well as IDM artist) claim Jazz as a 'major influence'. Why do people think this is trendy? Squarepusher is not Jazz. The Dillinger Escape Plan is not Jazz. Seriously. Why not other electronic musicians? When Paul Oakenfold or DJ Tiësto start fusing their music with Jazz, the transition will begin. Then it just needs some hardcore punk vocals, and that is this genre right here.

Psychedelic Acoustic Industrial: I can barely even think of a way to come up with this one. Okay, let me think... Militaristic drum beats, in an 'unplugged' fashion... with trippy, um, dark guitar and lyrics reminiscient of Jim Morrison poetry? Fuck, I have no idea. This one is the height of unlikely genres.

I am not in the process of trying to come up with band-names for these genres, but I think it might be fun. I eagerly await the day when all these genres become real tags on last.fm. "

I personally think those genres are awesome. I would love to see any of them exist, with the possible exception of Psychedelic Acoustic Industrial. I don't like psychedelic stuff, for some reason. I heard someone prophesize the existence of Acousticore - breakcore performed with real-time synths and like, three drummers. That would be sweet - I would be an acousticore drummer so fast. Heck, a quarter of my drumming influence at least is Aaron Funk (Venetian Snares, rabble). I'd have to put Portnoy and Peart in for the rest of that, a quarter each, with the last quarter being filled by 'miscellaneous'. Yeah!

Oh yeah. One of those band names is the real life name of my budding music project. Guess which one!

Why people are like this is beyond me.

I stole this from a forum I frequent - yes, I posted it. Note - I am a genre snob. I am not an elitist. I try to be polite and help people learn. I hate flaming lamers.

"I just came out of a subforum on the music forum where someone started a post with "Please don't flame me". The person was pleading this because they didn't know what genre certain pieces of music were, and they didn't want to get raged at by the community of the sub-forum - who evidently possess God-like, infallible knowledge of music and its genres.

I'm just wondering - why is it that people are forced into situations like this? If someone doesn't know what genre a piece of music is, shouldn't they be allowed to learn without fear or being reprimanded for their lack of knowledge? That's like killing younger people - because they don't know some things older people do, and they shouldn't be given a chance to learn. Damn kids.

Seriously though, when was it the new 'thing' to be such a snob about music genres, or the music one listens to? I swear that fifty percent of threads in a lot of these subforums are ones that mention a band - and then some 'regular' of the forum decides to post "OMG are you a retard with no arms and legs who also has no brain and his gay and eats shoe polish? (insert band) is /not/ (insert genre)!" despite the fact that genres are open to interpretation, definition, and many genres are related.

note that there is a big difference between the following exchange: "OMG, I love Slayer, they are my favorite pop-rock band!" "Um, actually, Slayer are Thrash Metal..."
and...
"I was listening to Darude the other day, and I got to wondering what genre they were? Techno, Electronica...?" "OMG, Darude are (specific subgenre) of trance, you stupid flaming faggot, I can't believe how dumb you are, kill yourself."

Why is that the attitude people insist on having?

Music is a great way to share creativity and one's emotions - wouldn't it make sense that, when someone wants to learn more about music, shouldn't we give them a chance to do so, instead of shooting them down so that they never learn new things?

This is partly a rant, but it's really something that's been bothering me. What's more ironic is that /this/ post will probably get flamed too. Oh, crazy world. "

I just don't get people. Especially with lesser known genres, music can use all the friends it can get - so why scare away interested new-comers? Maybe because they think that the more people that listen to an artist, the worst they will sound, and the less cool they will be for liking them? People are morons.