Where have all the good bands gone?
I was listening to presentations today for Songwriting, and I was reintroduced to a band that I loved, but forgot all about:
Rage Against The Machine
Man, I liked these guys for their musical innovation, lyrical flow, and the things they stand for. And it made me think. What band has since made an impact so radical, so profound? Every 10 years or so, someone or something comes along and changes the way we both listen to music and look at the world. I would go so far to say that Rage was the last band to truly do so. What has come since? More rap-rock, over-produced pop-punk and mainstream emo. Bands like Creed and other late 90's schlock bands pretending that they're hard, trying to capture an audience that was so potent in the 70s and 80s, but not realizing that the demographics have changed.
Now don't get me wrong, there are still good bands and artists putting out good music, but none of it really has the weight or meaning that Rage or other influential artists have. Example: I don't think anyone is going to say "Good Charlotte was so innovative and creative that it compelled me to pick up a guitar and try something new."
Rock, and music in general, needs another Rage Against The Machine.
Rage Against The Machine
Man, I liked these guys for their musical innovation, lyrical flow, and the things they stand for. And it made me think. What band has since made an impact so radical, so profound? Every 10 years or so, someone or something comes along and changes the way we both listen to music and look at the world. I would go so far to say that Rage was the last band to truly do so. What has come since? More rap-rock, over-produced pop-punk and mainstream emo. Bands like Creed and other late 90's schlock bands pretending that they're hard, trying to capture an audience that was so potent in the 70s and 80s, but not realizing that the demographics have changed.
Now don't get me wrong, there are still good bands and artists putting out good music, but none of it really has the weight or meaning that Rage or other influential artists have. Example: I don't think anyone is going to say "Good Charlotte was so innovative and creative that it compelled me to pick up a guitar and try something new."
Rock, and music in general, needs another Rage Against The Machine.
posted by Darkside at 11:11 p.m.
3 Comments:
By radical, though, do you mean their political influences and attachment to societally involved lyrics, or just their music? Or both? Do you need both?
I mean, as much as I don't FAVOUR them I'd say Radiohead is quite radical (you definitely couldn't put them in a category with Good Charlotte).
Or how about No Doubt? How many ska-type bands were made that popular with female singers(Let's forget that they totally went downhill, they were good at one point)? There's about a million different things you could argue for a million different bands and their impact on music, particularly in their independant genre.
I think it's just sad that in the most recent years there has been so much production of the reality TV crap - highly entertaining, but not musically innovative.
You are right. Radiohead and No Doubt were out there and innovative, but they both made their careers in the early-mid 90s, and did wonders for only their respective genres. My point is that RATM spawned countless bands, a new genre, and is just as well known for the message they put out as well as their music.
They brought together Rap and Rock, which were not only two separate demographics, but were verging on violence against each other. By doing this they united a vast number of people and gave them a message and meaning that was prevalent not only in L.A., but through the rest of the continent.
You pointed out that RATM brought about a new genre, but I think "genre" has become such a blurred word now that unless it's a very typical group, it's much harder to place bands in a particular genre anyways.
Take Evanescence for example. They've been plugged into vast range of genres from rock, to goth-rock, to alternative, to post-grunge. . .I've seen about a million different genres posted on them and it's hard to choose which one is correct.
And now people are coming up with absurd genres like "crunk" (which even the hip-hop world itself is fighting over, as they can't decide the true definition of the word [cool-funk or crazy-funk]). I personally don't even think crunk should be differentiated from hip-hop in the first place.
And although RATM indeed brought about the full fusion of rock and rap, you have to remember there were bands that preceded them that had overtones. . .like Run DMC.
End Rambling.
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