|
|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 104 responses total. |
lelande
|
|
response 50 of 104:
| 
Jul 26 21:01 UTC 2000 |
i can't dance.
|
brighn
|
|
response 51 of 104:
|
Jul 26 21:18 UTC 2000 |
"Sledgehammer" isn't annoyingly catchy?
I guess I disagree. Despite Collins' art-rock origins (a la Genesis), Collins
is much more likely to write traditional stanza-chorus-stanza-chorus-chorus
style songs (one major exception being "In the air tonight"), while Gabriel
tries to vary the model (although the radio tracks still have it).
But it makes sense that collins would have some Gabriel trademarks... *shrug*
In general, they SHOULD be musically compatible, else Genesis (with Gabriel)
wouldn't've gone anywhere at all.
|
gypsi
|
|
response 52 of 104:
|
Jul 26 21:31 UTC 2000 |
"Sledgehammer" and the other stupid Top 40 ones are a bit catchy and don't
sound like "Peter Gabriel" songs to me.
|
stacie
|
|
response 53 of 104:
|
Jul 26 21:53 UTC 2000 |
Oh.. I can't help it. I HATE that sledgehammer song. Not as bad as that Sugar
Ray group, though. *vomit*
|
scott
|
|
response 54 of 104:
|
Jul 26 22:08 UTC 2000 |
I've got an odd perspective on monsterously popular hit songs: I don't listen
to the radio enough to get sick of them. So "Sledgehammer" is OK, although
a bit tame compared to the other stuff Gabriel has done. And I still like
Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Under the Bridge"... weird, huh?
|
brighn
|
|
response 55 of 104:
|
Jul 26 22:42 UTC 2000 |
Weird Al made Sledgehammer tolerable again.
I wanna be your... SLEDGEhammer *tingtingting!*
|
lumen
|
|
response 56 of 104:
|
Jul 27 05:58 UTC 2000 |
You have to remember that 'Sledgehammer' most likely got popular by
means of the video made for it, which was a pioneering music video for
its time. Alone, yes, the song isn't all that great. With the video,
it's gool ol' MTV mind candy.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 57 of 104:
|
Jul 27 20:02 UTC 2000 |
"mind candy" is actually a pretty good literal description of parts of it..
|
dbratman
|
|
response 58 of 104:
|
Jul 28 23:34 UTC 2000 |
I don't think I know those "irritatingly catchy" Phil Collins songs.
Looking quickly at a list of his album contents, the songs I recognize
and remember liking from titles are "One More Night" and "In Your
Eyes", especially the latter I also liked most of the songs
in "Tarzan".
Possibly I've heard these irritating songs and didn't realize they were
him, because they didn't sound like the Phil Collins I know.
|
brighn
|
|
response 59 of 104:
|
Jul 29 00:09 UTC 2000 |
Isn't "In Your Eyes" Peter Gabriel?
|
scott
|
|
response 60 of 104:
|
Jul 29 00:15 UTC 2000 |
Collins was quite the celeb for a while, wasn't he? Beer commercials, guest
shot on Miami Vice, etc.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 61 of 104:
|
Jul 29 01:43 UTC 2000 |
re #59: Yes it is. He's just trying to reinforce his point that he
can't keep them straight..
|
brighn
|
|
response 62 of 104:
|
Jul 29 03:15 UTC 2000 |
I will grant that "One More Night" and "In Your Eyes" sound fairly similar,
but that's because they're both light pop songs, fairly formula. I could throw
out a dozen other songs by entirely different artists that sound like that,
too.
|
mary
|
|
response 63 of 104:
|
Jul 29 11:32 UTC 2000 |
I asked someone who knows the jazz genre reasonably well his
opinion on Kenny G and Methany. His feeling is they are one
and the same, both playing soft easy-listening jazz-infused
musak. Gawd, is that true? If so it paints an even cattier
picture of Methany's comments.
|
lelande
|
|
response 64 of 104:
|
Jul 29 18:14 UTC 2000 |
check this out:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/threads/patmetheny.htm
metheny was one of the many cats in the development of fusion jazz,
which has its ups and downs like anything else. he was friends with one
of my favorites, jaco pastorius, one of the most versatile, lyrical
bassists in the history of the instrument, and played with him in a
couple groups. i remember him playing with jean-luc ponty, fusion
violinist (i can imagine a lot of people would categorize ponty in the
reviled 'smooth' category, or attribute roots of 'smooth' to him),
another favorite of mine.
after the early 80s, which was a depressing time for any type of music
(except rap), i know nothing of metheny. before this time, i know only a
little, of which i'm not really a fan. but i'm pretty sure he knows his
stuff about the craft and theory of muzique.
but this doesn't look like the appropriate item.
|
krj
|
|
response 65 of 104:
|
Jul 29 18:39 UTC 2000 |
Peter Gabriel, Pat Metheny, they both start with P :)
|
russ
|
|
response 66 of 104:
|
Jul 29 21:02 UTC 2000 |
Re #56: I thought _Sledgehammer_ was a tribute to Marvin Gaye Jr.,
and was a hit in no small part because of that. (Never saw the video.)
_So_ (short for "Sellout"?) had a lot of blatantly commercial stuff
on it. Not too surprising that it was a raging success compared to
Gabriel's typical work, and part of a trend (remember "90125"?).
It's a pity that music often has to be watered-down and derivative
before the masses find it accessible enough to give it a listen.
|
brighn
|
|
response 67 of 104:
|
Jul 29 21:32 UTC 2000 |
Since Metheny has jumped item:
Mary, if you have a reasonably decentsoundcard, might I recommend judging for
yourself? www.cdnow.com has MPEG soundbites of each.
My own assessment: I listened to three samples of Metheny's latest, Trio, and
found it fairly typical jazz fusion... somewhat poppy, hints of dixie, a
twitch of muzak. Entertaining, didn't stand out. I listened to two samples
of Kenny G.s, or tried to. I couldn't get through the 30-second clips of pure
muzak New Age dreck.
|
russ
|
|
response 68 of 104:
|
Jul 30 14:30 UTC 2000 |
Re #63: I disagree strongly with that appraisal, at least at the
extremes. Kenny G. has, AFAIK, never done anything more lively
than "Puttin' on the step", which is a lightly syncopated, slightly
bluesy variation on his usual. I'll be happy to play you some
Pat Metheny which you would *never* hear in an elevator. It's not
representative of all Metheny, but that's not the issue.
I'm afraid that the choices of some (most?) DJ's deny you the
chance to hear this for yourself without going out and buying the
CD (or visiting Napster). Even WDET is not blameless. The 12-3
show has featured several cuts from "Imaginary Day", but they've
all been the more Muzak-y ones. Sometimes you'd hear two out
of three cuts, missing the high-energy one in the middle. The
artist isn't to blame for a DJ taking unrepresentative excerpts
from a work that's much stronger as a whole. You could do the
same butchering with Beethoven. Metheny does the equivalent of
symphonies; in my experience, Kenny G. does not.
You want stuff that's really hard to Muzak, try _Thonk_ by Manring. ;-)
|
twinkie
|
|
response 69 of 104:
|
Jul 31 06:49 UTC 2000 |
Straight up, anyone who's cool with Jaco is inherently cool.
Weather Report in tha house.
|
dbratman
|
|
response 70 of 104:
|
Aug 2 17:43 UTC 2000 |
If "In Your Eyes" is actually Peter Gabriel, then somebody's playing a
joke on me, because I found a song of that title on some web site
listing the contents of Phil Collins albums.
But whatever the story, it does indeed prove my point: they're pretty
similar.
|
gypsi
|
|
response 71 of 104:
|
Aug 2 20:35 UTC 2000 |
The website could be wrong. Either that, or Phil Collins also had a song by
that name.
|
brighn
|
|
response 72 of 104:
|
Aug 3 00:17 UTC 2000 |
CD Now doesn't list any Phil Collins songs by that name.
It could be out of print, though.
|
lumen
|
|
response 73 of 104:
|
Aug 3 09:59 UTC 2000 |
resp:64 Pardon me for the drift, but the early 80's was a depressing
time for music? I would think au contraire.. rap actually appeared on
the scene in the very late 70's, by the way.. the Sugar Hill Gang was
just one of the first to cash in on it in 1979. Techno was also being
developed in Detroit, which I think someone pointed out earlier. Of
course, it's more vividly associated with European groups now, but then
electronic music and technopop from the UK and Europe got a big boost
when MTV hit the airwaves.
I explained in the "Video Killed The Radio Star" item that music really
drastically changed then because videos weren't being made very much
domestically when MTV started out; the staff needed more videos than
the existing 200 that they had in stock.
Yes, it's true that not all of the music had as much aural substance as
it did in video form-- many speak of the music that hit it big
primarily because of their videos. But then MTV also called on
performance artists (such as Devo) in its early years-- and these
groups didn't really consider themselves musicians anyway.
I mentioned "Sledgehammer" because it has been listed as both one of
the best and as one of the most played videos on MTV. The literal mind
candy comment was funny-- for those of you that might not have seen the
video, it's a Claymation of a head and shoulders Gabriel singing with
swirling images around him and such-- and one was his hair turning into
cotton candy.
Phil Collins isn't a staple of MTV anymore, but he does fit into the
discussion somewhat-- like many other artists, his music is being used
to sell movies. It's true-- how many movies have there been that were
pretty lousy in and of themselves as far as the actual screenplay, but
were noticed because we liked the soundtrack so much?
Thankfully, Tarzan was an *excellent* movie-- I've had mixed feelings
about Disney films as of late. (But I'm biased.. a relative of mine,
Don Bluth, has worked in animation outside of Disney for about.. 20
years after being Disney's right hand man. But I still haven't seen
Titan A.E. .. shame on me, I guess).
|
lelande
|
|
response 74 of 104:
|
Aug 3 20:32 UTC 2000 |
i agree; the early 80s was a fantastic time for rap and hip-hop, like i
said. and i have to give credit to new wave, albeit not *too* much; in
the meanwhile, punk was on the decline, and early 80s jazz (i think)
typically sucks.
other than thinking of it in terms of influences and directions
building, i'd place the origins of detroit techno in the latter half of
the 80s. i could be entirely wrong.
in comparison to music from the 50s to the 70s, i don't think the early
80s has much merit to speak of.
|
