I caught a documentary on VH1 about metal. It was done pretty well and it filled in some gaps I had about the development of it. I'm not a metal fn really, but I'm curious about all types of music, where they come from, their influences, etc. Anyway, they were talking about metal's resurgence in Britan in the early 80's and they interviewed some people at a local club that played metal.
Keep in mind that there was no band there, just a DJ, and he played metal exclusively. And of course it was all guys.... Then they showed what some of the guys were doing to kick up the metal experience (without a band) up a notch. They started bringing in cardboard guitars to add to the air guitar experience. Seeing these guys rocking out on cardboard guitars in a club filled with other guys is just... sad. You can see what I'm talking about in this video at around the 2:56 mark and at the end. The rest of it is amazing as well...
This reminds me a bit of the current craze with "guitar hero" and "rockband" games. Guys spent a lot of time perfecting their air guitar performance on the cardboard guitars and God only knows how much time is spent on those games. Why not pick up an actual guitar? The guy in the video admits that it would take him 5 years or so to become competent. Yeah, that's some time, but then you could actually play music instead of waiting for someone to make it for you. The thing that seems to escape most people's notice is that even if you never get all that good at it, your appreciation of music will increase incredibly. Learning an instrument really is the best way to learn about music in general.
So put down the cardboard boys! Chicks dig actual guitarists, not fake ones...
Monday, January 19, 2009
Amy Winehouse and genre
I've been listening to Amy Winehouse's album "Back to Black" and I'm mighty impressed. Yeah, I know, I'm a little late to this party... This was released while I was in Yemen, give me a break!
The song that got the most airplay was "Rehab." While that falls right into my addiction soft spot, I think that it pales in comparison to the title track.
Back To Black - Amy Winehouse
This is significantly darker than "Rehab," but I think it is a stone cold, soul classic. It's got drugs, it's got sex, it's got codependancy and the inability to break away, and most importantly, it has heartbreak (We only said goodbye with words... You'll go back to her, I'll go back to us...) This is what I imagine Billy Holiday would have sung if she were singing back in the 60's. Janis would have done a good job with it too. The classic soul singers couldn't do it, they didn't have the darkness or the problems (You love blow and I love puff) that these ladies did (and do).
I'm not sure this got much airplay. It shares the same problem with a lot of the songs on the album in that they are not radio friendly. She isn't afraid to use some colorful language, and this kind of darkness doesn't do well unless there are some loud guitars to go along with it...
I was gushing about this album to a friend of mine and he described it as "affected." That seemed like an odd criticism to me. In my opinion, this is a great example of the "soul" genre. Her singing and style aren't affected, they are part and parcel of the genre. It is no more affected than any metal, hip hop, jazz, or trance song.
Working with a genre is both limiting and freeing at the same time. Once people understand what genre the work is in, the genre itself does a lot of the heavy lifting for the artist. You don't have to start from scratch when you use an established genre. When you write a mystery book, everyone understands what is supposed to happen. If you watch a western film, you don't have to be told that you don't shoot guys in the back or unarmed men. The ground rules are already there, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Of course, if you follow every single convention of the genre, it gets boring really fast. Amy manages to mix it up just a bit with some hip-hop inspired rhythms and that extra edge that only substance abuse and bad relationships can bring. It isn't clear where her songs end and her life begins. That's really too bad, cause there's a lot of pain and a lot of drugs in her songs. Recent reports have her doing well on the substance abuse front. Let's hope she can keep it together so we can find out what a happy Amy Winehouse sounds like...
The song that got the most airplay was "Rehab." While that falls right into my addiction soft spot, I think that it pales in comparison to the title track.
Back To Black - Amy Winehouse
This is significantly darker than "Rehab," but I think it is a stone cold, soul classic. It's got drugs, it's got sex, it's got codependancy and the inability to break away, and most importantly, it has heartbreak (We only said goodbye with words... You'll go back to her, I'll go back to us...) This is what I imagine Billy Holiday would have sung if she were singing back in the 60's. Janis would have done a good job with it too. The classic soul singers couldn't do it, they didn't have the darkness or the problems (You love blow and I love puff) that these ladies did (and do).
I'm not sure this got much airplay. It shares the same problem with a lot of the songs on the album in that they are not radio friendly. She isn't afraid to use some colorful language, and this kind of darkness doesn't do well unless there are some loud guitars to go along with it...
I was gushing about this album to a friend of mine and he described it as "affected." That seemed like an odd criticism to me. In my opinion, this is a great example of the "soul" genre. Her singing and style aren't affected, they are part and parcel of the genre. It is no more affected than any metal, hip hop, jazz, or trance song.
Working with a genre is both limiting and freeing at the same time. Once people understand what genre the work is in, the genre itself does a lot of the heavy lifting for the artist. You don't have to start from scratch when you use an established genre. When you write a mystery book, everyone understands what is supposed to happen. If you watch a western film, you don't have to be told that you don't shoot guys in the back or unarmed men. The ground rules are already there, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Of course, if you follow every single convention of the genre, it gets boring really fast. Amy manages to mix it up just a bit with some hip-hop inspired rhythms and that extra edge that only substance abuse and bad relationships can bring. It isn't clear where her songs end and her life begins. That's really too bad, cause there's a lot of pain and a lot of drugs in her songs. Recent reports have her doing well on the substance abuse front. Let's hope she can keep it together so we can find out what a happy Amy Winehouse sounds like...
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