Only the Beatles were the Beatles and half of them are dead. So what you're talking about is a cultural phenomenon that lives in the same space as the Beatles. My first question would be: if such a thing existed, would you even recognize it? You'd be talking about a band/musician that appealed to throngs of 13-27 year olds. How much music do you listen to that is written for people that age? Taylor Swift is pretty impressiveтАФher music doesn't appeal to me muchтАФbut she writes her own songs either by herself or in collaboration, embeds clever jokes and puzzles, plays with different styles. Maybe Taylor Swift is 'The Beatles." If you find yourself rejecting that idea, you should ask yourself why. My second question would be does the space that they filled even exist any more? I have two kids, 14 and 16, and their favorite musician is a guy with YouTube channel with 2,000 subscribers. The internet changed EVERYTHING and killed the mono culture that a 'Beatles' phenomenon requires.
My argument is that the culture generates what it needs and industry either helps or hinders that. To want "the Beatles" is to allow nostalgia to blind you to what's happening now that's good.
Are we word shaming? What an odd thing to say. People can absolutely be nostalgic for times/places they've never been, it's what 90% of the tourism industry in Paris is based on. Or perhaps, maybe you're too young to remember, the swing trend of the late 90s. The Beatles were specific people, if they were around right now they wouldn't have been raised in skiffle music or the hip trad jazz scene of the British 50's, they'd have been raised on... I don't think I'm in a position to know. I think that people disappoint themselves expecting culture to continue to produce what they're comfortable with and what they recognize. Boomers especially seem to think that young people exist to produce culture that they can easily digest when it's not really for them.
ItтАЩs the same with cars тАФ theyтАЩll never be simple and pure again. Men used to work on their cars in their driveways, nothing was computerized, and the structure was understood, all while powering a rush of joy through an optimistic, prosperous nation. The old cars are getting top dollar these days because the sweet spot for the automobile has passed, just as it has for rock and roll.
Talk about a broken record.......Ever notice how little music - good or bad - comes out of the climate change or social justice movements? That's how you can tell the world does not have its heart in them.
The Germans make great cars and still have a vibrant cities and public transit. That's because they built their autobahns around cities rather than through them. But wait, guys - aren't we here to talk about music?
Because new cars are not "pure," it doesn't mean that there aren't great new cars. Same goes for new music. It's a different type of music, just like when rock 'n roll was first introduced. There is an audience for everything, and new music will continue to survive in some form. Right now, I just think there are too many new artists dividing up the pie. Count the number of bands who were around 50 years ago, and then count the number of new artists today. The selection of new artists today is astounding!
Naw. There were millions of garage bands around, the creme rose to the top. Artist vs. Musician? But they actually played and didn't stroke a computer key board. They sang it straight. Gave us their souls imperfections included. Autotune. WTF is that!? Shish smh.
Plus you've got a dysfunctional industry environment in which Anthony Kiedis was able to pretty much single-handedly shut down a Beatles-quality operation like Mr. Bungle. It's plain sick.
There is a group like the Beatles, not the exact same because no one is, but they don't sing in English so Westerners won't have anything to do with it because of xenophobia.
Automatically dismissing something because "it's in another language" is completely xenophobia. Music is music. I know, it might require **gasp** reading, but stop being intellectually lazy and demanding things be spoonfed to you.
Yes, it's so difficult when you have to read, I know. I mean, actually having to read about wet a** pu**y would just destroy most people. Music transcends language, at least for people who truly like music.
"We demand you learn a 2nd language so that WE are comfortable listening to your music, but our artists are only going to sing in English and you'd better just deal with it."
But are the songs they write being sung in English? Bad Bunny and BTS are the only ones whom I've seen, and BTS had to put out an all English, very dumbed down song in order to even crack the top 10. The 300+ songs they've put out in Korean have been top sellers and streamers all over the world, but radio won't play them. Of course, their company won't pay to play either. But their music is very eclectic, from rock to hip hop to ballads to EDM to pop, there isn't a genre they haven't covered. And their songs are about relevant issues, mental health, self love, racism, even the educational system. Yet they are just dismissed by the Western music industry, even openly mocked.
Reading comments in this thread makes me fully understand "OK, Boomer" (full disclosure: I am a 71 year old BTS A.R.M.Y.) I also understand why it isn't worth my time to even acknowledge anyone who sneers, "Korean boy band" ...
I think it is. But we haven't got the several people who could do it. Also, remember that throughout their fabulous career, The Beatles were deeply eclectic. From the start, they drew on a lot more than the first six years of rock and roll + fantastic applied imagination: traditional English folk music, Broadway, the Motown girl groups' sound, c&w, r&b, and that never failing strikeout pitch, the gorgeous ballad.
I remember reading thirty years ago or more that some then - recording industry A&R rep asserted that if they were to appear twenty - five years later than they had, The Beatles would very likely have remained unsigned, because the public's breadth of taste had shrunk too much for it to accommodate a band as different and as eclectic as The Beatles.
I'm excited that music sales of new product is as sluggish as it is. It may indicate that more instinct for great and interesting new things may have survived than the A&R guy of thirty years ago believed.
Rick Beato has an especially salient video to this matter on YouTube: Why Boomers Hate Today's Pop Music. Seriously, he begins it this way:
1. It has no melody.
2. It has no harmony.
3. It has no interesting rhythm.
At that point, I was giggling, and couldn't concentrate on the rest of what he had to say.
I am giddy that the young are having trouble with it, too.
Maybe we're in an era which is destined to continue until the world ends: an era in which all of the good songs really have been written. If so, society could do worse - it's proven that - than to immerse itself in the thousands of treasures of the past. As an example, I have a ten CD Artie Shaw boxed set which I listened to throughout much of 2013. I have many other examples I could provide.
I read a comment like this one and IтАЩm perplexed because there is such a breadth of music being recorded right now that itтАЩs a mystery to me how anyone could possibly generalize to that extent. What it says to me is that they arenтАЩt actually listening and their imprisoned by their own mindset.
Bach. Handel. English Baroque. Mozart. Schubert. Beethoven. Brahms. Grieg. Bizet. Faure. Stravinsky. The Great American Songbook writers. Jelly Roll Morton. Sidney Bechet. Louis Armstrong. Bix Beiderbecke. Eddie Lang/Joe Venuti. Red Norvo. "The Austin High Gang," and associates/graduates such as Bud Freeman, Dave Tough, Benny Goodman ( especially the small group sessions ), Bobby Hackett, Pee Wee Russell, Jack Teagarden. Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelli. The glorious Boswell Sisters. Artie Shaw ( I have a 10 CD set of Shaw's work between 1936 - 1942, and it's a treasure ). Fats Waller. Ellington/Strayhorn. Coleman Hawkins. Count Basie. Mary Lou Williams. Charlie Barnet. Woody Herman. Frank Sinatra. Ella Fitzgerald. Irene Kral ( a wonderful, tragically short lived singer ). June Christy. Charlie Christian. Charlie Parker. Thelonious Monk. Bud Powell. Tadd Dameron ( the great Tadd Dameron ). Clifford Brown. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Dorothy Ashby. Les Paul. Miles Davis/John Coltrane. Bill Evans. Earl Hines. Erroll Garner. Wes Montgomery. Antonio Carlos Jobim. Antonio Carlos Jobim. The Beatles. The Beatles. The Beatles. Jacques Brel. The Kinks. Steely Dan. Stevie Wonder.
I know I've unintentionally left people out, but you get the idea.
IтАЩm working on a list for you, why donтАЩt you send me an email and we can take this off forum. IтАЩm at agalt@starheartnautilus.com. I like all those folks too, I think I can point out some contemporary music youтАЩll enjoy.
Our culture is not capable of producing another Beatles.
Only the Beatles were the Beatles and half of them are dead. So what you're talking about is a cultural phenomenon that lives in the same space as the Beatles. My first question would be: if such a thing existed, would you even recognize it? You'd be talking about a band/musician that appealed to throngs of 13-27 year olds. How much music do you listen to that is written for people that age? Taylor Swift is pretty impressiveтАФher music doesn't appeal to me muchтАФbut she writes her own songs either by herself or in collaboration, embeds clever jokes and puzzles, plays with different styles. Maybe Taylor Swift is 'The Beatles." If you find yourself rejecting that idea, you should ask yourself why. My second question would be does the space that they filled even exist any more? I have two kids, 14 and 16, and their favorite musician is a guy with YouTube channel with 2,000 subscribers. The internet changed EVERYTHING and killed the mono culture that a 'Beatles' phenomenon requires.
My argument is that the culture generates what it needs and industry either helps or hinders that. To want "the Beatles" is to allow nostalgia to blind you to what's happening now that's good.
Are we word shaming? What an odd thing to say. People can absolutely be nostalgic for times/places they've never been, it's what 90% of the tourism industry in Paris is based on. Or perhaps, maybe you're too young to remember, the swing trend of the late 90s. The Beatles were specific people, if they were around right now they wouldn't have been raised in skiffle music or the hip trad jazz scene of the British 50's, they'd have been raised on... I don't think I'm in a position to know. I think that people disappoint themselves expecting culture to continue to produce what they're comfortable with and what they recognize. Boomers especially seem to think that young people exist to produce culture that they can easily digest when it's not really for them.
ItтАЩs the same with cars тАФ theyтАЩll never be simple and pure again. Men used to work on their cars in their driveways, nothing was computerized, and the structure was understood, all while powering a rush of joy through an optimistic, prosperous nation. The old cars are getting top dollar these days because the sweet spot for the automobile has passed, just as it has for rock and roll.
Talk about a broken record.......Ever notice how little music - good or bad - comes out of the climate change or social justice movements? That's how you can tell the world does not have its heart in them.
As if you would know!
That's an interesting observation!
The Germans make great cars and still have a vibrant cities and public transit. That's because they built their autobahns around cities rather than through them. But wait, guys - aren't we here to talk about music?
Because new cars are not "pure," it doesn't mean that there aren't great new cars. Same goes for new music. It's a different type of music, just like when rock 'n roll was first introduced. There is an audience for everything, and new music will continue to survive in some form. Right now, I just think there are too many new artists dividing up the pie. Count the number of bands who were around 50 years ago, and then count the number of new artists today. The selection of new artists today is astounding!
Naw. There were millions of garage bands around, the creme rose to the top. Artist vs. Musician? But they actually played and didn't stroke a computer key board. They sang it straight. Gave us their souls imperfections included. Autotune. WTF is that!? Shish smh.
There hasnтАЩt been a new Beatles since the Beatles. The market is too wide for one band to dominate at that level.
Wide like the Platte River? A mile wide, an inch deep?
Plus you've got a dysfunctional industry environment in which Anthony Kiedis was able to pretty much single-handedly shut down a Beatles-quality operation like Mr. Bungle. It's plain sick.
There is a group like the Beatles, not the exact same because no one is, but they don't sing in English so Westerners won't have anything to do with it because of xenophobia.
This comment is the equivalent of Yogi Berras тАЬnobody goes there anymore because itтАЩs too crowded.тАЭ
Excuse me? Would you like to explain that or are you too "edgy"?
Is not understanding the words and therefore being unable to connect to the message "xenophobia"? Sounds like a reach.
Automatically dismissing something because "it's in another language" is completely xenophobia. Music is music. I know, it might require **gasp** reading, but stop being intellectually lazy and demanding things be spoonfed to you.
And because we can't understand them?
Yes, it's so difficult when you have to read, I know. I mean, actually having to read about wet a** pu**y would just destroy most people. Music transcends language, at least for people who truly like music.
"We demand you learn a 2nd language so that WE are comfortable listening to your music, but our artists are only going to sing in English and you'd better just deal with it."
But are the songs they write being sung in English? Bad Bunny and BTS are the only ones whom I've seen, and BTS had to put out an all English, very dumbed down song in order to even crack the top 10. The 300+ songs they've put out in Korean have been top sellers and streamers all over the world, but radio won't play them. Of course, their company won't pay to play either. But their music is very eclectic, from rock to hip hop to ballads to EDM to pop, there isn't a genre they haven't covered. And their songs are about relevant issues, mental health, self love, racism, even the educational system. Yet they are just dismissed by the Western music industry, even openly mocked.
Have they recorded? If so, please name them. I'd love to hear them.
Not sure who you are speaking to?
You! What is the name of the group you're referring to?
BTS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdJl1SL03Ac
Thank you!
Reading comments in this thread makes me fully understand "OK, Boomer" (full disclosure: I am a 71 year old BTS A.R.M.Y.) I also understand why it isn't worth my time to even acknowledge anyone who sneers, "Korean boy band" ...
Baepsae will have the last laugh.
DDAENG!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdJl1SL03Ac
I think it is. But we haven't got the several people who could do it. Also, remember that throughout their fabulous career, The Beatles were deeply eclectic. From the start, they drew on a lot more than the first six years of rock and roll + fantastic applied imagination: traditional English folk music, Broadway, the Motown girl groups' sound, c&w, r&b, and that never failing strikeout pitch, the gorgeous ballad.
I remember reading thirty years ago or more that some then - recording industry A&R rep asserted that if they were to appear twenty - five years later than they had, The Beatles would very likely have remained unsigned, because the public's breadth of taste had shrunk too much for it to accommodate a band as different and as eclectic as The Beatles.
I'm excited that music sales of new product is as sluggish as it is. It may indicate that more instinct for great and interesting new things may have survived than the A&R guy of thirty years ago believed.
Rick Beato has an especially salient video to this matter on YouTube: Why Boomers Hate Today's Pop Music. Seriously, he begins it this way:
1. It has no melody.
2. It has no harmony.
3. It has no interesting rhythm.
At that point, I was giggling, and couldn't concentrate on the rest of what he had to say.
I am giddy that the young are having trouble with it, too.
Maybe we're in an era which is destined to continue until the world ends: an era in which all of the good songs really have been written. If so, society could do worse - it's proven that - than to immerse itself in the thousands of treasures of the past. As an example, I have a ten CD Artie Shaw boxed set which I listened to throughout much of 2013. I have many other examples I could provide.
I read a comment like this one and IтАЩm perplexed because there is such a breadth of music being recorded right now that itтАЩs a mystery to me how anyone could possibly generalize to that extent. What it says to me is that they arenтАЩt actually listening and their imprisoned by their own mindset.
Alex, I try to listen! I don't hear anything good! I'm open to learning. I'd love to find interesting new people. Can you name some?
Bach. Handel. English Baroque. Mozart. Schubert. Beethoven. Brahms. Grieg. Bizet. Faure. Stravinsky. The Great American Songbook writers. Jelly Roll Morton. Sidney Bechet. Louis Armstrong. Bix Beiderbecke. Eddie Lang/Joe Venuti. Red Norvo. "The Austin High Gang," and associates/graduates such as Bud Freeman, Dave Tough, Benny Goodman ( especially the small group sessions ), Bobby Hackett, Pee Wee Russell, Jack Teagarden. Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelli. The glorious Boswell Sisters. Artie Shaw ( I have a 10 CD set of Shaw's work between 1936 - 1942, and it's a treasure ). Fats Waller. Ellington/Strayhorn. Coleman Hawkins. Count Basie. Mary Lou Williams. Charlie Barnet. Woody Herman. Frank Sinatra. Ella Fitzgerald. Irene Kral ( a wonderful, tragically short lived singer ). June Christy. Charlie Christian. Charlie Parker. Thelonious Monk. Bud Powell. Tadd Dameron ( the great Tadd Dameron ). Clifford Brown. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Dorothy Ashby. Les Paul. Miles Davis/John Coltrane. Bill Evans. Earl Hines. Erroll Garner. Wes Montgomery. Antonio Carlos Jobim. Antonio Carlos Jobim. The Beatles. The Beatles. The Beatles. Jacques Brel. The Kinks. Steely Dan. Stevie Wonder.
I know I've unintentionally left people out, but you get the idea.
IтАЩm working on a list for you, why donтАЩt you send me an email and we can take this off forum. IтАЩm at agalt@starheartnautilus.com. I like all those folks too, I think I can point out some contemporary music youтАЩll enjoy.
Alex, I just sent two emails to you, and they were bounced right on back to me.
Sorry, typo: alex@starheartnautilus.com