Ask 411 Music 07.20.09: Western Music Culture, Choral Music, and Rock Band Life Expectancies
Posted by Joshua George on 07.20.2009
How long does the average rock band make it these days? Is music going to start repeating itself? What are the top 5 songs from the Across the Universe Soundtrack? The answers to these and more inside this week's edition of Ask 411 Music with Joshua George!
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Here come the... Ask 411 Music Reader Questions
From WhisperingEye,
Do you think that music is on a never-ending loop in America? We keep going back to sampling past stuff, and some bands are starting to use old styles of performing and such. Do you think that we'll ever hear something completely different, or have we basically come as far musically as we can at this point?
I don't know if you've seen the move Role Models but if you have, or if you're a real-life dufus, you'll know that your name is HILARIOUS! Anyway, I think your question merits answering, though I'm not sure how definitive of an answer I can give you as I'm not a musicologist, and I'm not sure of the exact things we're looking at here. I can tell you that I honestly think that music is something that is definitely on a loop. I've noticed with technology going forward, we're moving backwards in any other things. Consider that not too long ago, it was cool for people to wear bellbottoms again. This was a fashion that was back in the 60s and 70s and somehow managed to squeak its way back into the 1990s and early 2000s. Consider also that The Beatles were HUGE in the late 60s or early 70s but somehow managed to squirm its way back into the hearts of "mainstream America" in 2007 with a movie called Across the Universe. This subjected a new generation of children to the same music that their parents were listening to, and united parents and children alike under a common bond. Hell, it even turned people like me who think The Beatles are overrated, on to their music performed by a variety of amazing artists and vocalists.
Unfortunately with our "western" ideals for what music should sound like, we will CERTAINLY run out of melodies eventually. I don't think you or I will see it, as I'm sure if it does happen it'll be in hundreds of years. However, some could argue that with all of the recent plagiarism claims (as I discussed last week), we have already started to hit this wall. I think over the course of time, we'll have more and more of this kind of plagiarism claim because eventually we are going to run out of ways to piece shit together. You can only put 12 chromatic tones in so many different orders and combinations. The good thing is we can put some of them together, push them backwards and other fun shit like that, so that's why it'll definitely be some time before we run out of ways to make music new and interesting.
Hopefully as a culture, we can learn to embrace some of the music from our "eastern" compatriots as they are learning how to put crazy things together. They're bending pitches to create some things that we never even really knew existed. There are some amazing forms of atonal music out there that our "western cultured" ears can't really handle well. I think if we can learn to blend that in with our own music, then we have a better chance at being able to stay fresh for decades to come. Let's cross our fingers on that, shall we?!
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From Hedburgfan83,
Is there any more of a "market" for good choral music? You don't really hear anything about choirs and such, so I was just wondering if that's still something that exists?
Hey Hedburgfan83, welcome to Ask411 Music too. I love getting new folks involved, so I appreciate you stopping by, and I am also a HUGE Hedburg fan.
This question is something that you have to be really careful with. The problem isn't that you don't hear anything about choirs and such in the mainstream world. The closest we as a culture ever came to that was the choir show that was on TV a while back on NBC called "Clash of the Choirs" where Nick Lachey led a choir to victory over other choirs led by Patti LaBelle, Michael Bolton, Blake Shelton, and Kelly Rowland. There's always a market for choral music, but I feel that the answer to this question can also be somewhat paralleled to my answer about the opera industry in Ask 411 Music 06.08.09. There aren't as many people out there that have a great appreciation for choral music and the arts in general. I won't get started on that kind of a rant, but let's just say that if we don't educate our children and show them the importance of choral music in the world, we may be looking at its extinction eventually.
As of now, the genre DEFINITELY still exists. Choral music is something that's still being taught in high schools and colleges/universities all over the globe. Thank God for that, because without it, we would never be able to continue its existence in our country. Let's just hope that we can continue it moving along for generations to come. If you do your part, then we can at least have one more person that will keep it moving. Thanks for writing!
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From Tomtelontonwhootenburger,
What do you figure is the average life expectancy of a band these days in the Rock genre? It seems that a lot of bands are coming and going lately.
I think the average life expectancy is two years MAX from beginning to end. The only thing I can also say is that with a lot of bands in the Rock genre today, is that with many of them sounding similar, you'll find that if you can't provide your listeners with something completely different or new, you won't make it more than a few months. There are very few bands these days that have any staying power in the mainstream Rock genre. That's why a lot of people are listening to more underground rock stuff, because the movement there is much better than the mainstream shit that's being poured out right now.
The problem is that Rock fans are so picky and demanding of their bands, that one false move can find you out on the street with no shit to do at all. You can find yourself gigless, and penniless within a matter of weeks in the Rock industry because if you do something wrong your fans will crucify you and watch you die. That's pretty much the same across the board of all genres of music right now though. If you notice in the Rap industry, there are a lot of people that are also being crucified. I won't go much into that, because that will take us completely off track, but to completely answer your question, I'd say that the average rock band these days makes it for about two years before they completely just fall off, or before their fans rise up against them and push them out of the industry. That's my thought... what about you guys? What do you see the life expectancy of the average rock band now? Tell me in the comments!
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It's time for...
Joshua's Top 5
Top 5 Songs from the Across the Universe Soundtrack
5. "Revolution" by Jim Sturgess is one of my favorites. Enjoy:
4. One of my personal favorites is "Because" which features Dana Fuchs, Evan Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Martin Luther McCoy, and T.V. Carpio. Trip out to this:
3. Eddie Izzard who is fucking hilarious in his own right, brings us a great version of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite":
2. "Let It Be" by Carol Woods and Timothy T. Mitchum will make you really feel the passion in the music. Check this out:
1. Joe Cocker & Ensemble provides us with the BEST song on the Sountrack - "Come Together":
Would you pick different tracks from the album? Let me know what your top 5 is in the comments section. Also, if you want me to listen to something feel free to hit us up with a YouTube link either at my e-mail address, or in the comments section!
Who wants to hear something new???
Things You Should Hear
Let's get in some good shit that everyone needs to hear!
1. The Kennedy Choir of Buenos Aires brings us "Choral Beatles". This way it fits The Beatles theme(ish) and the choral question from earlier:
2. Indiana University's Straight No Chaser provides us with an awesome a cappella version of "Superstition":
3. Perhaps one of the most badass wrestling entrance themes today... "Voices" by Rev Theory brings Randy Orton to the ring, and I love it:
4. Styx brings us a fun song that I s'pose I should've put in on the 4.20 edition entitled "Light Up":
5. Last night, I was informed that a friend of mine had never heard "Hotel California" by The Eagles, so I want to make sure no one else has that problem:
6. On a separate occasion, another friend of mine had never heard The Doors - "Light My Fire" and I feel like that's a problem too so... :
If you'd like me to post your band or a band that you particularly love, all you have to do is Send me the YouTube link NOW! I'd like to start including some of your personal bands clips, or other bands that you think people should be hearing.
So who wants to get pimped? If you have a website that your band hosts, or something that you think the general public would enjoy checking out, please send me a link and a SHORT description and I may include it in the pimping section of next week's column!
Make sure you check out my reviews. You can see my profile with my blog and all of my reviews/columns here.
Also I'm a co-host and co-founder of a professional wrestling podcast. My friend and I have been running this show and our website for a little over three years now, and we'd love to have more listeners and since I get my own column now, I feel good about pimping it out. If you want to listen to the most recent show, you can usually find it (along with the most recent news which we get from a variety of other sites MOST NOTABLY the amazing 411Mania Wrestling News Section) at www.pinfallrecall.com. If you'd like to spend your days on our forums talking about how this Extreme Rules PPV is basically a repackaged One Night Stand, like all of us, you can do that on The Pinfall Recall Forums.
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"Happiness Is A Warm Gun" HAS to be included in that list
Posted By: Steve (Guest) on July 20, 2009 at 01:06 AM
Heres a question for ya
Do you think that the record company would do a little bit better if they were to include free stuff with some of the releases,like they do overseas. The European and Japanese branches of record companies sometimes include stuff with their version of an american release , where we dont get anything with it. One example back in the early 90s I boutgh Motley Crues Decade of Decadance. Nothing too special about it. Then I saw the Japanese version of it. For one it had more songs on it . Then it included a picture booklet and set of stickers, and came in sort of a sleeve to hold it all together. Both were put out by the same record company ,but just different branches, Why do we always seem to ge t the short end of the deal?
Posted By: Guest#0946 (Guest) on July 20, 2009 at 05:58 AM
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