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Where Do We Go From Here?


delboy

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I Pity new musicians, has everything been done in the past? I'm listening to New Order's 1986 album Brotherhood at the mo and am thinking this could be released today by some whippersnapper and would be hailed and wanked over by the likes of the NME.

OK I'm old but I really cannot remember the last time I was truly blown away by something new.

Is the future just to be a another version of the past but with slightly better production?

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I Pity new musicians, has everything been done in the past? I'm listening to New Order's 1986 album Brotherhood at the mo and am thinking this could be released today by some whippersnapper and would be hailed and wanked over by the likes of the NME.

OK I'm old but I really cannot remember the last time I was truly blown away by something new.

Is the future just to be a another version of the past but with slightly better production?

Brotherhood - good album that.

Think you're right. In terms of guitar music, its development pretty much finished with Isn't Anything by My Bloody Valentine. Everything after that was pretty much an extension, but not really a development of that scene.

Anything "new" would have to cross some totally unlikely genres and I'm not sure the GBP has the stomach for trying to digest something like that.

So, we get re-hashes of stuff thats about twenty to thirty years old.

I know that's cynical, but its just the way it is to me now. I still like some acts that are kicking about, like The Horrors second album, or Fleet Foxes or whatever, but I wouldn't for a moment accept that they are remotely original in their approach.

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Lets all just give up.

Do you find that you don't get as excited about stuff in general as you get older? I know Christmas just does seem like it used to for me.

There is plenty of music out there that is fresh. Taking influence from the past and pushing forward, putting your own personal slant on a way of playing, has always existed.

There are a lot of people creating amazing music that blows me away that isn't played on the radio...

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Like I said, there's still tunes out there that I like by new acts, but I won't pretend for a minute that they are remotely original or pushing forward - there's been nowhere left to go for years.

Not too sure about music being described as fresh - sounds like an advertising pitch for a feminine hygiene product.

I do seem to remember ages ago that some sort of mad think tank was offering a large cash prize to anyone that could come up with a new (genuinely new, mind) form of music. Think they've yet to find an entry that ticks the right boxes.

I suppose my point at the end of the day is...all western genres of music at this moment in time have croaked it in terms of any meaningful development. If you can get over that, and just enjoy current music for what it is then job's a good 'un.

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I've pretty much loathed most musical trends in this decade so I'll be glad to see the back of it. I guess that's due to being stuck on the '90s too much.

I spent Saturday night listening to Badly Drawn Boy, Bent and Portishead and, quite frankly, loving it.

Going forward I'd like to see better hairstyles and less wanky shit.

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Guest Gladstone

Why do people get so hung up on originality all the time anyway?

Something that is truly original is very hard to come by, but that doesn't mean that playing music similar to that which was popular 30 years ago, or putting your own slant on a certain style of music, or mixing genres to create something original in some ways is pointless does it?

So long as I enjoy a song, I don't care who wrote it, or how original it is.

That said, if something is original or different, it should be heralded - so long as it's good.

The flipside of this, is that musicians/artists who bring out something original sometimes get kudos even though it's shit.

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I find myself getting immersed in some really weird and unpopular music to find some kind of original style, however, sometimes it can get to the point that it's music that has disappeared up it's own ass.

Yeah man, like I used to like thrash, until it turned into a style with about 25 time changes per tune, and no mids. Fuck that. So I got into the Sea Hags instead.

Cross genre Pollination is the only way forward, as within the clash of styles lie the seeds of something new.* Dubstep is the only new thing I've heard that is actually new, and what it steals is from the impeccable sources of 70s Dub meeting Jungle and othe bass heavy electronics. Electronic Music is still in its infancy, more marvels are to come, but genuinely new guitar music? I wish there would be some, but it needs some new input to the meme pool.

*Quite often something ding, but such is the agony of existence.

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Innovations in music tend to be dictated by the instruments or technology being used at the time. Everything's been done with amplified instruments, guitars, bass, etc.

Think electronic music isn't that different (uses same modal systems, time sigs) and is getting on a bit now too - Kraftwerk's have been kicking about since the 70's.

Hog's right - To get anything truly original, you'd have to basically invent new instruments, scales, time signatures, and probably change the way we perceive music.

Theodor Adorno tried some of the above and his results were sheeeeite.

Pierre's spot on about cross genre pollination - need to make it cross continental pollination though. It needs to be bigger than the western tradition to get anywhere.

So lets enjoy what we're making, and what we've yet to make. I don't think anyone needs to pretend they're at the vanguard of anything though.

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Innovations in music tend to be dictated by the instruments or technology being used at the time. Everything's been done with amplified instruments, guitars, bass, etc.

Think electronic music isn't that different (uses same modal systems, time sigs) and is getting on a bit now too - Kraftwerk's have been kicking about since the 70's.

Hog's right - To get anything truly original, you'd have to basically invent new instruments, scales, time signatures, and probably change the way we perceive music.

BLABBERMOUTH.NET - M.A.N Claims To Be First Metal Band Ever To Incorporate 'Full Scale Quarter Tone System'

That's closest I have heard in a long time... but Eastern music has been using microtones/quartertones (or whatever they are called :p) for ages has it not?

As for music that's 'original' or at least trying something different the problem is it's just too strange for most people! Sure I have posted this link before but something like Lye By Mistake Lye by Mistake(NEW SONGS POSTED!!!) on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads is one of the most creative things I have heard in a while. Well Exivious are kinda doing something similar but it's not as mad as them.

To quote Stephen Wilson (of Porcupine Tree fame)

"For a long time I couldn't find where all these creative musicians were going", said Wilson, "and I found them, they were working in extreme metal."
Obviously I don't know much about other genres of music... but i can say in metal there are loads of bands making crazy music that is just not that popular cos it's too weird. Check out PsyOpus or Behold... The Arctopus for example.

YouTube - Psyopus-Medusa

YouTube - Behold... The Arctopus - Canada

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Microtonal music can have up to a 72 note octave, according to an obituary of some radical Jazz dude I read today, and thats pretty mental.

Joe Maneri obituary | Music | The Guardian

Weird does not equate to fresh, however, and I'm not buying the concept of extreme metal as a bastion of originality in music, we all know how prone musicians are to mistake technique for originality or songwriting prowess.

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