Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
As the new Moderator of Arts & Culture, my first official act is to close the 85-page "What's on your CD player?" thread and launch a new one. The old one's still there; you can read it but you can't post to it.
Somebody replaced "What's on your turntable?" with "What's on your CD player?" a few years ago and it's time to update the technology reference again. Not to mention, an 85-page thread is difficult to manage.
I must confess that even though I'm a musician (bass guitar) and even though I have loved music since the days before rock and roll was invented, I don't often check into this discussion. It seems to be dominated by a handful of people who love classic rock. Now I love classic rock too, I'm always happy to perform "Johnny B. Goode" and "Sweet Home Alabama," and in the past couple of years I've attended concerts by Crosby Stills & Nash, Crosby & Nash, Stills, Zappa Plays Zappa (three times), the Doors (with Ian Astbury), the Cult (can't get enough of Ian Astbury), Bo Diddley, Janis Ian, Jimmy Buffett, Jean-Luc Ponty, the Cure, Renaissance, and I'm sure there are just as many more than didn't spring to mind.
But I don't think classic rock needs any cheerleaders. Except for Renaissance (sadly) all of these concerts had huge contingents of young people who appreciate the music their parents and grandparents liked. It's not like the Generation Gap, when people who loved rock hated swing and vice versa. Young people listen to AC/DC and the Eagles, or at least don't walk out when a bar band plays it.
Contemporary music could probably stand more print, since except for blockbusters like the Killers and Kelly Clarkson (I've seen them too), most of it isn't as well known as the Beatles and Pink Floyd, despite the airplay.
So I urge people who enjoy the music of this century to speak up.
In addition, I'm not sure how much value there is in a post that merely names a song and links to a YouTube video. Most people have limited time and can't follow every link they receive in a day. Why not say a little something about the song? Like, what has it got that made you love it? That might help people decide to check it out.
Of course the people who laboriously transcribe the entire lyric sheet to a song are doing their homework. But as a musician I have to note that a song is a package deal: the lyrics and the music complement each other. Either one by itself might not grab anybody's attention. There are not very many songs that can stand alone as poetry. And even if they could, don't lose track of the fact that probably the majority of the inhabitants of this planet like music, but poetry has a very small fan base, particularly in the USA. Judging by the traffic on poetry websites, it's been estimated that more Americans write poetry than read it.
So if you want to turn the members on to one of your favorite songs, put a little effort into it!
Note: That's just me speaking as your elder. Speaking as the Moderator, you're still free to do anything you want with this thread, so long as it's on topic and doesn't violate the forum rules.
Somebody replaced "What's on your turntable?" with "What's on your CD player?" a few years ago and it's time to update the technology reference again. Not to mention, an 85-page thread is difficult to manage.
I must confess that even though I'm a musician (bass guitar) and even though I have loved music since the days before rock and roll was invented, I don't often check into this discussion. It seems to be dominated by a handful of people who love classic rock. Now I love classic rock too, I'm always happy to perform "Johnny B. Goode" and "Sweet Home Alabama," and in the past couple of years I've attended concerts by Crosby Stills & Nash, Crosby & Nash, Stills, Zappa Plays Zappa (three times), the Doors (with Ian Astbury), the Cult (can't get enough of Ian Astbury), Bo Diddley, Janis Ian, Jimmy Buffett, Jean-Luc Ponty, the Cure, Renaissance, and I'm sure there are just as many more than didn't spring to mind.
But I don't think classic rock needs any cheerleaders. Except for Renaissance (sadly) all of these concerts had huge contingents of young people who appreciate the music their parents and grandparents liked. It's not like the Generation Gap, when people who loved rock hated swing and vice versa. Young people listen to AC/DC and the Eagles, or at least don't walk out when a bar band plays it.
Contemporary music could probably stand more print, since except for blockbusters like the Killers and Kelly Clarkson (I've seen them too), most of it isn't as well known as the Beatles and Pink Floyd, despite the airplay.
So I urge people who enjoy the music of this century to speak up.
In addition, I'm not sure how much value there is in a post that merely names a song and links to a YouTube video. Most people have limited time and can't follow every link they receive in a day. Why not say a little something about the song? Like, what has it got that made you love it? That might help people decide to check it out.
Of course the people who laboriously transcribe the entire lyric sheet to a song are doing their homework. But as a musician I have to note that a song is a package deal: the lyrics and the music complement each other. Either one by itself might not grab anybody's attention. There are not very many songs that can stand alone as poetry. And even if they could, don't lose track of the fact that probably the majority of the inhabitants of this planet like music, but poetry has a very small fan base, particularly in the USA. Judging by the traffic on poetry websites, it's been estimated that more Americans write poetry than read it.
So if you want to turn the members on to one of your favorite songs, put a little effort into it!
Note: That's just me speaking as your elder. Speaking as the Moderator, you're still free to do anything you want with this thread, so long as it's on topic and doesn't violate the forum rules.
