General Music Thread

[JayOwl]

There isn't much about music here, and what there is, is often really disorganised and scattered. I'm hoping that a really broad thread like this will generate a lot of discussion! I'm not going to set an exact theme because it's so broad.

Anyways, I thought to start off with I'd post a few tracks that I've been listening most to (according to my LastFM - link in siggy) over the last week or so:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIz2K3ArrWk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH2KgGgK0Dc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up7L4UcVCOk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpzxf_flm8M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ4pSuXFEcg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J7UPSh2Xxw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-92XB8EU3E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DXocljc268
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0BWlvnBmIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFItuWSLERQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkEoOUcZ5GU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxpOki7dfeE

If you want to take the time to listen to a few, great! If not (I know there are a lot ) don't worry, I don't want to make this about me anyway. Just discuss whatever you want about music in here- your tastes, prefered genres, memories, artists, news, whatever- as long as it's music related. That's about it, so... off you go!

[Eyes]

Oh Jay, I hope this does take off. I only check the forum for music threads anymore. Not because I'm not interested in discussing anything else but because they are the easiest to participate in for me (and I am on a music forum before someone tells me to go there). I also don't tend to have similar music tastes to most people from here in my experience.

That is a LOT of music tracks to start a thread off with though, I will criticise the Fray (GOD), and if I'm honest I cba to check which ones are behind the links. Silhouettes I'll give you.

As an attempt to start some sort of discussion, does anyone think popular music may be getting a bit more alternative? The likes of Gotye and fun. doing well across the world is quite indicative of that.

Oh and I'm a shameless pop lover ftr. I love Call Me Maybe so much for what it is. (and a lot of other pop which is far more credible, saving myself here, but most people will never have heard the names).

[Pingfah]

Eyes wrote:

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As an attempt to start some sort of discussion, does anyone think popular music may be getting a bit more alternative? The likes of Gotye and fun. doing well across the world is quite indicative of that.

Gotye really reminds me of Peter Gabriel, who was quite alternative as pop stars go.

I just bought a new record deck.

Well, a 30 year old new record deck. I am currently cleaning up my collection, it's amazing how much better they sound after a good wash.

But I bought all the remastered Queen album reissues on 180gram vinyl, and disappointingly they are an extremely shoddy release. I have compared them to the CDs, and in some cases the CDs sound way better, and so do my 30 year old original vinyl copies of them. What the hell is that all about?

[JayOwl]

^I love vinyls. I don't have any myself yet (no player) but my Dad has a huge collection. Pink Floyd, Queen, Dire Straights, etc. Brilliant stuff. It sucks that they don't work that well for you. Maybe your ones are damaged or possibly ripped on there from lower quality mp3s, or maybe your record player isn't that great.

Eyes wrote:

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That is a LOT of music tracks to start a thread off with though, I will criticise the Fray (GOD), and if

Don't start that off, you just haven't listened to maybe, have you? I'll admit that I don't know that many that well, but I love "How To Save A Life", "You Found Me", "Syndicate", "Absolute", "Over My Head (Cable Car)" and "The Fighter". Give them a chance, I'm pretty sure even you would like Cable Car.

I'm honest I cba to check which ones are behind the links.

I'll give you them here:

Owl City - Vanilla Twilight
Linkin Park - Breaking The HabitThe Fray - Absolute
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
Sky Sailing - Tennis Elbow
Owl City - Strawberry Avalanche
Coldplay - Glass Of Water
Pink Floyd -Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)
Katy Perry - Wide Awake
Port Blue - Up Ship!
Burn It Down - Linkin Park
Swallowed In The Sea - Coldplay
Adding these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVpUG4g7BYE
(He Is We - And Run [Acoustic])
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Gf2SOmz5Q
(He Is We - All About Us (Feat. Owl City))

As an attempt to start some sort of discussion, does anyone think popular music may be getting a bit more alternative? The likes of Gotye and fun. doing well across the world is quite indicative of that.

Oh and I'm a shameless pop lover ftr. I love Call Me Maybe so much for what it is. (and a lot of other pop which is far more credible, saving myself here, but most people will never have heard the names).

Call Me Maybe, yes. The strings make it, and the fact that I (we) knew it before it was famous is great. Gotye (knew this one before fame too! ) and Fun are also fairly good, maybe a bit overplayed, but a lot of pop and chart music isn't so much my thing.

[Zion Ravescene]

Thanks for getting the ball rolling, JayOwl.

Eyes wrote:

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As an attempt to start some sort of discussion, does anyone think popular music may be getting a bit more alternative? The likes of Gotye and fun. doing well across the world is quite indicative of that.

Oh and I'm a shameless pop lover ftr. I love Call Me Maybe so much for what it is. (and a lot of other pop which is far more credible, saving myself here, but most people will never have heard the names).

It's interesting that "alternative pop" acts and music are getting a lot of attention of late. I'm not sure why it is, but I'm all for injecting variety into my playlists, and have taken quite a shine towards newer songs and seeing live performances of new rock and pop acts at the festivals and on TV music shows like BBC's Later... Plus there's absolutely nothing wrong with pop at all.

Personally, the sort of music I like is quite eclectic - from hip hop and chart pop to classical music and Scottish folk and dance, through to soundtracks, classic rock and modern house, plus some other genres in short bursts.

Back in 2001 I started getting into mashup music - fortunate, as at the time the mashup scene as we know it today was just getting started. I appreciate the artistry and creativity involved in getting two or more similar (or preferably otherwise) pieces of music mixed together to create something different, and it has also introduced me to artists I wouldn't normally have discovered or listened to, while appreciating existing artists in a new light.

I guess I'd better start my contribution to the thread by posting a few of my favourite mashups. I've posted several of these before on the TrekBBS in other various music threads in Misc., the lounges, and suchlike. It should give a general, vague feel for the sort of music I like.





My favourite new mashup from 2012.


Another recent favourite.








Oh, and I've also recently signed up to music playlist website thisismyjam.com where I've discovered some new songs and artists among some older favourites.

[JayOwl]

Zion Ravescene wrote:

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Thanks for getting the ball rolling, JayOwl.

My pleasure.

Plus there's absolutely nothing wrong with pop at all.

Well..
Nah, I like a lot of it, you just haven't heard what Eyes listens to.
Again, I kid, a lot of it is really nice- I just like indie, rock, dance and electronic more.

[Eyes]

Pingfah wrote:

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Gotye really reminds me of Peter Gabriel, who was quite alternative as pop stars go.

On a tangent to what you just said, I found this track a few months ago, that is quite amazing in its pretentiousness, it does spoken verse. The reason I mention it is that it mentions Peter Gabriel in a verse, then emphasises it as 'PETER GABRIEL FROM GENESIS'. It tickles me a bit:
Saint Etienne - Over The Border

I think this alternative music shift is people going round in circles with what they like, normally taking about a decade, the middle of decades in the past have been full of alternative acts doing well, while the end tends to see a shift back to pop and club acts. There is also the possibility that people are just bored of club tracks, which is also very likely.

Oh yeah, I'm very eclectic with my music tastes, I even like a bit of The Fray on occasion. But pop, indie-pop and rock are my main haunts. (love that DJ Earworm track Zion, I think 2009 may be my favourite musical year and while that doesn't show the highlights, it's an amazing mashup for the year).

JayOwl wrote:

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Well..
Nah, I like a lot of it, you just haven't heard what Eyes listens to.
Again, I kid, a lot of it is really nice- I just like indie, rock, dance and electronic more.

Thank you! I name the likes of Florrie, Ellie Goulding, Marina and The Diamonds and Florence & The Machine as some of my favourites.

I think this might already be my favourite thread on the BBS for ages.

[Zion Ravescene]

Eyes wrote:

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love that DJ Earworm track Zion, I think 2009 may be my favourite musical year and while that doesn't show the highlights, it's an amazing mashup for the year

I love that mashup too. DJ Earworm's "United State of Pop" mashups are the highlight of the mashup year - 2009's mix is probably the most popular one he's made. The mixes are based on the Billboard Hot 100's top 25 bestselling songs of the year - which leads to some interesting omissions, for example the 2010 edition doesn't contain any Justin Bieber.

He's also made special mixes for Capital FM's Summertime Balls, consisting of mashing up popular tracks by all of the artists involved in that year's festival, starting with this one in 2010 (which does contain Bieber):

[JayOwl]

4000th Owl City play going right now, and it's my avatar.

Eyes, I do like the alternative change- some of the current music really is getting on my nerves. The sooner the likes of Lil Wayne, Pitbull, Flo Rider, Drake, Ke$ha, Chris Brown and plenty of others like them start to disappear the better.

[Eyes]

Zion Ravescene wrote:

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I love that mashup too. DJ Earworm's "United State of Pop" mashups are the highlight of the mashup year - 2009's mix is probably the most popular one he's made. The mixes are based on the Billboard Hot 100's top 25 bestselling songs of the year - which leads to some interesting omissions, for example the 2010 edition doesn't contain any Justin Bieber.

For which I am quite thankful. I don't hate the kid for the sake of hating him but his music is awful.

I think the 2012 one will be quite interesting. I look forward to seeing how he mashes up Titanium and Somebody That I Used To Know (assuming the former makes it, I'm not sure how big it's been in the US).

[Zion Ravescene]

Eyes wrote:

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For which I am quite thankful. I don't hate the kid for the sake of hating him but his music is awful.

I think the 2012 one will be quite interesting. I look forward to seeing how he mashes up Titanium and Somebody That I Used To Know (assuming the former makes it, I'm not sure how big it's been in the US).

Yeah, Justin's a very talented guy, but I'm not rushing out to buy/download the latest JB album just yet. That said, Earworm's 2010 Capital FM mashup did make "Baby" at least bearable. That's one of the things I like about mashups - a good mashup will make your favourite songs even more enjoyable, while a great mashup will improve even the most hated song.

I think it's a variety of factors on my part, but I haven't really been into the latest mashups of late, or at least since much of 2011. I've still to hear last year's Best of Bootie compilation album (something I usually try and listen to each year), although I do follow the latest exploits of a small number of mashup DJs on Facebook and Twitter. USoP 2012 should be interesting.

[Pingfah]

JayOwl wrote:

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^I love vinyls. I don't have any myself yet (no player) but my Dad has a huge collection. Pink Floyd, Queen, Dire Straights, etc. Brilliant stuff. It sucks that they don't work that well for you. Maybe your ones are damaged or possibly ripped on there from lower quality mp3s, or maybe your record player isn't that great.

There is nothing wrong with the record deck I have hundreds of albums that sound great. They just did a shitty job when mastering these Queen reissues for vinyl. Some of them sound great, but some are quite flat sounding compared to the CDs.

Eyes wrote:

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On a tangent to what you just said, I found this track a few months ago, that is quite amazing in its pretentiousness, it does spoken verse. The reason I mention it is that it mentions Peter Gabriel in a verse, then emphasises it as 'PETER GABRIEL FROM GENESIS'. It tickles me a bit:
Saint Etienne - Over The Border

Yeah, that band are quite well known in the UK, I never liked them. They are mind bogglingly boring.

[JayOwl]

Pingfah wrote:

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There is nothing wrong with the record deck I have hundreds of albums that sound great. They just did a shitty job when mastering these Queen reissues for vinyl. Some of them sound great, but some are quite flat sounding compared to the CDs.

Yeh, must be a lower quality rip then. Surprising though, considering it was done commercially.

[junxon]

oooh cool idea for a thread! not seen much music stuff on here before

[Eyes]

Pingfah wrote:

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Yeah, that band are quite well known in the UK, I never liked them. They are mind bogglingly boring.

They had passed me by completely until this album (despite living in the UK), I didn't know they had that rich a history (they go back to 1991, did not know that). I've only heard this and one other track and this was the only one that grabbed me though, I'm far from being a fan. I suspect from the other song, which seems more like their style, I wouldn't like them THAT much.