Mauve Rock: sappy, pastel, monotonous, nothing dynamic, challenging or expressive AKA "Cheesy" and "Generic"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

This is how people refer to happy music and technically proficient musicians:

"Any hack off the street can pick up a guitar, learn some scales, noodle around and..." is the sort of bullshit you hear from someone putting down Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Buckethead and all the jam bands in existence.

(Of course, if a "sports guitar god" makes a mistake, then someone will say he isn't even all that great because he flubbed a solo live once.)

Any hack off the street can learn three chords and make "passionate" music is more like it. That statment is much closer to the truth.

If Steve Vai et al are not "challenging," then why is it so hard to play like them and, obviously, hard to listen to for these "intellectual" types. Does "challenging" simply refer to unlistenable art shlock noise made by a bunch of talentless exhibitionists?

This is retarded. When will it come full circle? When will people stop being impressed by "naked emotion" backed with simplistic music?

― Stevie Ray Vai, Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)

― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:59 (twenty years ago)

???

― mrjosh (mrjosh), Saturday, 23 July 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure why i'm bothering to reply to this, but you can be "technically proficient" and NOT make emotionless wank.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Saturday, 23 July 2005 18:16 (twenty years ago)

According to the lastest Onion, I am more like Murph than J or Lou of Dinosaur, Jr. He always needed to be convinced that Dinosaur Jr. was great when he thought of them as a sloppy little punk band.Lou and J understood the moment their music existed in. Murph did not; he was into Zappa and all sorts of stuff.

I think the moment for Lou's and J's has passed. The next wave of kids have professional digital recording equipment at their fingertips while the record industry is falling apart. Do you think they're going to be impressed by talentless, whining "artists"? Yeah, I guess they'll probably relate, as all angsty kids do. But, if the world isn't blown up in 20 years, I envision kids of the future trying to outdo each other online with their brilliant musical creations, not commiserating in some miserable punk community.

― Stevie Ray Vai, Saturday, 23 July 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure why i'm bothering to reply to this, but you can be "technically proficient" and NOT make emotionless wank

Of course, that's why I mentioned Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Buckethead, you Coil-loving shnook.

― Stevei Ray Vai, Saturday, 23 July 2005 18:23 (twenty years ago)

sports guitar IS a funny term, very OTM descriptive.

did you make it up?

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 23 July 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

Nah, I remember hearing it once probably 15 years ago, but it stuck in my head. It was when Nirvana was just starting to break big and someone somewhere described his preference for Fender Jaguars over those "sports guitars" and I remember noticing it seemed to happen overnight that nobody was using Kramers or Ibanez anymore. Probably Jackson suffered, too.

― Stevie Ray Vai, Saturday, 23 July 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

Where's the emotion in Mozart's piano sonatas? Bah! He sucked.

― Article of Clothing, Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

as long as spandex doesn't make a comeback along with the next wave of guitar wankers, i'm okay with it

― gear (gear), Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:32 (twenty years ago)

You're making a lot of very general statements. I'm not really sure what musics you are referring to.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:33 (twenty years ago)

Maybe so.

I can't get into music where technical expertise is an end in itself, whether it's opera or Bach's Greatest Hits or 'sports guitar.' The primary purpose of art, for me, is to communicate - expertise communicates nothing to me. The most technically proficient violinist or vocalist or guitarist still has to have something to say.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:33 (twenty years ago)

that were an x-post to Mozart suXor

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:34 (twenty years ago)

Musical notes can spiral and dance like a kaleidoscope, offering nothing more than sensory delight. To become overwhelmed by meaningless but beautiful sound is a pleasurable experience.

― Mozart SuXor, Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:43 (twenty years ago)

1. Does "challenging" simply refer to unlistenable art shlock noise made by a bunch of talentless exhibitionists?

Often enough to generalize, yes, but there are many, many exceptions.

2. When will it come full circle?

Who knows. Maybe you should listen to jazz or classical music, because current virtuoso rock bands like Dream Theatre and Spock's Beard and whoever don't make particularly enjoyable music.

3. When will people stop being impressed by "naked emotion" backed with simplistic music?

Probably never. Most people lack the patience to learn to play, let alone become Steve Howe or Ginger Baker, and so appreciate and even fetishize stylish limitation, a la Kurt Cobain and Meg White.

― Swami Narcolepsy, Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

Music is the geometry of time, according to the Pythagoreans. Since when does geometry need to communicate anything other than spatial relationships?

― I am a very good driver, Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:54 (twenty years ago)

The morphology of regret involves music composed in dreams and remembered when waking only as kindling for disappointment.

― Pythagorus, Sunday, 24 July 2005 00:16 (twenty years ago)

Music as metaphor.

― Stevie Ray Vai, Monday, 25 July 2005 23:43 (twenty years ago)

This thread is funny in relation to the "white guy plays DJ Shadow in a dorm and so he is evil" thread currently.

― Stevie Ray Vai, Monday, 25 July 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.