Just a question

Martyr

hi guys

i'm trying to think of a tactful way to put this,so please don't get offended anyone!!

do any of you older players(i'm not defining older because that's when people may get offended?) listen to the modern stuff,like haste the day,trivium,lamb of god,killswitch engage,etc?

i just find it weird how people normally listen to all the classic bands like metallica,black sabbath,etc but when(for example) i ask my dad if he will or would ever listen to what i am listening to he always says it a load of crap and the true bands are all the classics...

so i'm kinda curious if any of the older players listen to what us youngsters are listening to?

Riaan

Guess I'm one of the "older" okes here so let me start... ?...

I wouldn't necessarily label anything new as being crap - I'm sure there is a lot of good stuff coming out nowadays and back in the 70's there obviously came out a lot of crap too, along with what became the classic hits. Problem is, I find that my exposure to new music is seriously limited nowadays and it would take a dedicated effort to get to know the new stuff - difficult if you're not in the music industry but something that I actually plan to do as I find that I'm quite "listened out" to most of the stuff I've got. It's not that I don't enjoy it anymore, I just increasingly feel the need to listen to music I haven't heard before. That may include old and new stuff.

What I also think plays a role is the fact that the older music is such a powerful stimulator of memories, and the emotions that goes with it. Some tunes take me back 20-30 years in an instant, and I definitely experience the same feelings and emotions as I did back then as a kid. Perhaps some older guys cannot identify with new music for that reason - it doesn't "take you back".

Another thing for me is that there's a fine line between being influenced by a classic band yet sounding fresh, and being influenced and trying to sound too much like them. In the latter case I tend to lose interest. Music for a large part is a snapshot of an era, like a picture. You can try to recreate it, but it will never be 100% the same as that particular moment in time. Which of course means that time must pass before we will know if something was truly great...

Martyr

What I also think plays a role is the fact that the older music is such a powerful stimulator of memories, and the emotions that goes with it

that makes sense,but i find that alot of younger plays feel they HAVE to listen to older music otherwise they aren't true musicians or metealheads or whatever they feel like being called...like i can't listen to led zepplin *Hiding under table* for some reason i find it to boring...

i guess it has to also do with the fact that alot of the new music screams alot and i'm taking it that's what puts alot of older people off it,even though there are some good new bands that have no screaming aswell that i'm pretty sure alot of you will enjoy,like Alter bridge for example...

but i guess one day i'm gonna hear the stuff my son is listening to and say to him "why are you listening to that crap?" ?

Riaan

I recently experienced quite a role reversal however. My dad, who is in his 60's and retired, recently held a part time job as driver for a guy with impaired eyesight who also happened to be a bass player in a metal band in CT - some of you guys may know him. They constantly listened to metal whilst in the car. As a result my old man now knows more about the metal bands than I do! And I suspect he liked it more than he admits!

AlanRatcliffe

please don't get offended anyone!!

Why you young whipper-snapper

I'll try anything once or twice if someone says I should listen to it - I'm always looking for new stuff and new players that I'll enjoy. I listened to Pain Of Salvation's One Hour by the Concrete Lake earlier (second listen) and tried some Dragonforce and those Bodom chappies recently. Sometimes I'll revisit an artist when someone tells me to check out a certain album - I just got Devin Townsend's Synchestra on ConradP's recommendation and first impressions are good (always knew he had talent, but I felt his previous material didn't really live up to his skill).

Not much really sticks though - partly for reasons that Riann pointed out, partly because in most cases I've heard it all before. The most recent stuff to really catch my attention were Bumblefoot (one of my favourite artists now and someone I'm lucky enough to exchange emails with on occasion), Mattias Eklundh, Dave Martone, Guthrie Govan, Andy Timmons, Joe Bonamassa, Porcupine Tree and Audioslave (OK, so maybe some of it sticks).

My music collection is pretty scary if you consider how wide it is and how many genres it covers. I'm a rock/psychedelic rock/prog rocker at heart, but grew up hearing rock 'n roll, classical, pop, country, jazz, fusion, rock and just about everything else. My mother turned me onto Django Reinhard, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Chet Atkins and other great players and would still listen with an open mind when I played her Zappa, Vai, Malmsteen and Holdsworth.

like i can't listen to led zepplin

I can understand that - but what you have to try and do with any music (whether it be the music your grandparents listen to or the music your kids listen to), is really listen to it and figure out what makes it popular. Figure out not only the musical aspect but the social aspect too, and it'll help you understand your own music and its place in the scheme of things.

alot of the new music screams alot

I think I've said this before - my parent's generation invented screaming and my generation refined it. You guys just added the cookie monster vocals ? - and even there I could make an argument for Lemmy or Tom Waits ? . My favourite female vocalist is Nina Hagen (the "Mother of Punk") - and she can scream along with the best of them - with an incredible vocal range of over 4.5 octaves (more than the range of bass to soprano)!

but i guess one day i'm gonna hear the stuff my son is listening to and say to him "why are you listening to that crap?"

Yeah, we all fall prey to that - I managed to get through my daughter's Britney Spears phase without saying anything, M&M with some compliments (I do like his production), but fell foul when she insisted that Marilyn Manson was a complete original (started hauling out old Alice Cooper records, playing her the original Sweet Dreams and Tainted Love, etc.). Epic Fail. LOL!

NorioDS

Martyr wrotethat makes sense,but i find that alot of younger plays feel they HAVE to listen to older music otherwise they aren't true musicians or metealheads or whatever they feel like being called

I'm 24 and LOVE old music (usually more than new music!) I don't feel a need to listen to it, I just do and I love it. Each time I discover something new (Judas Priest last year, Uriah Heap this year), it's exciting for me -- I just like THAT sound. Whether it's old or new.

I used to be into screaming metal and still enjoy Children of Bodom, Trivium, etc but I've found that I don't need it any more, so I don't listen to it. When I was an angry young man/teen, screaming music was great. But now, I have to be in the mood for it or it doesn't get "airplay".

Hope that makes a bit of sense from one of the younger guys (I think ?) who don't fit into your description.

Renesongs

Yeah - I'm one of the older rockers on this forum - I'm nearly half a century old which means when I first got into music Hendrix was still alive, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin etc were still fairly obscure, ye olde record store would imported the stuff for you, (rock was something you threw at dinosaurs to scare them away) I would say a good 70% of the rock music I listen too is from the period 1967-1979 mainly because this is the period of my life when I was becoming socially and culturally aware. During the 80's I shunned Metal Van Halen, Metallica etc because I wanted to be more of an adult and started acquiring a taste for sophisticated Jazz stuff from the 40's and 50's John Coltrain, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis etc and contemporary Jazz, Chic Corea, John Mclaughlin, Weather report. During the 90's I truly believed that rock was dead (long live paper and scissors) because I just wasn't hearing anything that I hadn't heard before done better. The trouble was that rock was not dead, I had just become deaf to rock. This century thanks to having another musician in my family (my teenage daughter) my ears have been trained to where the good stuff lies. So I guess what I'm am saying in a long winded old fart sort of way is that you need to educate you parents more by TURNING YOUR MUSIC LOUDER!!!

AlanRatcliffe

you need to educate you parents more by TURNING YOUR MUSIC LOUDER!!!

...then you too can have hearing loss and tinnitus by 25, just like us old folks!

I'm a dinosaur, but somebody's diggin' my bones.
Dinosaur - King Crimson

Manfred-Klose

then you too can have hearing loss and tinnitus by 25,

any of you guys have a serious case of tinnitus? I dont know what i would do if i heard that loud ringing tone in my ear, exactly like the one you would experience after a death metal festival, but goes on forever......

Most people around the age 16 - 30 years would be suffering from hearing loss by the time they reach 40, correct me if i'm wrong. Take examples like 5.1 surround systems, Death metal concerts, washing machines, traffic on the N1, living next to an airport(that would suck big time!!!!)...........all contributes to hearing loss.

AlanRatcliffe

I have tinnitus from my first week of drumming (damn Pearl free-floating snare drum). I got earplugs quickly, but the damage was done. It's not too bad most of the time, but I also tend to get swimmer's ear and that makes it a lot worse.

If you walk away from a gig with your ears ringing, you have damaged your ears. Do yourself a favour and get good ear plugs for both playing on stage and going to concerts with big rigs.

Martyr

any of you guys have a serious case of tinnitus?

my dad has that,but it only started quite recently...

I'm 24 and LOVE old music (usually more than new music!)

reason i said that is because this one time me and a group of friends at varsity were sitting there discussing music and i said i can't listen to led zepplin and this other guy was like biting my head off saying he loves it and you have to listen to it otherwise you aren't a true musician, etc etc. so i said fine give me your car keys and went to his car CD collection,didn't find one zepplin cd,or any of the other classic bands he claims i HAVE to listen to,i even checked his iPod,found nothing...

i basically listen to what i like,i go from listen to a very screamo band like Bring Me The Horizon to listening to Queen(had to drive from PE to durban listening to Queen's greatest hits with my uncle and aunt and my iPod died,but i actually quite liked 'em) or The Beetles...

my gf listens to a lot of classical music(she plays flute in the KZNYO) and jazz music,i'm starting like the jazz i hear her playing on her CD player,classical music is ok in moderation(IMO)...

but fell foul when she insisted that Marilyn Manson was a complete original (started hauling out old Alice Cooper records, playing her the original Sweet Dreams and Tainted Love, etc.). Epic Fail. LOL!

i agree,i don't like marilyn manson one bit,and i don't understand why his guitarist(John 5) is featured in every 3rd total guitar magazine...

Hope that makes a bit of sense from one of the younger guys (I think Tongue) who don't fit into your description.

i know a few people like you,i have a 17 year old friend who won't listen to any new music,everything is Tool,Metallica,Led Zepplin,Judas Priest,etc...

thanks for the answers guys,i rate i'll try turning my music up abit more or maybe slip a CD into his car's frontloader and maybe he will change his mind ?

AlanRatcliffe

i don't understand why his guitarist(John 5) is featured in every 3rd total guitar magazine...

Oh I do! Bad taste in makeup aside, the boy can play!

AlanRatcliffe

won't listen to any new music,everything is Tool,Metallica,Led Zepplin,Judas Priest,etc...

Eep! Tool and Metallica are "old music" already? LOL! I'm sure there may even be one or two of us older rock fans who think of even Van Halen as "noobs"!

Riaan

Eep! Tool and Metallica are "old music" already? LOL! I'm sure there may even be one or two of us older rock fans who think of even Van Halen as "noobs"!

Yes...I found that when I compiled a "classic rock" playlist for my iPod. The stuff from the sixties and seventies were easy, but by the 80's the distinction began to blurr somewhat. Eventually I gave up trying to classify them and just created one huge playlist called "rock favs". It doesn't work that well though. Bill Haley might end up right next to Van Halen on shuffle and it just doesn't sound right.

Riaan

This century thanks to having another musician in my family (my teenage daughter) my ears have been trained to where the good stuff lies.

My oldest is only three, so my further music education is still a decade or so off. God knows what she'll listen to then... For the time being though, I'm all clued up with the Teletubbies, Postman Pat and all sorts of kiddies songs... 8)...actually quite fun to try and do them on guitar, and she loves it!

Renesongs

...then you too can have hearing loss and tinnitus by 25, just like us old folks!

Uncle Magnus and the boys did that for me with their shredded metal music in the 80's

FatBoy

I think there is another side to this. I am a young one, 27, and I pretty much only listen to the old stuff. I just feel a lot more soul in the music.

I think back in the day, there weren't THAT many millionaire musicians around and most bands started out more for their love of music and dislike for the life their parents had in mind, as opposed to going straight for the money.

These days I see far too many girls / boys that look real good, can dance and jump around in an entertaining fashion, but if you listen to their live performances you go "WTF, that oke isn't even singing in key". My point being that back in the day you had to be a better artists and most of the sounds you heard was done manually, these days everything is fixed in production.

Back then most bands had some sort of message, these days it's just singing about sex drugs and living by the gun life in the ghetto (that being done by some guy whose never even held a gun and grew up in Beverley Hills). I just feel that the old music had more truth, soul and passion involved, and the money came as a result of that, not the other way around.

I do hear some good stuff every now and then, but nothing touches my soul as much as old classics, and nothing grinds my gears more that some twit recording a cover of an old classic and making a killing and then the teeny boppers go "Oooh what a great song, he is such a great songwriter" and then they don't even want to believe you when you say that it's an old Stones tune etc.

I think I was just born in the wrong era ☹

Squonk

This could also be an "AGE" thing. At 13 years old in 1976 when I was going through my Led Zeppelin stage, my best friend tried to get me into Pink Floyd, Genesis and Yes, but I somehow in my mind thought that these bands were too soft and not angry enough for me. In 1978 at the age of 15 I discovered Prog Rock and abandoned heavier rock. In 1979 I discovered the Beatles and the Kinks.
My uncle tried to interest me in Jazz at this time but it took a further 10 years to understand JAZZ.
In 1980 "The Clash" got me interested in "angry" rock again.
What I am trying to say is that music is a journey, that circumstances, emotions, growing up etc all play big part.
I now appreciate many Genre's, but the fun was discovering them.