Do U Think Todays Rock Is Better??

Kingp35

I listen the bands that are around today and they just arent as good as the bands from years ago. The likes of AC/DC and Black Sabbath are so much better than any band out today and what the hell has happened to the art of a guitar solo!?? I dont think we will ever hear a guitar solo like in Freebird by Lynyrd skynyrd ever again.

Musician wise todays bands cant cut it and its like i was brought up on the older music because im only 19 but the older bamnds are so much better.

What do you people think?? Are todays bands as good as the older ones or are they just not as good?

Give me AC/DC any day!!!

Doctor J

I agree. Will the Darkness, Evanescense (sp?), Linkin Park be listened to and revered 30 years hence in the same way Sabbath and DC are today? Not bloody likely. Most bands are capable of a some good tunes. Some bands are capable of great tunes. Few bands are capable of many great tunes.
The main problem as I see it is this desire to give "value for money" by filling up the available 80 or so minutes on an audio cd. The strengtt of the good music is diluted by "filler". In truth, there are very few great albums over 50 minutes long. Powerage, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Led Zep I, II, III IV, etc etc etc. Maybe 8 songs but every song is a great song. Master Of Puppets is the only one that springs to mind over 50 minutes (I think it's 52). Reign In Blood is 28 minutes. Give me 28 minutes of quality over 78 minutes of patchiness any day.
Sabbath, DC, etc were breaking new ground. Most bands these days are just retreading DC riffs (Darkness and loads more) or the same old 3 or 4 chords. It's been done before, let's hear something new. Something inventive. For me, Cynic and Atheist offered some true innovation, albeit too briefly. There is very little from the last 10 years which has excited me too much. Much of the responsibility for this lies at the feet of record labels. At the same time they were making quick money out of boy bands they stopped signing interesting music too. Then there's the devil called MTV... no one entity has harmed good music more - tune that bastarrd out of your TV if you love music.
There are great bands out there, you just have to go looking for them. I don't think a great band will ever be globally popular to the levels of Sabbath and DC et al. The world has changed. There is great music yet to be heard though.

ferdi

back in the day you had to be good to get big, now its all down to marketing and corporate scullfuckery. on the other hand, times change...music changes, just because its different dosnt mean its worse

Zoton

You may think that the quality of bands were much better back then, and maybe they were slightly, but thats because we only really hear about the ones who were successful and popular.
You're talking about ac/dc, sabbath, zeppelin etc. and a few more. Out of an entire decade (say the 70's) there wouldn't have been more than say 10 or 20 really good bands. If you were to distill off all the crap from the 90's or the 00's you'd probably come up with about the same number of great bands. So nothing has really changed. People had to put up with dire music back then too, just like now, its just that we tend to forget all the awful stuff that was around at the same time as the great.

freakydeadgirl

i feel that tody a band's first couple cd's are often the best. most often they are still playing what they want to and what they are best at.
the radio just plays the same kind of sh*t of the bands that have less then a shred of talent.

Pugsley

True Zoton, but honestly, what is the best band in the 90's that got in the charts? These days to get good music you have to hunt for it, the charts are a steaming piel of poo to say the least, but superb music is still being made.

Sarky

You kinda had to hunt for it back then, too. Bands like AC/DC were often totally ignored by radio and "right thinking" advertisers, especially in America and Russia. And still they managed to be utterly massive everywhere.

People are either afraid to innovate, or they're afraid to touch a genre that some self styled authorities like Louis Walsh or whoever proclaim is dead.

I recently found a fourpack of old "Superhits of Rock" cds. They have some true classics, like Don't Fear The Reaper, Sweet Home Alabama, and so on, but they're actually about 70% tripe that I'd never heard of, with good reason, as the songs proved...

AngelofFire

my cd collection consists of rock music from the 1950s to present day but my favourite era has to be the late 60s early 70s period. so many good bands, beatles, stones, sabbath, zepplin, pink floyd, iron maiden etc.

but given the attitudes of many of todays rockers led zepplin and black sabbath would of been hated had they of been around today. as music seems to be about coolness these days, sabbath and zepplin because of their success would be labelled "sellouts" or too "comerical". Back in the 70s music was just music nothing else.

Karl Hungus

Originally posted by Doctor J
There are great bands out there, you just have to go looking for them.

Pretty much my sentiments exactly.

You just can't wait for good music to jump out and hit you in the face, you really have to root it out. But once you know where to look, it's easy enough to find loads of great bands.

AngelofFire

I agree the best bands aren`t always the bands on every 2nd persons tee shirt in town. most of the modern bands that i listen to are fairly obscuere

Bottle_of_Smoke

There is great bands tey're just different now, if a band like sabbath came along now they wouldnt seem as good because they'd just be in the sabbath shadow.
Bands like the frames aren't seen as sell outs cos they're pretty original, I'd love to get a bunch of psychologists to work it all out!

mr_angry

I think today's rock is different - not really better, not really worse. On the upside, there are more bands, and more variety. There's no standout band like Zepplin or AC/DC, but if you get bored of one band, there's always another one around the corner. On the downside, this music is very badly promoted and supported, and you have to work like a dog to find it - possibly because there's no single band that you can 'rely' on.

Civilian_Target

I dunno about old rock being better, TBH. OK, there's plenty of Linkin Parks out there who may well be forgotten, but in 30 years time people will still listen to good bands like System of a Down, the Distillers, the Mars Volta, White Stripes etc.

It's easy to say how great AC/DC, Sabbath or Zeppelin are nowdays, because they've had their prime and are reputed for it. Saying "I like the Distillers" is tricker though, their album hasn't been marked as a classic, no one knows wheter their next album will be crap, and since (a lot of) people don't dare to be different, then they say "AC/DC" and the people nod and say "Good choice"

The exception to the rule is Iron Maiden, who have had their classics, and still are having them (DoD is a great album).

It's really just an extension to what Bottle of Smoke and Sarky had to say

projectmayhem

Originally posted by Kingp35
what the hell has happened to the art of a guitar solo!??

watch.. slipknot's new album will be laced with solo's and then every band from linkin park to evenescence will have solo's. bad ones.

Doctor J

I don't think the current generation of bands have brought it on at all. I mean, Take 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' for example, released in 73. Look 10 years before that and examine the music of 1963. There was a huge leap made, in terms of composition, in terms of structure, lyrical matter, musicianship, etc. Then take anything from the last couple of years and have a look at the music of 94. Has anything really changed that much? There was a great leap in exploring new music, there was less emphasis put on boundaries or genres. How many current bands would have a song like 'Who Are You' or Fluff on a metal album these days? Most modern music is written to formula and nobody is really taking any chances, save for The Mars Volta and perhaps Opeth too, of the bands I've heard. The rest... well it might be great but I've heard it before. I mean, is there any rock/metal/punk band out there who aren't borrowing directly from The Clash, Sex Pistols, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Death, Ramones, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Beatles, Deep Purple, Joy Division, Metallica and Judas Priest (to pick the obvious ones)? With technology progressing as rapidly as it has in the last 20 years, music has been stuck in a rut by comparison.

Zoton

There are plenty of bands who churn out the same kind of music album after album, which is fine cos we need that, not every album has to be radically different or pushing the boundaries, sometimes its nice to just listen to a simple rock album.
Having said that there does seem to be a large majority of bands who are afraid to step out of their boundaries.
Queen and zeppelin etc. experimented on albums, often with fairly horrendous results tbqh, but at leats they gave it a shot. A prime example of a band who really need to change direction are korn. After follow the leader they should have continued to move in a new direction, they do have the talent, however they chickened out a went back to their tried and tested formula with issues, and have continued ever since, and it hasn't been good.
Opeth, tool, mars volta are good examples of bands that arent afraid to try something different, but they are few and far between these days. If the current trend does continue, and teh louis walshes of this world continue to churn out their banality then music will really be in trouble, because bands such as tool, opeth etc wont even get a look in at a record deal. Now that really is depressing.



/side note...here's hoping westlife split today!

Kingp35

i agree that there was alot of rubbish bands in the 70s as well as good ones and obviuosly we are only gonna be listening to the good ones these days but I still think that the "great" bands from the 70s are alot better than the "great" bands of today. Its true that nearly every band these days are just copying riffs off of the great bands of years before.

I do agree that there are some good bands out there today if you go searchhing for them but you really gotta root thriugh the rubbish to find em. The charts are just full of rubbish thanks to the huge commercial thing going on with music right now so good bands who arent commercial dont get enough promotion so maybe that has something to do with it.

Still saying that I dont think we will see musicianship and such good music as we saw with the bands of the seventies with the rare exceptions of the likes of Peral jams ealy years and nirvana.The grunge scene was the only new scene that was any good to emerge since the 70s.

Music needs to start going somewhere and needs to do it soon.

cournioni

There is some good bands out there if you look for em. They might never be as big as Black Sabbath or Judas Priest but they are just as good.

jt

Some of the groups that are quoted as quality in the 70s and 80s were never that good in the first place.

Jeez, how could anybody like Judas Priest or iron maiden, for example? I know they did but i still don't see it.

AC/DC, Led Zep, Rory Gallagher were all good cos they had roots, musical linkages into the past. In the 70s AC/DC borrowed just as much from old blues guitarists as Rory G did.

Good rock music today is just as good as good stuff in the 70s and 80s. The musicians have to have roots and some spark, Bon Scott had it, the fellas out of the Darkness have it (not the same spark though) plus the Darkness undeniably are rooted in the 80s - they even make the 'iron maiden-sound' attractive. Phil Lynott definitely had it and listen to all that english stuff from the 60s, em, whats their names that did smoke stack lightening?

hey, I just remembered Mamas Boys, they had it.

I really do not reckon bands are better now than they used to be. Plus ca change... as we used to say outside the city hall in cork in our checked shirts, white runners (there was no other type back then), and dunnes stores jeans.

'i've got patches on the patches, on my old blue jeans, well they used to be blue, when they used to be new, when they used to be clean'
j

Deadwing

I think alot of people have rose tinted glasses on when they think of 'old' music. Sure, the 70's gave us some great bands..but it also gave us Abba, and the Bay city rollers. Fast forward 30 years, and today, sure youve got Linkin park, Papa roach, and ofther assorted crap whine-rock bands. But for every Linkin park, you get a Meshuggah. For every Papa roach you get a ..Trail of dead. As other people said, theres good music out there, you just gotta look for it

Kingp35

true there are good bands out there today but the bands of years ago in my opinion are alot better. Bring back the days when rock n roll really was rock n roll

Karl Hungus

Originally posted by Kingp35
Bring back the days when rock n roll really was rock n roll

As opposed to now when it's country & western?

Pugsley

As opposed to now when it's country & western?

I think he means 'pop with guitars'.

toffo

At the end of the day you could probably go to any message board and find the same thread about music from the 50's, to the 90's. The fact is music evolves and tastes change. Do you think Kerry King would be doing wild solo's if Eddie VanHalen didn't come up with Eruption? Would Nu-metal exist if Areosmith and Run DMC didn't do Walk this Way?
I guarentee in 10-15 years when this generation grows up they will be saying what happened to bands like Slipknot or Linkin Park.
How many remember Herman's Hermits or Bob Seger?

Kingp35

yeah i meant pop with guitars thats hardly rock now is it but some people call it rock just because the song is guitar based. Also as I said before the art of a guitar solo which is what Rock n roll was all about with the truely great guitarists like hendrix,slash etc. is pretty much dead these days. Thats what I meant.

satriani18

heavey metal died the day halford quit priest

Doctor J

Halford's back in Priest .... that didn't sound right...

satriani18

i thought there was word of him touring but i didnt know he was back pemanently.any album news?

Doctor J

Yep, there'll be a new one in the summer - check www.judaspriest.com

You should also have a look at Fight and Halford, two quality Metal bands

loismustdie

no

Kingp35

yeah its cool that judas priest are coming back but your kinda getting off the point of the thread here lads