Your experiences of the Irish music scene

fiachr_a

The reason there's no good music here anymore is because most who should be in a band have emigrated.

alleystar

I have no direct experience of the Irish music scene (as in - working in it) but I do know that a lot of Irish acts in the "underground" Irish music scene are so up themselves it's a sight to behold, especially with such mediocre talent (sorry, but it's the truth in most cases). I have no interest in boybands and absolutely detest country music but I would much rather see them in the charts than those smug individuals who think they're top class. They already have bloggers (mostly insufferable too) blowing smoke up them, God help us all if the mainstream media jumped on that bandwagon too.

BuilderPlumber

alleystar wrote: »

I have no direct experience of the Irish music scene (as in - working in it) but I do know that a lot of Irish acts in the "underground" Irish music scene are so up themselves it's a sight to behold, especially with such mediocre talent (sorry, but it's the truth in most cases). I have no interest in boybands and absolutely detest country music but I would much rather see them in the charts than those smug individuals who think they're top class. They already have bloggers (mostly insufferable too) blowing smoke up them, God help us all if the mainstream media jumped on that bandwagon too.

I know the types. Singer songwriter types who go on and on about how they wrote half a song in their head coming home from the gym and finished it off on their way to a gig in London and debuted its performance there before releasing it on their 'acclaimed' extended play CD. They are glorified buskers really. These along with these bad country singers and played out boybands are all part of the same old thing. When boybands are the best of them, it says it all.

The media do latch onto these singer songwriter types too and that 'Galileo fell in love' song is a perfect example of one of these totally overrated original songs. Once this bad country boyfolk fad ends, the media will turn to the singer songwriters.

TheBiz

My neighbour was engaged to Neil Young in the early 70s until she called it off to become a nun...
Personally, I find people (in the west anyway) very accommodating of younger people, like myself trying.. I mean I've only really went in to open mic type nights but people come over and want to see you back here again. I've no real experience gigging for money so I can imagine that's a different ball game.

nyarlothothep

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

The sad thing is that anyone who tries to do something different is not getting the breaks anymore. If that policy was adopted in the old days, Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles or David Bowie to name but a few would never be discovered.

Today's Irish music scene is dominated by boybands, country pop/boyfolk and talent competitions. Shows like The Voice of Ireland are overhyped, and the same old styles are showcased on Tubridy too. With talks of a boyband supergroup seeing the merger of members of Westlife and Boyzone, this scene is unlikely to be dropped off the agenda anytime soon.

Would these boybands and boyfolk singers be as famous if the media were not forcing them on us? Definitely not. Clever marketing works and people have been bombarded with cleancut pop singers like Ronan Keating, Derek Ryan, Shane Filan, Eoghan Quigg, Mike Denver and Nicky Byrne and think that this is all there is in music and accept it. The fact is there is much better, more exciting music being made that most people will never get to hear as it receives no promotion. Until all forms of music get an even playing field, the era of boybands, boyfolk and talent contests will remain.

Hasn't it always been like that though? Thin Lizzy were laughed out of it until they went over to London, showbands were popular instead. Also music across the world is becoming corporatised and hence ****, young people these days don't have any interest in bands, they prefer electronic music, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Kanye etc (I work in a university so I see this shift in cultural tastes). And if they do like any bands it's only going to be the most watered down, inoffensive, bland 'indie' music like The Killers. As an aside, last night in a nightclub the dj played that dance tune from Trainspotting, as a dance number it's pretty good, most people there didn't groove to it too much, they prefered the safer, more modern dance tunes which I would be completely indifferent to, and I know this is just inviting a 'you're getting old' response that's trotted out ad nauseum on boards and parotted across the internet, but it's really not, there seems to have been a shift towards, safer, blander, more formulaic, less inspired or authentic music. Tbh, rock music is pretty stale as well, there's nothing particularly adventurous being done, I think the labels are partly to blame as they obviously will sign bands that are 'profitable' and hence more conservative but tbh, the whole drums, bass, guitar, vocals thing as being the pinnacle of real music...yes there were some great achievements, but I can see where people were coming from back in the day when they said classical music and jazz were better. And I'm a huge rock/metal fan but it's just so limiting after a while isn't it and a lot of the touted bands are basically in that vein of 4/4 garage rock or indie. Terribly boring. Even polymetric metal and combining metal with reggae or whatever, yeah but still, I dunno, there's just something lacking in a lot of bands these days. It's not just doing things differently, like combining different genres, writing songs in 12/8 or not having a guitarist or drummer or whatever, there needs to be inspiration, it can be quantified as it's an artistic thing, it either exists in the music or it doesn't, it has to filter through to the approach the band takes, Ghost are one band that really caught my attention but since the 00s there have been feck all bands that interest me.

BuilderPlumber

nyarlothothep wrote: »

Hasn't it always been like that though? Thin Lizzy were laughed out of it until they went over to London, showbands were popular instead. Also music across the world is becoming corporatised and hence ****, young people these days don't have any interest in bands, they prefer electronic music, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Kanye etc (I work in a university so I see this shift in cultural tastes). And if they do like any bands it's only going to be the most watered down, inoffensive, bland 'indie' music like The Killers. As an aside, last night in a nightclub the dj played that dance tune from Trainspotting, as a dance number it's pretty good, most people there didn't groove to it too much, they prefered the safer, more modern dance tunes which I would be completely indifferent to, and I know this is just inviting a 'you're getting old' response that's trotted out ad nauseum on boards and parotted across the internet, but it's really not, there seems to have been a shift towards, safer, blander, more formulaic, less inspired or authentic music. Tbh, rock music is pretty stale as well, there's nothing particularly adventurous being done, I think the labels are partly to blame as they obviously will sign bands that are 'profitable' and hence more conservative but tbh, the whole drums, bass, guitar, vocals thing as being the pinnacle of real music...yes there were some great achievements, but I can see where people were coming from back in the day when they said classical music and jazz were better. And I'm a huge rock/metal fan but it's just so limiting after a while isn't it and a lot of the touted bands are basically in that vein of 4/4 garage rock or indie. Terribly boring. Even polymetric metal and combining metal with reggae or whatever, yeah but still, I dunno, there's just something lacking in a lot of bands these days. It's not just doing things differently, like combining different genres, writing songs in 12/8 or not having a guitarist or drummer or whatever, there needs to be inspiration, it can be quantified as it's an artistic thing, it either exists in the music or it doesn't, it has to filter through to the approach the band takes, Ghost are one band that really caught my attention but since the 00s there have been feck all bands that interest me.

All true. Thin Lizzy are among the many later acknowledged talents that had to make it via England. While there were many great talents who started out in the showbands, the thing was that their talents were suppressed once again and what they could sing and play was somehow limited by the conservativeness of the state at the time. Two showband stars who went on to offer a lot more were Rory Gallagher and Van Morrison but once again had to take their music to England to reach their full potential.

Most modern music and almost all modern Irish music has been very poor. I cannot understand why the media are obsessed with boybands, modern country music and poor quality singer songwriters. Most people have no interest at all in these genres and those who do buy what the media say easily. All this emphasis on original material too means that more and more poor songwriters can gain attention. Songwriting is a talent few have but a lot think they have. For every Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Leiber/Stoller, Hank Williams or Irving Berlin, there is a hundred formulaic, uninspired, poor songwriters.

I'm sure there are great singers and musicians out there still but who cannot gain fame due to the rigidity of the media and its unwillingness to support anything other than boybands, modern country music, contemporary singer songwriters and other pop.

Linking music to dance has also done huge damage. Poor music played in clubs or dance halls sounds better when one is with friends and alcohol. College students go to these clubs, dance, pair off and don't really care what noise is on in the background. Older people go to these so called social dancing events where the worst modern country music one can get is played. But as long as people can meet up and as long as the river of alcohol does not stop, the awful modern country rubbish is ok.

Anesthetize

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

Linking music to dance has also done huge damage. Poor music played in clubs or dance halls sounds better when one is with friends and alcohol. College students go to these clubs, dance, pair off and don't really care what noise is on in the background. Older people go to these so called social dancing events where the worst modern country music one can get is played. But as long as people can meet up and as long as the river of alcohol does not stop, the awful modern country rubbish is ok.

Wait, is dancing to music a recent development? Surely this is a fad that will go away eventually.

BuilderPlumber

Anesthetize wrote: »

Wait, is dancing to music a recent development? Surely this is a fad that will go away eventually.

No it has always been there but recent music is only written for dance and caters for it. Because it knows that most will listen to it while dancing rather than enjoying it for its own merit as music it often is poorly written and sounds the same. That awful Irish country music that is pumped out nonstop and featured in all these so-called social dancing events is a perfect example.

Anesthetize

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

No it has always been there but recent music is only written for dance and caters for it. Because it knows that most will listen to it while dancing rather than enjoying it for its own merit as music it often is poorly written and sounds the same. That awful Irish country music that is pumped out nonstop and featured in all these so-called social dancing events is a perfect example.

All recent music is only written for dance? Surely I must be missing out on something here. I never found the urge to dance to the majority of new album releases I've listened to in the past year, but rather stick on a pair of headphones and immerse myself in the music.

Irish country is indeed a turgid excuse for music. But only a faint blip on the radar of what's actually out there.

BuilderPlumber

Anesthetize wrote: »

All recent music is only written for dance? Surely I must be missing out on something here. I never found the urge to dance to the majority of new album releases I've listened to in the past year, but rather stick on a pair of headphones and immerse myself in the music.

Irish country is indeed a turgid excuse for music. But only a faint blip on the radar of what's actually out there.

Of course there is a lot of other types of music out there both now and in the past that was not written solely for dancing to. Most of the really good music out there is also not pushed by the powers that be in Ireland.

Modern Irish country is an example of the type of stuff that gets pushed. It is the in vogue thing with the media at the moment. It is horrid and the Irish media are forcing it on us and making us all believe 'everyone loves it'. The media will not get behind anything other than certain genres that they push. Shame on them.

That said and done of course there are some great singers and bands on the scene here in Ireland who gain success despite almost 100% nonsupport from the media. This comes from sheer hard work and a lot of putting one's neck on the line in the sheer belief these have of what they do. It is disheartening for many with real talent to see the blatant support Irish media give to awful pop music genres like Irish country music.