Today's rant of the day!

[hkellick]

With appropriate rant-like user icon!

This one stems from a point I was trying to make today on music_geeks about the apparent homogenous of music.

My beef is with that.. but with something much nastier.

I've been thinking in terms of the evolution of a band.

There's a joke out there about Enya.. want to know what her new album will sounds like? Listen to the old one backwards.. and as far as I can tell.. this is true. Enya has never changed her sound, never evolved.. has remained constant and, frankly, boring.
On the other hand, take a band like The Beatles who were constantly trying new things, pushing the limits, seeing what they could do... and making it work! Each new album was exciting. What would they do now?

I can sit here and think of some bands who have clearly changed and matured.
An example of that is the numerous changes in sound I've heard from my favorite bands, They Might Be Giants... going from two men and a number of gadgets (Original Album) to two men and a full backup band (John Henry) to two men, a full backup band, computerization and assistance from numerous musical sources (Mink Car).

And then there are bands like Barenaked Ladies.
Despite the fact that I DO like Barenaked Ladies and they remain one of my favorite bands.. their sound hasn't changed since they hired Kevin Hearney. They sound exactly the same in "Everything to Everyone" as they did in "Stunt". Not as bad as Enya.. different hooks, different melodies, but the same SOUND.

WHY? Why have you, as a band, not been able to mature? Do you feel comfortable doing the same thing continuously? Do you realize that this gets boring and stale fast?
I mean, seriously.. how do you expect you will remain popular if you don't change with the times? Your sound will get old. You'll be dating yourself. You'll be "so early 2000s".

So.. yeah.
Not much else to say. I feel... off today. I can't really explain why.. but it will be good to get home, I think and relax and hope I'm better tommorow.

Comments

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

Actually, Enya used to evolve and mature, but that was before her producer and her producer's wife wrote all her music for her...

[kareila]

That's why I don't understand people who don't like the new Guster album because it's too different. I love how their sound is evolving.

[dawnstar.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to hear it. I half-expect to not like it as much because of moving away from the hand-drums... but it's not like the drumming is what /really/ makes or breaks their sound, so I'm definitely wanting to give it a listen. Then again, I'll hopefully be hearing a lot of the new stuff live in July. :) For free!! :)

[dustkitten.livejournal.com]

When Adam called before an interview, I brought this up with him. I said it probably had a lot to do with industry and label pressure, and he said there was also likely a feeling of comfort to it.

So I say, all three of these things! :) But yeah, I think that labels push you to write when you're not necessarily inspired, but I also think it has something to do with having a plastic existance. You can't find real-life experiences in an MTV lifestyle.

-A-