Fun Stuff > BAND
QC Music Blog discussion thread
Inlander:
I got lazy! I'll try to get un-lazy later today.
Inlander:
--- Quote from: a pack of wolves on 06 Feb 2008, 16:52 ---The relative length of albums and films seems to be changing though. While films will always be limited by how long people are willing to sit still albums seem to be gradually growing in length. Tommy's pointed out before the way the CD has led to longer albums, and it's reasonably to suppose that the digital release will lead to even longer albums still.
--- End quote ---
This raises the whole "death of the album" issue that people are fond of speculating on with the rise of downloadable music: I think there's a greater tendency for people these days to cherry-pick their favourite songs to download and listen to, rather than whole albums. I don't have any empirical evidence for this, though. As an interesting aside, the 3-minute pop song is still pretty much the industry standard, generations after the technology that created that standard became outmoded.
Interestingly, with vinyl making a comeback there are more and more albums, at least by relatively non-mainstream bands, the 60s standard of albums being generally just over half an hour in length is becoming the norm again: to take one example, the Shins' most recent album was also their longest yet - at forty minutes.
--- Quote ---There's little point in an exact replica, I agree, and when a band is slavishly attempting to replicate something that came before it's pretty unsatisfying. But for me that's because they don't seem to have anything of their own to say, they can only ape what someone else tried to communicate. However, an artist who's merely unconcerned with whether or not what they create resembles the work of somebody else I find a different matter. For example, I like a lot of fast hardcore bands. There isn't a huge amount of difference between these acts, and telling the difference between them can often be a difficult matter even for a fan of the music. If you were to put on a record I hadn't heard by, say, Reagan SS or Devoid of Faith I'm not sure I'd be able to spot which band it was without being told. Nevertheless, I like this music despite its lack of distinction since originality isn't the point. An existing style and its conventions are being used to communicate something by these bands in a similar way to a piece of genre fiction, and that's good enough for me.
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I think it's less of an issue when you're considering an entire genre of music; however there are many bands who seem devoted to recreating facsimiles of the music of one specific band from the past. I think this is when issues of "style" or "genre" go out the window and the music instead becomes just a pallid imitation.
Latte:
Hey guys; just thought I'd pipe up since these are very interesting thoughts and opinions to me. Also, insert cheap "love the blog" phrase. (No, seriously, I do)
Just to stick with the topics brought up, I think the digital distribution thing on the whole is fantastic. This death of the album business, not so much. The three minute single is definitely the standard, I agree, but it should also be apparent that we then need to look at the different target demographics of music loving culture. I know I've often started with cherry-picking my tunes but end up coming back again and again to the same group or even album until I have the whole thing! In my head I feel the concept of an album is sort of a conversation between you and an artist that really needs to be taken in whole, even if some of the songs are lackluster. It (generally) is created around a moment in time by them for you and seems to: ask a question, mule it around a bit, and maybe come to *a* solution (all rhetorically of course). Basically, a song needs the context of the other tracks, for me at least.
In a more primal sense, it's also like a circuit or gauntlet of emotions/moods that one can complete. In the case of something more abstract; I need to complete a post rock album from 1 to 10 (or 3..) since a noticeable climax occurs at some point along the way, and if you were to interrupt this before the finale or bring down ending track(s) it would upset me.
This is just how I see it and enjoy it. Ooh, an interesting phrase back there, concept albums! I personally hope to see more of these coming from all sorts of bands and that the internets don't ruin this by making cohesive records unvogue. Now at the other end of the spectrum, there are the three minute single fans who just want their bon jovi title track and maybe a remix or two of something; which is fine (perhaps debatable :lol:) as you should enjoy music as you like. I suppose we will just have to see which bunch makes enough noise that the artists listen and create accordingly - the albums as we know and love them, or just "streaming content" of songs.
ViolentDove:
I'll be checking out that label, cheers Tommy. Incidentally, is that Scotch Pine album any good?
Also, with regards to labels/bands functioning by donations, Australian band The Red Paintings (who I'm not actually a fan of) decided to release an album based on donations alone, in a kind of similar model to those micro-investment films that popped up recently. You pay a small sum of money, and then a band you like gets to make an album, which you then receive a copy of after the fact.
While I've no idea if this is the first time a band has made an album like this, I rather like it as an idea. I think they've raised 40 grand or so, which is quite impressive.
a pack of wolves:
The Scotch Pine thing is only one song. I like it though, it's a nice bit of melancholy lo-fi.
Ah, I'm Being Good. A truly fantastic band. Roughly once a year they come to Leeds and play a gig with the equally superb Bilge Pump, and it's always at one of the good venues like the Brudenell Social Club or the Common Place. They'll massively impressive everybody and then we'll wait for them to come and do it again next year. The thing I like best about bands such as I'm Being Good is that despite being very talented musicians with a huge amount of experience they never leave you with a feeling that making music like that is unattainable. I'm always left feeling more energised and excited about knocking together my own unskilled efforts after seeing them play, and making music which has that effect on people is a remarkable thing.
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