For me : Trippie Redd’s “!” Is actually a great album
Disturbed’s cover of Sound of Silence is not only awful, it is an antithesis of the meaning of the song. Anyone who likes that version better than S&G’s arguably doesn’t understand the point of the song, and the fact that everyone holds it up as the gold standard of “covers better than the original” is even worse.
A close second is Postmodern Jukebox and their horrendous tendencies to take tempos to an opposite extreme instead of finding more meaningful ways of changing the genre of a song. I like some of their stuff, but the number of people who love their cover of Welcome to the Jungle is mind-boggling to me.
There are plenty of songs that I prefer the cover of to the original (Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’), or ones that just give the original a modern coat of paint without changing much else (Smash Mouth’s ‘I’m a Believer’), but these songs in particular are just awful imo.
I think Johnny Cash’s cover of ‘Hurt’ is probably the gold standard of a cover exceeding the origional
I don’t mind a cover changing the meaning of a song, but stuff where the cover is just the song again is…lazy as fuck?
Like Fast Car by (country music guy) is fantastic, but it’s the same as the original, which is also fantastic. Feels cheap or something, I don’t know. Like the whole Weezer cover album was boring as fuck. The songs are technically great, but why listen to that over the originals? Rivers said his goal was to try and reproduce the original sound, which seems like an interesting exercise for the band, but not for the listener. So that wraps back around to respecting the band.
Anyways, I have a lot of strong feelings about covers. Make it your own, even if you don’t change it that much.
Scat is, well, scat
This may not be an unpopular in the outside world but somehow I bet it will be here, the vast majority of metal is just straight noise and incomprehensible yelling to me. I do enjoy when metal songs are covered by bluegrass bands though
I dislike modern pop’s mixing of the human voice, mixed so high compared to the rest, to the point where you can’t hear instruments anymore. The music is often there just for accompanyment, elevetor music. I rather have chillwave, where everything is one big reverb trick pony, than having to hear people screaming.
Baroque music sounds absolutely shit. Composers try to mix in so many different voices that it’s the musical equivalent of a TV panel show where everyone is shouting over one another.
On that note: harpsichords in ensembles are background noise at best and very few people would notice their absence.
Old bands such as Joy Division are amazing and most new music doesn’t even get close to that.
Not a “good ol’ time” advocate but yeah, music was way better in past.
Eric Clapton is wildly overrated
Cocaine is his only good song.
I guess my unpopular opinion is that I don’t think that’s a very good song :)
Now this is an unpopular opinion, mostly about Cocaine being good in any capacity.
YES! He’s a massive idiot too.
When people complain about new music not living up to old, it just means they’ve quit exploring and form their prejudices on the pop genre they hear, which has always been the lowest hanging song on the tree.
As an unpopular opinion on the other end, it’s ok to stop participating in pop culture. Pop music, Blockbuster movies, and TV are all meant to sell consumerism to young people with disposable incomes. Not to people who are bogged down by kids and mortgages.
New media isn’t made for your tastes, so unless you make an effort to change your tastes to those of the current generation of young people, new media will never be seen as good enough by you
I think there’s an important difference between “there is no new good music” and “I don’t like any new music”.
The former is making a broad proclamation. The latter is keeping it limited to your personal experience, even if phrased a little sloppily.
Though I guess you could argue people saying the former really mean the latter and are just communicating kind of badly.
Doesn’t this usually refer to music on the radio? I think most people understand that there’s lots of good music if you look for it, but the problem is the “popular” music is getting more and more formulaic
The thing is, I don’t want to have to look for it. Growing up I could turn on the radio and hear amazing music on pretty much any popular channel. Depeche Mode, Billy Idol, David Bowie, REM, XTC, Goo Goo Dolls, En Vogue, Green Day, Alanis Morrissette, Boyz II Men, Sarah MacLachlan, and so many others. It was a preponderance of great music with some shitty stuff interspersed.
Growing up, everything you heard was new to you. An experience. People older than you was saying the same shit about the music you were enjoying at the time. That’s how it goes.
absolute truth right here. I used to be like that, “Brehh Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and Queen were the last good bands”. Looking back I was such a tool. First because it’s such a douche thing to belittle people for their music preference, and second because there is a ton of a great music. Now I can say I’m honestly a huge swiftie and I like a ton of music across several decades.
We have the most variety of music in history right now. To say “I don’t like new music” is absurd, and you’re exactly right, just means they just don’t even try.
I think survivorship bias plays into it as well. Yeah, most the stuff on the radio today is kinda meh. Most the stuff on the radio in those days was kinda meh too. All the meh songs got forgotten, and you only remember the bangers. You’ve already seen it happen to 00s music and we’re watching it happen with the 10s.
But yeah, it’s wild how many people look at how accessible different types of music are now and just… don’t go looking.
For so many artists, they’ll have a single hit that survived the test of time and most that didn’t. We hear the one song that not only topped the charts but continued to be remembered. I tried going back to the top 100 songs of the 50’s. Some of them are good (Hound Dog), but others frankly just aren’t very good. Contrast that with the modern day, I had a neighbor growing up who is a professional singer who has better original songs.
Then you just get the factor of time itself. Old includes all surviving music before the present day. When you have centuries of music (if not more),
Separating the artist from the art is fine.
You can like music by someone who doesn’t share your social, political, or religious beliefs with.This is actually really popular among my music students. I completely disagree on most case. X raped 300 kids but hey, he makes pretty good beats so let’s pay 200$ for a concert.
Upvoted because this is the one I most strongly disagree with.
Hitlers art but ignore the holocaust?
Lost Prophets but ignore the lead singers horrifying SA of children?
Kanye West and his anti semitism insanity?
Chris Brown and beating the shit out of women?
R. Kelly and SA a child?
Rowling and her hatred of trans children?
Michael Jackson and his … weird child obsession?
Gary Glitter and his SA?
Separating the artist from the art is fine for me as long as you don’t support them. There is nothing inherently wrong with consuming media you like from a controversial figure.
Of course it’s hard to separate the artist and the art if you actively give them money for it.
I like some of Kanye West’s music but I would never spend a single cent on one of his albums, watch an ad on Youtube for his music videos or listen to his songs on streaming services.
I cant stand listening to someone singing, knowing full well they rape children 🤷♀️
each to their own I suppose
The Pianist is one of the best war movies I’ve ever seen… even though Polanski.
the examples you gave
Yes, that’s what separating the art from the artist means.
Well aware. I am listing examples of why I cant separate. Hence my “disagree” comment
🤨
I guess it’s the same as buying Nestle Hot Chocolate knowing full well child labor was involved. It’s ok as long as your sweet tooth is satisfied.
You got downvotes by someone who didn’t understand sarcasm so I evened it back out.
I’m alright with this as long as you pirate it lol
I’ll go a step further:
You have to separate the art from the artist because there is not a single artist I’ve ever encountered who wasn’t some kind of fucking trashhole of a person.
Artists spent their lives on being artists, not developing good interpersonal skills or understanding politics or philosophy.
Beleiving an artist is a “good person” is just setting yourself up for disappointment. Start out assuming they suck dogshit and you usually end up being right.
Agreed. Show me a flawless human being, and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t have anything interesting to share with the world.
I think it’s reasonable to draw some lines that, when crossed, you’ll choose to disengage from their art.
The musician doesn’t have to be a saint. But if I find out they, I don’t know, love eating live puppies, I’m going to prefer spending my time and attention elsewhere.
I agree, but I like to start from a position of “this person probably sucks” because then I’m never disappointed.
This is a fair position to take.
I tend to avoid listening to interviews with bands I like in case they’re terrible.
Though weirdly I’ll chat with folks at merch tables.
Sam from Future Islands is a pretty dope guy.
My mind is telling me nooooo
But my body
My bodyyyyy is telling me yesss
The vast majority of music without lyrics sucks.
For me it’s the opposite. The song start and the music is a banger but as soon as the lyrics comes, it’s ruined.
Trash lyrics fucking up an otherwise good song. It happens far too often.
That’s why I’m just a bit of a fan of Thom Yorke’s whole “using my voice as an instrument, the words don’t mean anything” vibe because at least he purposefully isn’t trying to make meaningful lyrics and instead is just trying to add another instrument to the music.
I’m with you on this one. There are lyrics on almost every single track for crying out loud. Throw us instrumental lovers a bone won’t you? Songs that are lyrically driven but are otherwise super-repetitive instrumentally tend to put me to sleep.
What I love about concerts is when the band goes off script and just starts jamming. Even a 5-minute drum solo will have me grinning ear to ear, and that’s what I’ll be remembering on the way home.
Repetitive instrumental pattern is my #1 skip reason xD that “Aight I’m bored” moment when you realize the song has nothing more to give is a sad waste of time.
I love 21 pilots and Foo fighters for their great instrumental + vocal balance
Imo it depend what the instrumental is.If it’s some aggresive guitar riffs that bands like Mayhem or Siculicidium could drop, i will love it. It’s just some weird noises made by a computer i will find it boring.
There is definitely exceptions. Though guitar instrumentals don’t do it for me, even though I generally listen to the rock/metal genre.
But for example I really like violin covers by this one artist/youtuber of movie and game soundtracks (especially the Zelda games). But that’s some of the only instrumental music I listen to and only when I’m in a specific mood.
And even there I think nostalgia is doing most of the heavy lifting for me enjoying the songs.
What about some post rock? I find it very nice relaxing music and being without lyrics is also part of that. Bands like God Is an Astronaut, Explosions in the Sky, Mono, Mogwai, etc. Even Sigur Ros which technically include singing, but it’s just gibberish to have “another instrument”.
I’ll save this comment, because I’m not going to check those suggestions out right now.
Maybe in a few weeks you’ll get a random reply to this comment. I’ve done it before, but no promise.
Classical music and the entire lo-fi genre would like a word with you.
Or do you mean removing voices from songs ?
Either way, there are music with absolutely legendary instrumentals that I would be bangers with or without voices.
Nah, classical music is one example. Another big one is techno/electronic stuff.
Contemplate Clair de Lune from Debussy, take a gander at Gwyn, Lord of Cinder’s theme from the Dark souls OST, let your mind wander at Time from the Inception OST. And that’s only the most mainstream I could think of.
Beautiful music is everywhere, from every media, in every genre, you just just have to listen.
I kind of agree with you, there is a lot of great soundtracks. However, for me a soundtrack is part of a larger medium, which it underscores or sublements. Most of them make medicore songs at best when listend to in isolation.
Can’t you say that of everything though ? Take rap for example, doesn’t it fit in a larger medium that is the rapper’s life ? You cant have a piece of art existing in a vacuum. If I listen to Gwyn’s theme, am I liking it because I played the game or because it’s intrinsically beautiful ? Does it make it less beautiful to me ? Does it matter ?
Take rap for example, doesn’t it fit in a larger medium that is the rapper’s life ?
Maybe. I don’t really care about artists and usually know nothing about them, so that aspect is usually irrelevant to me.
I didn’t mean that the life of the artist is relevant, but lyrics are the reflection of an artist’s existence, so even if you don’t care about the artist themselves you’re still listening to their lyrics.
That’s why I say pieces don’t just exist in a vacuum.
Bomfunk MC’s Freestyler is the peak of musical creation. (Ok, prolly no but I love coming back to it.)
(Fwiw, initially I read “triple !” (i.e. !!! or ChkChkChk) in your op comment and thought why?, that’s a great band.)
The beatles are vastly overrated. They may have been trailblazers at the time but their music really doesn’t hold up
Decade or two ago I would agree with you.
Nowadays not that much. Ofc those radio songs you’ve heard more than billion times are awful and helps nobody to appreciate Beatles. But if you dig a bit deeper into songs that are ignored by radios, there are quite some good songs.
For one, I can’t believe Helter Skelter was made by the same Beatles as e.g. Help. Or whole Sgt. Pepper album is nice too.
Maybe I should specify, I don’t like typical radio music.
Metal head etc etc.
Go listen Helter Skelter then. That’s some Beatles I can appreciate.
I don’t care for Dylan or the Beatles. At least I understand the ground-breaking work of the Beatles, but Dylan is incomprehensible.
and largely always was
I don’t understand Dylan but I believe he was lauded because of other musicians looking for anything new. Dylan pioneered the 3 minute song as a short story. So if you are a pop artist struggling to write a new song, it opened up lots of new ideas.
Dylan called his technique his crutch in writing “4th Time Around” to Lennon about Norwegian Wood copying Dylan’s style.
I just don’t listen to Ska because never feels like the time. But whenever I’ve heard it I’ve actually liked it.
I literally always have the time to listen to The Impression That I Get by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and so should you!
No? Well…
Most hip hop is missing key musical elements and just isn’t good. I have no idea why the genre became so popular.
I have no idea why the genre became so popular.
Trash talking, scandalous
It’s why I got so into Busdriver for a while. Not a lot of rappers out there trying to rap to a melody instead of just a beat.
Further, even if they are out there, they aren’t as popular.
Yeah there is definitely some hiphop that I do enjoy but it’s a small minority of the overall scene.
Are you a Ben Shapiro fan?
Lol no, why?
Not saying it makes you like him but he has the exact same take
Well that’s probably the best argument against my hot take I’ve seen haha.
What till you hear that “hip hop” track that Ben guests on… Or better yet just don’t bother.
The only thing that ole Benny Shaps has ever said even remotely related to music anyone should listen to is him reading the lyrics to Wet Ass Pussy.
Hah. Yes that was actually funny.
He also has no idea wtf he’s talking about
