How To Use Metaphors More Effectively (3 Mistakes)
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miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
Recent example of that (and of course, this is my opinion) was the Beyonce "Lemonade" hyped-up 1-hour video.
I didn't see the whole thing, mainly because I didn't the music was all that great. It was all about creating a fashionable image on the screen, which is no different than what she and so many modern Pop stars do on stage.
If you strip away the fashion...the imagery,...the acrobatics and choreography...and have them just perform the fucking music...you quickly realize that the music isn't all that great at all...or you realize that so much of the music sounds the same, from song to song and even from artists to artist.
...but I guess this is what the current "fashion" calls for and is considered "good" buy the mass consumers, so everyone that wants to "make it", falls in line like cookies on a tray.
I know a lot of popular music has a certain amount of stylistic repetition and similarity to what's already been done...and that's OK to have some connection to the past...but when the music sounds really good and *doesn't" immediately remind your of 10 other bands/artists, then you're really onto something.
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RAMI
Guest
There's actually more to that story. Beonce is supposedly "dissing" Jay-z in that video/song and it looks like they're having a public feud. But the only place you can get her tune is on Tidal, which is owned by Jay Z. So, basically, they created a fake feud and are both laughing their asses off at everyone buying the song and taking sides.
Recent example of that (and of course, this is my opinion) was the Beyonce "Lemonade" hyped-up 1-hour video.
Kind of like politics, "terrorist attacks", and any of the "War on.......(insert fake cause here)". It's all fake and it's all brain-washing.
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
This place reminds me of gang activity in South Central los Angeles.
Guy does a drive by, the gang groups up and goes after him.
Quite funny.
I think he just went around the block....he'll probably do another drive-by like he's done twice now.
Yeah....I read about some of the "meaning" behind it, and I agree with you.
I think much of that stuff in the R&B/Rap world is so ridiculously fabricated, that all the "street" cred associated with it is just BS...but it sells like Kool-Aid on a hot summer day.
And it's not just those two genres...even if you look at modern Country/Pop or current Indie/Pop...all the same shit...very repetitive and overly fashion conscious.
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RAMI
Guest
Oh man, don't talk to me about that pathetic, fake, annoying shit they call "Country" now. Half these guys tried making it as rockers, gave up, developed a fake drawl and started doing "New Country". That shit is the phoniest, corniest shit ever. It's really just 80's rock/pop re-cycled with a fake drawl on everything. Even the "fashion" is stuck in the 80's with the hairspray, tight spandex on the chicks. They just put a cowboy hat on it. Fuck that shit makes me sick. I can honestly say it's my least favorite style of music. Not that I like Polka or Opera, but at least that shit is real. This New Country shit makes me puke.
Other than that, it's ok I guess.
ido1957
9K Gold Member
Oh man, don't talk to me about that pathetic, fake, annoying shit they call "Country" now. Half these guys tried making it as rockers, gave up, developed a fake drawl and started doing "New Country". That shit is the phoniest, corniest shit ever. It's really just 80's rock/pop re-cycled with a fake drawl on everything. Even the "fashion" is stuck in the 80's with the hairspray, tight spandex on the chicks. They just put a cowboy hat on it. Fuck that shit makes me sick. I can honestly say it's my least favorite style of music. Not that I like Polka or Opera, but at least that shit is real. This New Country shit makes me puke.
Other than that, it's ok I guess.
I couldn't agree more. Yesterday at the end of some TV show they played some new guy's country video (I guess this is how people become famous). Anyway his voice, melody, arrangement were like every other current country song. It was so obvious.
I'll take oldies country any day compared the the porridge they spew now. George Jones was one of my favorite singers - the way he could go from really low notes to way up there in one line.
Why do you keep hanging around this clueless n00b site?
andrushkiwt
Well-known member
Can I say this without starting an argument or anyone getting too off the walls? I'm pretty sure we're good here now, as far as I've been able to tell recently. So no disrespect to any of you and I'm hoping I won't regret making this comment...discussion sure, but this isn't to p!s* anyone off, just to think about, k?
But your comment about "simple" is exactly what makes it "good" to so many people. Joe and Susie down the street (nice folk they are) can't understand Tool and Phish and things that are more complex...they need simplicity and an easy hum along melody. To them, that's what's good. (them, by the way, equals a lot, and i mean a lot, of people, millllllions). Whether that's Bieber or Doo Wop, Katy Perry or Elvis, or Taylor Swift or The f'in Bee Gees, "easy melodies" are what the average Joe likes.
In another boat are the people who believe mastering their instruments and complexity is good...it shows dedication and learning, time devoted to the instrument and theory. There's a small amount of people, within the musician category, who can play that well, but they are highly respected by other musicians. I think of groups like Phish or any of those 80's-90's guitar virtuoso types - Vai, Malmsteen, etc... sometimes their tracks hit it big, sure, and people know they are great musicians, but Vai won't top the Billboards (relax, i'm not saying he wants/needs to), while the first group will. Why? Average people don't play instruments that well! They don't understand how difficult it is and the melodies for the first group, well, they're just easier to hum along to.
Then you can make a group when all of that just goes to shit. They don't care about any of the first two. They don't care about easy melodies, they don't care about mastering their instruments, they just want to scream and play like a bunch of f-heads (NoFx, or most punk for that matter). They might borrow from the other groups from time to time, but for the most part, they try to avoid it. I love NoFx, so don't get me wrong here.
So. I believe there is a misconception about the first group. Here's something that always comes to mind when I think about the difficulty involved in writing easy-peasy pop songs -
who do you think will make the WORST POSSIBLE noise if you asked them to sit at a piano and bang away? I mean, ear-piercing, yelling at them to stop, pleading with them to knock it off to spare your ears already? The person who has never played piano before and knows zilch about it? Or the guy who has played for 20 years and knows the instrument inside and out? I'll tell ya, it's the guy who knows the instrument. He knows HOW to make it sound terrible because he knows WHAT makes it sound good. He knows exactly what you shouldn't do to make pleasant sounds - and he'll use that to drive you crazy. The guy who doesn't know the instrument will most likely take two hands and go up and down in some type of rhythm, but the notes just won't make sense. The other dude will strike dissonant chords and use his knowledge of theory to make the sounds absolutely terrible and rather annoying, probably like this rant, you're thinking
anyway, the point i'm trying to make is that making things sound so simple and easy (like pop) so that lots of people may like it actually ISN'T very easy. It takes a lot of understanding about something to be able to dumb it down for others. The people who write for Bieber, for example, have been writing for years and years - they are most likely experienced and knowledgeable musicians themselves who are able to simplify something complex so that the average person can enjoy it without too much thinking involved. Does it make it "good"? Depends what you think good is. I don't think Bieber is anything more than a good voice, and not much of a musician at all - but the people probably think he writes his own shit, instead of knowing that it's some guy 3 times his age who has been playing forever and understands music theories very well.
I just don't like when people think nothing goes into it because it's "easy". That perception of "easy" is actually took a lot of work. You can find examples where that isn't true, I'm sure, but it goes for the majority of pop for decades now. It's usually a very, very competent musician that basically approaches the song like a nursery rhyme and then hands it off to a "face". The face sucks. But the people behind it are ingenious.
I get different things out of music - I like the rebellious-ness of Nirvana (caused me lots of trouble in early teens, oops), the easy melodies of pop (especially 50's doo wop), and the complexity of Phish and Tool (Parabola is my fav Tool song, best drum piece I know).
But in my eyes, making simple music is far from simple. just my $0.02.
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RAMI
Guest
Wow! I got to be honest, I just can't read all that.
We probably don't totally disagree, just a guess.
I totally get how hard it is to make something "simple" also be memorably and good. In fact, it's probably harder to be original, catchy, and get your message across in 3 minutes than it is when you have 8 minutes and a bunch of acrobatics to do it. I totally get that "simple" doesn't mean "easy". If it was, everyone would write one "simple" song, make millions of dollars, and then retire. I think writing a "hit" is anything but easy.
My point is that, if something is popular and sells a lot, that doesn't mean it's good. But I'm not saying it makes it bad, either. I'm simply saying that they are separate. Popular and good are completely independent of each other. One can be both (good and popular), but something can also be bad and popular. Bottom line, they don't automatically go together. That's all.
Even established artists like Beonce and Jay-Z have to create all kinds of hype to get something sold now. There are "diss" tracks, "response diss" tracks, etc....So, how many copies something sells is totally independent of quality. Doesn't matter if millions of people buy it. That's not a gauge of quality at all to me.
What the masses consume, whether it's music, movies or any other form of entertainment has so much more to do with other things than "quality". I would say "quality" comes way down the list of why something becomes popular, and history has shown that it's actually quite the opposite. That's indisputable.
I'm not sure if your post agrees or disagrees with that, but that is how I see it.
We probably don't totally disagree, just a guess.
I totally get how hard it is to make something "simple" also be memorably and good. In fact, it's probably harder to be original, catchy, and get your message across in 3 minutes than it is when you have 8 minutes and a bunch of acrobatics to do it. I totally get that "simple" doesn't mean "easy". If it was, everyone would write one "simple" song, make millions of dollars, and then retire. I think writing a "hit" is anything but easy.
My point is that, if something is popular and sells a lot, that doesn't mean it's good. But I'm not saying it makes it bad, either. I'm simply saying that they are separate. Popular and good are completely independent of each other. One can be both (good and popular), but something can also be bad and popular. Bottom line, they don't automatically go together. That's all.
Even established artists like Beonce and Jay-Z have to create all kinds of hype to get something sold now. There are "diss" tracks, "response diss" tracks, etc....So, how many copies something sells is totally independent of quality. Doesn't matter if millions of people buy it. That's not a gauge of quality at all to me.
What the masses consume, whether it's music, movies or any other form of entertainment has so much more to do with other things than "quality". I would say "quality" comes way down the list of why something becomes popular, and history has shown that it's actually quite the opposite. That's indisputable.
I'm not sure if your post agrees or disagrees with that, but that is how I see it.
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andrushkiwt
Well-known member
nope, i'd say i agree with you there. i look at it like, is the artist "good"? probably not. are the dudes behind the scenes making all that simplicity come across good at what they do? yes. most def. Nevertheless, my heart is always more toward Nirvana (they are very unlike the other "Seattle bands" to me in that their music seemed more honest and "IDGAF what you think"). But i still have an appreciation for easy melodies and the knowledge of the ppl behind it all.
lol, sorry it was so long. trying to avoid "actual work" this morning i guess. stupid monday's
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RAMI
Guest
Me too. I actually added a few paragraphs to my post. Still on my first coffee.
andrushkiwt
Well-known member
Me too. I actually added a few paragraphs to my post. Still on my first coffee.
just reread it. points made. that's all i was trying to do - post something insightful to get us thinking a bit. yeah these "diss tracks", that's weird. i mean, in a couple years, will anyone care about it when it's something based on what's happening at the moment? the lyrics and entire point are so focused on what's happening right now that i don't see something there that'll make it relevant ina few years. it's like something created with a shelf-life of months, intentionally. just to squeeze dollars out quicker, but not over a longer period.
Seattle's Best - coffee, not music. With vanilla creamer. Cup #1
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RAMI
Guest
Sounds good.
I got rid of my Tassimo, Keurig, regular coffee machine, and all that shit. I went back to the old-fashioned Corningware on a burner. Nothing makes better coffee, and HOT.
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andrushkiwt
Well-known member
i googled it...a "perculator"? is that what it is? they say it makes some of the best coffee around
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RAMI
Guest
It really does. I noticed that, whenever I'd have coffee at my Mom's, it was always awesome, even if she used the cheapest coffee. So, I had to have one. They're hard to find, though. Got 2 off Craiglist or Ebay, I don't remember. One of the things is that it actually BOILS the water. A coffee machine doesn't get the water to boiling point. But the smell and taste? Magnifique, mon frere.
andrushkiwt
Well-known member
It really does. I noticed that, whenever I'd have coffee at my Mom's, it was always awesome, even if she used the cheapest coffee. So, I had to have one. They're hard to find, though. Got 2 off Craiglist or Ebay, I don't remember. One of the things is that it actually BOILS the water. A coffee machine doesn't get the water to boiling point. But the smell and taste? Magnifique, mon frere.
buddy of mine at work swears by a conical burr (was new to me 3 weeks ago when I first heard of it).
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RAMI
Guest
My turn to Google. I had no idea what that was. A grinder. Maybe the next step for me in my quest for coffee perfection.
andrushkiwt
Well-known member
My turn to Google. I had no idea what that was. A grinder. Maybe the next step for me in my quest for coffee perfection.
so yeah i figure now that the grinder goes fiiiiiiirst, then use your perculator to make the coffee. I can get into coffee since I drink it every day, but wine fanatics are another story.