Great post, James HE. I would just like to add that IMHO the stailey is by far the most sincere, emotionally honest, technically interesting and developed singing of the alt rock era. While there are a subpar immitators like godsmack, only one stailey will go down in history and that is the original.
Let me just point something out here about songwriting that I dont think was mentioned on this post. Vocal phrasing is huuuuuuugely important. Seeing as how the mainstream ear has a limited capacity in dealing with unfamiliar chord changes especially if theyre dissonant and dont resolve on the tonic, creating interesting phrasing that screws around with the listeners expectations is a major area of play where you can be original and accessable at the same time.
While I am not a fan of rap, a major reason for its commercial success in recent years has to do with its ingenious vocal phrasing. Same goes for R&B. Creative, rhythmically interesting, unexpected and syncopated twists in the vocal phrasing. One of the reason why rock has SUCKED in the last few years has to do with this point. A complete lack of imagination in the vocal phrasing. Every chord changes on a predictable downbeat and every vocal turn changes with it. I would bet all the gear in all the studios of the members of homerecdotcom that 99% of musicians in todays rock bands could not play 4 bars of syncopated 16th notes, emphasizing the "Es" and "Uhs." There is no contrast rhythmically between the vocals and guitar and drums. I dont think there was a time when rock was less developed and less interesting to listen to than it is now. Granted Im only 25 but everything Ive heard from the 50s till '94 was more interesting emotionally and musically.
Let me make a prediction. The next sound in rock will totally reject the current crop of shite and veer away from standard 2/4 beats toward more varied drumming and toward greater contrast between guitar, drums and vocals. The successful bands will be the ones with the creative vocal phrasing.
And for the record companies out there reading this post, feel free to contact me for more on this topic and for guidance on what to sign to your labels. So far you have basically destroyed rock and have totally fallen down on the job of signing anything with vision and so are paying the price bec of that. Nobody is interested in rock. (rap metal is not rock and will go the way of glam rock as they have equal amounts of intelligent writing and empty posteuring) Creed is one of the biggest rip offs in the history of rock and if I were pearl jam or STP or alice in chains I would absolutely sue for copyright infringement. How wou people can take such a blatantly unoriginal band seriously is beyond me.
It is entirely possible that the days of the big record company is over as the home rec studio is hugely on the rise and although 99% of music out there blows hard the 1% of dynamic, original and disciplined artists who are involved with all aspects of their music (writing, performing and recording) will very likely lead the way as they dont have mindless, herd mentality A&R guys looking over their shoulders, stripping their music of all things original.
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