My grandfather loved country and western. I loved my grandfather, I loathe country and western (at least if they could play the fcuking track at 45 not 16 rpm … yes, I know it says 16, it doesn’t mean that hopefully … please god).
Long story short. Physical pain is a good distraction tool. JS.
It’s not as old as some are suggesting but I used to non-ironically listen to pink guy, the musical spin off of Filthy Frank. Not my proudest moment but I guess I still follow George Miller because I listen to Joji. Very different vibe now.
I used to worship at the altar of Smashing Pumpkins. Some (though not all) of their stuff holds up pretty good still, I think. They’re good at concepts and imagery. Er, were. Teargarden by Kaleidyscope was kinda the last thing of theirs I bothered with, and I’d started to fall off well before that, too. **Shame level 3/10 **just because I was obsessive about deep-diving every single one of their tracks (from their first few albums anyway).
I was gonna say Linkin Park at first blush, and would have followed through with that, except that just a couple of weeks ago I played through Hybrid theory and thought “y’know, this isn’t my style of music anymore but it’s not bad, not bad at all.” Still, the supposed emotional resonance I had with them puts this at Shame Level 4/10 because, looking back as an adult, most of them are pretty pandering towards angsty teens. Shame Level 4/10
Felt the same about Weird Al. I mean, okay, I cringe at how UPROARIOUS and CLEVER and SUBVERSIVE I thought he was as a kid, but the music is fine for what it is and I feel it accomplishes what he, as an artist, set out to do. And while corny it’s not quite cringy. Shame level 4.5/10
Glenn Miller and other mid-20th-century big-band/swing stuff. Not bad on the face of it, really - still good, in fact, if that’s your thing. But as with the others, the reasoning behind them is the reasoning for the Shame Level 6/10 - yes, I segued into your typical fedora-tipping “le gentleman” Humphrey Bogart wannabe around 2007-2009. Urgh. At least it was before the REAL BIG WAVE of that swept over the Internet and everyone was doing it.
Testament is perhaps my greatest shame since I was desperately trying to become a metalhead but really didn’t care for their music all that much? I figured if I listened to it enough times it’d eventually just all click. NOPE. But I kept on with that for several years. Shame level 8/10. Throw Metallica (esp. Death Magnetic, which I slavishly adored) and your other typical Guitar Hero RAWK EDITION tracks that your typical identity-less 00’s teen woulda latched onto. You get the picture. (Slight redemption: I did discover Gamma Ray through this phase and, as with Smashing Pumpkins above, I relistened the album Heading for Tomorrow and honestly really appreciate the positive/happy/hopeful messages in songs like Heaven Can Wait. A bright little happy diamond among a genre inundated with DEATH AND PAIN AND SUFFERING IS ALL THERE IS.", and it helped me kinda realize that “hey, you don’t gotta be all doom and gloom all the time, man. Light only shines where you let it in.”
Dragged down by some of their other stuff which is weirdly Christian-leaning (nothing wrong with that, nor their spin on it, since it’s not all in your face) and anti-government (which I think they did more as a concept album than anything else, but), which I ran with all the way into the conspiracy-idiot hole for a few years. IT’S THE JEWS MAN. Ugh. GREATEST SHAME. 11/10 (but that’s on me for how I interpreted and interacted with their artwork, not really the art itself)
DLC: Why did I like I My Me Mine so much? I’d blast it everywhere as a teen because I saw it on the Gaia Online profile of some lolsorandumb e-girl – not that we had the term then. Probably just to annoy people.
Speaking of pre-e-girls, there was this other online girl whom I was head over heels with who really liked the uh…weirdly soft “let me fill this emotional void of yours” sort of music, from bands like The Spill Canvas and Jason Mraz and Owl City. OUCH but I didn’t need to remember that, but I did, and I’m putting it down here at the deepest circle of hell.
I loved aqua. Barbie girl is obviously relevant with the movie out, so it’s reminded me. However doctor Jones was also great for me at the time. I then went online and downloaded all their songs. It pretty much introduced me to mp3s. As an adult I still like it for the nostalgia and some of the lyrics are quite funny. Life in plastic, it’s fantastic or You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere.
However, O would not be breaking out the aqua for a party or dinner with friends.
I have a giant playlist of songs that are cheesy and fun but not intolerable to listen to for me, to play when my kids are playing. It’s got vheesey stuff like S club 7, which is probably more embarrassing than aqua, but don’t stop movin is amazing. It also has upside down by the a*teens. I pick songs that have words or concepts that help learn music appreciation or language skills.
Things like ROYGBIV by public service broadcasting teaches colours sits beside Gwen Stefani Hollaback girl teaching spelling.
I’m curious what old songs you might be thinking of? I was a wannabe raver in middle school and an actual one at the end of highschool lol. I may know what’s up
It’s hard to remember song names, because most EDM tracks are non-lyrical.
For example in dubstep, most trends age poorly.
Skrillex- inspired stuff or “Zomboy - Terror Squad” copycats sound really oversaturated nowadays. Even “hip and cool” commercials made some bootleg versions of “Ruffneck Bass” and “Equinox” from Skrillex.
Also samples and sound design from many EDM tracks 10+ years ago feel really unoriginal from a modern listener’s perspective.
There are obviously also a lot of exeptions. Old stuff from “Tha Trickaz”, “Savant”, “Xilent” etc etc all still hold up imo.
Lol aw man I’m definitely getting old; I remember when Skrillex came out and kinda ruined the genre tbh, it was so totally different when it first emerged, it actually sounded like dub. So I’m not familiar with any of those guys, they were after my time.
I think it probably depends on the listener but yeah, if I try to listen to most mid 80s hip hop, it’s so rudimentary that it’s really hard for me to a tuslly get into. Like Run DMC, or NWA. I can get into NWA but the novelty runs out quickly so I can only listen to them very rarely. But there are a lot of newer bands that I hear and say “I’ve already heard x y and z do this better” so it’s hard to get excited about new stuff too. If you are a really avid music listener I think it has to take something exceptional coming out to really get impressed by
Mumford and Sons. Their first few albums were unique, and a nice change from everything else. Then they turned around and shit on everyone that liked their music before turning into Coldplay
Their first few albums were already just generic folk pop but if they were your first generic folk pop band I can see it being a pretty novel sound. And I’ll agree that their earlier stuff was better than their later stuff, but it still wasn’t very good or very original
You know something about them that fucks with me? They’re British, not American. It’s not that I care that much, but considering the image of the band is based in American country makes it feel odd lol.
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