335 Bass

[Pilgrim]

Holy cow. Of their 10 least obscure hit songs, by title I only know two.  I'm sure I've heard some of the others, but I can only be sure of two.  Dang.

In the list of least obscure adjusted for time, I know all 10.

I have managed to steer clear of Spotify so I didn't listen to any of the music linked at the bottom.

[mc2NY]

Well....I think one thing we can all agree on, no matter what the genre of music, it all eventually ends up in a horrid watered down version forced upon us in elevators.

Rather clever, IMO.....horrid versions of music forced upon a trapped audience, like a lab rat experiment.

I wonder what elevator versions of rap songs will sound like?

I'm sure Jay-Z must already the company that will produce RAP MUZAK.

[drbassman]

My 27 year old son loves 60 and 70's rock as well as C&W.  My 30 year old daughter is a big C&W fan as well as some rap and hip hop.  They both love DWB.  They aren't big pop fans.

[westen44]

Well....I think one thing we can all agree on, no matter what the genre of music, it all eventually ends up in a horrid watered down version forced upon us in elevators.

Rather clever, IMO.....horrid versions of music forced upon a trapped audience, like a lab rat experiment.

I wonder what elevator versions of rap songs will sound like?

I'm sure Jay-Z must already the company that will produce RAP MUZAK.

The American public is already a trapped audience in a kind of lab rat experiment, but just doesn't know it.  Of course, this is my opinion, and I'm mostly speaking of what music is promoted to target audiences, etc.  Something like this has always gone on, but not like this.  Generational changes in music have always gone on, but in the past it has been more of a logically progressing flow through time. 

[westen44]

Holy cow. Of their 10 least obscure hit songs, by title I only know two.  I'm sure I've heard some of the others, but I can only be sure of two.  Dang.

In the list of least obscure adjusted for time, I know all 10.

I have managed to steer clear of Spotify so I didn't listen to any of the music linked at the bottom.

Yes, it's unfortunate that Spotify had to be part of this; I agree.  I also steer clear of it.

[Pilgrim]

The American public is already a trapped audience in a kind of lab rat experiment, but just doesn't know it.  Of course, this is my opinion, and I'm mostly speaking of what music is promoted to target audiences, etc.  Something like this has always gone on, but not like this.  Generational changes in music have always gone on, but in the past it has been more of a logically progressing flow through time.

The public increasingly avoids radio and uses streaming and individualized services.  I think commercial radio has brought this on itself.

[westen44]

The public increasingly avoids radio and uses streaming and individualized services.  I think commercial radio has brought this on itself.

Thinking about this reminds me of when I used to listen to radio and actually enjoyed it.  But it looks like I'm not part of the mass market anymore.  I just don't listen now, period.  CDs in the car and at home; that's all. 

[Pilgrim]

I admit that I listen to sports talk most of the time when I'm not on NPR's Morning Edition or All Things Considered. The first is amusing, the other two intelligent.

[patman]

no talk radio for me...cd's mostly...a lot of bluegrass in the morning.  I love a lot of the "Newgrass" stuff...

[Granny Gremlin]

I NEVER thought I would be defending Canadians, after years on the radio along the New York/CANADIAN border and having Canadians always call to request bands from their country.

It was such fun taunting them over the airwaves

BUT.....Canada HAS actually had the last laugh on America. At this point, Canadian radio is SOOOOO much better than its U.S. counterpart. you can hear amazing music up in Canada, especially classic rock and obscure-to-Americans tracks.

As a Canadian from the single largest (though, to be fair as regards your later argument) most diverse radio market, I have no idea what you're talking about.  Top 40 is top 40 all across the continent.

The only good thing that we've had happen in radio up here recently is that a University radio station (1 of 3 in Toronto) went under.  There was stiff competition for the rights to that point on the dial and luckily the regulator decided to not let major players in the market even bid.  It was billed as an all new independent music station.  We were all skeptical, and with good reason.  Though it does play some indie music (usually bands that were just signed to majors or are well on their way vs actual indie music) it's mostly playing retro 80s-90s alternative rock, basically like good olde CKNY's playlists in their heyday (now Edge 102, playing horrible "emo" and _core type shit... some neumetal too), which is hilarious, but I'll take it because I don't like it when I hear The Clash on the 'classic rock' station; makes me feel old  ). 


Anyway, back to the arg - Rap didn't kill rock (though I understand that arg considering how that's pretty much what teen white boys were listening to almost exclusively until very recently).  These things come in waves, and rock is coming back (even with the black kids).  (Mainstream/,ajor label) Rock got lame; irrelevant and derivative self-parody - for about 5-10 years there I didn't hear a single good new rock song on the radio.  Now that rap has run it's coarse and done pretty much the same thing (from OG MCs to silver spooners to top 40 internet meme jokes) kids are flocking back, why, because rock is fresh, or at least relevant, again (though now it may be called other things, if there's a distorted guitar on nearly every song on your record you are some subtype of rock).

On the indie side, it never went anywhere and was always relevant, but since the echo boomers weren't in college yet this is always ignored (underage, can't get into the clubs, find out about the bands).  Now they are (at least some of them) and lo and behold look what's happening and the rest are seeking the stuff out on the internet, and hitting paydirt.

It's not resuscitated yet, but far from dead.  Stable and in recovery.  It's Rap I'd be worried about now.... though I seem inclined to think it'll come around again too.  They can't control or destroy these mediums of expression/forces for socio-political change, all they can do is slowly corrupt/co-opt them into banal irrelevance when they hit that critical mass of  popularity.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I think you guys are missing the boat in saying that rock is dead. Rock is what it always was. It's just not mass-marketed anymore. I'm also firmly of the somewhat informed opinion that record sales figures are near total contrivances and mass-played corporate garbage is simply self-fulfilled prophecy for mega corporations who subsidize and allow a few easily controlled (sex, drugs, etc) and disposable miscreants to gain enough fame and fortune to keep the system appearing rebellious and legitimate, when in reality, the "fortunes" made from "cd sales/downloads/wtf-ever" are corporate promotional write-offs and only the tip of the iceberg of money being made.  I don't know anybody that actually LIKES what is played on supposed "pop" radio/tv and I spend a great deal of time around its supposed prime market. They all like music that is older than they are by decades.

Here's my acid test: take a small segment from one of the many "multi-platinum" releases of today and in less than two years' time, see if the average listener can identify it. In most cases, they might recognize a heavily promoted star's signature sound, but I doubt if one in ten could even name the supposed "song." Everyone knows that the stuff is garbage, but all the channels of pointing it out on a mass scale are owned by the very entities that profit the most from it. Payola was a joke in comparison.

Am I the only one who had a smirking case of schadenfreude for Sony Pictures and its hacking problems? Is the American public supposed to start clamoring for Kim Jong Il's head because Sony had its dirty laundry aired publicly?  Is ISIS not enough of an evil to keep the American public quaking in terror and sending its children off to die attacking the boogeymen who feed the US Inc.?  I'll just be over here adjusting my tinfoil hat. 

[Dave W]

Am I the only one who had a smirking case of schadenfreude for Sony Pictures and its hacking problems?

Couldn't happen to a more deserving company.

Is the American public supposed to start clamoring for Kim Jong Il's head because Sony had its dirty laundry aired publicly?  Is ISIS not enough of an evil to keep the American public quaking in terror and sending its children off to die attacking the boogeymen who feed the US Inc.?  I'll just be over here adjusting my tinfoil hat. 

I severely doubt N. Korea had anything to do with it. What do they have, one 56k modem?    In any case, you can count on any FBI or other official claims being a deliberate lie, whether or not they're trying to create a pretext to go after N. Korea.

[Highlander]

Nice post PBG... nice post...!

[Lightyear]

Nice post PBG... nice post...!

I heard a former CIA guy on longish NPR story, so take this with a grain of salt, but he said that current estimates are that North Korea has something like 1000 IP addresses in total.  What he did say is that NK intelligence works from off shore locations - most notably a NK owned hotel in China.  China, on the other hand, has tens of thousands of individuals actively working  to hack and disrupt western networks.

[uwe]

You can't really defend anything that North Korea does or is professed to do.

But "The Interview" was in ill taste. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm not aware that films about the killing of living/active heads of state of other coutries are common anywhere in the world.

And if North Korea had done a propaganda movie showing a current US President being killed, I'm not so sure whether the CIA would have stood by watching it get a nationwide release in North Korea without some surprising "technical problems" suddenly coming out of nowhere, things happen. Much the same if an Arab nation had done a film showing Bibi N being killed, don't believe that the Mossad would have taken too kindly to that either and waved little freedom of speech and expression flags.

While there can be no excuse for threatening people's lives, that data sabotage within Sony shouldn't have come as a surprise if you push a film such as this one. And the film itself would have lost none of the comedy aspect if they had used a fictional figure in a fictional country - the parallels to real Kim in real North Korea could have still been telling, but I don't believe North Korea would have felt as provoked. I'm not aware of sabotage act against that (rubbish) James Bond movie (Die Another Day) that started with a lengthy scene in an obviously North Korean prison and torture camp and that starred an obviously North Korean villain.