posted
My dad, unsurprisingly, loves the music of the 30's and 40's. Mum likes that stuff too, though she also likes a smattering of other stuff, and they both like classical and opera. I love rock and roll, most notably the 1991-1994 period that saw the rise of grunge and alt-rock. (I love lots of other kinds of music as well, but I'm writing about rock here.)
I've been listening the heck out of The Music's new disc, Welcome to the North. Neither of my parents can really understand what I see in it. Admittedly, it isn't the best record to use to introduce people like my parents to rock, because it isn't all that accessible -- the mix is thick, the vocals are wailing and the lyrics are hard to distinguish, especially for people who don't already like rock. But that's what I'm listening to, and mum has chosen this time to try and understand what it is that I like about rock and roll.
Bing Crosby has an astonishingly pure and full voice. But when I listen to him, I can't shake the feeling that he isn't really trying. When he sings love songs I don't hear any soul, any emotion. I have the same problem with most of the other "crooners." At least in opera you know the singers are putting everything they've got into it (though for me the overuse of vibrato is a pretty significant turn-off when it comes to opera). What I love about rock and roll is this: most of the songs that grab me and compel me are ones that sound like the band is pouring everything they've got into their performance. The sort of song where you know that if you saw the band live they would all be sweating and panting by the end of it. I have a hard time picturing Bing Crosby breaking a sweat, because his voice doesn't sound like he IS breaking a sweat (though he could always be sweating from the heat of the spotlights on stage). I don't mean that to belittle the quality of his singing, he really was phenomenal, but the songs he sings just don't compel me the way that, for example, Chris Cornell's voice just grabs me and won't let go.
When someone is screaming, you know that what they're singing MEANS something to them. It has power. It doesn't even matter all that much what the actual words are. The sustained high-pitched wails of Robert Plant or Thom Yorke work for me in the same way.
I'll go back to Chris Cornell again. On his solo record (Euphoria Morning) there's a song called Disappearing One, which does NOT rock; it sounds like it was recorded by a jazz combo onto an LP, then the LP was melted just a little bit (just a dash of Mr. Bungle) and Cornell recorded vocals over the top. But in the chorus, when he starts to let his voice loose... "Iiiiiii'm your... disappeaaaaaaaaaaring onnnnnne..." it's just... wow. So even the backdrop is less important than the vocals...
...though I DO like to hear the band working hard, too.
Anyway, I'm not really sure where I'm going with all of this. I just felt like saying it is all. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
The music I write admittedly falls into the crooner category, but that's just because my screaming voice sucks. I'd go Chris Cornell anyday if I had the vocal cords for it. *grin*
I have an equal love for the softslow ballads and the sweatingscreaming rawkers, but I do know what you mean; when I put my Audioslave on fullblast while driving, the sheer passion in the delivery is enough to...well, I don't know how to finish that sentence, but let's just say that the passion is GOOD. It's the old cliche about getting chills down your spine.
*sigh* It's one in the morning here, but now I reaaally want to go fix my amp and play some grunge. *grin*
posted
Ah...I like it all (almost). I can listen to jazz just as easily as I can listen to country or even rock. I don't like rap, and most "alternative" music. For me it is the music that gets me the most. Except when driving. Then it is all of it. I'll cruise down the highway, radio up loud (hey nobody can hear you at 70mph), and (the worst part) I will sing along to it. I have no singing voice, but that is ok. I love the sounds of Led Zeppelin, Spineshank, Green Day, Alice in Chains, and others.
Good part is is that my parents will part listen to it. They are getting into the "alternative music". So they can also tolerate my stuff now and then. (this is mostly my mom. Not sure my dad listens anymore to music. He doesn't even like The Doors)
How's that for some rambling, twinky?
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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For me it depends on the ballad. Something like Under the Bridge or Tears in Heaven... well, yes. Ballads in the traditional country and western sense of the word... no, not so much.
Radiohead's Lucky is my sort of ballad.
I need to get over this complex I have about singing loudly with my parents in the house so I can record some proper singing.
Singing when driving is great. You can miss notes or have your voice break without caring, since nobody can hear you Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
You should hear HIM and Dir en grey. HIM is a rock band that has easy to listen to music. Very smooth. Very appealing. The vocalist has a beautiful voice. Kyo of Dir en grey can croon in one song and scream his lungs out in another. He sings with pure feeling. I adore him.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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WOO HOO! Someone listening to Dir en grey. *glee and bliss* Then there is Dmitri Hvorotovsky to consider!
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Yeah, to me it means they're not going to be able to sing lullabyes to their grandchildren.
That's the point. Your music is so important to you that you're willing to wreck yourself for it. That's powerful.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Maybe its just me... but I don't think Chris Cornell is even in the top ten for rock singers... honestly, I don't think he's that good at all.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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You have to like gravelly-textured voices to like him. Also, you have to appreciate his massive lungs – I can swim about 65 metres underwater without coming up for air, but I can't scream like he can.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:When someone is screaming, you know that what they're singing MEANS something to them. It has power.
I have to disagree with this part. Sometimes when someone is screaming, it just means that he thinks it sounds cool to scream.
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Bing Crosby may not evoke much of a visceral response, but I wouldn't say that his music is completely devoid of emotion. One thing that a lot of his music has is a real sense of fun. For me, listening to that style of music is, in part, a way of simplifying things. There's the idea, whether it's true or not, that life was less complicated then. Music could just be light and pretty and fun. I think that appeals to a lot of people. Some of us use books or movies or TV to escape. Why not music?
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I don't disagree with you, saxon. I'm just musing while trying to come up with a good way to explain what I love so much about rock 'n roll to my parents
Edit:
(Which is to say that the visceral response I get from rock is what keeps me listening to it.)
posted
There was some NPR Special on Bing Crosby recently. I don't have a link to it, but I do remember some of the following facts.
Bing Crosby was to the first half of the last century what Elvis was to the last half.
Thanks to Bing Crosby's desire to be on the Golf greens and not recording his TV show every day, we have Video Tape, The Laugh Track, and I also believe he helped innovate multi-trak sound recording.
If it wasn't for Bing Crosby, Rock & Roll would never have been born.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote: That's the point. Your music is so important to you that you're willing to wreck yourself for it. That's powerful.
I guess... it just makes me sad. I once heard a rock-type singer on the radio demostrate her singing "twinkle twinkle little star" and she couldn't, her voice was ruined. Hearing that really affected me.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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