I honestly have lost a lot of respect for today's music (in all genres). I genuinely feel that the level of musicianship and skill has greatly deteriorated. Partly because of society, for some reason we all support radio stations that only play the same 10 songs over and over and over. I think my (and future) generations don't appreciate true musicianship. Artists who actually write their own lyrics, or are skilled at their instruments. Not just completely altered electronically so that their voices can be made to sound good, and any off-tune pitch is fixed.

 

This is evident in live performances from todays bands. When you compare them to the older bands (some concerts I've seen include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, Queen with Paul Rodgers, Van Halen, Carlos Santana, Chicago, Doobie Brothers, Billy Joel, Elton John, the Allman Brothers Band...), it's not even close. The older bands, their live music sounds just as good, but usually better then their album cuts. They clearly display their immense skill with their instruments and for the most part have maintained their vocal abilities. When I see today's rock bands, live, it's just not even close to the same as the album cut. Their voices are much worse, and their is a very noticeable decrease in quality of what you heard on the CD.

 

My question is what rock bands out there today do you truly think still have true musicianship and skill?

 

I'll start of with the band, Los Lonely Boys. A Tex-Mex trio with amazing guitar work, beautiful harmonies, and of course, they write their own songs. Henry Garza's guitar is just so good, heavily influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix. The lyrics are great and actually have meaning. So if you have a chance, listen to their album "Los Lonely Boys."

I honestly have lost a lot of respect for today's music (in all genres). I genuinely feel that the level of musicianship and skill has greatly deteriorated. Partly because of society, for some reason we all support radio stations that only play the same 10 songs over and over and over. I think my (and future) generations don't appreciate true musicianship. Artists who actually write their own lyrics, or are skilled at their instruments. Not just completely altered electronically so that their voices can be made to sound good, and any off-tune pitch is fixed.

 

This is evident in live performances from todays bands. When you compare them to the older bands (some concerts I've seen include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, Queen with Paul Rodgers, Van Halen, Carlos Santana, Chicago, Doobie Brothers, Billy Joel, Elton John, the Allman Brothers Band...), it's not even close. The older bands, their live music sounds just as good, but usually better then their album cuts. They clearly display their immense skill with their instruments and for the most part have maintained their vocal abilities. When I see today's rock bands, live, it's just not even close to the same as the album cut. Their voices are much worse, and their is a very noticeable decrease in quality of what you heard on the CD.

My question is what rock bands out there today do you truly think still have true musicianship and skill?

 

I'll start of with the band, Los Lonely Boys. A Tex-Mex trio with amazing guitar work, beautiful harmonies, and of course, they write their own songs. Henry Garza's guitar is just so good, heavily influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix. The lyrics are great and actually have meaning. So if you have a chance, listen to their album "Los Lonely Boys."

 

 

Nine Inch Nails without a doubt mate, going for 20 years and are still fresh and brilliant, great songwriting, truly skillful live show (saw them 2 days ago, best performance I have ever seen) and also good to the fans (free releases, strong online community, fan only presales).

Pretty much what Mr Self Destruct said there.

 

Me, personally, unaltered music and vocals alone don't always mean great quality. I listen to few bands which uses synths and does altered vocals, and they're fun to listen to.

 

And I think, mate, you overlooked the metal music which still grows strong. Try current great metal music: Lamb of God, HORSE the Band (mainly hardcore), Behemoth, Mastodon and My Dying Bride. They are good live as well. :)

Edited July 17, 200915 yr by FM11

fukkin spammer

fukkin spammer

 

I dont think it is spam, it looks like a good discussion point to me.

fukkin spammer

 

What are you talking about man? I posted a similar topic in the R&B Hip-Hop forum that was more specific to that music genre. But it's an opinion I have about music across the board. No doubt there are really good musicians still out there. But because of the industry, the record labels, the suits behind radio, these musicians don't usually get any play. Just trying to get some good suggestions for bands to start listening to because I'm losing faith in our generation and the values we treasure in music.

I'm just very suspicious of people with very low post counts disguising posts as thinly veiled ads for relatively unknown bands.

 

Happens all the time in the indie forum.

 

If this isn't spam then I apologise.

To be honest I don't care if bands have "good" musical skills as long as the music rocks.

 

 

I'm just very suspicious of people with very low post counts disguising posts as thinly veiled ads for relatively unknown bands.

 

Happens all the time in the indie forum.

 

If this isn't spam then I apologise.

 

tbh i agree.....

 

however i will answer the question posed..

 

the early, original artists that you listed were driven by the 60's fashion of wanting to play blues, and as alexis corner once said "you cant fake the blues". imho musicians for the last 20 odd years or so have largely (not exclusievely) lost this goal, this drive, to animate real raw emotion that the blues demands. musicians today play from the pocket and not from the heart.

To be honest I don't care if bands have "good" musical skills as long as the music rocks.

Yeah, I pretty much didn't cared about musical skills to judge the songs, I'm on the rocking of the music.

If I want to listen for good musical skills, I can always choose to listen to classical music and post-rock.

tbh i agree.....

 

however i will answer the question posed..

 

the early, original artists that you listed were driven by the 60's fashion of wanting to play blues, and as alexis corner once said "you cant fake the blues". imho musicians for the last 20 odd years or so have largely (not exclusievely) lost this goal, this drive, to animate real raw emotion that the blues demands. musicians today play from the pocket and not from the heart.

Yep, that's it. I agree.

But it's Alexis Korner :P

 

Yep, that's it. I agree.

But it's Alexis Korner :P

 

of course it is! ...doh! :lol:

To be honest I don't care if bands have "good" musical skills as long as the music rocks.

 

id suggest the two are interlinked.... imho good music is music whith something to say, born out of an inspiration, which would demand something more complex musically...

id suggest the two are interlinked.... imho good music is music whith something to say, born out of an inspiration, which would demand something more complex musically...

Not necessarily, lots of punk was good but that didn't need musical complexity. Take The Ramones. Truly great band but you would hardly say they were amazing musicians.

Motorhead don't really need musical complexity. Musical proficiency certainly helps though.

 

To be honest the original poster couldn't have come up with a more boring list of old farts if he had tried.

These artists now make some of the most unchallenging cliche ridden rubbish relying for the most part on past glories.

 

Rob you really do come across as Buzzjack's Grumpy Old Man at times.

The point you made about bands playing for cash not the need to make music.

I think that has been true since the commercialisation of music first occurred probably in the 50s.

 

I mean you're telling me that a lot of Adam Faith, Tommy Steele and others made those records in the late 50s and early 60s for the love of the music.

 

There always have been and always will be bands and musicians that do it for the money.

Just as there are bands who do it for the music. And if you're lucky then you can do both.

Edited July 19, 200915 yr by grebo69

Not necessarily, lots of punk was good but that didn't need musical complexity. Take The Ramones. Truly great band but you would hardly say they were amazing musicians.

Motorhead don't really need musical complexity. Musical proficiency certainly helps though.

 

To be honest the original poster couldn't have come up with a more boring list of old farts if he had tried.

These artists now make some of the most unchallenging cliche ridden rubbish relying for the most part on past glories.

 

Rob you really do come across as Buzzjack's Grumpy Old Man at times.

The point you made about bands playing for cash not the need to make music.

I think that has been true since the commercialisation of music first occurred probably in the 50s.

 

I mean you're telling me that a lot of Adam Faith, Tommy Steele and others made those records in the late 50s and early 60s for the love of the music.

 

There always have been and always will be bands and musicians that do it for the money.

Just as there are bands who do it for the music. And if you're lucky then you can do both.

 

well true about punk, but then again punk didnt require musicianship to get its message over.

 

i had in mind the inovative acts from the 60's more then the obvious commercial ones. true, making money has been a huge concideration if not the raison d'etre even amongst the true 'greats'. but listening to what the early pop groups from the beatles era have said and its clear that the likes of hendrix, clapton, beck, page, hell even manfred mann wanted to play blues (or jazz as in mm's case). many early groups were inspired by what was coming out of america, blues, rock n roll, and they wanted to play it. many 'sold out' simply because they had to... its like... they wanted to play music as a primary motive and they hoped money would come as a consequence. this didnt happen and so many were forced by necessity to 'go commercial'.

 

This is evident in live performances from todays bands. When you compare them to the older bands (some concerts I've seen include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, Queen with Paul Rodgers, Van Halen, Carlos Santana, Chicago, Doobie Brothers, Billy Joel, Elton John, the Allman Brothers Band...), it's not even close.

 

I'll take the truly brilliant musicianship and songwriting skills of Opeth, Mastodon, Tool, Within Temptation, The Gathering, Amanda Palmer, PJ Harvey, Therion, Muse, Nightwish, Goldfrapp, QoTSA, Portishead, NIN, Emperor and Tristania any bloody day over that bunch of hoary old cr@p...... :P

 

Besides, it's not even really about "technical ability", it's more about coming up with material that's interesting and challenging, so, whereas the likes of Sex Pistols, Clash, Dead Kennedys may not have been particularly "technically proficient", christ, they sure come up with more interesting music than fukkin' Queen or Genesis ever did...... :lol: :lol:

 

So, there aren't any bands/artists around today with "true musicianship" then...? What absolute fukkin' BOLLOCKS...... You just have to go a bit further out the mainstream to find them mate.....

The musicianship of old bands is just so far superior to most popular groups today. That's why I've gotten into the jam band scene recently. Groups like Umphrey's McGee, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Soulive, are definitely very talented. But pop music doesn't have to be talentless. One guy who is talented is John Mayer, like his music or not. He's one hell of a blues guitar player.

The musicianship of old bands is just so far superior to most popular groups today.

 

That's just cr@p.... A good many "old bands" weren't particularly technically proficient (I mean, come on, were The Beatles more accomplished musicians than, say, Stratovarius, an incredibly technical and intricate Power Metal band from today...? I dont think so...), but were certainly competent enough as musicians... Most of today's popular BANDS (as opposed to manufactured boy/girl bands) have roughly the same level of competency as musician..... If you want to argue about the material, well that's a different argument, your argument is about musicianship abilities, and frankly, most of the list that I rattled off in my post are a damn sight better musicians than about 90-odd per cent of the "old bands" could ever dream of being.... I rather think that Opeth, Mastodon or Tool would find it pretty damn easy to play the material of The Who, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones or Elton John, but whether these bands could actually play the material of Opeth, Mastodon or Tool is rather debatable imo......

v

QUOTE(JBrennan @ Jul 17 2009, 05:44 PM) *

I honestly have lost a lot of respect for today's music (in all genres). I genuinely feel that the level of musicianship and skill has greatly deteriorated. Partly because of society, for some reason we all support radio stations that only play the same 10 songs over and over and over. I think my (and future) generations don't appreciate true musicianship. Artists who actually write their own lyrics, or are skilled at their instruments. Not just completely altered electronically so that their voices can be made to sound good, and any off-tune pitch is fixed.

 

This is evident in live performances from todays bands. When you compare them to the older bands (some concerts I've seen include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, Queen with Paul Rodgers, Van Halen, Carlos Santana, Chicago, Doobie Brothers, Billy Joel, Elton John, the Allman Brothers Band...), it's not even close. The older bands, their live music sounds just as good, but usually better then their album cuts. They clearly display their immense skill with their instruments and for the most part have maintained their vocal abilities. When I see today's rock bands, live, it's just not even close to the same as the album cut. Their voices are much worse, and their is a very noticeable decrease in quality of what you heard on the CD.

 

My question is what rock bands out there today do you truly think still have true musicianship and skill?

 

I'll start of with the band, Los Lonely Boys. A Tex-Mex trio with amazing guitar work, beautiful harmonies, and of course, they write their own songs. Henry Garza's guitar is just so good, heavily influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix. The lyrics are great and actually have meaning. So if you have a chance, listen to their album "Los Lonely Boys."

 

 

 

Nine Inch Nails without a doubt mate, going for 20 years and are still fresh and brilliant, great songwriting, truly skillful live show (saw them 2 days ago, best performance I have ever seen) and also good to the fans (free releases, strong online community, fan only presales).

 

 

--------------------

Jark on Chris, not to his face:

 

jc ∙ cos i'm... says:

*chris knows f*** all, the vile c**t

 

v

QUOTE(JBrennan @ Jul 17 2009, 05:44 PM) *

I honestly have lost a lot of respect for today's music (in all genres). I genuinely feel that the level of musicianship and skill has greatly deteriorated. Partly because of society, for some reason we all support radio stations that only play the same 10 songs over and over and over. I think my (and future) generations don't appreciate true musicianship. Artists who actually write their own lyrics, or are skilled at their instruments. Not just completely altered electronically so that their voices can be made to sound good, and any off-tune pitch is fixed.

 

This is evident in live performances from todays bands. When you compare them to the older bands (some concerts I've seen include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, Queen with Paul Rodgers, Van Halen, Carlos Santana, Chicago, Doobie Brothers, Billy Joel, Elton John, the Allman Brothers Band...), it's not even close. The older bands, their live music sounds just as good, but usually better then their album cuts. They clearly display their immense skill with their instruments and for the most part have maintained their vocal abilities. When I see today's rock bands, live, it's just not even close to the same as the album cut. Their voices are much worse, and their is a very noticeable decrease in quality of what you heard on the CD.

 

My question is what rock bands out there today do you truly think still have true musicianship and skill?

 

I'll start of with the band, Los Lonely Boys. A Tex-Mex trio with amazing guitar work, beautiful harmonies, and of course, they write their own songs. Henry Garza's guitar is just so good, heavily influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix. The lyrics are great and actually have meaning. So if you have a chance, listen to their album "Los Lonely Boys."

Nine Inch Nails without a doubt mate, going for 20 years and are still fresh and brilliant, great songwriting, truly skillful live show (saw them 2 days ago, best performance I have ever seen) and also good to the fans (free releases, strong online community, fan only presales).

--------------------

Jark on Chris, not to his face:

 

jc ∙ cos i'm... says:

*chris knows f*** all, the vile c**t

 

No offence, but the point of this post is....? :unsure: And what's it actually contributing in the way of an answer to the question...?