Radiohead, the most hyped and probably the most over-rated band of the decade, upped the ante for studio trickery. They had begun as third-rate disciples of the Smiths, and albums such as Pablo Honey (1993) and The Bends (1995) that were cauldrons of Brit-pop cliches. Then OK Computer (1997) happened and the word "chic" took on a new meaning. The album was a masterpiece of faux avantgarde (of pretending to be avantgarde while playing mellow pop music). It was, more properly, a new link in the chain of production artifices that changed the way pop music "sounds": the Beatles' Sgt Pepper, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, Michael Jackson's Thriller. Despite the massive doses of magniloquent epos a` la U2 and of facile pathos a` la David Bowie, the album's mannerism led to the same excesses that detracted from late Pink Floyd's albums (lush textures, languid melodies, drowsy chanting). Since thee production aspects of music were beginning to prevail over the music itself, it was just about natural to make them "the" music. The sound of Kid A (2000) had decomposed and absorbed countless new perfumes, like a carcass in the woods. All sounds were processed and mixed, including the vocals. Radiohead moved as close to electronica as possible without actually endorsing it. Radiohead became masters of the artificial, masters of minimizing the emotional content of very complex structures. Amnesiac (2001) replaced "music" with a barrage of semi-mechanical loops, warped instruments and digital noises, while bending Thom Yorke's baritone to a subhuman register and stranding it in the midst of hostile arrangements, sounding more and more like an alienated psychopath. Their limit was that they were more form than content, more "hype" than message, more nothing than everything.
Radiohead, the most hyped and probably the most over-rated band of the decade, upped the ante for studio trickery. They had begun as third-rate disciples of the Smiths, and albums such as Pablo Honey (1993) and The Bends (1995) that were cauldrons of Brit-pop cliches. Then OK Computer (1997) happened and the word "chic" took on a new meaning. The album was a masterpiece of faux avantgarde (of pretending to be avantgarde while playing mellow pop music). It was, more properly, a new link in the chain of production artifices that changed the way pop music "sounds": the Beatles' Sgt Pepper, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, Michael Jackson's Thriller. Despite the massive doses of magniloquent epos a` la U2 and of facile pathos a` la David Bowie, the album's mannerism led to the same excesses that detracted from late Pink Floyd's albums (lush textures, languid melodies, drowsy chanting). Since thee production aspects of music were beginning to prevail over the music itself, it was just about natural to make them "the" music. The sound of Kid A (2000) had decomposed and absorbed countless new perfumes, like a carcass in the woods. All sounds were processed and mixed, including the vocals. Radiohead moved as close to electronica as possible without actually endorsing it. Radiohead became masters of the artificial, masters of minimizing the emotional content of very complex structures. Amnesiac (2001) replaced "music" with a barrage of semi-mechanical loops, warped instruments and digital noises, while bending Thom Yorke's baritone to a subhuman register and stranding it in the midst of hostile arrangements, sounding more and more like an alienated psychopath. Their limit was that they were more form than content, more "hype" than message, more nothing than everything.
I can't even parse this well enough to determine whether or not I agree with it.
Yeah, it seems this is one of those "Synthesizers and production means DISCO, and DEATH BEFORE DISCO!111!!! THREE CHORDS AND THE TRUTH!!!11!1!!!" types. :P
Yeah, it seems this is one of those "Synthesizers and production means DISCO, and DEATH BEFORE DISCO!111!!! THREE CHORDS AND THE TRUTH!!!11!1!!!" types. :P
I don't really have an opinion on Radiohead one way or the other, but I do get upset when people start bashing studio tricks for the sake of bashing them. If they listen to obscure acoustic folk-rock all day, then sure, then can complain, but almost all recorded music goes through some sort of processing.
I don't really have an opinion on Radiohead one way or the other, but I do get upset when people start bashing studio tricks for the sake of bashing them. If they listen to obscure acoustic folk-rock all day, then sure, then can complain, but almost all recorded music goes through some sort of processing.
Also, I'm falling asleep, so I'm probably going to get myself in trouble if I continue on this since I get the feeling I didn't really understand it. :(
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Swapped the gif-warning for the anime tag and moved to general media.
Take that heapers with epilepsy.
Looks interesting. I'm like hella swamped in stuff i need to watch/read, but I might give this a watch sometime. Is this made by the same studio that did Soul Eater?
What does "three chords and the truth" mean anyway?
It's kind of a half-derogatory half-laudatory description of your average folk or punk songwriter: Playing three chords and spouting what they see as the truth.
I prefer one chord and blatant lies.
On Radiohead: I enjoy their music quite a bit, but I feel like people oversell their innovativeness in a way that the band themselves would likely strenuous disagree with. Mostly what they were doing circa Amnesiac was simply transposing electronic, experimental and modern classical forms and techniques onto mainstream rock music. Given the band's stature and what kind of music was also super-popular at the time, that was unusual and pretty cool, but in the greater scheme of rock music it wasn't, you know, totally revolutionary.
As for Scaruffi... I love that he gives unknown bands serious attention, but his weird beef with The Beatles simply baffles me. Plus, even in his native tongue he overwrites like all hell (quoth the hypocrite lecteur).
The fact that so many books still name the Beatles "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success: the Beatles sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that the Beatles did anything worth of being saved. For most of their career the Beatles were four mediocre musicians who sang melodic three-minute tunes at a time when rock music was trying to push itself beyond that format (a format originally confined by the technical limitations of 78 rpm record). They were the quintessence of "mainstream", assimilating the innovations proposed by rock music, within the format of the melodic song. They were influential, yes, but on the customs - in the strictest sense of the word. Their influence, for better or for worse, on the great phenomena of the 60s doesn't amount to much. Unlike Bob Dylan, they didn't stir social revolts; unlike the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead they didn't foster the hippie movement; unlike Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix they didn't further the myth of LSD; unlike Jagger and Zappa they had no impact on the sexual revolution. Indeed the Beatles were icons of the customs that embodied the opposite: the desire to contain all that was happening. In their songs there is no Vietnam, there is no politics, there are no kids rioting in the streets, there is no sexual promiscuity, there are no drugs, there is no violence. In the world of the Beatles the social order of the 40s and the 50s still reigns. At best they were influential on the secret dreams of young girls, and on the haircuts of young nerdy boys. The Beatles had the historical function to serve as champions of the reaction. Their smiles and their choruses hid the revolution: they concealed the restlessness of an underground movement ready to explode, for a bourgeoisie who wanted to hear nothing about it. They had nothing to say and that's why they didn't say it.
Edit: Could someone who knows something about code please edit this post to look like Naney's Radiohead blurb up there? Thanks in advance. (Done and done -lee)
For a pop song of that era, "She Loves You" is pretty innovative, albeit subtly. The most obvious quirk is that the chorus ends on an unresolved add-six chord, although the thoroughly sarcastic lyric is a close second.
I think that Scaruffi fails to fully understand the power of understated subversion. It's one thing to push a musical paradigm to its limits; it is another to push those limits within popular music.
There's also the fact that before their manager told them to clean themselves up in order to appeal to a wider audience, the band kind of looked like the members of a '50s biker gang. They also played in sleazy dive bars and hung out with junkies and drag queens in Germany.
The climax was definitely a bit rushed, but I think I'm just willing to accept flaws like that from Gainax/Trigger at this point as the price for an awesome experience.
Comments
it's like I'm a kid again
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
[steps out of character]
it's made by a group of students calling themselves Trigger, it's only about 25 minutes long. It's just a short film made for a final project.
[steps back into character]
Therefore I decree that you must watch it and enjoy it or else be fed to The Pumpkin Golem!
This is a generic anime short thread.
It's pretty good.
it's an amazing treasure
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~
(Source)
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
The climax was definitely a bit rushed, but I think I'm just willing to accept flaws like that from Gainax/Trigger at this point as the price for an awesome experience.