a few questions for music lovers

Started by rick957, August 25, 2011, 09:58:01 PM

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rick957

#50
I've started a handful of threads at Elliquiy, and this is one of the most successful in terms of garnering replies.  Thanks peoples!  (Although I wouldn't mind some more back-and-forth in terms of discussion, but hey, I'll take what I can get.)  :)

@Headlights


[seriously, I'm determined to reply to everybody who's posted here, no matter how long it takes me, and not 'cuz I feel obligated, but 'cuz I loves talking about musics, is all]

QuoteI haven't contributed much to this forum since signing up but I probably should, as seeing as I had a little chat about music on IRC, perhaps here is a good place to start:

Welcome to Elliquiy, Headlights.  I love your avatar; that picture has special sentimental resonance for me.  Hope you like it around here.

QuoteIf I hear a song I like, I usually have to find out who it is by and what else they've done; a little compulsive that way. That tends to mean I tend to have favourite artists: songs I like in isolation are usually more of the guilty pleasure variety (and of course, in public I would furiously deny liking them). There are occasions when a band puts out, say, one or two good albums, while I dislike the rest of their output, but I tend to keep listening anyway, hoping they will rediscover their sound.

Oh! -- Man, I hear ya.  Totally.

QuoteI'll list a few nominal favourites here, but let's not pretend if you asked me list them tomorrow, I wouldn't choose an entirely different set:

    Sigur Ros
    The National
    Joni Mitchell
    Alison Krauss & Union Station
    Ryan Adams (+/- The Cardinals)
    Asobi Seksu
    M83
    absolutely any reasonably well engineered Chicago blues


I have three genres in which I will listen to almost anything, being broadly dreampop/shoegaze/post-rock/noise, electric blues, and bluegrass.

Fucking A.  If you were a chick, I would propose.  ;)

(Sidebar:  One of my less charitable yet strongly-held personal opinions is that women generally have far shittier taste in music than men, and the exceptions to that rule usually have a tasteful ex-boyfriend to thank for it.  Anybody who wants to shoot down my sexist proposal there is more than welcome to; maybe you can convince me otherwise.)  (But I doubt it!!! hehehehehe *runs away chortling to himself*)

QuoteThere are specific radio shows I listen to, and will quite often follow up recommendations from them (for example, I almost always like the featured performers on Bob Harris Country).

*scribbles in notebook*  ... H-A-R-R-I-S.  Gotcha.  :)

Quotekd lang once put out an album called Hymns of the 49th Parallel. It consists of covers of Canadian songs (Joni, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young). I'm not sure how well the album has aged, actually: I wonder if when I first liked it, I was simply a callow teenager enchanted by her voice (undeniably one of the best in the business). But I still remember one of the reviews of the album: "It makes you homesick for a country you've never been to". It still does: I can't think of Canada (to the annoyance of my Canadian friends) without that music in my head.

Thank you for this; one more reason for me to want to check out the album.  (My first reason was the fact that she had the good taste to cover the allmighty, all-too-overlooked Bruce Cockburn.)  As to Ali Farka Toure, I absolutely adore a song he did with Ry Cooder that reappeared on the Dead Man Walking Score.  I'll keep an eye out for the album you mentioned.

God I love this thread!

@ambrosial, take two

QuoteEmilie Autumn's "A Cure," an instrumental piece (though her vocal songs are stunning as well):

(After just one listen) -- how intriguing.  I read her bio on allmusic.com (however flawed, still by far the best music info site I've found on the web, FWIW).  I assume that's electric violin?  Yet she got sounds out of it that sound more like guitar than violin ... You have successfully and thoroughly piqued my interest, which (not to sound vain, and notwithstanding my perhaps-overly-exuberant remarks throughout this thread, but hey, I'm just tryin' to keep the thread alive, y'know ... -- ) isn't easy to do, honestly.  :)

Quotepale young gentlemen

They're from Madison Wisconsin, of all places.  I've seen several unforgettable concerts there.  (Used to live near Chi-Town, just an hour or two south.)

I didn't expect to like that, considering that I truly liked your first recommendation and I really am terribly picky about music, but yeah, I think I really liked that on a first listen.  ... Thank you.

@JackWhite, take two

QuoteOf course there's a difference in our bands and I can understand that you don't like every band I put up here or in my thread. I can inform you that I do like The Clash and Black Sabbath too but that I didn't mention them here. Both are great bands. As you mentioned spending time listening 'lesser-quality' music, I think I don't really regret it. That music makes us decide what we want and it seems to me that such thing is at least as important. Maybe one day I'll have a completely different taste of music but I won't regret listening this because it does bring back all the memories of what used to be.

Amen, my friend.  :) 

@yobo, take two

Quote... There even was a real divide among black metal fans about what was "true" black metal, and what was not. Dimmu Borgir was not true black metal for example.

This just made me smile so hard.  :)  :)  :)  Music lovers are so petty, aren't we?  I just love it.

More responses to come ..........

yobo

Quote from: rick957 on April 08, 2012, 01:34:01 AM

This just made me smile so hard.  :)  :)  :)  Music lovers are so petty, aren't we?  I just love it.


That is very true. That discussion makes me smile as well.  ;D

Geeklet

Quote from: rick957 on April 08, 2012, 01:34:01 AM
Music lovers are so petty, aren't we?  I just love it.

Hah, I know. I always have to laugh when I see comments in certain videos about how the band has "sold out" or some such just because they make something that isn't 100% like their older stuff.

Semantics

Quote from: Geeklet on April 08, 2012, 09:56:31 AM
Hah, I know. I always have to laugh when I see comments in certain videos about how the band has "sold out" or some such just because they make something that isn't 100% like their older stuff.

"What?  You mean the band might have more musical interests/influences than just mine and those they've shown so far, and these might change over time?  Preposterous!  They must have sold out!  That's the far more likely explanation!"

Comments like those range from the hilarious to the sad, and mostly amuse me greatly.

Sasquatch421

Question 1:  It would have to be favorite groups... I have tried to rank them before but it just never seems to work.

Damn Yankees
KISS
Iron Maiden
Cradle of Filth
Within Temptation
Kamelot
Evanescence
Steel Panther
5 Finger Death Punch
Lamb of God
Lynyrd Skynard
Heart
Kansas
Big & Rich
Turisas
Black Veil Brides
Jackyl
Skid Row
Ugly Kid Joe
Firehouse
This is just some of the bands I like...

2:  I never seem to intentionally look for new music to like. It's actually more like stumbling across them wether it be from the radio or my sister popping in her newest Alesana CD and I just happen to hear it.

3: I always buy my music which can be bad in some cases (remember Chumbawubma? I still have the CD even if it has only been played once.) I also spend my money by going to their shows when they get close.

4: I'm 32

5: Actually there is a couple... This year before my girlfriend and I broke up we went to her daughters concert. The last thing that was played was The Armed Forces March and the director had asked that when a certain  part played, the veterans could stand.

Well right off the bat they started with the Marine Corps. Hymn and of course I stood. The crowds applause seemed thunderous at the moment and as it went on and we had the Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen stand for their respective songs the applause just got louder. It was a moment where I had goosebumps afterwards it was inspiring...

Second is with Lee Greenwoods song "Proud to be an American"

It was the end of the Crucible and we were hitting the Grim Reaper. Three mile march with 50 pounds packs that seemed to be all uphill. That morning it was about what platoon or division you were in, anybody fell out and another would help them along.

When we finally hit the top and were able to set down our packs. They then had us form up in ranks and started playing that song on the speakers in a loop. Our drill instructors then proceeded to move along our rank and pin our first Eagle, Globe and Anchor to our Cami's and call us Marines for the very first time. Then all of the three months of training came to an end and I have never seen so many grown men cry. That is and will probably always be the greatest moment in my life.

ambrosial

Quote from: rick957 on April 08, 2012, 01:34:01 AM

@ambrosial, take two

(After just one listen) -- how intriguing.  I read her bio on allmusic.com (however flawed, still by far the best music info site I've found on the web, FWIW).  I assume that's electric violin?  Yet she got sounds out of it that sound more like guitar than violin ... You have successfully and thoroughly piqued my interest, which (not to sound vain, and notwithstanding my perhaps-overly-exuberant remarks throughout this thread, but hey, I'm just tryin' to keep the thread alive, y'know ... -- ) isn't easy to do, honestly.  :)
Glad you enjoyed it! It is indeed an electric violin, which she plays like a true virtuosa, as far as I'm concerned. I'd recommend the rest of her instrumental album Unlaced, which also includes some lovely traditional violin pieces, like Bach. Her most recent album Opheliac is fabulous in my opinion, but it's not for everyone's taste. You really can't go wrong with Unlaced though.

Her official site will give you quite the interesting read, but I'm not sure how useful it'd be from a biographical standpoint, since last I checked, it's rather fully in-character. All the same, a fun place to wander about.

Quote from: rick957 on April 08, 2012, 01:34:01 AMThey're from Madison Wisconsin, of all places.  I've seen several unforgettable concerts there.  (Used to live near Chi-Town, just an hour or two south.)

I didn't expect to like that, considering that I truly liked your first recommendation and I really am terribly picky about music, but yeah, I think I really liked that on a first listen.  ... Thank you.
I've heard Madison's a cool town, but I've never made my way that far north in the Midwest.

I have far less to say about PYG than EA since I know little about them outside of their music, but glad you liked the song!
We'll make the honeysuckle jealous.

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rick957

#56
Well let's see, I'm only a little over a month behind in making my smartass remarks about people's posts.  ;)  Don't worry folks, you'll get your smartass remarks too, heh.

@SinXAsgard21

Quote
Nirvana
System of a Down
Slipknot
Maximum the Hormone
Dir en Grey
Bring me the Horizon
Parabelle
Evans Blue (first album only)
Rise against
The Birthday Massacre
Ill Niño
AFI (before december underground)
Linkin Park (save for catalyst)
Girugamesh
The Gazette
Hollywood Undead (select songs, others are garbage imo)
Rush
Metallica
The Misfits
Styx
Queen
Ozzy Osborne
Pantera
Black Sabbath
Bullet for my Valentine
Soul Fly
Static X
Disturbed
The High Kings
Dropkick Murphys
Flogging Molly
The Dubliners
The Pogues
The Young Dubliners
Blink-182
Apocalyptica

Rock, rock, and rock!  You like lots of bands I like too.  That's been the case for way more people who have posted here than I ever would have expected in advance.  I'm guessing that's partly because Elliquiy draws slightly older and/or nerdier people than your average RP site.  Not that I would know though!  I only RP around here.

(No offense intended, nerds.  I am one of your kind!  Put down the pocket protectors!  NOOoooooooo ....)

QuoteI will not buy from Itunes.

Whatcha got against iTunes, huh?  Huh?  Not that I have any special love for iTunes, don't use it myself, but I hear good things about it more often than not.  I used to think that iTunes and Steve Jobs helped to kill off the music industry as I knew it, but now I mostly think that they just stepped in to fill a need.  (I think the industry killed itself, shortsighted Luddite greed-heads that they were.)

QuoteIf the CD is not for DL online I will usually just wait, that said if they are a band from Japan playing at a convention I will buy their CD though they tend to be pricy.

I'd like to know what this refers to (anybody can answer if you know).  Is this anime conventions or something?  Are those big nowadays?  How much music is at these conventions, and what kinds of music?  Am I totally off-track with my guess?

@midwestgal

QuoteI don't have any particular songs I like better than others. Whatever sounds good, has a good beat and is decent to exercise to (weird, I know).

Oh that's really fascinating, just because it's so different from the way I personally approach music.  I'm glad you posted here.  Unfortunately, though, your personal emphasis on J-Pop puts me at a loss as far as thinking up smartass replies to your post.  Actually, wow, come to think of it, that's an entire genre of music that I know almost nothing whatsoever about, so if anybody out there wants to explain it to me -- how is it similar or different to other genres of pop music?  are there multiple styles of music considered J-Pop, or is it all a single style/mood?  how big is J-Pop outside Japan, or for that matter, inside Japan?  is there one or two bands or artists who are considered the reigning kings/queens of J-Pop?  is there one song you consider archetypical for the genre that you could maybe put up a link to, so I can hear it?  is all J-Pop connected to anime or something?  did you have to look up the word archetypical?  I did, hehe -- those are all things I'd be interested in hearing about, if anybody wants to tellll meeeeee .....

Okay I'm stopping with fresh surveys now.  I'm within one month of the recent posts as far as replying to them!  Yay!  I like doing this.

Here's some smartass replies to other people's smartass or not-so-smartass replies.

QuoteHah, I know. I always have to laugh when I see comments in certain videos about how the band has "sold out" or some such just because they make something that isn't 100% like their older stuff.

Yay, somebody replied to one of my replies, and then somebody else replied to the reply of the reply, hence, conversation!  I like conversations, back-and-forth discussion, long rambling sentences like this one, abuse of adjectives and adverbs and grammar, general silliness, and most of all, I love people talking about music, music, MUSIC, anything about music.  Please feel free to talk about anything at all here.  I like it.

As to "selling out," that used to be a really really big deal, waaaaaay back in the 1980s, as I recall; for any artist to be accused of selling out was just about the lowest thing you could say about 'em.  Then came the 90s and 00s, and Bob Dylan was doing Victoria's Secret commercials, and everybody who was able to sell out did so, and people like Henry Rollins were even publicly defending the right of bands to use their songs to sell phone plans and shit like that, so basically nobody cares about "selling out" any more.  I do, but nobody cares what I think either.  ;)  (One of my personal favorite artists of all time sold a fucking song to a Weight Watchers commercial.  I mean, WTF?  I used to love that song, and now every time I hear it, I think about the Weight Watchers commercial.  I take certain things way too seriously, I know, I know!)

Oh I guess when I said "selling out," I was referring more to artists letting companies use their songs to sell shit, whereas when you guys referred to "selling out," you were talking about when bands let their sound evolve and then all their old fans get pissed off at them.  Wow, that takes me back!  I don't hear that usage of the term "selling out" very often anymore, so it's kind of fascinating to know that it's still used that way.  Of course bands have to evolve if they take their music seriously enough, duh!  Then again some bands don't, look at the Ramones for example, they were great and they didn't ever change.  Much. 

Bye now!

Oniya

Quote from: rick957 on April 11, 2012, 06:34:51 PM
I'd like to know what this refers to (anybody can answer if you know).  Is this anime conventions or something?  Are those big nowadays?  How much music is at these conventions, and what kinds of music?  Am I totally off-track with my guess?

Conventions (my experience is with science fiction conventions) frequently have tables in the dealers' room where merchants have audio for sale.  This can be anything from recordings of filk sessions (I used to have some of Mercedes Lackey's vocals on cassette, as well as Tom Smith) to small bands that 'fit' with the general outlook of the convention.  One time, I was walking through the dealers' room with a Walkman, and a guy affiliated with a group called Mach 25 practically shoved his cassette at me to try 'right now'.  (It was done by a group of ex-NASA employees, and was a bunch of filks about the space shuttle.  Yes, I bought it.)

Sometimes, a more famous band will be invited to a con - such as Abney Park playing at Mythic Faire this past summer.  In those situations, the band will usually tote along a load of swag to sell (CDs, T-shirts, etc.)  I suppose that J-pop bands might be more popular at anime cons.
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rick957

#58
I like going to seedy little comic book conventions where the air reeks of mildewed paper and obese fanboy sweat and all the women present are with their boyfriends or husbands and the only music is the sound of money changing hands, longboxes sliding, live lightsaber-fight demonstrations, and maybe a television somebody set up to play VHS bootleg 60s sci-fi television shows.  ;)

Whoops, this is the music thread thing and not the comic geeks thread thing.  Never mind ...

(No offense intended, fanboys.  I am one of your kind!  Put down the mylar snugs!  NOOoooooooo ....)

Semantics

#59
Quote from: rick957 on April 11, 2012, 06:34:51 PM
Oh that's really fascinating, just because it's so different from the way I personally approach music.  I'm glad you posted here.  Unfortunately, though, your personal emphasis on J-Pop puts me at a loss as far as thinking up smartass replies to your post.  Actually, wow, come to think of it, that's an entire genre of music that I know almost nothing whatsoever about, so if anybody out there wants to explain it to me -- how is it similar or different to other genres of pop music?  are there multiple styles of music considered J-Pop, or is it all a single style/mood?  how big is J-Pop outside Japan, or for that matter, inside Japan?  is there one or two bands or artists who are considered the reigning kings/queens of J-Pop?  is there one song you consider archetypical for the genre that you could maybe put up a link to, so I can hear it?  is all J-Pop connected to anime or something?  did you have to look up the word archetypical?  I did, hehe -- those are all things I'd be interested in hearing about, if anybody wants to tellll meeeeee .....

Hoo.  Maybe should let someone else answer this, because I generally ignore some of the things asked about, so keep in mind that the following may not be supported by Actual Things.

Basically, JPop can be taken literally.  It's just pop music from Japan.  So essentially it can be as diverse as the whole of all other pop genres, because it's not a sub-genre based on being, well, a sub-genre, but a sub-genre based on where it comes from.  A lot of it, I've been told by a friend who pays more attention to these sorts of things than I do, is happy and cheery due to corporate influence, but that's not a requirement to being JPop, just a thing that happens.

Because of this, some of the other questions are a bit hard to answer.  (Such as popularity in Japan.  Music from other countries is certainly also popular, but since JPop is its own thing, you can't just use "How big is pop music in Japan?" since that would include all pop, not just JPop.)  Suffice to say, though, that JPop is Very Big in Japan, and while I've no clue exactly how big it is outside of Japan, it certainly has a very solid following in large part thanks to anime, leading me into the next part.  (Although, said solid following isn't apparently enough to get more of it on Spotify or Pandora.  ::Grumps::)

(Preface, this next part involves only recent anime.  My memory on older stuff is a bit sketchy.)  As to anime, there's obviously a connection, since pretty much each anime will have an opening and closing song that's either JPop or JRock, and often come up with new opening and ending sequences a solid amount if it's a multi-season series.  Anime that hits the 200+ episode mark goes through more openings and endings than you can shake a stick at, and each one will have a new song.  But you've got it reversed, really.  All (Or at least a vast majority) anime is connected to JPop/JRock.  Because, as previously stated, that just means Pop/Rock from Japan, and why wouldn't you use Japanese music for Japanese animation?  They're not, however, really linked by some larger-than-usual degree, except in that opening and ending sequences for anime are more detailed than stuff in the US.

According to a friend, this group had a lot of airtime in Japan recently:
【PV】 ヘビーローテーション / AKB48 [公式]

Edit:  And, nope.  Didn't have to look it up.  I wouldn't have chosen this name if I didn't enjoy words.

rick957

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH

I want to move to Japan right now.

Geeklet

I've got two new additions to my list of favorite bands. Not sure how long they will remain on the list, but right now I'm completely obsessed.

Dead Sara:
WEATHERMAN | DEAD SARA | VIDEO

and Halestorm:
Halestorm - Love Bites (So Do I) [Official Video]

rick957

#62
Phooey.  :P  I almost got to within one month of being late replying to stuff here, but then I slacked off, so now I'm months behind again.  Oh well.  I'm still gonna take as much time as I feel like, though, because heck, why not?  :)

@ midwestgal cont., and @ Semantics
subhead:  American prudishness meets the sexy J-Pop pink nylon happy-happy

Before I do anything else I just gotta watch that J-Pop video again.  ;)  Excuse me for a sec ...

(minutes pass)

Yay!  Everybody should watch that at least once a day, preferably in the morning while drinking caffeine like I am!  Wakka wakka yeah!!!!  Sorry I'm being silly.  I like being silly and totally cornball, so sue me.

The music in the video is so over-the-top and syrup-ly produced that it reminds me a bit of Andrew WK.  Remember Andrew WK?  I was not at all a fan of his, but I thought his shtick was distinctive, at least, for the five seconds that anyone cared.  Funnily enough, though, this kind of Pro Tools-gone-mad approach to music production has become so common that it's no longer all that remarkable, is it?  Abuse of Pro Tools (ex.: autotuned vocals, super-high volume levels, etc.) is maybe my least favorite thing about the last 15-20 years of pop music.

On the other hand, the song in the video is well-crafted as a piece of pop fluff.  That's not at all as easy to do as it first appears, BTW.

Mostly what thrills me and intrigues the hell out of me about that video is the utterly non-Western cultural iconography on display.  Here we have a room full of incredibly physically-perfect minors (minors, right?  that's supposed to be obvious, right?  I hope I'm not just being a perv here) frolicking around in sexy undies, and they're all so damn happy it makes your teeth hurt.  Yay and win, I say.  But also -- WTF????  It's the unabashed juxtaposition of hyper-sexual images with images of youth and childish, un-erotic emotions that just shocks me.  I can't decide if it's super-sicko or super-refreshing or some of both.  It's super-titillating, that's for sure, in both the sexual and non-sexual sense.

Are Asian (or non-Asian) fans of this kind of imagery oblivious to the implications of all that flesh being on such cheerful display?  Americans have this kind of thing too, sort of (reference early Britney and Christina, circa 2001 or so) but the wink-wink denial component is very important to us, what with our Puritan cultural heritage.  The Japanese seem to take their pedophilia neat, without the shame spritzer ... or is it actually pedophilia at all?  Everyone is so cheery and innocent-looking that luridness or lasciviousness doesn't seem to enter into the picture in any way -- except, come on, people!  Look at all that lovely young flesh!  You can't tell me that the Japanese aren't responding hormonally, just like us pervy Yanks.

Anybody who can help me understand all that is invited to try.  :)  I'm becoming a fan of some manga, which has just as much if not more confusing cultural iconography, along similar lines to that video ... Japanese Vs. American Sexual Imagery 101, anyone?  Please enlighten me.

On to other stuff ...

@ Haru329
more grousing about being old -- "it'll happen to yooouuuuu ..."

Quotemost of the music I listen to is in the rock and metal genre. There's something about that kind of music that speaks to my soul.

*high-fives*

QuoteOn extremely rare occasions I might listen to a country song. I never listen to rap. I just can't get into it. Here are my favorite bands, listed in no particular order: Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Korn, Digital Summer, and 3 Doors Down. I would try to list them in order on how much I like them, but this always changes with my moods.

Nothing wrong with country, as long as it's good country, knowwhatImean?  :)  I've spent most of my life in parts of the American South, so I've heard plenty of country in my day ... most of it bad ... but some of it real good too.  I think it's interesting that you enjoy listening to at least two bands who show rap influences (Korn especially), but you don't like rap.  It's hard to find too many people these days who dislike all rap.  It makes me kind of nostalgic though, because I'm old enough to remember when most people didn't consider rap to be music.  (Me?  Well, I'm from Down South, so I've heard plenty of rap in my day ... most of it bad ... but some of it real good too!)

Five Finger Death Punch gets my vote for "band name of the day."  There's an art to choosing a great band name, you know; it's very very difficult to do.  You know what band name I really like?  "Huey Lewis and The News."  Love it.  Don't ask me to explain it, though.  As with most everything else when it comes to rock, The Beatles nailed it, as far as band names go.  IMO.  (I was a Beatles fan for at least a decade before I realized the word "beat" was in there.  Yeah, I can be slow sometimes.  Talk about a great name tho ...)

Hmm -- "Glee."  TV show, right?  Broadway show?  Both?  Neither?  So, do they include actual original songs, or other people singing covers of songs?  What kinds of songs, for example?  (Have I got a clue about "Glee"?  Obviously not.  Sorry, I'm an old fart who doesn't watch TV much.)

Quote4.  19, almost 20

What amazes me about your age is the fact that you are a fan of certain bands -- Korn, Disturbed, 3 Doors Down -- who I thought stopped being popular when you were too young to listen to much music.  Did you get turned on by an older sibling?  Or are those bands still popular with young folks?  I would have guessed that all their fans were in their late-20s and 30s by now.  I haven't heard a new Korn album in forever, but I still love their debut album.

As usual, I've run on at the mouth too long to get through many responses, but so it goes.  :)

Any chitchat about anything musical, responses to questions, new survey responses, etc. etc. et al. are always welcome but never required, y'know.  ;)

P.S. Geeklet, thanks for stopping in and for bumping the thread!  I don't have time right now to listen to your new links, but I will soon.

rick957

#63

Semantics

Quote from: rick957 on May 03, 2012, 07:20:21 AMMostly what thrills me and intrigues the hell out of me about that video is the utterly non-Western cultural iconography on display.  Here we have a room full of incredibly physically-perfect minors (minors, right?  that's supposed to be obvious, right?  I hope I'm not just being a perv here) frolicking around in sexy undies, and they're all so damn happy it makes your teeth hurt.  Yay and win, I say.  But also -- WTF????  It's the unabashed juxtaposition of hyper-sexual images with images of youth and childish, un-erotic emotions that just shocks me.  I can't decide if it's super-sicko or super-refreshing or some of both.  It's super-titillating, that's for sure, in both the sexual and non-sexual sense.

Are Asian (or non-Asian) fans of this kind of imagery oblivious to the implications of all that flesh being on such cheerful display?  Americans have this kind of thing too, sort of (reference early Britney and Christina, circa 2001 or so) but the wink-wink denial component is very important to us, what with our Puritan cultural heritage.  The Japanese seem to take their pedophilia neat, without the shame spritzer ... or is it actually pedophilia at all?  Everyone is so cheery and innocent-looking that luridness or lasciviousness doesn't seem to enter into the picture in any way -- except, come on, people!  Look at all that lovely young flesh!  You can't tell me that the Japanese aren't responding hormonally, just like us pervy Yanks.

Anybody who can help me understand all that is invited to try.  :)  I'm becoming a fan of some manga, which has just as much if not more confusing cultural iconography, along similar lines to that video ... Japanese Vs. American Sexual Imagery 101, anyone?  Please enlighten me.

Hoo.  This is an even harder question (and also a mine field), so I'll be, I think, a bit more brief than before.  Even after speaking to the aforementioned friend, things are still not that clear.  So, an even larger grain of salt to everything I say this time around.

The first thing I'm about to say is, quite honestly, probably of no help at all.  Technically, the national age of consent in Japan is 13.  The reason this really might not have any bearing is that prefectures, much like in the US, set their own.  I'm not sure if there's any place in Japan where 13 is actually the age of consent.  These extra laws generally fall under child protection so it could be their system tries to do exactly what the US system does, except in reverse.  I.E., rather than, "X is the age of consent.  Oh, unless your partner is only x many years older than you," it becomes, "The age of consent is x.  Unless one partner is x older than the other."  Granted, that's a guess after reading various posts about it, very few of which involved actual readings of the laws.  So it could just be that the government set one low and let the individual prefectures choose their exacts, and this interpretation could definitely be completely wrong.  Also, I have no clue what the ages are for appearing in/looking at adult entertainment is.  Obviously, if it's lower than 18 there, well.  That would pretty much make the whole issue a lot more meaningless.

The first actual notable thing to get into is that in some ways, Japan is definitely more open in terms of sexuality than the western world, although more reserved in others.  Some manga and anime that has a largely young-adult target audience also has scenes other countries just wouldn't show to anyone not an adult.  Sometimes they just wouldn't show them at all, except on a movie channel or something.  Many shows that aired during the Toonami run what feels like so long ago had various scenes clipped out.  In at least one show, Outlaw Star, a full episode was clipped.

I think a big thing in Japanese culture is the appearance of youth.  This goes hand-in-hand with innocence a lot.  They don't, either seperately or together, nesseccarily mean to hint at underage, although sometimes they do, but they're often there.  Both of those also go hand-in-hand with the sheer fact that entertainment tries to cater to an audience.  And if males get catered to more often and youth/the appearance of youth is important, well...

Sometimes, though, it does fully enter a place where maybe it's best not to try thinking too hard.  Miu Nakamura, for instance, started as a gravure idol when she was 14.  For those who don't know, gravure idols are essentially the Japanese equivilant of bikini models.  In some cases, tastefully done.  In others, they can make bikini models look downright Completely Innocent.  (Athough it could be argued doing so pushes them closer and closer toward another genre, apparently named chaku-ero.)  And, as said, they don't have to be 18+, or even 16+.

So, yeah.  There is no easy answer here.  Best you can do is recognize that some of it is more openness, and then try to just ignore the stuff that might otherwise really weird you out.  Granted, as the remembering, thinking, and researching for writing this has reminded me, you have to do the same thing in the U.S. at times.  I still have to change the channel whenever a commercial for a beauty pageant reality show comes on, so I can keep my sanity.

Addendum: Huh. Completely failed at not being as long-winded.

rick957

#65
@ Semantics

Thanks so much for the detailed explanation.  I actually love long, detailed posts, so the length of your post pleased me enormously.  ;)  Your post contained much info that I found not only informative and educational but also completely unexpected and surprising, so it was much appreciated -- that bizness about the minimum age of consent is really pretty mindblowing to me, and helps to at least partially account for the gross disparity between Western and Eastern depictions of adolescent sexuality, or so I imagine, at least. 

(Am I wrong about that?  If so, please correct me!  Anyone, I mean, who happens to see this.)

So, I can't tell if I've made a mistake by trying to respond to people's posts here or not ... since nobody's posted lately, I wonder if that means that my conversational, rambling posts detract from the whole generic-impersonal-fill-out-the-form-and-forget-about-it-no-pressure-whatsoever thing that might have helped people to participate in this thread.  Or, on the other hand, maybe more people would have posted if I had kept up with the responses more?  Hell, I dunno. 

Anyway, if more people post to this thread with anything -- survey replies, conversation, whatever -- then I'll probably keep going with my detailed replies and such.  Or if not, then not, and hey, we had fun while it lasted, right?  :)

Apropos of nothing:  I often wonder whether people younger than me who came to know rock and roll through younger bands missed out on anything in the process, by discovering popular music through bands with lesser artistic skills than the ones I was first exposed to.  This is a perpetual and perhaps unsolvable problem -- I wonder just as often whether people older than me were exposed to popular music in a way that was altogether more meaningful and profound than what I was exposed to. 

The question is whether or not pop culture is on an unstoppable downward spiral, a process of ever-diminishing returns, with each successive generation of young people being exposed to pop culture of decreasing value and meaning, and not even knowing any better because the culture of previous generations has been wiped out altogether.  That may be exactly what has been happening to generations of people over the last several decades, don't you think?  Or maybe not.  If you disagree, please let me know.  I don't want to believe such a cynical and bleak theory, but hell, it sure sounds plausible to me right now.  (Won't you please convince me otherwise?!)

Anyway I was gonna say, part of me would like to believe that each generation of young people is exposed to a different set of music stars, but it all balances out in the wash, meaning that each generation learns about the potential of pop music and ends up getting more or less the same benefits from the bands that they listen to, even though the bands might have very different levels of musical knowledge and playing facility and overall artistic ability.  But, to be frank, the larger part of me is too fucking cynical to believe that.  When I hear younger people rhapsodizing about how Avril Lavigne or Blink-182's songs helped them cope with their traumatic breakup or helped them make sense of the nagging angst that haunts them as they make the transition from teenagerhood to adulthood, all I can think is, fucking-A, how goddamn sad is that?  These young people have been fucking cheated.  My generation of young people, or previous generations of young people, had the same experiences, but we had the music of fucking Nirvana or R.E.M. or the Beatles to help us get through our lonely nights and help us make sense of our raging hormones and existential dread.  How fucking horrible is it that younger people don't have those resources to make sense of their lives?  I for one cannot imagine -- would not want to imagine -- living my life without the benefit of Prince and Nine Inch Nails and Bob Dylan and all the other musical geniuses who helped me become the person I am, who helped me make sense of this crazy befuddling absurd miasma that we call "life."  All I can do is thank god (or God or the gods or whoever) that I wasn't left with no one better than fucking Avril Lavigne to help me make sense of my fucking life ... Jesus!  What a goddamn gyp, you know?  Fucking Johnny Rotten/John Lydon said it best:  "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"  Damn right!

Alright, so anyway, if anybody wants to contribute to an ongoing discussion or contribute fresh replies to the survey thingie, then I'll keep posting to this thread too, but if not, I'll assume that interest has officially died off and it's time to put this thread to bed.  It's been hella fun, though! and thanks SO fucking much to everybody who posted -- I can't tell you how much fun it's been for me to get a peek into your musical tastes and thoughts.  Thanks to everybody who's played a part, even if it was just in adding to the "view count."  :)  Peace out ya'll ...

BlackMetalBarbie


Question 1:  Do you have favorite musical groups, or do you more have favorite songs, without caring much who the artists are?  If you have favorite musical groups (bands or solo artists), please name a few of them.  If you're willing to rank them by personal preference, all the better.

I'm mainly into extreme metal. Black and death metal being the favourites. Where I come from, Sweden, it's a pretty big and vibrant sub-culture. Some of my favourite bands are: Mgla, Leviathan, Immortal, Darkthrone, Slayer, Dark Funeral, God Dethroned, Rotting Christ, Funeral Mist and Necrophobic. I guess not many have heard of them outside of Europe. Apart from Slayer, then.

2:  Where do you look to find new songs or new groups to listen to?  For example, do you rely on word of mouth, or a particular radio station/internet site/magazine/TV show, or something else?

Word of mouth. I know a lot of musicians on a personal basis and some of them are nice enough to send me new songs and stuff. The death/black subculture is also pretty knit-together and news travel fast.

3:  Do you spend money (directly or indirectly) on the artists or songs you like the most?  Or do you enjoy the music in some way that doesn't require any money to be spent, such as downloading free songs or pirated songs?  Absolutely no judgment here, I really want to know.

I download, but if it's any good, I buy it as soon as I can afford it. If it's by a favourite artist, I usually buy it even if it's not good. Haha

4 (strictly optional):  How old are you?

Pfft. Older than 18. Younger then 30.

5 (optional):  Please tell me about any one song or album or musical artist that affected you in a deeply personal way.  Go into as much or as little detail as you like -- I'm interested.

That's a tough one, since music affects me profoundly in a number of different ways. It's a catharsis for when I'm angry, it's help when I'm sad or lonely. It's joy and energy when I'm tired and bored and it's a buffer screen against the world. If I should just mention one, it's an album called Slaughter of the Soul by At the Gates. Hearing it for the first time as a little tween, it blew my mind. I listened to it over and over again, completely hypnotized. It made sense out of my world and how I felt about myself and the people around me.


Kifer

Question 1:  Do you have favorite musical groups, or do you more have favorite songs, without caring much who the artists are?  If you have favorite musical groups (bands or solo artists), please name a few of them.  If you're willing to rank them by personal preference, all the better.
2:  Where do you look to find new songs or new groups to listen to?  For example, do you rely on word of mouth, or a particular radio station/internet site/magazine/TV show, or something else?
3:  Do you spend money (directly or indirectly) on the artists or songs you like the most?  Or do you enjoy the music in some way that doesn't require any money to be spent, such as downloading free songs or pirated songs?  Absolutely no judgment here, I really want to know.
4 (strictly optional):  How old are you?
5 (optional):  Please tell me about any one song or album or musical artist that affected you in a deeply personal way.  Go into as much or as little detail as you like -- I'm interested.

1. Actually, there are quite a lot of them, but I will only name the best of the best:
VNV Nation - for giving me hope for better future
Moonlight - for being with me in both good and bad times
Pink Floyd - for creating magical worlds with music
Closterkeller - for staying the same against all odds
Combichrist - for energy to live another day

2. My friends are the best source, especially because they create their own music.

3. I buy CDs, DVDs and mp3s whenever I have some free funds. Also I go to the concerts every now and then.

4. 27 years old.

5. I'd say VNV Nation. VNV means Victory, not Vengeance. It means that human should strive to overcome any obstacles whatever the odds. You can clearly hear that in their music, I strongly encourage you to google and hear that yourselves.

SinXAzgard21

Quote from: rick957 on April 11, 2012, 06:34:51 PM
Well let's see, I'm only a little over a month behind in making my smartass remarks about people's posts.  ;)  Don't worry folks, you'll get your smartass remarks too, heh.

@SinXAsgard21

Rock, rock, and rock!  You like lots of bands I like too.  That's been the case for way more people who have posted here than I ever would have expected in advance.  I'm guessing that's partly because Elliquiy draws slightly older and/or nerdier people than your average RP site.  Not that I would know though!  I only RP around here.

(No offense intended, nerds.  I am one of your kind!  Put down the pocket protectors!  NOOoooooooo ....)

Whatcha got against iTunes, huh?  Huh?  Not that I have any special love for iTunes, don't use it myself, but I hear good things about it more often than not.  I used to think that iTunes and Steve Jobs helped to kill off the music industry as I knew it, but now I mostly think that they just stepped in to fill a need.  (I think the industry killed itself, shortsighted Luddite greed-heads that they were.)

I'd like to know what this refers to (anybody can answer if you know).  Is this anime conventions or something?  Are those big nowadays?  How much music is at these conventions, and what kinds of music?  Am I totally off-track with my guess?

I have plenty against Itunes but I'm not going to get into why buying is better than downloading for free.

As for the Japanese music, I actually learned most those bands from friends in high school and what not.  Most originally where not heard in anime but now a grand majority are.  Anime conventions, well depending on which ones, can feature artists from Japan.  They also sell their albums down in vendor has at hugely inflated prices.  But that is imported goods for you.
If you know me personally, you know how to contact me.

rick957

QuoteI have plenty against Itunes but I'm not going to get into why buying is better than downloading for free.

Sure, I'm a staunch believer in finding ways to financially support the artists whose work I enjoy, even if I do my share of downloading stuff too.  Hope I didn't make it sound otherwise, before.

Happy to see more posts here, I never get tired of reading them.  I still haven't decided if it's best to leave this thread alone and just let people fill out the questions without replies, or if it's better to keep intruding with comments.  I'll probably do some more of the latter someday, though, being the chatterbox that I am, especially about musical stuff.

Boxy

1:Do you have favorite musical groups, or do you more have favorite songs, without caring much who the artists are?  If you have favorite musical groups (bands or solo artists), please name a few of them.  If you're willing to rank them by personal preference, all the better.

I have both favorite groups as well as songs.  there are so many, but if I had to choose, the top four would be the Beatles, Talking Heads, Queen, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

2:Where do you look to find new songs or new groups to listen to?  For example, do you rely on word of mouth, or a particular radio station/internet site/magazine/TV show, or something else?

Most would come from my father, who's always had an interest in music, and has been in his own small bands for the past couple decades.  Sometimes i'll go on youtube and just search for stuff, but mosty I've grown disheartened in my search for anything that is not shallow anymore.  I'd be completely content with listening to most music before my time.

3:Do you spend money (directly or indirectly) on the artists or songs you like the most?  Or do you enjoy the music in some way that doesn't require any money to be spent, such as downloading free songs or pirated songs?  Absolutely no judgment here, I really want to know.

Just listen to stuff through youtube or my mp3 player, really.  Don't have a job to get money with.

4.(strictly optional):  How old are you?

20, turning 21 in November.

5.(optional):  Please tell me about any one song or album or musical artist that affected you in a deeply personal way.  Go into as much or as little detail as you like -- I'm interested.

There are quite a few songs like that, actually.  If a song isn't funny, such as those by Weird Al or Tiny Tim, the only other reason I'd even choose to listen to something is if it has depth or at least any artistic merit at all.  That said, since there are so many, I feel I should pick one at random...

Red Hot Chili Peppers- Soul to Squeeze with lyrics

I've dealt with depression in the past, and I feel that this song has quite a bit to do with that.

SinsOfEden

#71
Q1:  Do you have favorite musical groups, or do you more have favorite songs, without caring much who the artists are?  If you have favorite musical groups (bands or solo artists), please name a few of them.  If you're willing to rank them by personal preference, all the better.

Q2:  Where do you look to find new songs or new groups to listen to?  For example, do you rely on word of mouth, or a particular radio station/internet site/magazine/TV show, or something else?

Q3:  Do you spend money (directly or indirectly) on the artists or songs you like the most?  Or do you enjoy the music in some way that doesn't require any money to be spent, such as downloading free songs or pirated songs?  Absolutely no judgment here, I really want to know.

Q4 (strictly optional):  How old are you?

Q5 (optional):  Please tell me about any one song or album or musical artist that affected you in a deeply personal way.  Go into as much or as little detail as you like -- I'm interested.


A1: I definitely have a lot of favorite groups/bands/artists; and my tastes actually skip around all down the spectrum as far as genres go. But some of my top favorite bands/artists are:

Mushroomhead
Tenafly Viper (Which is a side project of a member of Mushroomhead)
Slipknot
Stone Sour
Five Finger Death Punch
Ghost Machine (Old project of Ivan Moody's, who is lead singer of 5FDP)
Deathstars
Rammstein
Faderhead
Eisbrecher
Godsmack
Sully Erna (Lead singer of Godsmack; he made a solo album)
Disturbed
Combichrist
A Perfect Circle
Hollywood Undead
Theory of a Deadman
Kamelot
Daughtry
AC/DC
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Johnny Cash
Hootie and the Blowfish
Theatre of Tragedy
Evanescence
Winds of Plague


A2: I typically rely on word of mouth. Especially if it's coming from that of any bands I already listen to. And I definitely love when a band supports the side projects of a band member and shines light on them. :)
I also tend to discover new music by soundtracks for my favorite movies. At least the ones with good music.


A3: I hate pirating music. Especially if it's an artist/band that I really, really love. So when I have the money to spare, I definitely make it a point to pay for their music. I like to support my musical obsessions when possible and as much as possible - and the best place to start is by actually purchasing their music.


A4: I'm 22.


A5: It's difficult to really say that just one particular album/song/artist has deeply affected me, because I'm so into music and lyrics that they all affect me in some way and on some deep level. However, Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd is definitely as personal as it gets for me. It was my dad's favorite song and he wanted it played at his funeral. Unfortunately, the funeral home wouldn't allow it. But I can never listen to that song without thinking of him and I typically listen to it in honor of him.
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Iniquitous

#72
1:  Do you have favorite musical groups, or do you more have favorite songs, without caring much who the artists are?  If you have favorite musical groups (bands or solo artists), please name a few of them.  If you're willing to rank them by personal preference, all the better.
Generally, if I find a song I like then I usually like the artist/group. However, I have never ranked the artists I like. When I sit down to listen to music what ends up on my playlist is based on my mood - and it tends to change constantly.
Corvus Corax
Apocalyptica
Emilie Autumn
Wumpscut
Type O Negative
Adele
Lisa Gerrard
Dead Can Dance
Shiva in Exile
Korn
Fever Ray
Globus
Lords of Acid
Johnny Cash
Patsy Cline
Rammstein
E Nomine
Combichrist
Slipknot
Tom Waits
Loreena McKennit
Sarah Brightman
Anything classical - too many composers to name
A lot of opera - too many to name
Florence and the Machine
Parov Stelar
Skrillex
Dragon Ritual Drummers
Depeche Mode
The Cure
Pink Floyd
Queen
Ozzy
Black Sabbath
Led Zepplin
Grateful Dead
The Doors
The Beatles
Janis Joplin
Bloodflowerz
Lacuna Coil
Iron Maiden
Amon Amarth
Sentenced
Poison Black
Porcelain and the Tramps
Way too many European techno DJ's to list here
This list could go on to inifinity. I am extremely eclectic about music and can listen to most anything.


2:  Where do you look to find new songs or new groups to listen to?  For example, do you rely on word of mouth, or a particular radio station/internet site/magazine/TV show, or something else?
Usually youtube.
3:  Do you spend money (directly or indirectly) on the artists or songs you like the most?  Or do you enjoy the music in some way that doesn't require any money to be spent, such as downloading free songs or pirated songs?  Absolutely no judgment here, I really want to know.
If I have the money and I really want the album I'll buy it. If I don't have the money then I put the songs on a playlist on youtube.
4 (strictly optional):  How old are you?
39
Bow to the Queen; I'm the Alpha, the Omega, everything in between.


Kimhi

Hey!


1:  Bit of both:  there are artists and bands I love in general and then sometimes I can find just a song or two I like from a particular person or group.

Unsure of how I'd rank them but a few of my favorite musicians are:

Iron Maiden
Flyleaf
In Flames
Hurt
Dark Tranquility
Muse
Serj Tankian
Stone Sour
Apocalyptica

I like a lot of heavier or just rocky music ^^

2:  Typically word of mouth.  Have been relying more and more on just picking up bands I see live of late.  There's some really amazing unsigned acts out there that just don't get heard.  Almost all of them will jump at the chance to give you a cd free of charge too.


3:  If I really like an artist I'll try to support them and buy a CD, go to gigs etc.  I do tend to get a lot of my music second hand from friends though.  Ripping songs off the CD also happens.  Often find stuff on youtube too.  I have downloaded music in the past but decided it was just a bit two faced if I was in a band myself and trying to make a couple of quid from gig to gig.  So I try to avoid doing it. 

4: I be 23.

Aaron Steel

Pretty interesting how this topic remains on the first page after a whole year. Or does this forum just not get a lot of traffic? Regardless, I would like to answer the questions for myself.

1. I generally tend to have favorite artists over songs. This is generally because when I hear the name of an artist that interests me, I might listen to one of their songs, such as their hit singles. If that checks out, I may listen to one of their albums, and eventually as much of their discography as possible. I first did this with the venerable heavy metal band Judas Priest, and later to what would become more of my favorite artists: W.A.S.P., Accept, U.D.O., Motorhead, Saxon, Iron Savior, Dream Evil, Running Wild, and Sister Sin to name a few.

2. Primarily I find out about other artists through my own internet research, playing a game of N Degrees Of Separation with artists I already like. Black Sabbath led me to Ozzy and Dio, Judas Priest led me to Halford and Fight, Accept led me to U.D.O., Sister Sin covered Motorhead and U.D.O., and so on.

3. If I like a particular artist enough, I would go to their concerts and buy their merchandise should the opportunity present itself. Last November I got to see Judas Priest on their farewell tour, having reserved a ticket far enough in advance to get a front row seat, and then bought some shirts from the merch booth after the concert. I hope to do the same thing with W.A.S.P. on their upcoming 30th anniversary tour.

4. I'm 23, though I feel as though I was born in the wrong decade. Most of the artists I listen to were around in the 80s if not sooner. Had I been a child of the 80s I would have spent a lot of my time at record stores spending my allowance on records and subscriptions to rock & roll magazines.

5. The one album that has resonated with me the most is W.A.S.P.'s The Crimson Idol. To me, it was a highly moving concept album from start to finish, with a story I felt I could relate to in some way. The album inspired my current username, after a part of the main character, Jonathan Aaron Steel.
<a href=https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=149350.0>Some people never go crazy. What truly boring lives they must lead.</a>