New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

[efpdwd]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

Gone? This has been the case since the beginning of time.

Ha! Very true. The masses have always favored shit. Except for The Beatles (IMO) - great writers and extremely popular.

[AnewKINDofFEELING]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

That was as much luck like early grunge. The Beatles were certainly a boy band.

[Gnomad]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

Pretty much. They became better songwriters as time went by, but they started with the 60's equivalent of "Bye, Bye, Bye".

[sangreal314]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

Pretty much. They became better songwriters as time went by, but they started with the 60's equivalent of "Bye, Bye, Bye".

i don't think they had the dance moves.

[Gnomad]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

What are you talking about? McCartney had that bass swing down, man.

[Awakenings420]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

I hate when people compare the Beatles early stuff to 90's boy band bullshit. Yes the Beatles early stuff was poppy songs but they were writing completely innovative songs for the time period because people had never heard music like that before and in turn they changed music forever which is quite different than any boy band. Plus a lot of those songs are still good 40 years later and were all actually written by the Beatles which was also something most bands didn't do at that time.

[Gnomad]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

Actually, about an albums worth of songs from the first 4 albums were covers. And people were making music like that BEFORE their time. Ritchie Valens, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and even some of Johnny Cash's early stuff. Hell, Lennon and McCartney sited all of those acts as their inspirations, as well as some Motown acts. Also, the Beach Boys were right alongside them doing the same thing, just more Americanized. Granted, some of what they were doing was unheard of at the time, but the really innovative stuff didn't come until Revolver.

You have a point, it is a little unfair to say all they were was a boy band equivalent in their early days, but I don't think it's too far off. They were the first boy band, really. Attractive guys predominately singing about young love, sold out shows across the world, girls screaming whenever they caught sight of the members... they just went on to do something of great value. We'd still love and respect the Beatles today if they'd called it quits before Revolver, but Revolver and on was what set them apart from everyone else.

[Frank Nit]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

The boy band comparison is fair when you consider the way they were marketed and subsequently worshiped by their (mostly young, female) fans.

Artistically, they were nothing like the boy bands we grew up with, though.

[Gnomad]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

No, absolutely not. Agree 100%. I think the "Bye, Bye, Bye" comment I made was a little off, but I meant it more generally.

[DforDrums]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

^ I agree. So many less talented musicians can sustain living off making music. Goes to show how the music industry (or society's taste in music) has gone to shit.

Absolutely. Popular music has been in the gutter for a long time now, but I agree it's especially henious today. I'm sorry if I offend any Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas, etc. (ad nauseum) fans, but I consider it an absolute travesty that those "musicians" are rolling in success and affluence while real artists and sincere musicians live in relative obscurity. I know, I KNOW that that's an inflammatory statement because so much of what makes an artist is highly subjective. But I don't think that what makes a musician is subjective. I just graduated college with a music degree and I'll be going to grad school starting this fall for master's degree in percussion performance. Over the years I've spent literally thousands of hours practicing until my hands swell and bleed and I can't stand anymore, so I feel like I know what it means to absolutely dedicate your life to being a musician. These friggin' pop artists that come out and make albums that literally don't use an actual instrument that isn't on a computer make me sick, and I get frustrated to no end. I really wish I had been alive in the height of the Romantic era of music. The thought of actually watching Beethoven conduct a new symphony of his blows me away. Listening to his 7th Symphony still just floors me. He was a true rock star in his day, and now people are enjoying even more fame than he did because they can mash up songs other people wrote over a cool beat they put in a computer. Absolutely disgusting.

Sorry, I got on a roll and couldn't stop. I'm really not an angry person!

[Sittingsideways]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

Possibly more equivelent to the Jonas Brothers?

[Awakenings420]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

Actually, about an albums worth of songs from the first 4 albums were covers. And people were making music like that BEFORE their time. Ritchie Valens, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and even some of Johnny Cash's early stuff. Hell, Lennon and McCartney sited all of those acts as their inspirations, as well as some Motown acts. Also, the Beach Boys were right alongside them doing the same thing, just more Americanized. Granted, some of what they were doing was unheard of at the time, but the really innovative stuff didn't come until Revolver.

You have a point, it is a little unfair to say all they were was a boy band equivalent in their early days, but I don't think it's too far off. They were the first boy band, really. Attractive guys predominately singing about young love, sold out shows across the world, girls screaming whenever they caught sight of the members... they just went on to do something of great value. We'd still love and respect the Beatles today if they'd called it quits before Revolver, but Revolver and on was what set them apart from everyone else.

You definitely make some good points, I can't disagree.

[vsd]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

Mark was total win in that interview...

STUD.

[David]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

> good interview, go to save
> .f4v file
> my face

[TheRuleofThree]

Re: New Dredg Interview on Ryan's Rock Show

Absolutely. Popular music has been in the gutter for a long time now, but I agree it's especially henious today. I'm sorry if I offend any Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas, etc. (ad nauseum) fans, but I consider it an absolute travesty that those "musicians" are rolling in success and affluence while real artists and sincere musicians live in relative obscurity. I know, I KNOW that that's an inflammatory statement because so much of what makes an artist is highly subjective. But I don't think that what makes a musician is subjective. I just graduated college with a music degree and I'll be going to grad school starting this fall for master's degree in percussion performance. Over the years I've spent literally thousands of hours practicing until my hands swell and bleed and I can't stand anymore, so I feel like I know what it means to absolutely dedicate your life to being a musician. These friggin' pop artists that come out and make albums that literally don't use an actual instrument that isn't on a computer make me sick, and I get frustrated to no end. I really wish I had been alive in the height of the Romantic era of music. The thought of actually watching Beethoven conduct a new symphony of his blows me away. Listening to his 7th Symphony still just floors me. He was a true rock star in his day, and now people are enjoying even more fame than he did because they can mash up songs other people wrote over a cool beat they put in a computer. Absolutely disgusting.

Sorry, I got on a roll and couldn't stop. I'm really not an angry person!

You haven't offended be, but I'm just wondering what you think separates someone like Lady Gaga or Kanye West from dredg? dredg has used synthesizers on their last two records. Lady Gaga is a talented and educated piano player and writes a significant portion of her own music. Kanye West is a well-known producer that has written a remarkable amount of music for other people and significantly excels at his own writing, which is essentially just modern poetry. Certainly, dredg's music is slightly more based on natural instrumentation - but what makes that any more authentic than anything else? See: Radiohead's "Kid A."

I tend to get a little peeved when I see people complain about popular music as if its somehow less worthy of recognition than other music. Just because something resonates with you doesn't mean it should sell millions of records; similarly, just because something sells millions of records doesn't mean it can't resonate with you. This "industry" everyone disparages is really just a model that worked from the early 1900's until the introduction of Napster, when the industry controlled the actual means of distribution and treated music like a product.

Being a musician means creating art. As much as I love and need art, art is NOT an essential product, and for all intents and purposes, every song ever written is now available for free. It's closer to paintings; you can download a song or an image you enjoy for free, or choose to pay significantly more for a hard copy (lithograph/LP). We're moving towards a new model for music that is actually just like the model for music that existed before the introduction of the LP: patronage. If you like an artist, you fund their creation (through services like Kickstarter or buying their hard merchandise or seeing their shows) and they do the best they can to maximize the pool of people funding their creation.

Don't blame pop. Blame reality. Music only made money for about a 70 or 80 year period, and even then it only made money for 1% of the people actually writing it.
---
Beethoven, by the way, was financially supported through patronage, and some then could have complained that the guy simply wrote and conducted actual musicians. So you see, the argument just goes on and on.