IMPORTANT NOTE:
You do NOT have to register to read, post, listen or contribute. If you simply wish to remain fully anonymous, you can still contribute.
|
Home  Forums |
|
|
|
|
Topic History of: Year-to-date worldwide album sales
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
|
DJKZ |
I agree GG and even though a lot of r&b music today is stale, this is in the context of the sample mania hitting modern music. I am all for sampling but you need to have some musicality with what you do and basic keyboard lessons is a must at least. But at least they are creating new music every so often. Now if they went back to basics and learnt to incorporate songs into their productions then what they do would be stunning.
Rock music isn't far behind in the stale pile. They may not be using samples but they are using re-hashed riffs, no melodies and just basically screaming into a mic. Sorry but today's rock is just as awful. |
|
GG (producer) |
"Thriller" may well be considered the apex of what MTV was. It was relentlessly rotated possibly more so than any album in its history, right when they hit their full stride, and right when what was CBS Records International threatened to pull all CBS affiliated videos from MTV, because they weren't programming black acts. This most definitely affected the sales of Thriller, and ushered in the foundation of the era we now see in reality television driving album sales. Only difference is Q is not driving the quality now.
The Eagles greatest hits on the other hand reached their numbers in a completely different way.
moving on
Kids are clamoring for rock with melody. What Nickelback has done consistently is stunning in todays business. Kids when exposed to great music(from the past) will always pick it. They just don't know it exists for the most part.
I don't know a genre of music more stale than current R&B. Cliched overused or stolen beats and wavering breathiness in mediocre vocals and performance, makes me cringe. All smoke and mirrors, and shove down your throat marketing.
Quincy Jones was not a beat programmer was he! He is a real record producer and musician and hence the quality from those older recordings.
and ....When the kids are exposed to great rock......they will choose it every time.
.... yes we must start from a blank slate, yet with influence from quality, not smoke and mirrors.
I want to be the next Quincy Jones not the next JR Rotem. I want to find the next Karen Carpenter not Beyonce. |
|
JK2006 |
Can we just clear up one major thing here. Nobody is saying male artistes are "better" than female ones.
This is just an interesting commentary that males seem to go on and on selling whereas females - no matter how superb their music, like Aretha or Edith Piaf for example - do not appear to keep selling over time.
We wonder - why? |
|
DJKZ |
Mart, I am sorry but you are completely wrong here because if you have a listen to the best selling album of all time which is Michael Jackson's Thriller then you will find that your theory has lots of holes in it.
I doubt many people would say that "Thriller" contained the best songs of all time. But as for the sound of "Thriller", if you, like I was, were exposed to a lot of the soul/r&b songs of that era, not to mention the actual session musicians on Thriller have been in many black records of that time, most of which never made it to Blighty.
Thriller's sound dates it to the 80s in a big way, including the all pervasive drum machine which is all over the album. The r&b sound of the 80s can be heard in "Baby Be Mine", "Lady in My Life", "PYT" etc. So the sound has not lasted decades.
Thriller's appeal is in the persona of Michael Jackson who despite his tragedies and failings, manages to appeal to KIDS who then grow up loving him and their kids end up loving his music as well.
I think the key to an all time selling album is in making music that you love and music that you create for yourself instead of trying to be the Beatles all over again. There is only ONE Beatles (yes Oasis you are NOT the Beatles), One MJ and One Mart. We all have our own individual style if we took time to nurture it and develop it. |
|
DJKZ |
Wait a minute so let me get this:
You think because it takes 100 years to sell 100 million records that this is better than someone who sells 100 million in 3 years ?
Am I hearing the argument correctly or not ? The issue of back catalogue is completely irrelevant and a red herring. Take a look at the best selling artists of all time.
Granted the top 5 are all male and huge megastars of which no female have come even close but have a look at the rest of the best selling artists of all time and count how many females are in that list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists
If anything their achievement is much better because they generated all their sales in a shorter period of time. Or shall we dismiss them because they are selling less now than some average rocker who is ONLY generating back catalogue sales because young guitarists or musicians are buying their records to get inspired to play.
As for today's music, I think as long as we all harp back to the good old days, then NOTHING will ever be as good. No doubt in 10 years time when all the dinosaurs have died will we be free from the ghosts of the Beatles, Pink Floyd and the like.
The amount of music snobbery today is appalling and quite frankly I am sick of the constant comparing of today's music with the past, yes I have been guilty of that too but we will only move on when perhaps rock music as a genre dies off and becomes akin to classical music. Wake up folk and stop clinging to the past because the past is gone and cannot be replicated and as long as you try to re-write hits in the light of past hits you will never get anything new or better.
It's ironic that everyone cries for something new and when it comes out they then poo poo it for not sounding old i.e it has no "hits".
A hit is what captures the audience in a big way and not what some old dinosaur dictates. Many people do not give the Spice Girls respect even though they sold millions and millions of records. This is because of sexism, rock music snobbery and narrow mindedness. The world does not start and end with the Beatles you know.
Out with the old and let's embrace the new and throw away your Guns and Roses records or the Beatles because non of these guys looked to some past superstar to define their own sound. If you want creativity then you must start from a blank slate or you will not have a music industry because music has so much to compete with. This goes for everyone.
The most innovative forms of music today come from r&b, dance and electronica and there has not been a single innovative form of rock music since the 80s. All have been a poorer version of something from the past. At least with dance/r&b & electronic music, something new comes up often and just because some old rocker doesn't like it doesn't mean its poor.
Rant over now let's try and make something new for tomorrows world including new arrangements, new structures and new sounds especially.
Finally stop knocking the females because I don't care if they sell 100 million in one day or year and not over 50 years. |
|
|
|
|
