Bill Maher last night on music

[18000HP]

Bill Maher on HBO last night (Feb 20 2015 ) had a guest to talk about how new music is crap and all about big $$$ for the recording industry ....

Sounds familiar ??

My only question to him would be : Are you sure you are looking for good music or are you only going by what you hear on the radio ?

With all the good old and new Prog available on the web ...I would tell him to roll a big joint and listen to the Prog on Live 365 for example.

I don't know why would any body would worry about the quality of commercial music... All the ones involved sure don't.

[GuitarGeek]

Bill Maher on HBO last night (Feb 20 2015 ) had a guest to talk about how new music is crap and all about big $$$ for the recording industry ....

Sounds familiar ??

My only question to him would be : Are you sure you are looking for good music or are you only going by what you hear on the radio ?

With all the good old and new Prog available on the web ...I would tell him to roll a big joint and listen to the Prog on Live 365 for example.

I don't know why would any body would worry about the quality of commercial music... All the ones involved sure don't.

Maybe there are people who like, or used to like, "commercial" music. This might be hard for people here to fathom, but there are those out there who actually like 3-4 minute songs, in 4/4 time, with catchy lyrics/melody/hooks, etc. NOt everyone wants to hear 24 minute long pieces about Shastric scriptures or armadillo/tank hybrids with endless synthesizer and lap steel guitar solos.

[Digital_Man]

Bill Maher on HBO last night (Feb 20 2015 ) had a guest to talk about how new music is crap and all about big $$$ for the recording industry ....

Sounds familiar ??

My only question to him would be : Are you sure you are looking for good music or are you only going by what you hear on the radio ?

With all the good old and new Prog available on the web ...I would tell him to roll a big joint and listen to the Prog on Live 365 for example.

I don't know why would any body would worry about the quality of commercial music... All the ones involved sure don't.

Maybe he's not into prog. Prog is still a genre that most people really aren't that familiar with.

[Jerjo]

Given his age and the amount of Maher has done, I'm certain he's familiar with prog. Or at least passed out while listening to Pink Floyd.

[Firth]

Why is this thread on the main board?

[18000HP]

You're right Jerjo , i am sure that Bill is familiar with old Prog but i wonder if he is aware of the newer stuff.

The point they were making was a lot about the quality of the writing...That's where i think they are not looking hard enough .

We all know that Prog is not for every one and the large majority only goes with what is given to them by popularity... but if they are looking for quality writing you would think they would dig a little deeper

[18000HP]

Why is this thread on the main board?

Sorry ... Where does it belong ?

[trurl]

Bill Maher eh...

I predict thread closed by page 4.

[Jerjo]

My guess is this started because of that whole Kanye/Beck thing. One of his writers probably saw that FB post going around about the number of writers on Beyonce's last CD (around fifteen or so) and Beck's (one: Beck). They showed it to Bill and he probably ventured into "get off my lawn" territory the way the rest of his age do when we see such the amount of writers and producers needed for simplistic dance pop. And from there, a segment was born.

[Firth]

Sorry ... Where does it belong ?

OT

[smcfee]

"My guess is this started because of that whole Kanye/Beck thing."

Uh... no.

The guest was Aloe Blacc. In his words:

"Avicii’s release “Wake Me Up!” that I co-wrote and sing [...] was the most streamed song in Spotify history and the 13th most played song on Pandora since its release in 2013, with more than 168 million streams in the US. And yet, that yielded only $12,359 in Pandora domestic royalties— which were then split among three songwriters and our publishers. In return for co-writing a major hit song, I’ve earned less than $4,000 domestically from the largest digital music service."

Full article: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/aloe-bl...y-songwriters/

The Maher appearance was ok but Maher seemed kind of out of it (he always seems to interact awkwardly with black guests).

Blacc also mentioned the issue with songwriters being unable to control who releases their work (e.g. covers), so even if someone like Taylor Swift pulls all her music from Spotify, someone else can release covers of all of it and she has no recourse.

[Haruspex Carnage]

You're right Jerjo , i am sure that Bill is familiar with old Prog but i wonder if he is aware of the newer stuff.

The point they were making was a lot about the quality of the writing...That's where i think they are not looking hard enough .

We all know that Prog is not for every one and the large majority only goes with what is given to them by popularity... but if they are looking for quality writing you would think they would dig a little deeper

On many a show Bill's taste in music has leaned more towards the Jay-Z spectrum of things...in terms of the very seldom musical acts he's had on...he even had the rapping singer of Linkin Park on once...i mean, what GuitarGeek said i echo, and it was more about musician royalties and how music and every other art has become devalued, no?

[polmico]

Maybe there are people who like, or used to like, "commercial" music. This might be hard for people here to fathom, but there are those out there who actually like 3-4 minute songs, in 4/4 time, with catchy lyrics/melody/hooks, etc. NOt everyone wants to hear 24 minute long pieces about Shastric scriptures or armadillo/tank hybrids with endless synthesizer and lap steel guitar solos.

I'm listening to Chicago V right now. It's amazing to think that there was a world 40 years ago that called this commercial music. Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Talking Heads, Blondie--hell, I'm just rattling a few of the top of my head. Commercial music does not need to suck. It just happens to right now. And, yes, there's always been shitty commercial music. But we've gotten to the point where there's nothing but shitty commercial music. Remember, our precious Yes and ELP were commercial darlings back in the '70s.

Maher made a good point last night when he stated that so few people actually pay for the music they listen to anymore. I wonder how many of his fans squirmed a bit in their seats after that comment. It's not something most people (left or right) think about often.

[notallwhowander]

One of my students asked me if I paid for music or downloaded it for free. I told him I buy my music on shiny plastic discs. I feel increasingly ridiculous for doing so, considering most of my listening is done on my iPod, but I like owning it. I am still rooted in the idea that the collection is mine, for better or for worse.

Anyway? Most pop music is crap and all about big bucks for the record companies? Wow! Let's file this under "breaking news..."

[Jimmy Giant]

As a musician, I support musicians. I buy CDs, not digital downloads unless there's no other option.
I don't support Pandora or Spotify or whatever. I will occasionally hit Progstreaming to test something out. And I listen to internet radio stream.
Bill lives in a different world than any of us. I don't think he would spend a minute looking outside the box for music. If it isn't right in front of him, good chance he won't know it's there. So all he hears is the crap blown out over the airwaves and satellite radio. I'm sure if he realized that there is plenty of great music still being made, he might change his tune. Or maybe not. He can be very opinionated. But for what he exposes on his show, I have to accept some of his shortsightedness for the greater good.

[Digital_Man]

Given his age and the amount of Maher has done, I'm certain he's familiar with prog. Or at least passed out while listening to Pink Floyd.

I don't think age has much to do with it(maybe it did for a while but not so much these days).There are plenty of people his age who either don't know prog or don't like it. I think these days younger people(under 25)are probably just as likely to be familiar with prog as those over 55. I know that will surprise a lot of people on here. I will even go out on a limb and say there's probably not many people in their late fifties or sixties listening to Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, The Mars Volta, Tool or Muse(all bands with a lot of younger fans who have had the p word thrown at them). So yeah this age stereotype has to go out the window.

[Gazoinks]

I don't think age has much to do with it(maybe it did for a while but not these days).There are plenty of people his age who either don't know prog or don't like it. I think these days younger people(under 25)are probably just as likely to be familiar with prog as those over 55. I know that will surprise a lot of people on here. I will even go out on a limb and say there's probably not many people in their late fifties or sixties listening to Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, The Mars Volta, Tool or Muse(all bands with a lot of younger fans who have had the p word thrown at them). So yeah this age stereotype has to go out the window.

To follow up on this, I just turned 20 and Cardiacs, Cheer-Accident, Thinking Plague, Genesis, etc. are among my favorite bands. :P The "prog is for old men" stereotype is a bit silly nowadays considering the several of waves of prog we've had since the 70s.

Anyway, yeah, most radio music is crap. I don't think most people here would deny that. There's a lot of really amazing stuff out there though, and the internet makes it easier than ever (if more overwhelming) to find it. Heck, I got into the first three bands on my list up there because of this site!

[GuitarGeek]

I'm listening to Chicago V right now. It's amazing to think that there was a world 40 years ago that called this commercial music. Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Talking Heads, Blondie--hell, I'm just rattling a few of the top of my head. Commercial music does not need to suck. I

Another example: Bohemian Rhapsody was actually released unedited as a single! Now, you'll hear talk of how the record label wanted to edit the song down to something more "radio friendly", but through whichever means the band (or more specifically, Freddie) got their way and the song as it appears on the album was issued on the single.

Today, a song like that wouldn't even make it onto an album a major label would be putting out, never being issued as a single, edited or otherwise.

And it's not even just the 70's. If you go in the 80's, there was still a lot of high quality mainstream music. It's popular in some quarters to diss the MTV era, but at least for the first half of the 80's, there was a lot of good "commercially viable" music happening. A lot of the new wave stuff, the synth pop stuff, even the pop metal stuff, there was some fine songwriting and performances going on there. Looking for a pop record today as good as Quick Step & Side Kick by Thompson Twins or Duran Duran's Rio? Good luck with that!

[Digital_Man]

To follow up on this, I just turned 20 and Cardiacs, Cheer-Accident, Thinking Plague, Genesis, etc. are among my favorite bands. :P The "prog is for old men" stereotype is a bit silly nowadays considering the several of waves of prog we've had since the 70s.

Anyway, yeah, most radio music is crap. I don't think most people here would deny that. There's a lot of really amazing stuff out there though, and the internet makes it easier than ever (if more overwhelming) to find it. Heck, I got into the first three bands on my list up there because of this site!

Exactly and I have conducted polls on another prog site that prove that those who first got into prog in the seventies(or earlier) no longer make up the overwhelming majority of prog fans. It's either split fifty fifty(at the most) or even balanced more towards those who got into prog after 1980. That's over three full decades vs one decade.

Yeah, I listen to the radio but very reluctantly and I'm pretty selective with what I listen to. I admit it's mostly crap though. I still like a lot of the so called "classic rock" bands but I'd rather listen to them in their proper context in album format than on the radio where the same songs are played to death over and over again on a loop.

[Skullhead]

There is going to have to be a new way of doing things, or go back to the old way.

What is going on now isn't working to support quality music. Digital music in general has been a disaster, from initial recording process which is not good compared to the old way, then all the way to the digital distribution, and the marketing of songs instead of albums.

I have never once paid a penny for a digital download of music. So don't blame me for the problem.

[Digital_Man]

^Me neither. I would rather download cds onto my computer and do it that way. To be honest I haven't even done that(not yet anyway).

[Kcrimso]

As a musician, I support musicians. I buy CDs, not digital downloads unless there's no other option.
I don't support Pandora or Spotify or whatever..

As a listener I support musicians. I buy about 150 CDs per year AND also use Spotify Premium.

[Scrotum Scissor]

i am sure that Bill is familiar with old Prog but i wonder if he is aware of the newer stuff.

Who would that be?

[3LockBox]

I find myself shaking my head to the old stodgy attitude that everything back when was so much better than today. Pop music has always had its turds (all the way back to Fabian). Maher probably lives in the same bubble lots of people do - they've grown entrenched to the idea that music is something that comes to them. If you're reading this thread, you're probably a peson that's spent a good deal of your life seeking out your own musical path.

[notallwhowander]

Well, part of Maher's thing is being "plugged into" pop culture, so he can comment on it and maintain some semblance of "relevancy." (Let's not go off the rails on whether or not he is folks. It's debatable, I know. That's why I put it in quotes.) So part of that is wading through the low-quality products produced for a mass audience, from pop music to network news. So, there being only so many hours in a day, and part of that time is willingly given over to what is most popular according to the standard charts and metrics, it doesn't leave much time for hanging out on Progressive Ears to find out the what bands are breaking out on the festival scene, etc. So yeah, he's in a bubble, in which the air is being supplied by Viacom, Clear Channel, and other corporate culture providers.