The Lowest Point in Contemporary Popular Music

[klothos]

Gotta' be this (if you aren't familiar with it, fast forward to 1:34):

[Scrotum Scissor]

Hm. I thought it was OK.

I liked the way in which he singlehandedly compromised classical'n'stuff forever by spoofing the obvious stupidity of "melody" and wearing Jon Anderson's hair there.

[klothos]

Hm. I thought it was OK.

I liked the way in which he singlehandedly compromised classical'n'stuff forever by spoofing the obvious stupidity of "melody" and wearing Jon Anderson's hair there.

this was the one guy who really could have benefitted from auto-tune

[Progbear]

[zravkapt]

"Just A Friend" is classic! What's the point of this thread? The lowest point in contemporary music is that new Adele song(not "Hello" the other one). Her voice is like a constipated goat on that song, why do people like it?

[JJ88]

It seems I hear a new 'lowest point' on a weekly basis. Maybe I'm getting old already.

[Scrotum Scissor]

[Nijinsky Hind]

I'm in agreement with klothos... That and all of its ilk. We are doomed.

[klothos]

"Just A Friend" is classic! What's the point of this thread? The lowest point in contemporary music is that new Adele song(not "Hello" the other one). Her voice is like a constipated goat on that song, why do people like it?

The point is there used to be a time when at least some minimum skill of singing on key and in pitch was required as a quality standard...Im not crazy about Adele either but she at leasts sings in key with correct pitch......Even Johnny Rotten and Tiny Tim sang on pitch.....Peter Hammill even gets in the pitch ballpark most of the time This has nothing to do with rap: this has everything to do with a substandard singing product. Demo tapes like this used to hit the waste-bins of A&R personnel - The Biz Markie tune was actually released as a single.

was hoping some of you can top it (as some videos here are already giving it a run for its money)

Now, if you are hearing this and believe the vocals are in pitch then, yes, I have no point

[Zeuhlmate]

Gotta' be this (if you aren't familiar with it, fast forward to 1:34):

Its so bad its fun ! Yes its rare to wish auto-tunes in a song !

[polmico]

You better not listen to Biz's cover of "Benny and the Jets."

And you better not Google Wesley Willis, either.

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure Biz is in on the joke. Willis may have been another story.

[klothos]

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure Biz is in on the joke.

i was never sure but i speculated that as a possibility

...ok, gonna have look at Mr Willis

[rcarlberg]

Humor is a good thing. These young people don't take themselves too seriously.

[ronmac]

August 1, 1981

The day MTV debuted.

[Nijinsky Hind]

Adult only warning... You have been warned.
hilarious, stupid AND disturbing!!

[Moribund]

This thread is full of “musos” who “offer absolutely no content that is memorable or meaningful.”

[Jerjo]

This thread is full of “musos” who “offer absolutely no content that is memorable or meaningful.”

Well played sir!

[Nijinsky Hind]

This thread is full of “musos” who “offer absolutely no content that is memorable or meaningful.”

And the occasional armchair profiler.... Seriously, if it's about low points why would it be memorable or meaningful?

Edit... If you are being ironic then yes, well played.

[bob_32_116]

I admit that I haven't played any of the clips here and am unlikely to. Life is too short.

There seems to a a fad lately for "Crap Music Raves" or parties. There was one held last month at a local theatre that hosts mostly live shows, but I think this was all just a DJ thing. I'm not sure what to make of this phenomenon. My theory is that the audience consists of people who love bopping and lipsynching to songs like "Save your Kisses For Me" and "Mickey"; they know in their hearts that this music is crap, but this is a way to get their guilty pleasure and still explain it away to their friends by saying laughingly "Yes it was all crap, we knew that because of the name of the event."

I suppose there's nothing wrong with an event like that as long as no one is getting hurt - and as long as I don't have to hear the music.

[GuitarGeek]

You better not listen to Biz's cover of "Benny and the Jets."

And you better not Google Wesley Willis, either.

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure Biz is in on the joke. Willis may have been another story.

I'm not sure there was a "joke" with Wesley Willis. I gather that the people who hyped believed him to be a genuine "outsider" artist, in the same vein as The Shaggs, Jandek or some of the other artists who most of us would scratch our heads over.

Speaking of The SHaggs, they get my vote for "low point in music history". The group only existed because their father had, as a young man, received a premonition from a gypsy woman who said he'd father three daughters who would former a successful musical act. When the third daughter was born, he became convinced that the gypsy woman was right, so when they were teenagers he forced three girls with no interest or ability into forming a band.

If you've never heard the Shaggs album, it's pretty terrible. The Cowsills, this wasn't. Legend has it, every so often, one of them would stop in the middle of the take, say "I'm sorry, I made a mistake, can we start over" to which the engineer is alleged to have said, "How do they know they when they've made a mistake?!" Anyway, the story goes they actually got much better after making the one album, but before they could get started on a second one, their father died, and so the group disbanded, since ya know, none of them wanted to be musicians to begin with.

Oh and there's all the 90's stuff. Not so much Nirvana in this context, but all those groups where the singers either sounded like they were constipated, or like they were doing Cookie Monster impressions. That's everything from Bush to Korn to ya know, just about everything during that period. Well, except for those wimpy ass Hootie And The Blowfish wannabe bands. They were just as bad.

Note: I managed to talk about this topic without bringing up the band with the left handed guitarist and vocalist who (allegedly) committed suicide in 1994. Ya know the one I'm talking about.

[GuitarGeek]

Ringo Starr - You're 16, You're Beautiful, and You're Mine

Don't make fun of Ringo. He married a Bond girl. Therefore, he wins. Period. End of story.

[JJ88]

'You're 16' was a cover, iffy lyrics and all- a hit for Johnny Burnette way back in the early 60s.

[bob_32_116]

'You're 16' was a cover, iffy lyrics and all- a hit for Johnny Burnette way back in the early 60s.

I knew that, as I think did most of us - but while I don't call it the greatest song ever written, most of the early versions did at least have that sassy machismo that characterised the era. Ringo, IMO, sucked all the life out of it. And I believe he got a portion of the lyrics wrong, to cap it all off.

[Gruno]

The point is there used to be a time when at least some minimum skill of singing on key and in pitch was required as a quality standard...Im not crazy about Adele either but she at leasts sings in key with correct pitch......Even Johnny Rotten and Tiny Tim sang on pitch.....Peter Hammill even gets in the pitch ballpark most of the time This has nothing to do with rap: this has everything to do with a substandard singing product. Demo tapes like this used to hit the waste-bins of A&R personnel - The Biz Markie tune was actually released as a single.

was hoping some of you can top it (as some videos here are already giving it a run for its money)

Now, if you are hearing this and believe the vocals are in pitch then, yes, I have no point

Humor is a good thing. These young people don't take themselves too seriously.

Klothos, I think you're looking too deeply into this. I see Biz Markie no different than oddball one-hit wonders.




What do you think of Weird Al?

[viukkis]

If you've never heard the Shaggs album, it's pretty terrible. The Cowsills, this wasn't. Legend has it, every so often, one of them would stop in the middle of the take, say "I'm sorry, I made a mistake, can we start over" to which the engineer is alleged to have said, "How do they know they when they've made a mistake?!" Anyway, the story goes they actually got much better after making the one album, but before they could get started on a second one, their father died, and so the group disbanded, since ya know, none of them wanted to be musicians to begin with.

Actually they did record most of their second album and the tracks were eventually released, but by that point the girls had figured out how the 4/4 time signature works, therefore losing all their charm. The great thing about their first album is how all the melodies in their songs are just streams of quarter notes in no particular time signature at all, almost like medieval music, and the drummer keeps trashing away doing the only beat she knows while the guitars and vocals are moving on a completely different plane. And then she breaks into a drum fill in the middle of a bar because the verse happened to end there (and it's almost spooky how they always manage to move on to the next part of the song at the same time, because most of the time they sound like they can't even hear each other). No wonder Zappa liked them so much. He also produced Trout Mask Replica, after all.