Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 54

Thread: American Popular Folk Music Makes Me Want To Kill Myself

  1. #1

    American Popular Folk Music Makes Me Want To Kill Myself

    I don't care that it always sounds depressing; the problem is that it all sounds exactly the same. No matter the year it was recorded, it's always 1960. New artists sound like old artists in more than influence -- they sound exactly like them. The style of writing is exactly the same. The instrumentation is exactly the same. Everything is exactly the same.

    People complain about Prog, Retro Prog or whatever and they are right in many regards with their criticism. However, there is no more ossified genre than Folk. It is literally painful to listen to.
    Mongrel dog soils actor's feet

  2. #2
    LinkMan Chain's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Townsville, Australia
    Posts
    163
    I am not a big fan of cabbage
    “Pleasure and pain can be experienced simultaneously,” she said, gently massaging my back as we listened to her Coldplay CD.

  3. #3
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    The Planet Lovetron
    Posts
    13,023
    I didn't know there was such a thing.

  4. #4
    Lucky Man
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    Schenectady NY USA
    Posts
    591
    Quote Originally Posted by Chain View Post
    I am not a big fan of cabbage
    Ahh but you butter it up, a little salt and pepper...some nice corned beef...carrots, potatoes...

    Voila!

  5. #5
    Outraged bystander markwoll's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Northern Virginia
    Posts
    4,379
    Please give examples of this music.
    I am curious which niche you refer to, unless it is the actual 1960's folk performers forced to reenact their heyday Ad infinitum.
    "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
    -- Aristotle
    Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
    “A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain

  6. #6
    Member Jerjo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    small town in ND
    Posts
    6,432
    Sounds like someone needs to watch A Mighty Wind!

    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Splicer View Post
    I don't care that it always sounds depressing; the problem is that it all sounds exactly the same. No matter the year it was recorded, it's always 1960. New artists sound like old artists in more than influence -- they sound exactly like them. The style of writing is exactly the same. The instrumentation is exactly the same. Everything is exactly the same.

    People complain about Prog, Retro Prog or whatever and they are right in many regards with their criticism. However, there is no more ossified genre than Folk. It is literally painful to listen to.
    I suppose people who like that kind of music won't agree with it. To them it doesn't all sound the same, I suppose they hear nuances you don't hear and they can exactly tell you what artists they are hearing.

  8. #8
    Member jake's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Xxxxxxx
    Posts
    1,064
    It would be helpful if you could give some examples. So far it just sounds like my father saying 'all this guitar music sounds the same and its all rubbish'.

  9. #9
    Lucky Man
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    Schenectady NY USA
    Posts
    591
    Quote Originally Posted by Jerjo View Post
    Sounds like someone needs to watch A Mighty Wind!

    My personal favorite of the mockumentaries. The where are they now end sequence made me laugh as hard and as much as many more familiar pieces of comedy.
    That Sure-Flo song sure is mournful.
    Someone may want to watch Oh, Brother Where Art Thou as well.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Splicer View Post
    New artists sound like old artists in more than influence -- they sound exactly like them. The style of writing is exactly the same. The instrumentation is exactly the same. Everything is exactly the same.

    People complain about Prog, Retro Prog or whatever and they are right in many regards with their criticism. However, there is no more ossified genre than Folk. It is literally painful to listen to.
    But 'American popular folk music' doesn't ASPIRE to be anything but exactly what it is - whereas "proggy-prog" unfortunately comes with a baggage which it additionally claims should elevate itself above the median, namely to "be [uh...] progressive".

    One really shouldn't consider killing oneself over any of these phenomena, though.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  11. #11
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    7,765
    There are cards in your local record store -- or iTunes if you don't have one -- labeled "American Folk" and in order to fill those slots people have to create music that fits the profile or fills the mold. There is no room for innovation in our highly-scientific classification of music these days. Genre-crossing bands find no slot to fall into, and hence fall by the Wayside (pun intended!)

  12. #12
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Madison, WI
    Posts
    11,318
    There are monumental differences in American popular folk music imo. I certainly wouldn't call the music of pre-electric Dylan, Baez, Ochs, Sainte-Marie et al anything like the music of the Kingston Trio, Brothers 4, New Christy Minstrels etc..
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    But 'American popular folk music' doesn't ASPIRE to be anything but exactly what it is
    Yep.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

  14. #14
    I'll go find out what some of their names are. I have a friend who likes this sort of thing and plays it in the car when we're driving around. I have no idea what I'm listening to. One minute it's a depressed woman singing some song about the babysitter who went away or something the next it's some Skeletons of Quinto song about South America and the next it's some dude who sounds exactly like Bob Dylan -- Burns or Burn or Byrne or whatever. If there are other sorts of folk music other than one person with acoustic guitar, I have yet to hear it. Then again, I might not consider that folk music -- that would be country.
    Mongrel dog soils actor's feet

  15. #15
    Outraged bystander markwoll's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Northern Virginia
    Posts
    4,379
    Sounds like Sad Singer Songwriter Syndrome
    "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
    -- Aristotle
    Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
    “A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain

  16. #16
    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    hiding out in treetops, shouting out rude names
    Posts
    3,657
    I feel the same way about most country-western and blues...not the suicide part, but that it's too samey sounding from artist to artist or I might say, practicianer to practicianer. Not that I hate either, I just don't need to own a lot of it. Got little to no use for much folk either.
    Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that

  17. #17
    Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Portland, OR, USA
    Posts
    1,865
    I know what you mean. Many other types of folk music retain bits of knotty quirkiness - odd meters, unusual modes or scales, unexpected out-of-the key notes, note jumps, unpredictable melodic phrasings, simple but distinctive chord progressions, and the like. But so much American folk music sounds like all the knots got sanded out by generation upon generation of back-porch pickers, until all that remains is bland, stepwise, three-chord I-IV-V, foursquare perfection. It's an excellent illustration of how perfect, flawless music can also be dull.

  18. #18
    Phil Ochs was one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived, completely on par with Brél or Brassens or DeGroot or Jorge Ben or Battisti or Nascimento. And he was popular - as well as enormously accomplished both musically and lyrically.

    New Grass Revival. 100% American and folky, (at least) somewhat popular - and more compositionally challenging than Genesis or Yes put together.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  19. #19
    Outraged bystander markwoll's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Northern Virginia
    Posts
    4,379
    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    New Grass Revival. 100% American and folky, (at least) somewhat popular - and more compositionally challenging than Genesis or Yes put together.

    Dave Rawlings Machine ( Gillian Welch ), Punch Brothers, Sarah Jarosz to name a couple I have been completely blown away by.
    Look them up, your mind might change.
    "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
    -- Aristotle
    Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
    “A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain

  20. #20
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    The Planet Lovetron
    Posts
    13,023
    Quote Originally Posted by markwoll View Post
    Sounds like Sad Singer Songwriter Syndrome
    Or Sad Progfan Syndrome.

  21. #21
    Member Jerjo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    small town in ND
    Posts
    6,432
    Quote Originally Posted by Splicer View Post
    I'll go find out what some of their names are. I have a friend who likes this sort of thing and plays it in the car when we're driving around. I have no idea what I'm listening to. One minute it's a depressed woman singing some song about the babysitter who went away or something the next it's some Skeletons of Quinto song about South America and the next it's some dude who sounds exactly like Bob Dylan -- Burns or Burn or Byrne or whatever. If there are other sorts of folk music other than one person with acoustic guitar, I have yet to hear it. Then again, I might not consider that folk music -- that would be country.
    It sounds like your friend has a station that's pretty constipated in terms of range. Is it a satellite station, public radio, something local?
    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

  22. #22
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Madison, WI
    Posts
    11,318
    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    Phil Ochs was one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived, completely on par with Brél or Brassens or DeGroot or Jorge Ben or Battisti or Nascimento. And he was popular - as well as enormously accomplished both musically and lyrically.
    An observation most certainly shared by one here for sure. The Jacques B. comparison, though I never thought of it, is spot on.

    I had the enormous pleasure of living in NYC at the right time and saw him in the Village twice, and met him on the street once and it was hard not to genuflect, and I'm Jewish.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  23. #23
    Boo! walt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Oakland Gardens NY
    Posts
    5,626
    Max Ochs(cousin of Phil) is a player who merits a listen or two.Associated for a time with John Fahey's Takoma cabal of finger-pickers.He is yet another folk guitarist for whom Indian music was a profound discovery and source of musical inspiration.This track is from Ochs' excellent cd,Hooray For Another Day.

    Last edited by walt; 09-17-2017 at 07:00 PM.
    "please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Frankh View Post
    My personal favorite of the mockumentaries. The where are they now end sequence made me laugh as hard and as much as many more familiar pieces of comedy.
    That Sure-Flo song sure is mournful.
    The second time I saw Spinal Tap...or rather, I saw Shearer, McKean and Guest perform, but out of character, doing a more or less acoustic set. The great thign about them doing it out of character was, it allowed them to talk about Spinal Tap in a way they couldn't if they were performing in character (as they did when I saw them in 1992). For instance, at one point in the show, Harry Shearer enumerates all the edits NBC wanted to do to the movie before they showed it on late night TV back in 84 or 85 or whenever it was. Another really cool thing was it also allowed them to do some of the songs from A Mighty Wind. If I recall correctly, Michael McKean's wife, actress Annette O'Toole, joined in on one of the songs.
    Phil Ochs was one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived, completely on par with Brél or Brassens or DeGroot or Jorge Ben or Battisti or Nascimento. And he was popular - as well as enormously accomplished both musically and lyrically.
    And the FBI spied on him, the real seal of approval there!

  25. #25
    Parrots Ripped My Flesh Dave (in MA)'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    42°09′30″N 71°08′43″W
    Posts
    6,263
    Quote Originally Posted by Frankh View Post
    Ahh but you butter it up, a little salt and pepper...some nice corned beef...carrots, potatoes...

    Voila!
    Fried in olive oil with crushed red & black pepper, but not so long as to lose its crunch.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •