Posted on June 16, 2011 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
It might be the process of getting father and father away from being a teenager (know as getting older), it might be change in interests, it might be wisdom or it might be being clueless, but I really do think that hit songs, the kind of which become the soundtrack of generations, are going away slowly and for good.
I’m not saying there are no more good songs. In fact I believe quite the opposite is true. I’m saying that it is much harder for a song today, and definitively in the future, to be played over and over and over again until it gets so well embedded into the social contentiousness that it will be something of a soundtrack for a generation. Think of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ by Bob Dylan. How many hundreds of times have you heard it? Or Yesterday, by the Beatles, or Mr. Robinson, by Simon and Garfunkel and so on.
My argument has to do with 2 things:
The devices and technology with which the songs are consumed;
The consumption habits.
In the not so distant past there were two main ways of listening to music: radio and records. Both were limited in the number of songs they could play. If you had a Metallica cassette or CD or whatever, you would listen the hell out of it, because there was nothing else to listen to, you had few other things to listen to and especially if you were a penniless youngster, with very few means of getting your hands on new music. Radio stations had to pay royalties and to maintain a big physical records collection, so they had limits to.
In conclusion, the DJ’s of the past and your own limited collection were the things that defined what you listened to over and over again, embedding into your mind a certain song. And yes, there was MTV and VH1 which played the same limited amount of songs, if not even more limited, because they needed to have video for them.
Today we have radio, but arguably, it’s not so influential anymore. I consider myself connected to the new ways of consuming data and digital content. Except for listening to the radio in the morning, while having breakfast, and while in the car, the influence radio has on me has diminished. At work I use Grooveshark and 8tacks and all kind of streaming services where you can find a ton of new music. There are tens of services dedicated only to finding new stuff. So the songs I’m listening to are more often then not stuff I’ve never heard before.
Consumption of digital content is shifting from a scheduled form (TV, radio, newspapers) to an on demand form (I would like to watch Rambo again – click and watch).
And finally, arguably, the members of the younger generations have the attention span of puppies, which is probably a defense mechanism to the avalanche of data they have to plow through.
Putting everything together I believe that because it is much easier to discover new stuff and to jump from one thing to the other, there is no way a whole generation will listen 500 times, during a summer, to the same Lady Gaga (or pick an famous artist) song. There might be one crazy fan who will put that song on repeat on his mp3 player and listen the hell out of it, but things get old fast(er) for most. And while there might be meaningful songs for certain individuals, there will not be a songs that you and all your friends, new and old, have listened to.
Don’t believe me, but I want to challenge you. Go to your old record collection, take a cassette / cd / record of any kind that you listened to hell out of, or if you don’t have what to play it on anymore just get it from somewhere on the web and listen to it, on repeat, a couple of times. Now, tell me, how did that make you feel? And why did that make you feel so? Was it because 10, 15, 20 years ago you were listening to that song all the time on the radio or recorded? And while listening to it you were doing some things that are now dear memories to you?
Posted on December 8, 2010 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
One of the funniest movies about the music industry that you can watch is the 1984 Spinal Tap. The band, Spinal Tap, calls itself the loudest band in the world To prove this one of the band members talks about how their amps go all the way to 11, instead of 10.
Of course, the numbering is irrelevant, but what’s absolutely relevant is taking that extra step and pushing the amps to go to 11 and just being more awesome than awesome.
IMDB just went become a little more awesome. On the page of Spinal Tap they made the rating to go all the way to 11. If that is not a perfect example of getting to 11, and taking one extra step, I don’t know what is.
Take it all the way to 11, whenever you can!
Posted on February 9, 2010 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
I bet this is a little known fact but it’s true. The Dutch love music and you can hear it! All you need to do is take a walk to the city and, sooner or later, you will find somebody whistling a tune. Yup, walking, in the middle of the city and whistling a tune. Or cycling and whistling. Or working and whistling.
Above – Picture of sheep on Texel which has nothing to do with this post.
And sometimes not even whistling, but singing. Oh yes, singing a tune is not uncommon. But, my eager and bright reader, by now your capable mind is probably asking how do I know the crazy Dutch don’t just like to whistle and don’t really care about music? And here is my turn to say – “I’ll tell you how I know”.
Let’s brake it down:
To whistle something you need to know the tune, so you must know the song
If you know the song it means you paid enough attention to it and heard it enough times that you know how the song goes
And, unless you are some sort of masochist, you most likely enjoyed listening to that particular song to learn it
Hence if you whistle a song / some songs on a regular basis you must know love music. q.e.d, rest my case, etc.
And there is one more thing, some of the crazy Dutch told me they like music a lot. So the above was a useless waste of space with the sole purpose to show you my superior analytical skills, but anyway…
I love music myself, it’s one of my passions, up there with eating, therefore I admire, a lot, the crazy Dutch for being, so many of them, so musical. Hats off.
And as a proof that I’m not bullshitting you, my reader, I can tell you that the whistling thing was so contagious for me that I’m now doing it myself, although, as any Romanian knows, if you whistle inside a house you will bring upon yourself and that house all the worst imaginable forms of bad luck. Be amazed by my bravery!!!
Yup, the crazy Dutch love their music and I love that about them.
Tomorrow come back for yet another eye-opening revelation about the Dutch, keep on reading ;)
Posted on August 23, 2009 by Liviu Lică in Stories & Life
I’m a sucker for rock movies -> I like movies and I like music => I like movies with good music in them.
Here is my top 5 movies that have something to do with rock, more or less, that I really dig.
You can probably tell by the first two that I’m a Jack Black fan. The School of Rock is nr. 1 on my list because of the energy Jack shows thought the whole movie.
So here is one of Jack’s songs
This was the last day of the festival for me. I wasn’t going to Aftershock to see Manowar, and being a Saturday I got their early, just in time to see The MOOoD.
I was willing to give these kids a lot of slack as they are young and rather inexperienced, compared to some of the guys they shared the stage with. Half of the band felt lifeless, probably too much stress, the songs didn’t flow, too big of a pause between the songs. The lead singer was good, but he contrasted with the statue-like figures of the guitar and bass players. It felt that they weren’t prepared, although I’m sure they did. But the sound was good and the songs catchy. I still wait to see them going big. I’ve watched then opening for Lenny Kravitz and this time it felt a little better, but still… This is a second song I have with them.
Looptroop Rockers were next. I’m not a big fan of hip hop, but the 3 guys made me be one with their show. For me, this was the revelation of the whole festival. If I knew what to expect from the rest, I didn’t knew too much about Looptroop. They got me going so much that I felt that I had to take their autograph. It was an amazing show. I enjoyed it start to finish! And the guys are great!
This was shot while waiting to get Promoe’s autograph. They really took their time to talk with anybody who had to something to say and Promoe did some very elaborate autographs for some of the fans.
And next were The Ting Tings.
It was a decent show, but it stops at that. I expected the energy you see in the official video of That’s Not My Name. And keep in mind, they followed after Looptroop which were on a whole lot of a different energy level. But I liked a lot how they were doing everything themselves, drums, keyboards, guitar, just 2 people. It wasn’t bad, but I hoped for more. And the sound wasn’t the best.
I skipped the Charlatans for the chance to talk with Looptroop and to get their autographs. They were cool on stage and off stage, definitively the high point of Day 3 for me.
The festival was only fitting to finish with such a legend like Santana.
Santana put on a great show, it was entertaining, a little bit less lively than I got used to in the previous days with bands like Motorhead, Moby and The Killers, but still, great sound and A LOT of enthusiastic people rocking in unison. But for my taste it wasn’t as good as it could of been. Too much Santana adoration. OK, we know you are the man, but you are just a guitar player surrounded by an army of great musicians. I didn’t like the whole – “I will change you with my completely kick ass music, because I am the best” attitude. But it would be a sin not to say that it was a great show.
What I remembered from Day 3:
- The MOOoD not putting on the show I hoped to see from them
- Looptroop Rockers blowing my mind on and off stage with their energy and coolness.
- Santana, giving a show to remember while being under the impression that the world was spinning around him.
Conclusion:
You never know what will amaze you! When you go to a festival, got with open mind and just enjoy they show! Rock on!
This day was headlined by Orbital, But I’m not a big fan of their music so I went that day with only 2 things in mind: Gabriella Cilmi and Franz Ferdinand and none dissapointed!
I just got in time to catch Gabriella starting the show.
This is a short cover on Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz and continues with Got No Place To Go. The was the very beginning of the show. I’m a big fan, waited for almost an hour to get an autograph but didn’t get it because of the Klaxons (see below more about this). At least I got the Klaxons autograph (all 4 of them) and had a picture with Beanie Bhebhe (the drummer). The crowd didn’t really knew who Gabriella was and she followed after some heavy rocking, so not the greatest timing and people were not very enthusiastic. I absolutely loved her show and the music.
Pictures go here. (Klaxons, autograph Beanie)
The Klaxons didn’t go on stage because their equipment was not there (the truck broke down, or something like this). so instead they gave autographs while some other band played. Two things pissed me off here. First is that if they knew the Klaxons were not playing they could of left Gabriella Cilmi play some more songs, as she wanted it anyway. And second, they guys gave autographs when Gabriella should of :).
After the an hour of waiting and walking around the amazing Franz Ferdinand went on stage and rocked the house! I think it was they played the longest encore so far, 4 songs, if I’m not mistaking. This is the a song they played as encore Ulysses. They played a few more, some instrumental stuff too. The crowd loved them!
I’ve got two more songs with them Walk Away and Can’t Stop Feeling, which some say they played for the first time live. It was definitively one of the best performances of the festival, The crowd called their name and clapped longer then they did for Santana and the Killers together. And you have to remember that people were waiting for Orbital to come on stage. Great show!
And the day ended with Orbital.
I’m not a big fan so I left early, but people were enjoying it, were having a good time and they two guys were putting on a great show but I don’t want to comment more as it is not my kind of music.
What I remembered from Day 2:
- Gabriella Cilmi’s amazing voice and good show
- Franz Ferdinand making the crowd beg for more even after a long encore
- Watching the Klaxons while waiting to get an autograph from Gabriella Cilmi, which didn’t happen.
Conclusion:
The day was remarkable, for me, because of two performers gifted with beautiful voices: the lead singer of Franz Ferdinand and Gabriella Cilmi, hope I’ll get to see them again.
Without rain, it starded slow with Ayo (Patrice’s partner). I liked Ayo, very chilled, a little shy. You could tell the Motorhead fans were busy uploading beer in order to make it though the concert, but the concert was quite interesting. This is the song Run Run – see lyrics.
The other song I’ve got is a Michael Jackson tribute, see here.
The unfortunate Polarkreis 18 followed. The guys put on a good show, well rehearsed, almost theatrical. But the music was not to the liking of many, considering that next door you had a few thousand Motorhead fans :). And the same fans gave them a hard time, which was not nice at all, considering it was a festival. I have to give credit to the lead singer for having the balls of going on the Motorhead stage in a form of mockery to the ungrateful Motorhead fans, who were quick to give him the finger. I wouldn’t of done it in fear of being ripped to pieces :). Good show, all in all. This is their most known song – Allein Allein.
And then it happened!
Motorhead was on stage, the fans went wild.
We are MOTORHEAD!!! We play Rock and Roll! This is how Lemmy Started and ended the show. He also said “Hope you remember us” – don’t worry, I don’t think anybody will forget the show! At one moment Lemmy came to the mic with a cigarette in the corner of his mouth, spat it 3 meters across the stage and rocked the house! I haven’t seen any lead guitarist work the crowd better then Phil Campbell, he even gave a guy from the crowd a beer for rocking hard. He is awesome. I have also never seen anybody fling guitar picks in the audience with such a dexterity. I’m only a little sad as he flung one destined for me, as I was among the few in the corner where I was sitting that was rocking it, but a Moby fan picked it up :). Anyway, I got the thumbs up from Phil, I’m happy! Oh boy, and does Mikkey Dee knows how to play a gut busting solo on those drums!
And just when I thought it couldn’t get better it did. Moby followed, back to back, without even 60 seconds from when Motorhead finished their incredible show. This was the opening song of an absolutely amazing concert!
One of the best I’ve seen so far. Definitively in my top 5 :). Unfortunately, because of stupidity, I forgot to recharge the damn camera, so it died on me before the song was over. Incredible concert. Moby played all his hits, rocked an cool riff in honor of Motorhead, who were on stage just before, did a Johnny Cash singalong (Ring Of Fire) and finished with a rave song dedicated “to anyone who has ever stood at 6 in the morning in a field, watching the sun come up”. Anybody that can do all of this, and do it while surrounded by beautiful and talented girls is awesome!
What I remembered from Day 1:
- Moby’s incredible show and the ecstatic crowd singing along
- Lemmy’s voice, Phil’s coolnes and Mikkey’s drums and that guitar pick I never got. Motorhead showed what old school rock is all about.
- The moment when Polarkreis 18′s lead singer got on the Motorhead stage, I thought we would see blood :).
Conclusion:
The best day of the whole festival, Motorhead and Moby are impeccable showmakers.
It might be the process of getting father and father away from being a teenager (know as getting older), it might be change in interests, it might be wisdom or it might be being clueless, but I really do think that hit songs, the kind of which become the soundtrack of generations, are going away slowly and for good.
