Beato the Boomer hates music
- Thread starter DdBob
- Start date
baimun
Funkasaurus Rex
I already listened to this one the other day.... I don't disagree with most of what he is saying.
Damn near clawed my ears out during a 4 hour drive with my wife... song after song... all similar tempos with many of the songs having 2 or 3 chords... no breakdowns, no modulations, boring autotuned vocals. At one point I let out an audible sigh and she asked "What's wrong?" Ohhhh she did NOT want to open that pandora's box.
I tried to entertain myself during this one by singing U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" because the back beat is so similar....
... but 8 minutes in I was like "COME ON.... Fucking END already!!!!"
... and then this one.
Honestly, the Harry Styles song doesn't suck.... BUT... when you start throwing around a title like SIGN of the TIMES..... you really know how to rub this Prince Fan the wrong way.
In my mind I was like Randall in Clerks 2 telling the nerds at the counter... "There's only ONE Sign O the Times.... and it's THIS one!!!... "
Peace Love and Prince4Eva.
Damn near clawed my ears out during a 4 hour drive with my wife... song after song... all similar tempos with many of the songs having 2 or 3 chords... no breakdowns, no modulations, boring autotuned vocals. At one point I let out an audible sigh and she asked "What's wrong?" Ohhhh she did NOT want to open that pandora's box.
I tried to entertain myself during this one by singing U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" because the back beat is so similar....
... but 8 minutes in I was like "COME ON.... Fucking END already!!!!"
... and then this one.
Honestly, the Harry Styles song doesn't suck.... BUT... when you start throwing around a title like SIGN of the TIMES..... you really know how to rub this Prince Fan the wrong way.
In my mind I was like Randall in Clerks 2 telling the nerds at the counter... "There's only ONE Sign O the Times.... and it's THIS one!!!... "
Peace Love and Prince4Eva.
frunobulax
Gak Pernah Cukup!
He's not wrong. That was interesting.
baimun
Funkasaurus Rex
And to be fair.... he IS a boomer... BUT... he's got a damned good ear and sense for production value.
Denverdave
Resident Ragamuffin
Not necessarily. Rick is about my age - maybe a year younger. In that time period the whole boomer/gen x line gets blurred. I took a few high level (you gotta pay for them) tests at work to figure out 'work culture'. I am firmly in the Gen X camp with a slight lean towards Millennial. My birth year is right at the end of the baby boom, but that culture was never really mine. I think Rick would fall into that camp as well.
A lot of my fave bands are 80s/90s groups. And I listen to more modern music occasionally as well (I do have a young teen at home).
baimun
Funkasaurus Rex
I recently listened to an interview with him and he says that he grew up listening to mostly 60-70's rock, into the 80's... but only when he was a working pro and the 80's record contracts were drying up, he started producing 90's bands to pay the bills, which kind of explains his modern tastes.
I mean, my tastes probably would have been stuck in the 80's and 90's as well if I hadn't DJ'd for 10+ years. Sometimes it was weddings, other times private schools and colleges, some with large percentages that didn't speak english... so I was learning about Daddy Yankee, Calle, and Paulina Rubio at the same time I was loading up Pit Bull, Usher, Chingy, and Darude.
Probably why my current personal playlists have so much Dua Lipa, Jamiroquai, Charlie Puth, and Andy Grammar along side my Prince, Van Halen, Nine Inch Nails, and Metallica.
DinoMikeSr
I have the box
2, 3 chord vamps? Is that even a song? If it is then I’m a hell of a writer myself.
jp_nyc
Kick Henry Jackassowski
BTW... when I went on my solo 3 hour trip, I was listening to stuff like this....
... if you've never heard Prince play at the Montreux Jazz festival...
Start here... but then back it up to the beginning and give the entire thing a whirl.
That’s one of the best live albums ever recorded. We’re so lucky that it leaked! The shows were recorded in 1080p for a blu-ray release. The release was even announced on one of Prince’s web sites. But Prince did his thing and flaked out. Hopefully someone in his estate will wake up one day and release the blu-ray.
baimun
Funkasaurus Rex
I know. I had a pretty decent collection of Prince bootlegs… but some of the stuff thst has been getting out over the past few years?
Like this After Party from One Nite Alone?…
I watched that video the other day, and yeah... most of those "songs" were stupefyingly dull.
Someone made a comment on that video that I thought made a pretty good explanation about why this kind of shitty music seems so prevalent... and that's because the demand and exposure of that stuff is driven mostly by tiktok. Creators need music clips that will work in a short 10 second video. There's no need for anything structurally complex with deep lyrics because there's no time for any of that to work. Just need a groove with two or three chords and maybe a catchphrase, some sexy grunts, whatever. Tiktok viewers then hear these short excerpts and seek out the full version, and they expect (and get) nothing more than what they heard in the tiktok video except longer.
Someone made a comment on that video that I thought made a pretty good explanation about why this kind of shitty music seems so prevalent... and that's because the demand and exposure of that stuff is driven mostly by tiktok. Creators need music clips that will work in a short 10 second video. There's no need for anything structurally complex with deep lyrics because there's no time for any of that to work. Just need a groove with two or three chords and maybe a catchphrase, some sexy grunts, whatever. Tiktok viewers then hear these short excerpts and seek out the full version, and they expect (and get) nothing more than what they heard in the tiktok video except longer.
Denverdave
Resident Ragamuffin
Peen Simmons
Let’s Get Obtuse!
What?!? This forum is still with it! We’re still hip. One of these nerds will undoubtedly be able to do an unscientific poll to prove that teenagers trying to get their rock dad out of their room will say, “sure, I guess John Denver and Mama Cass are pretty chill.”
But seriously, TikTok is a major driver and the global charts are a lot less of an “America, the UK, and their anglophone friends” thing now. And the algorithm/streaming services are more financially viable if you release something with 20 2-minute songs vs 8 5-minute songs.
Also, I think there’s just some changes in the who and the how of record making that has taken the emphasis off ye olde verse/chorus/verse songwriting and records that sound like idealized performances instead of electronic concoctions.
I mean, so much of the stuff Beato really didn’t like is the sort of stuff that’s easy to get to if you’re layering sounds and chopping things up on a laptop or tablet. And you’ve got vocal melodies born of iPhone voice memos vs something “catchy” you can remember from day to day and show to your friends/collaborators. And why bother figuring out how to “do it live” if no one is gonna go see something live to be impressed before you’ve made an online impression. Not to mention that guitar combos are expensive to establish, maintain, and rehearse whereas you can plug a laptop in anywhere and just manipulate samples with a touchpad anywhere. And someone two states over can mumble in a closet over your cut and you can tune and tweak it and have new “CONNNNNNTENNNNT” as a “CREEEEAAAAAAATTTTIVVVVE” within a couple days vs. the old way where you spent three months snorting cocaine off a million dollar mixing desk before even tracking drums.
The material conditions that built the 3-minute 30-second guitar combo pop hit are simply gone.
Devil is Dill
Doubleplusgood
If you watch the video, the title is more inflammatory than what he actually says. Really the worst thing he says about anything is that it's boring.
DdBob
Dogue in teh desert
I'm thinking Beatos mind goes like this when listeni g to music.....is there music theory involved in the creation of the song......is there real people playing "real" instruments......is it a bit more complex than three chords and THE TRUTH.......can I break this down and talk about the THEORY......is there a bunch of different time signatures (again is it complex muzak)
Verses some random dude or dudette.........yeah I like this beat......makes me feel good....i like this tune
Verses some random dude or dudette.........yeah I like this beat......makes me feel good....i like this tune
frunobulax
Gak Pernah Cukup!
If you don't like Beato, don't watch. These posts are just 
I didn't find it negative at all. He broke down the tunes to their bones, pointed out what was happening, pointed out interesting elements he liked (I'm gonna use that 2 beat drop somewhere). Pointed out where real songcraft was taking place. I found it pretty interesting, as we'll as being impressed by his ear skills.
But I like Beato's videos. Yeah he's full of himself sometimes (most of the times?), but that's him.
I didn't find it negative at all. He broke down the tunes to their bones, pointed out what was happening, pointed out interesting elements he liked (I'm gonna use that 2 beat drop somewhere). Pointed out where real songcraft was taking place. I found it pretty interesting, as we'll as being impressed by his ear skills.
But I like Beato's videos. Yeah he's full of himself sometimes (most of the times?), but that's him.