I think it depends on the music and the artist. Some gigs are just so damn immersive and all consumingly brilliant that someone saying hello (insert city here) and rambling on would just ruin the experience. Also artists who can hold an audience by force of personality, banal chatter destroys that.
Hot Take/ Musical Confession Thread!
- Thread starter Count_Vader
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I think it depends on the music and the artist. Some gigs are just so damn immersive and all consumingly brilliant that someone saying hello (insert city here) and rambling on would just ruin the experience. Also artists who can hold an audience by force of personality, banal chatter destroys that.
threesunrises
Well-Known Member
We considered going to see that tour, since I love FJM. We were up in Canada seeing The National, and the FJM / Isbell show was the night we flew back home. If I'm not mistaken, Isbell was up first that night, and we knew we were going to be tired from traveling, so we decided not to get tix. Had FJM been up first, we might have done it.
TrainFan73
Frothy
I don’t know if this should necessarily go here, but meh…
Anyhow… 16 Carriages is instantly forgettable. I could not tell you one thing about it having listened to it a few times.
Texas Hold ‘Em was a wtf first listen but by the second I was like this is pretty cool. I dig it.
Anyhow… 16 Carriages is instantly forgettable. I could not tell you one thing about it having listened to it a few times.
Texas Hold ‘Em was a wtf first listen but by the second I was like this is pretty cool. I dig it.
Viking Dan
Well-Known Member
Steve Hyden is a blasphemer, trading in 90's nostalgia in exactly the way that would have gotten him strung up by his balls in the decade he mines for content.
Melt Face Molly Drop
Well-Known Member
I don't follow him too heavily, but find his writing style to be something that isn't terribly contrived and pretentious. I can see how some of the things he writes about are pretty low-hanging fruit though.
Viking Dan
Well-Known Member
Its not how he writes - its that he chooses to "market" the things that should have been left to the garbage bin of history.
I have no respect for his slathering of songs like "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" or "Only Wanna Be With You" in 90s nostalgia.
They were obvious label money grabs forced down our throats in the 90s.
When he wraps himself in his "child of the 90" BS and tries to reconstitute the old garbage into a witty or thought provoking "think piece" he either: a) proves himself complicit with the machine: or b) proves himself be too stupid to understand the irony of what he is doing.
Either way - it makes me want to punch someone to think that we came all this way to get another corporate hack packaged as "pop culture" shilling the same shit all this time later.
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BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
It's pretty depressing to me that probably the most read and most stably employed rock critic today mostly writes listicles.
Viking Dan
Well-Known Member
And has such incredibly shitty musical taste.
Melt Face Molly Drop
Well-Known Member
Sadly, most music audiences have the attention span of a tadpole these days.
TrainFan73
Frothy
Who does he even write for? I think all I’ve read was Twilght of the Gods which I very much enjoyed.
Melt Face Molly Drop
Well-Known Member
Uproxx but has done the usual freelancing stuff. Also has a podcast with Pitchfork's (formerly?) Ian Cohen.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
That and the abysmal state of the venture capital vulture-run media industry generally.
Dirtbag Auntie
Well-Known Member
one of the most freeing things you can do as a music fan is stop ranking and listing and reading that. I full on stopped that last year and I’m much happier for it. The incessant need to rank is trash.
Melt Face Molly Drop
Well-Known Member
I hate ranking when it's pitting bands against eachother. End of year lists are exhausting and not worth anyone's time. However, I do find some solace in ranking an individual artist's body of work. It helps me clear my mind surrounding what I enjoy or perhaps what is a blind spot that needs more listens. I don't rank to hate, but to explore.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
He is slightly older than me and from the Midwest. I find him very relatable and an excellent writer. I also enjoy many of the same artists he has recommended over the years. I’ve read three of his books and am looking forward to his new book on Bruce Springsteen. I don’t understand how or why people find him upsetting nothing he says or does is insulting or condescending or otherwise controversial he is a white dude in his early 40s who enjoys guitar based rock music.
Do you feel the same about Chuck Klosterman and/or Andy Greenwald?
Klosterman literally wrote the book on the subject.
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Dirtbag Auntie
Well-Known Member
I get that.
My method is I make artist playlists, put all their albums/eps/singles and hit shuffle. I discover new faves out of context sometimes.
I do believe a great piece of music criticism can make you reconsider without a list.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
See the problem here is generational, these “label money grabs” forced down my throat were not seen that way amongst a large swath of people my age growing up. We enjoyed Hootie and Offspring and the like and while it’s obvious now as adults what these things were not to the same level as Pearl Jam or Guided By Voices; when I was a dumb kid I had no issue keeping my Pavement albums next to my Marylin Manson, Hootie and The Blowfish, and Snoop Dogg albums in my CD flip case. Most of what he is writing about when he is covering that stuff isn’t to say that it’s good music it’s to say that it had a place and was very popular and to acknowledge the reasons why that was the case is interesting.
I make playlists of bad late 80s early 90s adult contemporary music that they played on the radio when I was growing up. I make playlist of terrible 70s Yacht rock and playlist of music booming out of frat houses at the turn of the millennia. it all has a place.
It’s no different than someone waxing nostalgically about Poison or Motley Crue or Cinderella. The difference is Steve is about a decade younger than you.
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TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Not a single listicle to be found in any of these…
Also, I feel like in the day and age we live he uses the list format more as an attention grabbing device than anything usually every entry on his list contain several paragraphs of explanation. It’s not like Buzzfeed AI generated content where the list is the all that is being offered up. Steve usually writes a ton for each entry.
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TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Currently Uproxx
Steven Hyden
Since 2016, Steven Hyden has been Uproxx’s Cultural Critic. He is also the co-host of Uproxx’s weekly indie rock podcast, Indiecast, and the author of several books about music, including “Long Road,” “This Isn’t Happening,” “Hard To Handle,” “Twilight Of The Gods,” and “Your Favorite Band Is...
uproxx.com
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
I think context matters a lot. I like ranking things to generate discussion and debate plus it provokes internal deliberation on what I like and dislike about artists, albums l, and songs. I enjoy stimulating my brain regarding things a care about and would rather spend time pondering which Sonic Youth album I enjoy more than deciding how many people I need to take call during a given time frame or if I should order a new pack of t-shirts as my current supply of undershirts is getting a bit shabby.