Main Stream vs Underground music

[CowboyFromHell`X]

After watching MTV (sorry I know it's a sin) I realized all the Rock bands out there are... well...

 

Which do you like better- mainstream or underground?

 

In mainstream you basically play for radio hits, ie, make 2 or 3 singles with a catchy tune and then the rest of your album generate songs to just fill up space so you can call it an album.

 

In underground you try to make the entire CD to be good and get the people who actually listen to you like it.

 

When Metallica went mainstream with the Black Album, it was a good CD itself but it wasn't the same. And now they're up to St Anger which doesn't even have a damn guitar solo in it.

 

So which do you like better and why?

[Norguard]

That's not totally fair, I think.

 

Short answer: both and neither.

 

Metallica didn't write the Black album trying to make one hit with Enter Sandman... ...they wrote a solid album that happened to sell really well, after their publicity with And Justice for All.

 

A mainstream band would be Linkin Park, a band who is lead by marketing graduates, that write songs specifically to be sold to a marketable audience. Or Weezer. Weezer didn't start sucking because they sold out. Their first album was full of catchy riffs, and really poignant, meaningful songs. Their second album was full of those same quirky, meaningful songs, but not so many catchy riffs... ...and it tanked. So they said - fine, if nobody's going to listen to the words, we're just going to make some crappy four-chord songs and get rich off of you. ...and for the last three albums, they really, really have.

 

90% of the music I listen to is mainstream, but it's mainstream music from 30 years ago, so is it really mainstream?

 

Pearl Jam is one exception to the psychedelic rule. They were popular. People really wanted to like them, but the band has never really concerned themselves with that. Each of their albums is totally different, and each one has throwbacks to their favourite music, be it Otis Redding, the Ramones, Neil Young or East Indian music. They're really unapologetically eclectic. So are they mainstream, or non-mainstream?

Edited September 13, 2005 by Norguard

[CowboyFromHell`X]

Metallica is tough for an example and I shouldn't have used them.

 

Me saying "mainstream" I didn't mean bands that made their music and somehow got a hit single out of it. I was more of talking about those bands that focus an entire CD on a couple of catch phrases.

 

Metallica (AKA black album) had alot of good songs on it like Unforgiven, Enter Sandman, Sad But True, Of Wolf and Man, etc.. so an album like that of course you're going to generate popularity.

 

I'm more or less talking about corporation bands vs people who make thier own music. Now I really don't watch TV/listen to radio so I was talking more about all time what you like more.

 

Mainstream:

Vanilla Ice - corporations figure they could expand into the "rap" industry so they create a puppet to test the waters for them.

 

Boy Bands - corporations notice an increase in the depressed teenager field, so they create a couple of bands to tell those kids they love them and how important they are.

 

And then the underground bands who make a radio hit so then they focus the rest of their careers on radio hits.

[Absum]

i would have to say that i sway much more toward underground music. real good music is hard to find and i enjoy music across almost all genres. Mostly I dabble in indie rock, blues, jazz, and some mainstream rock. but one thing i think of when a band ive liked for a long time gets popular, and i get a little tinkled that so many people have never even heard one of their good songs or even know some of their other albums besides the one that was made a hit, is after being in the trenches of backwater bars for so long i'd give my kudos to a band who finally gets to suck of the fat of the foolish for a bit and see their wallet full for a change. even if they drop their old ways to do it.. i couldnt ask someone to be great their whole life, sometimes its okay for someone to put the axe down and take up a chair.... but thats just my opinion.

[Norguard]

Heh. I'd agree to that, man.

 

When Modest Mouse went big, everybody started raving, and I just shook my head, because I've been listening to them forever.

 

Now it's Death Cab for Cutie that's made the "it list".

 

I still like them... ...just not the people who won't shut up about them, like they're the best thing in the entire universe... ...for six weeks, and then totally forget that they exist.

[stutters]

dunno how many other people do it, but this is my crutch for finding new music:

 

http://www.amazon.com

login to (or make) an account

search for bands you like. find their cd (example). on the left, under rate this album, rate it, and click "i own it." repeat for all cds you own...or know you like.

then click on the tab at the top of the page in the middle that says "john's store."

on the left you'll find a recommendations section, and a link specifically to music.

real live people that know music make recommendations based on your (and other people that have the same) taste.

fire up your favorite p2p app, go to your local library (seriously), or if you're one of those "traditional types," walk to the record store.

continue to update the cd's you own/like. the recommendations are endless.

i've met a lot of great bands this way, underground and mainstream.

 

and just to tie this into the topic, both are equally good. the chicken came from the egg, and without the egg their would be no chicken.

[CowboyFromHell`X]

Yeah I found a weird way to find music. I go to my friend's house he always has a music station on, not MTV, and it just plays music and that's it no videos or anything. But it does say the band's name on the TV and the album/song so if I like what I hear I type the band name and song as a number in my cellphone. That's how I discovered Mad Season and I'm the only person who does/will listen to them because with Lane Staley (Alice in Chains) gone they're done.