[terrymx]

The problem with the music is that even for it's commercial purpose, it sounded too distractful and causes me to lose arousals during my private "session". FAILED.

 

[Aman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Night Surfer /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, there's obviously a market for it or it wouldn't sell. I daresay that there would be some poorer producers, musicians, blah, blah, blah...if Britney had never been. Fast food and fine dining can coexist. Relax dude, you'll live longer.

So let's make four or five people super-rich while the rest of us nearly fail at making an honest living?

I have to work really hard in this industry to do so well off of the music I am involved with. It shouldn't be that way - adventurous art and monetary gain do not have to be polar opposites.

And believe me, with the amount of pot I smoke, I have given up on worrying on how long I'll live...

 

[Uncle Erik]

I gave it a listen and it did nothing for me. Just like Britney's other albums didn't do anything for me.

Was the title "Blackout" intended as a poke at Britney?

 

[monolith]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Was the title "Blackout" intended as a poke at Britney?

That's what I always though (read: hoped). I imagine the focus group that came up with that name was feeling a little cheeky.

 

[tru blu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif I gave it a listen and it did nothing for me. Just like Britney's other albums didn't do anything for me.

Well, from one non-fan to another, you are allowed to not like it.

 

[zotjen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aman /img/forum/go_quote.gif The producers, musicians, composers, performers, promoters, and engineers that are actually trying to make an honest living - they're the ones that care. When this crap becomes the standard of making a good living in the industry, it pushes away those that want to bring a quality product to the consumer.

So nobody who helped put out this album is making an honest living? Are they all a bunch of crooks and scam artists? You make it sound like these people are participating in criminal activity, shaking down artists you deem are of a higher quality. Don't blame them for giving the public what they want.

 

[Brian loves music]

no

 

[Audiofiler]

no

 

[Agent Kang]

.

 

[MdRex]

I havent listened to the whole of Brit Brit's album, but all the singles are catchy enough. I actually like the first single "Gimme more". Sure its shallow, gimmicky and everything pop culture is about. It was meant to be be trashy dance music and it succeeded. Congrats.

If brit brit doesnt put out this album, will we see the increased sales of albums from 'indie' bands, which ironically are really not too indie anymore. Sorry.

anyway, i think there are people still holding on to that faux hippie attitude, if it aint weird, unknown, then it isnt good. Too bad for them, I still hum to "Gimme More", I'll even buy the album if it is at a big discount.

Conclusion, dont do drugs, dont glorify the usage of drugs... hmmph what does my conclusion have to do with this topic... beats me, but what the heck.

 

[Aman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zotjen /img/forum/go_quote.gif So nobody who helped put out this album is making an honest living? Are they all a bunch of crooks and scam artists? You make it sound like these people are participating in criminal activity, shaking down artists you deem are of a higher quality. Don't blame them for giving the public what they want.

Sorry for the late reply, but I do have to answer to this.

You rely on the assumption that labels are "giving the public what they want." But this is simply not true - the labels do not respond to public opinion, and they haven't for decades now. Music labels control the tastes, options, and desires of the music-buying demographics. It has nothing to do with what people want. Ask even the most shallow of music listeners; I guarantee you will not find a lot of people saying "Yes, I would absolutely love it if Britney Spears released another album."

People do not "help" put this album out. They work to put this album out. They get paid grossly to do it. Britney Spears' album is one hundred percent product - not art. This wasn't always the case. In fact, for most of the industry's life, music was sold as product AND art. This is because the major music-buying demographics had control over the output of the labels, because that generation of buyers was much more commanding and powerful over such matters. Today, the public are mostly sheep living in a corporate-fascism environment, accepting the crap these labels spew out at a constant rate. This is why the argument of it being "just dance music" is pretty bunk. Listen to Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares, The Flashbulb, and other artists, and tell me that dance music has to be superficial and terrible. There is dance music all over the place that gleams with artistic innovation and success.

The cutting edge was once the popular music - think back to Hendrix, Zeppelin, and the late Beatles (who, in particular, cited influences as wide as Stockhausen and Eric Dolphy). These people sold out stadiums and arenas all the time, and were quite extravagant both in a product sense, and an artistic sense. Sure, there were acts more advanced than these artists that never received monetary success. Captain Beefheart and CAN never exactly caught on with the pop music crowd, but these guys were on a different level altogether. Today, we can't even ask for an alternate time signature without it being shoved to the very backs of the album shelves, and surely these songs would never even dream of hitting a Top 40 list in ANY country.

 

[Aman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MdRex /img/forum/go_quote.gif anyway, i think there are people still holding on to that faux hippie attitude, if it aint weird, unknown, then it isnt good. Too bad for them, I still hum to "Gimme More", I'll even buy the album if it is at a big discount.

I am highly suspect that people who listen to "weird, unknown" music often have a much wider musical taste than most. Would somebody who listens to Captain Beefheart not enjoy Howlin' Wolf? If you enjoy the work of Stockhausen, why would you not like Bach and Mozart? If you like Anthony Braxton, Eric Dolphy, and Cecil Taylor, would you ever in your right mind not enjoy Chet Baker, Miles Davis, and Duke Ellington?

I work primarily with avant-garde musicians, and the ones I've talked to exhibit quite extensive musical personalities. A homemade electronics musician I know loves Gnarls Barkley, and a microtonal guitar improviser I work with has a huge collection of Billie Holiday records that he listens to weekly.

Some people see it as an argument between elitism and simplicity, but nobody from either category would make it in my book. If you like music, then you like a varying amount from all musical spectra, and if you only enjoy the boring commercial crap OR only the weird and strange stuff, then you probably aren't that game with music either. Then again, as I said before, I've never heard of somebody that ONLY enjoyed the "outer fringes" of music without enjoying the more normal stuff also. People that claim to only like "weird" music often are the ones that only listen to very shallow and superficial (pseudo-intellectual) garbage like Radiohead and The Shins.

 

[Joeshmo39]

I want to jump in on Aman's side here, haven't heard the album but clearly the thread has veered a bit so I feel I'm still reasonably topical and that's good enough.

I think what made me think of it was Maroon 5. I walked through my living room and thought well this sounds familar. I give them a spin every once in a while so I recognized them on American Idol and it's safe to say they were...struggling a bit. Clearly they are a group where alot happens in the studio: ie. production because they did not sound like they did on the CD and the seemingly smooth Levine was pretty dogged. There is something to say for production values but I think the bigger issue here is the "different strokes for different folks" attitude which is sort of OK to an extent, but sort of sucks for us.

We can always say that bad pop music is fine and leave well enough alone, not be critical, not try to get people to listen to better stuff. The thing is as long as this continues real talent is going to get shunted in the name of tolerating people with no soul, not a fair trade off in any way as I see it. I mean we take that road then we do risk sacrificing our sense of superiority, but it's a risk I'm willing to take.

 

[LFF]

Personally, I don't like the album.

However, from an objective standpoint and without my personal bias, I would say that the album is very good. You can't compare this type of music to Bach or Charlie Parker. It is what it is. A very good pop album.

 

[MetalGeek]

I think I'm going to have to side with Aman for the most part also.

Surprisingly enough, I took a college course on Pop Culture. We explored a wide variety of topics, mostly concluding with the downward spiral of the record industry. We watched a couple documentaries that went into some pretty good detail about how the big record labels are run by people who have little to no real knowledge about music, musicianship, or art, and are only in the business in order to release a commodity. It doesn't matter if it's crap, they just want it recorded and out on the shelves on a regular basis. Many radio stations in this country don't even get to choose what they play, their playlists are handed down to them from the corporate suits. It's all about money, and a good portion of the general public is catching on. I mean seriously, how many people here actually listen to the radio regularly? They replay the same songs hour after hour, day after day. It's like having the same 5 CDs stuck in your CD changer for weeks, and listening to it every day. There certainly is worthwhile music released by the major labels, because there are still talented artists who have made it big by their own merits, but a very large portion of the music that comes out today is mindless drivel, and is largely forgettable. There's a reason why record sales are plummeting, and I have a hard time believing that it can be entirely attributed to illegal downloading.

A great example that is discussed on Head-Fi quite often is audio compression. How many great albums are ruined by compressing them to make them louder? If it was really about releasing music for the artistic value and not about commodification and profit, they wouldn't compress it so much. They want the music to stand out on the radio to bring in sales.