Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Random Pet Peeve

Time for a random tick. You have to love people with a delusion of grandeur. The security guard who truly believe he's a cop, the ugly person who thinks they're a model, and something that's been on my mind for a while is the karaoke singer who thinks they are the front man for the next big band. You know the types I'm talking about.

Now we all have friends and family with good singing voices. I'm the first to admit mine sounds like a dog that's still awake while getting castrated. Yup, it's that bad. Luckily I have other talents to make up for it. However a while back, alright way back,  I met a guy at work who said in his off time he's a singer for a local band. To protect the embarrassment of the group, I won't list it's name and we'll refer to this guy as Red. But I digress. So Red's a singer right. And of course we challenge him to sing something for us. He tries, and fails with some poor excuse. And we all write him off. 

A couple years later, Red pop's up again. Our workplace is making some big fuss about him because he's going to a karaoke championship. I'm thinking, "great, he can sing if he's reading." My kids can do that while playing Rock Band, big deal. And it turns out, he did pretty good. Proving, yes it's easier when you can just read the words instead of having talent. At this point Red and I are both leaving for other business ventures, and he disappears. Out of sight, out of mind.

So fast forward to a couple months ago. My wife and I take a nice long weekend to Buffalo Thunder to get away for a little while. We're walking around and who do I find? You guessed it, here's Red and his band playing at one of the clubs at this resort. So Erica and I do what comes natural, we sit down, place an order and listen to them for a while. Overall the band isn't bad. The drummer is wailing on his kit, the bassist is walking around and killing it, the guitarist isn't great but they're getting the job done, there's a female singer that knows what she's doing and has a good voice, then there's Red. 

Red's trying to move with the dancing skills of a toddler, trying way to hard to act like a rock star, and I'm thinking to myself, "What The French Toast" For all he's worth, he can't get two feet from his mic stand. You may be asking what's the significance of that? Well he's holding a mic, it's not on the stand. The stand has an iPad holder with, that's right sports fan, an iPad! He's reading every stinking word! And very obviously at that! He's treating it like a karaoke machine! Song's that are very well rehearsed by the band, and one song being the same one he bombed all those years ago when we challenged him. He can't do anything without this stinking tablet!

Here's the pet peeve. As I've mentioned in the past, I grew up around musicians. My dad being one. Myself, being one. And many friends being musicians. If you're in a band, let alone singing, you take some pride in the fact YOU KNOW THE MATERIAL! A set list, with one or two notes is no big thing. But know the material. If you're standing in front of a tablet, you are not a musician. Red you're a hack! I don't care if you're sing the national anthem, learn it, take the heat and grow from your mistakes, or get the stage! There is one time it's okay to read the music if you're performing in front of a crowd aside from being in school, it's called being in an orchestra. Red, it's time for you exit, stage right. 

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Another rant about music.

Back to the music kids. It amazes me how today's pop culture will feed until the point of purging on the media mainstream. Kids today will know everything you can find on the likes of Nicki Minaj, Beyonce, etc, but don't go beyond that. The music underground has essentially become independents that haven't broken through into the mainstream yet, or are members that refuse to sign with major labels for fear of corporate media forcing them to sellout their gimmick for something else.

What brings me to this? Easy, recently I've tried talking to some people about their music and have gotten an overwhelming similar response every time. "Oh you wouldn't like it," or "Oh, it's new so you wouldn't know it." As those who truly know me, know I listen to a bit of everything, so I'm well versed in different areas of music. Hell, it's hard not to be when you grew up with your dad jamming in the living room at 3 in the morning on a school night, like it was no big thing.

One main area is with people who "think" they know what the rave scene, and tech is all about. I love the assumption that I don't know anything because of my age. One college kid made that assumption clear just a few days ago when I asked about a song. The first thing that came to mind was, "I was listening to Orbital, The Shamen, Praga Kahn, KLF, and a plethora of others when you were just being conceived!" No really, this is someone that was literally just being born when Traci Lords was cutting her first music album, and they think I don't understand. So I name off a few groups, and they are clueless as to who I'm speaking about.

Today's raver's are increasingly only familiar with what's in the mainstream. Part of it I blame on the DJ's, and part on the fact that kids are not encouraged to look beyond the MTV hype of today. And it's in all areas of music. You mention Black Flag, and immediately Henry Rollins is the association. You mention Metallica and  Cliff Burton is an unknown. AC/DC and Bon Scott who? Belinda Carlisle is in Purgatory apparently because nobody under 30 has a clue who she or the Go-Go's are. And Bananarama is confused for a name game played in pre-school and early grade school.

It's sad and funny all at the same time. It's a testament to an earlier rant that what passes for music today is a joke, and a bad one at that. We really need a new surge in music badassery that gets people interested in it, and the bands again.

So for those about to rock, I salute you.