Lady Gaga and Led Zeppelin 2

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant should be pissed. First of all, lady gaga should not be covering Led Zeppelin because it is not her style and she cannot sing it and second of all, the cover I watched, the guitarist completely massacred the riff. He played one note out of the verse riff when really it is more complicated than that and he played it soooo sloppy. Not the kind of Jimmy Page sloppy (he can be sloppy on purpose and still sound good which is really really hard) but sloppy as in he messed up and it sounded horrible. The singing is never going to come close to Robert Plant's singing, so I am not even going to comment on it. Not to mentioned she called it a reggae song. It may have been meant to imitate reggae, but I say it is a rock song either way and there are some heated discussions on the internet about it.

I have heard some pretty bad covers of Led Zeppelin live at Cojonés in Olean, NY by local artists, but they all topped lady gaga's "performance". I find it completely disrespectful to the artists that wrote the song if you are not going to try and make it sound as good as possible. I just can't believe how bad the guitar was. He was sliding around on one string!!! Where is the bass note? Where is the middle tone? Without at least that middle tone (I am not sure what the interval is), the riff just does not sound right. Sorry lady gaga (not really), but never cover a rock song again. Stick to your crappy computer beats and your $10,000 ProTools to keep you on key and on time.

today's discussion on MJ.

I've always been a fan of Michael Jackson so my opinions about him may be biased. When we were discussing about whether Tate's argument was right, that the music video of "Bad" showed far less talent or drastically was a disappointment compared to "Thriller" and if he deserved to be called the King of Pop. First of all, the physical transformation that MJ went through was not really because he was trying to crossover to the white audience. There were numerous reasons: he changed the structure of his nose because his dad used to make fun of his nose when he was little. I can't believe any parents would do that since its your own kid, how can you complain? Second, he had a skin disorder that started to appear first on his hands, which is why he started wearing the famous glove in the first place to conceal it. By the end of the tour, it was getting too noticeable that he had no choice but to undergo a complete pigment transformation. All of these physical transformations shouldn't be integrated and used to criticize about his music videos. He never wanted to change his identity.

80's music

The 80's brought forth some huge celebrities to the music industry. I'm not really a fan of Madonna, but who can talk about the 80's without mentioning her contributions and record-breaking popularity on MTV, or as an entertainer. She kept the media, the audience entertained for a long time by switching her image, genre, whatever it took to maintain her fame. I've come to realize that most artists become big stars because of their originality, style, and the way they carry themselves in the media. To be able to truly lead a new trend or style when everyone else is mimicking or refusing to be different, that's what you call an artist. Madonna expressed herself through dance and music often ignoring any boundaries or restrictions to prove her creativity. That is why she may be called the Queen of Pop.

Underground 80's

Ahh yes, the 1980's. The popular music of this time is mostly defined as synthesizer music, as I am sure you all know. What none of you probably know, is that '80-'86 were the hay-days of hardcore punk rock. No this is not the "jugga jugga" "hardcore" today, and the definition of hardcore today is not even CLOSE to the definition hardcore punk rock. It is not like "regular" punk rock either: e.g. the Ramones, the Sex Pistols. It was called hardcore because they stripped down the music to the brutal, angry core. Most of the musicians of this time were not actual musicians. These guys just picked up a guitar, learned three chords, and spilled their hearts out in under a minute; the most angry 54 seconds you will ever hear. Bands like Black Flag (who Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain said was one of his main influences) Minor Threat, and the Misfits started completely different movements of their own. To get a better idea of the mentality of these teens, I will quote Jack Grisham from the band T.S.O.L.; "We aren't trying to go to the top, we are trying to level the top." He also said "thinking that they're gonna play your song on the radio is like a black man thinking he is gonna be elected president of the ku klux klan. No your not. You didn't even think of it that way." The scene sprouted countless independent record labels, including Black Flag founder Gregg Ginn's SST records. It was a scene about unity with a do it yourself mentality. You would record all of your songs live, and however it turned out was good enough. Then you would copy and cut out every insert to the album yourself. It was about expressing your rage. It was not about money, race, or any of the BS problems that popular record labels sign you up for.

Today in class we were talking about Michael Jackson breaking race barriers. Race was not an issue during this time. In fact, one of the most influential punk rock bands from D.C. known as the Bad Brains, were all black. The Dead Kennedys also had a black drummer. It just did not matter. In this scene, everybody was equally worthless. I said previously that hardcore punk rock was about unity. By unity, I mean a unity to fight for the same cause (against Ronald Reagan, the catalyst of the hardcore punk rock movement). It did not mean unity amongst your fellow punks as it does today. When you went to a show, you would get punch in the face, kicked in the head by crowd surfers (one man recollects a man with cowboy boots a spurs spurring people in the head), and when you left you would have all of your rage out for the day. People set off bombs, teenagers were doing meth (as well as every other drug) and having sex in the alley, buildings were broken into, people were hurt and robbed. Despite all of this violence, these were the geeky kids who worked regular jobs during the week and you would never in a million years expect them to be capable of this, but it was almost exclusively on the weekends that they could lash out against the pop culture and conformity of the '80's. If this sounds too wrong for you, then you should know that it was not this violent at first. It was rebellious, of course, and the Las Angeles police did not like this. They would go to punk shows and beat the crap out of kids who did not do anything; they would do it just because the kid was a punk. One man recalls a group of cops beating a kid who was too damaged to even stand up, but they just kept beating him and beating him. Why? He went to see his favorite band play and just happened to cross their path. I am not going to say that they started it...... oh wait yes I am. Henry Rollins (now and actor, writer, and musician) was at a show and he remembers, "a cop just walked up to me and said 'did you just call me faggot?'" Rollins said he was scared because it was "cat and mouse, the cop could take [him] at any time" and the police knew this so they would mess with the kids and abuse the law. Hooray double standards! The cops would get away with it because of the societal hatred for hardcore punk rock. The police would show up to punk shows and shut them down because they did not agree with the political views of the punk rockers, and this would usually start riots: literally. If you guys remember the interview with Tim Armstrong of Rancid (and Operation Ivy!) in class, recall that he said "Who am I to judge who is a punk?" This means that it is wwaayy to hard and complex to try to explain hardcore punk rock and honestly I just wanted to talk about it because it will never show up in any college class any where ever, so I suggest you watch or read "American Hardcore". This will give you interviews from people who lived the experiences and will be able to explain it a lot better than me. So go watch that movie, or listen to all of the different bands for many many years so you actually understand what this scene is before you start judging it like everyone else. If you do not do either of these things, never say anything about punk rock again.

Lady Gaga and Led Zeppelin?

Apparently Lady Gaga a.k.a. Stephanie Germanotta used to do some pretty awesome live gigs pre-Gaga. My favorite I've found so far is a cover of Led Zeppelin's D'yer Mak'er. It's pretty awesome to say the least. Also, you can see her tendencies for crazy antics at live performances here as well, because she dances and almost flails around while she's singing and playing keyboard. I definitely respect Lady Gaga at lot more, and this is pretty awesome. Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN5f50_4cl0

post # 14

Well today's class was pretty interesting. A lot of good points made and argued very well. But enough of this arguing. Why can't we all just get along? ha (like that'll happen). Anyway...i think MJ deserves the title "the KING OF POP" because he really is. He has mad such a huge impact on pop music (and even other genres) and on the music industry in general. He said "yeah i can mix a bunch of different genres and make one of the best albums ever"(not an actual quote by the way). Justin Timberlake not so much. I don't like him. I don't even know any of his songs as popular as he is (i think cry me a river is?). But it's funny how people were disputing how he could de-throne the king. I think it's funny that people who try and take others people spots in these kinds of labels were mostly influenced buy the current holder. Does taking that away from them mean you are actually better? Or just jacked their style and made it more appealing to the current modern audience? just something to ponder about..

80's music for a 90's baby

Let me start out by saying I don't have a thing for naughty Snow Whites but the "Sonne" music video is a great one. It's not that I get some perverse kick off it, but the video takes such a dark view of Snow White, in the twisted way only Rammstein could. That's why it's a great video, not because Snow White punishes the dwarfs. So I don't know how many of you know who Thomas Dolby is or what he looks like. But for those who do, go into the philosophy department at UB and look at Prof. Hershenov. They look a lot alike. I'm not bad mouthing either of them, but they could be long lost twins. Anytime I see Prof. Hershanov, "She Blinded me With Science" pops into my head and refuses to leave for at least 20 minutes. But that's neither here nor there. I honestly must say though, that I at least, feel we wouldn't have had nearly as awesome an 80's without the good ol' UK. Some (90% at least) of my favourite bands from the 80's hail from across the pond. Also some of the most influential bands of the 80's hailed from the UK. The Cure and The Smiths helped to create a whole new sub-genre called Shoegazing and Gary Numan rocked out on his synth. Bands like Big Country and The Proclaimers introduced the Scottish side of the 80's (and some 90's). What intrigues me however, is the fact that a lot of these bands are one hit wonders over here, while they went back to the UK to have still successful career. The poster child for this is Madness (one of my top five favourite bands if you haven't noticed). They had one hit over here, "Our House". But they returned to the UK to have at least 5 more popular songs. Why would one sound make it over here and another over there? That I never got. I think crossing over in the charts is one obstacle, but another is crossing over the pond in a sense. Not just literally, but metaphorically. So many bands are successful over in the UK but come over here, and only find limited success, while bands from over here go over there, and make it big! It's safe to say the Ramones were much more successful in the UK then in the US. What I also love are bands from the States, that are relatively unknown over here, but HUGE in the UK. For example, while KOL was making ripples in the US, they were playing huge, sold out shows in the UK. Same goes for the band Gossip. A lot of my American friends had never heard of KOL until they finally broke out with that song of theirs this summer, while my friends from the UK, had been singing (no pun intended) their praises for at least 2 years before. I have many a stateside friend who still do not know who Gossip is, but my buddy from Stoke has this thing for Beth Ditto. It's always interesting to compare the hits from here to the hits from the UK. Look at the songs in, "Now that's what I call music". They release two different albums. I understand it's a different country, even a different continent, but it's similar enough culture that you think bands would have equal popularity. In the end however, I think it's because the UK prefers a different sound (how's that for obvious?). Honestly, I'd have to agree with them.