Hairway to Steven!

[pseydtonne]

Before I go to bed, I want to comment on today's XKCD.

Dismemberment Plan. If anything represents kicking baby boomer music's ass, that's it. Done. "The Ice of Boston" alone is our Stairway to Heaven, damnit! Prove me wrong! If you need a longer, more maudlin song -- then "Respect Is Due". If you just need a song that says "shit, that was me...", stick with The Ice o' Boston. Having a series of painful epiphanies all at once is how we find a cri de coeur.

Screw this whingeing that our generation doesn't have as cool a hunk of music as our parents did. Don't buy into their propaganda or the terrorists have already won. Fight hard to find the interesting things.

I go sleepies.

Comments

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

But the mouse-over comment is totally For The Win!

[excursively.livejournal.com]

But it's not just the music... it's the impact of the music. How many bands have come out of the 00's that you would put on your list of "greatest bands of all time"--and that 10 other random people would as well?

Sure, there's been a ton of great music produced in the last 10 years. But how much of it became (or will become) mainstream? Maybe that's just a sign o' the times, and we'll never have another Zeppelin while the media outlets (MTV, Radio, iTunes) continue to promote money-making acts instead of talent--which I don't see changing anytime soon.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

That's not a fair assessment. Stairway to Heaven came out in 1971, four years before I was born. Its impact was enhanced by being the biggest hit song on the then-new format of stereo FM. It was a hit and was never released as a single. It lent itself to repeated air play when DJs still had to man the booth but needed the occasional bathroom break. It got played a lot when there wasn't as much competition, when distribution channels were limited and when most of us weren't even conceived. It's the background.

I think the comic is asking "what do we have to compare to this musically?", not "what can compare to the impact this song has after all this time?" Ever since the separation of musical genres, no one has had a hope of being comparable.

I don't think it's fair to add impact to the equation. If we're going to use that, then the first Velvet Underground album would trump StH because everyone that bought that album when it first came out formed a band. That's influence: "this album is lousy but it's hypnotic... shit, I could do better than this! Lemme pawn something to get a guitar..."

There isn't ONE media outlet anymore: it's more like the holes in a sponge. That doesn't mean the good music isn't around. We just have to find it.

[excursively.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that "the outlets" aren't to blame. Back when there was just radio, it was still difficult to achieve the level of notoriety all rockstars worked for... you still had agents and managers and labels and contracts, not to mention the many, many more stops on the dial, not all of which pushed the rock and roll line so hard as to be able to include Zeppelin in its rotation.

I don't think the comic is just looking at musical comparisons. There have been any number of "epic" songs that have been produced since that from a purely musical standpoint are, in fact, better. But, as Steve points out below, if you started naming them, how many people would say "Oh, yeah, that's up there on the list" and not "Really? Who recorded that?"

I tend to blame the money-grubbing music execs for pouring boy bands into our collective consciousness like the black oil aliens in x-files, but hey, people listen to that shit. The next Zep IV will not be sold in vinyl, and it won't be promoted by the same people who ran Britney's gig. Until we figure out a way for our generation to become exposed to music that ultimately has a greater impact than Zeppelin, I can do nothing but agree that the boomers are, in fact, kicking our assess.

Edited for the icon... and because hey! editing comments! Woot!

Not so pleased to meet me

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

This is tangential, but: I recently heard a Muzak version of "Can't Hardly Wait" by the Replacements playing in a McDonald's.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

I still love the story Mel Brooks told about being in an elevator and hearing "Springtime for Hitler" on the Muzak.

By the way, how is [spouse] and [child]? When should I call?

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

Not much to add since this post. Last night was rough. A two-hour crying jag that started around the time we wanted to go to bed (which was 7:30, because becoming a parent makes a person lame), then frequent feedings getting [spouse] up, then a massive poop for me to clean around 4:30 a.m., leading to an overloaded diaper pail and [daughter] deciding it was a perfect time to be all cute and try and get her parents to play with her. The only cool thing is that when she's pissed off, she can already hold her head up by herself, in order to scream more directly into her daddy's ear. I'd be proud if I weren't so wiped.

You can call any time. We have the ringer on our phone set to low, so it's easy for us to let it ring through to the machine when we have our hands full.

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

alas, sir, i will refute you as follows:

you had to specify which band recorded “The Ice Of Boston”, while you didn’t have to specify which band recorded “Stairway”. when a song becomes iconic, you can refer to it without specifying such details, and people know what you’re talking about. (i should add that you can even refer to it by nicknames or contractions, or even by transcribing a few representative bars in a comic, and people still know what you’re talking about.)

no doubt Dismemberment Plan is an excellent band, and very nice people to boot, but i don’t think they’ve succeeded in writing a song that’s so memorable that people who don’t care about music know of it.

-steve

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[(Anonymous)]

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