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You know what I never hear pros say?


BydoEmpire

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I never hear them saying "genre XYZ sucks" or "I hate this style."  It's really rare.  I listen to and read a lot of interviews & biographies of guitar players - and musicians in general - and outside of specific personality conflicts with past band members I never here pro players dogging on other styles and players.  One of the reasons they're pros is they have open ears.  There was a great quote from Santana I read last year that said something like "If you say you hate a genre, you'd better be able to play the s**t out of it.  How can you say you hate something you don't know a lot about?"  x100.

When I was younger, if it didn't have pointy headstocks and Marshall stacks, it sucks.  As I've gotten older, my ears have grown a lot.  Even though I don't listen to much pop music, it generally doesn't connect with me, I can appreciate a tightly-written song with a catchy melody.  I don't listen to a lot of flamenco, but geez, it's powerful stuff played with passion and incredible technique.  Not everyone has to like everything, obviously, and not all music is going to connect with everyone.  That doesn't mean there isn't something to learn from or apprecaite about it.

Keep your ears open, folks, it's a big world of music out there.

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Adam Buckley says that you can't call yourself a music fan unless you enjoy all types of music. Sounds about right!

I can appreciate things in all forms of music. Personally, I choose to listen to a lot of alternative, pop, rock, and fusion since those are my favorite genres. I can branch out and still enjoy other forms, though.

When I was a kid, I was more picky, but if you analyze that behavior, then it's easy to see that is primarily due to image-related issues rather than music-related issues. I think that is the case for many other people, too.

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I, Dave Aronow, professional musician, ack

nowlege there are some genras that I think pretty much suck. ( not many because I personally think I like more styles, genras, eras, individual musicians, sub genras etc. Bla bla bla. than jst about anyone ive ever met. My ipod on shuffle could easily scroll through fifty or so different sub genras without playing the same one twice and could play music from every single decade going back 500 years), BUT there ARE some genras that pretty much suck to my ears.


So, guess you need to make a new thread now because this one is destroyed.

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@flatspotter

I agree that you don't have to study a genre to realize you don't like it, provided that you give it an honest chance. Hiphop is one of those genres I find it difficult to get into, although there are songs that I do like, and there are merits to the style that are worth finding. But also like I said before, image gets in the way of music far too often; unsurprisingly, the most image-conscious genres are the most polarizing.

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Meh. . I've heard pros talk {censored} about other styles/musicians in interviews before. I don't think its common though because most interviewers don't ask "So what bands do you think suck?".  And a musicians PR is important to them so a lot of them just keep that stuff to themselves. Im sure they tell close friends/family about music they don't like in private. All people have opinions and Pro Musicians are just people too you know.

Did you hear what the drummer from The Black Keys said about Nickelback?

BTW, who doesn't hate Nickelback here?

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Professional musicians definitely hear something of value in all genres of music.  They may dislike certain artists (everyone has their likes and dislikes) but the smarts ones never dismiss an entire genre out of hand. 

I was reminded of this when I read a thread on another forum which was talking about Public Enemy's inclusion in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  There were the usual comments about how "rap is short for crap" and "it's not really rock & roll" and that reminded me of PE's 1991 duet with Anthrax: 'Bring tha Noise.'

One of the most influential tracks of the past 20 years came about because two groups of musicians didn't give a {censored} about whether or not mixing rap and metal would be commercial.  They just thought it was {censored}ing cool.

22 years later, it's still slammin'.  Turn it up!

 

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Alecto wrote:

 

Professional musicians definitely hear something of value in all genres of music.  They may dislike certain artists (everyone has their likes and dislikes) but the smarts ones never dismiss an entire genre out of hand. 

 

I was reminded of this when I read a thread on another forum which was talking about Public Enemy's inclusion in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  There were the usual comments about how "rap is short for crap" and "it's not really rock & roll" and that reminded me of PE's 1991 duet with Anthrax: 'Bring tha Noise.'

 

One of the most influential tracks of the past 20 years came about because two groups of musicians didn't give a {censored} about whether or not mixing rap and metal would be commercial.  They just thought it was {censored}ing cool.

 

22 years later, it's still slammin'.  Turn it up!

 


 

22 years later and I still can't get into that.  I just do not get it.  Never will I guess. 

To each his own noise!

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I think there is too much "pro" worship in this forum.  It's like people need a recording musician's take on everything to form or validate their opinions.  There's plenty of stuff I hate; I don't care what Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page, Bruce Springsteen, Geddy Lee, Michael Stipe, Ben Gibbard or anybody named Followill likes or dislikes ...

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A lot of pros don't want the PR headache of slagging someone else. I'd suspect a lot of them have strong opinions on types of music. If you don't have an opinion, how can you try to create something different than anything else out there?

Everyone has genres or bands they like better than other bands. You can't like everything.

A lot of people on here don't seem to like anything newer than music created in 1985. A lot of other people here don't like rap. Those are perfectly valid tastes to have, although I don't agree with them.

There's just so much good music out there, it makes no sense to force yourself to listen to stuff you don't like. I personally can't stand most hair metal and most shredding. I can't play them, either.

I can live with that.

 

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I've really never heard it either.  Like others have said, if a guy makes his living doing studio work it won't help him to make any enemies.  Look at the records a guy like Phil X has played on.... I don't think he sits around listening to pop records, but playing on those albums helps him make a living playing music.  It's really no different in a corporate environment... it doesn't pay to slag your boss or employer.  It's not good business.

What I impressed with is how humble guys like Derek Trucks, Guthrie Govan, Jimmy Herring, Eric Gales, etc come off in interviews.  I saw a recent interview with Govan where he was asked "what three guitarist do you think are overrated?"  He wouldn't respond and said something like "well, if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all".

At the local level some musicians seem more than happy to slam other musicians. How many craiglist arguments have you seen in your area?  It definitely happens.  In the end, who does it benefit?  Definitely not anybody involved.   

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Back in those days when I started playing music myself, I've also been in the situation that I disliked styles and was avoiding people which were fans of those styles, and continously told people how bad and horrible those styles are.

Over the years when I got to know more musicians, this changed drastically. Because whenever I met musicians, regardless of their styles, I found friendly and open minded people which even if they didn't like my style, they always listened to my works, gave advices, or even helped with some pieces. My own attitude towards them changed to that way pretty fast.

From my todays point of view, musicians are like-minded people which work towards the same goals and therefore are pretty supportive towards each other. And in a supportive environment like this, criticizing someone publicly could heavily backfire.

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kayd_mon wrote:

Lol @ Yngwie. He's many people's idea of tasteless, yet he thinks that other people are. It's all abour perspective!

 

you gotta look at yngwie through the prism of ritchie blackmore. Ricthie blackmore trashed artists so yngiwe does. 

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My favorite was from a few years back when Keith Richards and Elton John had some sort of public spat. They each lobbed insults at each other through the press and Keith had the last word. When some reporter followed up with Keith to ask if Elton had said anything to him since, Keith replied something to the effect that Elton was probably waiting for Bernie Taupin to finish writing his retort.

 

And not really an insult, but I always loved this quote from Noel Gallagher about brother Liam: "He's a man with a fork in a world of soup."

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You can't understand a genre until you are immersed in it.  I didn't get jazz until I forced myself to listen to it for six months.  Now it really excites me.

 

That said, people like to talk {censored}, and I enjoy hearing about it, so let them.

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