Crimes Against Music

Burning Down · 12-17-2010, 07:48 PM

Wow. Those Christmas ones are just so horrible and extremely tacky. I hate when artists make poppy versions of good Christmas songs - just leave the originals alone! I'd much rather listen to the orchestral or choral stuff anyways.

Guybrush · 12-18-2010, 02:48 AM

Gregorian Chant Cover Albums

The very idea of gregorian middle age style monks singing rock classics like Metallica's The Unforgiven or R.E.M's Losing my religion .. seems pretty ridiculous to me. Gregorian style chanting was popular hundreds of years ago and unlike a capella singers today, they all sang the same voice. No interesting harmonizations or anything. Why someone thought that would be a good way to cover modern pop and rock hits is a wonder, but the fact these records have gotten popular is an even bigger mystery.

Not surprisingly, the gregorian project is led by Frank Peterson, one of the founders behind the new wave electronica project Enigma. While Enigma was embarassing, it was only 1/10th as embarassing as the Gregorian albums. As cover albums, they're even worse than the mass produced pan flute albums because the cheese and pretentiousness levels are far off the scale. Fortunately, there are less of them, but they've been popular enough to make a total of 7 albums in the "Masters of Chant" series with number 8 on the way. A lot of us europeans have suffered their presence, but hopefully you americans have been spared .. so far.

These are parasites of the musical business. Their success is based almost entirely other people's hit songs which they warp into these embarassing parodies of their former selves. It's a crime I tell ya!

Good gods how bloody awful

edit :

Oops, there are more albums than I thought. There are a few more, including a christmas album which makes for a potential double crime.

right-track · 12-18-2010, 06:11 AM

Great minds tore?
http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...nst-music.html

Guybrush · 12-18-2010, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by right-track

Great minds tore?
http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...nst-music.html

Seems we are

I had forgotten about your old one, although maybe the thread title had sneaked into my subconcious.

I think the threads are differently themed as your old thread deals mostly with specific artists and songs while the approach here is more geneal, but .. I'm sorry for stealing your thread title. I did do a search before I created this, but I clearly didn't do it thoroughly enough.

right-track · 12-18-2010, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

I think the threads are differently themed as your old thread deals mostly with specific artists and songs while the approach here is more geneal...

No complaints here. This version appears to be the thinking man's version of my old one anyway.

Here's my contribution to what I consider a heinous crime against music of the highest order.
Between the years of 1968 right up until 1982, Pickwick's Hallmark label insisted on releasing the abominations known to it's victims as the Top of the Pops Album.
These crimes against music were perpetrated by anonymous criminals/session musicians going by the laughable name of 'The Top of the Poppers'.
The idea was to replicate the hits from the particular year of the albums release.
Kind of like the modern day releases of the ironically named 'Now That's What I Call Music' CD's...only much worse!!!

The album covers were largely unimaginative although rather pleasing on the eye. :insert wank smiley here:
Which is more than can be said of their dubious content.

Random covers from random years shown below.

right-track · 12-18-2010, 08:35 AM

Don't believe me?
Check out the bastards responsible for raping these two classics;

**Janszoon** · 12-18-2010, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by right-track

Is that a man?

Guybrush · 12-18-2010, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by right-track

Don't believe me?
Check out the bastards responsible for raping these two classics;

Holy crap, that's bad. How are they even allowed to?

Guybrush · 12-18-2010, 10:32 AM

Smurf Hits Cover Albums

Sorry for the constant cover complaints, but I guess it's just a fact of life that such projects and franchises make up for many of musical crimes out there. This little rant is against the long series of Smurf cover albums targetted towards children, or rather their parents. These are albums with hits covers where the songs sound like they're being sung by the smurfs.

When I was a kid, I loved listening to music, even if it wasn't smurfified. Why do some parents seem to think that a song has to be dumbed down to a stupid parody before it can be served to children? Are children really only able to appreciate the laughably bad? I don't think so.

I'm not sure how popular these are in the rest of the world, but in Norway, it seems there's at least one new smurf release every year. One thing is certain; my kids are not gonna listen to smurf hits

**Janszoon** · 12-18-2010, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

I'm not sure how popular these are in the rest of the world, but in Norway, it seems there's at least one new smurf release every year.

I don't think we have those over here and I'm pretty happy about that.

12-18-2010, 02:48 AM	#12 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	Gregorian Chant Cover Albums The very idea of gregorian middle age style monks singing rock classics like Metallica's The Unforgiven or R.E.M's Losing my religion .. seems pretty ridiculous to me. Gregorian style chanting was popular hundreds of years ago and unlike a capella singers today, they all sang the same voice. No interesting harmonizations or anything. Why someone thought that would be a good way to cover modern pop and rock hits is a wonder, but the fact these records have gotten popular is an even bigger mystery. Not surprisingly, the gregorian project is led by Frank Peterson, one of the founders behind the new wave electronica project Enigma. While Enigma was embarassing, it was only 1/10th as embarassing as the Gregorian albums. As cover albums, they're even worse than the mass produced pan flute albums because the cheese and pretentiousness levels are far off the scale. Fortunately, there are less of them, but they've been popular enough to make a total of 7 albums in the "Masters of Chant" series with number 8 on the way. A lot of us europeans have suffered their presence, but hopefully you americans have been spared .. so far. These are parasites of the musical business. Their success is based almost entirely other people's hit songs which they warp into these embarassing parodies of their former selves. It's a crime I tell ya! Good gods how bloody awful edit : Oops, there are more albums than I thought. There are a few more, including a christmas album which makes for a potential double crime. __________________ Something Completely Different

12-18-2010, 10:32 AM	#19 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	Smurf Hits Cover Albums Sorry for the constant cover complaints, but I guess it's just a fact of life that such projects and franchises make up for many of musical crimes out there. This little rant is against the long series of Smurf cover albums targetted towards children, or rather their parents. These are albums with hits covers where the songs sound like they're being sung by the smurfs. When I was a kid, I loved listening to music, even if it wasn't smurfified. Why do some parents seem to think that a song has to be dumbed down to a stupid parody before it can be served to children? Are children really only able to appreciate the laughably bad? I don't think so. I'm not sure how popular these are in the rest of the world, but in Norway, it seems there's at least one new smurf release every year. One thing is certain; my kids are not gonna listen to smurf hits __________________ Something Completely Different

12-17-2010, 07:48 PM	#11 (permalink)
Burning Down The Music Guru. Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Beyond the Wall Posts: 4,858	Wow. Those Christmas ones are just so horrible and extremely tacky. I hate when artists make poppy versions of good Christmas songs - just leave the originals alone! I'd much rather listen to the orchestral or choral stuff anyways.

12-18-2010, 06:11 AM	#13 (permalink)
right-track Atchin' Akai Join Date: May 2005 Location: Unamerica Posts: 8,723	Great minds tore? http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...nst-music.html

12-18-2010, 08:35 AM	#16 (permalink)
right-track Atchin' Akai Join Date: May 2005 Location: Unamerica Posts: 8,723	Don't believe me? Check out the bastards responsible for raping these two classics;