That was insane.

Album/song reccomendations plz?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Don't kid yourself. You of all people should know that I'm far removed from those glorifying shred guitar. I know you read my posts in the DragonForce thread. (and on the specific mention of Malmsteen, he'll always be a guilty pleasure since I started listening to him at age 14, but I know he's nothing more than fast arpeggios and lyrics about vikings)

Folk music in America grew out of traditional Irish, English, and German ballads most often sung in repeated cadence with no chorus' and extremely simple 2-3 chord progressions. I'm taking classes on Music history in college Ethan. I'm not some kid with a "My First Theory Book".

I'm someone with a broad appreciation for talent and I happen to place musicianship and composition over fanbase and tearjerk appeal.

Blain, check out Focus. They have a batch of demo's also but my EHD crashed so until I can regather all my tunes, the full length should have to suffice.

You seem to place this way above ambience and emotion. You are missing out on so much good music, if your music tastes are ruled by these criteria alone.

Emotion in music can really only be understood by the ones who wrote it and who it was written for.

As for ambience, I think it's a cop out for a lack of skill. I do like some bands with ambient sides to them, however. Later era Burzum, Nadja, Black Shape of Nexus, and Sunn O)))

You really do not know a lot about music do you? Do you know what the original purpose of music is?

Virtually all modern music owes itself to the blues. The Blues was originally a form of communication and a bringing together of communities over something as simple as a camp fire. The roots can be traced further to Folk, but I shall stay with the Blues. It's musical shape gave birth to Jazz, Funk and soul. Rock music was born out of these genres by taking the arrangements and distorting the chords.

WAIT! Blues is also about Emotion (lyrically) and Ambience (creating an atmosphere), but the listeners cannot understand it?

I am so glad you have reviewed 20th century music in a short paragraph.

its weird how rock now sounds completely different than Jazz and Funk. its starting to become a lot more hardcore than it used to be. i listened to Linkin Park when i was getting into rock than i listened to some smooth jazz from my grandparents collection and i couldn't see where rock now came from that. its really odd how something so subtle came to something so ferocious.

blues went to jazz went to rock went to metal went to hardcore so on and so on....

Even though it was recently used in this forum, I'm going to re-use it as it fits perfectly here: "If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants".

Much of what I listen to is built off of the Blues, if you trace it all the way back, however, that does not mean that the music I listen to follows the rules or prescriptions of that old style. Much more of what I listen to is built of off Western Art Music, better known as Classical (although the Classical period was but a part of the movement). WAM emphasised both creativity and composition within a set of parameters defined with near mathmatical precision. As time has gone on certain bands have completely redefined what composition is (Gorguts' album Obscura being the most visceral example) and it's in these artists that I put my respect and admiration.

Anyone can learn a few pentatonic scales and sing in a forlorn voice about how they lost their love or whatnot. It takes much more talent to study hundreds of years of musical theory and experimentation and apply that to crafting art.

Granted, not everything I listen to is groundbreaking, but if I always immersed myself in sheer genius, I'd be more depressed than I already am!


EDIT: H.I.M. for the last time, stop talking about music. Hardcore was around before most of what is considered "metal" today and Linkin Park is rap-rock with the occasional half assed scream thrown in.

people who have the time and patience to look back through all the years must have some sort of talent as you said. i just find it really odd how some simple music has evasped into something so out there that people have related music to something completely different to where it really originated.

i also find it weird how people say rock started off everything that music is. people who dont listen to blues dont know the half of where rock came from. the emotion that came from the blues pushed toward rock which is why with some bands they talk about a load of different sentiments. its much easier to understand a band if you know why there lyrics are sung the way they are.

I was talking about MODERN music and it's roots and you have gone off into a tangent. Technical music draws it's influence from mathmatical sums and theory. Technical music followed folk music though. Emotion was and is the key word to the formation of music and it's connations to it's relavent society. Although technical ability is regarded in many facets of society, the over riding opinion is the appreciation of the emotion of the song in the first place. You may well listen to a song and appreciate it's technical ability but music was never created for technical prowess. It was a tool of communication. Plain and simple.

I appreciate what you look for in music, but dissing other people for looking for something in music that you don't appreciate is narrow minded and a loss to your self. You should always be MOVED by music first, then IMPRESSED by it's composition.

i understand. i wasnt attempting to into a tangent. i was writing what i was thinking, guess i didnt know it till you noticed it first. and i wasnt considering everyone else's taste. i was a bit narrow minded in that. i apologize

but some people are easily impressed by music before they are moved by it. being impressed by the composition makes it even easier for someone to be moved by it...