Vera
06-09-2007, 01:44 PM
It's been a while since I've gotten into a completely new rock band but I recently have, and it's probably no surprise to you guys that the rock band is Asian (Taiwanese, to be exact).
But before you click back thinking "Fuck, another one of Sanni's obscure interest topics!", hear me out.
It's just that with this new band of mine, I've encountered some similarities to the other rock bands I like, and they all seem to form a certain career pattern of sorts.
First of all, one of the first things I ran into when finding information on Mayday (Wu Yue Tian) was a topic where people were discussing how they preferred the band's older material. They were also talking about how the band has changed their style somewhat.
Well, progress is natural to any rockband. To quote something we're all familiar with, it's like Dexter said about not being able to make Ignition ten thousand times. It just doesn't work like that. And it also tends to be that fans enjoy the older stuff - the songs you got into when you first heard them, or when only you and your closest friends were into them, or just back when they sounded unpolished but awesome.
Anyhow, back to Mayday. I downloaded (and later bought - yay legal!) their latest album, and listened to it. I really loved it and by then had already ordered their "Greatest Hits" type of CD (they've been around really long so I wanted to get a glimpse of their past CD's quickly). So eventually the GH arrived and listened to it. It was indeed vastly different from their latest. More poprock, less "epic", not as many classical instruments and smaller melodies, not much of the stadium rock grandeur that some of the songs on their latest definitely had.
What mostly struck me about their songs new vs old was the singer Ashin's vocals, though. They were very unique in the old songs - to the point that I could easily imagine people finding them peculiarly irritating, or people saying, "That guy can't sing" based on some of the songs. In the newer songs, his singing was more refined, like he'd slowly learned to use his vocals to their full potential without restraining them to create a unique rock sound. His voice - to put it simply - sounds more beautiful now.
Then I started thinking about some other bands and found similar vocalist progress. I like the way Dexter sings on Smash but I think he's vastly improved between Smash and Splinter. Kent, AFI, Jimmy Eat World, nearly every band I can think of has this sort of semi-contradictory thing where a lot of the fans confess to preferring the old skool stuffs but on the other hand, the band's musical skills, vocals etc have improved and are better on the newer records.
So is it that bands develop their downfall? Do they become generic and lose their originality while developing musically? Does big record company production make sure of this or is it just the band members themselves trying not to repeat themselves endlessly? Are fans just stupidly nostalgic or is the rougher old skool material always generally better? Does my theory make no fucking sense?
(And before y'all get all "OMG I know this and this band used to suck but became better with their newest material so your theory is bullshit!", I know there are plenty, plenty of exceptions... And yet. There are so so many bands this applies to some extent or the other.)
But before you click back thinking "Fuck, another one of Sanni's obscure interest topics!", hear me out.
It's just that with this new band of mine, I've encountered some similarities to the other rock bands I like, and they all seem to form a certain career pattern of sorts.
First of all, one of the first things I ran into when finding information on Mayday (Wu Yue Tian) was a topic where people were discussing how they preferred the band's older material. They were also talking about how the band has changed their style somewhat.
Well, progress is natural to any rockband. To quote something we're all familiar with, it's like Dexter said about not being able to make Ignition ten thousand times. It just doesn't work like that. And it also tends to be that fans enjoy the older stuff - the songs you got into when you first heard them, or when only you and your closest friends were into them, or just back when they sounded unpolished but awesome.
Anyhow, back to Mayday. I downloaded (and later bought - yay legal!) their latest album, and listened to it. I really loved it and by then had already ordered their "Greatest Hits" type of CD (they've been around really long so I wanted to get a glimpse of their past CD's quickly). So eventually the GH arrived and listened to it. It was indeed vastly different from their latest. More poprock, less "epic", not as many classical instruments and smaller melodies, not much of the stadium rock grandeur that some of the songs on their latest definitely had.
What mostly struck me about their songs new vs old was the singer Ashin's vocals, though. They were very unique in the old songs - to the point that I could easily imagine people finding them peculiarly irritating, or people saying, "That guy can't sing" based on some of the songs. In the newer songs, his singing was more refined, like he'd slowly learned to use his vocals to their full potential without restraining them to create a unique rock sound. His voice - to put it simply - sounds more beautiful now.
Then I started thinking about some other bands and found similar vocalist progress. I like the way Dexter sings on Smash but I think he's vastly improved between Smash and Splinter. Kent, AFI, Jimmy Eat World, nearly every band I can think of has this sort of semi-contradictory thing where a lot of the fans confess to preferring the old skool stuffs but on the other hand, the band's musical skills, vocals etc have improved and are better on the newer records.
So is it that bands develop their downfall? Do they become generic and lose their originality while developing musically? Does big record company production make sure of this or is it just the band members themselves trying not to repeat themselves endlessly? Are fans just stupidly nostalgic or is the rougher old skool material always generally better? Does my theory make no fucking sense?
(And before y'all get all "OMG I know this and this band used to suck but became better with their newest material so your theory is bullshit!", I know there are plenty, plenty of exceptions... And yet. There are so so many bands this applies to some extent or the other.)