So today in my Heavy Metal class we covered the genre everyone thinks they know, but they don't; Punk. He starts us out with "hardcore punk." It wasn't too bad, after Tuesday's tour of Glam Metal, and closer to the Classic kinds of heavy metal we had been at before, but it was obviously different. maybe 3 chords per song played fast to hide the lack of skill and insane double pedal to hide the fact he was pretty much only hitting the bass and snare. Then Dr. Kirk gets us into where punk went. There was nothing any of us could do but laugh. It was seriously hilarious.
So for those of you who probably haven't heard it 80s punk, here's how it sounds. You have 3,4 guys in a band. One singer a bass drums and guitar. Now you talk to people about how oppressed you are. You build up how you're musics this torch for the slums and back side of society. You talk and talk, then you all get together ready to play your music. You take a huge breath, hit together, and stop playing. That's it. That's your entire song. ENTIRE SONG. No longer than 2 seconds long. AND THE CROWDS CHEERED FOR IT. WHY?!?
To be accurate not every punk song was like this, but there is a huuuuge amount of punk that is. It's a famous thing with them. That and the growling singing. As an experiment we looked up the lyrics to the songs and yes there is some. The one band, having the lyrics in front of us, made it so we could hear it in his growling. (Seriously, what is up with the throat screaming and growling? Why do people like this so much in their music?? What about hearing a guy clear his throat and hock up a lung is so entertaining to people? ) but it is possible to hear and understand them. Then came the song Dr. k looked up for fun. There was lyrics. They were "You suffer but why?" The song is called you suffer, by Napalm Death. He plays it for us. We here a lot of growling but not that. So he looks it up on youtube. We find the live version. It's 25 seconds. 23 of the seconds are him talking about something. The song is him going "GRAAAAAA" done. WHAT THE HECK. There's not even a break in the sound for him to change words. I think the lyrics lie.
I can't even explain how stupefied I am by this. I don't think that can even be considered a song, but apparently record labels and people do. It can't be considered good, yet people do. I just don't even know.
It mystifies me as well...am I your only reader? hehe--well, I'm proud to post comments on your blog!! Consider me, a classically trained singer with basically no prospects unless I was to ditch my family and hit the road seeking out record labels--the music industry is harsh. Drugged out nonsense makes millions of dollars and my glorious voice remains hidden in the suburbs of Columbus :)
ReplyDeletehahaha, you might be my only reader. That class is teaching me a lot about the crazy parts of the industry. I'm sure C-bus is proud to have your voice when they hear it though. :p The drugs are probably what makes the people think some of the stuff thats famous sound good to them. From what i hear, when you're drugged anything even cats fighting sounds good.
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