music

Music is something I love. I have it on for most things I do. Work, travel, sports, just chilling at home. I make little playlists for everything. Pre sports lists, country lists, rap lists, chill lists, if I am in a mood I think of a list for it. I also love MOST music. Honestly pop is the only music I don't download. Simple fact is pop, or good pop is hard to avoid so I don't really need to download it. It will be forced on me. I fear though I am becoming the guys I hated a few years back.... I am becoming that guy who is saying fuck new music sucks. I like, in no order.... Guns N Roses, Metallica, Motley Crue, Korn, System, Nirvana, Hed P.E, Dr. Dre, NWA, Eminem, Pac, Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson. That's my meat and potatoes. There are tons more but those can always pick me up. HOWEVER even the stuff they have done in the last decade is not AMAZING. So really nothing has blown my mind in years...... I guess I am going to rant maybe on somethings I have enjoyed. Maybe somethings I don't like.... Some guys I think might be worth watching and seeing if they pan out.

Kind of really done with the new trend of country singers name dropping country legends to prove how "country" they are. I believe some are, actual country boys BUT some are packaged products. Which is whatever. If you are, you are and you make good music then just make good music! You don't have to prove your "country cred" to me. That's just my current issue with country. I (Or rather my wife) has found some new artists. I rather enjoy Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen. Got to see them in concert last year. That was a great show and I am sure soon enough Morgan will be touring as a headliner. Another act we saw I rather liked was James Barker Band. I give Morgan he is a country boy. He tried to be pretty for American idol and that didn't pan out. Funny thing, people who fail on those shows seem to do better than the winners. While Morgan cleaned up for that show, I have started following him on Social Media, I will actually believe he is a country boy.... Luke Combs is just a great talent. He has great voice and the fact is his songs are umm what's the right word. True I guess, seem like real life stories mixed in with humor that people can relate to. James Barker well they just sound like my 20s lol. I have no idea how old these guys are but ya that is exactly what they remind me of, 20s. They were great seeing live at Rain Maker here in St Albert a few years back. There are others with a song or two I like but those three have pretty steady play in my truck. The last one I really have liked it Daniel Lee. I believe it was Spotify who pointed him out to me, first lines I heard were "My drawl is too thick for rock, I am to old school for new country." I knew he was going to be good. But he is from the deep south so unless somehow he explodes I doubt I will ever see him here.

What happened to rock? I feel like it kinda died. Like all over. I mean 80s to me is rock. Loud, fast and fun. 90s had grunge which I guess is still rock and well nu metal to end the 90s and start the 2000s. Still rock. But what happened? Am I too far removed now that I don't know good rock or is it just gone? Hell I will take Nickelback making an album like one of their first three over most of what I hear today. I was thinking I cannot remember the last "rock" album I bought. Like I guess Hollywood Undead is "rock" and even their last couple albums have let me down. So I think my greatest fear has come true, I have become those guys I didn't want to be who always told me music was better when they were young. IN my defense you turn on 100.3 The Bear, the only actual rock station in Edmonton and its heavy rotation is older music. So maybe it isn't me maybe no new rock exists, maybe it is all pop now........

Kid Rock started a trend. Or I give him credit and maybe I shouldn't. Maybe someone did it before him. Crossed country and rap. Or attempted to. He really didn't. He doesn't rap well or do country well but he brought that party feel to hillbillies and look at him now. I shouldn't cut him down, I had his first 2 or 3 albums. He is like a strange Nickelback that always sounds the same..... Anyways I thought that died out. I was wrong, Spotify started suggesting a lot of BAD rap / country mix. Like a lot and most of it is really terrible. Let me  be blunt,  I like rap, I like country, I know I couldn't do either one separate well so I wouldn't try t mix them and many of you shouldn't either. I don't think its right for me to shit on people out there trying but, yes some of you fat, white hillbillies shouldn't try a strange hybrid music. I found Yelawolf (Thanks SOA). He seems to do it right or much better than Kid Rock. Although Shady records seemed to constantly push Yela and Kid to work together. That's beside the point, Yela is the only one I have heard does this even kind of good. When I said I haven't heard anything amazing in years that is mostly true except for the few things I have named so far. Yela is one of them, Love Story IMO is one of the best albums I have heard in a LONG, LONG time. Then some of his stuff after is not so good. TM3 is not very good at all. Trial by Fire and Ghetto Cowboy have some highlights but they also have some low lights. Sadly I have missed him twice in Edmonton....

Rap music, can I call it dead as well? I have to say NO I am not a big new rap guy. I couldn't name 10 hot new rappers, wanna know why. Mostly crap. TO me and I might be wrong, rap was a honest brutal music form. Guys like the NWA, Pac, Biggie told truths, along with some bravado and party songs. The NWA scared people, literally scared people all the way up to the white house. Why? Cause they told what life was actually like in the ghetto. That life only a few miles away from happy white middle class people was a war. Pac, this is just my opinion, but he was by far the greatest rapper of all time. His range of topics was insane. His talent stretched beyond music but sadly Death Row ruined him. His talent went into "Diss" tracks and then he died. Biggie was almost the east coasts answer to Pac. I say almost cause while he was talented I still put Pac on a pedestal. The secret to Eminem's success, honestly was his first albums were brutal truths. His first 3 all had different parts of his life and actual thoughts. First "major" album was a poor white guy in a black medium, second was a massive star adjusting to fame. The Third was the fallout of rising too quick and taking shots at things like politics. Sure he was white, that helped but lets be honest if that was all it took Vanilla Ice would have been Eminem and Mad Child and MGK would actually be respected. I listen to most the new shit and it is nothing. No artistry, no talent, nothing worth listening to. Yes in rap I know you need to present a "hard" image. Most of these guys as Jay-Z said wouldn't bust a grape in a fruit fight. There is more to it. I know you wanna be rich and the centre of attention but again there is more to it. My whole rant on rap can be summed up with this, the greatest rappers of all time had something to say. They didn't look like tatted up clowns with nothing to say.....

What is up with Mad Child? I just have to put this in here after the rap section. When Swollen Members came out, I liked them. They didn't rap about gun and drugs, lol to be honest they were almost safe middle class rap. I would say Canadian fame hit them, they got some $$ and maybe to big for there britches. Started rapping more about gangster shit, I will give him yes he is or was friends with HA members. Then had a drug issues, vanished for a bit and came back. Made a few more albums, not as good quality and then is now on his 3rd incarnation? Dude stop. I still dig a lot of your work but your just starting to look bad. GO the Dre route. Produce some good shit. Find some hot new talent. Stop rebranding yourself, I won't say you aren't talented. Get back to what made you famous. I am sure the original Mad Child would make fun of the one I see on Instagram. 

Eminem dropped a new album since I started this blog. Guess he "dissed" Snoop. I tweeted about this months ago when it started. People got mad Em wasn't in Snoops top ten. I get it, I do. Em might be one of the best of all time that doesn't mean Snoop has to say that. He came up in a different time, when honestly rap was better. He wrote songs with Pac. Sorry Stans not everyone has to call Em one of the best of all time. HOWEVER as a guy who has worked with Em  a few times and even toured together you would think he wouldn't trash talk him. That might be crossing a line, but I think he did it hoping a response would come. Snoop is one of those guys who needs the lime light and it is fading for him. Why he was on NHL2020 I will never know. Good way to get people talking about you, have Marshal diss you. The funny thing though was Snoop calling himself a gangster. Two days ago I saw him on TV selling a water filter, didn't he do a song with Katie Perry and wasn't he just on a Mariah Carey Xmas special. Studio gangster maybe..... On the flip side Em could have just left it alone. He kind of comes off like MGK did to him. Sad that a hero dissed him and now having a tantrum. Might download that album today and have a listen..... 

Spotify is amazing, I assumed lots of streaming services are? I get it is an algorithm but how does it know me better than I know myself? Like the suggestions are for the most part bang on. Now yes they can get over the top. I like Eminem, Yelawolf and old mad child. This does not mean I like every white guy who tries to rap. But the discover weekly opinion has really shown me a lot of new artists I have never heard of. No I don't like them all but almost every song they have suggested has been good. I love the playlist features. I can't even count how many lists I have. For pretty much any occasion. Like this is the golden age for music, you can find so much that before when you went to the record store you would have no idea about. BUT my beef is there is nothing worth knowing about. So please someone come save music...... Oh hey if you read this and have any ideas of something you think I would like based off this let me know! Oh and while I praise Spotify I have to say the podcast selection is amazing. I started with the Danger Cats, moved on to Spittin Chiclets, then onto Canadian True Crime and Conspiracy Theories. That was all between movie reviews and painful takes on Edmonton. If everything is bad in the city and you hate it so much, move.... Sorry that was a side rant I can't handle some podcasts. Also check out Get off my Lawn intro episode and horror episode.

Anyways music just isn't up to snuff these days if you wanted my opinion.... I can't even remember the last album I said this is a classic! I can guarantee it was at least 10/15 years ago. So I dunno what to say, did I finally become what I feared? Am I that old guy sitting there saying "You don't know good music!" Or is music just not really that good these days....