Infected with the 80's and 70's rock/pop!! :)

[JESTER700]

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

And I like the hits.
I hate "underground" music. I hate new unproven bands.
If you are a good enough band, the public will find out about you even without hit....ie: Grateful Dead, Phish.
But if you have been a band 15 years, and 98% of the population has never heard of you....there is a reason.

I like lots of stuff nobody's heard of, even in their heyday. IMO there's an audience for everything, even stuff not done very well. Stuff that IS done well (even styles I don't like) stands a better chance in the marketplace, but BIG success is much more a product of marketing than talent. A certain amount of talent must be there, but beyond that the megasales comes from social forces - trends, hipness, and advertising - the "public conciousness".

I think you're mistaken that the public will find out - I think most of the public needs to be told what it likes.

[EnigmaUV7]

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

I hate "underground" music. I hate new unproven bands.
If you are a good enough band, the public will find out about you even without hit....ie: Grateful Dead, Phish.
But if you have been a band 15 years, and 98% of the population has never heard of you....there is a reason.

I agree. A lot of "underground" music is underground for a REASON. It has very limited appeal and is aimed at a certain segment that likes certain sounds.

I don't think a band needs a Top 40 hit to be valid, but they should at least be acknowledged in the mainstream at some point. Led Zepplin had few charting songs and didn't win many awards in their glory days for example. There no shame in being successful, that's just a myth created by bitter failed "scenesters" with only aging faces to show for all their posturing over the years....

The biggest pile o' crap was in the early '90s when all of the Alterna-elitest "indie" rockers were suddenly granted interviews and went on to inform us how much the '80s rockers sucked. Oh well, now no one cares about the '90s indie rockers, while '80s music is a huge touring draw again.

[davester1234]

Again, for the record, ya'll know I'm a huge 80's fan myself, but when 80's rock was on its way 'out' in Cobains clutch it died just as hard as grunge and other 90's indie rock recently has. I'm not happy about that, but you're making it sound like 80's rock didn't die the horrible death more recently styles of rock have. And it did, plain and simple.

You can take it the bank that for everyone of us who thinks an 80's ressurgence is desirable and who support nostalgic tours of 80's bands such as Poison(and make them lucrative) there will be a kid in his early 20's who one day wants to see re-union tours of 90's bands he grew up with that you seem to want to call *garbage*. Pearl Jam, Creed, STP, and one day even Lincoln Park etc....And they will be thought of as the bands who pioneered a time when music meant something to people, just like our bands did for us.

So don't diss them because its not your cup of tea. Do you know how many people I know who think Joe Satriani's music sucks? I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While one thing touches a person, another may be completely unmoved.

Cliched isn't it??? But its true! It seems like too many forget music is art, and its suprising coming from guys who have extraordinary musical talent.

[JESTER700]

Originally Posted by EnigmaUV7

I agree. A lot of "underground" music is underground for a REASON. It has very limited appeal and is aimed at a certain segment that likes certain sounds.

I don't think a band needs a Top 40 hit to be valid, but they should at least be acknowledged in the mainstream at some point. Led Zepplin had few charting songs and didn't win many awards in their glory days for example. There no shame in being successful, that's just a myth created by bitter failed "scenesters" with only aging faces to show for all their posturing over the years....

Let's reduce this to the basics. Some of the best musicians & bands in the world are faceless to the mainstream - from Joe Pass & Pat Metheny to every classical player except for maybe Yo Yo Ma. This is simply because in THEIR time their music wasn't mainstream, or they didn't have the luck or marketing savvy needed. This may be said about ANY style of music. There are current 80's style metal bands that SMOKE the Darkness, but will likely never land in the public's eye, because they didn't happen to be around in the 80's when the style was big (and even the cheezeballz were making it big), or have the luck that The Darkness did. This says absolutely nothing about talent. The same can be said for any style of music you can name. Popularity on any level is a synergy of *some* level of ability combined with a lot of luck, timing, promotion, and a buttload of other things.