Stoney

Well, maybe envy. With all the UNDESERVED money that these fags will earn... if there is a divine justice, these little idiots should be sentenced to life hard labor along with the Finleys, but I already know that won’t happen and instead, they’ll find themselves swimming in gold. This thing depresses me and makes me sad...

"Steve Vai is a genius, he is one of those rare artists who can hear the 'voice of the moon' and translate it into music, just like Fellini did with cinema. This 'Passion & Warfare' is something to own and place on the shelf of the most cherished things, next to reproductions of Van Gogh, to photos of a loved one"... oh my god oh my god oh my god, I’m laughing so hard... good lord how much the metalheads amuse me, for heaven’s sake... VAN GOGH! FELLINI! It would’ve only needed me to say that Steve Vai is almost as important as the pope, and we would have been all set!!

Thank goodness I'm not a metal fan, so I can spare myself from having this "essential classic" in my CD collection...

But why, is there a genre of popular music, in your opinion, that still has something to say? If so, tell me what it is... The fact is that it's really difficult, in the modern market, for any popular phenomenon and therefore cultural expression to manifest without being sucked into the market and turned into a standard to maximize sales profits. Whenever something emerges that comes from the people and speaks to the people, its content gets instrumentalized, bought, patented, stuffed with propaganda and advertising, and then resold "cleaned up" to the people who are actually its rightful owners, in order to maintain the level of ignorance and stupidity unchanged. Music has a serious social function: it shapes the masses, molds them, indoctrinates them. I remind you that in the 60s, U.S. presidents feared the rock movement because it was potentially subversive. That's why the industry bought it and filled it with sedative content: the people of Woodstock, the people who stopped the Vietnam War, have now been rendered harmless and are only capable of striking a pose and saying silly things, buying t-shirts and records while spending a fortune and believing that they are alternative or rebellious... and that's why all the talks about how cool Vasco is piss me off. Today, rock is an innocuous genre whose content, when not absent, is banal and standardized, and I agree with primiballi who says it's a zombie that serves no purpose anymore. But the same goes for all other genres; take, for example, the striking case of rap, which has wasted all its potential by reducing itself to a cover fashion phenomenon, glorifying the lifestyle (whores, champagne, and cocaine) of the "rich" whom it once hated for being responsible for an unjust social divide. If such "historic" genres are like this, just imagine pop, which has always based its existence primarily on commercial purposes. I hope things change soon and that music returns to being what it has always been, namely a universal and ancestral tool for the diffusion of knowledge and identity, and not like today, just stagnation and regression of thought, used only to enrich 4 assholes and make idiots out of everyone else.

"Girls like any fool who goes on TRL, regardless of whether he’s handsome, ugly, gay, or transgender. The brain is what it is; what can you do..." I get it, if I see a hot chick on TV, I might watch the video regardless of the (shitty) music it features (and then I curse her for forcing me, against my will, to listen to awful music while exploiting the hypnotic effect of her feminine charms). Logically, girls should experience the same feelings with some male singer of masculine appearance; I could even accept a Ricky Martin at a stretch, or maybe the Take That... but now they’re fixated on some hermaphrodite who is more woman than man. What’s happened? Has TRL turned the new generation of girls into a horde of repressed lesbians? And above all, why have the media been promoting these new standards of male beauty for a while now, which are based on the denial of everything masculine? It's a concerning issue...

I believe it's concerning that teenage girls are infatuated (sexually) with someone who is more feminine than they are. I thought girls liked boys... Can someone explain this mystery to me? Where are we headed?

It must also be said that the "mass" often misunderstands the message of artists, turning everything into image, empty symbols, and meaningless slogans. Just think back to what happened with Cobain, who had always said he didn't want to become anyone's idol and, against his will, became one. The situation got out of hand for him and the global spread of his music led to the usual phenomenon of flattening, fashion, and attitudes associated with the phenomenon he was part of. And so, up until '98, there were kids running around with t-shirts that read "I hate myself and I want to die," which "looked cool," but expressed nothing but attitude. They wore those shirts for fashion, to get noticed, to define themselves in some silly way, to impress girls, while that poor guy had truly shot himself. Like in every expanded mass phenomenon, 99% of the people couldn't care less about what the artist says, as long as they are part of the "pack" and can pretend to identify with something. In the case of some artists, this is bad because they can't communicate what they want, and in some cases, it's good (for them) because whatever they say (or DON'T say) everyone listens anyway. Guess which category Vasco belongs to. The Nirvana phenomenon lasted just long enough—it burned out quickly and ended when it had to end. The other leading bands of that time also came to a point and a period (think of Soundgarden). Things took their course, and it's a perfect example of how things, in my opinion, should go: a musical phenomenon arises first in a small circle, in garages, in downtown venues, wherever you like, then it expands, says what it needs to say, and finally ends, perhaps right at the peak of its success, when it has become massified and reached everyone. Because it's a prerogative of any respected movement. To emerge to add something to what has already been done before, and then to withdraw to give the opportunity for those who come after to continue the discourse. Clearly, I’m not forgetting that there has been a market behind all this; there were people who could and wanted to invest to bring certain groups to light in the 90s, people who recognized their potential both from a purely musical standpoint and from a content perspective. There were people who bet on it, who understood that those motivated and idea-filled youngsters would bring a breath of fresh air to the rock scene, which had stagnated for a good decade. It was one of the few cases where the market favored the spread of something worthwhile. In Italy, it goes without saying that this will never happen if the entertainment world decides to recycle the same old acts for 30 years instead of promoting new (and valid) proposals, relegating the "new blood" to the status of little puppets exploited to the bone for a single chart hit and then discarded.

Other names come to mind. Shall we talk about rock? About someone who said something? Listen to "Viaggio Senza Vento" by Timoria, an underrated band forever. The album is from 1993, back when Francesco Renga was still around with his beautiful voice interpreting truly valid ROCK pieces, but unfortunately they remain and will remain unknown (especially after EVERYONE now identifies Renga as a pop singer who DEBUTED at Sanremo a few years ago). It's a concept album that really talks about life, discomfort, pain, hope, change... nothing like four bullshit lines thrown together that anyone could do, nothing like POP melodies arranged by professional musicians paid millions of euros and backed by images, advertising, and multi-billion dollar music videos rotating on MTV. Certainly, what I'm proposing isn't a "historic" album, it hasn't influenced much, but damn, it's a fantastic record, and I believe anyone who likes rock can't be indifferent to it. I know, it's not "culture," it's just a humble album from a band that plays and has a story to tell... but as you can see, it just takes a millimeter's distance from the mainstream scene to discover things that might be small but are of great value.
Moreover, a side note: being passionate about music, I often find myself going to venues and listening to groups performing their music live, and many times yes, I do hear unprofessional people, beginners, or anyway immature and indecisive... but most of the time you come across groups of musicians who have nothing to envy—when it comes to ideas, content, and originality—of those super-known and super-famous bands that populate the Italian charts; rather, it’s the other way around. And even if they were beginner bands, a hundred times better is the demo of a group of fourteen-year-olds recording incoherent stuff in a garage than these scene titans who earn as much as an emir with every single they release; at least, there’s life there, there’s passion, there are feelings. Look around you, it’s full of people pouring their lives into music, who love every single note they play with their instrument, and when they find themselves on a stage, even in front of 10 people, they give their all, transmitting emotions and sensations, and the beautiful thing is that they do it just for passion, most of the time without earning anything. It’s really sad that these people, in almost all cases, will always be playing in peripheral venues applauded by passing patrons without the possibility of doing something more, while charlatans now stuffed with money and cocaine live off dignity (they don’t deserve) and just have to spit on a record to make a mass of television addicts scream for a miracle.

Primiballi, I'm not giving you the names of the "top 10," I'm sorry. And that's because the question you pose doesn't make sense. Clearly, I've explained myself poorly. I never said, "I understand music, I know things that are indeed culture... while you listen to Vasco, poor things." I know nothing about music, if that helps me appear less "dictatorial" (and I've never wanted to come across that way). I'm not someone who spends their days listening only to extremely refined and perfect music, locked in a limbo while browsing through the works of lofty poets, reveling in my wisdom while contrasting it with the ignorance of the masses. I don't want to exaggerate the content, and if I did, it's because I was pissed off reading certain things. The discussion is very down to earth... listen to whatever the hell you want, but please don't say Vasco is a legend, because if you think about it for two seconds, you'll realize it can't be that way. And don't say he's a poet, because just reading the most mundane lyrics of Guccini or De André makes the abysmal difference between a poet and a fool clear. Well, the names I would mention are these; they may be trivial, but certainly not as much as Vasco: De André, De Gregori, Guccini. Are they overexposed? Who cares, I'm not trying to be alternative at all costs. Guccini... especially Guccini, who, no matter the topic, can make anything non-trivial. Listen to "Lettera," which is a reflection on the passage of time and the brevity of life, and pay attention to the words he uses. For me, that's a poet. Or, if we don't want to consider him as such, at least he has had the humility to study before writing a text, which already puts him light-years ahead of Vasco. Listen to "Quattro Stracci," which speaks of love. Listen to "Farewell," which also talks about a love that has ended, where with words loaded with symbolism he makes the blissful and joyful atmospheres of youthful love come alive for the listener. I could quote you excerpts from the lyrics, but it wouldn't make sense to pull them out of context; really, I advise you to listen to it so you can understand what I mean by "poetry," and you'll see that I'm not asking for Dante or Petrarch, but just a minimum of effort. Every time I listen to similar songs, I feel stimulated; they make me think, as well as move me. I have only to learn from the lyrics and melodies of people like this, but from Vasco?... Vasco has a vocabulary that probably counts 20 words in total, he doesn't know how to conjugate verbs and makes more subjunctive mistakes than a footballer; it's just that he has more money than I do, and maybe that's why he feels superior, so why should I listen to him or consider him someone important? At most, he's proof that in the modern world even mediocrity and ignorance can be successful. It’s the philosophy of Big Brother, as I said some time ago. And what drives me crazy is that people listen to him precisely for that reason! His ignorance is his strength, he’s the "bad boy" character elevated to a symbol and model; he’s the one who always got 4s in all subjects but still made it in life, screw the "annoying parents," the "crappy teachers," and the "infamous society" that doesn’t get him, and people see themselves in him. And thanks for that, I might add. That’s all there is, forget about culture; it’s just chatter... at this point, we might as well consider Jerry Calà or Massimo Boldi as carriers of culture. It’s the same old story, heard a million times. I'm really sorry, but, excuse me, music is something else...

Well... maybe it also depends on the wisdom and entrepreneurial skills of the individual. Perhaps the manager of Pausini or Vasco is more capable than those of others, or those who disappear into obscurity after just one single were meant to make just one album and then vanish... (for example, the Finley will make another album and then disappear into nothingness, it's written on their faces). It could also be that those who handle the arrangements and music for Pausini are skilled at finding a mix of melodies and "pathos" that can appeal to a vast number of people. Let’s not forget that these "artists" work with highly trained musicians and smart people who, if they want to create a refined chart-topping single, can do it without any problems. This is a skill too, even if in my opinion it has no artistic value. And then, in any case, in my argument, I haven't completely excluded people's decision-making ability. Of course... in the end, everyone can choose, even though it's always about choosing from the alternatives presented to you...