Opinion on Calvin Harris

hatrickpatrick

Which song in particular are people bashing? "I'm Not Alone" and "We Found Love" are melodically amazing in my view, apart from that silly "ramp / whoosh" bit in We Found Love but that seems to be becoming a staple of EDM lately so not exactly CH's fault...

AnonoBoy

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Which song in particular are people bashing? "I'm Not Alone" and "We Found Love" are melodically amazing in my view

And therein lies the rub.

end of the road

there is good dance music still but by jesus do you have to dig to find it. most of the good djs like tiesto and so on back in the day have sold out to EDM. a shame but thats how it is i suppose.

biko

I prefer Calvin and Hobbes myself.

dont bother

end of the road wrote: »

there is good dance music still but by jesus do you have to dig to find it. most of the good djs like tiesto and so on back in the day have sold out to EDM. a shame but thats how it is i suppose.

true.
i'll give tiesto credit where it's due... he seems to always play decent songs when he's DJing, but the muck he releases as singles now is as bad as the CH/Guetta/Avicii tripe.

i consider it throwaway music. it's got a certain amount of a bang/pop when it's released at first - then fizzles out. usually if i was to see a new release (for example that "Blame" song he has out at the minute) on a monday, and would know for a fact, by the time friday rolls around and i'm having a few drinks with tunes on youtube, it wont make the cut cos even in a matter of a few days it will have been overexposed, overplayed and has already become boring. a sure sign of a bad song, made in probably about an hour using the exact formula he used for his previous hits, just changing up the sounds a bit and the melody.

i produce music myself, and you're right, it's VERY hard to find decent dance music now.
a few examples which are trying to turn around the trend would be maybe more of that ibiza/balearic vibe - like "deep house" stuff, but then, that is turning into mainstream muck aswell!!

best thing to do: dig out old albums by the likes of "the knife" or old compilation cd's from about 2004-2006 that would have a good selection of non-mainstream decent music from that time - before EDM kicked off...

suicide_circus

Any yokes?

dont bother

suicide_circus wrote: »

Any yokes?

no, they all do coke now. duh

hatrickpatrick

What do people specifically not like about EDM though? Let's take Avicii, what is it about his style that people don't like? The melodies? The rhythm? The lyrics? The vocals?

skimpydoo

One word ****e.

skimpydoo

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

What do people specifically not like about EDM though? Let's take Avicii, what is it about his style that people don't like? The melodies? The rhythm? The lyrics? The vocals?

I don't like everything.

hatrickpatrick

skimpydoo wrote: »

I don't like everything.

That doesn't explain much Compositionally what's wrong with the songs? Or is it just cool to not like modern music?

skimpydoo

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

That doesn't explain much Compositionally what's wrong with the songs? Or is it just cool to not like modern music?

I like modern music and here are some examples. Blackberry Smoke, Rival Sons, Vintage Trouble & Crow Black Chicken. As f0r the songs, the music is crap and the lyrics are dreadful.

jus_tin4

kwestfan08 wrote: »

The best of them mainstream DJs IMO. Miles better than Guetta, et al.

Deadmau5 is much better imo anyways, much more creative, better melodies, better production

DoYouEvenLift

He's the mackelmore of dance music

Diabhal Beag

Inoffensive tbh. He gets a lot of airplay but still doesn't make me want to strangle the radio, which I can't say for Hozier.

hatrickpatrick

skimpydoo wrote: »

I like modern music and here are some examples. Blackberry Smoke, Rival Sons, Vintage Trouble & Crow Black Chicken. As f0r the songs, the music is crap and the lyrics are dreadful.

Ok let's take a specific example - "Wake Me Up (When It's All Over)" - decent guitar progression, lyrics which resonate with a lot of young people, really nice vocals, what exactly is crap about it?

end of the road

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

What do people specifically not like about EDM though? Let's take Avicii, what is it about his style that people don't like? The melodies? The rhythm? The lyrics? The vocals?

i don't care about it as such, but it is over played. most of the dance music on radio these days is this "deep" house. everyones playing it, nobody is doing anything different

How Soon Is Now

Music in general is ****ing awful now a days there's nothing out there now id want to turn a radio on for.

As for the so called dance music that gets played now.......

As is the problem with a lot of things in society in this day and age it doesn't take very much talent to entertain the masses!

I find myself going back to older music all the time ive lost track of whats out there now because the standard is awful unless u go digging big time and i cant be bothered.

obezyana

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Inoffensive tbh. He gets a lot of airplay but still doesn't make me want to strangle the radio, which I can't say for Hozier.

I fcuking hate Hozier.......pure dreadful sounding music. :mad:

he's worth over $200 million, he's only 30. He has a nice life - well done.
http://en.mediamass.net/people/calvin-harris/highest-paid.html

How Soon Is Now

Whatever about Calvin Harris if someone can sit there with a straight face and tell me they actually like the pure ****e Avicii makes they actually deserve a smack.

Shakespeare's Sister

I think his stuff is very good for the type of stuff it is. Excellent melodies. The rest of that crowd: Avicci, Smegma or whatever, Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta (although he's not the worst of them)... Calvin Harris is clearly in another league as a song-writer compared to them.

Works with some good artists too. After Acceptable In The 80s and the one with Dizzee Rascal (great tunes) he started doing the dance "anthem" thing which is quite different to the previous stuff, but I guess he saw a moneyspinner, and he's damn good at it.

skimpydoo

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Ok let's take a specific example - "Wake Me Up (When It's All Over)" - decent guitar progression, lyrics which resonate with a lot of young people, really nice vocals, what exactly is crap about it?

Well who ever buys that song or likes it I feel sorry for. It's just not my cup of tea.

munchkin_utd

How Soon Is Now wrote: »

Music in general is ****ing awful now a days there's nothing out there now id want to turn a radio on for.
<snip>

seriously, when was Irish radio EVER listenable anyhow?

2fm went from chart crap to Irish crap, aside from Larry Gogan who just played crap.
local stations went from country western crap to a couple of hours of chart crap in the evenings.
atlantic 252 was high rotation chart crap.

I had the luck to live near the border so got BBC R1 so evening listening was brilliant with John Peel and the likes, but from having friends from down the country (pre mp3 days) you'd see how the lack of decent radio has scarred them music-taste wise.

BUT - those days the chart meant old style Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Scooter, Wet Wet Wet and other abominations.
Calvin Harris is far more listenable than those "artists".

dont bother

i miss fleetwood mac!

Remmy

He seems to be very controlling of the missus, If I'm thinking of the same guy

DrumSteve

dont bother wrote: »

i miss fleetwood mac!

They are still around, I only seen them a few months back.

They aren't great at EDM, mind.

Shakespeare's Sister

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

doesn't make me want to strangle the radio, which I can't say for Hozier.

obezyana wrote: »

I fcuking hate Hozier.......pure dreadful sounding music. :mad:

What's so bad about Hozier? Not very exciting I'd agree (although I like that church song - reminds me of Yellow Brick Road era Elton John) but hardly horrific and not the only one to do that kind of stuff.
Is it because so many people like him?