80s bands now the only way to fill venues

There's still great guitar rock being made in 2018.

It's just not featured as prominently as it once was. The same exposure is not there, most music stations don't play this genre in peak times anymore.

You have to search for this stuff yourself.

Also the decline of music magazines, CD sales and music tv channels have had a lasting impact.

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

There's still great guitar rock being made in 2018.

It's just not featured as prominently as it once was. The same exposure is not there, most music stations don't play this genre in peak times anymore.

You have to search for this stuff yourself.

Also the decline of music magazines, CD sales and music tv channels have had a lasting impact.

Not really.

There is some interesting hybrid Genres for sure but in terms of Culturally defining bands with A grade hits..no. classic songwriting quality definitely gone down

grindle wrote: »

This kind of talk is bananas! Arca, Flying Lotus, Iglooghost, Sophie, James Blake, Death Grips - they all have crazy styles/sounds from baroque pop arranged and produced like it's musique concrète through to weird industrial punk hip-hop via heavy electonics, all firing music out the last few years, no sameness whatsoever, thousands showing up to their gigs.

Hell yes. Well said. Ever listen to a group called 'Amnesia Scanner' grindle? I'd be adding them to that great list there too

These threads are always good for a laugh.

grindle wrote: »

This kind of talk is bananas! Arca, Flying Lotus, Iglooghost, Sophie, James Blake, Death Grips - they all have crazy styles/sounds from baroque pop arranged and produced like it's musique concrète through to weird industrial punk hip-hop via heavy electonics, all firing music out the last few years, no sameness whatsoever, thousands showing up to their gigs.

Those groups that you listed aren't using any sounds that guys like Autechre or Aphex Twin weren't using back in the 90's. In fact, there's a section of Flying Lotus's Never Catch Me that blatantly rips Aphex Twin off. Once again, I'm not saying that there isn't good music in there, but none of it sounds "new" to me.

Anyway, this is veering off onto a different topic. None of those bands would fill a stadium and neither would Aphex Twin in all likelihood ...which is a travesty because the guy's a legend

Rothko wrote: »

Does it really matter is someone can sell out a stadium? I've always disliked outdoor gigs and a stadium concert just doesn't interest me at all. I'd much rather see a band in a smaller indoor venue any day.

For the most part I agree with you but I did see Springsteen out in the rain at the RDS and I'd class that night as nearly a spiritual experience for me. So I don't write them all off completely but I do tend to aim for smaller gigs.

I'll amend "Stadium" to "50,000+ venue" seeing as the OP mentioned Slane and that's around 80,000 if I'm not mistaken.

Wrongway1985 wrote: »

This is nonsense, you cant get musical enjoyment from new music because the people you're surrounded by don't talk about it??

That's not what I meant, new music is good but rubbish compared to old music, if this was not true then why aren't ANY recent artists/groups very well known by the majority of people?

sameoldname wrote: »

Those groups that you listed aren't using any sounds that guys like Autechre or Aphex Twin weren't using back in the 90's. In fact, there's a section of Flying Lotus's Never Catch Me that blatantly rips Aphex Twin off. Once again, I'm not saying that there isn't good music in there, but none of it sounds "new" to me.

Hmm. We all know Aphex is a pioneer but I'd disagree that Aphex could have made something like 'Cosmogramma' - not because he's technically incapable but because he's drawing from different influences.
Stylistically they're quite different. Might as well say Velvet Underground are a cheap copy of the Beatles as there are guitars, drums and voices involved.

sameoldname wrote: »

Anyway, this is veering off onto a different topic. None of those bands would fill a stadium and neither would Aphex Twin in all likelihood ...which is a travesty because the guy's a legend

...and it comes back to the stadium fetish - Aphex Twin in a stadium sounds appalling, I can't understand why you'd wish for it. Forbidden Fruit was already a bit big for that style of music and the sound was predictably washed out. So many details lost to racks of compressors trying to push sound across a large distance with the wind outright erasing details across the board.
It would've been better in a large tent but the promoters here never bother putting in treatment panels like they do at some of the fests across Europe.

Greyfox wrote: »

That's not what I meant, new music is good but rubbish compared to old music, if this was not true then why aren't ANY recent artists/groups very well known by the majority of people?

This has already been covered across multiple posts by multiple people: because there are more bands competing for ears across more services and the merging of old distribution channels leads to homogenisation of output, the larger the corporation the more "surefire winnners" they crave, hence crapola like X-factor - ability to fill a stadium is no guarantee of quality either way and was generally for easy-on-the-ear legacy acts, a couple of bands that've had a few mega-popular albums (like Muse for some reason), or boybands.
This apparent downwards slide of the music industry leads to more musicians putting on more gigs in more comfortable settings with better sound, less hangers-on in a crowd, less louts going just because there's an "event gig" on. What's not to like?

Is it the spectacle of a stadium that ye like, the scale of it?
Seems mad how much ye like stadium gigs - I'd prefer to see any band I've ever liked in a well-equipped club, Cork Opera House or Vicar Street instead of a stadium. I can't think of any act I'd prefer to watch in a stadium unless there was some weirdly specific element of the show that needs a stadium to incorporate it.

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Personally when I attend a festival I ONLY go the bands in small print, if I don't need a magnifying glass to see the print then they're too popular.

Strange interpretation of his post, but y'know, hipsters eh - nyuknyuknyuk amirite?

We can all agree that we can like whatever music we want, surely? What we need to find out is why there's this apparent need for a minority of those bands (same as it ever was) to be inserted into stadiums and why some people think it means the music is better.

I agree with Grindle about the placing of Aphex Twin at Forbidden Fruit, I was at the gig and loved it being a big Aphex Twin nut, but initially I was annoyed when he was announced again for Forbidden Fruit, I was hoping in 2017 that he would play Electric Picnic and possibly headline their second biggest stage the Electric Arena marquee. If you look at the streaming footage of Aphex's gig at Field Day, he is playing in the Barn, the visuals are unbelievable and the lasers are stunning and the sound is top notch. He doesn't suit the open air main stage. Looking back on Forbidden Fruit clips, you can hardly see the lasers beyond the main stage and the sound is not as crisp or clear as Field Days, plus Field Day got an extra 40 minutes of a set whilst in Ireland here we have these stupid curfew restrictions where everything closes up at 11 pm.