Post your "UNPOPULAR" music opinions!

[relentless 254]

 

 

The fact that people are getting harrassed because they decide to share a PV on the internet (and said people actually plan to report the video for copyright breach) because it's a rare item baffles me. I feel like the "I do it to respect the band"-excuse is usually just another wording for "this thing is rare and for having it my e-penis enlarges and anyone who decides to share it with others must be stopped or my status will decrease". Not to mention that people like this usually flaunt their purchases around in other people's faces, then get upset when someone else does decide to share it. Lmfao grow up.

 

 

The worst part of that, I feel, is that the person actively trying to get videos removed are supporting the band's label more than the band, right? We live in this era of brand loyalty I don't think we've ever seen to this degree where people are defending their favorite products, and by extension the companies that make them. If anything, it's the record labels that are laughing all the way to the bank with fans like these.

 

 

And on the topic of ignoring requests to share releases: I've enjoyed reading everyone's take on the topic with great contributions to both sides of the argument. I'm far more laid-back with my approach than I would say most are. If someone is requesting me to upload an album I'll do it if I can, especially if that person is a new fan to the respective band / genre they are inquiring about. There is nothing better than opening the doors to a new fan to show them what a group has to offer. It seems like some get far more requests than others, and I'm one of the people that don't get asked often so perhaps that's why I'm willing to engage these people.

 

If I don't have the recording available, I won't ignore them though, because then that just makes everything awkward for everyone. A quick response telling them you are unable to share the album in question should suffice, and if they complain or insult? Who cares? It's just a damn CD and both parties can live past not downloading / not sharing that release.

[Nisimaldar 153]

 Doing something as small as ignoring someone's request of whether or not you would want to upload a release can increase this damage even more because it might be someone's final droplet that floods their bucket. You might not realize it as the offender in this case, but behind that request can stand a person who has been victim of ostracism all his or her life.

I see your point but you cannot put something like that on just random strangers shoulders. No one can, and shouldn't have to, live their life that considerate. If you think like that you must question every single one of your actions (you're on a forum that shares music, what if one of those musicians, from a small, unknown band, gets fed up with piracy and not having actual CD sales, starts to doubt his dreams and becomes depressed?) but to live a life worth living you have to be confident in your decisions. I'm not a therapist, all I can say is that I don't go out to offend and bully people but I'm also living my life for myself and not for someone else.

On another note; in reference to DogManX and blackdoll: I like Dir en Grey's Marrow of a Bone and all that came after it, don't know why people dislike it. I feel like their music massively improved from their vk days. Of course, there are classics like 'Obscure' and 'The Final'. But generally speaking I feel like they now actually know how to play their instruments.

[Lestat 2167]

And this is how I feel people with mental illnesses or conditions are still looked down upon. It is not an excuse we are using — it is not a form of attention-seeking. We seek people to listen to our side of the story so we're not oppressed by society's herded flock of sheep who all follow one example. I simply stated that ostracism is the main cause of people's depression and that it leads to further destruction of the soul, and that ignoring others is not a proper form of dealing with people who apparently seem annoying. I didn't just speak for myself, I spoke for every single depressed or mentally unstable individual out there in the world and gave an example of how deeply rooted it can sit with someone. But people's pain is overlooked because it's in the way, it means that we have to look out for them where we rather take care of ourselves. It's frightening to know how many people suffer in silence simply because of the fact that if they speak it out toward the world, they will either get ignored or spited. But here, the mass public of society wins the discussion again, it is what I and the rest of the world are used to. Making sure to treat people right and with respect is no longer a necessity in this mostly self-centered society and people are learnt to refrain from contacting others or responding to them, because it means that you might not profit from it as you desire. We no longer live in a give-and-take world. It's all taking, taking, and taking for every individual, keeping things to yourself without a desire to share. 

 

And I don't think this discussion is running out of hand, personally. It is what discussions and differences in opinions are about. No one is directly offending one another (or at least from my viewpoint), so I don't think a moderator's hand is necessary.

 

And to come back to the consideration-point: perhaps we should. Perhaps we should consider every individual's personal preferences, fears and triggers. It would make this world a much better and safer place, one in which we can accept and respect each other as is meant to. 

[Zeus 7997]

Oh my god stop acting like you're such a unique, precious snowflake and that you're the only person in the world - let alone on this forum - that's dealing with depression, mental issues, or going through personal shit. I do. sai does. You do. Everybody has their own struggle.

 

Nobody is looking down on you and nobody is picking on you, so quit it with the oppression complex. You're taking your depression, lumping it in with something you don't like, and using it to derail the topic. And that's why sai and I are in here steering discussion back to where it needs to be.

[doombox 4421]

I also apologize if this thread isnt open to discussion on these topics. I wasn't aware that we couldnt debate opinions in here. I'll take those discussions elsewhere in the future.

Edit: I just read the new replies Now I'm not sure how much was directed at me. But, either way, I'll cool my jets in here if it helps.

[evilcoconut 109]

I'm also one of those that typically ignores share requests from random people I don't know. I frankly think it's rude to put someone on the spot like that so they have to come up with something other than "I don't want to". And it's also on my Last FM profile, so if you can't read and ask me anyway, I'm definitely not going to feel obligated to respond.

 

If I'm hoping someone might share something, I might post a general ask in the band's shoutbox or an artist thread (if it's a forum) or something like that. But I'm not going to put people on the spot to respond.

[Biopanda 2675]

I'm also one of those that typically ignores share requests from random people I don't know. I frankly think it's rude to put someone on the spot like that so they have to come up with something other than "I don't want to". And it's also on my Last FM profile, so if you can't read and ask me anyway, I'm definitely not going to feel obligated to respond.

 

If I'm hoping someone might share something, I might post a general ask in the band's shoutbox or an artist thread (if it's a forum) or something like that. But I'm not going to put people on the spot to respond.

Ableist.

[DogManX 179]

Some ten years ago people really had to struggle to get a release. I remember wanting this rare rammstein single collection box for 200€, but eventually I never got it.

 

 

 

..Nowadays people are crying about not getting immediately what they want. And no, the "ignoring" part isn't much of a difference. No one is obliged to share anything, so if people ignore you, guess what. Shit happens.

 

..What has this world come to...

[evilcoconut 109]

Some ten years ago people really had to struggle to get a release. I remember wanting this rare rammstein single collection box for 200€, but eventually I never got it.

 

 

 

..Nowadays people are crying about not getting immediately what they want. And no, the "ignoring" part isn't much of a difference. No one is obliged to share anything, so if people ignore you, guess what. Shit happens.

 

..What has this world come to...

 

1.people are entitled shits

 

2.they weren't around when getting even ONE release from stupid obscure indie vk band was your lucky freaking day

[kyoselflove 2680]

If someone asks for me to upload something, I do it.  Doesn't seem like a big deal to me.  But I've never had anyone rude or tons of requests....so what do I know? xD

[anakuro 847]

On another side of this discussion: personally I don't particularly feel inclined to upload live only CDs when I possibly(/definitely?) spent hundreds of dollars + 4~6hr travel time one way to get to the live that it was sold at (or had to ask a friend for the 5000th time to buy something on my behalf and mail it to me because I couldn't go).

 

That being said, I buy things on people's behalf if I'm going to the live it's sold at to a certain extent. I mean, if I'm asked by too many people it's difficult. But other than that yeah sure...

[CAT5 9075]

2.they weren't around when getting even ONE release from stupid obscure indie vk band was your lucky freaking day

or even ONE mp3, lol

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

in 30 kbps pls by it urself if u want betr quality!!!!!

[eiheartx 1310]

in 30 kbps pls by it urself if u want betr quality!!!!!

 

  lmao

[hiroki 5521]

Here's my unpopular opinion so feel free to disagree.

Different ≠ Good. I'm tired of hearing "so-and-so is the 1251878th pop-rock band, therefore they are shit." I need someone to explain to me - logically - how people actually arrive at the ludicrous position that being different is a necessary condition for being good. If someone likes a certain style or sound - isn't it obviously natural to continue seeking out the same sound he enjoys so that he can derive the same satisfaction from it? People who love 90s nagoya kei are unwavering fans because of its very distinctive sound which has been arguably "lost" - and hence the nostalgia for that period. Is that really hard to understand? No. While having some originality is always welcome, it is neither necessary nor sufficient (nor even the most important) criterion for enjoying the music in question.

Pop-rock tends to be unfairly tagged as "the genre where everything-sounds-the-same" although pretty much the same thing can be said of "dark/gloomy kei", "core-ish music", electro, etc. Any counter-objection that I'm over-reducing the complexity of latter "genres" can be likewise applied to pop-rock, which I believe is more diverse than what most people (especially people who despise it) assume it to be. These days everything from Royz to Xepher to AKB48 are being carelessly chucked in the amorphous and ever-extending category of "poppish music", which allegedly (and almost by definition) sound the same. I do wonder if it isn't laughingly pretentious for people to dismiss stuff they don't like by saying "pop-rock all sound the same, hence they are garbage" while remaining willfully blind to their own human impulse to seek out the same sound/style when it comes to their pet subgenres. (I'm not going to name anyone.)

It's incredibly easy to sound different. I can record 620 minutes of belting chromatic scales non-stop, or 4 seconds of farting into the microphone. Sadly that makes for neither good nor enjoyable music.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

 

It's incredibly easy to sound different. I can record 620 minutes of belting chromatic scales non-stop, or 4 seconds of farting into a microphone.

 

omg where did you find arche samples????

 

It's really easy to dismiss things you don't like as one conglomerate blob. Rather than hearing differences, all people tend to hear are more things they don't care for, which could be why it all sounds similar to them. With that being said, you do make a good point that pretty much any corner or niche within music sounds like they belong together in one way or another.

[paradoxal 2948]

Here's my unpopular opinion so feel free to disagree.

Different ≠ Good. I'm tired of hearing "so-and-so is the 1251878th pop-rock band, therefore they are shit." I need someone to explain to me - logically - how people actually arrive at the ludicrous position that being different is a necessary condition for being good. If someone likes a certain style or sound - isn't it obviously natural to continue seeking out the same sound he enjoys so that he can derive the same satisfaction from it? People who love 90s nagoya kei are unwavering fans because of its very distinctive sound which has been arguably "lost" - and hence the nostalgia for that period. Is that really hard to understand? No. While having some originality is always welcome, it is neither necessary nor sufficient (nor even the most important) criterion for enjoying the music in question.

Pop-rock tends to be unfairly tagged as "the genre where everything-sounds-the-same" although pretty much the same thing can be said of "dark/gloomy kei", "core-ish music", electro, etc. Any counter-objection that I'm over-reducing the complexity of latter "genres" can be likewise applied to pop-rock, which I believe is more diverse than what most people (especially people who despise it) assume it to be. These days everything from Royz to Xepher to AKB48 are being carelessly chucked in the amorphous and ever-extending category of "poppish music", which allegedly (and almost by definition) sound the same. I do wonder if it isn't laughingly pretentious for people to dismiss stuff they don't like by saying "pop-rock all sound the same, hence they are garbage" while remaining willfully blind to their own human impulse to do seek out the same sound/style when it comes to their pet subgenres. (I'm not going to name anyone.)

It's incredibly easy to sound different. I can record 620 minutes of belting chromatic scales non-stop, or 4 seconds of farting into the microphone. Sadly that makes for neither good nor enjoyable music.

 

Amen. I couldn't have said it better, I truly agree with you. What if people just stopped dismissing whole genres because huehueheuheuhue-they-all-sound-the-same.

[Bear 1817]

Sounding different and original doesn't necessary mean you sound good, but sounding like someone else doesn't necessary mean you sound good either. It mostly comes down to if you manage to write good songs or not. But I'll add this, as this is how I see it:

 

If you're aiming for a very familiar sound, a sound that a shitload of other bands does, in most cases you will need not only to sound good, but also manage to add some character and identity to it. You simply need to stand out a bit. You'll need to be able to add that little extra that makes people wanna listen to you instead of the 50 other bands similar to you. And out of the 50 similar bands, rarely are there any reason to listen to more than 4-5 of those. A couple of those will stand out because of great songwriting that's above the rest, and a couple of them will stand out because they've managed to add a bit of character and identity to the sound, as well as writing just as good songs as the 45-46 other bands.

 

But as you probably know I am the one who made a thread about copycats and posted a lot of clones that I simply love, so I obviously don't mind bands with a similar sound to othes. But at the end of the day in most cases one will need some kind of a character to make you stand out, unless you manage to write way better songs than the rest of the bunch, which in most cases you simply don't. Only a few out of the lot can write songs that's above the rest.

[DogManX 179]

My unpopular music opinion: It isn't "best album", it is "best of album" or simply "best of".

[Lestat 2167]

^ That's simply a case of bad grammar, at least for Japanese releases.

[doombox 4421]

Here's my unpopular opinion so feel free to disagree.

Different ≠ Good. I'm tired of hearing "so-and-so is the 1251878th pop-rock band, therefore they are shit." I need someone to explain to me - logically - how people actually arrive at the ludicrous position that being different is a necessary condition for being good.

Simply put, some people value originality and creativity over technical ability, classical knowledge, or a plethora of other things. What is "good" will always boil down to what that person values most and it's always subjective. I don't see what's hard to understand about that? I just wish people stopped acting like their opinions on music were facts and shoving them down other people's throats.

[Biopanda 2675]

Simply put, some people value originality and creativity over technical ability, classical knowledge, or a plethora of other things. What is "good" will always boil down to what that person values most and it's always subjective. I don't see what's hard to understand about that? I just wish people stopped acting like their opinions on music were facts and shoving them down other people's throats.

I think it's less about people seeking something different than it is about them dismissing things they don't like as "sounding the same". There was a recent example of this which I think might have helped spur the post which handwaved away a band as "sounding the same just like..." and listing three wildly different sounding bands, or something to that effect.

[doombox 4421]

I think it's less about people seeking something different than it is about them dismissing things they don't like as "sounding the same". There was a recent example of this which I think might have helped spur the post which handwaved away a band as "sounding the same just like..." and listing three wildly different sounding bands, or something to that effect.

I agree that this happens but that wasnt the question I was answering. They asked why people would equate "different" to "good".

However, people mislabeling bands lumping them in together simply because they are in a genre said person doesn't like is annoying. I feel that pain being a metalcore fan and every time a vk band uses a any hardcore breakdown they get thrown into the "metalcore" category like its an insult. I'm so over it.

[relentless 254]

Here's my unpopular opinion so feel free to disagree.

Different ≠ Good. I'm tired of hearing "so-and-so is the 1251878th pop-rock band, therefore they are shit." I need someone to explain to me - logically - how people actually arrive at the ludicrous position that being different is a necessary condition for being good.

 

 

I actually don't think, at least from what I've seen, that this opinion is unpopular at all. There is a legitimate case to be made that "different" music does not always equal "good"; but I feel that the people who say "oh it's different, so it's better" are trying to articulate something within musical vocabulary that they are ignorant of. Engage someone who says "this music is all the same" or anything related, and watch as they resort to gymnastics to articulate what it is that makes the music "all the same" or what makes it "different". When you actually talk to the person making the point, and inquire "well, what is it about this music that makes it so different?" or "well, what is it about this music that makes it the same from everything else in the genre?", they're using phrases that lack actual substance without context or further understanding of the music.

 

What, I think, they're trying to say is that something is derivative, which is a legitimate complaint; but one which says very little of the quality and more on its basis in genre conventions and the inability to set itself apart from them. Take any generic "-core" band and you'll find sections (i.e. "breakdowns") that are just there....to be there. To widen the scope, take generic Pop music and its lack of invention when it comes to chord progressions. The I-IV-V is a staple of Pop music and is the basis for hundreds, upon hundreds, upon hundreds of songs. Pair that with the widespread form of "verse, chorus, verse", and you have a formula for a song that can be likened to manufacturing. Take the individual parts, piece them together, and you have a Pop hit. This, though, is not always the case, as even Sting, Roy Orbison, and the Beatles are/were able to become creative in those conventions, especially the Beatles' expanded harmony in their middle to late period.

 

The premise that "if it's not different, it's not good" is faulty; but I feel as though there is at least SOMETHING to be said of the opinion "this sounds exactly like all this other music I've heard, it's incredibly boring".

[sai 868]

What, I think, they're trying to say is that something is derivative, which is a legitimate complaint; but one which says very little of the quality and more on its basis in genre conventions and the inability to set itself apart from them. Take any generic "-core" band and you'll find sections (i.e. "breakdowns") that are just there....to be there. To widen the scope, take generic Pop music and its lack of invention when it comes to chord progressions. The I-IV-V is a staple of Pop music and is the basis for hundreds, upon hundreds, upon hundreds of songs. Pair that with the widespread form of "verse, chorus, verse", and you have a formula for a song that can be likened to manufacturing. Take the individual parts, piece them together, and you have a Pop hit. This, though, is not always the case, as even Sting, Roy Orbison, and the Beatles are/were able to become creative in those conventions, especially the Beatles' expanded harmony in their middle to late period.

 

This is basically the main issue, or that's how I see it. Artists within a genre follow a manual that makes them part of that genre and there are plenty of bands who don't do anything outside of that manual. That's either because they don't want to (mostly those that don't feel like stepping out of their comfort zone), they're being restricted by their label, or they simply don't have the musical qualities for it.

 

I personally don't mind if bands don't take that step. I agree with Bear however, that you're going to have to stand out, and you can't do that if you blindly follow a manual over and over again. That's what I deem "generic", in this case. It's a well-loathed term, but for me it equals bands that don't work outside a certain framework, yet a framework that is also used by a lot of other artists. That doesn't mean however that the experimentation that a band does outside of said framework will always be succesful. It can be a huge trainwreck and in that case you sometimes wish they had stayed INSIDE of the framework, lol. However, when a band plays outside of a certain framework and does it well, that's when I would say that yes, different does equal good, but only in that case. Sometimes the framework itself is enough too, but that depends on each individual's taste.