Rock Albums People Who Don't Love Rock Like

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they pooh-pooh all the "hipster" music i'm into but they get super jazzed up for disney soundtracks.

Rihannamator (get bent), Monday, 8 September 2014 21:20 (nine years ago) link

glad to learn the term "maximally even rhythms" to describe a thing i have been thinking about

example (crüt), Monday, 8 September 2014 21:50 (nine years ago) link

it's weird -- i know music fans that are into really out-there experimental stuff, and even they ride hard for zz top and early van halen. the jazz guys like rock, the folk guys like rock (newport was a long time ago). it's only the classical people that are all "eww" about it -- unless it's some new amsterdam crossover act that the new york times approves of, and those acts are never guitar-centric.

Rihannamator (get bent), Monday, 8 September 2014 21:55 (nine years ago) link

so everyone is by default a rock fan..? reminds me of that old Momus blog post about how literally everyone in America wears jeans

sleepingbag, Monday, 8 September 2014 21:56 (nine years ago) link

(Guy I mentioned is a total rock fan, to be clear.)

EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 8 September 2014 21:58 (nine years ago) link

(But appreciates Radiohead in a highbrow sort of way or something?)

EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 8 September 2014 21:58 (nine years ago) link

"by default" is where critics of rockism come in -- combatting the idea that rock is the default setting and everything else orbits around it (mixed metaphor, sorry). there is no default.

Rihannamator (get bent), Monday, 8 September 2014 21:58 (nine years ago) link

I've known a couple of classical guys who came close to fitting get bent's description. They both liked the Beatles. One also liked Queen and Radiohead. The other disliked most other rock but liked AC divas like Celine Dion.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 8 September 2014 22:07 (nine years ago) link

whenever people call me about selling their records and they say they have lots of classical i'm always happy to have them bring stuff in. they often have good prog, weird avant/electronic, and cool world music records mixed in. (especially if they were buying in the late 60's and 70's. boomer classical fans had the biggest ears. 50's and early 60's classical fans were pretty trad in my experience.)

scott seward, Monday, 8 September 2014 23:06 (nine years ago) link

(boomers in general though have become the most trad music fans since the fans of the four lads and the ames brothers...in other words, their parents...)

scott seward, Monday, 8 September 2014 23:08 (nine years ago) link

There are also people heavy into ambient and ethereal and maybe some soundtracks, but no rock. Clearly the most fruitful genre is electronic - people who won't listen to anything with guitars or drums ( unless they are "ethnic" drums). Ethereal fans I don't get - it's a genre that surely has rock influences.

Opus Gai (I M Losted), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 00:15 (nine years ago) link

I've always suspected hardcore ambient/ethereal fans suffer from some sort of nervous disorders

Darin, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 00:18 (nine years ago) link

my experience with ethereal/ambient is that that sort of music was very popular among the fisting community in the '90s.

rushomancy, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 00:37 (nine years ago) link

:D lock thread

imago, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 00:41 (nine years ago) link

Ethereal fistings, truly a genre unto itself

odd proggy geezer (Moodles), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 01:08 (nine years ago) link

i own this record. it's my token gay lashing record:

http://hansonrecords.bigcartel.com/product/whipsmen-the-sounds-of-discipline-lp-zorro

scott seward, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 01:14 (nine years ago) link

i can't stop staring at that cover...

scott seward, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 02:09 (nine years ago) link

it's weird -- i know music fans that are into really out-there experimental stuff, and even they ride hard for zz top and early van halen. the jazz guys like rock, the folk guys like rock (newport was a long time ago). it's only the classical people that are all "eww" about it -- unless it's some new amsterdam crossover act that the new york times approves of, and those acts are never guitar-centric

I come from and electronic and dance music background (though nowadays I listen to all sort of stuff, including classical music, but I wouldn't call myself a "classical person" in any way), and I've never really liked rock. I'm sure there many others about the same age as me or younger who are like this: we grew up with electronic music, and rock never felt that relevant to us, it was the music of earlier generations, not of ours. Kinda like swing and bebop were to the boomer generation.

Tuomas, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 08:55 (nine years ago) link

Me suggesting that this thread happen was prompted by reading Simon Reynolds' Wire piece on Radiohead circa 2001, where he suggested that in the late 90s lots of UK dance fans started using certain rock albums as "comedown" albums - OK Computer, Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, etc.

Assuming that this is true, I'm interested in the idea that certain "rock" albums work well with listening modes that are not centered on rock music. It's the inverse of tendency for non-rock music with rock friendly values or signifiers to be embraced by rock-centric listeners.

Certainly there seems to be a certain consensus about good rock music amongst the goon crew, though I'd struggle to explain its underlying basis.

Tim F, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 09:31 (nine years ago) link

Beardo and balearic revivalism obv gave rise to several instances of music that was superficially rock but was really designed for dance audiences.

Tim F, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 09:53 (nine years ago) link

Or that might be going too far: post-dance audiences who also like rock

Tim F, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 09:54 (nine years ago) link

plenty of people on ILM don't listen to rock music. i see what Tim's saying though, although if the thread title had been more specifically about rock albums that dance fans like, or as you say, the opposite of the token dance album rock fans like, I'd also be interested in that. Is there a hypothetical genre here? I've never heard their music but Doves always struck me as a possible example of this, considering their earlier incarnation as Sub Sub.

monoprix à dimanche (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 09:59 (nine years ago) link

Yeah I was thinking about the comedown rock album thing - there were a rash of quieter, gentler albums that gained a lot of traction in publications like Mixmag around 2000. Lambchop's Nixon, Kings of Convenience, etc. In fact Erland Oye has basically made a career out of walking this line.

Goon-friendly rock seems to mostly be emoish punk pop (My Chemical Romance/Green Day/Fall Out Boy), some metal, and the kind of brawny modern rock bands that veer closer to classic rock (the Gaslight Anthem etc). Although I can't imagine the Gaslight Anthem possibly appealing to anyone who doesn't identify as liking rock music in some way.

Matt DC, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 10:33 (nine years ago) link

My experience of African radio stations is that they play no rock music at all except Coldplay, U2 and and Oasis.

Matt DC, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 10:39 (nine years ago) link

has a rock band ever actively tried to do this?
We've had failed attempts like the Klaxxon's nu-rave thing I suppose. But is there a rock equivalent of, say, U.F.Orb? I'd genuinely love to hear a rock band's take on post-club chill out music.

monoprix à dimanche (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:03 (nine years ago) link

Hole is interesting as a bona fide rock act whose second and third albums definitely work as confessional teen pop avant la lettre

Tim F, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:36 (nine years ago) link

Have to say, I know very few 'rock fans' who listened to Hole beyond the first album.

monoprix à dimanche (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:41 (nine years ago) link

what I mean is, the only time I really remember hearing much Hole discussion lately is through the ILM pop/dance crew.

monoprix à dimanche (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:43 (nine years ago) link

I have to say, I know loads of rock fans who listened to a lot more than the first Hole album. But, like, lots of them were gurls.

Shugazi (Branwell with an N), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:44 (nine years ago) link

Just thought - Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf strikes me as a key example of a rock album adored by non-rock fans.

monoprix à dimanche (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:47 (nine years ago) link

the hole => ashlee => paramore lineage is definitely the most interesting thing touched on itt so far, if only because the connections are pretty straightforward and explicit, but it's actually harder to tell which elements are "bona fide rock" and which are not. i'd put kelly clarkson's second and third albums in there too.

sky probably reveals that the constant is in lyrical voice rather than specific sonics, given that her album seems to draw on pre-90s rock (that i'm not v familiar with) rather than hole/courtney (apart from image-wise!).

lex pretend, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:48 (nine years ago) link

xpost Wasn't Hole's second album the one that broke them with a larger rock audience? It seemed like only indie people paid much attention to the first album.

Now you're messing with a (President Keyes), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:48 (nine years ago) link

the hole => ashlee => paramore lineage is definitely the most interesting thing touched on itt so far, if only because the connections are pretty straightforward and explicit, but it's actually harder to tell which elements are "bona fide rock" and which are not. i'd put kelly clarkson's second and third albums in there too.

Of course most rock fans would argue that this is technically pop music with a heavy reliance on rock instrumentation. You could kind of hedge in everything from Pink to the 1975 into this bracket without too much trouble. The first Hole album strikes me as bonafide rock without a doubt, but then we're in danger of getting bogged down in semantics.

monoprix à dimanche (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:55 (nine years ago) link

xpost, maybe my own (UK, indie-based) experiences are off but every little grunge/punk/indie kid I knew was into the first Hole album in the mid-90s and 'Violet' got a load of rotation on UK radio whereas I just don't remember a whole heap of enthusiasm for subsequent releases. YMMV.

monoprix à dimanche (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 11:58 (nine years ago) link

"Violet" was on the 2nd album, the one that came out right after KC's death. The first album was the one Kim Gordon produced.

Now you're messing with a (President Keyes), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 12:00 (nine years ago) link

There were three modern rock hits, including a #1 and #3, on Celebrity Skin.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 12:14 (nine years ago) link

(http://www.billboard.com/artist/303552/hole/chart?f=377)

EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 12:17 (nine years ago) link

LOL you guys always focus on the most boring issues. Question is not "is it rock or not" but whether/how it's heard diferently by different audiences.

Is a goon who listens to Fall Out Boy hearing something different to the ordinary Fall Out Boy fan? And, if not, does the reverse also hold: that any ordinary Fall Out Boy fan would probably make a decent goon?

Tim F, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 12:24 (nine years ago) link

wtf is a goon in this context?

Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 12:27 (nine years ago) link

Rap fan who posts in the rolling rap threads.

Tim F, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 12:32 (nine years ago) link

is Fall Out Boy really a goon consensus band, or is it Whiney's cheerleading?

Now you're messing with a (President Keyes), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 12:33 (nine years ago) link

Shit! Forgot Live Through This wasn't a debut. Sorry for confusion

monoprix à dimanche (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 12:44 (nine years ago) link

Of course, there are always people who are convinced that "rock" doesn't necessarily come from the blues. Yes, those pains in the ass who think "classical" affectations redeem a rock work.

Other people are put off by something they feel is too "macho".

What about post-grunge and NU-mentalists from the late 1990's? Are they "not rock" because they pander to an anti-50's / 60's / blues mentality?

Off topic, perhaps, but what are the true roots of EDM, since many EDM fans shun guitars and drums? Does it annoy anyone besides me?

Opus Gai (I M Losted), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 12:44 (nine years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-xUwDARVb4#t=35

scott seward, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 13:33 (nine years ago) link

two months pass...

i would say i have a certain style of rock im into but it's kind of soulstrut-ish, kind of dahnce-ish, but prioritizing songcraft and originality more than the latter, while de-emphasizing the canonical focus / received wisdom of the former

deej loaf (D-40), Monday, 10 November 2014 04:52 (nine years ago) link

latin pop music

Moka, Monday, 10 November 2014 06:30 (nine years ago) link

So albums by Chayanne, Ricky Martin, David Bisbal, Marc Anthony, Alejandro Sanz.... if you see any of those in someone's collection, I'm positive you wont see any rock albums (safe for a couple of token ones, if any).

Refer to this thread for Token rock albums. Pick any. Token rock album

Moka, Monday, 10 November 2014 06:38 (nine years ago) link

Lol sorry I misread the title as "Albums people who don't love rock like"

Moka, Monday, 10 November 2014 06:44 (nine years ago) link

For the real question in this thread I would say the real answer would be the best selling ones:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums

Moka, Monday, 10 November 2014 06:47 (nine years ago) link


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