NWB - Community Blog

The popular charts have been unrepresentative of musical tastes since I can remember (late 70s onwards), with sales of reggea/ska and less mainstream forms of rock music getting a particularly raw deal. However, people are still making music and for us in Delirium, singles by Black Stone Cherry and Stone Sour have gone down very well in the pubs so maybe all's not lost?

Jon

we're doomed I tell ya, all doomed

and dinosaurs

this is a cool thing though

http://www.planetrock.com/Article.asp?id=2075780&spid=35830

Music is still easily accessible with loads of TV channels dedicated to music and t'internet download thingy....but when I was a lad.....we had vinyl records with picture covers, something you could own, hold, clean and cherish.....today we have the disposabe, soul-less, computer generated music.

Kids just switch on Kerrang/Scuzz etc as Gary says. Plus now there are dedicated rock channels - no waiting till 10 on a friday to hear tommy vance or staying up till after the hitman and her to watch Raw Power!!!
As for the record comment - exactly!! Downloading an mp3 is not the same as trying to get the limited edition coloured vinyl/picture disc/gatefold sleeve etc as soon as it came out.
Sometimes worth taking of the rose tinted glasses and actually loking at "older music" - google a chart from any week from any year and its 90%+ shite!!

100% agree with Jez C. Read my comment on the "adressing the problems" blog....

I would also like to add this question - How many people on here got interested in rock music because of the charts?

It means nothing, we are just turning into our parents....it only natural, you can't stop it. There are no pills to stop grumpyness.

There are some awesome points being generated on here recently. I do think there are definite generational differences. As a music fan I've recently started to go back to vinyl as for me the format is great. Having something tangible from your favourite band is undeniably great. Try putting Powerage by ACDC on a turntable and turning up the volume, it's as if the band are in the room with the tube amps getting the nice warm analogue colouration. However I've read that kids prefer the flat eq of digital sources, vinyl sounds old.

It's similar to CGI in movies. I hate it. Give me the original starwars or ET over the digitally enhanced ones. Whereas I think CGI looks rubbish, kids think movies without it look old. Like watching a black and white film does to me. These 'advancements' in technology are extremely divisive.

I've heard that people will always gravitate towards and be affected by the music of their youth because it reminds them of it. Same for me and And Justice for All by Metallica. It seems there are plenty of kids around into music( gothy fringe types) but I don't appreciate theirs and maybe vice versa. Saying that I hardly listen to new music at all so my point may be moot.

If I had to rely on the charts and bbc to keep up with what I like, I'd still be stuck in the 70s listening to Sweet, Slade, Wizzard, then all that punk stuff that I was part of. After punk, radio kinda became something I had no interest in as the charts didn't represent anything I was interested in.

To be honest I'm not even sure How I came to get to listen to Stonesour, Avenged Sevenfold, Blackstone cherry and so on. In general I'll listen to anything with balls, but the charts and regular radio do nothing for me. Thank f... for live bands.

lets not forget that for many years the charts have had such outstanding singles as "chirpy chirpy cheep cheep", "shadda uppa ya face", "they're going to take me away, ha ha!!" ( by napoleon 16th, iffen i remember correctly!)and other such gems that the popular culture have decided to buy in their droves, with only the odd smattering of rock tunes amongst them, and then only rarely a rock based song reaching positiontenor higher. we only have to hark back to xmas 2009 to remember the deodorised, sanitized, maufactured pop that r a m had to beat to get to number one? that, unfortunately,is the way it's always been.
i, for one, am not TOO concerned that rock orientated music is not making the charts-they've rarely, if ever, been an indicator of the quality music available.
i believe the charts ceased to have anything of quality or relevance to real music,except for on the rare occasion, from around 1971/2 onwards, once big business saw a way to makes lots of money. :-D

@TCS - there used to be abloke in the Ritz that sold pills to prevent grumpiness!!!
I think, on the serious side, if bands want to keep the late teenagers in pubs they might have to play some newer stuff (AX7 etc). After all, when I was young(er), for example, Deep Purple were and old band reforming!!! Nowadays Metallica Nirvana G'N'R etc are old bands, a whole genny of kids have been born since then - and bands like DC, Rush and Sabbath are positively ancient!!!

I agree to me bands from the 70's are ancient, so to kids now what we're playing must be like something from the ark. I'd much rather be playing later stuff but everytime we try it doesn't seem to go down that well. I don't know what my generation are doing unless there all busy raising kids and careers(HTNOTH). I still love playing the older stuff though cos it's class, playing a dc song is still really exciting to me.

Maybe I'll have to wait till the 30 somethings kids grow up and hope there is still a pub in existence for them to frequent? Or is it more about advertising more effectively?

@viking I agree dude the charts have never really been a true reflection of the nations music tastes. More a measure of how effective radio airplay/ large scale promotion/ domination of large record companies and willingness of people to stay on the beaten track and take what they are given.

I`m proud to say , my boys are stll carrying the flag for old school rock ...And from our experience theres plenty of youngsters into rock music . Not sure why current trends of record buying dont seem to reflect this , but I still think theres plenty of support around amongst kids for decent music .

Although rock had a dour year in the charts, look at the popularity of rock as a live music genre. There's THREE rock festivals in Britain which are all huge, Sonisphere, Download and Bloodstock. The kids love their rock!!!

The charts are a mess, the seeds have been spread to music channels and the internet. It's kind of sad, I do miss listening to the top 40 on a Sunday and waiting to see where my favourite bands were each week and hearing a new entry from an exciting new band. Kids these days don't bother with that, they're straight on the social networking sites, getting the stuff straight from the horse's (or should I say band's) mouth. From my experience of the younger generation of muso's it's really exciting. Speak to any young muso and not only will they know the classics but they know bands from all over the world too, who'd never get airplay in a month of Sundays or a sniff of a UK chart release.