#music thoughts

[selenedistress]

It's funny how Lemon Demon and Will Wood fans seem to intersect, because the way I see it, they're artists with completely opposite sensibilities.

Will Wood sings about serious topics in an irreverent way, whereas Lemon Demon sings about silly topics in a sincere way.

Will Wood's themes are often intellectual and deep, whereas Lemon Demon's are often nerdy and frivolous.

Will Wood often borrows words and images from mental health terminology to spirituality, less to provide a specific meaning, but to create a general vibe.

Lemon Demon on the other hand will often focus on a specific topic and thoroughly explore it. Exhaust the kind of things that could be said about it.

They both make bangers though.

#will wood #will wood and the tapeworms #lemon demon #neil cicierega #music taste #music thoughts

[troythecatfish]

#threads #threads app #dylan mulvaney #musician #feminism #Feminist #women’s rights #music thoughts #music post #current events #social justice #human rights #music #political

[hotchocolatefanfics]

I think that song “He Lives in You” from Lion King 2 will be how Caesar is remembered in Kingdom.

#pota #planet of the apes #planetoftheapes #caesar #planet of the apes franchise #reboot pota #kingdom of the planet of the apes #music thoughts #I mean it suits him doesn’t it?

[neighborhoodghoul]

Sorry Jacob, I don't associate with people like that

#jk #the kinks #music thoughts

[onwriting-hrarby]

respectful thoughts on concept vs aesthetic in the new kpop generation

[disclaimer: this is a very light opinion article about kpop. i am not dissing any groups mentioned, since i love them all, and i'm straying from bringing any negativity. the fact that i don't like some of the music these groups make doesn't mean i can't acknowledge their hard work. often, my critique falls to the managements.]

so, these last few weeks we've had some 3rd generation comebacks in the kpop community and some debuts and other well-known comebacks for the newer generations. but, mostly, i'm going to talk about how music in kpop has been westernalized to the point of becoming mostly generic, forgetting what made kpop since the beginning: concept.

the reason why i like 2nd and 3rd generation the most in kpop is not because of the music, dance or vocals, although i admit it irks me a lot that nowadays most idols won't sing live (like, ever), but because i think it's the pinnacle of concepts vs aesthetics.

what is concept and what is aeshetic: red velvet

let's take my amazing girls, red velvet, my favourite group, and their last comeback. when the teasers were released, we all thought we were going to go "velvet", this time (although i hope we would go red, and i have an inkling we would go red velvet). but the gloominess of the pictures, the elegance, the way they seemed out of the museum strayed a little bit further from the quirkiness of birthday and they felt more serious, much like "peekaboo" concept pictures or even "feel my rhythm's".

when the song released, we were all surprised. we love it, as we normally do with red velvet, but the problem with the main public was that their expectation of the concept of the pictures didn't correlate with the actual concept of the song.

and that's because the teasers were nothing but aesthetics. the aesthetic was dark but the concept was "red velvet". when the idea of the whole paraphernalia around the song doesn't link with the music of the song, we are not talking about a concept but about a aesthetic. a concept is cohesive in the ways we think the song: from the notes, the rhythm, to the message, the pictures, the way we promote it. aesthetic is taking what we feel "looks good" and putting it into a concept that doesn't need it. aesthetics don't tell a story, concepts do.

it doesn't mean that chill kill wasn't a good album or a good comeback. it means that it was at fault since the beginning, because we were waiting to be told a story how red velvet does, from the music itself, while it felt like they were telling it from the pictures.

(that is also what has happened with the lastest comeback of nct dream).

almost all of the 3rd generation groups, and mainly girlgroups, debuted with a clear concept: red velvet (red and velvet concept), mamamoo ("live" concept), girlfriend (kind of 'magical' sphere), blackpink, dreamcatcher, loona, and i feel like this is being left behind to accomodate more "aesthetics", and music —kpop— feels less genuine. that's why i'm not feeling very tied to the kpop sphere anymore: it's all about consumption.

bts and the consumption of kpop

i love bts, and i'm a long time bangtan fan since they debuted, but i am confident in saying that after "fake love" (maybe let's stretch to "idol") their music wasn't as striking. it wasn't that they didn't have a good production, or didn't do their best, or weren't at their best ("black swan" is still amazing in all senses, for example, and works perfectly as a song), but i think it's because they were "westernalized" in the concept vs aesthetics idea. while before bts used to have a clear concept, not only of what they meant as a group and wanted to tell, but also later as it migrated to the trilogy of "love yourself", after they hit it big in 2019 they started confusing, to my opinion, the concept with the aesthetic: they didn't do albums for the sake of telling a story or concept anymore, but for the sake of milking the cow (not the boys' fault). don't get me wrong: mots 7 still had a clear concept in the CD, but it didn't feel as whole as a BTS project anymore. rm even said something along the lines of "we have to stop because we have lost sight of what we're doing".

that's because in the west we're not used to concepts but to aesthetics: the music is not cohesive with a preestablished idea of storytelling, but with the artist. most of the bands and soloists don't change the music style as to what music their storytelling needs but to what their personal needs as an artist do. take taylor swift, for example: every cd is different, but it's cohesive in what taylor swift does. as a long taylor swift fan too, when we got from "speak now" to "red" we were utterly confused, because that's when she began changing her aesthetic, and therefore, her music, but because the concept was "taylor swift", it was still recognizable. she's not the first one: it also happened with the beatles, "revolver" being the first album to truly differ from the others, only to completely change their music with "sgt pepper's". ariana grande changes aesthetics, but her music is mostly cohesive throughout, so does billie eilish, lorde, dua lipa. we would refer to it as having a "music style".

with bts, they found a huge market in the west. it wasn't the only incursion in kpop: after bts and blackpink, twice did, too, and we also had the jopping and popping of the sm super group—which, come on, it didn't land of obvious reasons—and we have aespa, gidle, and more. but bts was the first group to hit it BIG. we will all probably remember exo, red velvet, dreamcatcher and gfriend being ultra famous overseas, but not like bts and blackpink are.

BTS started changing their music around that time. the comebacks after 2019 didn't feel cohesive with what BTS was in their roots. "boy with luv" is a pop song that took us by surprise. "on" didn't land as well as black swan even though i personally love it. "be" didn't have a clear storytelling (or maybe a pandemic storytelling, too soon, imo). the most flagrant cases of BTS losing their concept to the aesthetic was "dynamite" and "butter", but mostly "butter": when "dynamite" was out, it made our summer. it was truly AMAZING. it couldn't get better. it felt like the song we needed, and it should have won the grammy. but it didn't, so they tried to replicate the same song with butter. really: listen to it. it uses the same rhythm, structure, the same "catchyness", and mostly, the same aesthetic.

blackpink, while we can criticize about the quality of their songs and how they use the same structure too—almost to a boring, predictable result—stood true to their concept since the beginning. if we hadn't been used to BTS management of concepts, we would have found that "butter" and "dynamite" worked well in the same way "how you like that" and "kill this love" too. but blackpink always played more with the "music style" than the concept, because when you repeat a concept over and over, not only in storytelling but also the musical creation, it become your signature music (to the point of a meme, almost).

but since BTS started changing and having their much deserved fame, look what happened to other hype groups: txt released their "disco" blue hour, tried to fit it into their concept (imo, they didn't do it very well). gfriend released "mago", while it's a good song it strays too far from the gfriend we were used to (and no: apple wasn't an incursion to far away lands. it still sounded 'magical', just like gfriend did). seventeen did something similar, too. the playfulness of the 70s/80s spread without regarding the groups unique concepts.

sm stood true to themselves: they had already made songs with "disco" (shinee, 'look' by red velvet...) and in contraposition they tried to westernize the concept of NCT. it hasn't worked, because no male group will ever be BTS, even though i believe exo could have had a huge chance only if they had appeared two years after. jyp went into hybe's direction, but kept it true to their group's concepts (itzy didn't sound the same as twice or stay kids). yg wasn't in their best moments as a business, then.

with bts in the west, the whole point of kpop and 3rd generation shifted: they aren't marketing songs aligned to the concept anymore, but to the aesthetic of the song. twice concept had started radically changing with "fancy" and "cry for me", but now it feels like they are just recycling their music over and over (also because twice concept, in the ageist era we live, is difficult to maintain once the members get old.) nct is a mess, trying to have catchy lyrics that utterly don't make any sense. gidle's english songs pale in comparison to the amazing songs in korean. aespa and itzy's english comebacks haven't hit is big. it feels as if there's a "line" that one has to cross to go to the west, which is leaving all your uniqueness of your concept back in korea to make it. and only bts and blackpink have mastered this (even though "the feels" by twice was a big success). [disclaimer: when i talk about success or failure i'm not talking about numbers, but about quality of the song.]

the case of gidle, stay c and aespa

those four groups are, to me, the ones that have maintained their concept all along. i don't talk about boygroups of the 4th generation because i'm not very familiar with them, but let me tell you about discovering gidle and aespa, and then stay c and new jeans:

gidle: they are a strange case, because they don't have a clear concept. that's because their concept, just like red velvet, changes every comeback while maintaining a concept identity. when gidle debuted, i named them the "red velvet daughters" and they still have to fail me in that sense. they are truly versatile, and it feels like they can do any concept they like while maintaining an identity, even with the loss of soojin.

aespa: when they debuted, i was utterly... scared. i didn't know what sm was pulling, and everyone celebrated them as the 4th gen leaders (when itzy was still doing the best numbers). i knew they weren't going to be, because they would stick to the concept. they are still one of the best artists in the 4th generation girlgroup space, and incredibly succesful, but ive has had more sellings, for example. but: numbers doesn't prove quality. ive's music, although very good, feels like there are other groups that could make it. while aespa's music feels unique to aespa. aespa has stayed so true to their concept much like blackpink does (i truly suffered with girls, because i was demaning a slight concept change, i was getting bored) and i think it's safe to say that the kind of music they do is very impactful, always experimental, like what sm pulls best. aespa will have a longetivity that itzy doesn't have (damn, i love itzy so much) just because sm has understood aespa's concept, while jyp still has to grasp what itzy is truly doing. and if itzy gets it right, aespa and itzy will become iconic to their eras.

stay c: now, my girls. truly underrated! stay c is the reencarnation of old bubbly kpop. they are consistent, both with their concept, aesthetic and music. you don't get the feeling that they release for big masses, even if all kpop does generally. they know what they do as a group and they do it incredibly well while staying true to their concept. they have twice producer and it shows because it definitely has a feel of the early twice. they sing well, they dance well, they cooperate. they are a fully fledge group with a mission and a storytelling.

before moving to illit, the case of newjeans

now, newjeans is known to be one of the best debuts in all kpop history, and i personally have listened to their first EP a hundred times, and "ditto" is one of my favourite kpop songs ever. and the reason why they are so successful is because of min hee jin (we can hate her, but come on, she's fucking good in her job): she's a master of concepts. and new jeans had a CLEAR concept. youthful, bubbly, lovely, catchy.

but it's not going to last, i'm afraid. they are impactful and they will make numbers but i truly think that they won't be as legendary as everyone has made it to be and that's because they've taken the same bts route, but far too early. FAR TOO EARLY. their last EP may have a concept as an EP but it feels somehow disconnected to what new jeans represented the first summer. i don't think they should stick to one concept forever—they would encounter the same problems as twice—but they have changed it too quickly without giving it time to properly experiment all the layers of it. differently from gidle or red velvet, which established themselves as truly versatile from the beginning, new jeans have strayed from their path soon enough but not far enough. their songs feel catered to the commodification of content, now, and frankly, almost all of the songs in their last EP, while experimental (and i love it) sound too cohesive, to the point that you listen to the EP while not paying any attention and it might go over your head. their voices' tone, too, which were part of the concept of "youthful girls" are too similar to each other, which makes it difficult to grasp a turning point in the song. you can have same hair, same clothes, but you shouldn't have the same voices and songs over and over.

and that's why groups like illit have debuted now with much success:

ILLIT and the depersonalization of kpop

illit is, to me, the most flagrant cases of confusion between concept and aesthetic and how kpop is shifting nowadays. of course, i have done my research: i've listened to the album, watched most of the "live" performances. and while doing so, as someone who doesn't have a clue why this group was formed (as will do the 80% of the people who first listens to illit), i thought: oh, this is new jeans.

NO, i'm not saying they are the same or they are copying the girls. it's not illit's fault, as it's not all the groups i have been mentioning (the fault is capitalism): but their debut song sounds too much like new jeans, the 2nd ep. they have the same long hair. same youthfulness. and i thought, oh, well, alright. new jeans 2, it's good. it's okay.

UNLESS! i read that they were going for the "magical" concept. truly?, really? are they... magical? they have magical appearances, fairy-like, the dresses are magical, the way they move is truly magnetic (get the pun?), but their music is not.

and that's the fault of what we've been living with the last kpop nowadays: music is concept-less. they live for the aesthetic of the music, but the music feels generic in itself. because it is not unique to what the group wants to cater. they do what's selling, and try to mask it as something original, while it is not. aesthetic is not the same as concept: someone who dresses like dark academia and brings their books to a fancy library and takes pictures doesn't mean they are living for a concept. they are living for the aesthetic because they like it, but the way they experience the aesthetic will be the same as the other people, because there is only one aesthetic.

aesthetic happens when there's empty concepts, while concepts happen when one thinks about the aesthetic, embodies it to a way of turning it over and make their own thing about it.

#kpop #bts #red velvet #blackpink #twice #exo #gidle #new jeans #stay c #illit #music thoughts #hrarby musings #do not hate me please i'm not hating on anyone! #kpop feels so empty now

[lorlen]

shit will be stolen, taken, lost forever but music....MUSIC that shit last forever. you can feel it, it will summon a memory and awaken something inside of you. the material things will disappear eventually BUT music is the writing on the walls that will never be erased.

#writes #b empty writing #sad thoughts #dead inside #i feel empty #drinking again #dark poetry #depressing shit #depressing life #depressing quotes #drunkposting #im drunk #drunk thoughts #music therapy #music thoughts #music things #music theory #music that i like #music is life #music is my drug #music is medicine #music is art

[thecourtjester12]

And cause Polaris....and the playlist I'm listening to...Music thoughts!!! ]

This song....fits LSAU soooooo bloody well

A few others I think fit Polaris in particular tho are...

-Rises the Moon (i dont remember the artist!!!)

-Meteor Shower by Cavetown

-Lost Bot by Ruth B.

-Machine by Scott Helman

And.....Cradles by Sub Urban :' D

Sleepwalk by Forrest Day fits Moondrop as well tho!

#jesterposts #jester rambles #music thoughts #lsau #lsau polaris #lsau moondrop #dca au #Youtube

[unholybinchicken]

what if instead of slowed down ballad/acoustic versions of otherwise fun songs, we made fun uptempo versions of otherwise sad and dreary ballads?

#random #music thoughts #popheads #todd in the shadows #like instead of that bad version of dancing on my own #we had like a disco version of ... idk some ballad

[ghostampede]

black country, new road “live at bush hall” is a live performance/album that just. encapsulates a certain feeling/vibe/emotion so fucking well. it feels like they’ve transported you to a pocket dimension where we’re in some small cafe/venue stage i’d see in movies as a kid with crickety floor boards and coffee stains and shinmery red curtains. it feels like they’re not singing to us but instead telling a bunch of stories of pain and love and longing interconnected by them as individuals and that alone while also turning the focus away from who they are somehow spotlighting the music and that story to stand individually. basically the power of the music and atmosphere is otherworldly. the entire chorus of “across the pond friend” shatters my heart with how overwhelming and overflowing the emotions are in it through the build up of the sound. the entirety of “the boy” carries me away through such a beautiful displayed story i feel like a child discovering fairy tales for the first time again. the line “look at what we did together / bcnr, friends forever” from “up song” makes me cry from the vocal delivery alone, not to mention the context that comes with it. the melancholy longing yet pride in the repeated line “we made something to be proud of” in the song “wrong trousers” invokes such a powerful sense of nostalgia in me it pulls emotions i haven’t felt in years out of my heart. what im trying to say is if you told me their music was magic i’d believe you. what i’m trying to say is this collection of new songs are so beautiful it makes me weep. what im trying to say is i don’t even know if i can convey how much this band has meant to me in the short amount of time ive known of their art. what im trying to say is if i could i would send specific songs from this record alone to certain people and hope they understand what im trying to say because of how specific and strong the feelings i get from these tunes are. does that make sense? im not sure. i just needed to get this out there.

#going to annotate this album lyrically later #might do the same with tranquility base hotel + casino by arctic monkeys as well #maybe #probably just this though #god damn i love bcnr #bcnr #black country new road #live at bush hall #bcnr ​live at bush hall #music thoughts #music appreciation #from a non-musician who knows javk shit about technical music stuff #but feels very strongly #and rambles a lot #dorian talks #rambles #dorian listens

[liannaedgelord]

"closer" by nine inch nails and "iris" by the goo goo dolls are a really good study in how different people react differently to the same emotions in the same situations. because if you look at the lyrics, they're both songs about not feeling grounded or in tune with the world except while you're having sex with this one person. but "closer" is angry and horny and desperate, even a little ashamed. trent reznor describes sex as something dirty and gross that you do to someone for selfish ends. but "iris" is sad and resigned to the disconnection, finding a sense of hope and beauty in the fleeting moments of intimacy. sex here is a good and beautiful thing, any sense of connection is something to be treasured even if you only feel it with one person. maybe especially if you only feel it with one person, because isn't that even more tragically poetic?

anyway thank you for coming to my ted talk

#queer shit #nine inch nails #the goo goo dolls #iris #closer #music thoughts #trent reznor

[heirofdragons]

Metal playlist for THE metal bois™

So. Since I’ve been musing about songs lately, and the silmarillion has two of the most metal characters to ever exist in literature, I decided to put together a bunch of songs that make me think of them. So here’s the (mostly) metal Morgoth/Sauron/angbang playlist that no one asked for 🤘🏻✨

Ov Fire and the Void by Behemoth (Melkor)

River of Fire by In this Moment (Sauron in Numenor)

Empire (let them sing) by Bring me the Horizon (Melkor / war of wrath)

Counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums by A Perfect Cricle  (angbang / seduction of Mairon)

Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer by Behemoth (Melkor)

Father of the Wolf by Amon Amarth (Sauron / tol in gaurhoth)

Knives by Bullet for my Valentine (Melkor in valinor)

String Theory by Les Friction (angbang)

I Miss the Misery by Halestorm (angbang)

Half God Half Devil by In This Moment (Annatar)

Requiem by Avenged Sevenfold (angbang)

In the Eye of the Storm by Arch Enemy (Melkor)

The Reflecting God by Marilyn Manson (Melkor)

Shepherd of Fire by Avenged Sevenfold (Annatar / Tar-Mairon)

Skoll and Hati by Amon Amarth (angbang)

Black Enemy by Morgoth (angbang)

This Means War by Avenged Sevenfold (Melkor)

Familiar Taste of Poison by Halestorm (angbang / seduction of Mairon)

Masterpiece by Motionless in White (Sauron)

Pain Remains III: In a Sea of Fire by Lorna Shore (Sauron)

The Kill (bury me) by 30 Seconds to Mars (Melkor)

Snakestate by Morgoth (Sauron / fall of numenor)

(then of course there’s the whole album Nightfall in Middle Earth by Blind Guardian for a complete silm muiscal experience)

#playlist #metal playlist #morgoth #sauron #melkor #mairon #angbang #The Silmarillion #silmarillion #silm fandom #music thoughts #song recs

[lunali-moon]

I recently listened “The Bifrost Incident” and it’s just like:

Thor                   «Fuck Odin»                     Loki

                                  🤝

#yeah I listened mechanisms in 2022 #my shitpost #the mechanisms #mechanisms #the bifrost incident #the mechs #the bifrost incident thoughts #I listened some good music #I can’t stop listening this help #music #Loki #Thor #Odin #music thoughts

[theemeraldforestafterdark]

Reading all kinds of horror stories about bands using AI for their artwork. If there's no thought, or artist expression gone into your cover, then, it's like... just take a photo of some mud, then. If you want a super cheap photo, just whip out your phone and take a picture of a piece of concrete.

On the plus side, this is really going to show the true artists from the people who are minimum effort, maximum profit. If I find a single hardcore punk band that uses AI for their cover art, then I'll... jettison them into space. Using it would be a betrayal of the entire ethos of the scene that they belong to.

#afterdarktext #music thoughts #AI

[svnflowermoon]

🎶✨️when u get this u have to put 5 songs u actually listen to, publish. Then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (non-negotiable, positivity is cool)🎶✨️

thanks for the ask!!

#luc posts #ask response #taylor swift #gracie abrams #maisie peters #abby cates #beth mccarthy #music thoughts #thanks for the ask!

[thegoosetyrant]

“Elvis was the king of rock.” Wrong. He was the Prometheus of rock. He brought rock to white people.

#classic rock #music thoughts

[fortune-fatale]

This song holds the title of most vivid mental picture painted by a song for me. I listen to it and immediately imagine a medieval fantasy world, in which the hero has been undercover in the court of his enemy as a jester. He's just been found out and is now standing in front of the all-powerful king, who's sitting on his mighty throne looking down at our beloved Hero with the look he'd been warned would wither his courage. Despite the odds he keeps his head held high in an unbeatable battle of will. The look on his face one of pure and total determination.

#neutral milk hotel #in the aeroplane over the sea #music blog #music reviews #music related #music lover #music thoughts #writers of tumblr #writeblr #creative writing #Spotify