Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with rockmusic

turn it up to eleven!

headnsouth — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:25:21 -0800

What equipment do my teenagers need to start a garage band and record/edit using a macbook pro? With christmas and a couple of birthdays coming up, I would like to get my kids set up with some basics for recording. Kid1 has an Ibanez electric guitar and Kustom Dart 10fx amp. Kid2 has a decent voice & stage presence. What they need to get started are a microphone, bass guitar, headphones, wah-wah pedal for the guitar, a means of recording onto the mac, and editing software. Drums/keyboards & video will come later but suggestions for those and other components I haven't thought of are welcome and appreciated. Also, kid1's guitar does not have a whammy bar so it's only a matter of time before he needs to upgrade.

I have been to two local music stores in our new city, and have found them to be surprisingly unhelpful. Maybe because I'm the mom? Or maybe because I'm not a school with 100 kids renting expensive horns. More likely because I don't even know enough to frame my questions intelligently.

There is some equipment advice in this AskMe but I need to know how to put the components together, and how to get them onto the mac, as well as what to buy.

So please type very slowly and hold my hand, as I am both a PC person and a (regular, old-school, acoustic) piano player. In fact not only am I a PC person but I am a corporate-type PC person who has always had access to a PC guy at work.

Sounds like Creed, smells like Creed, looks like Creed!

adverb — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:54:21 -0800

How many bands sound like Creed? Listening to some of the post-grunge music over the past 5-10 years leads me to believe that it all sounds the same - heavy guitars, slow to mid tempo, growling lead singer who overenunciates, but an overall non-threatening sound. I don't know a lot of these bands - I grew tired of the genre about 1995 - but from what I can tell, Nickelback, Staind and Hinder fall into this category. I've always despised older bands like Matchbox 20 and Bush, so I'm tempted to put them in this category. Who else has this formulaic "rock" sound?

grim rock autobiographies

rhodri — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 08:06:49 -0800

Does anyone have good examples of rock autobiographies or biographies which give an honest account of life on the road? I'm not so much interested in the groupie-anecdote genre, more like books which give accounts of the grim reality & utter boredom... along the lines of Henry Rollins' "Get In The Van", Bruce Thomas's "The Big Wheel" about life on the road with Elvis Costello, maybe Julian Cope's Head On/Repossessed? That kind of thing? All suggestions most welcome.

What is that behind Jim Morrison?

swlabr — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 11:01:37 -0800

I need help identifying an obscure, ancient-looking sculpture. A picture of it appears pinned to the inside of a door in a photo of Jim Morrison holding a gas mask. Here is the photo of Jim My interest is in the photo over his left shoulder. Try not to be distracted by the one over his right shoulder. If you crop out the item and turn it right-side up, you get this. So, all you classical history buffs, recognize the statue?? I couldn't figure how to post a picture here.... sorry for just the links.

Pop vs Rock

grumblebee — Sun, 15 Aug 2004 07:05:19 -0800

What's the difference between Pop and Rock? [More Inside.] I have incredibly backward musical tastes for someone relatively young. I listen to classical and jazz mostly, and my tastes in Jazz lean more towards stuff from the 20s, 30s and 40s than more modern stuff. But there ARE a few more contemporary sounds that have slipped under my radar. My wife thinks it's funny that, on my iPod, I label all music written from about 1950 onwards "Pop," but I don't know what else to call it.

I know there have been all sorts of styles: doo-wap, punk, folk rock, disco, rap, etc., but -- to my totally untrained ears -- they seem to all have something in common. There's a common root sound, which I think of as "rock and roll" All these genres seem like sub-species of rock to me. I realize that many will be scandalized by that claim. But as different as they are, rap and disco seem to be more alike to me than, say, punk and Beethoven.

Now, iTunes likes to classify some music as “pop” and some music as “rock.” (and, confusingly, some music as “pop/rock.”) I don't get the difference. Is pop just rock music that happens to be popular right now?

My wife explained to me that the Beatles are rock, whereas Brittany Spears is pop. Okay, I can hear that the Beatles are artists and BS is lacking in talent. But what is her actual STYLE/GENRE called? My wife said, "dance music," but that seems overly general -- it could describe a lot of different styles. Disco was dance music, but BS's stuff doesn't sound like disco to me. In ten years -- assuming people still remember her -- will BS's music still be considered pop? Or is pop music pop only while it's trendy? If so, where does it get sorted after that?

By the way, I know (or I assume) "pop" has a slightly different meaning in the UK than in the US. I'm on the American side of the pond.

Piano Rock

jdroth — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 18:35:45 -0800

I'm making a "Piano Rock" mix. What songs should I include? [current list inside] This mix was inspired by The Bad Plus, and I have four of their songs in the lineup. I also have "Inbetween Days" by Ben Folds, the acoustic version of "Anyway" by Dynamite Hack (awesome song!), "Mad World" by Gary Jules, "Halleluhah" by Rufus Wainwright, and various Fiona Apple and Tori Amos.

I'm at a loss for what else to include, though. I love the upbeat tempo of the songs from The Bad Plus and Ben Folds' version of "Inbetween Days". I'd love to learn of other, similar songs.

No Elton John or Billy Joel, please.