Bad opinions • Page 491

HEY NOW

LET US AGREE FOR ONCE OK?!?!!?!

 

TRS has some good songs but no great albums

 

DIY is definitely stronger than it has been before but the artist has less leverage than ever due to the sheer volume of artists coming out. I don't know. I'd say it's easier than ever to break even, but there's more pressure on artists to be smarter than there is to actually be better.

 

Yeah, if Steve's on your side you know you fucked up.

 

For some reason this surprised me. There's probably like 50 bands where I like at least 4 albums from

 

Hm. More than 3 records out of the last 15 years? Let's make it 17 to cover the 2000s. I still think there's a huge number

 

wasn't looking at the general public, more just my own listening habits. a lot of bands might have more than 3 acclaimed records but i might not be listening to them. like, for the national, i don't really ever listen to alligator. most of this thought process came out of me looking for album rankings for that thread and realizing that after my top 3 for most bands with substantial discographies i realized i generally hadn't listened to the lower ones on my rankings either enough or at all

 

The Rocket Summer was unbearable back when I was in high school.

 

Eh. I still think better music gets more attention haha. If anything that puts the onus on the musician to impress the crowd with talent and stage presence rather than impressing a label with branding and marketing. Which I totally like better haha.

To be honest if your music isn't getting people to find your band on social media / find out about future shows, you gotta just write better music haha. Because now it is more about being impressive than being popular. It is important to stand out, to sound different but also sound precise and also sound like you have some FEELING. At the very least, a low conversion rate at performances indicates it's time to make your songs at least more attention grabbing and expressive live, with better equipment and more attention to detail.

 

The issue is that attention =/= profit a lot of the time, bands can have a strong following and still not make enough to make a genuine living with good music. And they can find alternate routes to profit through distribution/labels/streaming/etc but at the end of the day they don't have the leverage they used to, because those sources know that artists grow on trees now and can just say no if you don't meet their requirements.

Now, making a living touring is certainly more possible than before for small artists haha, like you said you can get a following to go to live shows if you put on an impressive show and make good music. But recouping recording costs and making a genuine profit off that is more difficult as there's so much music out there that fans are willing to move on pretty quickly.

 

Why i oughttaaaaa

 

If you're still trying to record in a top end major label studio then yeah you're right. But along with DIY touring comes bands making their own recording decisions and even recording themselves at times.

That 1990s problem of recording expenses being insurmountable; having a narrow channel of expert, expensive studio engineers that all "pro" artists must go through; and requiring extreme amounts of marketing success to recoup; is nonexistent in the modern day. The technology has advanced so fast that 3000 dollar preamp quality became 300 dollar interface from Guitar Center quality.

While a good mastering job can run expensive, if a label in 2017 told an upstart band that they have to drop 250 grand on a record... the band would laugh on their face. 10 grand is enough for most projects honestly, if you go for a lo-fi friendly music style you can do it for 3 grand in your own house. if you want to get the pro producer you're still not going over 50. While that may seem like still a lot, if you look at a band like a small business 10 to 50 grand is not a huge amount of upstart compared to the budget lines you see in this Steve Albini article.

There's less potential for superstardom-type profits but if you want to talk about making a meager living; most people in our day and age work two jobs. I've known people to make 20 grand a year touring with their music and then when they aren't on the road work a job at home. It's humble but those people are truly happy because most of the year they still get to focus on what they love and not work in an office. There are practical ways to make it happen that didn't exist for normal people in normal situations before and that's what I love.

 

The Rocket Summer have had a very good, consistent career. They have a couple major duds on most records, but I love each of their records.

 

Ahem.

 

I remember seeing the rocket summer as an opener once and me and my friend were like wow wtf was that, is he on helium??? No thanks.

Then the next day I had his song in my head and I was lowkey jamming to it and I told my friend and she was like "Me too!" So I bought the album.

Ur welcome for this story

 

chris and i never agree, this is a wild day

 

As long as you don't like "Japanese Exchange Student", we're cool.

 

yeah that one is.....not great
the first half of that record is gold too, and some of the songs on the b-sides EP are among that record's best

 

"Roses" is just stupid good.

 

Super underrated song from his last album

 

I never listened to the Rocket Summer before, but every song posted in this thread has been garbage

 

Oh wait let me be unpopular, if we're picking a mid-2000's scene power pop band I gotta go Forever the Sickest Kids

 

Hey I still like those Cute is What We Aim For albums.

 

I'd rather listen to an Anne Coulter audiobook than mid-2000's scene power pop.

 

Lol way to be dramatic