Hot Take/ Musical Confession Thread!

TenderLovingKiller® said:
You could say the same thing about any ubiquitous solo indie rock by [Insert Solo Artist here]. Why did ya have to make it a gender thing? Not a peep when someone copies Dylan or Bowie for the umpteenth time. Why is it bothersome when it’s a female artist?
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Its not.
Nor is it a gender specific comment.
It's the "we've-reached-the-stage-of-the-music-industry-pumping-dollars-into-the-same-formulaic-kind-of-artist/sound-situiation-as-they -did-in-the-past-and-I've-grown-completely-bored-to-death-by-99%-of-what-I'm-hearing-now-because-I-can't-unhear-it." comment.

Its all bourne out of the fact that, finally, females are starting to move into a space of equal representation in the market place.
And that - I think we can all agree - is a very good thing.

But history repeats itself.

How many Van Halen clones did we get to make Hair/Glam metal ubiquitous and boring.
Post-1993, every heavy/alt-adjacent band had to have a vaguely Edward Vedder sounding lead singer.
That was Immediately followed by the every rock band now has a DJ and some guy appropriating hip-hop/rap ubiquity and snooze fest.
I wasn't alive for it but I'm sure the every hippy with a guitar wanted to do the Peace and Love Folk rock thing in the Dylan/Joni Mitchell era also became ubiquitous and boring.

Lets play a game. When I say "indie- rock girl with a guitar" who do you think of? I'd bet if we polled 50 members - we'd get at least 15 different answers all with a sound in center of whatever Venn diagram you might draw to, fairly, acknowledge their various differences.

Is not slight on the gender.

You know who is an "indie-rock girl with a guitar" who escaped the event horizon of early 2020s ubiquity: Leah Wellbaum.
One of my Top 5 artists I discovered last year was Lili Trifilio's Beach Bunny.
CHAI are doing fun things that are a breath of fresh air.

I'm a fan of a number of the artists that spring to mind when we play the game above.
But you know what - even the artists I like are starting to bore the ever loving shit out of me because I can't escape what is becoming the beige sound of their output.
Julien Baker - I'm looking right at you.

I've gotten to the point where I can't really appreciate their individual contributions [and lets not get it twisted, NOBODY is saying that what they are doing isn't valid and/or isn't a contribution, I'm not on the Damon Albarn train here] because its all starting to sound a like.

This has nothing to do with Gender.
It has to do with an aesthetic that I'm frankly quite sick of hearing all-the-time.

I'm now going to spin some Detroit Cobras and then some Baby Metal.
 
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gaporter said:
Well then it would appear I'm no better than Damon because I assumed a lot of Katy Perry's songs were written by other people. Not saying anything bad, I like pop music and honestly don't care if a pop star doesn't write their own music, but if I'm misinformed on Katy then I do apologize.
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On a second glance, it would appear the she does indeed have a songwriting credit on all her songs, so sorry @Ericj32 for implying otherwise. Katy Perry is awesome and I am lame.
 
Viking Dan said:
Its not.
Nor is it a gender specific comment.
It's the "we've-reached-the-stage-of-the-music-industry-pumping-dollars-into-the-same-formulaic-kind-of-artist/sound-situiation-as-they -did-in-the-past-and-I've-grown-completely-bored-to-death-by-99%-of-what-I'm-hearing-now-because-I-can't-unhear-it." comment.

Its all bourne out of the fact that, finally, females are starting to move into a space of equal representation in the market place.
And that - I think we can all agree - is a very good thing.

But history repeats itself.

How many Van Halen clones did we get to make Hair/Glam metal ubiquitous and boring.
Post-1993, every heavy/alt-adjacent band had to have a vaguely Edward Vedder sounding lead singer.
That was Immediately followed by the every rock band now has a DJ and some guy appropriating hip-hop/rap ubiquity and snooze fest.
I wasn't alive for it but I'm sure the every hippy with a guitar wants to do wants to do the Peace and Love Folk rock thing in the Dylan/Joni Mitchell era also became ubiquitous and boring.

Lets play a game. When I say "indie- rock girl with a guitar" who do you think of? I'd bet if we polled 50 members - we'd get at least 15 different answers all with a sound in center of whatever Venn diagram you might draw to, fairly, acknowledge their various differences.

Is not slight on the gender.

You know who is an "indie-rock girl with a guitar" who escaped the event horizon of early 2020s ubiquity: Leah Wellbaum.
One of my Top 5 artists I discovered last year was Lili Trifilio's Beach Bunny.
CHAI are doing fun things that are a breath of fresh air.

I'm a fan of a number of the artists that spring to mind when we play the game above.
But you know what - even the artists I like are starting to bore the ever loving shit out of me because I can't escape what is becoming the beige sound of their output.
Julien Baker - I'm looking right at you.

I've gotten to the point where I can't really appreciate their individual contributions [and lets not get it twisted, NOBODY is saying that what they are doing isn't valid and/or isn't a contribution, I'm not on the Damon Albarn train here] because its all starting to sound a like.

This has nothing to do with Gender.
It has to do with an aesthetic that I'm frankly quite sick of hearing all-the-time.

I'm now going to spin some Detroit Cobras and then some Baby Metal.
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See, I knew he could do it.
 
Joe Mac said:
Is it just me that feels really uncomfortable when someone uses the word female or females in the place of woman or women?
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It depends on the context. "A female artist" to my ears sounds more natural than "a woman artist" but then you can start to get into the conversation of why even include gender descriptors and just refer to everyone as an artist regardless of sex, race, etc. I don't see the word female as inherently uncomfortable personally, but I can respect if others do. Though if the issue is the "male" part, then woman really isn't much better because it's still "man" adjacent terminology.
 
Joe Mac said:
Is it just me that feels really uncomfortable when someone uses the word female or females in the place of woman or women?
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Military we use male and female all the time. I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to describe, say, a woman NCO as such. I would def say female NCO. The former sounds informal.

Better than saying long hairs and no hairs, I guess; which I still hear every now and again. Usually as a "long hair type" to mean a female.
 
gaporter said:
It depends on the context. "A female artist" to my ears sounds more natural than "a woman artist" but then you can start to get into the conversation of why even include gender descriptors and just refer to everyone as an artist regardless of sex, race, etc. I don't see the word female as inherently uncomfortable personally, but I can respect if others do. Though if the issue is the "male" part, then woman really isn't much better because it's still "man" adjacent terminology.
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I wasn’t referring to use as an adjective before a noun, although I agree that non gendering is preferential. More as a solo word in place of woman. It’s kinda sexist, no one ever refers to a group of men as males, and it’s also just really shit grammar.

Godspee You! Baby Emperor said:
Military we use male and female all the time. I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to describe, say, a woman NCO as such. I would def say female NCO. The former sounds informal.

Better than saying long hairs and no hairs, I guess; which I still hear every now and again. Usually as a "long hair type" to mean a female.
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Again adjective before a noun rather than being used in substitute, but ultimately shouldn’t non gendered be preferential?
 
Joe Mac said:
I wasn’t referring to use as an adjective before a noun, although I agree that non gendering is preferential. More as a solo word in place of woman. It’s kinda sexist, no one ever refers to a group of men as males, and it’s also just really shit grammar.



Again adjective before a noun rather than being used in substitute, but ultimately shouldn’t non gendered preferential?
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Again, we would actually refer to a group of men as males and a group of women as females - quite regularly.

And, yes, non-gendered is the way I - and most - would usually refer to an individual. But sometimes if there are people with the same last name (happens) or someone is not familiar with another - I'd use distinguishing characteristics to orientate that person (and gender is a good place to begin). Like if I had to send my troop to a female or male person for whatever, I may say "Sgt Snuffy, male type..."

But I would never use a gendered description if everyone knows who we're talking about as a way to make a distinction about capabilities or to somehow qualify that person's rank or position as if the gender has an influence.
 
Godspee You! Baby Emperor said:
Again, we would actually refer to a group of men as males and a group of women as females - quite regularly.
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That’s really fucking weird. Referring to people by their sex rather than what they are lol. It’s also really horrible grammar lol.

But then the whole military thing is incredibly weird and endlessly fascinating to me because of that 🤷🏻😂
 
Joe Mac said:
That’s really fucking weird. Referring to people by their sex rather than what they are. It’s also really horrible grammar lol.
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Lol then you'd be horrified with military "-isms". TBF, we tend to use it not necessarily when we're referring to "what they are" aligned to task, job, qualification but when it is necessary. Like, females to the left, males to the right - you're all getting piss tested.

I don't know. There are certainly a lot of anachronisms in my profession. But usually gender references here serve some sort of purpose. I think. Maybe I'm just in too deep.
 
gaporter said:
On a second glance, it would appear the she does indeed have a songwriting credit on all her songs, so sorry @Ericj32 for implying otherwise. Katy Perry is awesome and I am lame.
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You’re not lame, and I’m not trying to back you into a corner and force you to like Katy Perry haha, I just think it’s interesting that Taylor Swift being a songwriter is so much a part of her public persona identity whereas people don’t think of Katy Perry as a songwriter.
 
Joe Mac said:
I wasn’t referring to use as an adjective before a noun, although I agree that non gendering is preferential. More as a solo word in place of woman. It’s kinda sexist, no one ever refers to a group of men as males, and it’s also just really shit grammar.



Again adjective before a noun rather than being used in substitute, but ultimately shouldn’t non gendered be preferential?
Click to expand...
Hate to break it to you, but it’s a noun:
F1D42200-AC8A-4CE5-AE79-7532CA71B2F6.pngD0A53858-7EC1-48E3-912A-FDCA2CC871FA.pngThe only reason it would be demeaning is because unlike Man or Woman, it does not denote species. I’ve heard male used much more commonly than female.
 
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