Hot Take/ Musical Confession Thread!

TenderLovingKiller® said:
Fully agree in regards to Fight Club. It’s a movie, along with Requiem For A Dream and Donny Darko; that I personally put too much weight behind being some sort of profound statement, that now, if I were to watch them 20+ years later; would see them for the heavy-handed, self-important messes they all sort of are. All three are still wildly creative and visually stunning, it’s just that they are mostly empty calories.

I will say, regarding Fight Club; it is one of the first movies that really tackled the concept of toxic masculinity, but it’s so stylized, that for many, it almost glorifies the very things that the film is trying to critique.
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Isn’t this mostly us just getting older and understanding what’s going and what really happens.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Fully agree in regards to Fight Club. It’s a movie, along with Requiem For A Dream and Donny Darko; that I personally put too much weight behind being some sort of profound statement, that now, if I were to watch them 20+ years later; would see them for the heavy-handed, self-important messes they all sort of are. All three are still wildly creative and visually stunning, it’s just that they are mostly empty calories.

I will say, regarding Fight Club; it is one of the first movies that really tackled the concept of toxic masculinity, but it’s so stylized, that for many, it almost glorifies the very things that the film is trying to critique.
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Donnie Darko holds up perfectly in my opinion... so long as you avoid the director's cut.

Fight Club is fun-- the message is in the right place and the tone fits the satire... the problem is, exactly as you say, that people miss the satire because its so stylized that it borders on glamorizing everything.

Requiem was always overrated. Lacks soul and is textbook all style, no substance. It was basically a pretty business card for Darren.

The book versions of both Fight Club and Requiem are predictably supeiror. Fight Club because Chuck is using language to play with and hint at the fact that they are the same person. And Requiem because the characters spend a ton of time having drugged out convos that lay out their ambitions and the things that could have been if they weren't junkies. Thus, it's far more heartbreaking and nuanced. In Requiem's case, it wouldn't have been hard to implement into film. Not sure why Aronofsky opted not to.

Side note, Mr Robot sits alongside The Wire, The Americans and Atlanta as one of my favorite shows of all-time and manages to handle a lot of Fight Clubs themes with the same amount of style but more tact.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Completely.
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I think of Punk music a lot like this. Also a lot of pop music. It’s really written from a certain prospective that adults just can’t get into because of life experience. Although I was enjoying that new Harry Styles record on the way home last night for work. 😂

There is also that Taylor Swift song that reminded me about moving to New York.
 
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Dtknuckles said:
I think of Punk music a lot like this. Also a lot of pop music. It’s really written from a certain prospective that adults just can’t get into because of life experience. Although I was enjoying that new Harry Styles record on the way home last night for work. 😂

There is also that Taylor Swift song that reminded me about moving to New York.
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See-- I've done this thing where I've shifted away from metal and towards punk (which I rarely listed to in HS). Probably because my anger at the American political system has only intensified with age... and I'm more leftwing than ever despite assurances from Boomers that I'd grow conservative with time. 😂

But I also am pretty happy with who I am as a person versus in middle school and high school where the inherent angst of metal had its place.
 
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Dtknuckles said:
I think of Punk music a lot like this. Also a lot of pop music. It’s really written from a certain prospective that adults just can’t get into because of life experience. Although I was enjoying that new Harry Styles record on the way home last night for work. 😂

There is also that Taylor Swift song that reminded me about moving to New York.
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The number of ways that being an adult invokes a rage in me is not measurable.
 
Dtknuckles said:
I think of Punk music a lot like this. Also a lot of pop music. It’s really written from a certain prospective that adults just can’t get into because of life experience. Although I was enjoying that new Harry Styles record on the way home last night for work. 😂

There is also that Taylor Swift song that reminded me about moving to New York.
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So there are some pop songs that are this way, but I have learned to appreciate music that people make for the sole purpose of having something fun to dance to. Is this partially because I use Zumba as therapy? I'll own that.

With punk, I spent so much time at shows and in "the scene" that it's become more nostalgic, but it is harder for me to listen to because my angsty 20 year old rage has been replaced with a 40 y/old world weariness and need for something that makes me feel happier, instead of the myriad of things I could be mad about.
DownIsTheNewUp said:
See-- I've done this thing where I've shifted away from metal and towards punk (which I rarely listed to in HS). Probably because my anger at the American political system has only intensified with age... and I'm more leftwing than ever despite assurances from Boomers that I'd grow conservative with time. 😂

But I also am pretty happy with who I am as a person versus in middle school and high school where the inherent angst of metal had its place.
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I am still waiting for that supposed shift to the right. I have yet to make it and have gotten more left leaning as I've gotten older.
 
nolalady said:
I still really like Empire Records. Maybe it is as @Ginormousthumbs said because I was in retail for so long as a teenager/early 20 something. I still love it for it's special brand of after school special innocence. Also, I wanted to be Lucas when I grew up.

I had no idea that the snake song was from TM so now I get a new discography to dive into.

Fight Club is one of those movies that impacted me a lot more when it came out but once I rewatched it as a 40 something, I think it's full of macho hubris that it beats over your head. While I enjoy a good "fuck the system" movie, I find FC to be visually stunning, but I feel its not subtle enough to impart the truth that it's attempting to show.
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I thought macho hubris was the truth of fight club.
 
nolalady said:
So there are some pop songs that are this way, but I have learned to appreciate music that people make for the sole purpose of having something fun to dance to. Is this partially because I use Zumba as therapy? I'll own that.

With punk, I spent so much time at shows and in "the scene" that it's become more nostalgic, but it is harder for me to listen to because my angsty 20 year old rage has been replaced with a 40 y/old world weariness and need for something that makes me feel happier, instead of the myriad of things I could be mad about.

I am still waiting for that supposed shift to the right. I have yet to make it and have gotten more left leaning as I've gotten older.
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I’m more fiscally conservative and I’m less likely to shout my views from the rooftops. But yeah, still a dirty socialist at heart.
 
I might be slighty behind but I love Empire Records - I actually rewatched it again recently and even though it's cheesy and dated - its still very nostalgic and completely holds up for me. I was a young teenager when it came out tho - so maybe the age when you first watched it matters? It's also Renee Zellweger's best role - hot take
 
Viking Dan said:
I need a Bjork album cycle where she ditches the all the wack-a-doo make up & costuming.
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I enjoy the visuals and the costumes; I listened to the latest song yesterday and I just wish she's work on new vocal/melodic ideas, as well as her lyrics. It's like I can predict where her vocal melody is going to go. About the lyrics, I feel like they're lost their artfulness, like it's just a bunch of sentences instead of an actual poetic lyric (which she's quite capable of writing.)
 
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