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Dylan: modern music is "worthless" . . . is it content or the recording? Story on www.aol.com
LOS ANGELES (Aug. 22) - Bob Dylan says the quality of modern recordings is "atrocious," and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc.
"I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really," the 65-year-old rocker said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Dylan, who released eight studio albums in the past two decades, returns with his first recording in five years, "Modern Times," next Tuesday. Noting the music industry's complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, "Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway." "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static." Dylan said he does his best to fight technology, but it's a losing battle. "Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it." Come on, Bob. Most modern music pales in comparison to yours, but there are several cats from'86 on who've been making meaningful, even legendary music. If you believe albums like Sign O' The Times, Nation of Millions, Passion, Bitter, OK Computer, etc. are worthless I don't care who you are. Every orger on here can name a different album, but if you say something silly like that you have zero credibility when talking about modern music. [Edited 8/22/06 13:44pm] [Edited 8/22/06 13:45pm] [Edited 8/23/06 9:08am] Good night, sweet Prince | 7 June 1958 - 21 April 2016
Props will be withheld until the showing and proving has commenced. -- Aaron McGruder | |
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To be fair, I think he's talking about the quality of the recording rather than the music itself. Of course that doesn't make him right. Some stuff sounds 1000 times better than Dylan's 60's recordings in terms of production.
Moreover, he could just be hearing the ringing in his ears, who knows? My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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My guitar teacher just last week said "Bob Dylan sucked as soon as he went electric" and that was 30 years ago. 
Artists without perspective are like a foot without a pinky toe. | |
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NDRU said: To be fair, I think he's talking about the quality of the recording rather than the music itself
 It is not known why FuNkeNsteiN capitalizes his name as he does, though some speculate sunlight deficiency caused by the most pimpified white guy afro in Nordic history.
- Lammastide | |
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CDs are small
 but iPod are even smaller!"Todo está bien chévere" Stevie | |
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NDRU said: To be fair, I think he's talking about the quality of the recording rather than the music itself. Of course that doesn't make him right. Some stuff sounds 1000 times better than Dylan's 60's recordings in terms of production.
Moreover, he could just be hearing the ringing in his ears, who knows? Reading into the paragraphs, i'd have to agree that he's referring to the recordings themselves. And maybe, reading into it further than I should, to their "over-produced" sound? Dylan as curmudgeon is pretty normal at this point. 
tA  Tribal Disorder
http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431 "Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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theAudience said: And maybe, reading into it further than I should, to their "over-produced" sound? Definitely, that's what he meant by "sound all over them...just static." My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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Slave2daGroove said: "Bob Dylan sucked as soon as he went electric"
I seem to remember folks saying the same thing... 
...about this guy. 
tA Tribal Disorder
http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431 "Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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FuNkeNsteiN said: NDRU said: To be fair, I think he's talking about the quality of the recording rather than the music itself
Yeah. I think he's basically talking about analog versus digital recording techniques. | |
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Bob Dylan's music bores the living hell out of me but I agree with him about the 20 year part. His timing is absolutely correct because 1985 is when I first started bitching about music going downhill.
The only difference is, he said he couldn't think of anyone (meaning not one person) who has made anything decent in the last 20 years. Good music was getting much thinner and thinner during the late 1980s but at least there were still a lot of artists I liked.....just not near as many as before. By the time the 1990s came around, with the exception of house music and Prince, I could list on one hand the artists I liked. Now I can list on two fingers.....Prince and Jamiroquai. The rest of them can go to hell. . . [Edited 8/22/06 15:30pm] Andy is a four letter word. | |
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First of all, Bob’s a legend and one of the greatest figures in popular music of the last ½ century or so, so I think he’s earned the right to be a curmudgeon, a musical misanthrope.
I certainly won’t agree that there’s been nothing of value in the last twenty years, but if you were to revise his statement to something along the lines of “music has been on a consistent decline since the sixties to the extent that the assets that I appreciate most in music (melody, song construction, organic production values) are fundamentally non-existent” then I would be in complete conformity with him. | |
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FuNkeNsteiN said: NDRU said: To be fair, I think he's talking about the quality of the recording rather than the music itself
Exactly, Bob has stated many times that the new recording technologies are inferior. | |
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lilgish said: FuNkeNsteiN said: Exactly, Bob has stated many times that the new recording technologies are inferior. He made very similar statements in a RS interview in '87. I vaguely remember him bemoaning CDs and the separation of sound, and expressing a preference for the Phil Spector approach. | |
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damosuzuki said: lilgish said: Exactly, Bob has stated many times that the new recording technologies are inferior. He made very similar statements in a RS interview in '87. I vaguely remember him bemoaning CDs and the separation of sound, and expressing a preference for the Phil Spector approach. Yes, and it seems all the more clear given that he's criticising his own new album, saying it sounded better in the studio than on disc. My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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Who's stopping him from recording analog?  The final transfer would be to digital, but I can't imagine the sound quality would degrade so markedly in a single generation.[Edited 8/22/06 18:18pm] Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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The times they are a-changin'. | |
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Lammastide said: Who's stopping him from recording analog?
The final transfer would be to digital, but I can't imagine the sound quality would degrade so markedly in a single generation.
That's what I'm thinkin...  | |
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I'd like to hear Bob do a version of Usher's "Yeah".
Take a second and imagine Bob's voice singing it. "The first time I saw the cover of Dirty Mind in the early 80s I thought, 'Is this some drag queen ripping on Freddie Prinze?'" - Some guy on The Gear Page | |
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he should be on the org. | |
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FuNkeNsteiN said: NDRU said: To be fair, I think he's talking about the quality of the recording rather than the music itself
Co-sign. As much as I love the sound of digital recordings (especially keyboard recordings on Pro-Tools), most guitar works are better in analog recording, IMO. | |
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vainandy said: Bob Dylan's music bores the living hell out of me but I agree with him about the 20 year part. His timing is absolutely correct because 1985 is when I first started bitching about music going downhill.
The only difference is, he said he couldn't think of anyone (meaning not one person) who has made anything decent in the last 20 years. Good music was getting much thinner and thinner during the late 1980s but at least there were still a lot of artists I liked.....just not near as many as before. By the time the 1990s came around, with the exception of house music and Prince, I could list on one hand the artists I liked. Now I can list on two fingers.....Prince and Jamiroquai. The rest of them can go to hell. . . [Edited 8/22/06 15:30pm] Bob's songwritings are better than his vocals. | |
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was he sober when he said this??? I will forever love and miss you...my sweet Prince. | |
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someone made a good album in 1986?? | |
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vainandy said: Bob Dylan's music bores the living hell out of me but I agree with him about the 20 year part. His timing is absolutely correct because 1985 is when I first started bitching about music going downhill.
The only difference is, he said he couldn't think of anyone (meaning not one person) who has made anything decent in the last 20 years. Good music was getting much thinner and thinner during the late 1980s but at least there were still a lot of artists I liked.....just not near as many as before. By the time the 1990s came around, with the exception of house music and Prince, I could list on one hand the artists I liked. Now I can list on two fingers.....Prince and Jamiroquai. The rest of them can go to hell. . . [Edited 8/22/06 15:30pm] WOW, it's nice to know that I'm not alone  | |
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damosuzuki said: First of all, Bob’s a legend and one of the greatest figures in popular music of the last ½ century or so, so I think he’s earned the right to be a curmudgeon, a musical misanthrope.
I certainly won’t agree that there’s been nothing of value in the last twenty years, but if you were to revise his statement to something along the lines of “music has been on a consistent decline since the sixties to the extent that the assets that I appreciate most in music (melody, song construction, organic production values) are fundamentally non-existent” then I would be in complete conformity with him. With all those twenty-five cent words you used, I better find a bill changer. 
I'll take issue with a couple things you said. I'm not saying they're wrong, I'd just take issue. Mr. Dylan's status, while unquestioned, is irrelevant to the matter. And as music has evolved, so have those characteristics I highlighted have evolved as well. They may be "fundamentally non-existent" because they've completely changed. That doesn't necessarily equal "consistent decline." It's just another riff from a curmudgeon who's earned the right to be hostile, but being hostile doesn't mean he's right. (and, I see what NRDU and others are saying, but I think BD meant what he said. I interpret what he said to mean that the sound of the music is terrible, but it really doesn't matter because the music is terrible anyway.) Good night, sweet Prince | 7 June 1958 - 21 April 2016
Props will be withheld until the showing and proving has commenced. -- Aaron McGruder | |
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carlcranshaw said: I'd like to hear Bob do a version of Usher's "Yeah".
Take a second and imagine Bob's voice singing it. I'd pay any price to hear that. Good night, sweet Prince | 7 June 1958 - 21 April 2016
Props will be withheld until the showing and proving has commenced. -- Aaron McGruder | |
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vainandy said: Bob Dylan's music bores the living hell out of me but I agree with him about the 20 year part. His timing is absolutely correct because 1985 is when I first started bitching about music going downhill.
The only difference is, he said he couldn't think of anyone (meaning not one person) who has made anything decent in the last 20 years. Good music was getting much thinner and thinner during the late 1980s but at least there were still a lot of artists I liked.....just not near as many as before. By the time the 1990s came around, with the exception of house music and Prince, I could list on one hand the artists I liked. Now I can list on two fingers.....Prince and Jamiroquai. The rest of them can go to hell. . . [Edited 8/22/06 15:30pm] Damn, vain . . . It ain't THAT bad! Good night, sweet Prince | 7 June 1958 - 21 April 2016
Props will be withheld until the showing and proving has commenced. -- Aaron McGruder | |
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theAudience said: Slave2daGroove said: "Bob Dylan sucked as soon as he went electric"
I seem to remember folks saying the same thing...
...about this guy.
tA Tribal Disorder
http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431 I know what you're saying here. When people make comments like these, especially musicians, I put them in a place in my mind. True artists grow and sometimes that means plugging in. Grow with electric Miles/Dylan or tune out, it's a choice. I love it all. | |
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Oh, Bob. Shut the fuck up. | |
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dylan, remember, is the guy who put out "street legal" and "empire burlesque", two of the nastiest sounding albums i've ever heard. dylan is the guy who was willing to release a song which had the fucking cuff buttons on his shirt very audibly banging against his guitar throughout the whole thing. dylan is the guy who let daniel lanois make his harmonica sound like it was being recorded from inside a washer-dryer. dylan is the guy who put out a song (queen jane approximately) in which his guitar was completely out of tune for its entirety (that it being out of tune ultimately sounds really cool isnt the point). dylan is the guy most of whose favorite musicians (charlie patton, robert johnson, et al)'s recordings all come from behind a thick wall of pre-war crackliness. he cares about pristine recording values now?
dylan has talked contradictory shit all his life...he once said his albums meant nothing to him ("just a document of that particular time, nothing more") and that his live shows were where he was at. which i suppose is why he didn't tour at all between 1966 and 1975? 
vainandy said: Bob Dylan's music bores the living hell out of me but I agree with him about the 20 year part. His timing is absolutely correct because 1985 is when I first started bitching about music going downhill.
The only difference is, he said he couldn't think of anyone (meaning not one person) who has made anything decent in the last 20 years. Good music was getting much thinner and thinner during the late 1980s but at least there were still a lot of artists I liked.....just not near as many as before. By the time the 1990s came around, with the exception of house music and Prince, I could list on one hand the artists I liked. Now I can list on two fingers.....Prince and Jamiroquai. The rest of them can go to hell. . . [Edited 8/22/06 15:30pm] yeah.... boards of canada neutral milk hotel flaming lips joe lovano yo la tengo wilco radiohead don byron built to spill pavement aphex twin autechre the orb wu-tang clan company flow bjork dj shadow future sound of london sebadoh mary j blige smog jeff buckley nas chemical brothers will oldham fugazi beck pulp smashing pumpkins outkast guided by voices blur underworld lauryn hill redman michael brecker the prodigy nirvana nils petter molvaer global communication meshell ndegeocello orbital dave douglas elliott smith jurassic 5 rage against the machine belle & sebastian manic street preachers stereolab tricky erykah badu portishead pearl jam my bloody valentine primal scream massive attack de la soul leftfield mogwai slint the roots olivia tremor control pj harvey dismemberment plan sleater-kinney gangstarr modest mouse DAMN, DID THE NINETIES SUCK OR WHAT [Edited 8/23/06 9:13am] | |
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