CD Review: Gotye

 Gotye (aka Wally de Backer)’s first full-length album, Like Drawing Blood, is a lively melee of sounds, instruments and styles. The tracks are have been recorded entirely by the artist, who plays all instruments, and has sampled a number of sounds in the tracks.
 The music defies genre and borrows from a number of styles. Songs range from the [...]

Wiseman sheds some light…

I’ve found it really easy to write about music journalism, but then really difficult to write about music itself. I just can’t seem to get it right; to do the music/musicians justice. I feel like it’s too multi-layered and complex to be summed up concisely by a lone writer with only a single perspective. But [...]

Rant Rant Rant – damn you Rolling Stone!!!

So yeah…
check out this article from music magazine Rolling Stone’s online website, called Artists to Watch: Ten Artists and Bands Who are Bringing the Future of Music, Today. Note that the artists are mainly rock, female singers, electronic and rap/RnB acts…….AGAIN. Are there any other genres of music besides these???? Apparently not!! In particular [...]

Making Money: Consumerism and the Capitalist Influences of the Music Industry

The struggle for non-mainstream music acts to be recognised is long and hard. The relationship between the development of music genre and style is now closely linked to the music industry and consumption. Simon Frith notes that in writing about music,”The sociologist of contemporary popular music is faced with a body of songs, records, stars [...]

Gaps between metal and top 40 – MUSIC/ALBUM PRODUCTION

I’ve spoken about many different themes and gaps between heavy metal (and other styles) and top 40 music, in terms of performance, composition, culture, etc. I have saved a bombshell for last however, as I have not yet discussed anything to do with the production of the music, in terms of recording techniques, mixing processes, [...]

Heavy metal culture – more intimacy/meaning/dedication than top 40?

The culture of heavy metal music and the culture of top 40 music are on two completely different spectrums, and appreciated in many different means to one another. I love how devoted metal-heads are to their music/artists, especially in contrast to how fans of top 40 music’s attitude differ so much.
I have asked many fans [...]

Rip-offs? More examples can be found here.

Starting with Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, The Gathering, and Theatre of Tragedy, these were acts that shared common influences and sounds, and thus a term and genre was created to describe the aforementioned performers; namely “female-fronted gothic metal bands”. A multitude of variations on this term exist, but sadly, the efforts of many of these original [...]

New album review – Meshuggah – ‘obZen’

The extreme metal world has been waiting for this release for quite some time, and it’s finally here! Meshuggah have blasted us with their newest studio release ‘obZen’.
This album, is just what the fans of Meshuggah have been wanting, since they got their Ibanez 8 string guitars made for them, only a few years ago. [...]

“Breaking down the partisan barriers that exist in music” – Professor Wilfrid Mellers

The SMH yesterday paid tribute to Professor Wilfrid Mellers, composer, critic and musicologist who “caused a stir in classical and popular music circles by giving serious consideration to the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan as much as Bach and Beethoven” (SMH, 2008).
Mellers introduced popular music into his teachings at Universities and was interested [...]

‘Wannabee’ bands being labeled metal – ripping off actual metal bands

There is a fairly high number of bands being labeled as ‘metal’ in the popular music scene – and in some circumstances, the top 40 scene – that are not metal at all, and in fact, are ripping off bands, rather than taking influence from them and creating their own interpretation of the music.
These bands [...]