Modern Rock Bands

S.D. wrote:

I'd like to sit a teenager down and force them to listen to Henry Cow, Gong or Can.   

Ha. I tried that a couple times as a youth leader back in the day, and a minute in they'd be shouting and rioting for their Twenty Seconds to Mars.

corplhicks wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

BTW, good examples of inaccessible music: Neil Young (to some at least), The Residents, Nick Cave, early REM (a lot of people disagree with me on this), some Lou Reed, Captain Beefheart, Merzbow. A lot of people find My Bloody Valentine inaccessible (I think they're brilliantly catchy).

I disagree with Neil Young and Lou Reed.

They might not be everyone's boat, of course, but they are still pretty straight ahead rock n' roll.

MBV has some catchiness to them, after repeated listenings, but on the whole I think they fall far more into the inaccessbile category, right along with a lot of the early 90s shoegaze scene. I feel like bands like MBV and Slowdive and such, you almost have to want to like. You aren't going to hear it once and just get it stuck in your soul.

Inaccessible doesn't just mean boring. It's just a type of music that is more difficult for the common ear to slide in to. To you and me, Reed and Young are faaaaaaaaaar from boring. I find Young more engaging than, say, Dream Theater. But few of his songs were written with a hook or the radio in mind. Play the entirety of After the Gold Rush for a modern-day teenager and see if they make it through the whole thing. Harvest was probably the one album he wrote with an actual single in mind, and even today he admits it was his pop album (before Reactor came along, of course).

Inaccessible music is the best IMO. It matures a listener's ear and opens them up to a world of unconventional beauty. That's why saying Young and Reed inaccessible is a huge compliment from me .

Ok, I can agree with all that.

S.D. wrote:

I'd like to sit a teenager down and force them to listen to Henry Cow, Gong or Can.   

I have nothing to back this up, but for some reason I would think Can would appeal to the younger generation. They seem hip as hell to me.

I hate to be that guy, but I'm a teen who likes Henry Cow, Gong, and Can. Can't say much about Lou Reed or Neil Young though.