Comment on Riding my Nightmare by DocWario
Seems to me that there was a lot of experimentation back then because many of the musical tropes for hard rock and heavy metal weren't established; they were being built up.
Another example from the pioneers of metal: Black Sabbath. Their career covers a much greater variety of styles beyond the well-worn radio standards with their single-minded riff focus; their first two albums had a lot of very clear blues and even jazz influence. The band members themselves were also very much finding their way around the instruments; Iommi was still teaching himself guitar and experimenting with detuning (not to mention playing with some of his fingertips missing) and Butler was transitioning from guitar to bass without knowing what a bass player is supposed to do. This accounts for at least some of the musical simplicity of their early hits, but it also gave them the mental freedom to turn their blues/jazz background into the more experimental rock that doesn't get play on the radio anymore.
Albums like Vol. 4 through Technical Ecstasy had an increasingly progressive/prog flavor to them, and they made it work well (especially on Sabotage). Heaven and Hell was kind of a throw-back to the earlier bluesy-rock sound, but around Mob Rules its seems the band started to focus more on what was becoming the "conventional" metal sound. Around this time metal was becoming more popular and certain expectations were growing around it.
The earlier stuff was experimental because hard, heavy rock was a frontier of popular music, being assembled piecemeal out of other genres and personal experimentation; by the 80s it was becoming well-tread ground, and not just for the established acts but especially those who followed in their footsteps. So instead of people coming at rock from different origins, they had a common body of music to draw on (the earlier hard rock bands) that gave them a kind of shared vocabulary or common language for rock, and only starting from this established basis did the next generation of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal start to branch in new directions for the rest of the 80s and most of the 90s. Not saying this is a universal, just that it seems to describe the majority.
But I'm no expert, that's just the impression I get from listening to my own collection and reading the liner notes.
Speaking of music, can you believe how much brony fan music there is? I've seen a lot of TV show fandoms before but never something that produced as huge or as diverse a collection of musical works at this one, before even its third season. The only comparison I can make is to the musical fandom for huge video game franchises like Final Fantasy or Zelda. I often wonder why this isn't a news story in itself, rather than a rarely-mentioned footnote to the "brony" phenomenon.
Another example from the pioneers of metal: Black Sabbath. Their career covers a much greater variety of styles beyond the well-worn radio standards with their single-minded riff focus; their first two albums had a lot of very clear blues and even jazz influence. The band members themselves were also very much finding their way around the instruments; Iommi was still teaching himself guitar and experimenting with detuning (not to mention playing with some of his fingertips missing) and Butler was transitioning from guitar to bass without knowing what a bass player is supposed to do. This accounts for at least some of the musical simplicity of their early hits, but it also gave them the mental freedom to turn their blues/jazz background into the more experimental rock that doesn't get play on the radio anymore.
Albums like Vol. 4 through Technical Ecstasy had an increasingly progressive/prog flavor to them, and they made it work well (especially on Sabotage). Heaven and Hell was kind of a throw-back to the earlier bluesy-rock sound, but around Mob Rules its seems the band started to focus more on what was becoming the "conventional" metal sound. Around this time metal was becoming more popular and certain expectations were growing around it.
The earlier stuff was experimental because hard, heavy rock was a frontier of popular music, being assembled piecemeal out of other genres and personal experimentation; by the 80s it was becoming well-tread ground, and not just for the established acts but especially those who followed in their footsteps. So instead of people coming at rock from different origins, they had a common body of music to draw on (the earlier hard rock bands) that gave them a kind of shared vocabulary or common language for rock, and only starting from this established basis did the next generation of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal start to branch in new directions for the rest of the 80s and most of the 90s. Not saying this is a universal, just that it seems to describe the majority.
But I'm no expert, that's just the impression I get from listening to my own collection and reading the liner notes.
Speaking of music, can you believe how much brony fan music there is? I've seen a lot of TV show fandoms before but never something that produced as huge or as diverse a collection of musical works at this one, before even its third season. The only comparison I can make is to the musical fandom for huge video game franchises like Final Fantasy or Zelda. I often wonder why this isn't a news story in itself, rather than a rarely-mentioned footnote to the "brony" phenomenon.
There's an insane ammount of fan music, yes. I'd love to get involved with more of it. I want to do more ponified versions of songs, I( love rewriting lyrics, something I can do fast but I gotta have a good chunk fo time for it (dunno if you heard my Ponified Feel Good Inc). My greatest challenge is trying to turn "Stairway to Heaven" into "Stairway to Cloudsdale" Total Sacrilige, I know it XD But it starts out about, you know, a lady who's pretty sure she can get whatever she wants - and when you relate that to Rarity's character, and how Twilight's bewinged spell essentially grants her a "Stairway" to the luxury of cloudsdale... it's got potentail to work ok-ish XD and also to get much hate I'm sure.
You know, I own Vol 4 on Vinyl but haven't listened to it yet. I quite like the bareness of their Debut. There are a lot, lot, lot of hard debuts that just kick so much. Blue Cheer, MC5, Zephyr, Ramatam, Steamhammer, Mountain, CACTUS, Humble Pie... Bloodrock, oh god, I wish I had their Debut. Bloodrock 3 is such, such, such a wonderfully dark album, you just don't see DOA coming. I pretty much have a shelf devoted to lesser-known debuts because, that's where you're gonna hear something new. 3, 5 albums into it you'll hear them perfect, refined, and it's at this peak of perfect sound, and just the right hooks etc etc, but Debuts are almost like sketchbooks, and IO find sketchbooks more fascinating to look at more times just because you can see how things get started rather then trying to pick apart these studio masterpieces.
I share with you now a hard rock/metal/whatever poem I crafted 4 years ago XD [link]
You know, I own Vol 4 on Vinyl but haven't listened to it yet. I quite like the bareness of their Debut. There are a lot, lot, lot of hard debuts that just kick so much. Blue Cheer, MC5, Zephyr, Ramatam, Steamhammer, Mountain, CACTUS, Humble Pie... Bloodrock, oh god, I wish I had their Debut. Bloodrock 3 is such, such, such a wonderfully dark album, you just don't see DOA coming. I pretty much have a shelf devoted to lesser-known debuts because, that's where you're gonna hear something new. 3, 5 albums into it you'll hear them perfect, refined, and it's at this peak of perfect sound, and just the right hooks etc etc, but Debuts are almost like sketchbooks, and IO find sketchbooks more fascinating to look at more times just because you can see how things get started rather then trying to pick apart these studio masterpieces.
I share with you now a hard rock/metal/whatever poem I crafted 4 years ago XD [link]
Another potential song to re-write for that scene could be The Flight of Icarus by Iron Maiden. Not only does it spring from the same source material, but so many of the song's elements fit (watch crowds, etc.). Plus you get the fun twist in that version.
Dude, it's like... what if leaves... had lives, man? Like, social ones.
Whoa.
Dude, it's like... what if leaves... had lives, man? Like, social ones.
Whoa.