 |
All About Music
by Seven17
Music for some people is just something to get them through the work day, for others its a career or something more than that. For me its a bit of both. I started doing small weddings and parties on and off many years ago and it was just a bit of easy cash, i didnt do it for fun back when i started, a friend of mine needed an emergency ... DJ for an hour and a half, just to bring some of my CD's and play them, i did it and i got into it like that. He paid me £15 and i was more than pleased to do it for that.
I work in an office where we have the radio on all day and occasionally we sing along, makes jokes and generally enjoy listening to it, so for me its a bit of both. I have always loved music, of most genres. I dont like death metal with the screaming and i dont like gangsta rap, but for those that do thats their sort of music, they enjoy it and to them its the same as me enjoying some classic 80's tracks, it makes me happy and it must make them happy, otherwise why would they listen to it?
Supporting artists is a good thing but excessive pay to people who are already multi millionaires is something i dont agree with. Its a talent but much like football players wages, for me personally i think its excessive. Artsits should be payed well, but not millions upon millions. Emerging artists need the cash most of all to build their fanbase, get their foot in the door and experience the music scene but does madona really need another £2m?
Music is in daily life, everywhere you go whatever you do music is there. TV, adverts, youtube, radio, people singing, your own personal collection and the list goes on. Its a huge part of our lives and its only getting bigger, people are buying more and more music, even if the formats have changed.
Music has a huge impact on society and cant be ignored. It inspires people, changes people, makes people cry, makes people dance and simply by instruments and voices being used in a certain way. Pop music has always been about rebellion, right from the early 20th century but although music is changing, for better or worse, that idea is still there, and people still change the course of music over the years to come.
Thats just my opinion but some may disagree, some may never listen to music all day long, its hard not to but possible, but think of the happiness music you enjoy brings you? Goosebumps on your wedding song, a feel good high when you hear club tracks that make you want to go out and have a great evening, and relaxing tracks that calm you in the bath at night.
Music also has a negative impact on vulnerable children for example, rap videos about drugs, beating people up etc are just not needed, so there is a downside to music too but overall i feel it has a huge positive impact on everyone.
Read the complete review |
 |
Carter USM in general
by Seven17
Carter USM have toured all over the world and have had many succesful albums. The names of which are questionable... Never the less they have a great history behind them, and over the years i have collected a couple albums that go down a treat at rock parties. Their music is all about the instruments, forget this singing about love ... nonsense, its all about the rock!!!
Their tracks do have vocals and the ones that do are usually quite sarcastic and funny. Carter USM has an unusual way of presenting their albums, for example "You Fat..." starts with a crazy shouting and hilarious conversation fro the lead singer. Then the music kicks in. Perfect start.
I will not sing all praises for these guys though, there are a few negatives i have to pick at. First of all they have songs that sound similar, and they dont mix up the riffs. They have off beat word play lyrics on some tracks during the chorus but when they are quiet the riffs on their own dont sound good, they are just pretty basic and generic.
The Unstopable Sex Machine has attarcted a great number of fans over the years and for me personally, i am a fan but not a huge fan. I like rock music with a dfference and Carter USM is certainly "different" in the way that when they first arrived on the rock scene, they establihed themselves in a controversial way. Never before had i heard a band make jokes and refrences like Carter USM.
Its all about having a laugh and enjoying the rock scene for these guys, nothing is serious. "Jim Bob" and "Fruitbat" nicknames clearly suggest this, and its nice to see a band take a back seat and enjoy the ride rather than take it so seriously like AC/DC or Gun's n Roses. Alright they arent as big and yes, they havent had as many tour sellouts or album sell outs but they have a passion, and they ae living their dream. Thats what make a real band.
Check out their albums - they last had a gig in 2007 and i dont think we will hear from them again so lets rememer the great band, and how they were way back when.
Read the complete review |
|
|
Rammstein in general
by suziedre
Last night I was lucky enough to see Rammstein play a gig down in Dublin. They have been on my 'concerts I must see' list for a few years. Everyone raves about how amazing they are as a live act, and I was not disappointed.
For those who don't know, Rammstein are a German industrial metal band who were formed in Berlin in ... 1994. They have released 6 albums to date, and have sold over 15 million records worldwide. This is quite an achievement considering that the vast majority of their output is sung in their native tongue. The band has 6 members - Till Lindemann (vocals), Richard Z. Kruspe (guitar), Paul H. Landers (guitar), Oliver "Ollie" Riedel (bass), Christoph "Doom" Schneider (drums) and Christian "Flake" Lorenz (keyboards). Their line-up has remained unchanged since they formed.
The band are well known for putting on spectacular live shows. Their current 'Made in Germany' tour is no exception. They walked onto the main stage via a large bridge that spanned across the crowd, marching with flags to the tune of a foreboding-sounding instrumental track. The main stage had an industrial, factory kind of look.
Once onstage, they launched into Sonne, one of the main singles from their 2001 Mutter album, which is one of their best known. Their vocalist Till is a qualified pyrotechnician, and indeed the pyro used was like nothing I have ever seen at a gig. Flames blasted from the stage floor in time with the music - we were 3 rows from the back on the balcony seats and we could feel the heat from the flames, so I have no idea how boiling the people who were closer must have felt!
Other musical highlights included the song Rammstein and a great selection of songs from Mutter (eg. Ich will and Mein Herz brennt); and also from the albums Sehnsucht (eg. Du Hast and Engel) and Reise, Reise (eg. Amerika and Keine Lust). It's fair to say that there is not much diversity when it comes to Rammstein's music; they very much seem to have a formula and don't seem to have changed their style of music over the years - but I really could not care less. They are brilliant. Du Hast in particular is probably the band's best known song, and it was somewhat... 'odd' to stand in an arena with thousands of people, arms aloft, chanting along in German!
The band also had a smaller stage at the back of the arena - about halfway through, they crossed the bridge to get to this stage to play a few songs. Oh, I should add they crossed the bridge on their hands and knees, chained up, with Flake whipping them. We couldn't see the small stage because we were up on the balcony and therefore the smaller stage was beneath us. This means we did not get to see the typical performance the band put on for the song Buck Dich. This performance consists of keyboardist Flake bending over, and pretending to be sodomised by Till... who has a prosthetic penis which squirts liquid out all over the crowd. Subtle? Not so much - you don't go to a Rammstein gig for subtlety! The band got in trouble for this in the US in 1999 I believe, which led Till and Flake to spend a night in prison.
Flake also crowd-surfed in a dinghy during the gig, and during the song Mein Teil, sat inside a huge cooking pot while Till shot flames at him. This aspect shows the band's wicked sense of humour, as Mein Teil is a song about Armin Meiwes, 'the Rotenburg Cannibal'.
Remember I mentioned the prosthetic penis? Well, this was upstaged during the song Pussy (which is famed for having a VERY sexually explicit video) when Till sat astride a huge mechanical penis which shot out white foam. So not only were the people at the front roasted alive, they also got to take part in a massive foam party. Would some people be offended by this? I guess so - but then those types of people probably wouldn't be at a German metal concert. It's all in good fun; very tongue in cheek.
The final song was Engel, which saw Till wear a huge pair of angel's wings which were on fire. It looked stunning, and it was the perfect end to an absolutely mind-blowing gig.
Being a metal band, Rammstein's music is not for everyone; however I would say this was not merely a concert - it was theatre, and you would not need to know any songs to be thoroughly entertained by this band's performance. It was ridiculously loud, fun, and the band hardly paused for breath between songs before launching into the next stompingly awesome track. Mutter and Ohne Dich were the only slower tracks played.
I am hoping that Rammstein tour the UK/Ireland again very soon, because I don't think I could see them live only once. They are too loud, too insane, too good.
Read the complete review |
