Write a controversial opinion

[TheRedChamber]

I had a professor at uni who called bullshit on the love potion idea. Basically he argued, "You've got a beautiful lady and a handsome knight crossing the Irish Sea at sunset. Who needs a love potion? You could serve them milk and they'd fall in love."

Somehow the 2006 movie version Tristran + Isolde (yes, with an actual addition sign) managed to be superior to the opera just because the two lovers actually fell in love.

It's fair to say, that Richard Wagner, for all he was a dab hand with the old chords, had no idea how romance worked.

The Ring Cycle has a man who has literally never seen a woman before meet a woman (well, valkyrie) who is cursed to fall in love with the first man she sees. Then he is tricked into drinking a potion to forget his love for her. Fourteen and a half hours and who in the hell cares (except that the last forty minutes of Das Valkyrie is probably longest continuous stretch of pure musical magic ever written)

Still better than Lohengrin which may be the single most sexist story ever told not involving Alf Garnett.

 

[StillStunned]

Somehow the 2006 movie version Tristran + Isolde (yes, with an actual addition sign) managed to be superior to the opera just because the two lovers actually fell in love.

There are some absolutely beautiful versions of the tale out there, including the tiny lay "Chevrefeuille". Gerald Morris takes the piss out of the romance in "The Ballad of Sir Dinadan", told from the POV of Tristan's brother, who's perpetually exasperated by the lovers' deliberate devotion to tragedy and drama.

 

[PennyThompson]

Ooh are we moving into the musical portion of the Controversial Opinions?

Music from your young adult era isn't better than what came after, it's just that your brain crystalized between the ages of 16 and 24 and the emotional attachment you hold for the music you listened to during that period overwhelms all other aesthetic variables. This also includes music from before your 16-24 era that you happened to latch onto during that phase of your life, so don't act like you're cool for liking the Beatles or whatever if they broke up before you were born

 

[NuclearFairy]

Ooh are we moving into the musical portion of the Controversial Opinions?

Music from your young adult era isn't better than what came after, it's just that your brain crystalized between the ages of 16 and 24 and the emotional attachment you hold for the music you listened to during that period overwhelms all other aesthetic variables. This also includes music from before your 16-24 era that you happened to latch onto during that phase of your life, so don't act like you're cool for liking the Beatles or whatever if they broke up before you were born

I didn't find some of my favorite artists until I was in my thirties.

Ignore the fact that most of them were actually making music when I was in my teens. I never actually heard them back then. Although, in one case I listened to the stuff they put out when I was in my teens and didn't like it, just their newer stuff.

 

[Statius]

Hey! There's plenty of foot fetish sites and probably threads. We anti feet people should be heard too!

Help! Help! I'm being repressed! I'm being repressed! Come see the violence inherent in the system! You saw him repressing me, didn't you?

Or something like that

 

[Statius]

Ooh are we moving into the musical portion of the Controversial Opinions?

Music from your young adult era isn't better than what came after, it's just that your brain crystalized between the ages of 16 and 24 and the emotional attachment you hold for the music you listened to during that period overwhelms all other aesthetic variables. This also includes music from before your 16-24 era that you happened to latch onto during that phase of your life, so don't act like you're cool for liking the Beatles or whatever if they broke up before you were born

Oooh new controversial Opinion! There are bands I love who worship the Beatles. I don't like the Beatles. They had moments, but for fucks sake, get over it!

Oh and imma get skewered for this one for sure. Lana Delray is to our current culture what Bob Dylan was to his in his prime. That's right, I said it.

 

[Statius]

I didn't find some of my favorite artists until I was in my thirties.

Ignore the fact that most of them were actually making music when I was in my teens. I never actually heard them back then. Although, in one case I listened to the stuff they put out when I was in my teens and didn't like it, just their newer stuff.

Me with Lana, Florence, and maybe a few others

 

[NuclearFairy]

Oh and imma get skewered for this one for sure. Lana Delray is to our current culture what Bob Dylan was to his in his prime. That's right, I said it.

Whose that?

No but seriously though, that name is familiar but I'm not quite placing it. Is she one of those Celtic music players?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Ooh are we moving into the musical portion of the Controversial Opinions?

Music from your young adult era isn't better than what came after, it's just that your brain crystalized between the ages of 16 and 24 and the emotional attachment you hold for the music you listened to during that period overwhelms all other aesthetic variables. This also includes music from before your 16-24 era that you happened to latch onto during that phase of your life, so don't act like you're cool for liking the Beatles or whatever if they broke up before you were born

Also: a lot of what people think of as "bad music" is actually "music made for people other than me".

 

[SimonDoom]

Hey! There's plenty of foot fetish sites and probably threads. We anti feet people should be heard too!

Please don't tell me you want to turn it into a fetish, however.

 

[Statius]

Whose that?

No but seriously though, that name is familiar but I'm not quite placing it. Is she one of those Celtic music players?

.

Nope. Pop. Fucking fantastic. Most honest song writer I've ever heard. Her mix of personal, politics, pulse of the culture, is just kinda mind blowing. And that voice.... Oh that voice. Not gonna lie though. It's best to listen to her work as a whole rather than individual songs.

 

[Statius]

Please don't tell me you want to turn it into a fetish, however.

Ha! Kinda funny. Nah I don't like feet honestly, but this whole thing is just turning into a very, and probably over long, gag that I started for a laugh. I'm enjoying it though.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There are too many foot fetishists and not enough hand fetishists.

 

[NuclearFairy]

.

Nope. Pop. Fucking fantastic. Most honest song writer I've ever heard. Her mix of personal, politics, pulse of the culture, is just kinda mind blowing. And that voice.... Oh that voice. Not gonna lie though. It's best to listen to her work as a whole rather than individual songs.

My only real exposure to pop music is the Trolls movie. o.o

 

[Statius]

Whose that?

No but seriously though, that name is familiar but I'm not quite placing it. Is she one of those Celtic music players?

Oh forwarning. Don't know how you are about music around little ones, but her lyrics can be a bit graphic. So maybe with headphones at first. Not just swearing, but sex as well. Example.

'My pussy tastes like Pepsi cola' from Cola. Just saying.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Oh forwarning. Don't know how you are about music around little ones, but her lyrics can be a bit graphic. So maybe with headphones at first. Not just swearing, but sex as well. Example.

'My pussy tastes like Pepsi cola' from Cola. Just saying.

Steven Lynch is not listened to while the children are about.

 

[Statius]

My only real exposure to pop music is the Trolls movie. o.o

Pop/ rock/ alt. Less pop, more alt.

 

[PennyThompson]

'My pussy tastes like Pepsi cola'

Trying to picture Bob Dylan singing that at the Newport Folk Festival...

 

[iwatchus]

.

Nope. Pop. Fucking fantastic. Most honest song writer I've ever heard. Her mix of personal, politics, pulse of the culture, is just kinda mind blowing. And that voice.... Oh that voice. Not gonna lie though. It's best to listen to her work as a whole rather than individual songs.

I like her (and some of her songs would make for good entries in the music event) but she is no Dylan. He had such an influence that is hard to overstate. And I;m not a hard core dylan fan. Not like my first spouse.

 

[StillStunned]

There are too many foot fetishists and not enough hand fetishists.

I had a hand fetish right through adolescence.

 

[NuclearFairy]

1950's musicians were masters at getting shit past the censors.

 

[SimonDoom]

Ooh are we moving into the musical portion of the Controversial Opinions?

Music from your young adult era isn't better than what came after, it's just that your brain crystalized between the ages of 16 and 24 and the emotional attachment you hold for the music you listened to during that period overwhelms all other aesthetic variables. This also includes music from before your 16-24 era that you happened to latch onto during that phase of your life, so don't act like you're cool for liking the Beatles or whatever if they broke up before you were born

Obviously, there's no way to reach a consensus or agreement on this issue, but that's what makes it a controversial opinion, and what makes it fun to talk about.

But I still think I'm right. I've read some interesting articles on how music really IS dumber today, when you break it down and look at what's happening in the song construction, in many ways than it was in the past. It's more dominated by producers and solo artists who establish and maintain brands, rather than groups who sit around knocking out songs on guitars. There's less dynamic range in many popular songs. It's more formulaic. The dominant songwriter of the last 20 years is Max Martin, for Pete's sake. The era I referred to featured songwriters like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Paul Simon, Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, Stevie Wonder, just to name a few, at the height of their powers.

I actually didn't start listening to music much until the mid-70s, so my favorite era wasn't the one I came of age in, but the era that immediately preceded mine. The period from the mid-60s and for another ten years, roughly, represented a creative explosion and exploration into new types of music that no other era in popular music can match, just because by now it's harder to do something new. It doesn't make it better, necessarily, because that's a matter of taste, but it was the most creative era.

We still hear music from that era on the radio, in commercials, and in popular culture. I have my doubts about whether 20 years from now the music of 2010-2025 will get the same kind of attention. I don't think it's going to stick as well.

 

[Statius]

Trying to picture Bob Dylan singing that at the Newport Folk Festival...

Ha! That would be fucking hilarious! Regardless I think it's true. She's a frigging god and I think her influence is only to grow.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Trying to picture Bob Dylan singing that at the Newport Folk Festival...

And getting booed by the Coke fans.

 

[Statius]

I like her (and some of her songs would make for good entries in the music event) but she is no Dylan. He had such an influence that is hard to overstate. And I;m not a hard core dylan fan. Not like my first spouse.

Her influence on women musicians borders on being unparalleled today. From Taylor to Billie, Chappelle Rhoane(sp?), and many many others. Her first album came out in '11 I think? She's a giant. That's only going to continue.