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OT: H.E.R. SNL


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Thanks for sharing this. I just watched the song she performed earlier in the show ("Damage"). It is fairly generic contemporary R&B, and she is just singing without playing guitar. Nothing wrong with that performance but, had I seen Damage first, I might not have stuck around for "Hold On," which is much more impressive.

 

Bringing the thread "on-topic," I can't tell for sure but I'm pretty sure the Rhodes is a shell or at least just a prop/window dressing. The keys player appears to be playing the Rhodes in Damage but I don't hear a Rhodes tone, and then I hear a Rhodes tone in Hold On but see him playing a Red (Nord? C2?) keyboard mostly hidden behind the Rhodes (shell).

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Just an old-guy comment here - everybody is playing good, she can definitely sing, and that was a nice guitar solo. But... five minutes of three chords â and two of those were really the same chord with a sus 4 going to a 3. I miss the old days of verses, choruses and bridges.
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Just an old-guy comment here - everybody is playing good, she can definitely sing, and that was a nice guitar solo. But... five minutes of three chords â and two of those were really the same chord with a sus 4 going to a 3. I miss the old days of verses, choruses and bridges.
I turned on SNL around 1/2 way through and she came on, never heard of her before and I was wow wow... the old school style, the sparseness and simplicity, that insane guitar tone, the beautiful backups, but mostly the seemingly effortless and subtle guitar riffs she interlaces throughout the song, capped by that epic solo. Just me, but I think the purple one must be smiling down on this

Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands

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Just an old-guy comment here - everybody is playing good, she can definitely sing, and that was a nice guitar solo. But... five minutes of three chords â and two of those were really the same chord with a sus 4 going to a 3. I miss the old days of verses, choruses and bridges.

 

On the other hand, she"s figured out how to exist in the current three chord landscape. Perhaps the record has more harmonically interesting material that the easily accessible tune will expose fans to.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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YouTube has taught us that the world is filled with many many amazing musicians on many levels. In performance, in composition and arranging, producing, singing, instrumental virtuosity. The music business continues to teach us they look for the 'X factor' to bet their backing money on.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Amazing that I'd never heard of H.E.R. Just shows how disconnected I am. My homework assignment is to watch every Tiny Desk Concert so I can catch up on what is hip.

 

Love her voice, her talent, and her presence. But I agree with others who say the songwriting is shallow and forgettable. I also agree that may be less a personal lack of talent and more just conforming to the times.

 

One of my CovidTimes indulgences has been cruising the Stevie Wonder songbook. I've learned about 20 more of his tunes. That number would be higher if I had more time. Songwriting for the ages, my friends.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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The talent is obvious. It's just a shame â in my opinion â that the loop-based music production techniques that so many songs use today, where a single chord progression (usually 2 bars long) goes for the entire length of a song, has made its way into a live band setting. IMO this loopy songwriting would not exist without DAWs that make it easy to copy & "endless-paste" a small fragment of music to instantly produce a bed for a song. In terms of songwriting craft, it's â IMO - the tail wagging the dog. These "songs" are, of course, dressed up with production flourishes â sound effects, breakdowns, etc. I know I'm generalizing but I can't help thinking that repeating the same two or three chords over & over is a form of cheating, and even insulting to those who spend their time learning and applying actual knowledge of harmony to the craft of songwriting. I certainly don't mean to say that songs should have a million chords with jazzy alterations to be good. There are many examples of pop songs with simple progressions of a few chords that have moved millions of people â but the key word imo is "progressions"; the chords start somewhere and move to different places. My ear gets very tired listening to a loop of the same chords for a long time. I get bored â no matter how good the players are or how polished the production is. I think younger audiences are more tuned in to the visuals, and many of them have grown up listening to only loop-based music. Of course, like most things arts-related, this is all subjective and I'm well aware I'm old and my opinions are probably in the minority â I don't care! Now get off my lawn! :laugh:
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All pop music is loop- or form-based. It's just the job of each new generation to come up with a progression or form that pisses off the previous generation.

 

It's not like the 1950's I-vi-IV-V was so varied or harmonically adventurous...

 

I love H.E.R. and thought the performance was smoking.

 

hashtag "come on over, my lawn could use some walking-on"

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
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I think she (H.E.R.) is great. If, for no other reason, to show our younger brothers and sisters what real musicians look and sound like. A 'band' is not a bunch of people that can dance together and almost sing. Nor can feel be synced up to a 'play' button. I do agree w/Reezekeys and others that I like to hear a little more developed songwriting and arranging. I hope she continues to grow in popularity and as a songwriter.

Professional musician = great source of poverty.

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Chord progressions are a well-explored, sometimes very formulaic, way to divide a song up into parts and tell a story with tension and release.

 

I think it's interesting that you can accomplish the same with production (or does it sound more respectable if you call it orchestration or arranging?).

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I did say I was generalizing. And in all cases where one generalizes there are exceptions - sometimes a lot of exceptions. I was looking at the bigger picture of what I hear in today's music. Of course there were songs with loops of two or four repeating chords way back before DAWs made it easy to cut & paste. A lot of those old loops are what gets sampled for today's "new" loops, lol. I'm only saying that imo the process of songwriting â using a DAW where it takes seconds to cut and paste â is influencing what songs sound like. The tail wagging the dog, as I said a few posts above. And I agree that chord progressions can be formulaic and sound bad â but isn't that more about the person that came up with the particular combination of them? Whaddya know - it's not easy to compose an original sequence of chords that defy formularization (is that a word? lol) or create an emotional response. Who knew?!
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IMO this loopy songwriting would not exist without DAWs that make it easy to copy & "endless-paste" a small fragment of music to instantly produce a bed for a song.
I always figured it was things like arpeggiators and pattern sequencers on boards like the Motif that started it. You don't even have to be able to copy and paste. You press a button, and it keeps playing the sequence until you stop.

 

There have been 2-chord songs around forever (and even one chord songs: https://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2863978/One_Chord_Songs ) -- but yeah, I think it has become increasingly common that songs don't have really distinct chord pattern differences for the verses and choruses (forget bridges). Any change in emotional intensity for a chorus more likely comes from a change in the melody alone, leaving the chords as is.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Found a low quality rip on YT I could watch. Won't comment much since the audio wasn't great, but I will say that whichever Jonas Brother pulled that epic solo fail has probably already made more money than she ever will... so go ahead and play, sis, cause you sure as hell can. That's some Black Girl Magic right there.
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Nick. I remember he just outright copped to it and called it a brain-fart. Refreshing.

 

ReezeKeys, I was being maybe more literal than it sounded. It's truly the job of each succeeding generation to flaunt the absence of whatever element the previous one uses as a mark of "real" music. Ironically, that used to be pitch-exactness and sophisticated melodies, which the rockers abandoned in favor of screaminess/mumbling with cool harmonic development. Now everyone's dead on pitch with soaring melodic leaps, but it's the previous generation's preferences for harmonic development they've eschewed.

 

Whatever this generation grows up valuing, the next one will gleefully omit, and Gen-Z will have officially grown up the day they make their first complaint about it.

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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Pop music also has beat trends. The artists just can't help but have to match their groove for what's happening in the clubs - smooth DJ transitions. Really not different than the disco era, just that currently island influenced beats are hot. It happens in all genres really, just very obvious in pop.

 

Anyway, there's enough things I relate to and recognize here, appreciate, etc. to listen through to the end - ah heck, I can appreciate most things... But, I watched it last night - nope the specific melody didn't stick with me, or the lyric. But I do remember the vibe and imagery they are selling. And that (like is currently in style) the guitar solo is really just the melody - not a new piece of material or an area of improvisation. Nirvana killed what we expected from a "solo" in the 90s. ;)

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Q:

"Quite nice, although I can't help thinking that many other people are equally capable to sing (compose, arrange, play) at the same level - or even better - in that style."

Of course there are. There are many people capable of playing at the level of all sorts of musicians. What is your point?

 

A:

Performance was fine. But I will forget this in a week. There wasn't anything memorable about the song, the guitar playing, or the singing.
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