U2 at Sphere is the nightmare future of music
mattruby.substack.com
mattruby.substack.com
I would expect a smaller repertoire considering audiovisual production is a lot more expensive than just audio.
That doesn't answer any question for me of whether the video medium was good or bad, clearly MTV's monopoly meant the only way to release videos was an economical disaster.
I remember really missing the cultural impact of GWAR in 2016.
Edit to add: they're currently on tour! There are no more members left from the original lineup, but the original Jizmak da Gusha, the current Balsac the Jaws of Death, and the current Beefcake the Mighty have held such considerable tenure that they establish a strong persistent core.
Why do we need more of this? There's literally no shortage of it -- an eternal firehose of this sort of content in all actuality. We could do one of those listicles where someone takes a headline like "no one wants to work anymore" and posts examples of it going back to the invention of the printing press.
And maybe there’s an argument to go gentle on a small upstart effort but this is a billion dollar stadium.
If there’s a half second break in play or downtime some wacky in-game entertainment like keep your eye on the shell under the hat or guess as many items that do X in 15 seconds to win 0.50$ off 45$ concessions.
I was hugely skeptical of the sphere after its whopping 2+ billion dollar cost but it looks like an incredible, unique experience.
These venues will probably only ever be in destination locations, and this is really already what the modern venue experience is, just on what a couple billion dollars gets you.
If people hate it there is probably a million run down theaters or grass fields patrons can go enjoy instead.
Simone, anyone?
the band knew if there were brown m&ms, the rider wasn't fully being adhered to, can cast members lives my be at risk
When you think about it, it's pretty weird that there is this expectation of musicians going "on tour" for nearly an entire year at a time, hitting every major city on a continent during each tour, and then doing it all again one or two years later. We don't expect e.g. musical theatre troupes to tour like that. Theatre troupes might sometimes visit select places, sure — but if you live in most parts of the world, if you want to see a stage production, you are going to be the one getting on a flight to go to where that production "lives" (and serves, most of the time, as an attraction for the city the actors live and work in!)
No. That's The Flaming Lips. If you go to a Flaming Lips concert and are watching them play their instruments, something has gone terribly wrong.
Chuckles in Phish fan
There's room for both.
Mostly though, article reads like eternal complaints of old people about young people and their tastes.
Btw, people film concerts on phones because they want to have something to remember. I very rarely film short videos myself, and I value it when I check my Instagram stories archive.
Faith No More seems like another anti-rock-cliches rock band (or: alternative).
As for U2: they just seem like the least interesting rock band to me. Like a Foo Fighters with boring syncopation.
Is U2 interesting? I've no way to tell. Grinding songs thru years of weaponized repetitiveness makes them experiences to avoid.
I'm not saying overplay pollution is U2's fault. They're the particles, not the dispersant.
ooh ooh or Nine Inch Nails. The visuals in this "Disappointed" track in this video is really mindblowing to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3sp6Hwp3nk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHomCiPFknY
Yet, whenever I read about someone wanting to halt that evolution and freeze culture, it seems indicative of a failure to grasp what culture is. Culture is the evolution, not one state. The concept applies to any kind of culture, not just art.
If we didn't have the capacity to take a step beyond rock concerts, we would've never had the capacity to take a step towards rock concerts in the first place.
Not sure if it's good or bad but it definitely feels future-y.
It was about an old guy lamenting how young people was crazy and losing the important things in life that his generation enjoyed.
The important genres of music like Jazz or Rock n Roll generated this rejection reaction from older generations, but it looks like Rock n Roll people today have become the elders.
Also fuck the sphere things. They’re building one in London. Its a hellscape of light pollution made to take more money off people to fill the pockets of greedy bastards like U2.
Though in all seriousness, I suspect the author might have been just capitalizing on the venue's recent opening, for traffic to his blog.
Though his other content looks fairly interesting. Can't blame him for the hustle.
Roger Waters is probably salivating at the prospect of putting The Wall in the Sphere.
It seems like there's been a constant conversation over the last 30? years about what is and isn't rock'n'roll. I simply don't understand why people are so focused on some ultra-specific definition of what music is.
Can you just choose to listen to the music you want and choose to go or not go to specific shows?
I don't know if OP is intentionally trying to ragebait readers here or not, but it certainly feels that way.
I get it, you're an old man who is angry that the world isn't the same as when you were 18 and happy.
No reason to take the bait and rage. I mean, unless it's against the machine.
His response framed rock and roll not as a form of music but as a cultural phenomenon.
(I wish I could remember what youth culture thing kids do to piss off their parents these days but I can’t remember.)
We've grew up watching shows like Growing Pains, Saved By The Bell, and grew to watch things like Shameless, Spartacus, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad. We love shock factor so much, when something should shock us, we're often oblivious to it.
I wonder if parents always hated the music of their kids, even before modern eras. 1920s? 1800s? 1700s?
The other factor is that a lot of the hate for music was religion based and many now aren't religious anymore, so that's a non-factor. Take the case of Twisted Sister vs Tipper Gore for example lol.
Verily, the Galant Style only sufficeth for Macaronis and Poppinjays. Ho! What a Pain it wreaketh upon mine Ears! Tis like a Pandemonium!
Rock and Roll defines the high point of the boomer generation so they're going to have strong opinions about it.