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David Bowie Has Died

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Re: David Bowie Has Died

#231

Post by miles932 »

SonicSoul wrote: post #216
synthmeat wrote: post #21

I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don’t think it’s going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyrigh…

this is a travesty. In addition to loving his music he also lived in my neighborhood in nyc and I've been naming our internal applications after his songs. Put up a black banner on Ground Control as we speak :( my favorite is the collab he did with Trent Reznor on I'm Afraid of Americans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPVrFIP0CMs

Yeah, that song rocks pretty hard :)

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#232

Post by martin1975 »

synthmeat wrote: post #21

I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don’t think it’s going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyrigh…

Metallica hates you, Major Tom! And you are right - music is becoming a commodity, and I hope to pay not $15/album, but more like $2/album, of which 1.5 goes to the artist and .5 goes to whomever helped them do a professional studio recording. The distribution will inevitably happen on the internet. That's how you end piracy and motivate people to pay artists for their divine gift.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#233

Post by krapp »

reinhardt wrote: post #227
nashashmi wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am just hearing about him now that he has died. I don't see why it is SO relevant to HN community. I don't see any similarities here whatsoever. Nor do I see a hacker theme. Would appreciate if someone would enlighten me on this.

I like to think of such "strange" highly voted posts as revealing a hidden correlation. Yes, there may not be any obvious prior reason to expect that people who frequent HN find David Bowie or his death significant. And yet they do. There doesn't have to be a cause-and-effect or "logical" explanation. It is what it is.

People who frequent HN are likely to be part of the set of people who have been influenced by popular culture, which is a superset of David Bowie fans.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#234

Post by askafriend »

agumonkey wrote: post #100
brazzledazzle wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I never heard anything from West that was worth being arrogant that what I meant I think you're getting caught up in marketing. While you're not the target it still effects you and how you enjoy music. I've started to ignore what artists say or do and it's really allowed me to appreciate a lot more music because I can just enjoy it for what it is instead of thinking about the image they're trying to sell.

Fair point. But in West's case, it's not even marketing, his running into Swift to rage about Knowles award loss was him entirely. Unless it was his PR team that gave him the idea. I'll keep your idea in mind though.

He drank an entire bottle of Hennessy before that incident. It's not like he planned to do what he did on stage. It was an unfortunately public mistake, and I'm sure anyone who had been drinking that much would have done something stupid even if it wasn't that specifically.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#235

Post by malkia »

synthmeat wrote: post #21

I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don’t think it’s going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyrigh…

This reminds me of Francis Ford Coppola interview in 99u.com - http://99u.com/articles/6973/francis-ford-coppola-on-risk-mo...

Quoting from the article:

Q: How does an aspiring artist bridge the gap between distribution and commerce?

A: We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.

This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?

In the old days, 200 years ago, if you were a composer, the only way you could make money was to travel with the orchestra and be the conductor, because then you’d be paid as a musician. There was no recording. There were no record royalties. So I would say, “Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money.” Because there are ways around it.

You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#236

Post by ogreveins »

braythwayt wrote: post #78
synthmeat wrote: post #21

I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don’t think it’s going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyrigh…

> I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, > because I don’t think it’s going to work by labels and by distribution > systems in the same way. > > --David Bowie, 2002 Something to think about in music that also happens in startups and software: These are social activities. People don’t judge music solely by some kind of independent metric of appeal. They also judge whether the music is popu…

>But it’s also true that we self-identify in a tribal way with our choices, and that those choices have social import. Even if you brag defiantly that you’re a pragmatist who doesn’t care who does or doesn’t use a tool: That’s a lot like being a hipster growing a beard and putting on plaid.

Lol what? That's stupid. Some people listen to the music that sounds good to them, some people listen to music that brings them and their friends together, some people listen to music for other reasons.

Your analysis bad because you think you can group people so simply. Stop that.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#237

Post by askafriend »

agumonkey wrote: post #62
eropple wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "50s to the 90s"--which is so laughably general, that's four generations of music, if not more--had The Beatles and David Bowie and it also had The Monkees and Men Without Hats. We have the artists who it's funny to make fun of, like Bieber, and we have Jack White, we have Kanye West, we have Radiohead--and we had David Bowie, he's a modern artist today , have you listened to Blackstar, which openly tips its cap…

Isn't the situation reversed ? were men without hats big ? the good music today is in the shadow while the mainstream pours industrialized music overwhelmingly. I don't understand how Kanye West is anything but an arrogant dude, but I'm biased against Hip Hop nowadays. Radiohead is very much a 90s in my eyes.

Kanye's music is HUGE. I don't think you quite understand. Every album he's put out has been a certified classic (with the exception of Yeezus, which was very polarizing).

You don't win 21 grammys for no reason. He really is that influential and responsible for a generation of music and a generation of artists that took after him (and continue to do so). I don't think anyone comes close to being a "rockstar" in the classic sense in the modern era than Kanye.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#238

Post by MisterBastahrd »

agumonkey wrote: post #43
nunodonato wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we still have Bieber.. stay strong! /s

As easy that joke was, I'm very often wondering about generations these days. I often feel this generation is really cheap. Now, surely most people feel this way about how the new one isn't worth their own, but really there were such iconic periods from the 50s to the 90s (in a westerner point of view) .. and this makes his leaving (among other peers who shaped the 70s) as powerful as hurting.

Bowie got as big as he was because of labels pushing him down a captive audience's throats. Was he good? Sure. But there were many other really good artists who never got much attention because the only place to hear music during Bowie's era was on the radio or in a record store. "This generation" has wider tastes and a broader selection than any before it. That they can't be defined by a single sound or genre is a good thing.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#239

Post by pseudonymous119 »

Though I'm certainly saddened to hear David Bowie has died, I think his death is absolutely off-topic for HN. Yet compare the number of points and comments this thread has with this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10832624 or this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10557793

It seems like HN's content is becoming less and less technical over time and much more political and social, and this thread is a great example. I've also noticed more and more "agenda pushers" posting here, people who can't contribute on the technical threads but aggressively upvote and comment on the non-technical threads.

I was about to suggest new, clearer guidelines restricting much of this non-technical content to reverse the decline, but according to the current guidelines, it seems like it's already prohibited:

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.

Maybe stricter enforcement would be in order (dang? jascquesm?)

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#240

Post by beat »

David Bowie was one of the greatest entrepreneurs ever. He singlehandedly changed the direction of the entire music industry - repeatedly - for decades. He pulled in ideas and imagery from the most avant-garde corners of culture, and made it accessible and popular. There's hardly a musician out there in rock music or many other forms that hasn't been influenced directly by him.

David Bowie relentlessly delivered bold, daring new products. He never, ever sat on his laurels, never was content with what he'd done before. He produced the best work he possibly could, with the best collaborators. So, so many artists had their finest moments playing on his records or in his bands.

His only peer, as far as I'm concerned, is Miles Davis.

I'm a musician myself, and it's hard to even describe how I feel about Bowie's music. "Role model" is woefully insufficient. I think I feel about him the way priests feel about saints.

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