New Music II

     I've been listening to a lot of new music lately. Stuff that I don't normally listen to. This includes j-rock (Japanese rock music), edm (electronic dance music), dubstep, nu-metal, jazz (always listening to jazz), and video game music. As I'm writing this I'm listening to the new Dream Theater album. Let me say that this album is heavily orchestrated (even has symphony work), full of emotional ballads, technical (but soulful), and has so many unexpected twists and turns in the music. Its trademark DT but I can't say that its very good or enjoyable. It just sounds so generic, like they could've made this album at any time and didn't put too much work into it. Basically it sounds like all the other American metal music out there, it just sounds like the bands' same old tried and true musical sound and composition style. These guys aren't ever going to change their style and I think in the end that's going to ruin them because they've become boring and predictable. Kind of like Slayer and Megadeth (two of my favorite metal bands). Metal heads need to learn to adapt to change within their music. I like the direction where Opeth is going from their death metal roots into more of a 70s progressive rock style. It's awesome. 
     Anyways, I've gotten really into j-rock mostly because of anime. In the beginning of every anime episode there is an opening theme song and at the end there is a closing theme song. These songs are always sung in Japanese and usually have a female vocalist. The tunes are mostly uptempo, kinda punkish, and have a major key tonality. However, there are slow ballads as well that I like too.  I feel like Japanese rock music has certain rules and key changes that American rock music doesn't adhere to. Its like completely different worlds even though its all rock music. Japanese metal music is usually different as well. Usually the Japanese like their metal to be more on the melodic side and love to play ballads. I would say the main j-rock song that got me super into this genre is the One Punch Man opening theme. You can listen to it here-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPoVMwDjJCw. As you can see its melodic, catchy, and is uptempo. The guitar playing is excellent as well as the heavy metal drumming. Another great opening theme song that I love is this-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_t47BVtPuE, the Gurren Lagaan opening theme. This one is more my style. The guitar playing is top notch and super catchy, as are the vocals. The chorus just kicks so much ass! This is probably my favorite anime opening theme song although there are plenty of other great ones. There are times when an anime has such a good opening and closing theme that I have to watch it on every single episode. However, there are some themes that I prefer to skip because they aren't that good. Japanese music is so good! I can see why Marty Friedman(former guitarist from 90s era Megadeth) moved to Japan to play Japanese rock and pop music, its completely different there and more interesting than what the Americans are doing with music.
     In addition, I've been listening to a lot of edm music. I only listen to edm when I'm streaming on twitch because its one of the main genres that twitch will allow you to stream because there are strict rules on streaming music. You can check out my twitch here-twitch.tv/megaman1597. The main edm artists that the Twitch Music Library has on Soundcloud (what I'm using for streaming) is Monstercat. I feel like Monstercat is a great artist but his music is a little generic, like a lot of edm music really. I've never gotten super big into the genre because it all sounds cliche to me even super big artists like Skrillex and Diplo. A great edm song I like is Bangarang by Skrillex. I just like how catchy it is. It seems super easy to make a song like that. All you really need is a laptop and a basic music program and you're set to make it big. I am oversimplifying it a bit but creating edm or dubstep music isn't as complicated as playing a jazz standard or writing a metal tune. I could be wrong but that's what I feel to be the case.
     Also, when I stream there's also a metal channel on the Twitch Music Library. I would classify the metal they have on there to be indie metal but also nu-metal because it doesn't fit the generic metal-core sound that most popular American nu-metal bands sound like. I've heard some interesting tunes. A lot of the metal on there has rap mixed in with it so it usually reminds me of Linkin Park, which isn't a bad thing. I look forward to hearing more interesting metal music while streaming.
     I'm always listening to jazz in one form or another. Even when I listen to video game music, its usually based on jazz. A lot of video game music has jazz instrumentation or jazz harmonies, its actually pretty similar. Some video game music is technical and exciting to hear. Just the other day I was watching a Smash replay on Youtube and the person who made it had a great version of Fly me to the moon playing over the gameplay. It was amazing and inspired me to change my blog name to that song name. It's such a standard jazz tune that everybody that's anybody has heard it and if they don't know jazz they've probably still heard it. I've been also listening to the music on Smash 4 and I've been really feeling it! My favorite tune on Smash 4 is undoubtedly the Final Fantasy theme from the Midgar stage. The tune just brings my childhood to life because I played a lot of Final Fantasy 7 when I was in elementary school. I've also been checking out a lot of music streams on twitch and I've seen some great musicians who like to play video game music on piano and guitar. Rich Brown (pro Brawl/Smash 4 player) has a great twitch channel where he plays solo piano music. He focuses on playing video game tunes but he's also a talented jazz musician too. Check out his channel sometime http://www.twitch.tv/rich_brown/profile. And then there's the super guitar bros-http://www.twitch.tv/superguitarbros/profile. Those guys are great acoustic guitar players that focus on playing video game tunes. Its been great listening to new stuff lately. Sometimes jazz gets a little stale and I need to take a break and listen other stuff. I feel like jazz is America's greatest musical art form but sometimes its hard to find the best jazz because the whole scene is cluttered with crap (like smooth jazz). I guess its like that with all music though. You have to weed out the bad stuff to get to the great cutting edge music. In the end, even if you only find one artist that you like, it will always be worth it.