Patriots Unveil New Uniforms

[Tracy MidGrady]

Lol

[JayMac]

18 hours ago, IceCap said:

 

Also...ahem... f Jay-Z.

 

I'll add this to the list of why I don't like him. Most of all, I think he is a mediocre rapper who gained notoriety after Biggie and Tupac died. 

[See Red]

There's a song where Jay-Z says he's "half-man, half-mammal".  He's put out some songs I like but for the most part, I don't see the appeal.

[The_Admiral]

 

 

 

[JLJ]

Y’all buggin. Want to hate Hov for that Jewish line? Cool, but to disregard his prowess with a pen is wild.

[MDGP]

1 hour ago, JLJ said:

Y’all buggin. Want to hate Hov for that Jewish line? Cool, but to disregard his prowess with a pen is wild.

 

"Cake, cake-cake, cake-cake, cake"

Lyrical genius.

[JLJ]

2 minutes ago, MDGP said:

 

"Cake, cake-cake, cake-cake, cake"

Lyrical genius.

You can cherry pick an awful line from damn near any artist ever. Don’t be silly.

[MDGP]

2 minutes ago, JLJ said:

You can cherry pick an awful line from damn near any artist ever. Don’t be silly.

 

I mean, I could pick out tons more. A good rule of thumb, if a musical artist has significant main stream success, they're usually not very good. Gotta keep it dumbed down for the masses.

 

Also, dude threw Kaep under the bus for profit. He's an ass.

 

[JLJ]

2 minutes ago, MDGP said:

 

I mean, I could pick out tons more. A good rule of thumb, if a musical artist has significant main stream success, they're usually not very good. Gotta keep it dumbed down for the masses.

 

Also, dude threw Kaep under the bus for profit. He's an ass.

 

That’s a terrible rule of thumb lol. I’m not putting on a cape for his moral value. I’m talking bars, and he is one of hip hop’s greatest.

[gothedistance]

Is their home blue jersey/uniform basically the color rush they were using? Because the Patriots site say they made a tweak to the font of the numbers and nameplate, but I don't see the difference.

[Gothamite]

3 hours ago, JLJ said:

he is one of hip hop’s greatest.

That would be a terrible indictment of hip hop, were it true.

 

He’s certainly one of hip hop’s greatest self-promoters, and in our culture that’s not nothing. But beyond that? No. 

[Gothamite]

52 minutes ago, gothedistance said:

Is their home blue jersey/uniform basically the color rush they were using? Because the Patriots site say they made a tweak to the font of the numbers and nameplate, but I don't see the difference.

Yep.  New font, showing even small changes can be massive upgrades. 
 

 

The strange, spindly horizontal strokes are gone, replaced by numbers much more balanced and even. 
 

For the names, no more pointless serifs. Back to bold, clear, easy-to-read names. 

 

[oldschoolvikings]

5 hours ago, MDGP said:

 

 A good rule of thumb, if a musical artist has significant main stream success, they're usually not very good. Gotta keep it dumbed down for the masses.

 

 

 

 

[JQK]

14 minutes ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 

 

Beatles are overrated.

[MDGP]

 

16 minutes ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 

 

 

There are always exceptions to the rule. And most of them seem to be from the 60s and 70s, which I think goes to the nature of the music industry. I'd gladly argue that all of the Beatles' solo careers are massively overrated though.

 

6 hours ago, JLJ said:

That’s a terrible rule of thumb lol. I’m not putting on a cape for his moral value. I’m talking bars, and he is one of hip hop’s greatest.

 

It's really not a terrible rule of thumb. Most commonly since the 80s, being one of the biggest artists in one's genre almost always results in turning towards a bland, pop style of their own music. Modern financial obsession completely erodes the risks and creativity that modern artists take.

 

Even some of the legitimately greatest bands ever have done this. Queen's first five albums are some of the absolute pinnacle of music writing. They're complex but approachable, they take risks, they innovate. But starting around News of the World, as they got more and more popular, they started transforming into more of a pop band.

 

I listen to a LOT of bands at the start of their careers, I find it fun to search for bands that haven't quite made it yet. Almost always, the ones that become massive transition over to whatever sound is the "it" sound of the moment. Whenever I like a band, there's always a dread that they'll become too popular and by their 4th album will be some pseudo white-boy funk/pop Ohio Players rip-off that doesn't understand what actually funk is great.

 

[shaydre1019]

14 minutes ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 

 

"We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine..."
 

Lyrical Geniuses. 

/s

(fwiw i like the beatles and Hov. And I think it's silly for anyone to disregard them. If the names were redacted in this thread it would sound like you were describing Flo-Rida and Imagine Dragons.)

[SFGiants58]

3 minutes ago, MDGP said:

Even some of the legitimately greatest bands ever have done this. Queen's first five albums are some of the absolute pinnacle of music writing. They're complex but approachable, they take risks, they innovate. But starting around News of the World, as they got more and more popular, they started transforming into more of a pop band.

Hey, ‘80s Queen is fantastic! Like, I can excuse not liking The Game or Hot Space, but I’d call A Kind of Magic, The Miracle, and Innuendo an excellent trilogy of albums. 

 

I find that some bands fall into trend-chasing, while others adjust their sound without losing their essence. End of the Century is probably the best Ramones album, Judas Priest’s Turbo doesn’t deserve a lot of the hate it gets, and Bowie’s ‘80s stuff still holds up well next to the ‘70s material.
 

6 hours ago, MDGP said:

 

I mean, I could pick out tons more. A good rule of thumb, if a musical artist has significant main stream success, they're usually not very good. Gotta keep it dumbed down for the masses.

 

 

I hold that it’s a bad rule of thumb a lot of the time. Looking upon pop music as “dumbed down” generally strikes me as an elitist attitude. There’s plenty of good pop music now and in the past that’s creative, enjoyable, and with fantastic lyrics.

 

Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs, what’s wrong with that? 

[JayMac]

16 minutes ago, MDGP said:

 

 

There are always exceptions to the rule. And most of them seem to be from the 60s and 70s, which I think goes to the nature of the music industry. I'd gladly argue that all of the Beatles' solo careers are massively overrated though.

 

 

It's really not a terrible rule of thumb. Most commonly since the 80s, being one of the biggest artists in one's genre almost always results in turning towards a bland, pop style of their own music. Modern financial obsession completely erodes the risks and creativity that modern artists take.

 

Even some of the legitimately greatest bands ever have done this. Queen's first five albums are some of the absolute pinnacle of music writing. They're complex but approachable, they take risks, they innovate. But starting around News of the World, as they got more and more popular, they started transforming into more of a pop band.

 

I listen to a LOT of bands at the start of their careers, I find it fun to search for bands that haven't quite made it yet. Almost always, the ones that become massive transition over to whatever sound is the "it" sound of the moment. Whenever I like a band, there's always a dread that they'll become too popular and by their 4th album will be some pseudo white-boy funk/pop Ohio Players rip-off that doesn't understand what actually funk is great.

 

The epitome of what you are explaining is the band Chicago. They had a unique sound for their first 4 or 5 albums before they transformed into the soft rock/pop group that were so ubiquitous in the late 70s/early 80s.

[MDGP]

22 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

Hey, ‘80s Queen is fantastic! Like, I can excuse not liking The Game or Hot Space, but I’d call A Kind of Magic, The Miracle, and Innuendo an excellent trilogy of albums. 

 

I find that some bands fall into trend-chasing, while others adjust their sound without losing their essence. End of the Century is probably the best Ramones album, Judas Priest’s Turbo doesn’t deserve a lot of the hate it gets, and Bowie’s ‘80s stuff still holds up well next to the ‘70s material.
 

 

I hold that it’s a bad rule of thumb a lot of the time. Looking upon pop music as “dumbed down” generally strikes me as an elitist attitude. There’s plenty of good pop music now and in the past that’s creative, enjoyable, and with fantastic lyrics.

 

Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs, what’s wrong with that? 

 

I mean, there are always exceptions to the rules, and pop music isn't inherently bad. The Outfield's Play Deep is legitimately one of my favorite albums ever, and its about as schlock pop as it gets. Pop itself isn't the problem, and maybe using pop was the wrong word.

 

The fact is, it's been shown that music, especially pop music, is getting less complex and more repetitive over time. Repetitiveness and lower complexity is absolutely dumbing things down in my mind. It's designed simply to create earworms, because repetition is heroin to the human brain.

 

Honestly, I don't think this is limited to music, I think this is a problem in a lot of media industries. Major video games have fallen into the same traps, where the content in a game is doing the same boring tasks over and over and over and over again, almost every major title by ubisoft is an empty open world with the same 7 tasks copied and pasted repeatedly.

 

I'm not trying to criticize the artists themselves, it's the people making decisions at the top level. Their only concern in money, and quite frankly, the best way to make money is mediocre repetitive crap.

 

If someone genuinely loves and cares about filling the world with silly love songs, that's one thing. But that's not what pop is right now, it's cynical money hungry executives filling the world with silly love songs to line their pockets.

[SFGiants58]

4 minutes ago, MDGP said:

The fact is, it's been shown that music, especially pop music, is getting less complex and more repetitive over time. Repetitiveness and lower complexity is absolutely dumbing things down in my mind. It's designed simply to create earworms, because repetition is heroin to the human brain.

Ah, fair point. I definitely agree with you there. I’ve been out of the modern pop scene for ages, mostly just focused on older material. Most modern pop really isn’t my taste and just sounds so messy and overwrought with artificiality.

 

I could also talk about the rise of the “second person perspective” song and how it’s a blatantly predatory technique, but that’s been going on since the ‘60s.