Is Pat Benatar's new CD Go a great example of why today most of the famous 80's rock acts have been relegated to playing casinos, lounge gigs and obscure county fairs instead of huge auditoriums?
By looking at the CD cover of Pat Benatar's new CD Go you wouldn't recognize that she's now in her fifties, the open, blood red lipstick mouth making up the angry "O" in the CD titled Go.…
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26 - danny diess
i think people need to stop living in the past. as to comment on the new benatar album. i think its a wonderful piece of work. the reason artist like pat benatar are still around is because she is still interesting. if she was still making the same music she was making 20 years ago that would be really tired . she continues to be up to date. and very hip. shes probably the coolest women in music.
27 - TDavid
Damn, maybe it is a sign of old age as I am sensing a disconnect with today's music scene!
danny - "Stop living in the past"? LOL! Some of the best music in my lifetime has been produced and released "in the past" -- Tell you what, you can have all this hiphop stuff that is popular today and see if folks are still listening to it in 20 or 30 years the way they listen to some of the music of the 70's and 80's today.
I'm sure that this will hold true for some folks. Extremely doubtful that I will be one of them.
Personally, I see this phase sort of like the disco phase.
28 - TDavid
Oh, and as for being interesting musically? Forget that. It's about money, not artistic expansion and exploration. If these artists don't sell well then they will end up playing casinos and rehasing the stuff they did when they were selling albums.
If they can mix in being fresh with selling albums then that's icing on the cake, but whether any of us like it or not it is about selling music. It's a business.
29 - Solo Fan
Solos have been an integral part of Rock'N Roll since the beginning,Chuck Berry,Elvis,old Bluesmen,The Beatles,Stones even most Punk bands.
Every song but one on "Nevermind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols" has a solo.The Ramones first 5or6 albums didn't have any but several of their mid-eighties LP's were loaded with them.
I think 80's Metal "guitarwank" gave solos a bad name.No pun intended.
30 - Eric Olsen
the problem is when the solo becomes the point
31 - JR
Um, I don't have a problem with that.
32 - J-Satch
Some people have no idea what they are talking about. Tom Johnson you should learn that solos are the musican playing scales really fast. Just look at Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, Ywiengie Malmsteen (most of his stuff) all their songs are, are 5 min solos. They all have more talent than Jimme Paige and especially Kurt Colbain could ever imagine. And if you don't believe me that they know about music, Satriani and Steve Vai studied at Berkley College.
Solos are what seperate the best from good. I can play just about any riff or intro out there. But the solo is what now seperates the alternive rock guitar players from the guitar players who could actually play.
33 - dan00b
Its a interesting point. But the solo is necessary for music. Its emotional. Its critical, and it shows that a band actually has skilled players. Because solos aren't easy. Its hard to listen to Metallica's Blackened, and not imagine the solo near its end. That solo for reasons I don't quite know, has been the reason I'm playing guitar. It just fits that song and sticks in my mind.
34 - Moo
Remember, some songs dont need a guitar solo, or it would mix in badly with that certain piece of song. It aint like you are going to have a fast, hard hitting guitar solo in a slow song such as Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, whereas, in a fast paced, thrashy song, you would expect a guitar solo, especially a fast one, as it would fit in well - Seek and Destroy and Master of Puppets are 2 good examples both by Metallica.
It depends on what the song is.
35 - bill27
How come no one has mentioned Eddie Van Halen? He is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, in my opinion. I wish people would play more like him these days.
36 - Debadyuti
solos aren integral part of rock songs in the 80's where guitarists could show off their skills .Now the pattern is changed and I don't like modern rock songs because they just do not include solos.They lack that kind of spirit which all those 80's band used to have.