Has there been a musical genius in our lifetime (how about Corgan)?

[Cool As Ice Cream]

Originally Posted by Catherine Wheel

How exactly is Prince a genius? Granted he's a good songwriter but genius really?

Robert Smith

[Trotskilicious]

gary numan

[soniclovenoize]

Originally Posted by BlissedandGone2

I know you're probably just picking another popular film scorer/composer for arguments sake, but no, it couldn't have been Danny Elfman who did the music for Star Wars.

Can you imagine if Star Wars was scored by Danny Elfman? That would be insane!

Actually, wait... wasn't that in a Family Guy episode?

Originally Posted by Trotskilicious

honestly saying a composer is a genius because of a movie score is a fucking joke in the first place

Yyyyeeeeaaaahhhh I could plausibly see the argument for it, but it certainly would not be John Williams. All of his themes sound extremely similar (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Superman, etc.). It would have to be some pretty groundbreaking scores here.

And you already said it earlier, if you'd never seen Star Wars, and just listened to the score, you'd probably think "Oh, yeah, that's pretty good." but it's not groundbreaking genius.

[Catherine Wheel]

Originally Posted by Trotskilicious

gary numan

You're probably right about Numan. I probably should have said Kraftwerk instead. I stand by Robert Smith though.

[redbreegull]

Originally Posted by soniclovenoize

Yyyyeeeeaaaahhhh I could plausibly see the argument for it, but it certainly would not be John Williams. All of his themes sound extremely similar (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Superman, etc.). It would have to be some pretty groundbreaking scores here.

And you already said it earlier, if you'd never seen Star Wars, and just listened to the score, you'd probably think "Oh, yeah, that's pretty good." but it's not groundbreaking genius.

I like the Jurassic Park music better than any of those

but seriously the only action movie score of a high enough caliber to really be notable is lotr

[soniclovenoize]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

I like the Jurassic Park music better than any of those

but seriously the only action movie score of a high enough caliber to really be notable is lotr

Oh yeah, Jurassic, I forgot about that one. Not his typical soupy over-dramatic anthem to be reprised throughout... (well sort of).

LOTR had a pretty cool score...

The only scores I seem to remember off the top of my head to be very awesome and noteworthy were Freeway and There Will Be Blood... :/

Oh fuck, wait why aren't we discussing ENNIO MORRICONE!?!?

[soniclovenoize]

[soniclovenoize]

[aztec litany service]

Originally Posted by Catherine Wheel

David Byrne
Brian Eno
Gary Numan
Robert Smith
Peter Gabriel

i love all these guys, but i don't think i'd call any of em 'genius'. numan had about 6 great albums [incl 'the plan' '78 demos, through i guess 'dance', i really like that album. i, assassin is where it starts to go downhill for me] and everything after that was kinda not so great to really bad

bob was awesome for a longer period of time but started sucking after wish

eno, i don't know, i don't get the 'ambient' stuff, but the first 4 albums are amazing and highly original

byrne, prolly the closest to genius on the list, helped a lot by his assoc. w/ eno, and one of the most kickass bands ever

peter gabriel, basically has tons of badass musicians on his records, writes some great stuff now and then, not as important as he thinks he is lol

[Catherine Wheel]

Well Gary Numan definitely doesn't deserve to be on that list since he basically took the template that Kraftwerk came up with and had commercial success with it.

I think Peter Gabriel and David Byrne were real visionaries taking art rock and post punk and world music in new directions. To a lesser extent I think Robert Smith is a pioneer.

[vixnix]

In my lifetime...man that's hard.

Recent history..
Miles Davis
Sergei Prokofiev
Dimitri Shostakovich
Woody Guthrie
Thelonius Monk
Charles Mingus
Richard Strauss

[redbreegull]

Thom Yorke obviously

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by vixnix

In my lifetime...man that's hard.

Recent history..
Miles Davis
Sergei Prokofiev
Dimitri Shostakovich
Woody Guthrie
Thelonius Monk
Charles Mingus
Richard Strauss

why are you so against calling rock musicians geniuses

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

Thom Yorke obviously

obviously that's a collaborative genius

[Spira|_]

None. The rock and pop music as we know today is completed fashionable and forgetable.

[Trotskilicious]

that's a dumb thing to say

[Trotskilicious]

i'm assuming you mean today like the last ten years and not that golden time of musical rebirth aka the 1990s

(lol)

[emotionalfriend]

That guy who wrote that song about having a bad day

[vixnix]

I'm not against it. I just think it's too hard to pick out which ones are going to stick, right now.

I'm a bad judge anyway because I don't actually like a lot of rock music. My favorite songwriter is Warren Zevon, you know? And I loved the movie Bowfinger. I have pretty terrible taste in everything. But if you give it like fifty years, you can see what survives all on its own. I reckon Beck, Thurston Moore and Mark Oliver Everett, maybe. But that's just because I really enjoy their music at the moment. That doesn't really mean anything.

[Dogfighter28]

Since no one has mentioned him, I'll throw Trent Reznor a bone.

He's not a good musician, which is to his credit. He creates an atmosphere and identity of his own like few other acts of this era or ever. All from the ideas in his brain, not from noodling around on some instruments or patching ideas together from jam sessions.

Lyrics have been pretty bad at times which maybe holds him back, but all the pioneering he has done (musically, and with the pricing models, ARG for Year Zero, use of technology, light shows, etc) has to be considered as well.

Oh yeah, and pretty much all by his lonesome. And without power drumming and guitars to hide behind for the most part. He's out in front, exposed for better or worse for you to get in his noggin.

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by vixnix

I'm not against it. I just think it's too hard to pick out which ones are going to stick, right now.

I'm a bad judge anyway because I don't actually like a lot of rock music. My favorite songwriter is Warren Zevon, you know?

warren zevon is great

SEND LAWYERS GUNS AND MONEY
THE SHIT HAS HIT THE FAN

[Trotskilicious]

i was actually thinking because rock music is a band thing for the most part, so calling someone a "genius", like rbg did with thom yorke, is undercutting the amount of creative talent he has around him with the greenwoods and phil selway. you could say jimmy page is a genius not only for his guitar work but the amount of skill he had in production and developing new ways to record, but you'd be undermining bonham and john paul jones (i think it's perfectly safe to put robert plant outside of the genius tag) same with billy playing with jims. or even to go back to the prehistory with lennon/mccartney, jagger/richards.

i think leonard cohen is a lyrical genius, but i suppose that's not necessarily addressing the thread title

[vixnix]

Yeah...I agree. What about Jimi Hendrix though.

John Paul Jones has always been the real genius of Led Zepplin to me. And he's the one with the longest lasting and most productive career.

I kind of hesitated to put Woody Guthrie in my list because his music is very simple; he's known in large part because of his talent as a lyricist. But I think chronicling events the way he did, and putting political desires and political commentary to music is probably one of music's oldest forms so even if it isn't complicated, it still shows a degree of genius to be able to couple ideas and musical form together, into pieces of art that survived his own death and that get listened to for pleasure as well as a desire to connect with human history/politics, long afterwards. Part of me wonders if he should count though. Seems like a tenuous link to musical genius in a way. But I want him to be considered a musical genius because I like his songs so much and really coming from his background I can't imagine that it was anything other than a natural gift he had, that allowed him to create so many memorable ones. I mean he certainly didn't have a privileged upbringing or go to Julliard or anything, like everyone else on my list.

I guess I'm starting to take this thread too seriously.

[Trotskilicious]

I think Woody Guthrie is great but he inspired a genius, Bob Dylan.

[vixnix]

Yeah see I find him more derivative than inspired. I reckon if the genius is there, it was Woody.

[soniclovenoize]

Originally Posted by vixnix

Yeah see I find him more derivative than inspired. I reckon if the genius is there, it was Woody.

How much Dylan have you actually heard? By 1965, he was pretty much over it.

[vixnix]

Not a lot, admittedly. I own Blood on the Tracks which is after 1965. I think the songs he gets called a genius for are all fairly political, they're the ones I think are derivative. He was good at writing love songs on his own. I mean, big deal. Him and every other singer songwriter.

[Trotskilicious]

lol

[vixnix]

what are you loling at then

[Trotskilicious]

that you're an expert on dylan but you don't know anything about him