It’s interesting, because one of the reasons that people often give to justify disliking opera or classical music is that “it all sounds the same”. I know I’m biased; I come from a classical background and study opera. However, that does allow me to see that opera and “classical” music covers a wide variety of music with huge differences. Take something like the aria “V’Adoro Pupille” from Giulio Cesare and “Mon Coeur s’Ouvre à ta voix” from Samson et Delila. Both arias have the same aim (that of seduction), but they’re totally different musically.
Now, we look at Greenday. Its album is supposed to have a huge, overall storyline. However, I heard very little difference between each song. The singer had about the same vocal colour (probably due to a less classical technique), they were very similar instrumentally, and the dynamics (loudness level) were more or less the same. It sounded to me like a lot of drums, electric guitar, and bashing vocal cords together. There were some moments in which instruments would blessedly cut out, but they only offered a brief variety. I soon learned why the singer tended to sing everything the same, as well; when he opted for softer vocal colours, his sound became very nasally and forward in his face. In short, it made his vocal technical errors glaringly obvious.
That’s not to say that I hated all of it. Some of the songs were very catchy, and I think that Billy Joe’s vocal tone, while not particularly healthy, is very distinctive and fits the punk-rock style very well. He was liberal with his curse words, which I enjoyed because swearing also brings me happiness. However, I got none of the story (I could barely understand any of the words at all... diction, Billy Joe!!!). All I really determined was that this protagonist was super angsty, in the end it was “all a dream” (?), which is a huge copout, and the drummer’s arms must have been super sore (or else he must be super ripped).
I did admire some of the rhythmic variety. I didn’t think all of it worked (there was one song that used a two against three meter that just sounded a bit off to my ear). However, I did enjoy some of it (at one point, the drummer was playing a triplet (x3) followed by a duplet (x1) that I think worked really well). I can’t say that I’m super well-acquainted with the punk-rock genre, but I thought there were some very cool and unusual instrumental passages (particularly rhythmically). A lot of it did sound the same to me, which was my main complaint (it just started to sound like a lot of banging and yelling after a while). Still, I could appreciate that it made me feel like head-banging and provided me with some catharsis, much as lots of classical music does, which is really why we probably love music so much! So, in that sense, I think it was worth a listen. Still, from now on, I think I’ll just listen to one Greenday song at a time (and only when I’m feeling pretty angry).
-Laura
P.S. Quick sidenote: Mark gets no punishment for missing last night because we had no internet!
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