Fans versus Musicians

kriseye

Prowler
I wouldn't normally care at all about this subject except for where Maiden is concerned. As the band got me and countless others to pick up the guitar and also continue to inform my playing technique after 20 years, I'm not just a fan who loves their music but a musician who admires their sonwriting skills. It is amazing how many people feel free to criticize any Maiden song when they themselves either have no musical ability or are mediocre guitarists at best. Play the albums before you give your negations. We all love Maiden here right? Then give their muscianship the honor it deserves.  Few bands put out albums I love to play after 25 years so Up the Irons already.

Are there any other muscians on here who understand what I'm talking about?
 
So just because I can't cook to save my life, I can't criticise the chef at the restaurant for overcooking my steak?  Just because I've never been the leader of a country I can't criticise the political decisions of world leaders?  These are strong comparisons, of course, but I can't say I really agree with your statement.    I very rarely criticise Maiden, but I don't feel that the fans have to accept everything a band does without saying anything against it.  If it was only a question of questioning (no pun intended) their musical talent, then yes, I agree; few musicians can do better, and most people can't really call Maiden's music untalented.  However, I'm not really sure whether you mean just playing ability, or also songwriting etc, especially since you posted this in the English Commentary forum. 

Example: I don't like the song Chains of Misery.  In fact, I despise it.  Does that mean that just because I'm not a musician myself I can't criticise the "happy" feeling of the chorus, Bruce's somewhat bad, raspy voice (which is present on more than one song on the album), and the overall uninspiring music?
 
I'm a guitarist, still learning with my three years or so experiance. This is my take: You don't have to be a musician to be allowed to critizise Iron Maiden. Do you have to be a director or an actor to say a certain film sucks? No. You can still think they picked a bad angle for a certain shot, or that the actor stinks because he/her doesn't act good enough because it doesn't feel "real" to you. Perhaps you know what I'm on to?

You are entitled to critizise any band you want to. You are allowed to think "The Last Supper" is a bad painting. You don't have to like all authors either. But: If you want to critizise someone, make sure it's constructive, not only: "ZOMFG DAT MIADNE SONG IS TEH SUXXOR!!!!!1111ONEONEOEN", because that's not critisism. That's whining.

Bleh, Invader already got there before me.  :p
 
Everyone is entitled to his personal opinion. You don't need to be a professional football player to have a fiercy discussion about the World Cup. However, a football player will surely have an edge in that discussion. That's basically that. I learned to appreciate Maiden's musicians a lot more after a had a phase of listening / playing neo-classical shred metal, fast power metal and such. I learned that i can listen to Maiden solos for a whole day if you want, and i can get bored after hearing some shred-metal uber-fast solo several times in a row.

Dave Gilmour is more accomplished and appreciated in the guitar world than any neo-classical shredder. Does that ring a bell?

Dragonforce became famous after their song was bundled with Guitar Hero. It features a really fast solo. Really really fast, really really boring and fairly simple. There's nothing complex about 20 seconds of schoolbook sweep arpeggios from the same key. I saw a lot of kids on Youtube playing that solo 100%. You can't notice the difference. The best tries of some Maiden solos on Youtube are very good, but still far, far behind the original. There's something always missing. That something makes them a bunch of world-class special musicians.

Besides, if you combined a band of world's greatest players, and i didn't like their song, i won't listen to them just because they're uber-virtuosos. I listen to music because i like that particular music, not because the grandaddy of guitar is playing there.

But i need to agree with kriseye on one thing. A fairly experienced musician will have a deeper sense of appreciation for Maiden, when you're playing long enough, when you know your instrument long enough, when you're into songwriting long enough, you can't miss the fact how brilliant, complex, imaginitive, and full of feeling can Maiden be. That's the difference between a regular Maiden fan and a musician Maiden fan.
 
LooseCannon said:
I didn't even know you could post in this forum.

OMGWTFLOLBBQ - the secret is out!
Quick, someone check if Maverick has been forced to return to the Fifth Dimension!

There are sometimes subtleties in music which non-musicians may fail to appreciate. This is particularly true with regards to technical precision at slow tempos. It's easy to be impressed by precision at fast tempos, but it actually takes more precision to sound good at a slow tempo because there's more time for a listener to detect a mistake before the next note sounds.

Aside from being cognizant of such subtleties, musicians have no particular advantage over non-musicians when discussing the quality of a song. Here's what a musician can add to the conversation:
Non-musician: "That's a terrible song."
Musician: "Agreed, but the craptacular bassline was played expertly."

And this is coming from a guy who's been a musician for 28 years now, and who - long ago, in my ignorant youth - would have agreed that non-musicians are inherently ignorant about music.

Musicians are not generally better than non-musicians as critics or people.
Musicians are, however, much better in bed.
 
Actually, most people I know who do not like Maiden but who do like metal are musicians, really. Part of it might be jealousy. I often find their criticism strange because they do like bands which are (sometimes even directly) inspired by Maiden.

Non-musicians can criticize a band just as well as musicians. It depends on how to do that.
Arguments are always important, if not then it's just "A Matter of Taste or Death."

I always appreciate it when people explain what they like or what they don't like about Maiden.
 
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