United Abominations

.. Dream Theater, Sonata Arctica, Nightwish and Edenbridge to mention a few.

Sorry, never heard of them!

.. I also pay attention to Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits, Johnny Cash, Beach Boys, Queen, Enya..

Fascinating list! I cannot stand Johnny Cash (too folksy) and Enya (I find she epitomises bland middlebrow pop – sorry!), used to admire Knopfler/Dire Straits (excellent musicians), Beach Boys & Queen are classics of different sorts – many teenagers continue to like Queen especially.

.. classical music as well as film music/soundtracks by Strauss, Wagner, Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, Grieg, Barry, Batt, Williams, Shore, Vangelis, Horner, Poledouris etc. Lots of good stuff to discover! 🙂

Hmmmm… No time for Strauss, Wagner too portentous/funereal/Teutonic, love Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, unsure about Grieg, John Barry a long-time genius in his genre, Williams – if you mean Vaughan Williams? – certainly, Vangelis ditto (nb his film score for Blade Runner), don’t know the other four you mention. Internet/wi-fi radio is proving very valuable for widening one’s musical appreciation.
hps

[QUOTE=dhfan;1114231]Where have you been?QUOTE]
Clearly, not paying much attention to The Stones… A friend & I said to ourselves, We really ought to see the Stones before they/we die of old age, and they’re at Wembley soon. Great show, massive audience aged from teens to 50s. That was in 1982… I’d never have dreamed they’d still be doing the rounds 25 years later – without Mr Wyman of course. I think they peaked not long after 1970.
hps

Where have you been?

Bill Wyman left the Stones 15 years ago.

Possibly because he didn’t want to be the first pensioner Stone. 🙂

And yes he is 70.

(metal) is a very complex and flexible type of music with vast possibilites. I think your words may fit some sub-genres, but I for one wouldn’t apply them to the music of more “soft” and melodic bands like Dream Theater, for instance. But then again, it’s just taste. Take me, for example. I find it hard to understand how mature people can enjoy all sorts of modern pop music, not to mention techno, trance, dance, rap, hip-hop etc.

I can’t imagine any kind of “metal” that is “soft & melodic” – surely a contradiction? But it’s not a genre I’ve ever taken much interest in. Sure, it’s taste – and I can appreciate all kinds of stuff, from Albinoni & Bach to Abba and Frank Zappa. In the last couple of years I’ve been exploring some modern rock/pop too – check out Isolee, Cold Cut, Carl Craig… There’s always some interesting music around, and it’s mistaken to get locked into the music of one’s own generation (i.e. from one’s teens & twenties) because you can miss so much.
I still think most “metal” is mindless junk, though… My 14-yr-old son likes Rammstein, though they have only a small following in UK. Maybe he’ll grow out of it…
hps

…you’ll be pleased to know that Megadeth’s latest album, United Abominations, is released next week…I’ll be seeing them live on Saturday with Black Sabbath!

Good grief, can Black Sabbath still be around? Well, if the Stones can still play, with Bill Wyman now aged 70, I suppose… It just gets a bit undignified and embarrassing. And as for the music, I sort of found BS listenable-to in the 1970s, but I was very young at the time. Difficult to understand how anyone much over 20 or so can take “Metal” seriously, it’s so grotesque, repetitive, formulaic and crude.
As for the UN, your quote (sounds like a US source) is pretty well accurate in its estimation. Last I heard, Libya was still chairing the UN’s Human Rights Committee – all one needs to know, really.
hps