Hey everyone, Bigthony Fighttano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd.

And it's time for another Let's Argue where I go on the Internet, I accept your hot takes, your unpopular opinions, your tough questions too. I respond to the best of the best ones. Then I talk about them in a video just like this. So let's go ahead and do that.

Hating on albums such as Don't Tap the Glass and GNX because they don't stand up to their own earlier work is a stupid opinion. Artists such as Tyler and Kendrick are allowed to be able to make a fun album. They don't have to have great concepts to be good albums. And it's fine if it doesn't stand up to their earlier work.

I think in a lot of respects these records do stand up to these artists earlier work.

It's just that they do so for different reasons. I don't know how to start or initiate this conversation in music discourse, but I think it's an important one to have because here's the thing, as much as I like love Igor and I love To Pimp a Butterfly, I've given those records very high scores and you know, I have praised them and will continue to praise them going forward. But like, what I wish I could get through people's heads is that yes, these albums are conceptual and they're very deep and they're very creative and so on and so forth. You know, doing a super highbrow concept album, that's not the only way to make a great record. It's not the only way to make an amazing record.

It's not the only way to make a super influential, important game changing record. Fucking look at Thriller. That album is just a bunch of fucking random ass songs. And a couple of them at least in my opinion, are crap. So you know, like that is an amazing record that is again a game changing record that is one of the biggest records of all time.

And you know, it's not like this super deep narrative To Pimp a Butterfly type fucking storytelling adventure which again, that album is great. Love that album. But that's like not the only way to make a great record. You know, another record I would say is like a 10 out of 10 or like 10 out of 10 territory: debut Strokes album, you know, even the new Clipse album.

New Clipse album, not a concept album. Top tier bars, but like, you know, again, Pusha-T and Malice, they didn't take us on a storytelling adventure.

They just wrote a bunch of great verses and just wrote a bunch of great hooks and they did it over a bunch of amazing beats and they did it consistently. You know, I think we need to kind of get it out of our heads as passionate music fans that like, you know, the best albums and the most classic albums and the most significant albums all sort of need to be made in this highly conceptual way. There are a lot of concept albums out there that suck ass. Tons of ass sucking concept albums. Just because something has a lot of conceptuality and sort of like narrative planning going into it doesn't mean it's good at the end of the day.

The foundation of all that shit, it's the songs. You know, your record. It doesn't matter how great your concept is, your record is still only going to be as good as your songs at the end of the day. Concept can be something that like, enhances the overall experience and like, brings all the presumably good songs together into a holistic experience, but like, the songs gotta be good.

I think GNX is a great record and it's great for a lot of the same reasons that good kid m.A.A.d City is great and TPAB is great. Aesthetically, it's a very consistent album. It's a very consistent album in terms of the type of writing Kendrick is doing across the record. Some of his most catchy and infectious songs land on that album as well. It's just a fun, entertaining album and you can be entertained in a variety of different ways ways for a variety of different reasons.

And again, we need to sort of get it out of our heads that great, fun, entertaining music only has to be made some sort of, you know, singular way or like, you know, for an album to be an 8 out of 10, it needs to be like super deep. This is why I get all these stupid fucking comments from people that are like, "you also gave an 8 to Sexyy Red." Sure, she has a lot of mid music out there, but she has also made some very fun, very entertaining music. And you know, she doesn't need to make super deep music for it to be good.

It feels weird to sort of like say this to the audience of people that I know this is going to reach, but like, let's try to be like a little open minded and just accept the fact that like, not everything we hear needs to be the most conceptual in depth thing we've ever heard for it to be good. And the thing is like, you know, these same people that will hold all music to that sort of expectation, that sort of standard. There's super deep, crazy experimental out there shit that these people aren't even touching or taking to. Like for every person that holds all music to that unrealistic standard that you see on the internet talking that shit, I would put money on very few of them actually having heard something like the new Moor Mother and Sumac record and that if you showed them that album, they'd probably either shit their pants or like not really get the appeal of it at all.

Chappell Roan saying her next album could take five years is refreshing to hear in a world of mainstream pop artists trying to pump out hits every year or two.

Well, the thing is, Chappell may still over the course of the next five years, or maybe she meant five years from her last album, who knows? I mean, she could still be dropping singles here and there in the lead up to that eventual record. And you know, look, putting out a great album, a great classic, groundbreaking album every year, it's not impossible. Lots of artists and bands have done it. Look at some of the original amazing runs from groups like The Beatles or Black Sabbath, even Bob Dylan throughout the 60s. A lot of these guys were dropping back to back year year bangers. So it's not like an amazing record every year is impossible, and working at that speed isn't necessarily a detriment to your creativity. But the thing is, not every artist is going to function at that pace.

And what I think is awful about the music industry currently is that the way that it operates, it sort of puts pretty much every artist on that track that if you're not actually able for the most part to work up to that intense output speed, you're not going to do well financially. And that you need to be dropping all the time in order to sort of stay in people's algorithms. If it takes five years for Chappell to drop a record, write a record that is as good as her last, then five years is what it's going to take. She's the artist, she is the person who should know her process best. And if she's in a position personally and financially to where she can wait that amount of time to really work on this next record and make sure it's great, then I think us as fans, people who presumably want to hear that next album and hear it be a very good album, maybe we should be willing to wait.

The UK's Online Safety act being applied to Spotify will have a strong impact on the music industry, causing artists to write songs that don't trigger an 18 plus warning.

Honestly, it's not a law that I'm super intimately familiar with. That is really frickin unfortunate, though, if that's something that is gonna be triggered here. I don't wanna see music be impacted that way. There is also still the possibility for albums to be released where they're kind of like edited so they don't get the explicit or parental advisory warning.

Artists are still doing that today over in the U.S. or doing that for releases to appeal to American audiences that don't want to hear some explicit music. The new Lola Young singles, they are edits of some of those that have been going crazy. Also, even the new Clipse album has a non explicit version on streaming. I would have to dig into this more to get a better understanding of it, but the thing that sort of freaks me out about this whole [age] verification thing going on in the UK is that you've got all of this ID tracking and sharing and data collection going on as a result of this.

That is probably going to lead to a lot of very terrible fucking outcomes. And I'm not really ready for the global hellscape that will arise out of this.

Unpopular opinion: The Brits are better at rock and roll than the Americans are.

We got Chuck Berry, fuck you. Next argument.

While I think Metro Boomin is a great producer, I think much of his success and the praise he receives really comes from how he markets himself over the actual music. I think he makes great work, but there are numerous other producers who work with similarly top tier artists whose work actually surpasses that of Metro's, but the producer tags and having his name attached to song, so on and so forth, ba ba ba ba ba.

No, I mean I don't disagree, but the reason Metro is in that position is because he's taken cues from producers who have done the same over the years, arguably better, because as out here as Metro is as a face for the music he's attached to, he's not that sort of aggressively trying to seek out the limelight all the time. He still comes across as a pretty low key guy, but still with that being said, there are a lot of producers and DJs over the years in the sphere of hip hop that are mega talented, are amazing, have made groundbreaking work, but they are more household names than some of the other great producers out there because they put their face out there and they attach their face to their music. They're a little bit more recognizable because of how they present themselves. Be that like DJ Premier or Pharrell and even going more contemporary, a guy like Kenny Beats, for example, somebody who hasn't been super aggressively active as of late. But, like, still because of the years of work he had put in collaborations and crossovers with Streams, with The Cave, other solo works and appearances where he's like, really, really putting himself to the forefront as a producer.

The guy is more recognizable than other beatsmiths out there that are arguably just as talented as him. So I don't know, while I do agree there are other producers out there that I think are as talented as Metro, but they don't get as much shine (or producers that I prefer to Metro), nothing's stopping them from putting themselves out there into the world in the same way he is too. If you want to be more of a household name and not just simply a guy behind the scenes in the way that Metro is, you've got to put a brand, a personality or something out there outside of just a beat tag and some good instrumentals.

Lying about release dates, teasing new music and never following up is a really scummy thing to do and is one of the worst trends in modern music.

Yeah, I feel like, unfortunately we have sort of gotten to a place where the fact that you can release anything at any time as an artist with like, little to no need for a rollout or any formal planning. This has led to a handful of major names where they essentially have realized that they can promise and promise and promise and promise again and again and again and just move the date back forever with little to nothing in the way of repercussions outside of some of their fans being pissed. This sort of thing back in the day would either cost you millions and millions of dollars or would cause so many headaches for those around you in the industry that your career would essentially be over because nobody would want to work for you. I mean, while we are seeing some very good, thoughtful rollouts here and there that clearly took a lot of advanced planning and forethought, be it Brat or like the new Clipse album. Still, not every album rollout these days is like that.

And you do clearly have a lot of artists who just throw lot of shit against the wall, seeing what sticks, dropping whenever they feel like, they are more or less close to what I guess is an acceptable project and just kind of throwing it out there. And while that hasn't impacted all quality of all albums across the board, still there's a little bit of a drop in standard in a way, because your record doesn't have to be perfect and planned out for it to be successful and get a lot of streams. Yeah, it's a crappy trend, but I mostly attribute this to market incentives and just the way the industry works now. The fact that you don't need to put that much effort into your album rollout for it to do okay with that being the case, some artists are just going to take advantage of that. Some people are just going to take advantage of that.

And it is what it is, I suppose.

My Chemical Romance was the last great American rock band.

This is not a topic or a conversation I think I'm personally super deeply invested in. I personally enjoy music just because I like it and I personally enjoy it.

While it is cool to enjoy things that are popular, I love digging into a release and really enjoying the hell out of it. And seemingly there are like a lot of people who are right there with me and getting a lot out of it too. It doesn't really matter to me, what genre that release sits in, per se. I feel like I do get at least like enough of that sensation when I'm enjoying something, for example, like the new Knocked Loose album. Maybe [it's] more of a metal record than strictly a rock record, but also similar vibes with the new Deafheaven record too.

Furthermore, I guess I don't really pay too much mind in terms of whether these rock bands I'm enjoying with a lot of other people are American or not. I mean, I love King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. I don't really get much out of them being American, Australian, whatever. I guess I'm just happy that there are other Americans who mess with them too, so I actually get the opportunity to go out and see them live around here and experience the live show.

But with that being said, you're not making a completely unfair point. There's a little bit of a death of rock monoculture that we've been experiencing over the past 10 years. But I don't know, nothing stays irrelevant or unpopular forever. Nothing stays on top forever. So maybe there will be a moment five, six years from now where all the biggest stuff we're enjoying and talking about is rock stuff.

I guess we'll just have to see, but I don't think we need to be so fatalistic about what the last great American rock band was.

Why do you hate contemporary R&B? You don't bother to cover any of the big names other than SZA. And don't you dare put The Weeknd in this category! If I must say, the lack of R&B representation is why some of your R&B takes are met with eye rolls. Why should I take seriously someone who clearly doesn't like the genre?

I don't get it. Like, what are you trying to say here?

You don't take my R&B takes seriously, but you're also upset because you don't think I have a whole lot of R&B takes. What is it? Am I doing weird takes and hating on the genre too much, or am I not talking about the genre enough for me to even have takes for you to react to? I mean, yes, it is true, I do enjoy quite a bit of SZA and I enjoy The Weeknd as well. But I will acknowledge that his latest releases go into a lot more of like a straight up pop direction than strictly an R&B direction.

Still, there are R&B vibes on his latest LPs to a degree. I don't know. I appreciate that you love this genre and you seem very clearly passionate about it, but the thing is, if you look at all of my releases overall, and this even goes for hip hop, which, you know, has been the zeitgeist for the majority of the time that I have been running this YouTube channel, and as a result, it's probably what I review the most on here. Even with that being said, I don't even cover every huge major relevant hip hop release because if I did, this would strictly be a hip hop channel.

That would also be the case for any other genre if I just willed myself to covering the biggest and most relevant releases within all the time. There are loads of major metal and electronica releases every year that I just don't really talk about because either I'm not really that interested or there are other albums coming out that same week in other styles that I'm getting asked to cover more or I'm just personally more interested in. Across the board, while I do my best to cover and talk about at least one or two two major releases each week, for the most part, regardless of genre, my tastes and preferences skew usually pretty alternative.

So there are other artists I'm covering that aren't nearly as big as SZA or some of the other major names and releases that you're sort of curious about here. Like, for example, I loved that Sampha album that came out in 2023. And I mean, that's a release that has huge R&B vibes all over. Strictly R&B? No, but I mean, you can't deny that the guy has lots of inspiration coming from that style.

There's also Sudan Archives, who plays a lot in the R&B genre, and I'm looking forward to her next record. Kelela, Dijon, Ravyn Lenae, Remi Wolf, I enjoyed the new Kali Uchis record quite a bit, too. And again, I understand if there's an argument that, like, none of these artists are strictly R&B, but also some of my favorite artists that I would cover in other genres aren't strictly devoted to that genre or might not represent the biggest and most relevant artists in that genre and might leave people scratching their heads. To your average rock fan, do you think they care if I covered the new Swans LP? Probably not, but I would rather talk about that than the new Black Keys album.

We need to get rid of mandatory encores. The only time an encore should be played is if the crowd is screaming for it. I've been to too many shows where the crowd isn't even feeling it and the band comes back on stage. It makes it feel so much more special when the encore isn't planned into the set already.

I see your point. Look, I mean, I think encores should be optional even if you have it planned into the set. If you've gone off the stage and people are just like kind of shuffling around and leaving, just give it up, man. If people aren't begging for it, like, just let it go.

Tiny Desk is better than MTV Unplugged, not for the sheer amount of shows, but also because of its diversity. Shame that NPR funding got cut because of Agent Orange.

Yeah, I'm actually pretty upset about that and how it's like, massively impacting PBS right now. Tiny Desk better than MTV Unplugged? I agree, but like, what you're talking about, there is merely just the fact that internet content in comparison with traditional media, while obviously there's like a lot of amazing traditional media out there from back in the day, and even being made today, the internet has the opportunity to just be more interesting and dynamic and dig deeper into a wider variety of things while doing so on a budget. Every single episode of MTV Unplugged probably costs tons and tons and tons of money to make.

And despite Tiny Desk concerts upping their production value quite a bit over the last decade, it probably doesn't cost that much more with all that time passed to do a Tiny Desk episode today than it did way back then. Could be wrong on that, but for the most part, it doesn't seem like they've purchased a million dollar studio to do these fucking things in. And again, because they don't have to blow a massive budget on every single episode, you can not just have a cool episode with T Pain, but you can do one with MIKE as well, which maybe numbers-wise wouldn't do as well, but it's still a really cool thing to share with people.

Crunchy Peanut Butter got so much unnecessary hate and was actually ahead of its time. Other sandwich toppings are scared to take risks.

Yeah, we need more sandwich toppings to be crunchy, too. Actually, wait, I don't know about that, but I do agree with you on Crunchy Peanut Butter. It is fire and I make some of it myself. It's really good.

You could just do it in the food processor with like a little bit of peanut oil. It's that fucking easy. Just peanuts, little bit of peanut oil in the food processor. Bam.

You've got crunchy goddamn peanut butter. Thank me later.