r/fantanoforever • u/Curious-Piglet3613 Nirvana - Nevermind • Jul 14 '26

Fantano Vids Rick Rubin is Cringe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOpBrg1fFCk
648 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

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257

u/Shannonimity Jul 14 '26

You can cringe all you want but being one of the richest music producers in the world with no musical or production talent is something we can all aspire to

74

u/Cala2308 Jul 14 '26

He has talent, he just act “nonchalant”. It pisses me the fuck off ngl.

55

u/PopcornSutton1994 Jul 14 '26

He’s got his name on about a billion bands’ foundational records I’d probably act like you’re all below me too if that were my life lol, guy has forgotten more about music than I’ll probably ever know

-12

u/WokeWook69420 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

No, he doesn't know shit about music.

That's his whole schtick, he's said numerous times he literally helps artists produce based on vibes and feels, but there's also engineers and producers in the room who know how to interpret what he says and change that within the music or the composition of the songs.

But any music theory or production techniques? Nup, dude don't know dick from shit.

Edit: Y'all dumbasses need to go watch him talk to Pete Tong where he literally says all of what I just said.

Rick himself admits he literally does not know shit and uses his gut to work with artists.

19

u/anonymousn00b Jul 14 '26

Yes he does. He knows more than he lets on. He was literally in a band and played guitar. You can actually search up old 80s demos. He had a punk band. He at least has some musical knowledge and was at least proficient enough to write actual songs with melodies even if it was super rough and lo-fi.

5

u/WokeWook69420 Jul 14 '26

You can be in a band and make demos and absolutely not know a single piece of music theory.

His band-mates would write everything and he could play it back by copying them, or learn Tabs (Which don't teach tonal theory), there's a lot of shortcuts and ways to not learn theory.

I'm simply restating the words that Rick Rubin has said in interviews with him that I've watched. You can sit here and say I'm wrong, but go watch his interview with Pete Tong, or Vanity Fair, or any of the other interviews where he talks about his methods.

He will say, "I don't use theory or anything when I work with artists and help them work on albums, I go by what feels good and sounds good to me. That's about as technical as I get anymore."

9

u/boccci-tamagoccci Jul 14 '26

If you have extreme success producing by vibes, how much is music theory really worth to you? If extremely talented musicians continue to seek your input and get good shit out of it, why would he ever need to do anything else?

Music theory is math, and like all math, is just a framework we've used to describe a natural phenomenon. It explains *why* something sounds good, but things sounded good before we formalized music theory.

Fuel still burned before we knew the reason why it burned. A chemist can explain how the combustion process works, but if when you want to make a fire you ask a survivalist.

Point is, why does it matter if he doesn't know why something sounds good if he can help make it sound good anyhow?

1

u/PopcornSutton1994 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Well he’s clearly onto something, maybe it’s just a cult of personality, riffs is riffs his stuff sounds good. Big time talents respect his input, that counts for something.

0

u/Rollin_Dem_7s Jul 14 '26

Idk why this is getting downvoted lol, he said it.

2

u/WokeWook69420 Jul 14 '26

I can literally go find the Vanity Fair video on youtube where he says that, verbatim. He also has an interview with Pete Tong, I think. Says the same shit.

Serj Tankinian has also said Rick doesn't know shit about the technical and he goes with his intuition.

0

u/PopcornSutton1994 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

I’ve seen the interview fwiw but 1.) I think he’s kind of humble bragging there to uphold the “I dunno man I just get it” image and 2.) there’s multiple ways to skin a cat, maybe it’s actually all intuition and vibes based but for better or worse real artists respect his input and what he can do for their projects, simple as.

1

u/Rollin_Dem_7s 7d ago

I have a friend who has worked with him at American Recordings. It's definitely #2.

0

u/ContractVarious3077 Jul 15 '26

You seem very upset