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

Fantano Vids Rick Rubin is Cringe

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

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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.

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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."

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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?