|
Forums >
Off-Topic Discussion >
Is today's music crap?
DCurtis wrote: Maybe you forgot that a song from the 1910's hit #3 on the charts in 1974. And maybe you forgot that a number of disco songs were direct call-backs to popular music from the 20s and 30s. And maybe you forgot that the 70s were lousy with references to the 1950s. So yes, it absolutely happens. And yes, music from the 2010s will almost certainly be played on whatever passes for "radio" in 2050, if we make it that far. DCurtis wrote: So, applying this example to the actual topic, is the complaint that music today is using "the rule of thirds" too much? Not enough? When Arnold Schoenberg introduced the twelve-tone method, it was largely regarded as utter garbage, as just noise. Same thing with jazz... a whole bunch of folks reacted to it like it was the harbinger of the very end of civilization. Many people utterly hated it when the Beatles used ideas from Indian ragas in their music. Remember Don Draper's reaction to "Tomorrow Never Knows" in that episode of Mad Men? He's hearing the sound of a world that has changed, and he's appalled by it (but he will eventually embrace it, at last finding some solace and peace of mind). Feb 08 19 11:59 am Link Shadow Dancer wrote: Agree 100%. In fact, the point of bringing him up in this context is precisely to reiterate that he's been recognized for raising the standard for lyrical content in pop music to the level of Literature. Feb 08 19 12:05 pm Link kickfight wrote: Yes, the sample size of Dylan is "One of a Kind." Feb 08 19 12:20 pm Link Shadow Dancer wrote: Preeee-cisely. And yet, as you pointed out, his influence is vast. It's the shadow that is cast over subsequent decades. So I think we can still embrace "Get Lucky" and "All Along The Watchtower" on their own individual terms, and not dump on the former just because it isn't conveying what the latter conveys so spectacularly. They're both artifacts of popular music. Feb 08 19 12:30 pm Link kickfight wrote: Indeed, and for all that - this was more influential than some may realize. Yes, it is moronic, that is part of it's genius. Feb 08 19 12:45 pm Link Shadow Dancer wrote: Yep. And Dylan himself was not above writing pure fluff pop songs, which he would eventually perform himself. Shadow Dancer wrote: Saw that on Amazon Prime. Utterly fantastic doc. Feb 08 19 12:57 pm Link kickfight wrote: Shadow Dancer wrote: Yep. And Dylan himself was not above writing pure fluff pop songs, which he would eventually perform himself. Or this masterpiece. Best karaoke song EVER!!! Feb 08 19 01:30 pm Link Also, we should keep in mind that it's not just pop music that's settled into predictable formulaic patterns. It's not like there have been any major significant innovations (never mind revolutionary leaps-forward) in country or jazz or classical music in quite awhile either. The entirety of the new millennium has in fact been pretty much treading water, stylistically-speaking, across all mainstream creative forms. OTOH, it's been a fantastic time for indie anything (music, movies, literature, etc), better in fact than I've ever experienced in 45 years of conscious/conscientious consumption. A mutual point of agreement might, however, be that, as result, those mainstream forms do indeed feel... well, more obviously ---perhaps too blatantly--- mainstream. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing... it just suggests that we are all scrutinizing mainstream content with a more sophisticated critical apparatus and find it somewhat bland and rote and too eager to be consumed as pure entertainment product. But again, that's not limited to pop music... it applies to movies and TV shows and a lot of the media that is put before us. Beneath that superficial surface, which has always existed, but maybe not as bluntly as it does now, there is a LOT of really good stuff. But yes, very possibly that stuff that skims the surface does come across as more conspicuously generic, more blatantly manufactured, than ever before. And maybe that's the whole point. Maybe by fully embracing conspicuous consumerism and openly displaying its blatantly-manufactured origins, pop music today is saying "Oh, yeah? Scrutinize this, music nerd..." while holding up a middle finger and sticking out its tongue at everyone. If so, that's actually pretty frickin' punk rock.  Feb 08 19 02:44 pm Link As somewhat peripherally related to the topic, I felt that this recent article would be of interest.  Feb 08 19 03:17 pm Link Shadow Dancer wrote: Gotta love quirky older brothers huh! Hehe. Glad you mentioned Jamerson. Quick truth. Up until YouTube got updated with more information about Jamerson, and how MoTown didn't give credits and make their studio musicians known back then, I had always assumed it was Jermaine Jackson thumping on the bass to all their old school MoTown songs. It was only at the end of 2018, I learned about him. Heck, it wasn't until Louis Johnson and Starlick's got together to produce a training video, where I learned about ghost notes and how he applied it to his style of playing. All of a sudden, playing music, and on the bass, was really fun again. But, I've always loved songs that featured the style of Jamerson's playing. One cat I followed for a while was Leon Sylvers III, because at the time when he came out with the group named Dynasty, his songs was the only at the time where I heard the ghost notes but in the traditional style of playing bass. Anyway, long story. Everyone else you mentioned, Mingus, Thelonius, hehe, our homes and growing up had a lot in common. Feb 09 19 12:10 pm Link LongWindFPV Visuals wrote: Gave your samples a spin. Nice work, did you play/program everything yourself? Feb 10 19 01:40 am Link I don't want to knock all of today's music, since I don't know all of it. But I am willing to publicly say that "God's Plan" by Drake is the worst shit I have ever heard in my entire life. I remain confused as to why that would be even remotely popular. I am more than partial to music from the 60's and 70's, always have been. Overall, they just seem to have much more in the way of artistic integrity, to me. I also definitely enjoy some more recent stuff, though. Feb 17 19 03:12 pm Link DCurtis wrote: I think todays music is not only HIP but amazing when you compare it to TOMORROW'S music!!! Feb 17 19 10:14 pm Link As a millennial who listens to A LOT of different types of music I do think modern music isn’t as good as it use to be. In my opinion most artists nowadays aren’t really making music with actually meaning behind the lyrics. They’re just trying to appeal to the younger generation who care more about the beat/flow than the lyrics. Mar 01 19 08:31 pm Link Most of today's stuff is crap. More so than in the 'old days' because anyone can publish now. Mar 13 19 10:26 am Link When people say that music from before was better, or that music today is garbage; what they really mean is that they were young and used to enjoy life, while listening to the music of that era, and they wish they could re-live that again. I'm in my mid-30's and I like a bit of everything since early 1900's until now. Mar 13 19 11:27 pm Link peter3334 wrote: That is one perspective. Mar 14 19 12:37 am Link There is a plethora of great music available today on many platforms and formats. The difference is Radio. Radio used to be local and now it is National. So instead of looking for new material , all the stations are programmed from virtually one source. The music is still very good, it's just the crap that radio chooses to play/promote makes it all look bad. Mar 14 19 06:09 am Link I'm almost 50 years old. I grew up with both parents and especially enjoyed my time in the car with my father who often had Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes or Roberta Flack (among others) playing. I came to like this stuff and preferred it over all others. Of course, I grew up and came to appreciate other things. Styles, cultures, genres, etc all changed but I liked what I liked. 1992 hit and the music industry more or less died for me. There were a few artists out before that who still did some decent stuff and there were a few new bands/groups, but I was still mostly playing my mid 80's and before stuff. Fast forward to last year, I met up with a woman I used to work with and be decent friends with on a job 20 or so years ago. We decided to try being friends again. I went and picked her up. We went out for lunch and had a decent time catching up on things. Then it hit. She told me I needed to take the CD out of my CD player because she didn't want to hear that stuff. She wanted to hear newer stuff. That's wonderful except I generally don't like newer stuff. We had this argument a few more times over the next few weeks but stopped when she told me I'm a backward, country mama's boy because I prefer older music instead of newer and this coming from a woman 10 or so years older than me. So I ask her ... you say I need to listen to newer music. Who today makes better music than the Isley Brothers, Temptations, O'Jays or Aretha Franklin? Looooong pause. Finally I say, "I'm waiting". Still no answer coming. I finally say I'm not looking for 1,000 people. Just one. If we can find just one, we'll start with them and see where it goes. She couldn't give me even one! So I ask her ... you want me to change my whole way of life, thinking, etc to a newer style of music and you can't tell me a single name that you think (doesn't matter what I think) is better? Still no answer. The next time we went out was the last time because she complained about my CD again (a custom mix) but still couldn't or wouldn't tell me anyone she thought was better. I say, if you don't like the music I play in my car, you don't have to get in to go anywhere. We've been apart the last 20 or so years. We can get by apart again. It wasn't like either of us was interested in sex or romance, anyway. That was probably 2 years ago since I talked to her. I still don't like most music that came out after 1992 or so. Mar 18 19 03:12 am Link Shadow Dancer wrote: Hi Michael, thanks for giving my stuff a spin. On my Reverbnation profile dusting it off while I listen to your acoustic guitar work. Cute lil melody. Recording is pretty good too. As for my material, yes I did everything myself using my Arturia keyboards, MiniLab and Brute, in ProTools. No samples or stems from anybody else music. All me. Mar 18 19 01:07 pm Link peter3334 wrote: That just means more artist that ARE good will be discovered, raising the bar just a little bit higher!!! Mar 30 19 08:50 pm Link I’ve found new bands and new (to me) genres on bandcamp.com. I probably skim about 50 albums before finding one I’ll listen to in full (for free), and I’ll end up buying maybe half of those. Apr 02 19 08:43 pm Link There are craps in every era and generation. Reason you like some of the oldies is because they are good enough to survive the time. I'm sure there were plenty of craps from the past you don't even recognize and remember. For example if you look at an old album, there is only one good song, the rest of the other 10, 12 songs or so are just crap. Apr 04 19 04:48 pm Link Orca Bay Images wrote: Agree, the mediocre disappears with time. The truly awful and good stand out. Apr 04 19 08:12 pm Link THE answer is yes .. !!! My tastes are pretty old fashioned I love Mozart, Chopin, Bach,Hindemith & Fats Domino + some Beatles nostalgic stuff..& I find most RAP a real turnoff, Apr 05 19 12:49 am Link I love music. I was a radio DJ back in the day (when dinosaurs walked the earth) and I know there's a lot of crap in every decade. Just look at those "one hit wonders" from back in the day. Do you think that those groups only recorded that 1 song? No, they probably recorded tons of crap as well. By the way, I'm almost 57 years and I have found plenty of current music that I enjoy. Recently, I've started really getting into Shinedown. The Bad Wolves cover of Zombie is also very stirring to me. Apr 05 19 12:59 pm Link Commercial Pop music is crap and is becoming more and more homogenised. The reason is that most people don't really care about music. To them, music is background noise that they don't pay attention to, so the less intricate, the less they have to bother to listen. Plus, with the advent of the internet and pretty much anyone being able to release pretty much anything via platforms like YouTube. The record companies, over the last 20 years have become more and more risk averse and won't take a chance to develop new artists, or even go look for them, so they'll pay attention to things that get the most hits on YouTube, Spotify or whatever and just produce more of that. Cheap and easy means maximum profit. The quality is there and there is actually more of it. You've just got to look harder for it. Bandcamp, for example. May 03 19 09:22 am Link I've wondered how some song hits Billboard's #1 spot when it isn't even available on the market? Maybe the record label sells so many CDs/vinyls to stores and that's how they count it, even though it may not sell well to the public (Same for New York Times "Best Seller" rating for books yet to sell.). I suspect there is a lot of hype, possibly PC based marketing nowadays, behind much music (and books, movies, etc.) out there: "You will like this because we say you will." May 03 19 09:57 am Link |
