Music is dead.

[mononoaware]

 

[LeftCoastTim]

So Billie Eilish's "my boy" just showed up on my playlist.

Oh wow.

So the subject of the song is about a teenager girl being annoyed by her distracted boyfriend.

Yawn.

But the lyrics are pure poetry. "My boy's an ugly crier but he's such a pretty liar"? There are some amazing wordsmithing in there. Fun!

And then there are the vocals. Eilish's self harmonizing is simply unmatched, and mesmerizing to listen to. A+!

And then there is the structure. It starts with some jazzy intro with slow vocals (A), which speeds up into pop (B). revisit the jazzy vocals but keeps the tempo (A'), revisits (B'), and then the coda shows up and ends "All right dude, go trip over a knife!", back to B', back to a sweet version of A. Typical, yet atypical. Fun!

And then add their typical signature of catchy melody, simple chords, raining sound clips, tasteful rhythm, drums, and effects.

For a pop song with "throwaway" topic, it is so amazingly well crafted piece of art. The Eilishes make everything seem so effortless and simple, but there is a lot of tiny details that have been carefully worked into a 3 minute song. Genius!

And this song came out in 2017. Billie must have been 16?. I'm just catching up because I'm very old.

To me at least, music seems alive and well.

 

[Dogen]

The thing is, I’m always discovering new music from the entire history of recorded music that I like, except for now. There are exceptions of course, but if I were just old and set in my ways, I wouldn’t be excited to hear new music from 1935 or 1965 or just about any year. I just think there are certain trends current now that don’t appeal to me: the recession of instrumental virtuosity, heavenly processed vocals, quivering delicate little voices, topical disconnection from current events and zeitgeist (apart from depersonalization and alienation), and relentless repetition (not in a good way). I know, I sound like my parents, but to my ears popular music has not really evolved in the last couple of decades. It sounds stagnant and inconsequential for the most part.

 

[Wes]

 

[mel]

The thing is, I’m always discovering new music from the entire history of recorded music that I like, except for now. There are exceptions of course, but if I were just old and set in my ways, I wouldn’t be excited to hear new music from 1935 or 1965 or just about any year. I just think there are certain trends current now that don’t appeal to me: the recession of instrumental virtuosity, heavenly processed vocals, quivering delicate little voices, topical disconnection from current events and zeitgeist (apart from depersonalization and alienation), and relentless repetition (not in a good way). I know, I sound like my parents, but to my ears popular music has not really evolved in the last couple of decades. It sounds stagnant and inconsequential for the most part.

Here's the mini framework that I use to analyze music. I have been comparing Apple's Spacial Audio (Dolby Atmos) playlists recently. I struggle with most of the rock songs. Some rock is great, but a great deal of rock is mastered in way that I dislike. I listen to jazz and classical with great enjoyment. I like to hear the sounds of acoustic instruments. I provide a few specific links in the post.

 

[Wes]

..

 

[Robin L]

..

Prehysteric, like this:

 

[spigot]

I thought music was dead until I started listening again. Was hesitant because I was now in the position of listening to people younger than me - how could I possibly relate? After a decade of abstinence I now mostly listen to new releases, sometimes older, but not older than 10 years - music's evolving. It's only possible to be consistently musical creative with your 'A' grade material when you're in your 20's, so any artists I used to love from previous decades that are still active I skip. You can tell someone's washed up when they become experimental to hide the fact that they can no longer write hooks. Used to listen to mostly male artists, now mostly female - possibly because they seem less drenched in nostalgia and so less likely to repeat the past.

I also don't follow any charts but trawl through hundreds of new releases (all languages) every week to find some absolute gems thanks to the wonders of streaming. If I did just follow the charts I undoubtedly would think music is dead. But, I'll listen to something and think 'this could be on anyone's best LP' and then see it only has a few thousand listens - must be discouraging for the artist. I buy as much as I can. I used to only be aware of what was popular, now is more interesting to me. I just wish artists would at least write an LP's worth of material each year when they can still be creative, those years ain't coming back. I hope everyone finds whatever they love.

 

[TLEDDY]

It's worse than that, mate, millenials just do it on the bedroom floor:

*I love watching humble beginnings, Grimes has become a legend in her own lifetime.

Elon Musk’s significant other...

 

[JJB70]

It's a good job nobody told Bruckner and Beethoven they were past it after their 20's

 

[sjeesjie]

Nice thread!
I was actually thinking about this too. I’m of the generation that used to watch MTV 24/7. It gave us music that we could relate to at that age. Grunge, Rock, Metal, Pop, Dance and R’nB, no matter what genre but the music just spoke to us teeners.

But the modern day music is so bloody awful, it’s just all too clean. Too produced. Too commercial. Too whatever, but it all just seems so fake to me! Music just has no message anymore, I think that is the problem.

Of course there are exceptions but man it’s hard to find true new artists. Luckily there’s more than enough good stuff to find in the ‘70s and the ‘90s

 

[Robot_Assassinator]

Try this, go back and pick a few months in years past. Look at what the top 40 music was. Look at how much of it was considered dreck by you even then. Not that much different now. Maybe 15% will in the future be considered good with maybe 5% considered great for the genre and time period. And then some aging guy in 2061 will list a few of the greats from now and opine how music isn't good like it used to be.

Try this list for 1990 which includes songs from Donny Osmond, Vanilla Ice, and INSX.

https://top40weekly.com/1990-all-charts/

Or this one from 1991 which does include one Nirvana song along with MC Hammer, Boyz II Men, Cher, Bryan Adams, and Michael Bolton.
https://top40weekly.com/1991-all-charts/

Apologies to revive a three month old comment, but I did this with a friend one night when nothing was happening to specifically test the "is all new music crap" theory, a theory we were both slightly biased towards.

We went through charts of the top ten selling singles of every year singles sales were kept in the US. If we could recall a song from memory we'd hum it or sing the words, rate it good or bad and move on. If we couldn't recall a song we looked it up and listened to it, providing we could find it. Some before about 1960 proved evasive, but most, being very popular, were easy to find.

After conducting this test I can say two things with confidence:
(1) 95% of all high sales music in the charts era is complete shit irrespective of release date. Absolutely horrible. Unlistenable dross.
(2) I won't do that again, despite it being an overwhelmingly conclusive answer to an age old question, the price I paid in ear fatigue and emotional self-abuse was probably not worth it.

 

[JayGilb]

Streaming has introduced me to a good deal of new music, some of which I think is quite good. On the classical side, there is a lot of contemporary music being written which reminds me of the Avant Garde of the late 60s.

But then, I never got into rock music when I was young - it was almost any genre but rock. My dad once yelled at me for listening to 'weirdo shit' - it was 'Kontakte' by Stockhausen. My dad was an idiot.

I had the opposite experience growing up. My father told me not to be one of those people who only listens to the same music they did in high school. We had hundreds of albums and singles from every know genre in our house and otherwise than Polka, I enjoy almost all genres.
I'm from German heritage and live in Wisconsin, so that Polka dislike is considered sacrilege.

 

[Godataloss]

Well almost...
I can't help but feel that older music is just is so much better than all the new stuff being released today in all music genres.
There isn't one modern rock band that even comes close to Radiohead, Nirvana, PJ etc..
No artist that comes close to MJ
No new Bob Dylan, no new Jeff Buckley etc...
Well you get my point.
All new music and artists are just mediocre at best, except in some rare cases (Joanna Newsom, Regina spektor)
Does anyone here feels the same way?

I think that you will also find that as you get older, children will walk with impunity all over your lawn. #abandonallhope

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I had the opposite experience growing up. My father told me not to be one of those people who only listens to the same music they did in high school. We had hundreds of albums and singles from every know genre in our house and otherwise than Polka, I enjoy almost all genres.
I'm from German heritage and live in Wisconsin, so that Polka dislike is considered sacrilege.

That's funny, I had a record as a kid by a group called the Polka Dots. I don't know why I bought it.

 

[Robin L]

William Mann [high-profile, London based classical music critic of the 1960's] said that music is an encapsulation of time, pointing to Sargent Peppers Lonely Heart's Club Band as a perfect example of a time represented by a musical work. For many Boomers this represents the the peak of music making. I was 12 when that record came out, but what happened a few years later had a greater long term impact on my relation to and expectations of music.

I guess that "Pepper" appeared to many as some sort of Rock/Classical fusion. I really don't think that was the Beatles [specifically, Paul McCartney, as Lennon was non compos mentis at the time and Paul oversaw the production, more than anyone else] intention. What was produced was more like English Music Hall, this case being a more or less psychedelic version of the old softshoe.

In any case, in the year that followed, I was listening to classical music. I had a teacher who encouraged me, loaned me records. Before long, I visited libraries and listened to all these newly issued or reissued Beethoven recordings that were released during the Bicentennial year, and starting collecting LPs soon after. All this is happening during my adolescence. They say that we are imprinted with our most powerful, memorable musical experiences while our hormones are bubbling. I'm listening to some Beethoven right now, Karajan's first Berlin Philharmonic recording of the Eroica. I don't worry about music being dead, or Beethoven being dead. Whatever's going on when I listen to this recording is still going on. I don't expect new music to sound like this, so I'm not disappointed when it doesn't.

Like R. Crumb sez, Meatball doesn't work that way:

 

[rdenney]

I had the opposite experience growing up. My father told me not to be one of those people who only listens to the same music they did in high school. We had hundreds of albums and singles from every know genre in our house and otherwise than Polka, I enjoy almost all genres.
I'm from German heritage and live in Wisconsin, so that Polka dislike is considered sacrilege.

I feel the same way about hip-hop.

Rick "a tuba player who would have to contemplate suicide if he hated polkas" Denney

 

[khrisr]

I thought music was dead until I started listening again. Was hesitant because I was now in the position of listening to people younger than me - how could I possibly relate? After a decade of abstinence I now mostly listen to new releases, sometimes older, but not older than 10 years - music's evolving. It's only possible to be consistently musical creative with your 'A' grade material when you're in your 20's, so any artists I used to love from previous decades that are still active I skip. You can tell someone's washed up when they become experimental to hide the fact that they can no longer write hooks. Used to listen to mostly male artists, now mostly female - possibly because they seem less drenched in nostalgia and so less likely to repeat the past.

I also don't follow any charts but trawl through hundreds of new releases (all languages) every week to find some absolute gems thanks to the wonders of streaming. If I did just follow the charts I undoubtedly would think music is dead. But, I'll listen to something and think 'this could be on anyone's best LP' and then see it only has a few thousand listens - must be discouraging for the artist. I buy as much as I can. I used to only be aware of what was popular, now is more interesting to me. I just wish artists would at least write an LP's worth of material each year when they can still be creative, those years ain't coming back. I hope everyone finds whatever they love.

Totally agree! Before streaming I had practically stopped listening to music because I was bored with what I grew up with. Nowadays I always give a listen to latest releases (whatever the genre) and I find more excellent music than I have time to listen to. Every couple of months I stumble onto something that gets me more excited than even in the peak teenage years. So I'd say music is far from dead ... in fact its the golden age of music in my opinion.

 

[Robot_Assassinator]

I guess that "Pepper" appeared to many as some sort of Rock/Classical fusion [...] What was produced was more like English Music Hall, this case being a more or less psychedelic version of the old softshoe.

That's gold, that is. <3

 

[Phayes]

I notice that much of the "new" music seems to be 10 or twenty years old. Putting that aside, as one who grew up in the golden age of sixties/seventies, I recall that music was very much a part of a much wider culture. I suspect its modern equivalent might be rap etc of which I know little. From my perspective I have been introduced to a lot of jazz and classical that was new to me, and some new music thanks mainly to Radio Paradise. My main point which I am rambling towards is that with so many sources (which is great) it is difficult to navigate. We had John Peel.