There is something very, very wrong with today’s music

[Dxnc]

We have a winner! Ten Jinn. (I have six Major Parkinson albums.)

Suggestions for prog? Whoa, there's just soooooo many. Maybe start with Wobbler, any of their five albums.

That Ten Jinn album is worth tracking down - the vocal arrangements and harmonies are especially good. Yep, Wobbler is great when I want that genuine retro sound.

IQ: The Wake and Ever are probably my favorites, but I like most of them (even the Menel era). Seeing them live at the first NEARFest in 1999 was a highlight.

 

[Andreas007]

I've mentioned the Harp Twins on this august forum before, I know. Possibly even in August.

This is probably as close as I am gonna get to dragging myself back on topic for this thread -- at least for a few more posts. This is sort-of modern, even if the cover's a golden oldie.

When watching the Harp Twins it's like being in hell, watching a comedy show, looking at a Dali picture, getting nausea and feeling the urge to smash my laptop - all at the same time. Quite an accomplishment! BRAVO!

Please listen to real mastery:

 

[Ron Party]

That Ten Jinn album is worth tracking down - the vocal arrangements and harmonies are especially good. Yep, Wobbler is great when I want that genuine retro sound.

IQ: The Wake and Ever are probably my favorites, but I like most of them (even the Menel era). Seeing them live at the first NEARFest in 1999 was a highlight.

Harvest Of Souls is IQ's Supper's Ready. Just represents everything which makes prog special.

 

[Chrispy]

TLDR but can't see how all current music offerings can be lumped together, let alone something being "very very wrong". That include current issues of jazz, rock, classical, folk etc? Or even just current top 40 type pop? Some old music, like much classical, holds little interest for me, let alone top 40 pop music from the past. Select what you like, the choices are immense and easily accessed. Following someone else's picks/views like the OP or reviewers or DJs, meh.

 

[diddley]

It's what being played on the radio, i think there the problem begins.

 

[DMill]

Music is fine. The ears of middle aged men aren’t. Miles Davis changed from a be bop Jazz guy to a improv/rock band. The stones played with disco. As far as what is pop music now. Who am I to say? It’s why I’m so much a fan of streaming. Let’s me hear all the stuff I know I like and new things I should consider.
(Edit: I’m 54)

 

[SuicideSquid]

TLDR but can't see how all current music offerings can be lumped together, let alone something being "very very wrong". That include current issues of jazz, rock, classical, folk etc? Or even just current top 40 type pop? Some old music, like much classical, holds little interest for me, let alone top 40 pop music from the past. Select what you like, the choices are immense and easily accessed. Following someone else's picks/views like the OP or reviewers or DJs, meh.

You can find the same comments to the OP expressed every year going back at least to the 1950s. Music sucks now and it was better in my day.

Top 40 radio has always been dominated by schlock - the OP's example of Kate Bush is a bit ironic, since she never had a hit in her 80s heyday - but top 40 has always been mostly trash with occasional great songs bubbling to the surface. That was true in 1970 and 1980 and 1990 and it's true today. But there's extraordinary music being made today - most of what I listen to is not "popular" but bands like Haken, Transatlantic, St. Vincent, Neal Morse, Bat for Lashes, Sufjan Stevens, Fleet Foxes, Lifesigns, Wobbler, Caligula's Horse, Big Big Train, Flower Kings and Chvrches, are making incredible music. And there are 'mainstream' artists who are killing it. Billie Eilish makes beautiful music. As does Phoebe Bridgers. Hell, the Swedish band Ghost has had a huge amount of success, including a Grammy win, bringing back the kind of proto-metal and 80s metal played by artists like Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. Technical instrumental prog band Polyphia released a new single in mid-July that has around ten millilon streams already - that's wild!

 

[stalepie2]

I think there isn't much left that's new to do. It's all been explored and recorded well and is easily available. That makes it harder for newer artists. It's the same with other art forms.

 

[Jds81]

I think there isn't much left that's new to do. It's all been explored and recorded well and is easily available. That makes it harder for newer artists. It's the same with other art forms.

Have we played out non western scales, poly rhythms, odd time signatures, little used instruments, multichannel sound, not verse/chorus/verse structure?
I agree that some things are done to death. There's new stories to tell.

 

[hex168]

You can find the same comments to the OP expressed every year going back at least to the 1950s. Music sucks now and it was better in my day.

Top 40 radio has always been dominated by schlock - the OP's example of Kate Bush is a bit ironic, since she never had a hit in her 80s heyday - but top 40 has always been mostly trash with occasional great songs bubbling to the surface. That was true in 1970 and 1980 and 1990 and it's true today. But there's extraordinary music being made today - most of what I listen to is not "popular" but bands like Haken, Transatlantic, St. Vincent, Neal Morse, Bat for Lashes, Sufjan Stevens, Fleet Foxes, Lifesigns, Wobbler, Caligula's Horse, Big Big Train, Flower Kings and Chvrches, are making incredible music. And there are 'mainstream' artists who are killing it. Billie Eilish makes beautiful music. As does Phoebe Bridgers. Hell, the Swedish band Ghost has had a huge amount of success, including a Grammy win, bringing back the kind of proto-metal and 80s metal played by artists like Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. Technical instrumental prog band Polyphia released a new single in mid-July that has around ten millilon streams already - that's wild!

Thank you for Polyphia - that's very good; have not heard of them before.

 

[SuicideSquid]

Thank you for Polyphia - that's very good; have not heard of them before.

It's crazy - I'm very involved in the world of modern prog (both as fan and as musician) and I'd never heard of them until a month ago - they've got more streams on YouTube than any other modern prog band. Just shows how silo'd modern music is.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

As I was reading your post, I kept thinking it's much because of how we listen to music today. Etc. streaming. Then you came around and touched that subject as well ind the end.
In the old days, much more work was required if you wanted to listen to other music than you already had on cd back home.
You would not go to the supermarkets, they only had the new stuff, you needed to go to the library or the music store and browse. For this reason alone I think the average joes' music knowledge and collection was more narrow than today.
Today, all the worlds' music is available on your phone. And a popular tv series can spark and ignite a flame so great that when you listen to Kate Bushs' (absolutely magnificent) song; Running up that hill, over and over, the algorithm will create a "wormhole" / open a door to the music from the past via suggestions of similar music. The users eyes (ears rather) are now opened for the older music catalogue.

That is my take an the statistics and I'm pretty sure it's one of the main reasons for the movement we see, rather than "new music sucks".

 

[Chrispy]

As I was reading your post, I kept thinking it's much because of how we listen to music today. Etc. streaming. Then you came around and touched that subject as well ind the end.
In the old days, much more work was required if you wanted to listen to other music than you already had on cd back home.
You would not go to the supermarkets, they only had the new stuff, you needed to go to the library or the music store and browse. For this reason alone I think the average joes' music knowledge and collection was more narrow than today.
Today, all the worlds' music is available on your phone. And a popular tv series can spark and ignite a flame so great that when you listen to Kate Bushs' (absolutely magnificent) song; Running up that hill, over and over, the algorithm will create a "wormhole" / open a door to the music from the past via suggestions of similar music. The users eyes (ears rather) are now opened for the older music catalogue.

That is my take an the statistics and I'm pretty sure it's one of the main reasons for the movement we see, rather than "new music sucks".

"Other than on cd" you had at home....that dates you younger than me since I was comparing it to vinyl back home in the early days LOL. Bigger gap with vinyl IMO in any case. The accessability of anything you want to listen to is absurd these days compared to then.

 

[Chrispy]

Music is fine. The ears of middle aged men aren’t. Miles Davis changed from a be bop Jazz guy to a improv/rock band. The stones played with disco. As far as what is pop music now. Who am I to say? It’s why I’m so much a fan of streaming. Let’s me hear all the stuff I know I like and new things I should consider.
(Edit: I’m 54)

Miles simply evolved/changed throughout his life. The labels aren't so great. I do agree most musicians will experiment let alone strive for labels, tho.

 

[goat76]

Have we played out non western scales, poly rhythms, odd time signatures, little used instruments, multichannel sound, not verse/chorus/verse structure?
I agree that some things are done to death. There's new stories to tell.

Have you listen to the band Black Midi?
I think they tell us new story, even if they use western scales and odd time signatures.

 

[Andreas007]

Being a scientific based community: This topic has already been analyzed. The outcome is not very surprising:

Thus, beyond the global perspective, we observe a number of trends in the evolution of contemporary popular music. These point towards less variety in pitch transitions, towards a consistent homogenization of the timbral palette and towards louder and, in the end, potentially poorer volume dynamics.

Measuring the Evolution of Contemporary Western Popular Music

(Sorry, if this has been mentioned before, I didn't read all the posts.)

 

[Digby]

Being a scientific based community: This topic has already been analyzed. The outcome is not very surprising:



Measuring the Evolution of Contemporary Western Popular Music

(Sorry, if this has been mentioned before, I didn't read all the posts.)

Save what I said, it hasn't been mentioned at all, just lots of posts about how much good music is still out there. Nobody said there wasn't, but that is beside the point.

 

[Mnyb]

Yea there can be more than one truth .

There is more bad music than ever before . There is very likely also more good music than ever before

I'm also especially sensitive why no one has any vocal skills anymore . the combination of mumbling and autotune is the worst ?

I'm very happy when someone makes a hit song with real singing even if don't fancy the song .

Interesting music in all genres can be found on bandcamp for example .

But their was a special cultural phenomena when the big "bands" was also very good and popular at the same time and had a long career spanning multiple albums and decades.
But not many hunkers down in studio for years producing albums anymore , probably due to it being impossible to recover the cost as you are either paid peanuts by spotify or get your works stolen by piracy.

These things comes and goes , I'll bet there was an era for orchestras to and opera houses when they peaked ?

 

[Vacceo]

Opera, not really. Historically, Opera was a place where people enacted class differences. No wonder people like Verdi were very aware that the public was often times more interested in seeing who was in the building that what was played.

The emergence of the radio changed that, luckily, and music reached a lot more places.

 

[Mnyb]

Opera, not really. Historically, Opera was a place where people enacted class differences. No wonder people like Verdi were very aware that the public was often times more interested in seeing who was in the building that what was played.

The emergence of the radio changed that, luckily, and music reached a lot more places.

Some claims that the repeating of stuff that's common in Opera, is for similar reason , if you nodded off for some reason (drunk perhaps, chatting with others in the bourgeoise ) you can still follow the plot even if you missed some