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

[pseudoid]

63 an quite happy with today's music but you have to find it. New music creates pheromones for thoughts. Some examples

You really are a music hunter/gatherer: Kudos!
Bit older than you are but I'd play your picks at about +10% increase in speed.
I'd elect you for the open ASR music-curator position but I am afraid the pay is nil!

 

[Snarfie]

Bit older than you are but I'd play your picks at about +10% increase in speed.

At least you did an attempt keep on rocking

 

[pseudoid]

At least you did an attempt keep on rocking

I must have given you the wrong idea: I apologize!
I was a rocker before Lee was part of those StrayCats...

 

[MoreWatts]

Just addressing the thread title, I think the kids are all right. From their YouTube site: NYO Jazz performs and stars in a music video for Igmar Thomas’s “RPM’s,” commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the band’s 2021 season. Hear the full-length version on NYO Jazz's debut album, "We're Still Here", with a link to the full album on YouTube provided below. NYO Jazz, comprising outstanding young musicians ages 16–19 from across the US, showcases the legacy and bright future of American jazz. Led by Artistic Director Sean Jones, these remarkable musicians come together each summer to engage in a rigorous training residency with world-class jazz masters on the campus of Purchase College, State University of New York. In addition to the residency, NYO Jazz performs an annual concert at Carnegie Hall with a celebrated guest artist and embarks on a tour to some of the world’s great music capitals. The musicians serve as dynamic music ambassadors as they share this uniquely American genre with audiences around the globe.

NYO Jazz, "We're Still Here", YouTube playlist, full album.

 

[Philbo King]

Found this interesting article: https://globalnews.ca/news/9001083/why-older-music-more-popular-than-new-music/

There is something very, very wrong with today’s music. It just may not be very good.

On warm summer nights, the park across the street from my house is filled with people playing dribbling soccer balls, playing volleyball, or engaging in aggressive games of Spikeball.

Nearly all of them will have music playing through Bluetooth speakers, usually from the Spotify Top 100. And if I’m honest, none of this music is any good. All I hear is mumbled lyrics tunelessly rendered (well, except for the overuse of Auto-Tune) and beats so quantized that they could be substituted for an atomic clock.

I just re-read that last sentence. Harsh stuff from someone who doesn’t understand the music of today’s youth? Or am I scratching the surface of a problem facing the recorded music industry?

Consider the following:

- Kate Bush’s 1985 song Running Up That Hill hit number one on the U.K. singles charts and has reached the top five in other countries around the world. Hounds of Love, the album which spawned the hit, peaked at #8 on the Canadian charts earlier this summer.

- Metallica’s 1986 track Master of Puppets has been given such a boost by its appearance in Stranger Things that it’s currently in the U.S. Top 40. This eight-minute metal song is competing for attention with the latest from Lizzo, Beyonce, Justin Bieber, and Cardi B.

- Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours is one of the top-selling albums of the year so far. It’s number nine in the U.S. Rumours is also one of the top-selling vinyl albums of the year so far.

- The Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen from 1977 is the top-selling vinyl single of 2022. Further down the list, you’ll find that the Clash’s Rock the Casbah (1982) is the eighth best-selling vinyl record.)

- This past week, Queen’s Greatest Hits (1981) just became the biggest-selling record of all time in the U.K. with seven million copies sold after more than 1,000 weeks on the British charts. Last week, it was number 24 in Canada, a couple of positions ahead of Yer Favourites, the Tragically Hip’s greatest hits collection.

Older music is certainly having a moment this summer and much of this interest is not being driven by nostalgic oldsters but by the same kids playing Spikeball across the street.

Luminate, the company that monitors music consumption for the record industry, noted in its mid-year report that “current” music (identified by the industry as material being less than 18 months old) isn’t just losing market share. It’s becoming statistically less popular among all demographic groups. Looking at the United States, the metric known as “Total Album Consumption” of “current music fell by 1.4 per cent in the first half of 2022 compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, “Catalogue” music — material more than 18 months old — is up by 14 per cent.

We can go even deeper. The market share of “Catalogue” music in America is 72 per cent so far this year with “Current” music sitting at 27.6 per cent. That’s a market share decline of three per cent.

To put it another way, “Current” music is becoming progressively less popular when measured by the number of streams and sales. Whatever is being released today just isn’t resonating with the public the way it did in the past. People are showing a growing interest in listening to older music instead.

This obviously requires some unpacking. Why isn’t “Current” music resonating? What’s with the uptick in interest for older material?

Some will point to the lack of so-called “high-impacting” new releases in 2022. If, for example, Taylor Swift or Adele had new records, these numbers might be different. But as it stands, only 102 albums have debuted in the Billboard Top 100 this year (the definition of “high-impacting”) compared with 126 last year. This might relate to calculations by Music Business Worldwide that show the 10 most popular tracks on streaming services have been listened to over one billion times less than they were over a similar period in 2019. Both point to disenchantment with what’s being offered up as new today.

But maybe, just maybe, the answer lies in artistry and creativity. In recent weeks, numerous posts have appeared featuring laments about the quality of today’s music. Here is an example.

Others have weighed in, complaining that too many of today’s wannabe stars are simply celebrities making music with laptops. Older music recorded in old-fashioned studios with real instruments sounds richer and more interesting. Far too many songs are fast fashion: get ’em out, squeeze everything you can out of the tune, and then forget them. (One critic, pointing to how The Beatles’ Yesterday has been covered more than 3,000 times, asks how many covers there will be of Cardi B’s WAP in the future. He has a point.)

More theories: A lack of genuine storytellers in the vein of Carole King or Jackson Browne. Musicians who buy ready-made beats online and then sing/rap over top and then release the result. A desire to be famous rather than pay their dues learning their craft. (Blame all the TV talent shows for that.) Record labels that don’t nurture and develop artists, resulting in ultra-short careers consisting of one or two songs. A lack of people willing to pursue true mastery of a musical instrument with years of practice. Too much perfection in the recording process, an obsession that strips all the humanity and soul out of a song. (Compare anything from today’s top 10 to a Motown hit and the difference becomes obvious.) Formulaic songwriting (I’m looking at you, Max Martin.) Algorithms which just push more of the same.

I’m not done. Thanks to technology, many of today’s artists are having hit songs without ever playing a single live gig. That means they’ve never had to sweat it out in front of strangers over long tours. That boot camp experience is essential to becoming a better all-around musician. You need that experience if you’re not just going to compete with your heroes’ music on the world stage, but also with your heroes’ heroes’ heroes.

And there’s still more to consider. Cast your mind back to 1962. Music that was thirty years old then sounded old. Not only was modern pop music still developing, but we’d barely begun to use things like electric guitars and proper amps. Effects pedals hadn’t been invented yet nor had synthesizers. Recording studios were primitive things compared to today, capable of only producing material in mono. But then starting sometime around 1969, the sonic quality of recordings reached new levels. A song recorded in 1972 sounds every bit as good as something recorded this year. (In fact, you can make an argument that because of over-production, digital technology, and too much compression, older records sound better than what we have today.)

Now let me twist things around. This is happening because today’s young people — and remember that youth is always the driver of what’s happening in music — recognize bad music when they hear it. They’re smarter than to fall for what passes as hit music today.

Thanks to streaming and smartphones, we have access to somewhere north of 80 million songs. Within seconds, we can call up virtually any song recorded in the history of the human race. Why wouldn’t you source out the best of the best of the best?

Unlike previous generations, today’s music fans are far more ecumenical in their musical tastes. If you have a teenager, ask them to show you the last 25 songs they streamed on their phone. I’ll bet you’ll find everything from Drake to AC/DC to Matthew Wilder (specifically a song from the 1980s that became a weird TikTok phenomenon). To their credit, all they care about are good songs, irrespective of genre or era. That’s healthy.

In other words, the kids are alright. It’s the people running the star-making machinery behind the popular song that aren’t.

I suspect it boils down to two things:
1. No barrier to entry. Record labels used to select music to make albums/singles. Now anybody with $300 worth of gear can crank out and self-publish their work to streaming sites. Like a drunken uncle at Thanksgiving dinner, there are no filters. Anyone can self-produce music despite a total lack of talent, inspiration and ability. This leads to the second cause:
2. Supply and demand. Approximately 100000 new songs are released every day. Music is embedded in every experience in life: shopping, commercials, TV & movies, etc. One corollary of supply and demand is that scarcity drives up value. In other words, an effectively infinite supply causes value to drop to zero.

Opinion: All the above has combined to create a "diving in dumpsters for diamonds" effect for new music. There are quite a few great works being released, but no one has the time to wade through the manure pile that is Spotify (or insert the streaming company of your choice) to hunt them down. So now the gatekeepers are anonynmous 'playlist' makers, and they aren't very good at what they do.

 

[EJ3]

I suspect it boils down to two things:
1. No barrier to entry. Record labels used to select music to make albums/singles. Now anybody with $300 worth of gear can crank out and self-publish their work to streaming sites. Like a drunken uncle at Thanksgiving dinner, there are no filters. Anyone can self-produce music despite a total lack of talent, inspiration and ability. This leads to the second cause:
2. Supply and demand. Approximately 100000 new songs are released every day. Music is embedded in every experience in life: shopping, commercials, TV & movies, etc. One corollary of supply and demand is that scarcity drives up value. In other words, an effectively infinite supply causes value to drop to zero.

Opinion: All the above has combined to create a "diving in dumpsters for diamonds" effect for new music. There are quite a few great works being released, but no one has the time to wade through the manure pile that is Spotify (or insert the streaming company of your choice) to hunt them down. So now the gatekeepers are anonynmous 'playlist' makers, and they aren't very good at what they do.

I must have gotten the un-luck of the draw when it comes to my wife and music: she just flat out doesn't want music playing anywhere (at home, in the car, where ever. Go to a concert OK, go to someplace to see a band, OK. But just play music & I get: "would you please turn that off or at least turn it down so I cannot hear it? Which means that I can't hear it either, as her hearing is way better than mine. She's good at business, good cook and a great partner in everyway except she just doesn't like music, background noise or otherwise. She doesn't like chocolate either (I tell her that just means that there is more chocolate for me).

 

[DonR]

Rick has found one reason

 

[Axo1989]

I suspect it boils down to two things:
1. No barrier to entry. Record labels used to select music to make albums/singles. Now anybody with $300 worth of gear can crank out and self-publish their work to streaming sites. Like a drunken uncle at Thanksgiving dinner, there are no filters. Anyone can self-produce music despite a total lack of talent, inspiration and ability. This leads to the second cause:
2. Supply and demand. Approximately 100000 new songs are released every day. Music is embedded in every experience in life: shopping, commercials, TV & movies, etc. One corollary of supply and demand is that scarcity drives up value. In other words, an effectively infinite supply causes value to drop to zero.

Opinion: All the above has combined to create a "diving in dumpsters for diamonds" effect for new music. There are quite a few great works being released, but no one has the time to wade through the manure pile that is Spotify (or insert the streaming company of your choice) to hunt them down. So now the gatekeepers are anonynmous 'playlist' makers, and they aren't very good at what they do.

Are you saying your streaming service doesn't offer decent suggestions based on what you generally play? I have no experience with Spotify but Apple Music makes good suggestions based on things I've played recently and in general (album and single suggestions I mean, I almost never listen to curated playlists). The similar artists thing works pretty well also. My tastes are pretty divergent/esoteric, I don't know if that helps or hurts the performance of their algorithms.

 

[JaccoW]

1730 with J. S. Bach.

I mean you can clearly see a stark decrease in the number of different instruments being played for a single song in the 20th century.

We went from 44 instruments in an orchestra to just 4 in a modern rock band. Modern music is such simple monotonous drab.

EDIT: /s of course.

 

[Axo1989]

I mean you can clearly see a stark decrease in the number of different instruments being played for a single song in the 20th century.

We went from 44 instruments in an orchestra to just 4 in a modern rock band. Modern music is such simple monotonous drab.

Sarcasm? If not, keep in mind that a common orchestra doesn't really have 44 different instruments. And a symphony is more than a single song. A modern drum kit is—as the name suggests—made up of a number of different percussion instruments. We also invented a couple of instrument families (synths and samplers) that can produce and re-produce many, many more sounds than the limited imaginations of the renaissance and classical periods thought possible.

 

[Axo1989]

Rick has found one reason

Reducing "today's music" to "no.1 hits" is an unintentional reductio ad absurdum.

 

[DonR]

Call it vox populi.

 

[Axo1989]

EDIT: /s of course.

Haha, recalibrating my sarcasm meter now ...

 

[Robin L]

I mean you can clearly see a stark decrease in the number of different instruments being played for a single song in the 20th century.

We went from 44 instruments in an orchestra to just 4 in a modern rock band. Modern music is such simple monotonous drab.

EDIT: /s of course.

A: It's the 21st century.
B: Bach's music can be well constructed and communicative with any number of instruments/voices, from solo to the St. Matthew's Passion.

 

[Philbo King]

I must have gotten the un-luck of the draw when it comes to my wife and music: she just flat out doesn't want music playing anywhere (at home, in the car, where ever. Go to a concert OK, go to someplace to see a band, OK. But just play music & I get: "would you please turn that off or at least turn it down so I cannot hear it? Which means that I can't hear it either, as her hearing is way better than mine. She's good at business, good cook and a great partner in everyway except she just doesn't like music, background noise or otherwise. She doesn't like chocolate either (I tell her that just means that there is more chocolate

Are you saying your streaming service doesn't offer decent suggestions based on what you generally play? I have no experience with Spotify but Apple Music makes good suggestions based on things I've played recently and in general (album and single suggestions I mean, I almost never listen to curated playlists). The similar artists thing works pretty well also. My tastes are pretty divergent/esoteric, I don't know if that helps or hurts the performance of their algorithms.

I have to admit it, I have little patience for streaming. I tried Pandora and Spotify. Both bring up unlistenable trash (I ask for blues and it plays Mariah Carey, for example) at poor fidelity. I have about 75000 songs on my hard drive; works for me...

 

[IPunchCholla]

I have to admit it, I have little patience for streaming. I tried Pandora and Spotify. Both bring up unlistenable trash (I ask for blues and it plays Mariah Carey, for example) at poor fidelity. I have about 75000 songs on my hard drive; works for me...

You don’t have to listen in order to achieve discoverability or buy. iTunes will show you the songs/albums other people purchased who purchased the song you’re listening to and play excerpts from those songs. Starting with a song you like and check out what other songs people bought based on that song is how I have discovered a ton of good (by my definition of good) contemporary music.

 

[IPunchCholla]

A: It's the 21st century.
B: Bach's music can be well constructed and communicative with any number of instruments/voices, from solo to the St. Matthew's Passion.

A: Not everywhere, nor for all people in a given location.
B: Does the number of instruments have anything to do with the quality of music? Is there even an accepted definition for “good” music?

 

[Gringoaudio1]

So much ‘grumpy old (ignorant) man’ in this thread.
Often the entire violin section in a symphony is playing the same note or what is essentially just a chord. Not at all more complex harmonically than much music done ‘recently’(in the last hundred years?).
It’s getting so dumb here.
Let’s stick to the scientifically based analysis of audio gear.

 

[Axo1989]

Speaking of data and algorithms, Apple Music just presented my replay summary for the year: 3,363 songs, 402 artists, 583 albums, 3 playlists—apparently I've listened to yuele for 2,032 minutes this year (hacking the algorithm with a few plays of the functionally titled 4:44 (hours:minutes) track at the end of Serotonin II no doubt).

Most of that aggregation is new stuff, but I did hit up Groove Amanda for 800 minutes of retro pleasure. And I played My Bloody Valentine's Loveless 61 times. Because there is good music going back as far as the 90s at least.

Of course, no one cares about my taste specifically, the point being that the Music service has a decent body of data on which to base recommendations, and in my case they usually throw up interesting suggestions based on [song/artist/sub/genre I last played] and [song/artist/sub/genre I play some amount of].

 

[sonitus mirus]

Apple Music replay summary for 2022 has me at 15,861 songs from 1543 artists.

Top songs were

1. Formidable Cool by Wolf Alice
2. Undun by The Guess Who
3. Spinning by Zero 7
4. Mambo 1000 by Ursula 1000
5. Hung Upside Down by Buffalo Springfield

Top artists were

1. Grateful Dead at 853 minutes
2. Rolling Stones at 817 minutes
3. Fleetwood Mac at 664 minutes
4. The Who at 634 minutes
5. Stereolab at 574 minutes
6. The Allman Brothers Band at 571 minutes
7. Yes at 539 minutes
8. Smashing Pumpkins at 511 minutes
9. Beatles at 505 minutes
10. Van Morrison at 499 minutes

Full albums I listened to in one go were

1. The Banana Remixes by Mo’ Horizon
2. Closer by Noisia
3. Toulouse Street by The Doobie Brothers
4. The Gilded Palace of Sin by The Flying Burrito Brothers
5. Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart