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

[Jds81]

Does anyone ever make an "old music stinks" thread?
From what I've read around here, most seem to respect older music, and the tastes of others.
"Music today" seems to take all the punches.
You do have to dig more, at least I do to find what I really enjoy. There are a ton more options, and less corporate oversight. Variation and experimentation abound, if you actually want to hear something new.
Old and new float my boat, but glad I haven't written off music and the world at large with it.

 

[Axo1989]

Does anyone ever make an "old music stinks" thread?
From what I've read around here, most seem to respect older music, and the tastes of others.
"Music today" seems to take all the punches.

Well I've listened to my parents' and grandparents' music. I don't usually post about what I dislike, because there's enough negativity around, but here you go:

I can get into some rock but I really don't like roll. Blues is just depressing. Most music from the 70s has no bass to speak of, so inherently sucks. Early metal is slow as a wet week. Prog rock is shockingly awful, unless Poppy is sending it up. Country is unlistenable of course but that's not contentious or chronological. Mainstream pop is timelessly banal, so that's a draw too.

Does that help?

You do have to dig more, at least I do to find what I really enjoy. There are a ton more options, and less corporate oversight. Variation and experimentation abound, if you actually want to hear something new.
Old and new float my boat, but glad I haven't written off music and the world at large with it.

Yes, surely. There are some gems from the old times. But now we're living in a golden age for electronic genres. And Hyperpop is fun. I could go on.

 

[Jimster480]

Well I've listened to my parents' and grandparents' music. I don't usually post about what I dislike, because there's enough negativity around, but here you go:

I can get into some rock but I really don't like roll. Blues is just depressing. Most music from the 70s has no bass to speak of, so inherently sucks. Early metal is slow as a wet week. Prog rock is shockingly awful, unless Poppy is sending it up. Country is unlistenable of course but that's not contentious or chronological. Mainstream pop is timelessly banal, so that's a draw too.

Does that help?



Yes, surely. There are some gems from the old times. But now we're living in a golden age for electronic genres. And Hyperpop is fun. I could go on.

Kinda generalized. I listen to lots of classical and jazz, there is some great jazz from those era's! I'm not into most rock and I don't like metal or country.
Lots of modern music is still quite good, especailly in the electronic genres like Trance, Progressive, Goa Psy, Electronica, House, UKHx, Hardstyle.
Armin Van Buuren & his label Armada Music (in general), Above & Beyond, Andy Moor & his label Ava Recordings, HeadHunterz, Vini Vici, Aly & Fila, Dougal & Gammer, Kevin Energy, Scott Brown, Astral Projection, Electric Universe, Infected Mushroom, Quantize, Alteza Records, and the list goes on...
For older music in the Jazz Era we have Bill Evans Trio, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock just to name a few names...
For Classical there are many nice modern artists playing traditional classical music; such as Lang Lang, Itzack Perlman, Yo Yo Ma, Rachel Grimes, Jim Brickman, Leif Ove Andsnes and Khatia Buniatishvili just to name a few here....

 

[Soandso]

I can get into some rock but I really don't like roll.

"Jenny said when she was just 5 years old.
There was nothin' happening at all
Every time she puts on the radio
There was nothin' going down at all, not at all
Then one fine mornin', she puts on a NewYork station
You know, she didn't believe what she heard at all
She states shakin' to that fine, fine music
You know, her life was saved by rock 'n roll"

50 years ago Lou Reed sang about music therapy being holistic -
the shakin' was from the roll.

 

[DudleyDuoflush]

I think 30-40 years ago there was a natural filter as the route to market for most music was very limited. You really only had the radio and a few TV shows apart from word of mouth and going to gigs. Nowadays you have thousands of songs being released every day. I think the very good music nowadays is right up their with anything in the past but there is a long tail of dross just due to the huge volume.

 

[Axo1989]

50 years ago Lou Reed sang about music therapy being holistic -

Lou Reed was utterly brilliant and certainly produced some rock'n'roll gems. He also made the sublime Metal Machine Music and fell in love with Laurie Anderson.

I also look at it this way, we all have different damage, so we need different therapies (at different times of our lives).

the shakin' was from the roll.

Many people love the 12-bar blues rhythms of rock'n'roll. For me, it's as depressing as a dusty broken flyscreen. You can shift it out of the roly-poly zone by playing it very very slow, or very very fast.

The music I like most doesn't trace back to blues roots, rather it derives from experimental and avant-garde traditions (and back to Shostakovich). Not rolling rhythms so much as sonic textures, dynamic contrasts and dissonance.

 

[Vacceo]

I think 30-40 years ago there was a natural filter as the route to market for most music was very limited. You really only had the radio and a few TV shows apart from word of mouth and going to gigs. Nowadays you have thousands of songs being released every day. I think the very good music nowadays is right up their with anything in the past but there is a long tail of dross just due to the huge volume.

And to be honest, that filter sucked.

 

[Vacceo]

Question for the varied places you all write from: is censorship of music or album covers still a thing where you are? Considering what I listen too, you can imagine there is a long history of censorship and banning, but not exactly on the usual suspects. Some famous cases are Cannibal Corpse in Germany, Dismember in UK or Autopsy in the US.

 

[Jds81]

Question for the varied places you all write from: is censorship of music or album covers still a thing where you are? Considering what I listen too, you can imagine there is a long history of censorship and banning, but not exactly on the usual suspects. Some famous cases are Cannibal Corpse in Germany, Dismember in UK or Autopsy in the US.

That is an interesting question, which I would say deserves it's own thread if it gets lost in the flow here. I'm in the US, mostly OK until the moral panic ramps up. My listening preferences probably don't put me in a position to speak definitively. Just the high profile examples are what I'm aware of.

 

[BoredErica]

I think there's more good music than ever before, but there's also way more music everywhere than ever before. So the problem is finding good stuff amongst the nearly infinite pile of tracks. Beyond that I don't care to join some debate about whether old music or new music is better. Different people have different opinions.

 

[theREALdotnet]

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 your heros’ heroes’ heroes’ heroes!

 

[fpitas]

This thread has only convinced me there's something wrong with today's entertainment industry. Which is hardly a novel idea. They have simply devolved into the biggest return on investment, like most big corporations.

 

[odarg64]

Plenty of great independent labels to choose from. Here's one: https://www.dischord.com/

 

[Thomas savage]

Theres nothing wrong with ' today's music ' because there's no such thing as ' today's music ' .

All sorts of music is being produced and preformed just like it always has and always will .

Every generation makes or seeks to own music of a fashion. Older folks won't like it , that's always been true , in fact every generation reinvents all sorts of things , from music to parenting often gaining the disapproval of the old gits .

Music consumption and trends change can often be inspired by usage, from the outdoors to the music hall , small jazz venues and onto phones and ear buds ..

I could happily live out the rest of my days listening to nothing that was made post 96 but that dosnt mean its all crap or of less value .

The music industry can be cynical but so can old gits .

 

[Andretti60]

I never get tired to repost this

 

[goat76]

Plenty of great independent labels to choose from. Here's one: https://www.dischord.com/

Ian MacKaye has clearly shown it's possible to run a record label without the usual way this business works.

I like to add a similar one: https://store.touchandgorecords.com/

 

[SpinifexV]

I see Frank Zappa, I upvote!

Seriously now, my thought on the Problem of Today's Music™, by a newly 40-year old guy:

- We no longer forget what came before. It's the same problem facing the movie industry since the advent of the cassette/DVD: we now have access to everything that has been done before, and new stuff has to compete with an ever-growing reservoir of old and recent movies/music. New Metal acts have to compete with Metallica/Slayer/Judas Priest, new Rock acts have to compete with the Beatles/U2/Led Zeppelin, etc.

- The end of progress (in technology and in music). When the electric guitar came out, suddenly there was a new sound possible that bear what came before, same as new recording processes, Stereo, etc. Auto-tune was the last big change IMHO.

There was also, from the creation of the LP forward, a natural progression in music: rock became hard rock, then Heavy metal, then Thrash Metal, then Death/Black and ever more extreme, the same with rap/hip hop which became ever more hard in sound and lyrically... but people stop following when it got too much for them.

- The shattering of the centralized culture: Television was the way culture spread around (and not just in the USA). It used to decide what was mainstream and what was not (though its hand could be forced). Since people can now create and have access to what they really want by the internet (youtube, tik tok, indie record labels, self published music), the "mainstream" no longer have the ability to force itself on its audience. It also makes it that much harder for new acts to become the next superstars of their generation, by making it harder to reach their target audience.

Just some thoughts, back to work for me.

 

[spartaman64]

I think it is unquestionable that music has become more simplistic (quite possibly in parallel with people becoming more simplistic - which came first, the chicken or the egg?).

is it really more simplistic though? maybe if you are talking about orchestral music but there are still orchestral music being made today. music in the past has often been 1 person singing while playing 1 instrument or if its a band maybe 2 people singing with 5 people playing instruments. but with today's technology a person can have hundreds of different synths that sound like different instruments and have many background singers and add them to the recording.

 

[Dxnc]

As a fan of always-unfashionable progressive rock starting in the 1980s, I learned early on that I had to look beyond what was playing on radio, TV, or college dorms to find it. A new golden age of that genre sprung up in the 90s, but most people never heard of those bands. I just treat most music that way now. Thankfully, good streaming curation and algorithms can really help me to find them.

 

[rdenney]

Also, why is autotune still a thing? So ugly sounding.

Autotune can be used by an artist to achieve some useful effect. Cher used it to create a hook in her song Believe. But it was an artistic effect that worked in that song.

Mostly, though, Autotune is used for singers who can't sing in tune. For them, Autotune is adjusted to sound as though it is not there, with varying levels of success.

But, like any effect, it can become its own thing that singers add because everyone is doing it. Then, the point is to be audible.

Most pop stars are selected because they look good and can sing well enough. Many have an army of technicians behind them filling in the gaps. About the only thing I like about the singer reality contests is that the contestants actually do have to be able to sing musically--both emotionally and technically.

Now, to the topic: The mass market never rewards sophistication because their use case is for a soundtrack to their lives and not to be the point of any given moment. Why did ELP and Yes falter in the late 70's? There are lots of theories, but the plain fact is that a lot of women wanted to dance, not listen, and punk was danceable. I think Yes's Awaken on their Going for the One album of 1977 is astounding, but it's written in 11/8 for cryin' out loud--nobody short of Twila Tharp can dance to that. The Ramones, by their own admission, were anything but great musicians. But that wasn't the point. They made the point in the biopic about them from a decade or so back that people just wanted to dance, and that's who they cared about. They and their genre were getting the chicks.

For us uncoordinated geeks who couldn't/wouldn't dance and who were not getting the dates anyway, give us the complex and sophisticated prog rock any day.

Change the above narrative to, say, Johann Strauss (of waltz fame) versus, say, his contemporary Johannes Brahms, and it still works. Who's gonna get played at the local potentate's costume ball in 1890? Not the Brahms.

Rick "pop is driven by the preferred background music of females--neither Rick Denney nor Rick Beato were consulted" Denney