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

[Cwopete5]

I'm sitting here listening to Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) on vinyl through a tube amp. They just make them like that anymore.

Correction, "They just don't make them like that anymore.

 

[pseudoid]

Nostalgia, as with music-of-our-youth may bring back emotions/memories which the HooliganB*st*rds would love to be able to monetize.
Putting those peeps and their shenanigans aside for this thread:

Only certainty that is guaranteed is that "Music Morphs."

Thus, musicians may also need some morphing (in other innovative ways) to adapt to changing tastes and access to music. And I don't mean in an NFT way!

IMO that's the problem with most of todays music, the near complete abandonment of melody.

Today's WSJ/M.Richardson wanted me to provide you the following extract from his review:

...Panda Bear & Sonic Boom reunite to use samples of ‘50s and ‘60s tunes to create unmistakably good vibrations.
Animal Collective member Noah Lennox who records as Panda Bear and English musician Peter Kember (…Sonic Boom)
Sometimes an album is designed to help the listener understand where its creators are coming from, or perhaps to allow him or her to think more deeply about complicated issues. And sometimes records aim for something more elemental.
...The chiming, circular riff plays through the entire track as Mr. Lennox sings a graceful new melody on top of it that points to the styles of days gone by. …crafting sunny and memorable tunes that complement the collage-like arrangements.

…. Given the effortlessly catchy tunes, the recycled sounds from what we imagine to be less complicated times, and the album’s choir-like vocal layering, “Reset” is steeped in childlike innocence and nostalgia...

…[Previous] experiment in uplift led to the wonderfully life-affirming new LP “Reset” (Domino), out Friday.
… that encourage us to hold on to hope, and revel in the magic of the present moment...

See that, @Sal1950 ? You can have your melody and eat your nostalgia at the same time! Woot!
Note: A youtube visit will be required!

 

[BinkieHuckerback]

EVERY generation says 'things were better in my day'

 

[pseudoid]

EVERY generation says 'things were better in my day'

And the next generation ALWAYS bashes the previous one.
C'est La Vie!

 

[BinkieHuckerback]

And the next generation ALWAYS bashes the previous one.
C'est La Vie!

...or as the French say, 'that's life'

 

[BALKAN_RAKIA]

I've never read a thread that made me feel so young. I have no idea why they stopped making classical music, can't help here, but it was probably already peaked before its current fans were born so there's that.

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but Norah Jones, Dire Straits and Steely Dan is hard to relate to anyone with functioning knees. Mine are also busted, but I am not there yet.

Do you think people your current age related to Sex Pistols when they came out? Or to Bob Marley, or to pretty much any legendary musician in any genre?

It is not that the music is bad, some of you guys have no idea how to find it. Top 40 was never a reference for good music. If you only browsed music as much as you browsed musical equipment catalogs this problem wouldn't exist.

 

[Timcognito]

It is not that the music is bad, some of you guys have no idea how to find it. Top 40 was never a reference for good music. If you only browsed music as much as you browsed musical equipment catalogs this problem wouldn't exist.

I think many here do know a lot about music and where to get it and get new music. The problem is that all the compression, synthesizers, sampling(stealing) from other generations, constant beat without melody, lack of musical instrument acumen or talent to make it gets it the way of the musical enjoyment in most of what's popular out there in "music". To your point one has to go college stations, internet stations, Soundcloud, Bandcamp and read dozens of blogs to dig out anything good. But there is lots of it. So its easy to return to that one knows and loves from ones youth and a love of gear before music can be problematic. Look at posts here where music is the theme and you find quite a lot of good music, new music and diverse music. BUT when you ask about great recordings the dinosaur rock does seem to fly out.

 

[LTig]

My interest is more for 'classical' music than pop/rock, and every BBC Prom season here I despair at the new compositions being performed, sometimes premiered, at each year's proms. Why do most modern compositions sound like someone throwing a piano down the stairs? It's all Pink-Plonk, Crash, Screech, Bang. No melody or tune one can whistle or hum. Nothing remotely memorable except for its awfulness. It's not even a recent phenomenon, it goes back at least 50 years, but the lack of melody, the lack of a tune, seems to characterise contemporary 'classical' music. It's as if dynamics (as in crash-bang) and dissonance have taken over from creating a harmonious sound.

I can hum along to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, even modern composers like Walton and Elgar, but spare me mid-late 20th Century onwards.

S.

Try Avo Pärt, Philip Glass, Schnittke, Korngold, Schreker, ...

 

[G|force]

All music is art.
All music is sounds.
Without a brain in a human there is no music.
Without eyes there is no color.
Color and music exists only in our brains.

But what is music and what is unmusical sound?
Sounds are pleasing to some and unpleasant to others.
The sound of the sea sometimes called white noise, some would call that music.

Is that relevant? You decide.

 

[BALKAN_RAKIA]

The problem is that all the compression, synthesizers, sampling(stealing) from other generations, constant beat without melody, lack of musical instrument acumen or talent to make it gets it the way of the musical enjoyment in most of what's popular out there in "music".

It is a generational thing, I love properly sampled music and I hate old musicians who claim rights because someone used 2 sec of their record. Hating synthesizers is not worth it because it is a musical instrument. Your personal musical enjoyment is probably the most subjective thing, and artists are not meant to produce music to your taste, but to theirs.

 

[Jimster480]

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.

Christian & Conservative Rap is censored heavily in the USA at this point in time. Since it sounds like the oldschool rap of the 90s and early 2000s for the most part, but doesn't fit with the agenda's. I agree that it is definitely something for another thread.

Music censorship has existed throughout history and has created some of the greatest music in history as the struggling populaces of the world often used music as an outlet of their frustrations or injustice. Many of the great classical pieces were written during dark times, sometimes under persecution.

 

[Jimster480]

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.

Really wonderful points, the world is becoming more decentralized but also more separated in this aspect.
Most every younger person (myself included) doesn't subscribe to TV and won't ever subscribe to TV again. If it is on TV; I don't care to watch it.
Even when it comes to news; I would rather read, watch or listen to independent journalists and sources rather than anything mainstream as all mainstream platforms have corporate or political spins on them. Since the competition is high; everything becomes a profit competition of clickbait and rushed shoddy work.

 

[G|force]

C&C Rap, thats a new one on me as a genre.
*Sweat baby let the music take control*
I have a bias that it is not a music factory.

 

[Timcognito]

Your personal musical enjoyment is probably the most subjective thing, and artists are not meant to produce music to your taste, but to theirs.

Is anyone's most subjective thing, yours too. I think my taste in music is quite diverse and much of whats out there and popular sounds similar. Should have said over synthesized instead of synthesizers.

Here are some of my favorite songs to demo equipment chosen because most of the rest of the albums they come from is quite good also.

Big Band - Work Song - Ray Brown With The All-Star Big Band
Small Group Acoustic Jazz - Counceltation - You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce
Soundtrack - Corn Field Chase - Interstellar (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Acoustic Guitar - Camaro Canyon - Imaginational Anthem, Vol. 9: Ryley Walker Presents
World/Dance - Deelahli - Yeahman - Otriconi
Funk/Dance - Afternoon Soul - Gramatic - Coffee Shop Selection
Soul - Brother or Other - James Hunter Six - Nick of time
Trip-Hop - Earth Vibes - MAFFYN - Planet
World - What Ever Lola Wants - Gotan Project - Tango Club
Blazing Rock -Soul Searching - The New Fools - Star Cave
Choral - Rivers of Light - Portland State Choir - Ēriks Ešenvalds: The Doors of Heaven
Vocal/Jazz - Lover Man - Sarah Vaughn - Swinging Easy
World/ Dance - Almada - Nortec Collective - Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3
Hip-Hop - Give Back what U stole from Me - Oscar Jarome - Breath Deep
Jazz/ Fantasy - Whatchamacallit - Esquivel - Space Aged Bachelor Party
World - Riba Bass Di Mi - Bandé-Gamboa - Horizonte - Revamping Rare Gems from Cabo Verde and Guinea-Bissau
Dance/Trance/Percussion - Fratzengulasch -Die Vogel - Fratzengulasch
Funk - House of Lett - Lettuce - Resonate
Country/bluegrass – Rose of the Summer – Robbie Fulks – Gone Away Backward
Jazz/Swing - Killer Joe – Quincy Jones – walking in space
Folk/Vocal – Over and Even – Joan Shelly – Over and Even
World/Jazz/Pop – Eclipse – Kyoto Jazz Massive – Spirit of the Sun

OLD SCHOOL below (Audio may not be as good but music is IMO)

Acapella – Ghain Gang – The Persuasions – We Came to Play
Rock– 2120 So. Michigan Avenue – Rolling Stones (band’s only instrumental) – Five by Five
Protest – Trouble Every Day – Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention – Freak Out
Psycodelic Rock – She has Funny Cars – Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow
Blues/ Humor– Say Man - Bo Diddley – His Best Chess 50th
Electric Blues – Got a Mind to Give Up Living – Paul Butterfield Blues Band – East West
Blues – Merry Christmas Baby – Charles Brown – Driftin Blues, best of
Country – Walking After Midnight – Patsy Cline – Patsy Cline (United Audio)
Soul/Disco – Be Thankful for What You Got – William DeVaughn - Be Thankful for What You Got
DooWop – I Only Have Eyes For You – The Flamingos – Flamingo Serenade

 

[Palladium]

At least IMO Chinese pop is utter trash compared to the 90s/early 00s.

Same goes for video game music, when restrictive technical limitations of old hardware forced composers make memorable melodic progressions instead sleepwalking with bland forgettable orchestral pieces.

 

[G|force]

Really wonderful points, the world is becoming more decentralized but also more separated in this aspect.
Most every younger person (myself included) doesn't subscribe to TV and won't ever subscribe to TV again. If it is on TV; I don't care to watch it.
Even when it comes to news; I would rather read, watch or listen to independent journalists and sources rather than anything mainstream as all mainstream platforms have corporate or political spins on them. Since the competition is high; everything becomes a profit competition of clickbait and rushed shoddy work.

I do all of those things.
Neil P warned us in 1976 *Hold the red star proudly high in hand* Your enemy is not your adversary, except when and then we will do what our notion directs to. LOVE
nobody says love

 

[BALKAN_RAKIA]

Is anyone's most subjective thing, yours too. I think my taste in music is quite diverse and much of whats out there and popular sounds similar.

Sure, anyone's musical taste is the most subjective thing, that's what I meant.

You have taste in acoustic, jazzy, non offensive music with defined rhythm and melody that is easy to listen to.

What you call hip hop and what I call hip hop is very different. And what you call World music might be my local music.

I for example cannot listen to anything western, country, banjo (or shall we call it World music?) . And I was just at hard techno party this weekend which I assume is the worst possible musical experience for you

 

[pseudoid]

The problem is that all the
*compression,
*synthesizers,
*sampling(stealing)
*from other generations,
*constant beat
*without melody,
*lack of musical instrument acumen or
*talent to make it
gets it the way of the musical enjoyment...

Are all of the *above just from the 'a la carte' menu or from the 'main menu'?

Only certainty that is guaranteed is that "Music Morphs."

Thus, musicians may also need some morphing (in other innovative ways)...

It must be a "Mountain and the Mohamed" thingy: I am also learning to morph and adapt, as I am always hungry for Alt/Indie/College.

 

[Timcognito]

hard techno party this weekend which I assume is the worst possible musical experience for you

Dance/Trance/Percussion - Fratzengulasch -Die Vogel - Fratzengulasch, I don't know try this it's on the list.
World - What Ever Lola Wants - Gotan Project - Tango Club
World/Dance - Deelahli - Yeahman - Otriconi
World/ Dance - Almada - Nortec Collective - Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3

"Assume makes an ass out of you and me"

 

[BALKAN_RAKIA]

Dance/Trance/Percussion - Fratzengulasch -Die Vogel - Fratzengulasch, I don't know try this it's on the list.
World - What Ever Lola Wants - Gotan Project - Tango Club
World/Dance - Deelahli - Yeahman - Otriconi
World/ Dance - Almada - Nortec Collective - Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3

"Assume makes an ass out of you and me"

you don't get me, bud. This is the type of stuff I like