People so often say music has gotten worse, gotten stupider; same old garbage repeated over and over.
I say to you, my huckleberry friend, that you just aren't looking outside of TikTok.
For centuries, nay, Millenia, we have been limited in our sources for music, from only finding it in churches, to paying for concerts or generally living a lavish, upper-class lifestyle to hire your own musicians.
Then electricity, recording, and the internet came along and people never really evolved alongside their technological creations. In the early days of modern times, we found our music on the radio, MTV, festivals. Music was fed to us and we, in turn, fed them with money so we could encourage them to feed us with more of their kind of music.
Unfortunately, this inevitably leads to the rise of the lowest common denominator, mumble rap, or whatever people listen to nowadays. This is where the money is, therefore, by continuing our feeding cycle, this must be where the good music is. Right?
But then we get this musical hangover as we grow up a little and realize what a terrible mess we've made of things and there's no going back. At which point, we complain about how crap music is these days, despite deep down knowing that we and our predecessors set the stage.
You only have yourselves to blame
You put us in this mess, we enabled it, we encouraged it. Now we have to live in the shit we built.
It doesn't have to be this way
This isn't actually how things work anymore. Culturally, there's no change because as I said, we haven't evolved. But our technology has. Not only do we have streaming and subscription services, but we have personalized catering to our tastes.
If only, as individual humans, we could distinguish our own tastes from one another, explorer what these services are offering us and find music that we like, as individuals, instead of just latching on to the first thing with a kick drum, we might find that music hasn't actually gotten worse, it's gotten significantly better.
But hell, you might get mocked by your friends for liking such uncool music so I guess that's not an option.
We actively choose not to pay attention to it as a society.
We listen to what we're told to listen to based on purely corporate decisions which fit to the right economic models to make the most sales, without thinking to ourselves on any deep level 'is this... good?'.
Suddenly, we find ourselves with lyrics such as
The club isn't the best place to find a lover
So the bar is where I go
Me and my friends at the table doing shots
Drinking fast and then we talk slow
Cool.
But to say music nowadays is dumb and not as good as before is kind of insulting to all the musicians out there that would frankly blow your musical heroes of the past out of the water. These musical powerhouses are mostly obscured by the vast, dark cloud of Charlie Puth's and Ed Sheeran's and Taylor Swift's, so it's now your job to find the right music.
Centuries ago, we were limited to a small handful of musicians, paid for by the church or whatever folk jesters you might see in the street. Barely 150 years ago, the number of composers was seemingly inside of 100 individuals in the Western World that anyone paid any attention to.
Now, we have millions. People can make incredible music in their frickin' bedrooms and finish it off in the cafe over a bagel. The choices are there. More than you could possibly imagine.
You just have to take a bit of responsibility for it now.
With a rise in social media, music has also become much more collaborative and community-driven, which can end in some phenomenal results. Let me show you.
Musical genius Jacob Collier released a cover of Moon River, by himself in his room with little more than his own voice... on 5,200 tracks.
To many, this is not to their taste. Sometimes, less is more, and I can totally get that in this overwhelming example.
However, I still very much enjoy it on a technically overpowering level, with chords and complexities, easter eggs, microtones, and more going on beyond which most humans can comprehend.
This music is not dumber or simpler than before. In fact, this music would most likely confuse the hell out of the likes of Beethoven and Mozart. Bach might have had a good stab at it. Who knows.
But this is not what makes this example such a positive force. The fact that Jacob made this in his own room, for fun is a testament to what you can find if you dig deep enough.
But it gets even crazier. The beginning of that video involves other famous musicians saying 'moon' in various ways including Hans Zimmer, Charlie Puth, Steve Vai, Herbie Hancock, and dozens more.
Furthermore, the music inspires others to create and cover this cover song in turn. One guy, with barely 300 subscribers on YouTube and 5,000 views for the blood, sweat, and tears he sacrificed, created a perfect re-make of this cover... on saxophone.
Hundreds of tracks, all easter eggs and microtones, and every other complexity included; note for note, all in the name of passing time under quarantine.
You just never had that kind of phantasmagorical brilliance and nonsense all in one place, for free, to be accessed by anyone at any time before.
It's all so wonderful!
So turn of the radio in your car, stop feeding the machine and spend an hour a month actively seeking out music you enjoy that you may not yet know you actually enjoy. It can be so enriching in ways you can't even yet imagine. Music is an art, art is there to be evocative and emotional, to appeal to some raw, primitive yet refined part of your soul. Don't be so intransigent.
no u
Coronavirus has made music more important than ever in the world society.
This is true! I saw a pretty cool idea on Discord during these times - listening parties!
yes! very true! other forms of art too.
I realize that there are brilliant musicians out there, the problem is that the mass media don't show them very often. You can be hours searching for new bands and probably you won't find much quality if you don't know what to search exactly.
The issue and what "justifies" that sentence is the lack of quality musicians in the mass media. I like some actual bands and a few of them are quite famous but when I started to listen to them weren't so famous. For example I liked for years The Black Keys but they made famous in their lasts albums. "Thickfreakness" and "Brothers" weren't so well known outside of USA.
In the 60's and 70's there were very famous artist that also were brilliant and appeared in the mass media. You have plenty of examples there.
One I give a lot of kudos to is Radiohead, who deliberately released a 'mainstream' type album, got mega-famous, and then continued to release increasingly weird, visionary music never before heard. That's a hell of a tactic to cut through the noise.
But yeah this is why the new streaming services are so important. They do quite a good job building systems that intuitively direct you to what you want. But as long a we are all just going 'well I like this because It's Eminem, and this because its Taylor swift, and this because I heard it in the club that one time'... then we'll never discover anything.
Unfortunately we gotta put some genuine effort in I suppose nobody has time for in daily life
I suppose that you're referring to "Pablo Honey", yeah that's a mainstream album but also one of their bests, anyways I like when they do more experimental music. Radiohead is one of my favourite bands. 😄
You're right when you pointed out that people doesn't have time or don't care about searching good musicians, then we talk shit about nowadays music when the reality is that we are lost in the ocean. Must be really annoying to hear that for musicians I guess.
I submit that for the vast majority of human prehistory, hundreds of thousands of years, music was much worse than even mumble rap and formulaic hits churned out of payola primed radio.
Because there were no musicians. There was just us. There weren't any Fenders, Tribes (the luthier efforts of @meno), or Gibsons. There was just us, and the little flutes we could carve, if we'd been raised right, from the tibias of large birds.
However, while technically and as an industry, music was far worse for hundreds of thousands of years, it was vastly more enjoyed by them as enjoyed it, because they were enjoying making it and expressing the darkness and light in their soul.
Even if it was mumble rap.
Well, this is why I question the use of the word 'worst' here. It's super subjective and I've found myself to thoroughly enjoy, say, medieval music which contains a quality of purity that simply doesn't exist anymore. 'worse' is not right, but lacking in diversity was the real issue for me.
But yes music is funny in that it's an art, but also a craft and a social adhesive, entertainment. Quite unique in that regard I think. We shouldn't forget each element!
I like all kind of music.
Good!
Do people actually still use the radio for music? I feel like people who do that aren't actually people, but lizardmen in disguise because only a sub human cave dweller would still be tugging his micro dick to the same 10 songs they repeat on the radio.
I love hunting down tunes that I might enjoy, I go through 4-5 new playlists a week trying to find music that makes my nipples hard. I'm a picky fuck, but even I can still find new stuff I enjoy pretty regularly.
Also, if anyone feels that young/new bands and musicians suck, take a minute and listen to this shit. I dare you to not finger your butthole to the raw talent within this band. I honestly think these guys are the future of where guitar playing is going to go, at least.
I listened to this a couple of times through, very cool actually, if not for the youngster fashion choices. Real guitar has been kinda fading out of mainstream levels so its good to see it still has an avenue there
Oh, yeah. They are super fucking hipster douche's in the clothes department. The lead guitar player though posts some crazy shit to his Youtube channel, and with rock and guitar in general phasing out of the mainstream I definitely think people like him will be the ones to carry it on into the future.
You're joking right?
I know music is subjective, but there is NOTHING in that video that impresses me, even a half ass live performance by prince back in the 80's has more talent!
You're joking, right?
I know music is subjective, but there is NOTHING in that video that impresses me. Even a half assed live performance by Trapt back in the 00's has more talent!
yawn
Its all subjective though, one's trash is another's treasure!
I mean, if you wanted a serious reply/discussion you shouldn't have left such a retarded comment that read like a caveman banging rocks on his scrotum to communicate. Hence the Trapt reference :)
But, I do agree, music is indeed subjective.
I resemble that caveman remark!
Also, be careful with that R word!
Have a nice day!
People still use the radio a lot it seems, particularly in commutes to work. Again just aren't willing to set up month's worth of playlists to keep them interested as they drive... ah well.
I often have waves of finding new music like you, but less than weekly... I tend to obsess over a particular album or two until I become hyper-familiar with it and each little nuance before moving on... then returning back at a later date to repeat the joy =D
Nothing wrong with that at all. I'm in the opposite camp of you which is why I look for stuff weekly. I tend to just pick a few songs to obsess over for a week or so and then move on to another set. There are few albums that I'll actually listen to the entirety of.
Still, I do find it kinda weird people can't take the 10-20 minutes to make a playlist on Spotify or Google Play. I originally set mine up with, like, 80-90 songs in about 20 or so minutes and have just added on over time until now, where I'm at like 500+ songs. Can't even imagine using the radio these days, because it's literally just a loop of the same 20 songs per station. I need some fucking variety in my shit.
good catch
Very good point about this, taking the responsability of searching what you like. I find some radio stations annoying by putting the same songs on repeat. That guy creating music in his room, I can appreciate the ambition
Yeah for sure... though repetition is naturally something we strive to hear, so radios are just capitalising on human nature, I suppose.
I agree! But honestly Charlie Puth and Ed Sheeran are not that bad of you compare them with the current top latin "artist"... What a shame! Making real artists frustrated and discouraged.
Well, They ain't that bad compared to a rotting pile of shit either, but it's not fair to compare like that =P
Actually, I take it back, at least rotting shit changes overtime and serves as a useful material for the natural world.
Very refreshing to read this @mobbs, I agree, amazing music is not always right in front of you; many times it's hidden like beautiful architecture is hidden by unnecessary and oversized billboards. But hey... billboards make money right?
I'f you hang around with people who like to look beyond what tops the charts, you will find absolute gems, plus you will have a stimulating conversation with another human being. win for everybody. :)
thanks for the read.
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Commercial mainstream music production has been in significant decline since the 80's
Once the home studio became available to everyone, it became all to easy for the masses to produce an infinite amount of crap.
The best music stays underground and uncommercialized, the way it should be IMO.
Far too many live performances have also been replaced with a person on a laptop, which for me isn't cool any more. (the 1990's called and wants their music back!)
Do tell us about quality releases in 2020!
That's the key here; 'mainstream' music. Simply put, that is just one tiny world out there, it just gets the most money and promotion. But we get this inflated idea that it's the majority of stuff out there and it just isn't.
There's a whole other argument that mainstream music isn't worse at all and I I am actually inclined to believe it, despite hating it myself, but there were some utter dog shits in the 80's and so on, too. One point is, though we have simplified harmonically and lyrically - traditional values we consider as 'good', we are focusing more now on texture; colour, tone. The quality and range of unique sounds has proliferated and the art of creating those sounds is something most of us don't know how to appreciate. But as someone who knows, I'm often impressed. But yeah that's a whole other debate.
As for 2020 quality, well... as you can see in the other debate in this chat, that's totally subjective so I couldn't presume to know.
But, some very new stuff I've been enjoying:
GoGo Penguin is pretty great trio with some new content. some kinda... jazz electronic... thing. Just listen.
Jacob Collier (in post) has his latest album 'Djesse volume 2' and is relating 3&4 soon
Bon Iver has been releasing some new stuff
Jonsi for some post-rock, has finally released more content
And one more drop, I like to find new creators through these Jazzhop Cafe streams
And for contrast, Dustin Tebbutt has some new stuff too
There's a world out there's I'm barely scratching the tip of a hair, though. It's fun to discover =)
I'm old school. ( I was a grunt that worked backstage at many live sets, back in the 90's)
There is something magical about a "random" group of musicians that are capable of performing well together on a live stage that still impresses me.
I've sat through plenty of "dog shit" performances in every decade, from the 80's up until the present.
The technology that is available now can make anyone sound passable, compared to what was available in the 80's and every decade prior.
It used to be that records had to be cut in "one take" live to tape. (that's a skill that appears to be in serious decilne. especially among larger groups of musicians)
Modern studio magic is impressive, yet I miss the massive Ray Charles type big band productions, with everyone super focused on giving an impressive performance.
I'll check out your recommendations, I'm already familiar with a few of them.
I think again there's still an endless supply of what you speak, but the mainstream considers ed sheeran super talented because he can play guitar and sing at the same time. Insufferable. But you just watch, say, Tigran Hamasayan play piano and beatbox in utterly bizarre unheard of rhythms and time signatures, and you can easily get your mind blown!
Basically, like your video above, we need to bring back to jazz elements in our lives, be it ska like the above, funk or fusion. That's where it's all at. Those I follow who incorporate jazz into various fusions create some of my favourite music of all time.
Jazz is all about the freedom, its the purest form of musical expression that I am aware of.
It mixes well with just about anything!
I'll switch off anything that sounds dehumanizing, most "manufactured" mainstream is mostly just noise masquerading as music. (Kenny G ISN'T music, its a sonic weapon.)
Tigran Hamasayan play piano and beatbox
That is a true jazzhead, they ALL do that, listen carefully to any serious jazz musician, and they all are scatting along with whatever is going on in their mind, sometimes you hear it on Art Blakey recordings etc.
Its not new!
Oh i know it's not new, but the complexity of what he does is. The things he experiments with have people rushing to analysis and discussions on how its even done... super interesting.
But yeah I think we're definitely on the same page here. Stop quantizing everything!
Its called "pushing the boundaries" its a part of the human experience.
Superhuman raw natural talent is often a prerequisite.
He "feels" something, puts into context, it may be complex to us, and it might be simple for him.