What Has Happened To Music ??????

[taylorgtr]

Originally Posted by Willie Voltaire

Popular music was garbage in the 70s, too. Remember Tony Orlando and Dawn? Donny Osmond? Captain and Tennille? Bay City Rollers? Disco? The bands the OP enjoyed, like Yes and Humble Pie, were hardly mainstream.

I think we all tend to look at the past through rose-colored glasses, reminiscing about a time that never really was.

That's why what we call 'classical' music is so well-liked. That's the good stuff that has survived 100+ years.

99% of everything you hear is crap. 1% of ANYTHING you hear is genius, regardless of category. That's what will be called 'classical' music when we're all gone.

[jwellsy]

I hate listening to 40-50 year old mixes. On radio I mainly listen to college alternative. When they start playing the same songs over and over I flip over to modern country till they start repeating too much. Radio tends to run a good song into the ground.

I don't listen to rap or pop music, so I never see backup dancers.

I do appreciate an interesting stage show, even as radical as Starset.

I try to buy a lot of my music on DVD. I love watching a performance as much as I do listening to it.

[muscmp]

things change. how boring if it all stayed the same. whatever you don't like, don't participate. i don't like rap and hip hop so i stay away from it. easy!

my dad gave the same sort of response when i was growing up listening to rock and roll. "why do they have to play so loud and you can't even understand them!"

play music!

[menhir]

I don't think I have a single nostalgic bone in my body. Honest.
So I'm not going to waltz down the "music was better in my day that it is today." I'm 63, I'm still here, so it's still "my day."

Yes, cheap-sequenced-autotuned-bilge is being turned out by the metric ton by record companies because it's cheap to make and generates high profits.

Of course, cheap to produce music doesn't necessarily mean bad. A four-piece band is arguably less expensive to maintain than a full symphony orchestra, but they're still around, so I guess it still comes back to the quality of the music after all.

There was a time when what we call "classics" was considered cheap and unworthy, too.

The good stuff is still out there. It always has been. You just gotta find it.
When Rock was new. Pirate radio?
Heavy metal and album rock. FM radio?
Nowadays...It's on the web. Everything is on the web.

-Offering a free, healthy dose of perspective- Menhir.

[MHC]

Originally Posted by The Watchman

Telling young people their popular music is crap is one of the duties of old age.

Yes, and it's the solemn duty of young people to infuriate their elders with crappy pop music.

[Shortfinger]

The Avett Brothers have been coming to Red Rocks each summer since they became known, and last summer played three nights, fulfilling their promise to play 100 of their songs in total over the three events.

Nothing has happened to their music. They play uninterrupted, no banter, no fireworks, no bull****, no backup singers, no dancers.

[Rmz76]

Originally Posted by BT55

In the early 70's I went to a concert. Third on the bill was Yes on their first trip to the US. They flattened the audience and were brought back for an encore. Second on the bill was Humble Pie. During I don't Need No Doctor Steve Mariot's guitar broke. Peter Frampton played a solo for about fifteen minutes while they fixed Mariott's guitar. They finished and yes, another encore. Top of the bill was Black Sabbath. We boo'd them offstage and Humble Pie came back and finished the show.

Back then and for years following bands came out and performed. They actually played their instruments, no autotune, dancers or backup singers - just good music. What happened to those days when musicians ruled ???

I haven't been a big fan of mainstream music in a long time, but have paid attention to what's been going on and occasionally find something on the charts I think worth learning.

As Looburst said, the business took over a long time ago. Instead of letting artist be artist and radio drive natural selection of what the public wants to hear, the record labels found ways to narrow their risk. The hit-single was and continues to be the money winner and what would be the best candidate for a hit single has narrowed. In the 1980s things became more selective, mainstream radio expected songs to be a certain length and not coincidentally, payola had infected the system. I've read many stories of record labels going through third-parties to bribe radio to pay for spins.

In the early 1990s there was a bit of a Renaissance in the mainstream. Grunge dominated and had a certain template, but you also had unique rock acts like Beck, Counting Crows, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day and on the heavier side Metallica all this shared space on the Billboard charts with Pop and R&B. Although the album cuts that would be candidates for hit-singles still fell into a certain template, there was a lot of different flavors in the candy box.

In the 2000s things changed. For some reason (I suspect record labels orchestrated this) focus shifted off the individual personalities of rock musicians/rock stars. We transitioned into what Producer and YouTube personality Rick Beato calls "faceless bands". People knew the band name and their songs but couldn't name a single band member; not even the front man. The spotlight was on the songs not the personalities behind them. By the mid the mid 2000s the personalities that had become interesting to the public were R&B and Rap solo artist. These were the individuals getting publicity (good and bad) broadcasting their decadent lifestyles, they became the new rock stars and I think this helped further push these genres to dominate the charts.

Factor in the complete fall of the recording industry: Held captive by Napster and other illegal file sharing services, they had little choice but to accept Apple's offer to build a legal means of digital purchasing. This lead to modern day where most people just subscribe to Spotify or Apple Music and get unlimited streaming. The only people buying music are collectors who love obscure artist (they often buy vinyl), teenagers buying R&B and Rap music withheld from the streaming services and ladies who still like to buy new CDs of their favorite country artist.

It use to be that a band would put a few songs on a record that matched the hit single format and then they would also put some "deep cuts" that could be more artistic in nature. Longer run times, complex lyrics, etc... Since people don't buy albums anymore focus is entirely on the hit-single format and they've even narrowed that template with all kinds of unspoken rules "must get to chorus within 20 seconds, chorus must repeat 3 times, name of the song should be the last lines of the chorus, etc...). Listen to the country chart toppers and you'll hear the pattern. Different template, but same with R&B. Everything auto-tuned to perfection, vocal tracks formed from copy & pasting a dozen takes, same with guitar parts, bass etc... It's all done to produce the lowest risk, most polished product. Art has nothing to do with mainstream music. Independent radio has been killed by the streaming services.... What's kind of sad is that you have really great songwriters and a few really great songs in the mainstream mix. I'm not often a fan of the arrangements but can still hear great songs coming though.

For the last 20 years or so my primary interest has been Folk and Americana music. Songs created by an artist giving the listener a little glimpse into their soul. Usually delivered in a raw, unpolished form. This is my idea of great music.

[taylorgtr]

Originally Posted by Shortfinger

The Avett Brothers have been coming to Red Rocks each summer since they became known, and last summer played three nights, fulfilling their promise to play 100 of their songs in total over the three events.

Nothing has happened to their music. They play uninterrupted, no banter, no fireworks, no bull****, no backup singers, no dancers.

Joe Kwon is technically the Avett Brothers' backup dancer.

[BT55]

Originally Posted by J Patrick

...I will only say that I have been enjoying live music performances on a regular basis for years and see no end in sight to that...in the last month I saw Jesse Cook and Bill Frisell...next month I'm catching the Hot Sardines and in May I've got tickets to see David Byrne....and festival season is coming up...Woohoo!!...the great music is out there but if you don't go check it out it's not gonna wow you...and btw there's plenty of great radio available if you listen to the right stations...

Jessie Cook - albums since 1995
Bill Frizell - albums since 1983
David Byrne - albums since 1979
Hot Sardines - albums since 2011

3 out of 4 artists you listed have been making music since before 2000. Thank you for making my point!

[TaoMaas]

Originally Posted by Willie Voltaire

Popular music was garbage in the 70s, too. Remember Tony Orlando and Dawn? Donny Osmond? Captain and Tennille? Bay City Rollers? Disco? The bands the OP enjoyed, like Yes and Humble Pie, were hardly mainstream.

I think we all tend to look at the past through rose-colored glasses, reminiscing about a time that never really was.

I have to remind my friends of this whenever they start ranting about today's music. They forget that the artists we liked in our younger days were virtually absent from mainstream radio. They sure as heck weren't on AM radio's Top 40 playlists and only certain FM stations played them. If you wanted the good stuff, you always had to seek it out.

[Fogducker]

Achy Breaky Heart, Duke Of Earl, Elvira etc. ride 'em hard until they die of nausea by the audience.

Here's something a bit apropos;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny3K9irFC5k

Fog

[scriv58]

"What Has Happened To Music ??????"

I recall in the sixties decade that my parents bemoaned the loss of big band music, and that the new stuff kids listened to was just "noise".

I ain't gonna be that way.
That which was will be again, there is no new thing under the sun...hey you kids get outta my yard!

I don't feel anything has happened to music, but rather "whatever" has happened to me

[Nymuso]

Once technology advanced to the point that those with no or minimal talent could conceal that fact yet become big stars, it was Open Season for the no-loads to ply their trade, and ply it they did. And do.

That's why I don't use backing tracks, harmonizers etc. If I can't get it done on my own, I'm not doing it.

[jpd]

Originally Posted by BT55

Back then and for years following bands came out and performed. They actually played their instruments, no autotune, dancers or backup singers - just good music. What happened to those days when musicians ruled ???

Still happening out here. Small venues like The Palms in Winters, Ca., The Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, Ca., local theatre in Vacaville Ca.....and many more. The Bay/Sac corridor is a repository for traveling shows! SUPERB!

[tbeltrans]

Recently, I purchased an Akai MPC X (http://www.akaipro.com/products/mpc-series/mpc-x) because I wanted something truly different from the typical linear means of making/recording music. I have a Linnstrument (Roger Linn) as a midi controller, and a bunch of Roland Boutique series synth modules.

To learn something about the MPC X, I have watched a number of youtube videos. The Akai MPC series has long been a favorite of those "making beats" (i.e. hip hop, rap, etc.). As a result of watching many of these videos done by these producers about various aspects of the MPC X, I have come to respect that, for them, the MPC series becomes instruments in their hands to make the music they make. That is an art form in itself, and not nearly as simplistic as we here make it out to be.

Also, this music that we write off as crap, obviously speaks to a lot of people, just not us.

I don't care for that kind of music either, but I can separate my personal taste from whether or not those creating are legitimate musicians. I have never cared for the music of Prince, but I recognize that he was a very skilled musician, able to not only play many instruments, but also put together real music and communicate it to a whole lot of folks.

Just sayin...(as the tired cliché goes)

Tony