What's wrong.....with todays music?

michael rauls said:

As long as were on the subject of music just a little suggested listening that I think everyone or at least most might enjoy regardless of ones preferred style. It's a kinda obscure group called Be Bop Deluxe. ( My favorite by the way).
Best album, "Live in the air age". Best tracts, probably "Adventures in a Yorkshire landscape" or "Life in the air age" although the whole album is great in my opinion.
(Wait do people say album anymore?) Guess I'm getting old.I'm not technologically advanced enough yet to post a link but its on you tube if anyone cares to Google it.
Enjoy ( hopefully at least)

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Thank you Downloaded and playing the live version now. I am almost at the end. I will keep it and add it to my background music for when I am in that sort of a mood

MiTasol said:

Thank you Downloaded and playing the live version now. I am almost at the end. I will keep it and add it to my background music for when I am in that sort of a mood

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Glad you liked it.

I have to be honest, todays music especially pop is terrible, the males all sound mealy voiced and the same, the songs have about 5 words that just keeps being repeated over and over, country isn't really country anymore except for a few exceptions and rock is a joke. I flip thru the radio stations and end up back on a classic rock station or a sports talk show.

Just catching up on the last few pages of this thread. I got my email notification of "Last Week's Popular Topics" and realized I hadn't been here for a few days. OOPS!

Anyway, let me add one more vote for big band and swing. 6th Corps has a great jukebox site, which I play in the background from time to time, which has a lot of old favorites.

VI Corps Proudly Presents the Music of WWII

That Be Bop Deluxe song is very interesting. I can find similarities with several other groups, not all of which I can recall by name immediately. Some of the harmony -does- remind me of the Beatles. The guitar is a bit overpowering, but is very nicely done. Definitely something to investigate as time permits.

And, I wouldn't be worth much as an Irishman (even one who is two generations removed), if I didn't put a word in for Irish folk music. 'Tis as if the angels themselves are singing. Yeah, right...like they'd be singing about drinking and making war. If nothing else, it will teach you to thumb your nose at fate, as no one comes out alive anyway.

Always remember, the longer you've lived, the sooner you'll bloody well die.



Beannachtaí! (Blessings!)

-Irish

billrunnels said:

• My problem is the volume, often it is so loud you can't hear the music

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I feel the same way. That's why I never went to concerts (other than the Clancy Brothers, 'cause the audience was louder than they were, singing along). With any modern concert in an arena, they turn the music up so loudly you can't hear anything and you walk out deaf, afterward. When I was in school, I worked part time for a security firm. I was excited to be working arena security at a Beach Boys concert until I realized they had the music turned up so high the cement pillars holding the arena up were actually vibrating. That was it for me.



-Irish

Nothing wrong with music.
problem is the chart music that comes out the radio.
Thats why i only listen to classic rock stations.
But let me tell you...Greta Van Fleet have an album soon and I is going to BUY it!!!!!!!!
Not rip....BUY!!!!!!! I am going to put my money where my mouth is and support a group I like.
Music piracy is so rampant that there is no money in album sales so the only money is in tours and sponsorship and merch so if you have nothing then you will stay at nothing.

It's been years, literally years since I've listened to a "rock" radio station. It's not just that I've never heard of the bands making the new music (I'm all about discovering new bands) it's just the music and vocals are so cookie cutter and awful. I just looked up Billboard top rock songs and freaking Imagine Dragons is #1 on the rock charts. WTH. Imagine Dragons is NOT a rock band.

I will either listen to hairband 80's rock, classic rock, or listen to the Euro bands. Europe seems to know how to put together some rock bands. Bands like Eclipse, H.E.A.T, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Epica, etc., etc. Those bands will rock your socks off.

JAG88 said:

There we go, I thought of this video that addressed this very point, but it took me a bit to find it, so when I finally managed to do it someone else had already posted it a few minutes before me...

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I didn't have the URL, but I do remember scientists using an algorithm to identify commonalities in music and they found that they were increasingly similar because two guys were basically involved in writing the bulk of what we basically hear.

Honestly there are some musicians I've heard on YouTube that did a better job than some of the stuff I've heard on the radio, sadly.

Here's a few off the bat...

Zipper730 said:

Here's a few off the bat...

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Double yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give me my Dick Dale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still better than the stuff that people whip up routinely. That said, some of these people did manage to get enough fans to fill out concerts (such as Ollie Wride). I would consider them to be "second tier" in that they're not the people you see on MTV. That said, I think they're ironically better.

It's become too homogenized now. You have the same group of people writing and producing all the songs. They have it down to a science as to which chords and note progressions will appeal to people. There isn't anything different. Even in "alternate" type music like metal you are hearing the same things over and over again.

Lyrically it's become dismal, maybe a two line verse than repeat.

Nothing wrong with today's music. It's where you look, or listen.


So, Greta Van Fleet sound like Led Zeppelin, I say, so what? I can think of so much more they could sound like and don't, because what they do is awesome.

Let's not forget that one of the biggest selling albums of last year was by a band formed thirty (!) years ago this year - Tool, Fear Innoculum. (Okay, I s'pose including Tool in this doesn't really help ther case for modern artists, but quality is still there, ya just gotta look for it.)

nuuumannn said:

Nothing wrong with today's music. It's where you look, or listen.


So, Greta Van Fleet sound like Led Zeppelin, I say, so what? I can think of so much more they could sound like and don't, because what they do is awesome.

Let's not forget that one of the biggest selling albums of last year was by a band formed thirty (!) years ago this year - Tool, Fear Innoculum. (Okay, I s'pose including Tool in this doesn't really help ther case for modern artists, but quality is still there, ya just gotta look for it.)

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We had a band called Wolfmother down here in the early 2000's they had a Led Zep, Black Sabbath sound depending on the song. As with them and Greta Fleet if I want to listen to Led Zep and Sabbath than I would prefer to listen to the real deal.

There is quality music around now and I agree you have to look for it. I think in reference to when people say "modern music sucks" they are mostly referring to the more mainstream stuff.

I couldn't care less if a band or singer sound like another. What does it for me is the music, the voice and lyrics come way later. A few examples, Led Zepplin....Cashmere....love the guitar

Kongos...I'm Only Joking....the drums

Ram Jam...Black Betty....because it drives my wife nuts

fubar57 said:

A few examples, Led Zepplin....Kashmir....love the guitar

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Cashmere puts a whole different perspective on the song, Geo!

On greater reflection Greta Van Fleet are a generic band which limits their ability.

Fine copy Led Zep but also copy their ability to change styles. Led Zep were more than heavy riffs.

I listen to band called Nektar which is very serviceable from 1970s but the survivors have new album. New album is ok and proficient but is about as exciting as cardboard and totally lacking in anything worthwhile. So not good or even original.

It's not just the Generational factor, there are objective quality reasons Top 40 Music today is inferior.

We have partly ourselves to blame. Remember all that music downloading going on in the late 90's era? Napster, Limewire? The Music Industry is also to blame, for being so incredibly late to the technological changes of the time.

But all that downloading was in fact theft, and it eviscerated the music industry. Objective proof: David Bowie had an album cancelled by his label in 2000 due to it being "too artistic". (and it was a kooky album even for him) Whether you like Bowie or not, this was a clear sign of how it was all headed downhill from there. Taking chances and being more creative was too risky even for big, established artists.

If an arty album was cancelled for David Bowie, imagine what it was like for unsigned bands. This led to the homogenization of music that we have today. This is also the reason concert prices skyrocketed - there wasn't any money in CD's anymore due to all the downloading theft.

And now today, it's swung so far in the other direction, you can't even post a clear Fair Use analysis video without a copyright strike. Yes, you can fight those strikes, but it's David vs. Goliath every time.

The other thing that has ruined music is Auto-tune on voices, and the "quantization" of rhythm and instrumental parts. You're rarely hearing human beings performing music, in today's music. There are notable exceptions, such as Adele who somewhat famously had a noticeably flat note in one of her 2021 hits. (I have no idea which song, sorry, I'm not personally interested in her music but commend her for actually singing, and she is a good singer)

But not only is most of today's music Auto-tuned and quantized, and I really hate to tell you this, but they're starting to do it retroactively to classic music as well! This has to stop!

On top of all that, current music as well as classics are being dynamically compressed so heavily that just listening to music with that treatment is scientifically known to cause ear fatigue, in the same way that TV (if anyone watches that garbage anymore) commercials are harsh and loud. Dynamics is one of the 5 Elements of music, so dynamic compression objectively attacks musicality.

As a Musician, vocalist, teacher, I'm beyond disgusted at the walking zombie that is music today. Country is no longer country, Rock is nowhere to be found, and the dominant form of Hip-Hop sounds like a Casio keyboard auto-rhythm, some jerkwad rapper, and the spliced chorus of an actual song if they want to make it into a "hit".

Fortunately, this has had no affect on actual, real Musicians, who still exist, play, and write new songs all the time. But Radio is beyond dead, and people rarely buy the CD's that were the lifeblood of the independent Musician 20 years ago.

The only Musicians "making it" today are young, beautiful women on Youtube that get millions of views playing their instrument. Some are quite good, but this is ultimately demoralizing to know it ain't their sound or creativity that is pulling in the ad revenue. I remember when overt Objectification of women was a bad thing, now it's considered "empowering".

sigh

Grandson312 said:

I remember when overt Objectification of women was a bad thing, now it's considered "empowering".

sigh

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It is all in the eye of the beholder.

I roughly remember quote from 20+ years ago from a Polish woman. The stupid Western women are burning bras and demanding equality. We have equality and would love to have all those things they are rejecting.