Is music really worse now?

[Ergo Sum]

This has always been an interesting notion to me, that despite rapid advances in technology and availability of music - from digital distribution, higher standard of living and time for music, distribution of musical instruments and editing software, etc. - the quality of music being produced has actually retreated. Yes, the mainstream music industry has reached new, vacuous heights in many of the artists being marketed to the most people possible, which are really what Bieber, Black Eyed Peas, etc. embody. It's easy to say music has gotten worse by looking at them, but at the same time, today we have the most complete and available musical history, we have the most people playing instruments, the most communication between artists. For every Bieber there's an artist out there innovating in instrumentation and song structure, another who's expressing themselves in new ways, another drawing on our rich musical history in unexpected ways.

The thesis: blame capitalism for the terrible music, and individuals for the new artistic achievements that are less visible.

 

[warpus]

The thesis: blame capitalism for the terrible music, and individuals for the new artistic achievements that are less visible.

I'm assuming that by terrible music you are referring to the simple yet catchy poppy crap that's so popular these days.

I wouldn't blame capitalism. That type of music exists because it appeals to so many people. There is a demand for it - so it gets created.

If less people paid for music like that, less of it would be created. So if anything you should be blaming the musical tastes of the masses.

 

[jtb1127]

I'm assuming that by terrible music you are referring to the simple yet catchy poppy crap that's so popular these days.

I wouldn't blame capitalism. That type of music exists because it appeals to so many people. There is a demand for it - so it gets created.

If less people paid for music like that, less of it would be created. So if anything you should be blaming the musical tastes of the masses.

I think when he says, "blame capitalism" he's including everything you just listed as part of the blame. Really, capitalism rocks and new music has always been considered crappy by the sort of crowd that hangs out on this forum.

 

[dominatr]

I think when he says, "blame capitalism" he's including everything you just listed as part of the blame. Really, capitalism rocks and new music has always been considered crappy by the sort of crowd that hangs out on this forum.

that is a logical assumption to make, but that's only part of it.

People that dislike the garbage repeated on the radio don't always hate it because its new. In my case, i love new music, just not out of what is marketed to me.

and by the "sort of crowd that hangs out in the forum" i hope you're not generalizing to the point that everyone on the forum is like a hipster or something or a social hermit.


aside from that, i wouldn't say that music is worse now, just what is advertised isn't good. Because of the rise of the giant music industry, it became a lot harder to find good music. If you look at hip hop, it was easy to find good hip hop decades ago but profit-motivated people took it over and turned it into a business. That diverged and now theres the genre that CALLS itself hip hop and the genre that is hip hop.

 

[Disgustipated]

It's silly to compare the best of say the 50's with the worst of today. How is that a fair comparison?

How about I compare a bad pop song from the 50's to a pop song today and you guys can change your answer. Someone said anything from the 50's is better than anything today. Feel free to change your answer after hearing these songs.


Link to video.


Link to video.

 

[ZeletDude]

There is the good music and then the bad music.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Personally, I don't think music is any worse. There has been some awesome music this past few years, and some awful music from the 60s and 70s. You can't paint popular music with a broad brush.

EDIT: And the awesome recent music doesn't even have to be underground; many popular acts today create both great and popular/accessible music.

 

[NYHunter]

There is a lot of bad music made every year. And some good music made every year. I can go to any year and find songs I like. And find 20x that amount in songs I don't like. Usually people think whatever they listened to between the age of 14-24 is the best music. Probably related to our brain development.

 

[Maniacal]

There is a lot more music being made, so of course a lot of it is bad, although sometimes bad is simply a matter of what you like and don`t like in music.

That said, autotune is incredibly overused and usually very poorly used.

 

[GamezRule]

There is always still good music out there!

 

[Angst]

Meh, not sure.

I don't like that production seems more important than composition these days. It's not like it actually hurts the music per se, but I like tiny errors or imperfections on tape. Also, brutally clean sound without background noise feels less real.

Regardless, you seem like one of the growing buds that simply prefer the stuff you listened to during your teens. I can't wait to be like that myself, lol.

 

[squall78]

I'm a hip hop fan and many people share the same reasoning that hip hop took a downhill after 2000.

Also back in the 70's bands used to be cultivated and grew with the record labels, now it's more crank out a hit and move on.

 

[Traitorfish]

Also back in the 70's bands used to be cultivated and grew with the record labels, now it's more crank out a hit and move on.

 

[aronnax]

Music is not really any better or worse.

What has actually happened is that the most widespread and popular pieces of music are bad music.

 

[cardgame]

It's just a bit harder to find good stuff, since most of the popular and mainstream releases are trash.

/hipster

 

[Krzowwh]

We must bridge the gap between all eras of music. We need more people like PDQ Bach.

 

[MantaRevan]

It seems that the common consensus is that music is in not way worse per say, or at least that good music still exists, but a vast majority of it is terrible, yet the gems are still there.

 

[Angst]

It seems that the common consensus is that music is in not way worse per say, or at least that good music still exists, but a vast majority of it is terrible, yet the gems are still there.

It has always been like that.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

It's neither better nor worse, it's just different.

 

[Zack]

All that needs to be posted: http://www.cracked.com/article_1898...dern-life-that-are-statistically-b.s._p2.html (scroll down to #1)