Take some pop music
remove harmony
remove melody
remove romanticism
What's left is rap
case closed
metatron
Was music better years ago than today?
by JH 66 Replies latest jw friends
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SixofNine
Would we say that the ratio of copyist's to innovators in the popular music industry is a indication of its health, or its malaise?
My opinion would be... a definite maybe. The last 30 years has seen the art of technology and the art of marketing (crosses self and apologizes to the art gods, but you lervly lords know what I'm talkin' about) explode in an orgy of success, while the age old art of music has come along for the ride.
And now, the confluence of tech, marketing, and music are at a crazy crossroads, from which it is looking to me that music will emerge as the leader.
Also, if I went and asked the innovators, they'd humbly tell me "no, I was copying so and so, I was heavily influenced by such and such", wouldn't they? I understand the difference between outright copying and influence, but I'd guess it has more to do with innate-abilities-vs-lack-thereof than intent (and that is not era dependant). Sure, the music industry has pushed the blatant copying, it's easy, brainless money for them.
That is the irritant of youth, isn't it, that they only appreciate the newest music, presented to them by a DJ, girlfriend, boyfriend, someone, anyone... that they connect too? How can it be about music if it is really about people? But I suspect we were all like that at one time, and retain more of those traits than we'ed like to admit.
Still, I think more people than ever are out there making the original music they want to make, and you just have to look elsewhere than the radio to find it. But even on radio, a few people shine thru, imo. And really, if I look back 20/30/40 years, it was only a few bands/musicians/songs that really are timeless to me.
If I were cool enough to appreciate jazz for jazz, I'd probably have a totally different opinion. But I can only dig jazz that has been well camouflaged into a pop, blues, rock, or even a *gasp* country song. Thank God and Ry Cooder for Lyle Lovette!
And then there is classical piano.....
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SixofNine
And rap get's such a bad rap!
And none of it is about the music, just the people.
It may not be a genre I would listen to an album full of, but it sure can be a nice mix-in on other types of music.
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primitivegenius
when i was in highschool.......... i could name every song on the radio and who sang it pretty much. now it seems a vast majority of it sounds alike and i have no chance figureing out who sings what. i hear the names of the group and i listen to there songs........... but then i hear something so freaking much like it that i cant tell the difference. do i like it any less...... not necessarily but it seems there formulas for makeing a group or song popular are so dang close that they blend. were being swamped by vast multitudes of one hit wonders lol. where are all the groups that stand the test of time........ METALLICA, AREOSMITH and the like. there stilll kicking ass and takeing names. now were you to bring in a highschool kid right now im sure they could tell you the differences between the newbies lol. all i can say is its about the music and what i like is what i like i just need a highschool friend to help me pick out and propperly identify the things i like lol. ok ive rambled far to long lol but keep those speakers pumpin
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Abaddon
Oh, let's not forget it is virtually compulsory for parents to hate the music their kids grow up to...
... also some of the older farts here might not even hear well enough to know what music nowadays really sounds like...
Essentially there is a trend for format music today. This is because record comanies have got good at marketing their products; rebellion on a shiny disc... woo! Today's format bands are just better marketed versions of the format bands 'we' grew up on (I'm talking about 30-40 year-olds) like the Osmonds and the Bay City Rollers. The genre might change, but format bands are the problem.
Even supposed heros of anti-image like Slipknot make images for themselves. Even Metallica subscribe to the capitalistic consumer models used to sell their music and enforce it with vigelence, for all their iconoclastic image.
One big problem is that the fact any moron with the right equipment can produce composition without any musical knowledge or playing ability whatsoever. It used to be that if you did this, it sounded obviously crap. Now technology hides the crapitude unless the person listening knows what to listen for.
I also think that people are singing and playing less regulary, and thus many more opinions are uninformed. Living with a classical singer I can now hear that many people you hear on the radio are just well produced mediocere talents.
But in term of 'are the notes and words better than they used to be'? Well I despise most modern classical music so will just talk about popular music.
For your Joni Mitchell I raise you Tori Amos.
For your Led Zeppelin I raise you Radiohead.
For your Jim Morrison I raise you Eminem.
There is hope. I think we are at the end of a decline from the burst in new music inspired by the end of the '80's. Just as the arly 90's gave us some brilliant bands, so too I have recently started hearing stuff that makes me think... mmmmm... for the first time in ages.
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sandy
The artists that we consider legends today were not always held in such high esteem. I think the lyrics in this song (Artist/Tim McGraw) express very well, the way music changes, as well as how it changes people.
They wouldn't let him play the opry,
With whiskey on his breath.
And it didn't take'em long,
To figure out what they missed.
He went down that lost highway,
Underneath the purple sky.
A legend disappeared before his time:
Things Change.They said he was the devil,
Dressed in gold lame.
The way he shook his hips,
Out there on that stage.
But before that fateful day,
He left Tennessee.
All of them were calling him the king:
Things Change.Well they like to call them hippies:
Outlaws with guitars.
But they brought a little poetry,
To the honky tonks and bars.
They might've got a little crazy,
They might have flew a little too high.
Somewhere somebody's playing their song tonight:
Things Change. (Don't you know things change.)Now some say it's too country,
Some say it's a little rock n roll.
But it's just good music,
If you can feel it in your soul.It doesn't really matter,
It's always been the same.
Life goes on:
Things Change. Don't you know they change.
Oh, things change.
As long as this world is turning,
Things are gonna change. -
libra_spirit
Wow abandon, talk about trying to intellectualize music! I consider it an art form, really whats the point if you turn it into an intellectual thing and even feel the need to redifine the question...LOL! I listen to music with my emotions and so for me how could it be anything but an expierence? The question makes perfect sense to me, it is truly a matter of personal taste and expierence.
Besides everybody knows that music was the very best it could get in the 70's! With Simon and Garfunkel, Seals and Croft, Chicago, Boston, BTO, and Carol King!
Then in the late 80's there was a band called Rainjam that did music about love and the enviornment, which I just happened to be a member of. I always hated how everyone tried to clasify us into one of the little mental slots, either classical folk, or folk rock! We just played what came through us, it was creative and emotional and a lot of fun. So to all the intellectual music listeners out there I say lighten up a little and feel the music! A good heavy quick beat will always move the crowd and get way more applause then a slow sappy song. A well sounding chord progression will usually get more emotions and happy faces in the crowd then a twangy disonent punk song with flat and out of tune harmonies.
Just my opinion.
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SealingSalamander
In my opinion, the biggest problem with current music (heck, even through most of the '90's) is that there is absolutely nothing FRESH about it.
There are basically about 3 types of mainstream music anymore:
1. Earnest guitar noise with bland lyrics droned by androgynously clad young white men, who feel the need to pontificate about absolutely nothing.
2. R&B songs that are clones of every other R&B song in existence. The music has no discernable beat and almost no dicipherable lyrics except for the random bit of pleading for sex. This kind of music has been touted as sexual accompanionment, but is the perfect device to promote abstinance, as the parties involved fall into a coma.
3. Young women who were born approximately 1998, who are our great spiritual leaders because they can tell us all that "Life's like this." I don't know what I'd do without Avril.
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Bendrr
Was it better then than now? Absolutely!
I have little love for rap, even though I listen to it 5 or 6 hours a day. (shop radio, even though I paid for it we all share it so we can get along and keep everyone happy) Now some rap I don't mind. That song "stepdaddy" makes me laugh my ass off and yes I do sing along with it. And some of the r&b has kinda grown on me. But the gangsta rap? No. I hate it, I hate what it stands for, and I hate seeing kids gulping it down and trying to imitate the gangsta rappers.
Today's pop music will never have the staying power of what we were listening to 20 and 30 years ago. Even 40 years ago. When the next generation asks, "Daddy, who is Eminem?" or "Who is Britney Spears?", they'll still know who the Rolling Stones or Lynyrd Skynyrd are.
Mike. Give me classic rock or nothing at all.
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undercover
Every generation has it's own music that it grew up with. Bad or good, it brings back memories of being in high school or your first love, etc. The older you get the more you miss what music means to you. When you hear an old fav on the radio, you zone back to your youth. New music will not do that for us older(ugh, I hate that word) ones. We may like new music, buy it, download it, dance to it but it will not remind us of when we were young. You youngsters will figure that out when someone starts to make fun of the music of the 90s and 00s.
I split my time between my old favs and listening to new music. There is a lot of good stuff out there. The trouble now is you have to look for it. You won't find it on the radio. But no matter how good it is, it will not have the effect that the music I grew up with has.