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I am going to have to back the parent comment about music, having had first hand experience with this. My son is currently trying to break into the music indus

I am going to have to back the parent comment about music, having had first hand experience with this. My son is currently trying to break into the music industry. He is a gifted guitarist and musician [0], but whenever he talks to music producers and execs, he is told that his songwriting is too complex, his songs too long (avg 4 minutes) and his lyrics too deep for the current generation of music buyers (read: teenagers and young girls). He is being told repeatedly by the people who make the decisions that he needs to reduce his songs to a basic beat with a couple of good hooks and not much more than that (apart from adding some eletronica). These are the people who fund albums and promotions these days. This is their criteria. From the horses mouth. [0] - https://instagram.com/jordanravimusic https://instagram.com/jordanravimusic

spacegod 7y ago
As a millennial/gen z music person, the problem is that your son is a guitarist. Guitar rock is dead. Foo Fighters, Qotsa,tool offshoot bands are all too 2000's. Sample and synth based rock is alive. We can simply sample any guitar lines and warp them to fit the beat. No need to hire a guitarist. Rock has moved on. It moved on in 2000 following the releases of Radiohead's Kid A, The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin, Outkast's Stankonia and the Avalanches' Since I Left You. All are rock records that have minimal guitar use. Factor in that the Neptunes, Just Blaze, Kanye West, and Madlib dominated 2000's production styles moving them towards sampling. The 2010's is even more towards this style with the emergence of vaporwave and the new jazz rap fusion that Kendrick Lamar, J Cole and Thundercat make. I cannot think of the last time a guitar centric artist hit #1 outside of Post Malone. I don't even think Post Malone plays guitar on any of his hits either. Lastly your kid is not deeper than the other kids lyrically. Get off of your high horse and stop leading your kid towards a path to hell.
- cyberferret 7y ago
  > Lastly your kid is not deeper than the other kids lyrically. Get off of your high horse and stop leading your kid towards a path to hell. Did you deduce that from looking at his Instagram feed that I posted above? A feed that pretty much contains NONE of his original material and only covers of current songs? That you didn't recognise that pretty much shows your total and complete lack of knowledge of the music industry today. You should spend less time at the (computer) keyboard and go listen to more live music. Lastly, Where did you get the idea I was leading him anywhere? All his choices, I am just reporting what I see when he talks to music execs.
  - spacegod 7y ago
    I deduced it from your statement you lying faggot
sobani 7y ago
> the people who make the decisions Those people mostly focus on finding songs that can reach a billion streams. They are like the VCs looking for the next Google, they don't care about the specialty boutique. Maybe your son should try to find his '1000 true fans', instead of trying to win the gatekeeper lottery.
navigatesol 7y ago
>These are the people who fund albums and promotions these days. This is their criteria. From the horses mouth. And VCs want you to make food delivery or photo sharing apps, because it makes them money. And yet, I can look out my window and see an artisanal bakery and craft store. Is your son's goal to become a rich, pop star, or to play his music for a living? If it's the former, then I guess he should listen to the people who produce the pop stars. If it's the latter, there are more channels for doing so than ever in history.
vile_wretch 7y ago
He should stop talking to music producers and execs and start playing shows, releasing music independently and hustling to get his image out in the world. The era of "breaking in" has been over for decades. Luckily for him it's very possible DIY a music career now, just not one that nets millions of dollars.
pjc50 7y ago
> lyrics too deep for the current generation of music buyers (read: teenagers and young girls). ... he needs to reduce his songs to a basic beat with a couple of good hooks and not much more than that This has been true to some extent since the dawn of popular music after the war, though? Stock Aitken & Waterman were slapping synth beats on simple lyrics probably before your son was born. They wrote Kylie's "I should be so lucky" in an afternoon after being told she was at the airport and they'd forgotten she was coming. Went on to sell a million records. You can appeal to sophisticated tastes or the mass market, but the latter is very definitely a product which lots of specialists are continually trying to optimise.

spacegod 7y ago

As a millennial/gen z music person, the problem is that your son is a guitarist. Guitar rock is dead. Foo Fighters, Qotsa,tool offshoot bands are all too 2000's. Sample and synth based rock is alive. We can simply sample any guitar lines and warp them to fit the beat. No need to hire a guitarist. Rock has moved on. It moved on in 2000 following the releases of Radiohead's Kid A, The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin, Outkast's Stankonia and the Avalanches' Since I Left You. All are rock records that have minimal guitar use. Factor in that the Neptunes, Just Blaze, Kanye West, and Madlib dominated 2000's production styles moving them towards sampling. The 2010's is even more towards this style with the emergence of vaporwave and the new jazz rap fusion that Kendrick Lamar, J Cole and Thundercat make. I cannot think of the last time a guitar centric artist hit #1 outside of Post Malone. I don't even think Post Malone plays guitar on any of his hits either. Lastly your kid is not deeper than the other kids lyrically. Get off of your high horse and stop leading your kid towards a path to hell.

cyberferret 7y ago
> Lastly your kid is not deeper than the other kids lyrically. Get off of your high horse and stop leading your kid towards a path to hell. Did you deduce that from looking at his Instagram feed that I posted above? A feed that pretty much contains NONE of his original material and only covers of current songs? That you didn't recognise that pretty much shows your total and complete lack of knowledge of the music industry today. You should spend less time at the (computer) keyboard and go listen to more live music. Lastly, Where did you get the idea I was leading him anywhere? All his choices, I am just reporting what I see when he talks to music execs.
- spacegod 7y ago
  I deduced it from your statement you lying faggot

sobani 7y ago

> the people who make the decisions Those people mostly focus on finding songs that can reach a billion streams. They are like the VCs looking for the next Google, they don't care about the specialty boutique. Maybe your son should try to find his '1000 true fans', instead of trying to win the gatekeeper lottery.

navigatesol 7y ago

>These are the people who fund albums and promotions these days. This is their criteria. From the horses mouth. And VCs want you to make food delivery or photo sharing apps, because it makes them money. And yet, I can look out my window and see an artisanal bakery and craft store. Is your son's goal to become a rich, pop star, or to play his music for a living? If it's the former, then I guess he should listen to the people who produce the pop stars. If it's the latter, there are more channels for doing so than ever in history.

vile_wretch 7y ago

He should stop talking to music producers and execs and start playing shows, releasing music independently and hustling to get his image out in the world. The era of "breaking in" has been over for decades. Luckily for him it's very possible DIY a music career now, just not one that nets millions of dollars.

pjc50 7y ago

> lyrics too deep for the current generation of music buyers (read: teenagers and young girls). ... he needs to reduce his songs to a basic beat with a couple of good hooks and not much more than that This has been true to some extent since the dawn of popular music after the war, though? Stock Aitken & Waterman were slapping synth beats on simple lyrics probably before your son was born. They wrote Kylie's "I should be so lucky" in an afternoon after being told she was at the airport and they'd forgotten she was coming. Went on to sell a million records. You can appeal to sophisticated tastes or the mass market, but the latter is very definitely a product which lots of specialists are continually trying to optimise.