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I don't think it's that strange. Perhaps calling out those two in particular might seem a little vindictive but I'd say modern music in general. Modern music i

I don't think it's that strange. Perhaps calling out those two in particular might seem a little vindictive but I'd say modern music in general. Modern music is watered down and simple. The drums are all 4x4, the chords are all the same, the progressions are predictable, etc. I'm not talking about just a genre using a particular set of chords, I am talking about literally being able to predict the next note using only 10 seconds of audio. Moreover, there is so much tooling around making absolutely talentless hacks sound good (auto-tune, quantization, very clever filtering) it's hard to actually know if someone is even real sometimes. More than ever I've also noticed modern music videos are simply advertisements for luxury brands. I just think the new generation lacks the sophistication to enjoy good music. Every generation since the invention of arguably the highest most supreme form of musical arrangement, orchestral arrangement, has resulted in slowly stripping away any sort of intellectual endeavor listening music had held. There's a reason classic rock is called classic rock and stuff made in the 90s onward doesn't qualify. It was probably the last period of time where music actually required talent rather than a ghost writer and an advertising deal. This isn't just my age speaking. I suspect in 50 years people will still remember Zeppelin, but no one will remember Jay-Z.

msla 4y ago
> There's a reason classic rock is called classic rock and stuff made in the 90s onward doesn't qualify. Of course rock made in the 1990s is classic rock now. That's how it works: Music made when the target demographic was in its teens and young adulthood is classic, and the music from the era when the currently dying generation was young gets aged out. When was the last time you heard Dion and the Belmonts on terrestrial radio? How about Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers? That's music. That's how all this works. Soon enough, Jay-Z will be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I mean, if Jelly Roll Morton (look him up, kiddo) can make it, they obviously abandoned the "Rock and Roll" part of their name long ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_Fame_inductees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_...
- msla 4y ago
  I must correct myself: Jelly Roll Morton is in the "Early Influences" section of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jay-Z, on the other hand, is in the main category.
DontchaKnowit 4y ago
Tbh I think we look at older music with rose colored cglasses cause only the best of the best pop music survives. Pop music has always and will always be simple and shitty by and large. However, in modern times, the barrier to entry of record an album is virtually 0. You can make a masterpiece in your bedroom if you want to. There is SO much interesting music happening right now I really resent this idea that music has somehow lost its way. Examples : king gizzard and the lizard wizard, the dillinger escape plan, bjork, death grips, tim hecker, danny brown, etc etc the list is damn near infinite. Lots of incredible, boundary pushing music has happened in the last 15 or so years, and continues on a daily basis
- ilyt 4y ago
  Pretty much. Ask anyone to name top pop artist from top off their heads from 5, 10, 20 years ago and the list of those names will be very, very short.
- blue039 4y ago
  Just from your list I only am aware of Bjork and Death Grips. Bjork is interesting but I would consider death grips the greatest troll on the planet. You could make an album of a man screaming over banging pots and pans and achieve the same level of avant garde notoriety he has. It's not good in the same sense post-modernist art is not good. It's meaningless noise searching for meaning. Anyway I keep getting downvoted for this which is hilarious. It's obvious people have virtually no idea what musical talent sounds like. Talent is not what you like, it's legitimate hard earned skill. Sampled trash and top 40s 4x4 beats augmented by auto-tune and filters is not skill no matter how much lipstick you put on the pig. Neither is shouting into a microphone behind overdriven noise-music. Being avant garde also doesn't imply skill, the relationship is not a bijection.
  - DontchaKnowit 4y ago
    ^ and you think death grips is pretentious? lmao Death Grips is legitimately good, as in, I bob my head and sing along to it, and it gives me goosebumps because its awesome. Also, there is absolutely 0% chance you could create something that comes close to their music. Their keyboard player is an insanely talented producer and their samples are masterfully collected and utilized. So honestly sounds to me like you are just closed minded and pretentious.
jdontillman 4y ago
Indeed. The author is referring to the up-a-half-step modulation that Barry Manilow tactically used all over the place. I call it a "Manilow". --- But yeah, it's just one of the many elements of musical craft that's missing in today's popular music. Sampled sounds are (by definition) lifeless. Sequenced rhythm tracks are unnaturally consistent. See Paul Lamere's "In search of the click track": https://musicmachinery.com/2009/03/02/in-search-of-the-click-track/ https://musicmachinery.com/2009/03/02/in-search-of-the-click... A lack of rhythmic variation. Consider the folk tradition of wandering from the time signature; Pete Seeger and early Paul Simon for instance. And the Beatles, certainly Generally a lack of pickup notes, or "anacrusis". And the lack of an inspirational melody or chord change. --- 60's pop music was, I think, a special case because the hit songs had to get noticed and appreciated in a worst-case listening environment; typically a crappy AM radio.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

msla 4y ago

> There's a reason classic rock is called classic rock and stuff made in the 90s onward doesn't qualify. Of course rock made in the 1990s is classic rock now. That's how it works: Music made when the target demographic was in its teens and young adulthood is classic, and the music from the era when the currently dying generation was young gets aged out. When was the last time you heard Dion and the Belmonts on terrestrial radio? How about Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers? That's music. That's how all this works. Soon enough, Jay-Z will be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I mean, if Jelly Roll Morton (look him up, kiddo) can make it, they obviously abandoned the "Rock and Roll" part of their name long ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_Fame_inductees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_...

msla 4y ago
I must correct myself: Jelly Roll Morton is in the "Early Influences" section of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jay-Z, on the other hand, is in the main category.

DontchaKnowit 4y ago

Tbh I think we look at older music with rose colored cglasses cause only the best of the best pop music survives. Pop music has always and will always be simple and shitty by and large. However, in modern times, the barrier to entry of record an album is virtually 0. You can make a masterpiece in your bedroom if you want to. There is SO much interesting music happening right now I really resent this idea that music has somehow lost its way. Examples : king gizzard and the lizard wizard, the dillinger escape plan, bjork, death grips, tim hecker, danny brown, etc etc the list is damn near infinite. Lots of incredible, boundary pushing music has happened in the last 15 or so years, and continues on a daily basis

ilyt 4y ago
Pretty much. Ask anyone to name top pop artist from top off their heads from 5, 10, 20 years ago and the list of those names will be very, very short.
blue039 4y ago
Just from your list I only am aware of Bjork and Death Grips. Bjork is interesting but I would consider death grips the greatest troll on the planet. You could make an album of a man screaming over banging pots and pans and achieve the same level of avant garde notoriety he has. It's not good in the same sense post-modernist art is not good. It's meaningless noise searching for meaning. Anyway I keep getting downvoted for this which is hilarious. It's obvious people have virtually no idea what musical talent sounds like. Talent is not what you like, it's legitimate hard earned skill. Sampled trash and top 40s 4x4 beats augmented by auto-tune and filters is not skill no matter how much lipstick you put on the pig. Neither is shouting into a microphone behind overdriven noise-music. Being avant garde also doesn't imply skill, the relationship is not a bijection.
- DontchaKnowit 4y ago
  ^ and you think death grips is pretentious? lmao Death Grips is legitimately good, as in, I bob my head and sing along to it, and it gives me goosebumps because its awesome. Also, there is absolutely 0% chance you could create something that comes close to their music. Their keyboard player is an insanely talented producer and their samples are masterfully collected and utilized. So honestly sounds to me like you are just closed minded and pretentious.

jdontillman 4y ago

Indeed. The author is referring to the up-a-half-step modulation that Barry Manilow tactically used all over the place. I call it a "Manilow". --- But yeah, it's just one of the many elements of musical craft that's missing in today's popular music. Sampled sounds are (by definition) lifeless. Sequenced rhythm tracks are unnaturally consistent. See Paul Lamere's "In search of the click track": https://musicmachinery.com/2009/03/02/in-search-of-the-click-track/ https://musicmachinery.com/2009/03/02/in-search-of-the-click... A lack of rhythmic variation. Consider the folk tradition of wandering from the time signature; Pete Seeger and early Paul Simon for instance. And the Beatles, certainly Generally a lack of pickup notes, or "anacrusis". And the lack of an inspirational melody or chord change. --- 60's pop music was, I think, a special case because the hit songs had to get noticed and appreciated in a worst-case listening environment; typically a crappy AM radio.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]