4 ms·

I think part of it is that 60's and 70's music artists were a bit idealistic and "precious" about their "art." I think today's artists are more practical. Like

I think part of it is that 60's and 70's music artists were a bit idealistic and "precious" about their "art." I think today's artists are more practical. Like, today, most rap songs with explicit lyrics have a sanitized version for general broadcast. Music artists in the 60's would have fought hard against that.

autoexec 2y ago
That's because in the 60s and 70s artists were much more likely to write their own music and develop their own sound. Today artists are mostly just performers who record labels hired because they were pretty and can be autotuned to sound okay and their songs are the product of committees that buy and then assemble a few hooks written by hitmakers and Swedish people before handing those hooks off to producers to finish, while the performer might get provide some token input or come up with a few lyrics as long as they work around the mentions of whatever products corporations paid the record label to include in the song (https://www.wired.com/2008/09/products-placed/ https://www.wired.com/2008/09/products-placed/). That's obviously not always the case, but it's often not too far off. I'd recommend reading "The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory" for some ugly details It doesn't mean that that kind of music isn't any good, but it's often entirely commercial from the very start which makes it hard for artists who had little if anything to do with the creation of those songs to care about "selling out".
coldtea 2y ago
>were a bit idealistic and "precious" about their "art." I think today's artists are more practical If you mean 60s and 70s artists cared about their art, whereas now they primarily care about the money, then yes. >Like, today, most rap songs with explicit lyrics have a sanitized version for general broadcast. Music artists in the 60's would have fought hard against that. Fighting for something you believe in and/or the integrity of your song? Such suckers!
_yb2s 2y ago
“Gimme the loot, gimme the loot (I'm a bad bad bad) (What's mines is mines and what's yours is mine)” -Biggie Smalls Most rap songs are explicitly bragging about how they will do anything to make money, and about how people that won’t aren’t morally superior but are either born privileged or just making excuses for being weak and soft. It’s alien coming from an upper middle class white family, where people try to pretend they have less money and care about money less than they actually do, because it isn’t socially acceptable- people hide their supercar in the garage and drive an old Toyota when people they know are looking. These people are just as ruthlessly greedy as Biggie claims to be, they just hide it.

autoexec 2y ago

That's because in the 60s and 70s artists were much more likely to write their own music and develop their own sound. Today artists are mostly just performers who record labels hired because they were pretty and can be autotuned to sound okay and their songs are the product of committees that buy and then assemble a few hooks written by hitmakers and Swedish people before handing those hooks off to producers to finish, while the performer might get provide some token input or come up with a few lyrics as long as they work around the mentions of whatever products corporations paid the record label to include in the song (https://www.wired.com/2008/09/products-placed/ https://www.wired.com/2008/09/products-placed/). That's obviously not always the case, but it's often not too far off. I'd recommend reading "The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory" for some ugly details It doesn't mean that that kind of music isn't any good, but it's often entirely commercial from the very start which makes it hard for artists who had little if anything to do with the creation of those songs to care about "selling out".

coldtea 2y ago

>were a bit idealistic and "precious" about their "art." I think today's artists are more practical If you mean 60s and 70s artists cared about their art, whereas now they primarily care about the money, then yes. >Like, today, most rap songs with explicit lyrics have a sanitized version for general broadcast. Music artists in the 60's would have fought hard against that. Fighting for something you believe in and/or the integrity of your song? Such suckers!

_yb2s 2y ago

“Gimme the loot, gimme the loot (I'm a bad bad bad) (What's mines is mines and what's yours is mine)” -Biggie Smalls Most rap songs are explicitly bragging about how they will do anything to make money, and about how people that won’t aren’t morally superior but are either born privileged or just making excuses for being weak and soft. It’s alien coming from an upper middle class white family, where people try to pretend they have less money and care about money less than they actually do, because it isn’t socially acceptable- people hide their supercar in the garage and drive an old Toyota when people they know are looking. These people are just as ruthlessly greedy as Biggie claims to be, they just hide it.