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When do we stop keeping up with popular music? Well, I guess it depends to a great deal on the day of your birth - seriously! The pop industry is like every ot
by cJ0th 12y ago
When do we stop keeping up with popular music? Well, I guess it depends to a great deal on the day of your birth - seriously! The pop industry is like every other industry in that its products (songs) are defined by the last game changing technology. Whenever a new paradigm shift occurs, two things are given:
1.) incumbents who rely on old technology are not all too creative (and this for already quite a while). As with other mature products it is not so much about creativity/expressing yourself but optimizing processes. At this stage (and many people don't agree with me here) a MBA could become a pop music producer as everything is set in stone by now. Things just need to get done causing minimal costs. At this point "pop music sucks"
2.) New artists enter the scene. It is again about making the perfect product. Every few weeks you hear something really exciting. At this point it does not matter whether or not you master the new technology. What matters is that you are truly expressing yourself and this (thanks to technology) in an exciting, new way. For example, the Beatles weren't great at using the stereo field but they started to use the "modern studio" as an instrument. A few decades later, another major change in technology occurred: Producing records in your own bedroom became affordable. And so Rave music was born. By now, electronic dance music (at least the currently popular form) has matured. As a result we have (imo) to listen to shit again.
- baby 12y agoPersonally I find the new stuff coming from people's bedroom the best in what electronic I've seen. Reading you I have a hard time understanding if this is what you're referring as shit music, a few examples: Madeon, Teemid, overwerk, sound remedy
- cJ0th 12y ago> Personally I find the new stuff coming from people's bedroom the best in what electronic I've seen. Yes, I do not disagree. What I am talking about is mainstream music that has matured. For example, Trance music was exciting when it came from bedroom studios in the 90s. You could hear individuality. Nowadays it does sound very same-y because, for instance, every one uses the same presets. So what I meant was: The kind of music that has been founded by the first generation of bedroom musicians is boring by now. If I were to go out on a limb, you could perhaps arguee that the artists you've named certainly rely on bedroom technology but also have something new: access to huge online networks. For example, progress in electronic music would have been slower if there were no youtube tutorials or soundcloud to find like-mindeded musicians etc.
- normloman 12y agoYou put too much emphasis on technology. Its true that technologies like amplification, multi track recording, and synthesizers, made new types of music possible. But shifts can occur without corresponding advancements in technology. The rise of alternative music in the 90s, for instance, can't be explained by technology.