Why is modern music so awful

[lunardigs]

Music for the most part is haphazard, stochastic kink; ephemeral trash that somehow became memorialized.
Whether it was the result of "happy accidents" or "genius", it's all nonsense in the end.
The only deeper meaning to it is whatever you might say it is.
So there.
... and I mean that lovingly, but also as an eternal, immutable law of the universe

[heliacal]

The whole UNIverse is based on Vibration, driven by the Sun/Light. ANY music is Divine.

[ghettosynth]

Music for the most part is haphazard, stochastic kink; ephemeral trash that somehow became memorialized.
Whether it was the result of "happy accidents" or "genius", it's all nonsense in the end.
The only deeper meaning to it is whatever you might say it is.
So there.
... and I mean that lovingly, but also as an eternal, immutable law of universe

Indeed. So much of KVR's existence and footprint on the world is a projection of insecurity held in check by hope that this isn't the case.

[Bombadil]

I turned off FM radio circa 1985.
GET OFF MY LAWN!

[lunardigs]

Music for the most part is haphazard, stochastic kink; ephemeral trash that somehow became memorialized.
Whether it was the result of "happy accidents" or "genius", it's all nonsense in the end.
The only deeper meaning to it is whatever you might say it is.
So there.
... and I mean that lovingly, but also as an eternal, immutable law of universe

Indeed. So much of KVR's existence and footprint on the world is a projection of insecurity held in check by hope that this isn't the case.

Whoa, that's actually what my music is about!
... and what the other guy said about divinity and such

[opusonix]

Late to the party - but here's my 2 cents - modern music isn't awful, it's just too short. The limited attention span forces musicians to create short and simple works. Anything beyond that, or cognitively challenging, simply isn't financially rewarded. The end results are the chart hitters we have today. Who to blame? Us. We (the majority of us) voted, with our time (and wallet) to have them on the charts.

[Igro]

Modern music is even worse than AI music.

[ghettosynth]

Modern music is even worse than AI music.

LOL, that's a hot take, but, I'm fairly certain that I could name more titles of AI novelty songs than I could of contemporary pop artists in the hot 100 over the past year.

In the other thread people are talking about the absence of novelty, but, there is far more novelty in the, wait for it, AI novelty songs, than there is in the pop charts.

[kvotchin]

Modern music is just like older music, except there’s more of it, and actually, more types (and subtypes) than ever.

There happens to be some f**king amazing modern music. Anyone believing otherwise either just doesn’t know, or worse yet, doesn’t want to know.

[ghettosynth]

Modern music is just like older music, except there’s more of it, and actually, more types (and subtypes) than ever.

There happens to be some f**king amazing modern music. Anyone believing otherwise either just doesn’t know, or worse yet, doesn’t want to know.

The modern pop charts are materially different from pop charts of the past in many ways. This is well supported by research. When people ask why modern music is so awful, I get the sense that this is what they're talking about.

There is plenty of new music that is great, I find new music on a weekly basis, but very little to virtually none of it is on the pop charts, i.e., making large sums of cash.

[zerocrossing]

Why are modern people so awful?

[Etienne1973]

Nowadays I make niche music, listen to other people's niche music and feel very comfortable with it.

[vurt]

Why are modern people so awful?

i blame the parents.

[kvotchin]

The modern pop charts are materially different from pop charts of the past in many ways. This is well supported by research. When people ask why modern music is so awful, I get the sense that this is what they're talking about.

There is plenty of new music that is great, I find new music on a weekly basis, but very little to virtually none of it is on the pop charts, i.e., making large sums of cash.

The pop charts have changed over time, considerably, and not just in very recent years. So yeah, things being “different” is nothing new.

Two things are, probably always were, and perhaps always will be true though: 1) The charts are mostly full of mediocre, quite predictable “standards” of the era; and 2) Older folks are claiming that the current charts are simply trash, compared to the charts back in their day.

[ghettosynth]

The modern pop charts are materially different from pop charts of the past in many ways. This is well supported by research. When people ask why modern music is so awful, I get the sense that this is what they're talking about.

There is plenty of new music that is great, I find new music on a weekly basis, but very little to virtually none of it is on the pop charts, i.e., making large sums of cash.

The pop charts have changed over time, considerably, and not just in very recent years. So yeah, things being “different” is nothing new.

Two things are, probably always were, and perhaps always will be true though: 1) The charts are mostly full of mediocre, quite predictable “standards” of the era; and 2) Older folks are claiming that the current charts are simply trash, compared to the charts back in their day.

My statement is more than that. What has specifically changed, and this has been researched, is that diversity of artists and styles in the charts has declined over time. What has also changed, and it's related, is that the number of artists who write and perform their own songs has declined. This is just another way of decreasing diversity of inputs. Additionally, the prevalence of dominant songwriting teams has increased. There are other aspects to this, mostly, again, related to diversity, things like melodic and harmonic content.

You don't get to just dismiss actual contributions to a conversation with "oh yes, everything has always been changing" without sounding like a climate denier. The things that you mention are also true, but that's not what's happening in this discussion.

You can't separate any of this from the zeitgeist. The erasure of the shared cultural moments, the isolation of social media, the power of the algorithm to promote, the increased globalization, but seen more locally as a different kind of common experience that diminishes the set of local experiences, that is, the time scale of changes to the exposure graph has decreased. Money. Can't forget that. All of this interacts.