Why is modern music so awful

[thecontrolcentre]

[snip] wrong thread

[sgtswagger]

its not bad lol

[Bunny_boy]

Yes it is: madrigals or nowt

[sorped]

Modern music is great.

You're out of touch.

100% - more good music is being made right now than at any point in history.

Even if the percentage of good music is lower today than it was "before" you're right, because the musical output today is so much bigger than it was "before" - it's simple mathematics.

What is good music? It's a personal preference for starters. With the output of music today being so vast, promotion in all it's various forms plays a huge role in what we are exposed to when we listen to the radio, watch TV or browse social media. The wider the common denominator, the more money can be generated, the more promotion it gets.

So, if you're not into today's pop music then you can't rely on the "official channels" the same way today as you could earlier to play the music you like. You have to make a bigger effort to find it yourself. I guarantee you that whatever genre you like, you'll be able to find new artists that will tickle your fancy.

Now, of course that's not to say that it's your taste that is wrong. I mean, I have no interest in listening to wannabe gangsta types who "rap" about their fake harder-than-granite personality, or smooth fellas letting everybody know how big a star they are, while not being able to carry a note without autotune, or the latest winner of whichever TV-show dedicated to find the next great artist, whose 1st prize album flops with 37 downloads because as it turns out, after the show ended people didn't really give a flying banana anymore. But that's the stuff that gets promoted nowadays.

Find some YouTube playlists, browse Spotify, go to concerts, check out what's buzzing on social media. The good music is out there, you just have to find it!

[stoopicus]

Yep

[WackyZoundz]

go to concerts

Live music is pretty much dead here in the EU unfortunately. Only the mainstream artists play concerts sometimes. No more undiscovered underground bands who play for sandwiches, beer and fun like back in the eighties and nineties. All that remains is browsing the web which isn't great either because algorithms try to nudge you towards the mainstream stuff constantly. Finding new good music is a lot harder than in the past.

[Uncle E]

Live music is pretty much dead here in the EU unfortunately. Only the mainstream artists play concerts sometimes. No more undiscovered underground bands who play for sandwiches, beer and fun like back in the eighties and nineties. All that remains is browsing the web which isn't great either because algorithms try to nudge you towards the mainstream stuff constantly. Finding new good music is a lot harder than in the past.

Which parts of EU? The club scenes in London and Berlin were bustling in the 90's and 00's (much better than other EU cities or here in the US, IME), is that no longer the case?

[empphryio]

You can say it's subjective but there are changes which have been quantified. "Popular" music no longer has bridges or key changes. And it's been quantified that the melodies have become greatly simplified. Furthermore big record companies no longer sign bands. Again, quantified. The spotify top 400 now has 3 bands that were formed in the last ten years. British charts had 146 bands at the top of the charts in the first half of the 80's to 3 in the first half of the 2020's.

Now big record companies sign artists and then have one of their stable of song writers to write the songs (Max Martin, etc). These song writers make sure it's simplistic. No bridges, no key changes, a melody of only a few notes and sounds just like some recent hit. They don't want to deal with any band that wants to write their own music.

This is what record companies chose to do. It made things so much easier for them.

Additionally you might notice "flamboyant" male singers like Ziggy Stardust, Freddie Mercury, Boy George, Dead or Alive's singer, Prince, even Robert Smith..... that's just gone. Because the big record companies have decided to not sign those types.

The underlying thing imo is they want someone who won't object to someone else writing simplistic songs for them to sing. If you want to write your own music, you're already out. So anyone with actual talent need not apply.

[Bunny_boy]

Additionally you might notice "flamboyant" male singers like Ziggy Stardust, Freddie Mercury, Boy George, Dead or Alive's singer, Prince, even Robert Smith..... that's just gone. Because the big record companies have decided to not sign those types.

Now big record companies sign artists and then have one of their stable of song writers to write the songs

I think that looking back over the history of recorded music might be a worthwhile endeavour here

[Bunny_boy]

Okay, fever ray isn't male (assigned at birth), but you get the idea

[Dunbar]

I remember when it was all fields around here.

[bermudagold]

You can say it's subjective but there are changes which have been quantified. "Popular" music no longer has bridges or key changes. And it's been quantified that the melodies have become greatly simplified. Furthermore big record companies no longer sign bands. Again, quantified. T

exactly...changes are real...it's just as intellectually lazy to write it all off as nostalgia and sentimentality from get off my lawn old fogey stogeys...
another example is because of attention span of gen z fueled by the popularity of micro vlogging in Vine which evolved into the ubiquity of tik tok across all generations;...the average song has gone from 4 min to 2 min 15 sec...that leaves little room for evocative prose or movements through song structure...basically an often-vacuous affirmational mantra encapsulated in a catchy hook, over a central 4/4 groove bed...no intro, bridge, key change, tempo/time sig change, outro...so songs are converging towards jingles, which is perfect for advertisers as they are often pre-made with product placement deals to serve double duty as ready made commercials

how rare is the instrument solo in a song now?,...or the 7 min jam songs from artist and genres as diverse as prince to grateful dead?...how rare is the concept album, with streams, downloads, and virality necessitating a focus on singles?

[Bunny_boy]

;...the average song has gone from 4 min to 2 min 15 sec...that leaves little room for evocative prose or movements through song structure...basically an often-vacuous affirmational mantra encapsulated in a catchy hook,

[bermudagold]

;...the average song has gone from 4 min to 2 min 15 sec...that leaves little room for evocative prose or movements through song structure...basically an often-vacuous affirmational mantra encapsulated in a catchy hook,

not sure if i got the point?...the first video says unavailable in US...second song has actual instrument performances including a solo

[Bunny_boy]

;...the average song has gone from 4 min to 2 min 15 sec...that leaves little room for evocative prose or movements through song structure...basically an often-vacuous affirmational mantra encapsulated in a catchy hook,

not sure if i got the point?...the first video says unavailable in US...second song has actual instrument performances including a solo

The first one is motley Crue. They're both brain-numbing dirges with simplistic juvenile lyrics and plodding, obvious music. Essentially vacuous affirmational mantras encapsulated in catchy hooks