Why is modern music so awful

[BONES]

Many UK bass producers are moving away from 4/4 kicks to more polyrhytmic kicks, and oh my, people can dance to it.

Polyrhythmic, possibly, but still in 4/4 time (or maybe 2/4 or 8/4 but always to a walking/running/marching beat). Odd time signatures are just awkward. You can dance, sort of, to a waltz but you can't walk or run to it, which is the natural rhythm humans have evolved to appreciate. 4/4 is primal, it's something we feel far more deeply, which is why it works so well.

[ksandvik]

Nordic/Scandinativan folk music has often 3/4 and people used to dance to that all night long.... Not to speak of tribal Nigerian music that people dance to and is hyper-complex. So it's all in the mind. Also walz music that was supposedly a big thing in Europe long time ago.

[BONES]

Yeah, but only because they were off their f**king heads on mead or whatever Vikings drank and, as I said, they didn't march to it. Not everyone can dance but everyone walks.

[bermudagold]

Europeans music press labelled this "africa's version of trance music"...no 4 to the floor...lots of dancing

[bermudagold]

This is what my parents/grandfathers complained about rock&roll, or electronic dance music. I do think each generation should protest and make their own styles, but somehow these current young generations have not taken this up to the task.

Modern music to me seems super interesting and varied, so I'm quite happy with it

really?...cant say that i've had that experience...harder and harder to get above the noise floor of the passionless, insincere, inauthentic, derivative and formulaic...the last artists I remember discovering organically that grabbed my attention were little dragon and goyte...and that's over a decade ago

[ksandvik]

And here are some drunken vikings from Norway walking to march music!

[Bunny_boy]

This is what my parents/grandfathers complained about rock&roll, or electronic dance music. I do think each generation should protest and make their own styles, but somehow these current young generations have not taken this up to the task.

Modern music to me seems super interesting and varied, so I'm quite happy with it

really?...cant say that i've had that experience...harder and harder to get above the noise floor of the passionless, insincere, inauthentic, derivative and formulaic...the last artists I remember discovering organically that grabbed my attention were little dragon and goyte...and that's over a decade ago

Yeah, stuff I've discovered recently: Aya, DJ Haram, Djrum, John Glacier, Jim Legaxcy, Lambrini Girls, Jane Remover, Brandon Seabrook.

[Bunny_boy]

A waltz is in 3/4 and that is music written for dancing.
Dancing doesn't have to be shuffling back and forth or running on the spot

[Tracewidth]

It doesn't have to be that, no. But when it is? Wowza!

[Bunny_boy]

It doesn't have to be that, no. But when it is? Wowza!

Never been to a goth night or a drum n bass night?? :-p

[TheMaestro]

I twerk to AI Reggeaton. Sue me.

[Bunny_boy]

I twerk to AI Reggeaton. Sue me.

Who's Al Reggaeton?

[TheMaestro]

I twerk to AI Reggeaton. Sue me.

Who's Al Reggaeton?

There's a song about it by Paul Simon - You can call me Al.

[bermudagold]

This is what my parents/grandfathers complained about rock&roll, or electronic dance music. I do think each generation should protest and make their own styles, but somehow these current young generations have not taken this up to the task.

Modern music to me seems super interesting and varied, so I'm quite happy with it

really?...cant say that i've had that experience...harder and harder to get above the noise floor of the passionless, insincere, inauthentic, derivative and formulaic...the last artists I remember discovering organically that grabbed my attention were little dragon and goyte...and that's over a decade ago

Yeah, stuff I've discovered recently: Aya, DJ Haram, Djrum, John Glacier, Jim Legaxcy, Lambrini Girls, Jane Remover, Brandon Seabrook.

dj haram...you can find more about her politics than her music...she definitely has her own sonic aesthetic...its like an ethnic version of a mobb deep dark gloomy haze...not much construction to it though, didn't move me...and most of the interesting bits are from her collaborators and co-producers...but then again she doesn't claim to be a musician...she calls herself a "multidisciplinary propogandist" lol...shtick gets attention...jus look at all the fawning currently over angine de poitrine
i dunno man...aya is pretty formulaic on trend...and the overly autotuned vocals...what year is this?...listenable and radio ready though...if you like some more musicianship in ur west african afrobeats...check out blick bassy...solid singer, instrumentalist, and puts on a great live show as he tours with a rotating group of really talented bandmembers



Rick Beato of all people has convinced me to check out sleep token


thanks for the list...will check them all out

[Bunny_boy]

Aya was no 1 in The Wire's best of 2025 and DJ Haram was no 5. This means I am tuning into an old person if listings agree with me (although they also had Oklou's album quite high up, and I thought it was a disappointment compared to her EPs).

I was going to mention Nyege Nyege Tapes - speaking of stuff from (not west) Africa - as one of my favourite labels but I've not checked out any recent stuff from them.