What is going on with todays music?

IvanDobskey · 29 Jan 2019 at 05:57

The music I hear wherever I go these days is just awful! It's shrill whiney repetitive crap, and it all sounds exactly the same! Am I just getting old and just don't understand it? It just seems there is no craft, musicianship or beauty in any of today's music. I regularly find myself having to leave a shop because the music is just so awful! Is it just me?

MrRockliffe · 29 Jan 2019 at 06:11

Like with most stuff these days, music is now engineered to make money. It doesn't have to be good, it just needs to be catchy and played again and again

Artists will often tell you there's a difference to making a song/album for the top 40 and making an album for their fans

Fubsy · 29 Jan 2019 at 08:09

I only watched this the other day and feel it's relevant to the thread.

I find it exhausting going through Spotify now to find new artists that I find pleasing on the ear, but I am still trying and usually find 4/5 new ones per year that I really like. There's so much stuff that there's the danger I end up sticking to what I know and never moving on from the mid 00's...

However yes, the stuff played in general, on the radio, in shopping centres, on TV etc is plain old awful dross.

IvanDobskey · 29 Jan 2019 at 08:15

I guess these artists only produce what sells

Obviously dross sells

Very sad.

jsmoke · 29 Jan 2019 at 08:19

It went downhill late 90s, then we had big brother, xfactor, BGT, auto tuning.

bloodiedathame · 29 Jan 2019 at 08:23

krooton · 29 Jan 2019 at 08:54

Music production has never been easier and cheaper, so quality and longevity suffer massively.

It affects most genres, with those more live instrument based being a bit more resistant to it. Pop/rap/dance music though, sheesh.

I sifted through over 700 dance tracks last year (progressive, trance, tech-trance), and only found around 100 that I liked, of which only 50 I thought were particularily good.

d_brennen · 29 Jan 2019 at 08:56

I often browse Amazon music and the "most played" or whatever is utter tripe.

Maybe it's an age thing though. I'm sure people have disapproved of young people music since forever...

chroniclard · 29 Jan 2019 at 08:58

Pop music has always been tripe, its not a new phenomenon. Every single decade has had its fair share of tripe. There are still plenty of modern artists making good music.

SixTwoSix · 29 Jan 2019 at 08:59

d_brennen said:
Maybe it's an age thing though. I'm sure people have disapproved of young people music since forever...

This, i'm sure there is a whole younger generation loving the latest music as much as we did in our youth.

One of the girls in our office puts on Radio 1 on a regular basis, I actually feel myself getting angry at some of the stuff that gets played over and over.

Then i think back and Radio 1 was never actually that good.

neviditelny · 29 Jan 2019 at 09:11

Thats what I like within my music preferences. I'm a big fan of rock/metal music and quite often you pick up bands from friends "if you like that band then you should check these guys out" etc. Or come across bands when you go to gigs and so. I also tend to use Spotify and the function there to find bands in similar style to other bands I like. I tend to avoid chart music as much as I can as well, can't stand most pop music at all.

PlacidCasual · 29 Jan 2019 at 09:34

I was discussing the desire of kids to be Vloggers or YouTubers the other day at lunch at work. What struck me is that pop music seems barely to be on TV anymore and almost entirely on YouTube or equivalent along with Spotify etc. These huge numbers for views feel kind of artificial because no one was probably counting the number of times we watched music videos in the 80's but millions per showing is likely. I mean pop has always been crap and a fair proportion of music from any age was dross that has aged terribly. I think we might have been lucky though to have lived through a period when artist power was high from the late 60's to the late 90's and maybe the return to the machine music is to be expected.

aardvark · 29 Jan 2019 at 10:06

chroniclard said:
Pop music has always been tripe, its not a new phenomenon. Every single decade has had its fair share of tripe. There are still plenty of modern artists making good music.

thats true but it seems like its more now - i may just be getting old but i can find music i like in every decade for the last 100 years, however for the last one it 'seems' to be harder.

chroniclard · 29 Jan 2019 at 10:17

aardvark said:
thats true but it seems like its more now - i may just be getting old but i can find music i like in every decade for the last 100 years, however for the last one it 'seems' to be harder.

I have no issue with any decade (though the 80's were ropy), guess it depends on your tastes. I can go from Mumford and Sons to Stormzy to Sub Focus to Eminem, they all produce "some" quality stuff if your inclined.

While I think there might be more dross, there is actually significantly more quality as well.

something daft already!! · 29 Jan 2019 at 10:19

I have not listened to any modern music for around 12 years. Most stuff I listen to was made in the 90s.

Shamikebab · 29 Jan 2019 at 11:56

Every person has got old enough to say this.

Every generation is the same, there is just as much good new music as there was at any time.

IvanDobskey · 29 Jan 2019 at 12:45

I literally can't tell the artists apart, the vocals all sound the same. And usually have an awful computerised effect over them which makes them even harder on the ears

It's just horrible to my ears. And they all seem hell bent on showing off their vocal range. An assault on your aural system

Whatever happened to subtlety?

something daft already!! · 29 Jan 2019 at 13:01

Shamikebab said:
Every person has got old enough to say this.

Every generation is the same, there is just as much good new music as there was at any time.

I disagree. Since the advents of the internet and MP3 in the 90's music has become no longer as profitable and less people bother to make music. This, I feel has caused the quality to drop.

Shamikebab · 29 Jan 2019 at 13:23

something daft already!! said:
I disagree. Since the advents of the internet and MP3 in the 90's music has become no longer as profitable and less people bother to make music. This, I feel has caused the quality to drop.

Any evidence for this? If anything the internet and ease of spreading music has caused more people to make music.

Ayahuasca · 29 Jan 2019 at 14:22

There's a lot more music around nowadays it's just more difficult to find tracks that suit your taste.

As for things like mumble rap though, what on earth is all of that about