Does Contemporary Music Suck?

General music discussion.
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Dr. Medulla
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Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

https://globalnews.ca/news/9001083/why- ... new-music/

Offered without comment or endorsement, but rather to initiate discussion.
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by revbob »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
24 Jul 2022, 2:32pm
https://globalnews.ca/news/9001083/why- ... new-music/

Offered without comment or endorsement, but rather to initiate discussion.
Umm there's plenty of contemporary artists making good/great music. But Hoy hates it all because its not "new".

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Heston »

There will be good stuff out there but I'm having a hard time finding it easily.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

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Heston wrote:
24 Jul 2022, 5:53pm
There will be good stuff out there but I'm having a hard time finding it easily.
There is a shit ton of good music being created by kids in their 20s. What gets played on the radio—i.e., mainstream—is what the corporate music industry is promoting. Not everything has an equal chance of getting airplay. That's a core truth that has to be understood. So the problem is what gets hyped and promoted, not what is being created. The crapfest that is mainstream music is not an artistic problem, but one of industry. I would guess that the reason for that is rooted in the fragmentation of the music audience—there is so much available that we gravitate to very distinct niches rather than follow what's "popular"—and the effect of music piracy, which has shifted the industry towards what it can sell to commercials and movies and the like, which encourages something more bland.
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by weller259 »

I think another factor is that people can produce music of high quality without having a record company as it were which would also greatly affect radioplay/exposure. Any "name" artist will have a leg up regardless of the garbage they produce whereas the new, "unknown" artists who might be producing good music have to get "discovered" somehow before getting any notice. The "business" has certainly changed but one thing remains true to it and that is record companies chasing the money over everything else.
From what I see there's still a little hope
That's if we don't hang from too much rope

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by revbob »

But seriously how do we define "contemporary "?

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

weller259 wrote:
24 Jul 2022, 8:35pm
I think another factor is that people can produce music of high quality without having a record company as it were which would also greatly affect radioplay/exposure. Any "name" artist will have a leg up regardless of the garbage they produce whereas the new, "unknown" artists who might be producing good music have to get "discovered" somehow before getting any notice. The "business" has certainly changed but one thing remains true to it and that is record companies chasing the money over everything else.
Right, which speaks a bit to my comment about fragmentation. Bands don’t need that record deal to build an audience. There are so many online platforms and ways of taking advantage of algorithms (if you like X, you might like Y). It does mean that bands have to be more entrepreneurial and hustling—the kind of stuff that underground bands in the 80s understood—and it means forgoing that superstardom, but that stuff seems unlikely now anyway.
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by matedog »

Wow that article was abysmal.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by matedog »

To elaborate, the article's biggest issue is that it conflates popularity with quality.
Others have weighed in, complaining that too many of today’s wannabe stars are simply celebrities making music with laptops. Older music recorded in old-fashioned studios with real instruments sounds richer and more interesting. Far too many songs are fast fashion: get ’em out, squeeze everything you can out of the tune, and then forget them. (One critic, pointing to how The Beatles’ Yesterday has been covered more than 3,000 times, asks how many covers there will be of Cardi B’s WAP in the future. He has a point.)
This paragraph is all sorts of problematic. The obvious counterpoint is that music production is far cheaper and more accessible now than it has ever been. That perhaps leads to a glut, but also provides a lot more opportunity than artists in the past have had. There are "laptop" songs that have made a real impact now that wouldn't exist in 1970. And that bit comparing "Yesterday" to "WAP" is ridiculous. It just reeks of that tendency to think that old music was better because we forget the forgettable and bad stuff.
More theories: A lack of genuine storytellers in the vein of Carole King or Jackson Browne. Musicians who buy ready-made beats online and then sing/rap over top and then release the result. A desire to be famous rather than pay their dues learning their craft. (Blame all the TV talent shows for that.)
Hip hop is ripe with amazing storytellers. Kendrick Lamar put out another amazing album this year as an obvious example. The idea that there is a dearth of "genuine storytellers" is preposterous. Unless they are lamenting the lack of folky artists which is also ridiculous as Brandi Carlisle, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Angel Olson come to mind as artists putting out great music in recent years. They just aren't that popular because that genre isn't that popular right now.
Record labels that don’t nurture and develop artists, resulting in ultra-short careers consisting of one or two songs.
Oh my god, "ultra short careers consisting of one or two songs" holy shit, does this writer not know the history of popular music?
A lack of people willing to pursue true mastery of a musical instrument with years of practice.
Right, Steve Vai is the epitome of quality. Where does this assertion about lack of musical instrument prowess even come from?
Too much perfection in the recording process, an obsession that strips all the humanity and soul out of a song. (Compare anything from today’s top 10 to a Motown hit and the difference becomes obvious.) Formulaic songwriting (I’m looking at you, Max Martin.) Algorithms which just push more of the same
Wait, so now things are too produced? Just a second ago, they were lamenting "laptop production."
I’m not done. Thanks to technology, many of today’s artists are having hit songs without ever playing a single live gig. That means they’ve never had to sweat it out in front of strangers over long tours. That boot camp experience is essential to becoming a better all-around musician. You need that experience if you’re not just going to compete with your heroes’ music on the world stage, but also with your heroes’ heroes’ heroes.
No, it's not essential.
And there’s still more to consider. Cast your mind back to 1962. Music that was thirty years old then sounded old. Not only was modern pop music still developing, but we’d barely begun to use things like electric guitars and proper amps. Effects pedals hadn’t been invented yet nor had synthesizers. Recording studios were primitive things compared to today, capable of only producing material in mono. But then starting sometime around 1969, the sonic quality of recordings reached new levels. A song recorded in 1972 sounds every bit as good as something recorded this year. (In fact, you can make an argument that because of over-production, digital technology, and too much compression, older records sound better than what we have today.)
Yeah organic stuff ages better than stuff done right at the birth of new tech (See "London Calling" vs. TIBAD) and again, stuff that ages better is going to stay relevant longer than stuff that doesn't age better. There is plenty of music from 1972 that sounds like absolute shit.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Flex »

I pretty much co-sign matey's post, and I don't even like current pop music as much as him.

I do think we're in a bit of a trough of quality for pop music at the moment, and a lot of industry tricks have been replicated so - despite living in a period where more and more diverse music is easily available that ever before - the charts have a feeling of stifling conformity at the moment. But I dunno if that's particularly unique to the era. Diversity in pop music is more the exception than the norm, I think.

I also think there's been some downstream bad effects of everyone finally just embracing a "just go get that big payday" mentality. From the cultural and critical side I mean. I actually don't think you can be meaningfully subversive while being a part of the dominant corporate machine, especially when the cutural message from and to everyone is "yassss sell more product." That's a slightly different criticism than what that writer is getting at, but I actually think that vein gets closer to why the state of music feels a bit unsatisfactory right now. There's nothing that feels subversive or rebellious about any of it. There's no counter-culture, just different shades of buying your favorite artist a new fuckin' Porsche.

Reminds me a bit of this Bill Hicks bit (one of his better-aged numbers), especially starting around 1:25:
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by JennyB »

I just tend to think there has been greatness and there has been shit in every era. Still holds true today. There are some amazing artists out there - Mitski, Automatic, Brandi Carlisle, St. Vincent, Gaga, etc. and there is absolute garbage too. Just like every other decade.
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by BostonBeaneater »

JennyB wrote:
25 Jul 2022, 12:51pm
I just tend to think there has been greatness and there has been shit in every era. Still holds true today. There are some amazing artists out there - Mitski, Automatic, Brandi Carlisle, St. Vincent, Gaga, etc. and there is absolute garbage too. Just like every other decade.
I see this more and more with my contemporaries as we ease into late-middle age. People just seem to stop even trying to enjoy new stuff. I like hearing a Clash song on the radio (or stream), it's like a comfy old chair. This doesn't mean there isn't good stuff out there, we're just aging out.
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by revbob »

I couldn't be fucking bothered to read the whole article.

There's always plenty of good/great music out there new or old, you just need to seek it out. If you want to be spoon fed music then dont complain about what you're fed.

I still enjoy much of the music I liked as a kid/teen but I still love discovering something new.

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

BostonBeaneater wrote:
25 Jul 2022, 1:04pm
I see this more and more with my contemporaries as we ease into late-middle age. People just seem to stop even trying to enjoy new stuff. I like hearing a Clash song on the radio (or stream), it's like a comfy old chair. This doesn't mean there isn't good stuff out there, we're just aging out.
This is entirely true. And there's nothing wrong with losing your curiosity for new music or any kind of art. Getting older often means consolidating your beliefs rather than challenging them. The mistake is in finding the horrible change as primarily external rather than internal.

Also, kudos to Hoy's teardown of the piece—solid, solid work.
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Marky Dread »

The only music that's good is the stuff I like and the stuff you like.
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