The state of modern youth music

Emp_Fab

Now, I know that not all music made by modern artists is like this, but in my limited exposure to 'yoof media', you could be mistaken for thinking otherwise.

In the gym the other night, I'm on the treadmill and there are TVs everywhere (yuk) and they're all showing some 'top 40 countdown' type thing - and.....  it's all the same.  Every act that comes on is virtually identical to the previous one - as is the music.  Unknown generic clones singing songs that have almost identical tempos, all in 4:4, all with a childishly simple melody line that is always in a major key and spans no more than half an octave, all with banal lyrics about partying, all autotuned and not one of them playing an instrument.

Is that what the youth of today have for music ?  How sad is that ?

My generation at least had variety...  Deep Purple, Queen, Bowie, etc - good songs written and played by artists....

I'm genuinely sad for the youngsters today if what they're been fed is this endless stream of autotuned shit, sung (allegedly) by the pubescent unknowns throwing shapes in the camera lens.

...or is it just my gym that's got some kind of aural torture policy ?

octatonic

The generation before you said the same thing about 'your music'.

Emp_Fab

Nah - you can't use that old chestnut.  There is, without question, a homogenisation of music going on - a downhill one at that.  Fewer chords, simpler chords, simpler melody lines, identical rhythms etc...  This isn't about musical creativity, it's about commercial interests fuelling it, with the same logic that sees endless sequels in the cinema.

snakemanStoo

PWL were the 80s version of the same thing, although I'm not sure about the autotune, can't remember when that was invented.

Good music survives and bad boring shite is only remembered on "Now that what i call music" tapes.

Axe_meister

The problem is it has become an industry, cost cutting everywhere. You no longer have AOR people going to music venues searching for new talent and good bands (also not many venues around). The youth also no longer take to music for self expression. So you get a song writer, hire some musicians as MU minimum rates and a pretty face from a dance school, the get the marketing department involved

Phil_aka_Pip

I think that similar went on in the 70s (although the technology wasn't quite the same). Emp Fab remembers DP, Bowie &c as do I, but there was a lot of prefabricated shit on ToTP and in the charts. It's just that we've forgotten about it. I'm sure the same was true in the 60s, we remember the "good stuff" and forget the rest.

jaygtr

Music that's all the same, banal lyrics, childishly simple melody lines- that's 50s rock n roll!

snakemanStoo

As an afterthought, take a look at the charts for any week in the decade of your choice, and see how much crap there is.

If you relish your brain, probably best not to Youtube the ones you're not sure of.

ICBM

If you think music today is derivative, indistinguishable, forgettable manufactured shite, you should try getting "1000 Hits Of The 1960s" (it's a ten-volume, 40-CD set or something like that, containing the top hundred singles from each of the years - I didn't buy it, someone gave me a copy on a hard drive), and see

a) How many of the songs you actually recognise

b) How many of 'a' you ever wanted to hear again

c) How many of 'b' are any good, really

d) Whether there are any "undiscovered gems" that you don't recognise but which are really very good

The answers for me after weeks of listening were: a - about 20%; b - maybe half, ie around 10% of the total; c - again less than half, down to 5% or so of the grand total; and d - none.

Music then was just as driven by record label commercial interests as it is today - it's just that you've never heard 80% of their output because it was as crap as 80% of today's music is and was as quickly forgotten. I'm sure if they do a "1000 Hits Of The 2010s" in forty years time you'll laugh at some of those songs you thought you'd never want to hear again and hadn't done since, but the bulk will be entirely a blank.

(I believe there are equivalent collections for the 50s, 70s, 80s and 90s too, but I really don't have the willpower to go through the same process!)

I've been told that the vast majority of classical music ever written was a waste of manuscript paper too... you only have to listen to some of Haydn's less famous symphonies (he wrote over a hundred, as well as a huge catalogue of other types) to know that's probably true, considering he's one of the good ones! He was a commercial musician working to a formula, just like most of today's producers.

Or in a shorter answer... "same as it ever was, same as it ever was" (Talking Heads, Once In A Lifetime).

octatonic

Emp_Fab said:

Nah - you can't use that old chestnut.  There is, without question, a homogenisation of music going on - a downhill one at that.  Fewer chords, simpler chords, simpler melody lines, identical rhythms etc...  This isn't about musical creativity, it's about commercial interests fuelling it, with the same logic that sees endless sequels in the cinema.

No, I think you're completely wrong here.

Compared to the sonata form of the Classical period, pop music of the 60's/70's/80's has fewer chords, simpler chords, simpler melodies etc.

Pop music is simpler than bebop and jazz, generally.

Also, there are interesting bands and well written music.

We're talking about a GYM here.

You aren't going to hear the good stuff in a gym- it has to be repetitive and light on content.

This isn't a critical listening environment- it is supposed to assist/entertain people who are exercising.

Certainly there is *more stuff that all sounds the same* but that is because there is much more music available now.

There is less homogenisation overall though because the various genre's and subgenre's are far more splintered.

If you examine a narrow slice of what is available, of course it will seem homogenised.

You aren't considering everything that is available though.

Edit: More thoughts.

Music is about emotions.

If someone gets their rocks off to Bach or Queen or One Direction then who is to say what is 'better' music.

Certainly there is more going on in Bohemian Rhapsody than there is in [insert One Direction song title- I don't know any] but there is more going on in Beethoven's 5th Symphony than there is in Bohemian Rhapsody.

Complexity doesn't make it 'better', it just makes it more complex.

Even if it DID make it better, if the recipient doesn't like it then it doesn't matter it is 'technically better' if they don't have an emotional reaction/response to it.

octatonic

Axe_meister said:

The problem is it has become an industry, cost cutting everywhere. You no longer have AOR people going to music venues searching for new talent and good bands (also not many venues around). The youth also no longer take to music for self expression. So you get a song writer, hire some musicians as MU minimum rates and a pretty face from a dance school, the get the marketing department involved

This is not true.

A&R still go to venues but they expect a bit of online buzz first.

They use the internet as a way to find the bands that they eventually go and see.

It is a more efficient way to getting to what they consider 'the good stuff'.

jaygtr

snakemanStoo;42263" said:

As an afterthought, take a look at the charts for any week in the decade of your choice, and see how much crap there is.

If you relish your brain, probably best not to Youtube the ones you're not sure of.

Just watch top of the pops 1978 on bbc4, you'll be surprised at how much rubbish was about.

bertie

octatonic said:

Emp_Fab said:

Nah - you can't use that old chestnut.  There is, without question, a homogenisation of music going on - a downhill one at that.  Fewer chords, simpler chords, simpler melody lines, identical rhythms etc...  This isn't about musical creativity, it's about commercial interests fuelling it, with the same logic that sees endless sequels in the cinema.

No, I think you're completely wrong here.

this,  in buckets - 

bigdawg

Im with Emp Fab on this, in each ofthe examples given here there was always an undercurrent of talented bands and singers - the 60s the who, small faces,fleetwood mac kinks, Cream the guys from motown and Stax, hendrix, the 70s Hendrix (just!) fleetwood mac (part 2) Bowie Led Zep etc... 

Nowadays there just doesnt seem to be the decent stuff underneath.

Also and probably related but Im too tired to form the conclusion - in the 60s 70s 80s you had definbed youth cultures - the mods & ROckers, Skinheads, Suedeheads,, Mods again, new romantics etc...  Even that has disapeared falling into a melting pot of what appears to be manufactured gangsters...

or maybe Im just getting old!

VimFuego

hey, don't blame bucket. Just cos he's young, with long hair.

 

actually fuck it, let's blame him.

ROOG

Emp_Fab said:

 

...or is it just my gym that's got some kind of aural torture policy ?

No its the same at mine, or at least it was until they stopped putting music channels on the screens, now we have the early morning BBC news 'rotation' after an hour I've seen the same reports at least three times.

Even a current music selection would be an improvement. 

bertie

bigdawg said:

 

Nowadays there just doesnt seem to be the decent stuff underneath...

there still is,  its just the "vehicle of delivery" isnt   the same -  trouble is we expect it to be on the media of our youth - ie mainstream radio and TV -    times have changed daddyo...............teh internetz is where you wanna be at.  Innit

octatonic

bigdawg said:

Im with Emp Fab on this, in each ofthe examples given here there was always an undercurrent of talented bands and singers 

or maybe Im just getting old!

Sorry but yes.

There is SO much good music out there if you look for it.

What I see with a lot of people is once they get to their late 20's/early 30's they stop looking for more music.

They already have *most* of 'their' music sorted and they shut down to new stuff.

If you want to find good new music then just install Spotify and find stuff you currently like and go to 'related artists' and start listening to different bands.

See you in 3 years.

not_the_dj

There's great music out there, just don't look for it in the charts.

stickyfiddle

I really hope it isn't the case, but the mainstream stuff is awful- the charts are in their worst shape variety-wise for a long time. That's not to say there isn't loads of good stuff that doesn't get to the top in sales figures. 

The problem I have is where to find it. The "newest" band I love is Gaslight Anthem and their first record came out in 2007. How do people find new music that isn't shite?

octatonic

stickyfiddle said:

How do people find new music that isn't shite?

Spotify 'Related Artists'.