Comments on: Why Modern Music Is Awful

By: wayne

wayne — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 04:33:53 +0000

Edward:
Rubber Soul and Revolver (’65 & ’66 respectively) were great albums!

pivoting….

Choir! Choir! Choir! 2018
sings Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box
https://youtu.be/LU1EBXOE77I
4:48

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 23:53:45 +0000

Here is an example of brainwashing, but not the usual way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynLlgWbl-mc (one minute, from “Easy A”)

Way back in the 1950s or 1960s, the word “payola” was used to indicate that a radio station was being paid to overplay a song just to make it popular or turn it into an earworm.

wodun is right, that there is still some good music being made out there, but good music used to be much more common. The video demonstrates that it is not just a generational thing, as in “my generation’s music was better than any other generation’s.”

Although I agree with the video’s premise that music in general has hit bottom and can’t possibly get any worse — or so I keep thinking Grammy year after Grammy year — I put the peak a decade or two earlier than the video does, a generation or so before my time. Even the Beatles’ songs would repeat too much (e.g. “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!”).

When I first got to college, the student radio station played the Beatles songs alphabetically A to Z. You really, really don’t want to hear any of their early stuff. They could have been great, but they broke up just as they were starting to get good.

Gimme some of that Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, et cetera anytime. I didn’t need a second listen to like many of their songs.

By: John Conyers

John Conyers — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 03:58:25 +0000

Very fascinating video! I can totally relate. I can’t tell you how many times I am “repulsed” by a song at first and I wonder how in the hell it got so popular. Next thing I am singing along to it. I was brainwashed! That actually makes me feel better. I knew I didn’t actually like that crap!

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 19:14:56 +0000

In reply to wodun. wodun: You are right. Those random performers on youtube, without contracts, are exactly the kind of performers I like, and try to get to post as evening pauses.

By: wodun

wodun — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 19:04:11 +0000

Its never been easier to make and distribute music. Focusing on a handful of well known performers is like only looking at traditional publishing and ignoring indie publishers. Look around and you will find what you like but beware, it could be some rando on youtube who doesn’t have a record deal or make much money.

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 14:23:54 +0000

Excellent analysis. Just when I was thinking about the degradation in lyrics he addressed that. The loss of complexity, no matter which metric is used, is the key reason for lost quality. It should be ironic that in an age when diversity is glorified, it has been deliberately squeezed out of popular music, but this age is mostly unaware of its inconsistencies so the irony goes unobserved.

By: Dan Coovert

Dan Coovert — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 04:30:20 +0000

I have a suggestion. One under appreciated genre is ancient music such as Palistrina as sung by Tallis scholars. Lamentations of Jeremiah by Tallis is amazing as well. Very uplifting

By: wodun

wodun — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 02:22:40 +0000

I’m surprised the guy in the video wasn’t wearing a get off my lawn tshirt. It seems like the same complaints I have been hearing since the 1980’s but I bet you heard them in the 1940’s too.

Everyone has different music tastes and if he doesn’t like “modern” music, all he needs to do is look a little harder because there is more music out there than top 40 or whatever. I’m not even sure that a #1 song means the same thing as it did decades ago because people’s listening habits have changed so much.