Has Music Gone Mad?

[DrummerBoy]

Originally Posted by jtur88

I suppose we could carry the same argument from TV to the music industry, which produces all the fodder for your iPod. The general artistic quality of what is in your iPod has been created through the same evil and money-grubbing forces that has generated our TV lineup. A very small number of interests monopolizing the music distribution industry, dumping a few mass-produced and formulaic genres of music that can be produced at minimum cost and maximum profit, hypnotizing billions of zombies with buds in their ears.

In music, as in TV and film, people do not get what they like, they like what they get. There is no alternative and they're addicted to the wall-to-wall accessibility.

Well, your argument has been around for donkey's years; my Dad and his dad no doubt lamented the same thing. But see, where your argument is flawed is that, in reality, we have MORE music choices than any generation ever has had in the history of recording.
Doubt me? Make a visit to your local Hastings or Barnes & Noble or even public library and take a gander at the myriad genres: classical, soul, jazz, latino, Celtic, Blues, Carribean, pop, country, New Age, rock, rap, Asian, Middle Eastern, opera, Motown, sountracks.
And you claim that people don't get what they want but they instead "get what they get?"
What about satellite radio, which offers dozens of genres?
I'm guessing all these facts kinda suck for your diatribe, eh?
Sorry, I couldn't help it. I'm a musician and simply love it too much to let you troll on it.
Peace.

[WanderingFlame]

I think most mainstream music on the radio today is just ridiculous. I didn’t think to highly of the music I heard on the radio when I was young either. I think the decline really started to happen in the 90s and it only became perpetuated by the internet. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it just helped speed the destruction along because instead of mainstream music becoming better to try and contend, they now had to rely on more on shock value to sell music. Now it’s all really overly sexualized as a way to get people’s attention because otherwise, nobody would listen to it. It happened the same way with television too. I never watch regular television anymore because there’s just so much better stuff online that I could be watching. Companies know this so they find something that’s cheap to produce and has a lot of human interest and caters to the lowest common denominator in society….reality tv is born.

[big daryle]

Originally Posted by jtur88

I suppose we could carry the same argument from TV to the music industry, which produces all the fodder for your iPod. The general artistic quality of what is in your iPod has been created through the same evil and money-grubbing forces that has generated our TV lineup. A very small number of interests monopolizing the music distribution industry, dumping a few mass-produced and formulaic genres of music that can be produced at minimum cost and maximum profit, hypnotizing billions of zombies with buds in their ears.

In music, as in TV and film, people do not get what they like, they like what they get. There is no alternative and they're addicted to the wall-to-wall accessibility.

Music has been ---- since the early 80's, with very, very few exceptions.

[donsabi]

Modern music is an overstatement. Music today should be termed "electronic noise." A true singing voice needs no enhancement. A talented musician needs only a instrument. Most of the music people today could not survive without electronics because they have no real music talent to begin with.

[DrummerBoy]

Originally Posted by donsabi

Modern music is an overstatement. Music today should be termed "electronic noise." A true singing voice needs no enhancement. A talented musician needs only a instrument. Most of the music people today could not survive without electronics because they have no real music talent to begin with.

Again, you guys are wallowing in hyperbole. Modern music? Please define. I listen to modern jazz and blues and country artists all the time who have fine, strong voices that need minimal if any studio enhancement. People like Curtis Stigers or Ronnie Dunne or Billy Currington or Carrie Underwood or Eddie Vedder are just a few I could name off the top of my head that can stand on the strength of unadorned vocals.
Believe me, as a former studio drummer I've seent he difference between raw talent and coporate 'creations' who are built from the gound up like a car on an assembly line.

[Teak]

Originally Posted by nevergoingback

Jonathan Tyler and The Northern Lights would probably be Southern Rock.

Northern Lights = Southern Rock??

I'm confused. Northern = Southern??

Just choking...err, joking.

Music is WAY too subjective for me to get involved in *this* discussion.

They always say: never discuss religion or politics. To that I would add: music.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by DrummerBoy

Well, your argument has been around for donkey's years; my Dad and his dad no doubt lamented the same thing. But see, where your argument is flawed is that, in reality, we have MORE music choices than any generation ever has had in the history of recording..

But the reason I started this thread, was because there was a similar thread going called "Has TV Gone Mad", and I can remember when we could only get one channel. There is certainly more video choices than ever, too, but that just means there a lot more crap along with about the same amount of good stuff. Not every garage band is good.

[Chatteress]

Originally Posted by NEWARK MAGIC

I find the premise of this thread to be rather self-righteous and snobbish. Although there certainly is music that is produced according to a formula and to insure maximum profit, that does not mean it is any less genuine or "artistic." If a Britney Spear's song (now, mind you, listening to her music makes me want to vomit) causes a listener to experience a rush of emotions than that music (B. Spears) is just as genuine and authentic for her as Miles Davis' late 1950's recording of "Kind of Blue" is for me. Music is art and art is relative and subjective. Who am I to say that a programmed drum beat is less authentic than a groove laid down by Mitch Mitchell. Music is meant to move the spirit; what moves mine might not move yours. I cringe when I hear people say things like, "I hate rap or country or....." The wonderful thing about music is that the canvas is the listener's spirit. Rap or contry might not fit my tastes but that does not mean it is not msic. Music cannot be quantified or legitamized or authenticated. Music just IS. Some music is popular and in "style" at the moment, but that is OK, that is just what it IS. I can go to my front porch and bang out a rythym on my metal handrail while my neighbor whistles over the top. We can record it and distribute it. And if it moves the spirits of millions enough for them to go out and buy it, would it be less of a "music" than a 40 piece classical orchestral recording of Brahms? I find the OP's original post to be rather hidebound.

Exactly!

[loose cannon]

Originally Posted by jtur88

OK, I just went to YouTube and listened to Kings of Leon, Manchester Orchestra, and Modest Mouse. I heard the same old dominating Casio drum beat over same old electronic instruments, with lead singers who obviously have no formal voice training singing songs that have no discernable melody. What am I missing?

When "Alternative" is the largest-selling market genre, what is it the alternative to?

As with the TV thread similar to this one, obviously, there are always creative people generating excellent material outside the mainstream. There is wonderful video being produced, as well as wonderful music, but what chance does the pedestrian audience have of exposure to it, without joining an in-group and learning of a product by word of mouth?

World Music (and World TV) are almost completely inaccessible to the general public. What is foisted off as World Music is simply diluted forms of non-western genres that have been "discovered" and presented to appeal to the western ear. I go to sites like Pandora.com, and enter names of world superstars like Faye Wong or Lata Mangeshkar, and they draw a blank.

Similarly, in film, the Iranians are turning out wonderful pictures, and are nearly impossible to find. It is actually illegal to screen an award-winning Cuban movie in the USA, unless it is made by Cuban emigres in Miami.

The voice training point is irrelevant. Being an old school punker from the school of Lester Bangs, it is all about emotion, and honesty. I could care less about formal training. You get on stage and you do it. All the metal-prog rockers can go stick it! The problem with a lof the music mentioned using the casio is that it is way too derivative of 80's New Wave and frankly does not measure to those great tunes.

[Hoarfrost]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

Actually I generally only listen to artists on independent labels, and most times people I just meet have no idea who my favorite bands are. I don't listen to the "formulaic" stuff found on the radio.

wow, that just made me sound really elitist.

Makes you sound like someone I'd associate with. Embrace your taste.

The poster who said that the opposite is happening is on the money. Music is becoming cheaper to make and is already free to advertise and ditsribute. What you'll see more of now is balkanisation into niche markets. In all honesty the people who are still under the thumb of big musicare in that predicament because of ignorance. I couldn't tell you what's on the radio or MTV right now because I've freed myself from that influence. I have my spotify, lastfm, somafm, and my various music blogs by veritable tastes. I'm not one of those religious indie kids, but yeah.