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Why music is getting worse. It's only 12 minutes, it's worth the time.

Sorry Rick, this late boomer thinks while streaming has made it easier for just about anybody to get their music online I don't think that's a bad thing. Lots and lots of new interesting stuff out there.
Back in the day if you weren't "comercial" enough you had to either find some small label who wanted, or was willing, to take risks. Failing that cassette tapes sold at gigs or via fanzines.
I wonder how much more great music would be around and available if streaming had been a thing in the past.
 
allmanbros said:
When the young heads become old heads, will they still be more flexible?
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From what I've seen from boomers (and I am one of them) the answer is probably no.

It's kind of disappointing to me to watch so many of my generation become exactly the same kind of backwards-looking people that my parents generation seemed to be to us, when we were young.

I expected better.
 
Gigantic said:
I'd posit that bands like Big Star would have been huge if there was streaming in the early 70's.
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Maybe.

I really only became aware of Big Star because of The Replacements’ song ‘Alex Chilton’.
'September Gurls' was not on the radio in the part of the rural south I lived in when it came out
 
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kirk57 said:
Maybe.

I really only became aware of Big Star because of The Replacements. 'September Gurls' was not on the radio in the part of the rural south I lived in when it came out
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I became aware of them in the mid 80’s from the 4AD supergroup band This Mortal Coil’s records. They covered Kangaroo and Holocaust on their first two records and Chris Bell’s “You and Your Sister” and “I Am The Cosmos” on the 3rd. I also became aware of Tim Buckley and Roy Harper in part because of those records. I also worked in an independent record store from 86-94 and received good mentoring on obscure music from the mid 60’s and 70’s that informed the post punk sounds I was into at the time.
Lenny Kaye’s “Nuggets” compilations also exposed me to a lot of music that might have been bigger if streaming was a thing back then.
 
Gigantic said:
Lenny Kaye’s “Nuggets” compilations also exposed me to a lot of music that might have been bigger if streaming was a thing back then.
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I have quite a few of the Rhino Nuggets compilations.

They seem to have taken a lot of care to get the best sound, even though as I understand it from interviews in some cases they could not locate the master tapes so had to rely on the cleanest copy of the LP they could find and go from there.
 
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Tom Brennan said:
I've no doubt there's good new Rock music out there. I just don't give a damn, the music I'm already familiar with satisfies for need for Rock.
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Which is a completely different proposition from the one posited by the OP and some others. For the record (ahem)...my favorite 25 Lps are probably all from between 72 and 84...and Dan Auerbach is currently making killer good rock! These things are not mutually exclusive...

Cheers!
 
DeadRock said:
...but...I'm not making an absolutely unsupportable claim about the state and quality of "new music"...so...there's that...
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If there are unsupportable claims that new music, or any music, is bad, then there are unsupportable claims that it is good also...it's called a preference, an opinion, everybody has many and it's ok if they differ and at the end of the day, we don't have to support our preferences/opinions to each other...suffice it to say we both/all like music and call it a day...to paraphrase a line from Buffalo Springfield (an old band) "nobody's wrong if everybody's right".
 
GordonW said:
The first part of the video, he may have a point.

The second part- about music being "too accessible"- I find harder to accept. I talk to TOO MANY younger people, that not only listen to modern music- but are enamored with older stuff, that would, without streaming services, be either impossible (out of print), horrifically expensive even by historical album purchase prices (a Billy Thorpe CD selling for $150, for example), or too obscure (at least in some cases- regional or foreign artists, that just aren't generally well known in another area), for them to have been able to experience.

I know of VERY FEW younger people- most of whom stream or download music- who don't consider at least SOME sort of music important to them. As to the point, where they'll talk about it for hours, if they find a receptive audience, in many cases. And it seems like they're generally more varied in their interests, that people of my generation were, with rare exception.

Also, I'm seeing people of my generation, and older- those who have embraced streaming or downloading- who have discovered artists and songs that they never knew existed- even from OUR OWN TIME when we were young. I know I certainly have. Just today- I heard a Pat Benatar album that I somehow missed. Knew the top-40 hit from it- but never realized how good the rest of the album was- until now. And because of some younger person who had streamed it, and was playing it near where I was.

How can this be a bad thing?

Regards,
Gordon.
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Well said. Streaming has become a very useful tool for me to be able to find older music I hadn't payed any attention to back then, or I just hadn't ever heard. Also streaming is great for finding new music.
My two sons use streaming in a similar way. More than a few times one or the other son will tell me about some band or musician from the 60's and 70's they "found" and really liked. It's usually music I'm familiar with, but brand new for them. The older son grew up with me playing records and tapes. He still prefers vinyl records over downloaded music files, and just doesn't like CD's at all. I've trued to set him up with nice CDP's I've run across but he doesn't want one. It's either vinyl records, tape, or his high res music files. He just doesn't see the point in owning CD's.
So in the end streaming services are kind of important. My son's and I are always sending a song file or link to one to each other to check out some artist or another.
 
He certainly makes some valid points, but the conclusions he seems to draw from them are quite a bit off, to say the least. What he says applies to some of the commercially oriented music, especially stuff on the major labels, but what he ignores is the vast body of newer music that lies outside this area. Some of this music is bad for sure but others are great, and in an alternate universe I could easily imagine some of them being the popular ones instead of those ones we have. These artists span a huge array of genres and subgenres, and largely release their music independently on many various small labels etc. They want things on their own terms and don't wish to submit to the soul-crushing game that the big music companies play. For this reason, I believe "humanity" in music will survive, at least among the true music lovers.
 
Lavane said:
Well said. Streaming has become a very useful tool for me to be able to find older music I hadn't payed any attention to back then, or I just hadn't ever heard. Also streaming is great for finding new music.
My two sons use streaming in a similar way. More than a few times one or the other son will tell me about some band or musician from the 60's and 70's they "found" and really liked. It's usually music I'm familiar with, but brand new for them. The older son grew up with me playing records and tapes. He still prefers vinyl records over downloaded music files, and just doesn't like CD's at all. I've trued to set him up with nice CDP's I've run across but he doesn't want one. It's either vinyl records, tape, or his high res music files. He just doesn't see the point in owning CD's.
So in the end streaming services are kind of important. My son's and I are always sending a song file or link to one to each other to check out some artist or another.
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a lot of stalwarts my age and older look down on streaming for various reasons, either because you're only "renting" the music, they buy into falsehoods that it's lower quality files (which admittedly is true for spotify) or that artist compensation is paltry, which admittedly is a valid point. That said, they miss on new music discovery, which between my apple music account, youtube and targeted marketing on instagram, are my primary sources for finding new music, although I occasionally get recs from friends, facebook groups and here. As I've aged and moved away from where I've grown up, it's become increasingly difficult to connect locally with people re. music. Whereas in my teens, 20's and into my 30's, music was the primary connection between my friends and I, from my mid 30's on, as people my age withdrew from hanging out to focus on breeding and raising their crotch goblins, music has become less of a source of connection. Using streaming as a "try before you by" service has been critical to me to find new music.
 
Funny video. It's up to taste. I hate all jazz and 95 % of classical music. Other than that and Mongolian throat music I listen to almost everything from 70's rock, indie, EDM, and country.
White Snakes, Post Malone, ZZ Top, Taylor Swift, Luke Combs, Katie Melua, Hans Zimmer and Skrillex are all examples of artists on the same playlist of mine.
 
intro6 said:
He certainly makes some valid points, but the conclusions he seems to draw from them are quite a bit off, to say the least. What he says applies to some of the commercially oriented music, especially stuff on the major labels, but what he ignores is the vast body of newer music that lies outside this area. Some of this music is bad for sure but others are great, and in an alternate universe I could easily imagine some of them being the popular ones instead of those ones we have. These artists span a huge array of genres and subgenres, and largely release their music independently on many various small labels etc. They want things on their own terms and don't wish to submit to the soul-crushing game that the big music companies play. For this reason, I believe "humanity" in music will survive, at least among the true music lovers.
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he's given hints in the past that he's aware of indie music, but I would posit that he makes these "today's music is terrible" polemics, strictly to get eyeballs and income.
 
DeadRock said:
I get your sentiment...but...the general counter argument to the proposition "all new music is bad" is not and has not been "all new music is good"....everybody ain't right...;)
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You are correct in that a blanket statement "all new music sucks" is not reality, but reality in a sense is based on personal preferences, and if that is ones personal preference, they're right for them....BTW, interesting that the song by Buffalo Springfield, "For What's It's Worth" I mentioned earlier is as applicable today as it was, ahem, some 50 years ago.
 
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allmanbros said:
You are correct in that a blanket statement "all new music sucks" is not reality, but reality in a sense is based on personal preferences, and if that is ones personal preference, they're right for them....BTW, interesting that the song by Buffalo Springfield, "Fo"What's It's Worth" I mentioned earlier is as applicable today as it was, ahem, some 50 years ago.
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So, you do not think that we understand it is personal preferences? We are 100% commenting on the "all new music sucks" false claims.

But hey, lets check our personal opinions at the door and keep it an everyone agrees with the OP thread :crazy: Oh, there wouldn't be a reason for the thread then, other than commiseration from haters ;)
 
No Money said:
Back in the day if you weren't "commercial" enough you had to either find some small label who wanted, or was willing, to take risks. Failing that cassette tapes sold at gigs or via fanzines.
I wonder how much more great music would be around and available if streaming had been a thing in the past.
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And sourcing small label music was a challenge at best. There's a lot of folk, blues, Tejano, gospel, etc. recordings that are just lost to time. Some of these hard to find recordings of music of all genres and nationalities/locations are now available via streaming. It's a good thing.

Retro_Pete said:
I hate all jazz and 95 % of classical music. Other than that and Mongolian throat music
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Some of my favorite music and more readily available these days than in the past, like all music. I love being able to 'globe-trot' from home and discover music that I would not have experienced otherwise - new and old music - it's all good.
 
Tonoje said:
"Natural music" sounds like a concocted term. Presumably not confined to acoustic, otherwise why not just say acoustic?

Postwar jazz comfortably accommodated electric and electronic instruments. So who decides what's natural and what isn't? The snobs?
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I used the term “natural music” as a shorthand way to mean music that involves no use of electronics to produce, modify or amplify sound. I agree that “acoustic” could also be used as a shorthand term for such music.

There’s a wealth of music that solely employs non-electronic instruments such as violin, viola, cello, double bass, harp, flute, oboe, clarinet, English horn, bassoon, trumpet, piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn, natural trumpet, cornet, French horn, natural horn, trombone, bass trombone, tuba, Wagner tuba, piano, celesta, harpsichord, pipe organ, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, Mahler hammer, cymbals, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, gong, tam-tam, chimes, tubular bells, orchestral bells, triangle, etc.

Classical music is often performed live before an audience, with no use of electronics. That’s my personal preference.

There are currently living composers who are writing new compositions that involve no use of electronics. My local symphony often includes in a concert program a new composition in addition to traditional classical compositions.

I respect the fact that other people like music that employs electronics.

I’m just suggesting that the people who are complaining about electronically produced music might consider expanding their horizons. There’s a lot of high quality music being performed today - and recorded today. I’m merely citing classical as one example.
 
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