Why is music getting worse?

[Nikki1989]

And we go, for the ones that don't know, you know the musically uneducated.

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2 d

Watch the video. This is about how music is made and shared. People are missing the point.

[Lliam]

That was a wonderful video. Rick explained it very well. I watch him quite a bit because he knows music and he knows the music biz. But I hadn't seen this one.

I was eleven in 1965 when music started getting interesting. Folk music from that period introduced meaningful lyrics (peace, love, anti-war) that kids really related to. Some amazing, young song writers.
Recording technology became advanced.
Self-taught kids with talent started creating innovative music and innovative sounds. Think Brian Wilson, CSNY, Cream, The Who, Hendrix, psychedelia, prog rock, hard rock, ... the list is very long.
Producers were looking for talent. They wanted something new.

I look back on music from the mid-60s through the 70s as the height of creativity. New innovations in technology - synthesizers, wha wha peddle and other effects contributed. But everything was played by real people.
That's not to say that there wasn't great music to follow.

But record labels started taking fewer chances on new artists. Record labels are all about money. Period. They don't care about art.
And then the shit that Rick talked about started happening.

[Nikki1989]

Exactly.

[Lliam]

Interestingly, few of those musicians could read sheet music. Even people like Glen Campbell, Leon Russell (both part of The Wrecking Crew) and Jimmy Page, who started out as studio (session) musicians couldn't sight read. They could read charts. And were simply good enough to pick up on music instantly and know what was needed for the songs.

On the other hand, the older session musicians would only play written scores. They couldn't innovate.

[Lliam]

Thanks for the MHO, Nikki. :-)

[LiamJHayden]

Rick nails it as usual.

[WhiteSteve]

Yeah…so…. a lot going on in this question, haha. And I’m a musical layperson, really, other than I’m currently tooling around with an acoustic guitar and learning some chords (with no end goal of being a guitar hero, just want the ability to pick it up and strum it for fun) and 20+ years ago I was a guest MC on some songs from my friends’ endeavor as kind of weird alt-rap group. These guys love Ween, if that gives any clue as to the nature of their stuff, haha. Just weird stuff I don’t really understand and truly appreciate, but creative and unique.

Also, I’m primarily a rap/hip-hop guy, which I know is a non-starter for a lot of more classically trained musicians, but I think is an excellent genre, when done right…. but it’s more often than not done so, SO wrong, especially lately.

But I say that to say, I’m not one of these people who has this hard-line stance of “if you didn’t play it on an actual instrument, or sing in the traditional sense, then it doesn’t count as music.” I respect rappers and DJs/producers just the same as I respect Stevie Ray Vaughan or Mariah Carey in the sense that I still think it takes talent to be able to construct an organization of noise to palatable to a broad audience.

Like composing any kind of music that’s successful commercially is one of the most amazing feats humans are capable of accomplishing. To start with nothing, and to create a song, a beat, a melody, a catchy hook, an infectious guitar lick, any of that…. it’s all impressive to me that someone can imagine that in your own mind and make it into reality, and millions of complete strangers can all hear it and largely agree that it’s good…. that’s so amazing to me.

I like Rick Beato, I agree with a lot of things he says, and I enjoy learning the “science” of music. I think he’s maybe more of a stickler than I am as a skilled musician…. and I get it. If I spent my whole life mastering an instrument and composing songs, I’d for sure be frustrated by someone without that skill being equally or more successful using a computer. At the end of the day, though, it’s just “what is the final, finished product? Is it catchy? Is it anthemic?” As a layman, I probably just don’t have the trained ear to pick up on some of the nuances musicians will. Like I totally get what Rick is saying with the drum machine vs actual John Bonham, and I notice when he isolates it and points it out…. but I’m not positive I’d detect it if I were just a finished product in its entirety. I could maybe subconsciously think something about it isn’t as good, but I’m never going to be able to just, on my own, hear and recognize a drum machine vs a live drummer, if the parts are the same on paper. Wish I could, but I can’t, even having had it pointed out to me by a professional who knows what they’re talking about😂

Kind of getting more into his “Act 2”…. the thing that really resonated with me was his “quality vs quantity” argument. I think he’s right in the sense that music is too easy to make, too easy to consume, and that’s probably very true about all the stuff with who’s keeping royalties with borrowed stuff that was the basis of the AI learning foundation being recycled. And I think the last few decades (my lifetime, basically) have been so taken over by corporate motives, and it’s about the money, not the music. I also think we’ve gotten to a point where it’s almost all been done before. How many songs do we need about love or heartbreak or partying or reminiscing on the past…. just thousands and thousands of songs all tapping into the same 5-10 broadly-relatable emotional concepts. I think the same is happening with movies and TV. It’s all been done before, and the only thing keeping it alive is new generations coming of age who HAVEN’T heard it all before.

I’m struggling at 45 to find a whole lot of good new music. Certainly in the rap genre there’s been an evolution, and in my opinion, it’s not for the better. But Gen Z loves it, it’s huge with them. And all the greats from my heyday, who I can now look back on with some hindsight and use greater discretion for what’s still holding up today, the kids today call “dad rap” or “dad rock”😂

And I always swore I’d never be the out of touch old guy, I want to say I love the music of today and just keep on rockin’, but some shit is just so terrible, I just can’t. Mumble rap is hot garbage. Modern rock music just seemingly doesn’t exist. If it’s being made, they aren’t putting where I can see it. I thought Greta Van Fleet were really good, but it’s undeniable that they’re Led Zeppelin 2.0. There’s nothing original about it, it’s just a refurbishing of something we already confirmed to be good. But I just can’t bring myself to hate on them, because what else is even out there? I gotta listen to Travis Scott or stadium country music…. HARD PASS on all of that, lmao. It’s GVF for rock music, and Griselda (Conway the Machine, Benny the Butcher, and Westside Gunn, plus their main beat producer Daringer, maybe the real hero) for gangsta rap. That’s just about the only people consistently making good music post-2015, for my tastes.

And that’s where the quality/quantity comes in. There’s just precious little quality music being made. Country has never really landed with me other than really old outlaw country, Willie Nelson, etc, and that seems to have replaced rock music for people who don’t like rap. Again, I don’t know the technical name for the quality to country music that makes it sound the way it broadly does, I guess just “twang” is the best way to put it….. I just absolutely hate that sound. Like the way white men over 50 react to rap music, that’s my reaction to the overall sound of country, lmao. Just instantly offended on a visceral level😂 Whatever the source of that twang is, get rid of it, and then maybe I can listen to country.

I wish I didn’t like Drake, but I do, in the sense that he’s a hit machine. I have no qualms with liking poppy music, I think that’s all fair…. but I’m not going to sit here and say it’s as musically complex to create as other stuff. But when all is said and done, I just want to dance, haha, or vibe, whatever the mood is, but just give me a hit song. I worked with a guy who was into Sigur Ros like 20 years ago, and he’d play it in the back room of the Hollister we worked at, and I was like “Is this one of those CDs of whale noises?” He said they were Icelandic, and they created a new language that the album was written in or something like that, and I was fully like “wtf bro”, but he was actually a legit guitarist, so maybe he’s just got some sort of sensibility that I don’t. I guess it’s creative and original, so points for that.

And look….”My name is WhiteSteve, and I love that Nonsense song by Sabrina Carpenter”😂….25 year old WhiteSteve would punch me in the face for that, lmao, but catchy pop music is still fair to me. I don’t need everyone who puts a song out to be a Hall Of Fame musician, this is about fun as much as it’s about art. And the older I get, the less productive it feels to me to shake my fist at the clouds about the state of music in 2024. I think we’ve done everything to death, and we’re now in the phase where people my age recycle stuff from our day and repackage it for the youth, for profit. It’s whatever, but I think it’s sad for the future of creative music, and I hope there are kids out there learning to play instruments or sing, or even rap or producing beats in the fashion we saw it done more successfully in the past.

I can listen to an instrumental and tell you if I like it or not in just a few measures. And everything starts with the instrumental and the melody for me, that has to really grab me. The lyrics…. whatever, kinda. Honestly, rap is the only time I really focus on lyrics because the vocal distortion of traditional singing makes lyrics hard to understand for me, it’s just about an overall sound when it’s rock music, or R&B, etc. I can only understand spoken words clearly, but that might just be a musical version of a learning disability on my end😂

I’d better wrap this up, if anyone is even still reading, lmao…. but the moral of the story is: probably a lot of truth in what Rick is contending, plus I think younger kids just simply don’t know any better because they’re growing up in an era where music is past it’s prime, and they don’t have a basis for comparison, because, as many of us do when we’re young, we just roundly reject anything that came before us and is popular with older generations, because they did see it or us when we were young and cool, so it’s just old and outdated to them. I had to become an adult before I started exploring the past and finding all the good stuff from back in the day, so I think that’s just the built-in ignorance of youth that most can’t/won’t see past until their youth is behind them.

[Darkchild25]

Personally I think standards are dropping people and are accepting less. Some of these 'musians' are lazy. Unable to even play a musical instrument or able to hold a note. Rappers don't even rhyme. One song (notice I didn't say good) gets them noticed, and they are more known for their lifestyle or how they present themselves.

There are some really talentless people out there and because they look good or have a strong social media presence or even charisma/ personality they do well but as for talent no.

[Nikki1989]

Did you watch the video? Nobody needs to play anything these days.

[Darkchild25]

Just watched it. it's funny because I was thinking AI can generate song lyrics and music, but didn't actually mention it.

[Nikki1989]

There are many videos on YouTube that explain how a hit song can be written and recorded in less than an hour using nothing but a laptop, and it is truly disturbing. I am a classically trained pianist and am currently learning guitar, so watching this crap and seeing how easily idiots accept the fakeness is very depressing.

[handsomelad70]

I'm pinup boy handsome, but never became a musician.

[RetroReviews]

They are lazy, lack musical talent did not make an effort to learn to play instruments. And with the explosion of the internet and smart devices technology in general if you are appealing to the eye the powers can do the rest propping you up with gimmicks creating atmosphere with pyro, flashing lights, smoke machine, it's about promoting a brand, social media etc. and the majority of audiences (especially millennials and gen z are watching you through their phones anyway so it really don't matter there are already addicted to the technology. To them it's just like another video game but music in it now

[handsomelad70]

What's wrong with promoting your brand? That's what I'll soon be doing.

[Bricealan]

Hi Nikki, if I remember correctly, you too are a musician? Everyone knows that RAP is anything BUT 'music' in any sense of the word, and from the looks of 'concerts', staged events have become a theatrical 'visual' production with smoke, 100 dancers, but very little actual musical talent.

I think DarkChild, below hit the nail on the head, with so-called musicians getting lazier and lazier when it comes to knowing how to play. A friend told me that most 'rock' music involves very little 'ability' to play the instrument they are playing and that MOST, cannot even read music and are simply mimicking what they hear and 'play by ear'

If you play, and I believe you said you do, you started very young. I started two years ago, and learned 'Treble Clef' from playing violin, and THEN had to learn Base clef' for playing piano. I would guess that many of today's people do not know the difference? !

[loveslongnails]

I like Rick Beatto a lot and he really knows his music. My parents say the same thing about music today and I have to agree with them. It's so easy to synthesize sounds on computers or machines and patch them together to say " look, I've created something new". Not really. But like movie themes, I think we've run out of really original ideas and plots, so it's difficult to come up with a surprise or a twist and not say " Oh, this is just like so and so". I believe that's what has happened to music.

[Friendlybro79]

I think during Mozart and Beethoven's era the older generations said that about them too lol. I think some of this has to do with change is hard for people, so when style of music changes that isn't your preference, well then we think it is worse.

If you can create art, I think you're always going to have people that don't see it or get it.

[Nikki1989]

It seems like no one watched the video and missed the point.

[Friendlybro79]

Yeah didn't have time my apologies

[exitseven]

I think the world has lost something during the last 50 years. I don't know if we can call it heart or soul or whatever but it is missing something. In the 70s we had the Vietnam war to bring people together. Now nobody gives a crap about anything. That is why music is getting worse.

[exitseven]

RE"Update= I understand what he is saying. I had a friend who was an electronics tech. He had a VCR repair business but he also was one of the few people that could work on the vacuum tube amplifiers in the recording studios. A lot of musicians liked the warm sound that these analog amplifiers could provide. He went all over the east coast to service these old amplifiers.
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[avery58]

I don't keep up much with newer music. It sounds like it belongs on Instagram, not much creativity.

[CubaPirate]

Simon Cowell has a lot to answer for don't you think 🤔

[Nikki1989]

Absolutely.

[handsomelad70]

No school music education (as I had as a lad) means most folk can be swayed to listen to and/or buy crappy "music" if it's catchy and beaty even if the musicianship is substandard and/or the lyrics are inane or, and some cases (many with [c]rap) , offensive.

[Kelly6]

@Nikki1989 It is getting worse because good thing can't be forever,
Same as movies have gone worse because they don't have good stories

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

I think musicians and all the good music has died, or they're getting too old to make any new songs, some of them have last tours due to their age such as Tony Orlando and Dawn recently had their last tour (March 2024)

[Changiis07]

Because they Devil is at work, there's so many hidden things in lyrics and videos lots of videos now are demonic and it's getting worse

[MicahRaine]

Because "artists" survive off sponsorships and label deals and force out music instead of trying to chase the perfect sequence.

[Nikki1989]

Half true. The music is forced and not thought out.

[MikeTheBartender]

I feel like our parents said the same thing about our music 🧐

[Nikki1989]

My parents never did.

[ritxi]

I agree with that and I think that music gets worse for older generations to make a gap between generations and be sure that you will never find your parents, uncle or aunt in the pubs you go to.

[SotiCoto]

First part, maybe. Second part, not so much. Going to gigs is more expensive than ever, but people still do it in droves.

[Nikki1989]

Yes, and they pay crazy money to watch people play to backing tracks. Taylor Swift played recently to 94,000 people here, and nothing was live.

[IslaTheWitch]

my mom thought the same about music in the 80s...

[NathanDavis]

what are we not... getting worse at, as a species... lol

[Babygirl_S]

I can easily find the songs that I like. As a music lover, I like a diverse musical palette. I usually like most popular tracks but the ones suggested on this website fail to impress me.

[Kingofkings1992]

@MikeTheBartender is correct. Every generation thinks the generation following them has awful music. I know what you mean though. Some artists on the radio today make me wanna burn down a nursing home.