The op question isnt if there is good music today,..... The question is has ALL GOOD MUSIC BEEN WRITTEN.
VERY DIFFERENT QUESTIONS.
The op question isnt if there is good music today,..... The question is has ALL GOOD MUSIC BEEN WRITTEN.
VERY DIFFERENT QUESTIONS.
Said another way, "What songs of the last 10 years will still be played 40 years from now?" Like the Eagles, AC/DC, Journey... all our classic rock or even country (Brooks&Dunn, George Straight, Garth Brooks, etc.)
I try to listen to current pop songs (I have to, I have a 15 and 12 yo daughter). All the songs sound the same, there's no "catch", there's nothing that makes me want to play it over and over, it doesn't create a personal reaction in me like "Already Gone", "Take It Easy", "Lyin Eyes" do.
Is it an age thing? A resistance to change, try new things? I have no idea.
-jl
Jeremy Lawrence - Author
"Already Gone: a Novel"
http://smarturl.it/ey9snd
https://www.facebook.com/alreadygonenovel/
I don't think that's it entirely - I've heard many young people say that contemporary music, whether pop, rock or "urban," is rubbish. Perhaps it's not fair to play works by geniuses like Marvin Gaye or Brian Wilson and compare it to what's going on now, but it has seemed for some time that the quality of music across all popular genres has taken a steep dive.
It's a complex subject, as you know, with the cause attributed to many factors: technology making people lazy; visual appeal/style being more important than learning the craft of music; digital music becoming free; the lack of powerful gatekeepers/tastemakers such as Ahmet Ertegun, Mo Ostin, Jac Holzman, etc.
Music I don't like, per se, but appreciate the talent/uniqueness of what they did; Eminem and Justin Timberlake.
-jl
Jeremy Lawrence - Author
"Already Gone: a Novel"
http://smarturl.it/ey9snd
https://www.facebook.com/alreadygonenovel/
Have to disagree. Good music is always being written that we don't hear. Just go out to an area Open Mic Night and listen to all the new talents trying to gain a foothold in the musical sphere.
Now, of course, the commercial songwriting quality of yesteryear WAS better, but that doesn't mean there aren't still some out there today making some worthwhile noises. After all, not all of us can possess the songwriting prowess of the Eagles, the Beatles, the Moody Blues, or a Harry Nilsson or a Tom Petty.
Some of my favourites over the past 2 decades include "Superman" by Five for Fighting, "Drops of Jupiter" by Train, "Unwell" by Matchbox 20, and several songs by Sarah McLachlan. Occasionally, I'll listen to the catchy "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley, but not too often.
Last edited by WS82Classics; 08-06-2016 at 09:44 PM.
All carrot, no stick.
"He's just another power junkie, just another silk scarf monkey. You'd know it if you saw his stuff. The man just isn't big enough."--Glenn Frey/Don Henley
"You think you know me, but you haven't got a clue."--John Lennon/Paul McCartney
I've listened to a ton of "new" music and it's awful.. It's not even real for one, using computers, drum machines, auto-tune, and it's still garbage.
The last good song I heard was by someone who started in the 60s.
Again it depends on which genre you're talking about. There is good new music out there but you have to find it since most record labels won't put it out or radio won't play it. I listen mostly to country and alternative/indie rock and there is good music in those genres still. Even some pop I do like but it's usually something that is different like Adele or Mumford & Sons. I too am tired of the dance/computer driven pop/hip hop music out there and seems like a lot are as well, so hopefully these younger generations and kids when they grow up will change it. Plus a lot of rock groups from the 90s and early 2000s (my teen years) are back and actually making good music again. Seems like since the 50s there seems to be these trends of when dance music gets popular it's followed by rock music taking back over so hopefully that's the case again soon.
~*Amanda*~
"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains and we never even know we have the key."
I wonder if there is a finite number - combination of notes, if you will - that the human ear finds pleasing. I'm speaking strictly of melody. If so, then perhaps it is inevitable to exhaust the possibilities? I don't know.
Paul Simon was quoted many years ago as predicting there would be "no more melodies" in the future. Clearly - as popular music across many genres will attest - he was right.
I haven't been able to find that original Paul Simon quote, but I'd love to know what the context was. He probably meant -- though it's dangerous to assume -- that melody would become unfashionable, because of the overemphasis on rhythm in rap and dance music. Or the decline in musicianship and the craft of songwriting as technology took over. He *may* have even been speaking on the theme of "there are only so many pleasing combinations of notes/all of the possible great songs have been written."
It takes a very small change for a piece of music to sound different. There are a limited number of notes, but that's like saying that there are a limited number of letters in the alphabet. There are, but there is still a practically unlimited number of ways in which letters can be combined to make different paragraphs, pages, novels.
Letters are in some way simpler than notes. E.g. there is no 'timing' for letters, only an order in a word or sentence. Notes can also be played at once to make harmony. Chord progressions can make the same melody sound different. There are huge numbers of ways in which melodies can be varied and made different. I don't think that there is a practical limited number of melodies any more than there is a limited number of sentences that can be written. In theory there is a limited number, but we're not going to run into it.