I used to say that older music had melody and newer music does not (for the most part). So we used to be able to hum a tune. That changed around 1984 or so, when music became more technology based. They used a drum machine, keyboard and guitar. Less "humming" ensued.
Music nowadays is far less "happy" in its mood than say, 30 years ago. Perhaps its down to the use of machines instead of actual instruments such as percussion, violins, trumpets (which I rarely hear in music any more). And, to my ears, so much of it is not soulful. I will say that I’ve noticed that the ’singers’ of today don’t so much SING as they simply accompany the tune to the end of that measure. Clearly, this is not everyone, but the voices themselves are pretty mediocre. I LONG to hear another Whitney Houston, or Matt Munro, or Etta James. Even a Bob Dylan (!)
What I hear, for the most part, are singers who have a one octave range, with little nuance (of course, that could be part of the mechanical production) in their voice. They don’t ’cut loose’ as singers used to do, even rock ’n roll singers such as Mick Jagger (he’s got no voice, but he has ’soul’) or any of the rockers of the ’60s or ’70s. Music used to be full of exulting, hoarse joyousness, misery (Aretha Franklin ’I Ain’t Never Loved A Man’), wistfulness ( Mary Hopkins ’Those Were The Days’) or just plain ecstasy (Sam and Dave ’Hold On I’m Comin’!’). i just don’t hear those kind of emotional ’swings’ in music now. It seems more contained, more depressed, or just more...flatline. It would have been rare to turn on the radio in 1966 and not heard 10 different moods in the course of an hour of listening even to Top 40. Maybe it’s the programming, but the music now doesn’t have those kinds of moods front and center. (If it’s rock, then clearly it will be slightly different.)
Where did all the ’emotion’ go in music?
I feel like so many singers sound for all the world like a young ’un singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with all the skill that that ensues. And I come from a family with singers in them. There’s just so little real singing demonstrated in a casual listen of even Top 40 music. It so often sounds like a 'production,' not like a singer showing off their chops. And having said that, who ARE the great singers of today in pop, rock, jazz or blues?
