Wow. Cultural gatekeepers shaking their fists at the societal deterioration playing on their lawns and airwaves.
Im not suggesting that formulaic commercial enterprises like Maroon 5, or sounds du-jour like trap or 21 Savage are indicative of any depth, but much of the music of any decade or century is bubble-gum. It loses its flavor after a while and society moves on.
in the past year I've discovered several new, younger artists who are now part of my listening catalog. They're not legends; they're not trying to be. But they are talented, engaging acts who keep the musical flame burning.
In the last decade I had one former student graduate from San Francisco Conservatory with a degree in guitar performance (he's now working on a doctorate in composition at UT-Austin) and presently two more are doing wonderful things studying at Berklee School of Music. People like this (who are extremely literate) are out there, but they are not the ones you see front-and-center at the Grammy's. They are the ones in the pit or dimly lit in the background--the ones who make it possible for the stars to shine (for however long they get to shine).
I appreciate folks writing articles and making comments but I have so many people turning me on to great music and something new every day I can't help but say "some aren't looking very hard and have limited system adjustability" to be able to make judgement calls.
I don't see a problem in recording nearly as much as I do with HEA playback.
@schubert, wasn't this always the way? Everything is of its time, no escaping that but civilisation goes up and down. Between the end of the great Greek golden age and the beginnings of the Renaissance very little progress seemed to happen. Then it took off.
With music, its always about expression first. Different decades had different feelings to express. Wasn't the youthful frustration behind much Rock and Roll in the 50's mirrored by a similar frustration behind Punk/New Wave/Metal/Rap in the 70s/80s and beyond?
I'm not sure what the kids of today are trying to say but it'll never stray too far from frustration, dating, lack of money etc.
Strangely enough politics seems to be totally unfashionable nowadays whereas they were at the forefront during Punk, (and Folk decades earlier).
You’re right, chrshanl37, why are you doing that very thing? Two more points. Most of us don't do it 24/7 and we can listen to music while we check in on Audiogon.
Whatever the hell the kids are listening to these days surely must be better than being cooped up in the house 24/7 posting on forums about whatever the hell the kids are listening to these days.
The real advantage is that a young person's mind develops further with music instruction and education. Music benefits all other subjects studied as well. It should be as essential and as required as math, language arts, reading, writing and history/social studies.
Miller- look for a band called Sammy Miller and the Congregation- record is forthcoming, but they are usually touring. Young, top tier players, big band with a sense of stage business and humor. I also got turned onto Snarky Puppy recently- they are no secret, I just wasn't clued in-- sort of a large collaboration of jazz, fusion and jam.
Its always been crap, crap, and more crap. Best we can do is hold our noses as we wade up to our necks scanning around searching in vain for the rare find floating in the bilge.
Music has been in decline forever, or at least since about 1800. There is always great music being created by artists who do it for the love of music, but pop music is where the decline really shows.
It’s hard to see Elvis or Chuck Berry as anything but a big musical step down from Duke Ellington or Glenn Miller.
What’s happening now in pop music is computers. They analyze hit songs and come up with a formula for making more hit songs. You don’t need a great artist to make songs following the formula, being good looking and a decent dancer helps though. Actually, great artists are a pain in the rear for record companies. Ask anyone who has dealt with Van Morrison.
So we have computers making ever more formulaic pablum for people who aren’t really interested in music. I have hope that there will be another musical revolution one day though.
. In the Western world music music was on the up for centuries . ALL aspects of society are in decline , History is the most important element in a liberal education and in the US 95% of the population is totally ignorant of it . Not entirely their fault , in all high schools and most colleges every word they tell you is a complete lie .
I’m paraphrasing here, but Russ Kunkel, one of the best drummers of our time (James Taylor, Stevie Nicks and a million other hit records) was asked if he could read music and his answer was "Not well enough to hurt my playing." An interesting answer, but I think many trained musicians will understand what this means. The position that music is in decline has been around forever and I won’t be drawn into that argument. What I do think is that listening to music as a solo activity, the way audiophiles do and the way many more used to do it, is on the decline. Now, people are listening to music constantly on their headphones, but mostly as a backdrop to other activities or to occupy their brains while on the subway or whatever. Personally, I do think musical literacy has declined, but I’m old so nobody is marketing music to me. I’m ok with that. Time marches on. Live life the way you want and don't expect others to conform to your views.
Interesting article, thanks. As for the quality of music that he wrote about...I remember realizing that intuitively at the age of 14 when I started hearing that abomination called "new wave", some of the coldest, most artificial music ever recorded. When I turned 18 I couldn't even walk into bar full of attractive young ladies if that music was playing, so disturbing was my visceral reaction. My threshold for today's popular music is about 10 seconds.
I'm going to play the contrarian here, though I'm from the generation born in the mid-'50s, so had the exposure to the local symphony (Steinberg in Pittsburgh), the music lessons, theory, etc. A lot of pop music from the era- I suspect any era since the emergence of recorded sound (and perhaps before) -- was pretty banal- fluff, either following a trend or little better than Muzak. A lot of my peers when I was growing up had little interest in music other than the usual party music or the same/same stuff that everyone was listening to at the time- hard rock, whatever was on the radio at the time. We are a niche- people who are more interested, involved, take time, care passionately about sound and I think are unusual compared to the majority of people. I meet a lot of young people who have musical training, though very few make a living doing so. Some are classically trained, or went through jazz programs at the university level. I think new music is out there, you may have to wade through a lot of crap, but wasn't it always so?
In my grade school in the 1960's we had musicians come in and play. I remember one classical violinist, marvelous. Everyone learned piano in the 3rd grade and there was at least one field trip to hear the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at the Opera House. By the time we graduated high school everyone had at least some exposure to classical music and learning an instrument, and probably at least a third had been in band, orchestra, or choir. By the time I graduated I could play French Horn, trumpet, piano, and harmonica pretty good, and could of course read music. That wasn't exceptional, a good share of my friends were the same only with different instruments. Then of course in learning the instruments you just naturally learned the music, which was selected at least partly to encourage musical development. So you just naturally were exposed to what I guess you could call music theory, although it was more by example than academic lectures.
Look back in history, even any period piece movie is going to show the young people learning piano, harpsichord, singing.
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