The music Mr. Beato is talking about is far from the art of old that touches the soul and challenges our thoughts. If you have access the AI, the program will write a tune according to the algorithms that maximize clicks. In this world, poetry, musicality and originality are irrelevant. The hard work of creating in hopes of engaging others and redefining how we see things has been replaced with mindless use of computer technology in the pursuit of clicks and likes. You don't need to be well read or articulate or spend years honing your musical talents, just use the software and connect to right platforms. It doesn't matter if you can carry a tune, the software will fix all that. This reminds me of the 2006 film Idiocracy where two average people are frozen for 500 years and when they wake up, they are the smartest people on the planet. What so many now find valuable can be a real head scratcher. I hope this is all a fad and the value of artistic skill and vision will prevail. Maybe I'm just getting older and having a harder time relating?
PS - Please remember to keep your dog off my lawn.
«Today’s Lyrics Are Pathetically Bad» Rick Beato
He know better than me. He is a musician and i am not. I dont listen contemporary lyrics anyway, they are not all bad for sure, but what is good enough is few waves in an ocean of bad to worst...
I will never dare to claim it because i am old, not a musician anyway, i listen classical old music and world music and Jazz...
And old very old lyrics from Franco-Flemish school to Léo Ferré and to the genius Bob Dylan Dylan...
Just write what you think about Beato informed opinion...
I like him because he spoke bluntly and is enthusiast musician ...
+1 @noromance |
@noromance + 1; what an absurd generalization. not a Rick Beato fan here; his opinion is worth no more than anybody else's. |
I like Beato but he's living in a bubble. There are excellent lyrics being written today. He focuses strictly on the most commercial, corporate music because, apparently, he has no interest in learning about what else is available. As a fellow baby-boomer, I find his seemingly willful ignorance embarrassing and frustrating. |
+1 @stuartk The song that he plays at the start - not a genre I listen to. But I think not all music made today have such lyrics. Some are really good songs. The problem with today's music (any genre or language or culture, etc), is that it does not have the "staying power". There are some songs that my teenagers (and before their preteen years) had made me listen. Some I liked, some I did not care. But these songs are something I can go back and play and feel like grooving to it. So yes, there are a lot of junk songs being created today, but there are some real great music being created today. Just have an open mind and a youthful attitude; age does not matter. |
Many of the best young players and songwriters today are to be found in the genre known as Americana. Beato completely ignores this genre. In another genre, altogether, are the Black Pumas, who describe themselves as Psychedelic Soul. This live show is killer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOKfK8y4_MQ Why Beato wastes time castigating mass market corporate musical junk food instead of focusing on all the good stuff is beyond me. Maybe it’s what his Patreon fans want ? Disclosure: I watch him mostly for learning more about music theory on the guitar. He’s good at that. I’m going to disagree with your assertion that Beato knows better than you. ;o) Discerning good writing from bad writing has very little to do with knowledge of music theory or being a musician. You are very well read -- most likely better read than Beato. And you can clearly write.
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I like Rick a lot and agree mostly with what he says. That is, there are no Bob Dylans, Joni Mitchells, Paul Simons, Lennon-Macs, Stevies, Smokeys, Van Morrisons, Gordon Lightfoots, Springsteens etc. in the current crop of popular music writers. There are some vey good lyricists in Americana, but not quite as good as those listed above. But let’s not forget how bad some lyrics from the rock era were--but it did not impact our appreciation of those bands. And disco--OMG, today’s music is probably easier for me to like. There are many reasons including short attention spans of younger listeners--the hook must grab on the first or second listen, fewer musicians with great musical chops due in part to digital "instrumentation" that can be quite spectacular at communicating emotions, etc. Most importantly, music generally does not occupy the same space in the current generations’ lives as music did for those of us who grew up in the 60s, 70s and/or 80s when we sat down with the album and lyric sheet and listened carefully. How many groups and individual artists took a bit of getting used to (sometimes listening to and album 3 or 4 times) prior to appreciating and loving the outstanding artistry in them? That simply cannot happen today. |
I am not a musician. I trust musicians more than myself to speak about music in general especially popular music which i cannot enjoy since the Bob Dylan and Beatles era.
I post this because i am curious to read others opinion and i like Rick Beato anyway .. .
My dear friend i disagree with you here...
Rick Beato as frogman are better informed than me about jazz, popular music and probably all other genres.. i respected musicians very deeply...
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To me lyrics have to speak to you. Do you connect with what the song is saying. I love the lyrics that spoke to me as a kid and I enjoy some new music including songs my kids listen to. As an old guy I find I’m more open minded than when I was a young man and believed that my music was the best and any other music I didn’t like wasn’t as good. This old dog is open to learning new tricks and listening to and enjoying new music. Hey and while we’re on the subject, you kids stay off of my lawn! |
@mapman ... funny and good point! |
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He only "has a point" regarding the limited scope of what he chooses to listen to. It’s a moot point to those of us who are aware of excellent songwriters Beato chooses to ignore. And, he's not a lyricist so he's hardly an "expert" when it comes to that craft. However, I suspect such sweeping (albeit erroneous) claims do garner him more hits... which begs the question: for a guy who purports to be an "educator", how much do facts actually matter to him? |
I think some of you miss the point of what Beato is saying; which I mostly agree with. He is not saying that there are no good lyrics being written today. He acknowledges that there are. He is saying that today there are few songs with good lyrics relative to their popularity (number of listens). Top ten songs today have, by and large, pretty awful lyrics compared to top ten songs of, for instance, the Beatles era. I don’t share the cynical view that he is expressing these opinions for effect and his own popularity. |
The Beatles era was 60 years ago. And it’s not like the Beatles were riding incredibly Deep lyrics and their first few albums, either. I challenge anyone to look at the top 40 charts from this week in 1964, 74, 84, 94, 2004, Etc, and see how many of those popular songs have really deep lyrics. Edit: with the exception of 1984 which had some killer lyrics this week, but jyst about everything else in those decades was pretty Bubblegum and forgettable |
Omg, @mapman ...I for one was thrilled when 'popular music' began to grow up 'n away from 'bubblegum songs' of the early '60's.....spent too much menial mental energy perversing the lyrics into X or demonic versions....I've fortunately forgotten more than recalled, to y'alls' benefit and relief..... @mahgister *wry Laugh* "...I coulda' been ah contender..." Even D. Byrne in his book notes he'd do the music and fill in the lyrics to suit the stanzas....which does 'splain the topics and phraseologies'.... When asked about his collaboration with Twyla Tharp, he had no comment....one was left with either he was chided into it or was somewhat embarrassed over it. I don't know or know of any 'perfect personage'...now or ever....really. Given the antics of those of Now and Before, fame and fate seems to follow PR and word of mouth of the beguiled of their respective eras....and I'll stop this line of reasoning before I begin to tick some off in a major way. Happy PreNew Year....more than happy to close it out, but not looking forward towards the next 4. |
Beato expecting to find "good" lyrics (or music for that matter) in the stuff most popular these days is akin to him expecting to find good food at a fast food restaurant. Kids listen to whatever music they are fed, and eat fast food regularly. Doesn’t mean we have to, and to worry about it like he does seems like a waste of my precious remaining time on Earth. If he thinks the video will make him some money, good for him. Beato has a deep technical understanding of music, but I find that musical education has greatly affected his tastes in same. He knows a lot more music theory than do many songwriters I could name, but he hasn’t written any songs as good as those writers have. I’m sure he likes Steely Dan far more than Hank Williams and Merle Haggard, and has never heard anything by Iris DeMent. Merle liked Iris’ song "No Time To Cry" so much he recorded it himself. I’ll bet Dylan finds more wisdom in Hank’s "I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive" than he does in any Steely Dan song, but I’m not going to fault Beato for not doing the same. As others have already here said, there are plenty of songwriters, singers, and musicians currently making music as good as is true of every past decade. Lucky me (and others here), my taste runs to music now known as Americana, and there is so much coming out in that genre (Americana is more accurately viewed as an umbrella term for music made by those in the Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Country, Alt-Country, Hillbilly, Bluegrass, Rockabilly, etc. genres) that I have trouble keeping up with it all.
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**** expecting to find "good" lyrics (or music for that matter) in the stuff most popular these days is akin to him expecting to find good food at a fast food restaurant **** That was Beato’s point. ….as concerns the stuff most popular these days. Re a different comment: lyrics don’t have to be “incredibly deep lyrics” to be good lyrics. |
An "entertainer" recently suggested that the goal of entertainment is to "create a common culture." Whille this may not be true in an ideological sense, it is certainly true from a return on investment sense. 500,000,000 plays? It doesn’t require anything above 4th grade math to determine that there’s a fairly substantial paycheck there for somebody(s). Today’s new well-written music/lyrics hasn’t experienced the profound transition from, say, Bing Crosby -- > Led Zeppelin. It has nuance which has not (yet) wrapped it’s arms around massive quantities of music lovers. You have to find it vs it finding you. |
Frogman as professional informed musician said it better and it is what i understood too from Beato video and the reason why i posted it as a step for a reflexion. it is not about "taste" or nostalgia it is about the musical sophistication levels and the popularity chart levels... There is as much good musicians than in the past today by the way...
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That may be, and I don’t disagree, But the issue here is not Steely Dan’s lyrics per se. Nonetheless, an argument could be made that their lyrics are a perfect fit for their at often vapid, urban-hip overall musical aesthetic delivered with ultra-precise technical execution. Still, with a couple of notable exceptions from their past catalogue, hardly top-forty.material. As concerns the claimed “nuances” in today’s popular music and its lyrics which are on a similar level of artistry and that might appeal to an equivalent percentage of the music listening public as did the songs of Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Elton John/BT, Marvin Gaye, Simon and Garfunkel, Jimmy Webb, yes The Beatles (just a few that come to mind), please educate me and post some examples. Honest request. |
As a kid, when we were driving around my father would make the same argument about how stupid is the music playing on the radio. When he started up on that, I would start to sing "Three little fishies in an itty bitty pool. Three little fishies and a momma fishy too.. ." There are silly/dumb songs from any given time and cherry picking good and bad songs for comparison proves nothing. |
OK. My bad, then. I guess, if I think about it, what I’m actually frustrated with is his stubbornly unvarying focus upon popular music -- not Popular, as opposed to Classical or Jazz - but what happens to be most liked by a majority of listeners. Is he unaware that some very fine artists do not have mass appeal? Is it that a majority of his followers are only aware of what’s in the top ten in any given year and don’t care about anything else? I’m struggling here. If he’s going to feature Christopher Cross and Michael McDonald why not also talk about Richard Thompson and John Martyn? I don’t get it. I’m not saying Richard Thompson and John Martyn are better than Christopher Cross and Michael McDonald. I’m just saying I wish Beato would opt to also discuss artists who are less well known.
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Ah yes, Elton John knew lyrical brilliance You out of town guys sure think you're real keen |
Totally agree @stuartk. As far as I know, Beato is completely oblivious to the likes of Rodney Crowell, Buddy and Julie Miller, Jim Lauderdale, Mary Gauthier, and hundreds of other superior current artists. It wasn’t that long ago that Lucinda Williams won the Grammy for her Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album. And it sold very well.
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The musicians of today so talented they are answer to their potential customer... The level of "poetry" in a lyric cannot be fake and cannot be judged by his popularity... At all ...And it is not related to musical ability... Add to this lyric any music good or bad it will not change the content and form value... I cannot listen more than one time a lyric with no deep or beautiful and moving content... I listen casually pop music in my car and i am retired then i am cut from the pop chart but most of what i listened too in the last 20 years did not move me a lot... The last time a pop artist move me it was Bob Dylan at 80 years old... And it is not by nostalgia but by his genius...
The truth is the public also must be talented and educated...No musician nevermind his genius can win over smartphone swift consumers pop with non sensical words... There is a science behind creating a product for immediate consumation... There is no science to create a spiritual moving event.... There is many geniuses artist today as much as there was 60 years ago but i am pretty sure they dont play often on the top of the chart... They surf for survival... Great artists emerge in specific era not only because of their talent but supported by a waiting and prepared public... I am not sure that Miles Davis would easily became a myth today as it was 80 years ago in a prepared environment ready for the trumpet Messiah he was...
Perhaps i am wrong i will wait for frogman informed opinion,.... |
I guess we should count ourselves as lucky to be familiar with Americana, given its great wealth of talent!
Yes. But they must also be exposed to it! It so happened that in the 60's, 70's record companies saw fit to take on a wide variety of talented and idiosyncratic artists and a good amount of excellent music ended up on the radio. It was there, at the twist of a dial. of course, there was still plenty of music that was not so easily accessible. Luckily I had friends with large record collections who knew much more about music than I did. I was "initiated" into the good stuff. But that was back when many more people had systems and owned records. With no internet, music was a primary form of entertainment.
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For sure you are right! That was the era convergent complicities, everyone was ready to discover not so much consumate a product... The young generations was educated and very distinct from his fathers... We were lucky...
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Yes! ... and every generation has its own vibration -- its own strengths, weaknesses and challenges. And presumably, its own set of preferred resources. |
Now even if i hate most manufactured music with provocative non poetic lyrics... There is geniuses on earth right now but not on the pop chart... Here for example a proof of young talents which i admired... It remind me of Frank Zappa genius... Cosmo Sheldrake is the son of the famous English biologist... And poetry is there... I adore this song ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qigAJiydFWs
Lyrics: Old ocean, Thank you for holding me, Won’t be the same without you, Facts on the move again,
Truths on the hoof they say, Oh, can’t you see, It’s lost in the everyday, It slid so far away, From you and me.
Old ocean, Thank you for holding me, Rocked by an endless motion, Afloat in a ceaseless sea, Won’t be the same without you.
Loves on the loose again, Long in the tooth they say, Or lost at sea, Good has gone away, It seems it’s there to stay, What will be will be.
Old ocean, Thank you for holding me, Rocked by an endless motion, Afloat in a ceaseless sea, Won’t be the same without you.
Whether calm or weather stormy, Whether green or blue, Whether vain or whether haughty, Whether win or lose.
Whether truth or just a story, You can’t pick and choose, Whether blunt or whether thorny It’s not up to you.
Old ocean, Thank you for holding me, Rocked by an endless motion, Afloat in a ceaseless sea, Won’t be the same without you. |
