OHMYGOD!

I've just read the history of muzak on Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzak ... And I'm intrigued. Muzak was basically a series of studio-generated, disposable and indistinguishable songs made for commercial use: to be streamed in workspaces and commercial spaces.

Is this not the future of popular genres? I have Hip-Hop in mind: hit songs have a 3-day lifespan; they're too prolific to ever appreciate; they're indistinguishable from anything else on the radio; they're mostly consumed as discrete units--not part of a body of work--in a "stream" of indistinguishable pop hits (I reiterate). They're produced based on data analytics and other forms of market research (I presume)...today's pop hits are as functional (instrumentalist?) as Muzak...as I pointed out in another thread: everything is exaggerated for immediate effect but wears off immediately--like crack! (Is it any wonder they're called hits?)

What do you foresee for popular music? Is it LITERALLY all turning into muzak

 

Last edited: Dec 26, 2017

hear you/feel you. I've been observing the same developing slow build nightmare you speak of since honestly sayyy... 2001/2002?... it's a lousy revelation but a revelation nonetheless

..ugh it's too depressing to even admit, much less contemplate...

its a dark can of worms you're opening with this one

 

we're the only ones who have the courage ( and the lack of funding ) to swim against the tide...

 

Don't worry bro, I'm out. I just thought we should blame this form:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-two-bar_form
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verse–chorus_form

Been overused and needs to retire.

AABA, REFRAIN , CHORUS , BRIDGE , PRECHORUS - Song Forms and Their Historical Development

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 26, 2017

The arrangement is not the problem--it just let's you know where you are in the song.

Anyway...?!?

So, modern record companies are really advertising agencies who create jingles (hit records) to sell "stars" to other businesses (360 deals) so that these other businesses can, in turn, use these stars to sell their products...

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MUSIC!

 

Generally there are 2 kinds of music:
1- Audience's music (mostly simple, danceable and popular commercial music)
2- Musician's music (art form)

The second one never ever gets over-saturated but usually isn't taken under the observation and consideration of market leaders and subsequently the first one's listeners maybe due to the fact that the normal ppl don't understand other than simple music. It even didn't suffice and they manufactured the historical sentence in music: "Less is More".

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 26, 2017

@black.afrika.zulu.x
In the art's history, you can never find a period that the artist has been let alone to express his critical attitudes freely and delivers them to the audiences without an intermediary. Yes, we have Internet but its management isn't nuder the direct control of artists and they just play the role of plain workers and their produced crops being distributed regarding the careful inspections of our high-level decision makers.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 27, 2017

Was it just a rumor Ted Nugent supposedly bought Muzak just to dismantle the company? Did he sell the rights?

 

'Even with the changes in format, rocker
Ted Nugent used Muzak as an icon of
everything "uncool" about music. In
1986, he publicly made a $10 million bid
to purchase the company with the stated
intent of shutting it down. "Muzak is an
evil force in today's society, causing
people to lapse into uncontrollable fits of
blandness," Nugent said. "It's been
responsible for ruining some of the best
minds of our generation." His bid was
refused.' -- Wikipedia

 

Maybe it's time for me to go AWOL.

 

Not true.
Banksy, Vhils, Above, C215, Roa, Mentalgassi and every countless other artists that create wonders of beautiful, profound and cutting edge critical societal art now and through past millenia.

 

I am so weary of being subjected to music which I dislike, or would normally like to hear on my own terms, played far too loud, or at all, in public, almost everywhere I go, that I seldom ever, anymore, listen to music at home. Muzak (in its traditional, or original, form) is one thing - as it is/was played at near-subliminal levels, or not so loud as to disrupt a train of thought or compete with a conversation - but being beaten over the head with the "soundtrack" of this and that establishment (even outside it) is a blatant and egregious abuse of music. For example: the laundramat in my neighborhood had used to be a place where I would be musically inspired; I'd come up with some of my best songs, just sitting there in the ambient noise of the machines. A few years ago, the management installed a radio playing over speakers in the ceiling, and not only am I annoyed by it, I am distracted from music in my head.

I wouldn't doubt that there's some vast conspiracy to jam out thoughts by distracting us with music-too-loud everywhere, and/or by assaulting us with memory-button-pushing hits of the past five decades. It might go something like this:

 

I think they're consciously NOT making music but advertising a star with market-researched, melodic jingles.

 

good God your explanation was incredible... I canNOT stand the pop-radio music... and all the EDM is basically the same level just not necessarily on the radio... but the same brainless followers listen to Avicci and all that junk..
anyhow... the hits vs. crack?... LOVED THAT!!

On the other hand, Muzak is amazing... I have been listening to vaporwave and synthwave lately and actually.. on Youtube there are people that have commercial/industry tapes made for stores such as K-Mart, and supermarkets... and they're from the 90's, 80's and even 70's... and they are AMAZING!!... all that mellow corny music is so great I love it.

It's so weird how people are fetishizing this stuff though... very weird... but hey... I'm into it

 

sleeper gem from last month or so; http://music.businesscasual.biz/track/os2-warp

just a rework of tender love by force m.d.'s really
but when this style is done right it hits the sentiment of the heart just so...

 

WHAT SHALL WE DO?

 

But there's no more music--just an unending stream of jingles by interchangeable weirdos.

READ THIS:
How Did Lil Yachty Make $13 Million in 16 Months?
http://www.complex.com/music/2017/06/how-did-lil-yachty-make-13-million-dollars

 

interpolation of 2017 examined

hitsongsdeconstructed.com

 

If you open up 1,000,000 of such threads, you won't get anything except some hatred inside yourself towards people around you and their thoughts and losing your great passion in your career.

Eventually in the last resort, what will throw you a lifeline are the techniques you've learned by yourself. Just do what you love and shed all the overwhelming restraints and don't wait to be approved.