Jamiroquai, Pizzicato 5 and some others are exceptions.

 

AI will fuck all art not yust music (i will make an T-Shirt) ...

 

Technically, production quality is better now than it ever was. However, if one transports themselves back to the 1970s there are some absolutely beautiful recordings that equal todays in many ways. This does continue into the 80s but became fragmented because of early digital. It took until the mid 90s onwards to improve. These days if the production is bad, it's entirely down to a lack of skill, not the tools available.

As for songwriting, there are still great songs being written, it's just that the majority are under the radar and the large commercial success is enjoyed by artists (if one can call them that) whose output is very basic and repetitive from a musical standpoint. The "industry" is completely dominated by commercial interests, marketing and image. Musically that leads us to the lowest common denominator and deters more complex and more interesting arrangements.

It is my opinion that at the heart of all great songs are great chord sequences that create shifts in perspective and emotions in the listener. Combined with a great melody you have something that becomes timeless. Moonlight sonata and Claire de Lune don't work any less than they did when they were written as does Eleanor Rigby, Money, Money, Money or Bohemian Rhapsody. I think it's fair to say that musicologists won't be including much of today's commercial music in their curriculum in 200 years but it's damn certain that any of the above will.

Of course, simplicity can be great and is a mainstay of rock and roll, dance music and even classical in the form of minimalism (though that is deceptively simple). Sometimes the expression of emotion can be arrived at in other ways and connect with the listener. Sound itself can be mesmorising and invoke altered consciousness. Morning bird song, the sound of a single church bell and gong baths, that are popular these days (no thanks, I'd rather bath in acid).

 

Last edited: Jun 24, 2024

No it won't. Art is human expression. You're only talking about the market, which already belongs to robots long disconnected from their humanity.

 

If you was listening to Backstreet Boys in the past then no. Older songs are not better.
But give me one example of the song from 2024 which is so rich in different sounds, elements, creative, so memorable and nice like those ones. I can give you examples of hundreds songs from the past like this.
Not summer hit for 3 months with structure and samples like thousand of others to fit for Spotify playlists and after summer everyone forget about it.
After 20 years I can't forget about those.

 

1927

cantato

 

So you cherry picked whole decade and want some of us dig out something that is done in last 6 months?

 

number 1 - 1924

number 2

number 3

 

Last edited: Jun 23, 2024

It only proves that comparisions between past vs now doesn't have sense.

 

ratio of shit nowadays is much higher and i determine it by randomly turn on car stereo and switch thru channels .

so you cant dig out at least 1 from the last 6 months ?

your logic limps

 

There were fewer releases, much more expensive to make and gate kept to oblivion, usual guy in 90s would listen little bit of everything, these days you can lose whole day listening to new releases in just one sub genre of EDM, let alone afford to listen to another genre.

I spent two last years listening exclusively to melodic techno/progressive house, could spend most of my free time just listening to releases that come out today, so no, I have no clue what people are doing in other genres, let alone some experimental act's on Bandcamp.

 

That is a LOADED STATEMENT.
It is like saying everyone's life was better back when....

For everything we gain, we lose something and vice-versa. Sign of the times 'n all that, the music too will change I actually do not disagree but that is only my personal opinion.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
Did anyone have parents who thought some of the music they listened to was just noise and not music? Then if the OP's statement is real for you, then you probably have become your parents

 

Boomers didn't grow up with Backstreet Boys, Millennials did. Oldest Millenials are almost mid 40s now.. :-/



I'm a mid thirty Millenial who thinks the doors and pink floyd are still great music. But honestly, even the annoying music my two year old son listens to has better mixing then pop from the 90s.

 

Last edited: Jun 23, 2024

i DO believe modern pop has never been so distasteful.
i mean, most of modern pop is not even listenable anymore.

wouldnt use backstreet boys as an example though
still more listenable than most of today's modern pop

 

life may have been better in 1924.

 

Nostalgia is a tricky one, I see it all the time, people just want things exactly as they were, even if you bring them same song with better production, they will still find older one better, there's so little room for improvement there if any. People's thing revolves around some 144p VHS rip on You Tube and memories they had listening to that exact thing. It's lost cause.

I have few friends that are still making old school goa trance, trying to sound lo fi and same as it was, I find whole that movement hilarious, whenever someone even change a slightest thing, it renders whole thing like "neo goa crap", so pretend you are Astral Projection in 90s and it's good music. I doubt even Astral Projection could make a cut in their circles, even if they re-released those same songs with better production, they would complain how that lo-fi production was part of the essence of it and how everything is lost now. Lost cause...

 

its funny because we never think is the nostalgia.

serious though, it is not nostalgia.

i think that's not only nostalgia at least, it has to do with streaming platforms and how easier and cheaper has become to make music.
music has become much more expendable lately.
i mean every week theres a new unknown artist on the top 10, and then 1 month later nobody knows him anymore...
i don't mean to say that today music's shit, but it feels like there is more shit compared to good stuff ratio than it used to

 

Sure, it's many factors, completely agree, but for folks strictly into nostalgia, it's a bit of a lost cause to even look for anything rather dig into past.

As I said previously, cost of making those records, fewer releases, good gate keeping, less means of information, people more open to explore different genres of music and etc. I'm not better, not into Spotify playlist's, but stuck into one thing and barely can keep up with it, let alone dig into something else.

Dunno, think people who made lo-fi bedroom music in the past had more musical knowledge then half people who put out really good sounding, but unoriginal music today, follow few tutorials, buy few sample and preset packs, voila. Investing in the barely decent setup costed little fortune, today with warez you can spam your whole circle with your music in matter of days, even release it on platforms and so on.

Guess it's too easy now for people to even bother with it, so it's just doing least to try to milk the most. Few decades ago when you were that one guy making music, everyone was really interested in all of it, today it's like saying you are gamer, everyone and their dog is DJ and producer lol