What's happening ladies and gents of Audioz

So I was thinking about this recently after not having thought about it in quite a while. When was the day that contemporary music just stopped doing it for you? That time when you just sat listening to the radio and thought... ok, is this it? Is this all there is?

The reason I started down the path of music was because I was tired of listening to what started sounding like music that was coming straight off the same factory line with no meaning or purpose and I thought that I knew enough about the best of the genres that I was into to try and make something different from the trend. I'm sure there are many others with a similar story who just got tired of it all and I'm curious to know what and when was that moment. Was there a particular year where we all just smashed our radios and gave up on chart music, that was the birth of the Audioz generation?!

For me it was around 2000 where after the genre-defining Hip-Hop of the mid 90's and the rock of around that time there came a day when everything just started sounding the same and gimmick tracks were getting to No.1 and creativity took a back seat to profitability. Actually it started off with a few tracks creeping in that were bland that I ignored. Then shock value and sex appeal in the music videos became more important than the actual track and I became concerned. Then there was an infestation of tracks where everything sounded copied and pasted and I just gave up. From then on I started going deeper and deeper back into time and I have a hard time listening to modern music unfortunately without comparing it against those classics now, which might not be fair but there has to be some measure of standard I feel to judge music by.

What was it for you? Or was it even a particular song that defined this feeling or maybe even a particular day? Or have you never had that feeling and just accept music for what it is rather that what it might be?

 

For me the music died when all the content was made available online and they dropped almost all physical supports.

It's strange I write this in a Internet forum from my cable connection, but I have the feeling, that people don't really listen to the music they get, in detail, with atention to details, because there are too much music. We can get too much music.

Remember when your friend lent you that Tape that you were waiting for months from your favorite group and you copied in your double tape cassette and you spent all night listening one time and again the same album with your headphones, until you knew completely the lyrics, the song parts....

Now it hardly happens... We have all become fast-forward listeners.

Don't you listen to the last X single in youtube or spotify or wherever... just clicking the control bar to skip to the verse, or the middle of the song, just to check it fast and move to another thing? An internet study stated that 75% of today's listeners aren't patient enough to listen to a song from the beginning till the end. They just skip some parts.

And I think there's too much music made available. And with so many music, the good stuff, the gems, can pass in front of our noses without noticing them, buried under so many average crap.

Back in the old days, it was really difficult to get a label contract, it had to surpass many frontiers before an album was actually published. Now with Bandcamp, Beatports, Junos... everyone can put out his music, or even create their own label, which actually seems like a cool thing.. but not everything is good.

I haven't had the feeling of listening an album that make me shivers and re-listen again and again since maybe 10 years ago.

Maybe the last one that made me feel that way was the album Relationship of Command from At the Drive In. (2000).

So... fuck, that's already 14 years ago

Sure Internet have become of real help to many artists, but not to the music.

But that's only my opinion.

 

Definitely, this is a matter of personal opinion. Although I myself had come of musical age in the underground-music scene of the '80s, as the underground rock sold-out to commercial lameness in the late '80s I found that the hip-hop of the time, when was still fresh (no pun intended) was the antidote/antithesis to the mainstream pop radio fare. Then, around 1994, it suddenly was safe for me to listen to pop radio again, as NIN, the Britpop bands, Radiohead, Garbage, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains were right up my rockist alley. Then came Marilyn Manson, whose videos I liked very much - but suddenly thereafter, there were these lame pop-rock bands like Ugly Kid Joe, Third Eye Blind, and the one with that singer who thought he was Van Morrison. Very soon after that came the dawning of the Age of the Singing Lap Dancers (Britney, Xtina, et al.), the likes of which encumber the better part of the pop-music landscape (Rihanna, Iggy, Niki, Katy, Gaga, Miley . . .). Add to this that, over the past two or three decades, the influences from which pop musicians have drawn have come from a narrower and narrower pool of variety, and therefore from a shallower and shallower depth of imagination.

So, to answer your question in brief: despite a surge of some interesting "electronica" (and the establishment of that commercial genre) circa 2000, I'd say, "The late '90s."

 

Hi there,

I guess my approach is a lot more different to most Audiosexers... I don't listen to the radio. Never have, most likely never will. I don't listen to popular music and my head may explode if I even think about it...

Haha, ok, that's an exageration. But to me, music is like a lot of things in my life. I listen to what I like and to what I find. Because metal is not mainstream (unless you look at the current Metallica) I have always found a way to find music by myself and not what's on the radio or is considered current.

For example, I have always dress pretty much the same, I don't follow fashion. I don't listen to the radio, I don't watch TV. To tell you the truth, when I see people that are so hooked on "what's in right now" I feel so liberated to know that I am not a part of that. I do watch movies, TV shows, listen to music, etc, but in my own time and only what I choose (I mostly watch online shows, so I am not bound by a TV schedule).

I have to admit, though, regarding music, I do remember that I had a circle of peers with whom I would share and trade music, it was fun. We were all old school metal heads, you know... patches on a sleeveless denim jacket, hair as long as you could have it without getting tangled in your guitar strings, the works. And then this fucker came out:



And it divided the metal scene. Really, it did! At least where I was. I actually was in a Metallica tribute band and I had to leave because I refused to play anything from that album (and anything that followed it).

One thing that I noticed for a while is that metal bands started getting older, like I did, and started playing softer stuff (look at Paradise Lost, Megadeth and some others). But it was great to see that some bands got even heavier (look at Testament, Slayer and some others). There were some other bands that did a little "experiment" to see where a softer approach would take them, but quickly, and smartly, came back to their roots, where they belonged.

Anyway, I hope you don't mind a metalhead's approach to your thread. This is a great topic, so thanks!

By the way Zeus, above, makes some very interesting points there. I totally agree.

 

Basically, when the releases started coming too fast to keep up with even in a single genre.
Late 80's-Early 90's i could keep up with all the releases and cherry pick the stuff i really liked.

I suppose with the rise of cheap, high quality recording setups at home, a lot more people could get decent results and therefore release.

Now?
Keeping up with everything and making informed decisions is impossible to do , not just in one genre, but pretty much every genre, i now have to rely heavily on reviews and skip listening (listen to first 30 seconds, middle 30 seconds, maybe solo) to find stuff i like, then playlist those tracks, once listened to full tracks and selected from those, get the albums those songs were on and skip listen the album, then playlist the albums that catch my attention and keep the best ones.

And i STILL miss killer albums and end up finding them a couple years later and am amazed i've never heard anyone talk about them.
Just TOO MUCH music , not enough time to listen to it all!

 

I gave up in 1974 after hearing this, I thought Brian Eno you genius bastard, you just make everybody else sound shit .. always way ahead of his time, even to this day. He's not even a proper musician, which makes it all worse!

 

1987

When Sony bought CBS

 

"For me it was around 2000..." Same here. Well, more like around 2004. I still remember some great music being released at the time and then it just stopped being that great, not to mention that it sounded flat and squashed to death. Excessive limiting killed it, too, not just the quality of music, because I simply can't enjoy something that sounds unexciting and distorted like that. All the bands that I like are guilty of doing it, just like everybody else.

 

@zeusgodbcn: Relationship of Command from At the Drive In. (2000). This is great to my ears, fresh, new and excitingly novel. THANKS. Yea, plus 1 for the accordion solo in Enfilade.

 

There is probably one biggest reason. Yes is Capital. Is wonderfoul thing when it work for us but is also very destructable thing in long run for quality of everything. Music is not an exception. Capitalism start to gain it's strenght globaly somwhere in 80's. The "old" ways of doing music become ineffective. I'm not talking about different genres, but more how much energy, work, creativity you put in your products. How much time this sytem and everything araund you give you to create something. If i can relate to my Country, in "old" days there was commision with people that have very good background knowledge about music(best composers, best songwriters of our country at that time) that decide which music is to alowed to play in radio stations. I don't have to say twice, this was the time our country produce best evergreens, which is timeless. But today we have Capitalism. Capitalism = money + efficiency + limited time+...Simply formula that will financially "destroy" everyone who want to make money or living from music and don't accept it. The problem is, will we accept, that we all are part of problem, because we all are the ones that alow this system successfully marching on our lives? Before someon say "Is not the system, is how people managing it", i have further question for him: "Do you really think creators of system don't know people nature?" The system don't have to be bad by itself, is enough if pushing people to do bad things. Agein music is not an exception.

 

"The album is now seen as one of the most influential rock albums of the decade, with it being ranked 47th in the 50 Greatest Albums of the 21st century in Kerrang!, number 83 on Spin magazine's 100 Greatest Albums 1985–2005,[19] 6th in State magazine's 100 albums of the decade,[20] 3rd in JustPressPlay's Top 100 Albums of the 2000s,[21] 52nd in Decibel magazine's Greatest 100 albums of the decade,[22] 117th in Uncut magazine's 150 Albums of the decade,[23] as well as being ranked at number 90 on MTV2's greatest albums ever list.[24] A retrospective BBC music review hailed the significance of Relationship of Command's uniqueness, calling the album "mesmerising" and a "statement of grand intent that could never be followed."

source wikipedia

So yeah, it's fucking dope


This an epic performance on Letterman. It doesn't matter if they don't play perfect on live, it doesn't matter Cedric can't sing/breathe.... There's so much energy, so much freshness, such an earthquake on stage...

Well probably the first album of The Mars Volta De-loused In The Comatorium (2003) which are 2 members Split up of At The Drive In (guitar and Voice)

Since this guys, nothing else made me feel so alive.

 

Wow I tried moving this thread and thought that I'd deleted it so great to come back and see some great responses.

It is all down to personal opinion and particular genre, which is exactly why I'm interested to know what everybody's opinion is. It does look like these things are cyclical and each genre seems to go through a low while another one is still thriving.

I would definitely agree in the oversaturation factor. Yet I can't remember many great lines from the songs these days - you know the type that just stick with you, like a classic line from a film.

Actually this is very true. I think what's happening is that the newer artists all try to emulate their idols ie a pop singer trying to sound like Whitney Houston - yet not going further back in the lineage to whi inspired their favourire artist ie Billie Holiday, Etta James, Mahalia Jackson etc

Not at all brother. Great to have your opinion. I also never was much into the radio as that's always been a place for the masses. But even the underground has been affected to some degree I feel as these things seem to have a trickle down effect.

Hey that's what I remember too! Alright, I think my memories are returning to me of when shiny spinning rims first dropped on the scene. And those boy/girl bands of the 90s. And that annoying little crazy frog thing. Good god I've been suppressing a lot of traumatic memories.


This clip is for everybody in the thread and on Audioz who feels like something did die. Please watch it to the end if you haven't seen it before. It's only short but it still gets me hyped up when I see it. One of the greatest comedy clips I've ever seen:

 

How can you say that Music "died" at some point in time? Because it didn't.
What you're referring to is that people's taste in music, or perhaps the way people listen to music, has changed. Sure - nowadays oversaturation is definitely a thing, just because 30 or 40 years ago it wasn't quite so simple to have music everywhere you go. Also, I agree that there's a lot of sellout "DJs" earning millions by simply copying tracks and that 90% of the charts is a) poorly made with no real emotion behind it and b) a lot of it sounds the same. But that doesn't mean good music has become a rarity, it's still there, it's just harder to discover than it used to be.

 

Damn 1987

When Sony bought CBS
when bands like Jani lane (Warrant) Died thats when music died for me , Excellent Topic brought back memories

 

It never died for me but it has certainly changed a lot. As mentioned, technology has had a great impact on the way you find and listen to music.

I welcome the new stuff, I love the new edm to death (deadmau5 is really classy -- trance, dubstep, electronica <3). At the same time, vintage synths is one of my great passions in life and that will never change.

Here's a few of the songs I've discovered just the past month. It's not all bad ;)

http://soundcloud.com/pow-pow-no/alpha-waves
http://soundcloud.com/clmdmusic/clmd-ft-sirena-wild-men-radio-edit
http://soundcloud.com/kygo/seinabo-sey-younger-kygo-remix
http://soundcloud.com/sondrelerche/bad-law-rough
http://soundcloud.com/propellerrecordings/since-last

 

For me, music started in 2007 with my first purchased CD and since then it lives.
Yet I prefer music from the 80s, 90s the one unaffected by loudness war, artist such as Denean with breathtaking lyrics. *yes*
Actually about length, I always enjoyed longer tracks (with more than 8 minutes runtime), since there's likely more "story" than regular 3:30 "pop standard".
And yes, even in these days, I sit back and listen to whole 80-minute album without breaks.

Some of my friends find everything longer than 4 minutes not worthy of their time (me - 11 minutes just about average ). Also the tracks must be vocal...
Wow, how many great tracks are instrumental and thousand times better than some vocal ones.

 

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. Music isn't dead. My question was 'When did THE music die for YOU?'

This implies that for some people such as myself THE music did die in some shape or form. For example, from all of that great, gritty underground Hip-Hop of the mid to late 90s when almost everyone was releasing a classic until bling became a household word and the whole sub-culture of legendary boom-bap just halted to become a shadow of what it once was.

Music isn't dead. But some forms/styles have died from their essence or are dying art forms. Nas even released a whole album entitled 'Hip-Hop Is Dead'. I'm talking relatives and personal opinions here - not necessarily absolutes. It is possible to discuss factors such as originality, creativity and craftsmanship within music dying without pronouncing the entire art as dead.

Exactly Andrew! Although I'm a massive Jazz head too so for me there's literally millions of brilliant instrumental tracks

 

So what you mean is that music is constantly evolving... right? Like, there aren't many artists nowadays composing classical music anymore, or rather the classical music that is being composed nowadays doesn't sound like it used to in 1700? Is that what you mean? Because if it is, I can actually relate. For instance, I was kinda sad when I realized trance wasn't "cool" anymore and a lot of trance artists turned away from making trance and started doing their big room EDM stuff (I'm looking at you, Sander van Doorn...). But then I realized that this kind of evolution isn't necessarily a bad thing. Every day, new genres and sub-genres keep popping up somewhere on the internet and there's some really cool stuff if you look hard enough. And when you get nostalgic and wish music was still like it was in the 90's, you can still listen to 90's music anytime, anywhere

 

No not necessarily. Evolution implies progression. It is also possible for music to regress, which would mean that it is devolving.

Let me give you an example. Say one of these unknown overnight artists on one of these modern music TV shows covers an old Motown classic and it becomes a contemporary hit. Yet it lacks the punch, the conviction, the soul, the character of the first one but everybody loves it and it goes to number 1. Yet the original was clearly done better to many people. Would you call that evolutionary? Did they add anything whatsoever onto the track? Did they in any way, shape or form add to the original? If not then I don't see how you could call it an evolution. I'm sure we've all heard the teenagers doing these covers of great soul legends on these programmes. Now imagine a whole genre where this is the trend...

I tend to see the shift of music as one of three things: Revolutionary, Evolutionary and Devolutionary. Revolutionary is a new genre or sub-genre being created or a significant evolution in music. Evolution is a positive progression, which is obviously subjective. And lastly Devolution, where nothing has been added and indeed the actual skill has diminished from the original form.

And that was my whole point in asking the question. Why should I have to go back 20 years to listen to the same things I've already heard a million times over as I believe the music then was better? Hence at some point I switched off when I saw a clear devolution in the art. And all I was asking was if any other people saw a similar trend in their own preferred style and when. I was curious to see if this was the case and it seems as if I'm not alone. Maybe I could have clarified it better. But it's not an elitist thing. Just putting a thought out there and engaging with the Audioz community.

 

The music start do die with serial music...
But for shure the musicians who always study develop a sofisticaded sense that is not compatible with public...
Also the profissional people could not achieve a real audience with some thing different because have a load of amateurs, newbees and POOOOOOORRR "profissionals" that make their music based on spells and FX without a clue of real music formation. And for good formation I mean erudid (serial too), pop and ethnic music