The State of Music

[Stevebol]

Rodrigo is good. Even Beato likes her haha.

However is anyone else a bit tired of pop stars taking over the NPR Tiny Desk concerts? I mean that’s were all the nerdy proper musos like Chris Thile and Anna Meredith are meant to hang out and now it’s Demi Lovato (who I don’t hate) sounding a wee bit pitch corrected to me.

The UK has singers. The US has dancers. I'm guessing the tide will turn in the US. Producers will have to get better.
Bands are still screwed.

[BWV]

Michael Gira and the latest incarnation of Swans still going strong

Iran has a happening electronic music scene

Khruangbin is a hip act from my hometown, Houston

[Stevebol]

You're preaching to the choir jads.

[Stevebol]

Rodrigo is good. Even Beato likes her haha.

However is anyone else a bit tired of pop stars taking over the NPR Tiny Desk concerts? I mean that’s were all the nerdy proper musos like Chris Thile and Anna Meredith are meant to hang out and now it’s Demi Lovato (who I don’t hate) sounding a wee bit pitch corrected to me.

She'll be all grown up in 3 years. We can go on a Disney approved gambling date.

[Littlemark]

I only listen to player rolls from Scott Joplin. Ever since the wax Revolution the fidelity can not be matched from a real piano in the room with me. Though it's tough to jog with the piano on my back.

[Littlemark]

I'm only pointing out that technology has changed not only how we listen to music but how it's affected the actual music being made and not for the better imo.

This is an opinion. There is no better or worse. It is all preference. Gregorian chant is not better or worse than Brittany Spears. They serve different purposes.

[cmajor9]

This opinion. There is no better or worse. It is all preference. Gregorian chant is not better or worse than Brittany Spears. They serve different purposes.

That is of course also an opinion. What do you base it on?

[BWV]

This opinion. There is no better or worse. It is all preference. Gregorian chant is not better or worse than Brittany Spears.

Or the traffic noise outside my window, for that matter

[Littlemark]

I don't think my statement is an opinion.

Brittany Spears songs are created to help you dance.

Gregorian chants were created as a meditative prayer. Not great dancing music. IMHO.

They serve different purposes.

[Stevebol]

My tangent of the day...

Reduced pollution in the last year will produce a generation of musicians with better hearing.

[Littlemark]

My tangent of the day...

Reduced pollution in the last year will produce a generation of musicians with better hearing.

That is of course also an opinion. What do you base it on?

[Stevebol]

That is of course also an opinion. What do you base it on?

Things are getting back to 'normal' if there is such a thing but pollution was greatly reduced at the start of the lock downs. How could it not effect music?

[christianm77]

This is an opinion. There is no better or worse. It is all preference. Gregorian chant is not better or worse than Brittany Spears. They serve different purposes.

Brittany Spears; specialising in hurdy Gurdy versions of late 90s/early 00s pop hits. It’s niche but it might just work.. could be huge on the festival circuit once that opens up.

My last venture, the rap metal/Chaabi crossover project Rage Against the Tagine, was found to be ‘Problematic.’

[jads57]

I get that even great composers of the past even disliked others works at times. My point is now that music has been coopted by technology allowing non musicians to compete financially. Music or compositions suffer especially the harmonic part.
I can't think of one other profession where amateurs are allowed to be viewed in the same equal way? Sports, Medicine, Lawyers, IT, Plumbers, Carpenters, Bankers, etc.

[Marcel_A]

Freind if you can't tell or hear the difference between Snarky Puppy and The Brecker Bros, than I get why you might be upset by my comments.

i really love both. what's wrong with Snarky Puppy?

[Stevebol]

I get that even great composers of the past even disliked others works at times. My point is now that music has been coopted by technology allowing non musicians to compete financially. Music or compositions suffer especially the harmonic part.
I can't think of one other profession where amateurs are allowed to be viewed in the same equal way? Sports, Medicine, Lawyers, IT, Plumbers, Carpenters, Bankers, etc.

I haven't gigged in 20 years. I started messing with a DAW. learning the tricks and goofing around.
What you say is true. Producers have a great deal of influence. They usually don't take chances and just mimic techniques of the last hit. A person my age will be slow but I've come to dislike electronic music.
I think we've reached a zenith of sorts.
It's easy to become a little bit pregnant with music technology.

[BWV]

Things are getting back to 'normal' if there is such a thing but pollution was greatly reduced at the start of the lock downs. How could it not effect music?

I bet pollution was worse in Harlem in the 30s and 40s than most anywhere today

[Littlemark]

I get that even great composers of the past even disliked others works at times. My point is now that music has been coopted by technology allowing non musicians to compete financially. Music or compositions suffer especially the harmonic part.
I can't think of one other profession where amateurs are allowed to be viewed in the same equal way? Sports, Medicine, Lawyers, IT, Plumbers, Carpenters, Bankers, etc.

You have made this argument in the past. You are repeating yourself.

I don't think anyone views an EDM artist on the same way that they view Chopin. Though daft Punk maybe not be trained musicians but they certainly have an ear for music.

The technology of steroids allows others to be faster then otherwise biologically determined. People enjoy watching Minor League sports and college sports.

Technology allows people, other than trained medical professionals to administer healthcare. Like an x ray or dialysis machine technician. Used to only be operated by doctors.

There are online legal help websites that use AI to solve some law issues.

Do you think most people who answer IT phone lines aren't just reading through a help manual script?

I have done some plumbing in my house. I don't have a torch. But thanks to newer types of connectors, I didn't need to call a plumber.

Thanks to power tools most people can cut a straight line and use biscuits to connect pieces of wood.

Thanks to ATMs and online banking websites, I haven't talked to a banker in quite a while. I can also buy stocks easily.

Technology, is helping to remove barriers and gates from those without access. The digital revolution is giving most everyone the ability to create. The obvious examples in film, photography, book publishing, or creating music.

There are lots and lots of things created that I don't like. I ignore then and move on for the most part.

Public tastes change and evolve. Gothic architecture was thus called, because the Romantics were insulting it, by implying it was designed by barbarians. Aluminum siding was very popular in the 70s and 80s. I can't stand it. I also don't care for the current trend of grey and white renovations. Ugh. Lacking in taste and originality. Not everyone should be a decorator.

$0.02

[Lobomov]

I get that even great composers of the past even disliked others works at times. My point is now that music has been coopted by technology allowing non musicians to compete financially. Music or compositions suffer especially the harmonic part.
I can't think of one other profession where amateurs are allowed to be viewed in the same equal way? Sports, Medicine, Lawyers, IT, Plumbers, Carpenters, Bankers, etc.

Oh no you don't ..

If you can't bring a product to the market that will fetch a better price than from the guy that gives it for free .. then it's not the market that is the problem. It's your product that can't compete with the free one.

You mention sports .. There are plenty of sport where there is no interest and so those playing these sports do it for fun and don't get paid like .. I dunno .. Broomball or underwater rugby?

And then there are sports where millions of dollars flow freely. That is where there is interest.

[pauln]

i really love both. what's wrong with Snarky Puppy?

Musicians' resumes played for the listening,
Everything sounds like a list full of sampling;
Dropdown menu machine music sings,
These aren't a few of my favorite things.

[Lobomov]

I demand to hear that hurdy gurdy music. But free. I'm not paying for it. Christian.

And that is where Christian has several options:

He can tell you to f... off
He can say .. haha .. you laugh now, but when you hear it you're going to rush out and buy tour tickets .. not to mention the follow up album
He can just do it cause he loves hurdy gurdy musics and can't stop himself
He can do it cause there is nothing that makes him happier than seeing himself on youtube.


The first option is always a valid and good choice

[ruger9]

I have not read this thread- yet. But on this topic, Steve Lukather had a very interesting post awhile back, let me see if I can find it....

Luke is a great guy, but yeah... sometimes he can go off when he's pissed, and this was one of those days. His Autobiography is one of the best music-related ones I've ever read. Because he's been everywhere, played on everything, and with everybody.


Steve Lukather is a great guitar player who has released 6 solo albums and has recorded guitar tracks as a session musician on more than 1,500 albums representing a broad array of artists and genres.
Steve posted this response to Bob Lefsetz (http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/) who has been discussing Spotify in his newsletters recently:
“I just want to know something. ALL this pontificating about how Spotify and the like are the ’ answer ’ and how ’ the artists get paid’ etc.
How much? Really? WHO keeps tabs and accounting?
Maybe I just don’t know. I don’t see any money and have A LOT of stuff out there over 35 years of making records.

Have you done the breakdown on what an artist get PER tune on iTunes? Pitiful.
Now IF you are with a label its even worse cause they take a huge share of that. The breakdown after all is said and done for most it’s pennies.
TOO many people can make records. Period.
No catalog artists are made these days. One hit wonders galore. Sad really.

Now rec. co’s don’t give budgets like the old days when the great records were made cause they cost MONEY!! They want to make money for nothing and own you for life and a piece of EVERYTHING an artist does. You can sell a million and still OWE them!
My 25 year old son has buddies who have platinum records living in a one room studio apt! Broke.

Of course back ‘then’ rec. companies cared about MUSIC and nurturing artists for a LONG term career and long term money.
Sure they got the Lions share but then they invested, believed and promoted it so there was SOME justification.

Now its ’ Beats’ and how many facebook hits or Youtube hits you get .. ALL which either make NO money or short term dog-shit money with no real way to account for it and truly suck for the most part.
People want to be famous NOT good!

It is TOO easy to play 'pretend pop star’ now. With all the fakery and auto tune-time correction -cut and paste etc.. most young people don’t know how to play a song from top to bottom in a studio in tune and in time and with feeling?? Rare.
I am in the studios all the time and hear the stories from the producers and engineers.. and yet NO ONE cares that ’ so and so’ who sold a shit load of records ( how much IS that these days? ) cant sing or play.
They make 'McRecords’ for people who don’t even really listen. It’s background music for people to either find a mate or shake their heads while texting or skyping or doing other things. Environmental noise for the multi-tasker.

Gone are the days of loving , dissecting, discussing the inner workings of 'AN ALBUM”… sitting in silence while it plays.. looking at the liner notes and the few photo’s IN the studio .. imagining what a magic place it music be to make such music…
Gone.

So if you keep blaming the 'old antiquated artists’ who are the only REAL ones left.. who MAY make a great record once in awhile but may be overlooked cause the media chooses to care more about who is super gluing meat to their bodies and other ridiculous HYPE and bullshit to get attention rather than LISTENING hard to the music being made we might be in a different place.
When we were kids ( yes I will be 108 this year) there were only a handful or artists and they WERE great cause they HAD to be.
You could choose not to like some but outside the teenage fodder most deserved their success and NO ONE sounded alike ! No one!

We live in a McWorld that moves way too fast and now even the drugs suck. I mean when I was young and got high I never got naked foaming at the mouth and tried to eat someone’s face off.

Time to put on Dark Side of the Moon and chill.
Have a nice day and may real music come back and fill our ears. ( there IS some great stuff but you know what I mean ..)
REAL music played by REAL musicians. They ARE out there.
They just don’t get a lot of press anymore, or at all.“
Luke
(Steve Lukather)

[ronjazz]

Well Christian I am, as an Englishman, probably about as cynical as you right now - but being significantly older have a slightly different perspective.

What is popular now has little to no impact. Had I done absolutely nothing with my life then it might have the appeal of immediacy; but that is not the case.

For my analysis what matters is reflecting on ones past/prior life and considering what, if any, music sums up part, or all, of that period.

My challenge to you: pick five pieces of music [any style or genre] that could be played in a thirty minute time frame without commentary, that would allow listeners to walk away knowing something about who you were!

Could you do this, could anyone here?

I can do that in one tune.

[Marcel_A]

Musicians' resumes played for the listening,
Everything sounds like a list full of sampling;
Dropdown menu machine music sings,
These aren't a few of my favorite things.

I assume you are trying to explain what it is you don't like about SP, but what it is you don't like i couldn't tell.

[jads57]

So most pro orchestral musicians are facing a similar crisis. Why? Because the old money which use to fund them has moved to Sports private boxes.
The younger folks who are the wheeler dealers do their deals now at Sports venues.

They also have to compete with musicians from lesser paid countries as well. With the advent of live stream,etc. They are used for studio sessions, live music shows ,etc.
Much like tech help being staffed nowadays. Always a race to the bottom and a profit for the few at the top.

All I can say for sure is they've killed the Goose that played the Golden Egg!