Music today |
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Machinemessiah
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 02 2005 Location: Santiago, Chile Status: Offline Points: 594 |
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Posted: July 30 2019 at 16:50 |
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^ The post I most identify with in this thread so far (bolds ar mine). I was born in late 70's, so grew up in 80s/90s. Still my favorite music is 70's progressive rock. 80's songs I now find good and creative, compared to what went mainstream in 90's and 00's. I also dig 90's grunge (mostly Soundgarden), Björk, Queens of the Stone age, etc. but not much more (I'm still discovering.. even here, so not the last word). So, my answer: In the past... but not so long ago… Personally, I think 70's prog rock is THE best music ever (surprised I'm here? :D), counting classical as well, as Bill Bruford himself (roughly) puts it in his autobiography... "not so much rhythm there...!". I love jazzy/syncopated drumming in songs, and... rock! so... For me, 70's Progressive Rock was the one that gathered many postwar geniuses, intellectuals (or at least very intelligent kind of guys), that took the state of the art to the next level; took advantage of technology as it rised and in its fair dose; borrowed on the breath of symphonies, jazz, and previous music, experimented with drugs, and combined it all with interesting themes and artwork in a stunning 180-degrees-from-commercial direction (take, for example, when the fellas from Rush were told after Caress of Steel to go more pop and they responded with... 2112! ...wow…) in a never seen before way to make rich and complex (rock) music. This feeling of declination also happens to me with movies and computer games. I still remember my incredulous disappointing there sitting at the theater watching Episode One when Jar Jar Binx made its appearance (I no longer go to movies; last one: Sector 9... we left in the middle; don't know if it's good or bad, but couldn't stand the loads of black computarized alien blood being spilled into the screen). I think in that sense Star Wars was Hollywood's pinnacle of craftmanship and a masterpiece made with the perfect blend of art and what (analog) technology was available, IMO (I have a sci-fi bias, in case you don't notice). Same in games; nowadays it seems to me they make games only for children, that are less challenging, less interesting, more commercial and less true and artistic. The last ones I remember enjoying were Fallout 1 & 2. Recently, I played Ron Gilbert's (Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island's creator) revisited genre and beautiful early 90's style graphic quest "Thimbleweed Park"; it's been 20+ years I didn't buy a game! I owned a Commodore 64 back in the day, where, in each side of a diskette was room enough for many games that were so creative and unique... it makes me think today each one of those would be an entire genre. It was another time, another people creating them, themselves having values and experiences from yet another different time in the curve of technology; and I think, again, limited technology was the perfect dose that fostered creativeness: make a great game with art and all in 64k of memory! On the books (sci-fi) department, a big fan of Clarke, Asimov, Poul Anderson and Larry Niven. I have found recent masters like canadian Robert Sawyer, and read great sci-fi books! Anyway, finding 'the future' not so exciting at all… nothing anymore amaze us so much. All is easy and inmediate, the invention of the cellphone must have killed hundreds of drama ideas (not saying cellphones are bad), and I keep returning to the image of humans in the Wall-E movie: a bunch of chubby, disenchanted and apathic consumers. Handwrist, up there, mentioned the movie 'Idiocracy'… that's another that stunned me and keeps me mentally returning to it frequently (remember, in one scene they go to the movies to watch a permanent image of an arse and they have a great time laughing all the same!). The one thing, in 'mainstream arts', that I found have improved (it can be more, but that I remember now…) or at least equal in quality than before, are some TV series, like 'Breaking Bad' (oh my…) and the like (the rest of my top 3, unordered, being HBO's Rome and The Wire). They are for me of those "too good to be true" things. Who knows maybe this things are cyclical, as someone pointed out… perhaps in a few decades… but I doubt something like the 70's could ever repeat itself. |
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Odvin Draoi
Forum Senior Member Joined: January 01 2019 Location: X Status: Offline Points: 516 |
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Cultural productions are cumulative as long as their records are kept. So concerning music, unless previous things are erased, and/or new musical theories, harmonies, and/or new music notation systems are invented, and/or our ears evolve into something superior; it will be harder and harder for the future generations to make something groundbreaking and original. It already is quite difficult.
The answer is in the past for my account, yet I still can find new good gems. |
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Tapfret
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin Joined: August 12 2007 Location: Bryant, Wa Status: Offline Points: 8577 |
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Unless someone is creating the greatest album ever at this exact moment, the answer is always the past.
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2dogs
Forum Senior Member Joined: December 03 2011 Location: England Status: Offline Points: 705 |
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There was indeed much bad pop in the past but the hits were much more varied, in the 1970s and early 80s it was still worth suffering the weekly TV chart show for what would be at least one gem. I have to endure the current hits at the barbers and a cafe we visit regularly and they’re astoundingly unmusical, all autotuned warbling with hardly any notes at all in the backing. I guess the TV talent competitions have focused the kids attentions on singing to the point where the music has become irrelevant, you won’t win by playing an instrument. There’s a notable contrast when the hits of yesteryear - even 10 years ago - are played. |
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"There is nothing new except what has been forgotten" - Marie Antoinette
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mathman0806
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But, is this because of the quality of music released today, or because of what becomes popular or a hit today? Pop songs are not necessarily the same as hit songs. The songs you listed could be looked at as just quality songs you liked that charted well and became hits. I think many of those songs, were they released today, would not be hits. On the flip side of this, if you look around in places like Bandcamp, you can find some good stuff that might have been a hit song in a past era. A number of songs you listed I would categorize as rock songs that charted well. It seems to me there just isn't as much rock that make it as singles these days (though I am not entirely sure as I don't listen to much current pop music). From what I can tell, music today seems to be more R&B, hip hop, or country oriented. Also, there was just as much bad pop in the past as there is now. We try not to remember that. Edited by mathman0806 - July 26 2019 at 22:10 |
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Dellinger
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But compare those pop singers from today... songs that they have released, with ones from the 90's, 80's, 70's, 60's. I haven't heard any new pop song (on this decade, if not even the last two decades) to rival "Unchained Melody", "Stand by Me", "And I love her", "California Girls", "Happy Together", "Imagine", "Candle in the Wind", "Cat's in the Cradle", "Wish you were here", "Dust in the Wind", "Africa", "Eye in the Sky", "Every Breath you take", "Wicked Game", "Wind of Change", "Losing my Religion", "No Rain", "Runaway Train", "Fields of Gold", "Creep", "Dreams", "Seven Seconds", "Black Hole Sun", "Don't Speak". To name just a few... I just made a list of such pop songs I have, 85 songs, over 6 hours, and only 3 songs from the 00's, and none from the 10's.
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Arnulf Floyd
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I believe as always was good music and bad music both in past and present, all depends on tastes and opinions. Mentioned pop singers were not really so bad and not need hate because they are good for their genre. I love both classic rock and modern rock including metal.
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Long Live Rock 'n' Roll
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2dogs
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I enjoy most of the relatively recent music on Krautrock World and Echoes Of Bluemars web radio but have generally been more excited and actually bought music from more pioneering periods right back to the musique concrete, electronic and avant garden classical that preceded prog in the 1950s and 60s.
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"There is nothing new except what has been forgotten" - Marie Antoinette
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richardh
Prog Reviewer Joined: February 18 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 26283 |
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Voted NOW because when I was growing up (14-21) the years in question were 1976 -1983 which were not great years for prog rock. If you take the last 7 years then I reckon I have acquired a lot more music released on those years that I like compared to the late seventies/early eighties.
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The Anders
Forum Senior Member Joined: January 02 2019 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 3529 |
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It depends of what music we are speaking of. There is a lot of really original music that doesn't necessarily have a million hits on YouTube, but if we speak mainstream pop, there is certainly a lot of assembly line music with autotune, recycling of the same computer presets, melody lines and chord structures. Most of it has very little musical and artistic substance. If you put the Beatles, Pink Floyd and David Bowie up against Rihanna, Katy Perry or Miley Cyrus, I'd choose the first group of artists of course. But I could also choose to compare the Monkees, Ohio Express and some of the 1960-62 teen idols to Pom Poko, Juana Molina or Idles, and in this case I'll definitely choose the latter.
Edited by The Anders - July 23 2019 at 19:00 |
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Grumpyprogfan
Forum Senior Member Joined: July 09 2019 Location: Kansas City Status: Offline Points: 10100 |
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And we seem to be sort of close geographically. If I'm ever in Colorado we should grab some gummies and a good beer and discuss our music snobbery.
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Fischman
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So we seem to be of similar vintage. Those are two great first pics, by the way! It took me a little longer to get around to those.
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moshkito
Forum Senior Member Joined: January 04 2007 Location: Grok City Status: Offline Points: 16350 |
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When one adds up all the history that we "know", we're talking 600 years worth of music, it would seem that today's selections are too small and ... not quite as interesting and innovative as so much other music has been in history ... the worst part being that rock music has not yet taken a hold in music history, and for us to get a better sense of all this, it needs to happen, since in the past 60 years or so, both rock and jazz have surpassed "classical music" a lot and gone quite far ... even if many of us might not enjoy or listen to that stuff as much. I don't think that today is any better than yesterday, or vice versa ... we, in history, and it goes back quite a bit, do not exactly appreciate the stuff of "today" as much or as well, as we might something that we have known for some time, and think it is representative of this or that. That kinda tends to distort the scales a bit, towards one side of things ... and sends me to go listen to new stuff again ... ... with one problem ... I really am not interested in screaming and makeup suggesting demons anymore. I guess I have grown up some and don't even think that some of that stuff is really worth while, musically, other than some commercial aspect that makes kids think it is cool ... sort of like rap ... yet another voice, making it look like there is something here, and I'm not sure that new words about the same thing, are all that music is about. Music, and the arts, NEVER WAS NOT at any time ... the only issue is that we never looked for it, and learned about it, YET ... and somehow, it always comes up for everyone to listen to and hear. My only concern is how some of the arts lag behind others ... and rock music, specially the stuff mentioned in popular boards is way too far behind a lot of the other arts in terms of creativity ... there is way too much copying in the "music" of today ... and I think it is on account, that it is much easier to "make it" and sell enough by yourself, to make it a viable option/selection. Conversely, film, painting and many of the other arts are suffering due to this mechanical/commercial process ... but I sure would like to see some of the off-off-off-Broadway to get a chance, instead of another version of that cat debacle!
Edited by moshkito - July 23 2019 at 08:24 |
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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Grumpyprogfan
Forum Senior Member Joined: July 09 2019 Location: Kansas City Status: Offline Points: 10100 |
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That would be 1974. Thick as a Brick and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath were two of my first LP's ever purchased.
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someone_else
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Counting the last weeks before 60 these days, I grew up in the heyday of prog, so those immortalized 70s classics had a great impact on me. Outside the prog niche, the music was, in general, better before disco and punk/new wave took over, even though crap has been of all times. I vote for the past, but with the remark that the 2010s have been a great decade for prog. |
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Lewian
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Radiohead now is older than Yes and PF were when I got into music around 1980, and they were seen as dinosaurs by many at that time already.
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Atavachron
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^ It has been a good'n. |
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Frenetic Zetetic
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Same! TONS of great replies in this thread (perfect for morning coffee).
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"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
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Progosopher
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I stopped paying attention to the pop charts more than 20 years ago. 40 years ago, most of what was at the top of the charts did not interest me either, but there was music that charted that I did like. There is excellence and dross in every decade. Good music is easier to find now, but not much of that makes the charts. I voted that music was better in the past even though there are good new artists around now, but most of what I listen to and discover is still from the 60s and 70s.
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The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"
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dougmcauliffe
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There's a lot of great music coming out today, as far as the popular stuff, yeah not a fan. But Steven Wilson, Wobbler, Dear Hunter, King Gizzard, Neal Morse are all doing great stuff. That said most my favorite albums are from the 70s. I'm gonna chose not to vote though.
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