Music is dying

The Lounge General Discussion
#92

First, sometimes obvious things need to be said, and Grohl is better placed than either of us to state this obviousness.

Second, I don’t like pop. I love it. I also love reggae and cricket.

Third, I think you’re over simplifying Grohls POV - he’s specifically trying to defend the kids who don’t make it through (again, a very specific) pop factory process. That’s a benevolent, and well intentioned point of view, and I don’t see what’s not to like about that, even if you hate Dave Grohl.

It sounds like you’re attacking the man and not the argument. Classic ad hominem (old man shouting at the clouds etc etc yadayada).
See what happens when you listen to pop? Your brain gets all sloppy and clouds your judgement. Beware kids! Pop is bad!!

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#93

I find it interesting that some people on this forum for electronic music think that craftsmanship has disappeared from popular music. I agree that a lot of the most popular music tends to sound similar. But I think that most people here can recognize the craft and skill that has gone into making these songs sound so appealing.

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#94
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#95

Forget the music, make some noise!! :smiling_imp::metal:

#96

I listened to sergeant pepper yesterday. Supposedly the best album ever recorded, according to rolling stones magazine and that dude in the YouTube video. It’s a good listen, but hardly the best record I’ve ever heard. Not even close. I can name 10 better records from the last five years easily.

All about taste innit. Varying in timbre, harmonically complex - bla bla. Take out those parameters and choose some other random parameters and say its the decider of whether or not music is dead, and you could probably prove music died in 1960.

People who say this are obviously old farts (like myself) with a bit of nostalgia. Everything was better before, everything is cheap and plastic now. Yeah, right. :smile:

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#97

I do get where you’re coming from but on the odd occasion that I am forced to listen to the radio (yes, forced! Other half and kids love it) I can’t help but hear borderline plagiarism everywhere. Or, at least, incredibly similar sections of songs. It makes it a little difficult to appreciate the skills involved in such cases. But, take someone like SOPHIE. Can’t stand the music at all but here, I can easily appreciate what’s going on.

Songs sounding similar isn’t a new thing but it does seem more ridiculous in the charts these days than it did some years back. Perhaps a case of selective memory though!

#98

The truth is that I think both yourself and @Anfim are, in a way, right with how you have interpreted Grohl’s comment.

On one hand, modern manufactured music is hell on earth and the industry has drummed up this idea in the masses that to make it big you need to go through these TV shows. A sort of crazy idea that there may be hundreds/thousands of truly great artists amongst us that ave just not been found yet but if they can get on X-Factor well, you never know. The result - multiple drab nobodies that disappears after their moment of fame.

On the other hand, manufactured music is nothing new. It’s been happening successfully for decades. Some of these acts can be fantastic or, at least, have 1 or 2 top tunes to their names. It’s part of the industry - part of any “entertainment” industry really.

But where I think Grohl is lamenting is that he feels that your average Joe doesn’t feel the pull to pick up that guitar, or to jam with friends. There is a sort of expectation in our youth that it shouldn’t take hard graft to be that massive rock band or killer electronic act. Perhaps it’s entitlement, I dunno, but I guess there will also be some who push themselves and work hard to master their craft.

Maybe I’m well off the mark there but I do think there is some truth in saying that today’s music industry is moving along just fine but, less people are currently interested in certain genres which may give the impression of stagnation.

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#100

And he’s DEAD. Let this be a warning to us all.

#101

Well, the claim was that “music is dying”, not “pop music is dying”. The record industry is probably more than ever focused on making hit songs rather than albums. I couldn’t pick out a good pop album over the past ten years either, but there are plenty of great pop tracks, in my opinion. It’s all about opinions though (in my opinion, haha), how you can say that pop music is dying based on “scientific evidence” (which again is based on some randomly chosen parameters), is beyond me. :slight_smile:

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#103

Music doesn’t die - it just has a rest every few measures.

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#104

Oh, I didn’t mean you claimed it, but the video posted in the first post said the claim was backed by “scientific evidence”. To be fair, I don’t consciously listen to pop music these days, but I do enjoy the occasional hit song on the radio. Get Lucky by Daft Punk a couple of years back for instance, without a shadow of doubt one of the best pop tracks I’ve ever heard! Insanely catchy song. But you know, one man’s gold is another man’s coal.

#106

That was so incredibly hard to sit through. What a bunch of subjective tripe posing as science. Worse than the state of current music is the like / dislike ratio on that video.

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#107

the science of selling music is different from what it was during the Beatles era. Sergeant Pepper was produced to sell few million copies. Gagnam Style has been viewed over 3 billion times in youtube so it actually broke the counter. Different market, different rules and selling for the lowest common nominator takes its toll. If you want to sell for 3 billion, you cant expect your audience is ready for rich harmonies, delightful sounds and elaborated beats. Or in fact any harmonies, any sounds and any beats.

#108

Try to ignore the click-bait/designed to trigger title, but the video explains why some songs sound “poppier” to me than other - it’s a certain 4-bar chord progression.

There are a handful of songs that i really like, actually, that use this progression, but 90% of the time I’m going to instantly switch to another station if I hear such a song come on the radio (or put in earplugs if I can’t change the station).

He blames old white guys who work as A&R guys, run the huge record labels, etc.

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#109

Jeez if you think music has died then why are you even here,music is a part of my LIFE,always has been,always will be,I thoroughly enjoy making music and listening to it,it’s my art and I totally love the whole process,so for me and whilst I’m
Still alive it will never die

#110

Turn off your mind relax and float down stream,
It is not dying, it is not dying…

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#111

Yeah, the FF never really tickled me either. But boi can I shake my head to g’old Nirvana songs.

#112

:crazy_face:

#113

Indie music is the future well at least that is why I like. The non commercial electronic music scene has some amazing stuff. I quit listening to mainstream music years ago.

Now when it comes to large festivals like EDC most of that stuff is crap. I never cared for Deadmau5 and could never see what people buy up in this commercial EDM scene other than doing massive amounts of drugs like XTC and so forth. Granted some of these commercial EDM folks including DeadMau5 have talent but not my taste. I lean toward the esoteric like old Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, and Infected Mushroom.

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#114

Cultural death is passive consumption. Music isn’t dead if you are an active participant.

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