Pop music too loud and all sounds the same

I believe the same. Those repetitive and boring lyrics are just common these days in pop. Many of the faces that we see everyday on TV lack talent and don't deserve to be on the spotlight.
A big amount of those "stars" can't even perform live.

I totally dislike the 21st century pop and I totally avoid listening to it. The research is correct IMO.
 
I am old enough to remember when disc jockeys of local radio stations were able to program their own shows and choose what music they were to play. Unfortunately, now everything is programed from a central location.

In my opinion, the internet is not a means to replace the local disc jockeys, simply because everyone now is a local disc jockey of a their own radio station.

So I believe what has happened is that because there are so few programmers, the music is similar to a biological gene pool of 1st cousins. Eventually everyone in the town will have red hair and freckles because of the inbreeding.
 
I really can't stand listening to most pop music. Too much of it lacks originality and any message beyond "let's paaaaarrrttttyyyy, bro!"

I always wonder why all of these "performers" face so much success, albeit temporary. Why don't they just pay skilled musicians to do the same job? Somebody who took years to perfect his or her craft will undoubtedly put out a much higher quality product than some talentless piece of eye candy without the need of all sorts of programming and adjustments (depending on the style of music).

Yes, a lot of people just want to listen to something that's fun and catchy, but one would think hearing the same stuff over and over and over again would get a little stale.
 
Yep. The suits have increased their stranglehold on the scene. What we are hearing is the sound of cash registers. That's quality control ... so the stinkers are not quite as stinky as in the old days but they never reach the heights either ... Macarthur Park, Classical Gas, Bohemian Rhapsody, Time is Tight, Sasha, I Just Don't Know What to do with Myself, Bridge Over Troubled Water ... all tops hits.

Now it's all shake your booty assy baby (add melisma and autotune "character") boom boom boom boom. Yeah, Pig, let's paaarty! Not music I'd ever seek out.
 
So true.

...but yet, a simple, terrible song like "Call Me Maybe" will get lodged in your brain quicker than anything, and stick around for hours, despite all attempts to replace it with another, less obnoxious, catchy tune. THAT'S what sells, evidently...

Ya that song annoys the hell out of me...ugh...
 
the loudness thing is basically due to compression. there have been loudness wars for a while but now the dynamic range is so limited it makes the song louder. as for it sounding the same i totally agree...everything has a four on the floor kick at 80-90 bpm with some synth melody. hopefully the pendulum will swing back in the other direction soon

advice-animals-memes-hello-maybe.jpg
 
I can't tell you guys how happy it makes me to see others who share the same opinion on 21st century pop. It seems like if I talk to anyone about it I always get the same bs answer that its always been this way.
 
Pop music whether you like it or not (and I do not by the way), throughout history has inspired new music to be introduced into the musical collective. When new music gets into the musical collective, it does eventually teach older forms of music some new tricks.

There are some blogs, some apps, and some web sites, that do provide an avenue for new music. I do not think currently, that all of those avenues combined are able to provide a cultural source for new music. Perhaps we are now in a time that is still evolving, a time where the new technologies for music are still gaining an audience, and some newer technologies are still to be discovered by the music audience.

I can only hope that eventually, these times will bring a pulse to the new music, and new music will emerge through the mass of everything being too loud and sounding the same.
 
Alas! Comforting news indeed!

May I suggest examining a bit of evidence?

"I am glad that at least in my life I found someone
That may not be here forever to see me through,
But I found strength in you,

I only pray, that I have shown you a brighter day
Because that´s all that I am living for, you see.
Dont´t worry what happens to me."

- Stevie Wonder, "You and I" (1972 - Talking Book)

===

"And if I ever lost my hands
Lose my plough, lose my land
Oh, if I ever lose my hands- Oh, if...
I wont have to work no more
And if I ever lose my eyes
If my colours all run dry
And if I ever lose my eyes - Oh,
I won't have to cry no more
Yes, I'm being followed by a moon shadow
Moon shadow moon shadow
Leaping and hopping on a moonshadow
Moon shadow moon shadow"

- Cat Stevens, "Moonshadow" (1973 - The Teaser and the Firecat)

===

"Your stare was holdin',
Ripped jeans, skin was showin'
Hot night, wind was blowin'
Where you think you're going, baby?

Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy,
But here's my number,
So call me, maybe?"

CARLY RAE JEPSEN - CALL ME MAYBE

===

This part of the article I find particularly revealing:

"They also found the so-called timbre palette has become poorer. The same note played at the same volume on, say, a piano and a guitar is said to have a different timbre, so the researchers found modern pop has a more limited variety of sounds."

No wonder I miss the old recordings, where so many wonderful instruments were used... Instruments that are criminally absent from today's pop landscape, like the electric organ, the saxophone and even the (REAL) piano...

===

"The music industry has long been accused of ramping up the volume at which songs are recorded in a 'loudness war' but Serra says this is the first time it has been properly measured using a large database."

I have caught myself squinting at the excessive compression used in modern day records. Even albums with otherwise good musical content (like Audrey Assad's music, which should ideally have a quaint, subdued quality about it) are squashed into an ungodly mass of trebly artifacts, too noisy and obtrusive to enjoy.
 
My son, who is twenty, despairs at the pop music of today, and says he can't possibly envision sharing it with his kids years down the road. Unless things really change, I expect he will be dipping back a bit further in the musical pantheon when exposing them to new, old music.

There is a huge irony in these loudness wars, too. When digital recording and CDs were first introduced, one of the major advantages was supposed to be the much wider dynamic range that was realistically available, without too much background noise. Now, they compress everything so much there is less dynamic range than my old LP records. It's just stupid, to this old musician.
 
Honestly?

There's more good music around today than there ever has been. The main difference is that you're expected to look for it yourself and with new digital media that's perfectly possible. Just a few weeks ago I bought a great new album by Amon Tobin because it was recommended to me by a lady in a specialist music shop.

The rose-tinted spectacles are mostly just that. Sure, the charts today are generally much worse than a few decades ago (I'm in total agreement there) but time is a natural filter of detritus. How many number ones do you actually remember from the 1970s? Number twos? Number threes? There weren't that many worth remembering; it's just that we tend to remember only the better material of the date.

As for the lack of dynamic contrast - yes. Although this is changing and there are plenty of groups advocating change.

Do yourself a favour and stop looking at the charts. Look elsewhere. It's not exactly difficult - get yourself a Spotify subscription (I had one for two years) and explore. In fact, why not experiment? Go to a real record store (they do still exist) and talk to somebody knowledgeable.

For any of our UK constituents, if you want exciting and innovative new music there's a fantastic shop in Totnes (Devon):

http://www.driftrecordshop.com/

I went in there just over a month ago and the owner was quite happy to play music we were discussing over her (beautiful) sound system that was connected to her point of sale. Genuinely wonderful.

If you want the same, boring guitar music you've been listening to for thirty years you can go to HMV. If you want the same, boring pop music that's been flooding everything for decades, you can go to HMV. If you want something interesting and exciting then you're going to have to do a little less complaining and a little more exploring.
 
Duncan - a coincidence that you say that. I've been keeping a little diary of late (a bit old fashioned - most people would make it a blog) and this was this morning's entry, which touches on what you were talking about:
Funny thing. I'm looking up music for Dan's wedding and checked out Percy's Sledge's Man Loves a Woman on YouTube. By far the top rated comment was "this is real music not todays shit".

Once upon I time I would have agreed, mostly thinking about all the autotuned shake your ass let's party yo ho stuff with economically rational drum machines.

But you have to be wary of someone happy to airily wave things away as shit. In their case "shit" might encompass broad and enriching vistas of life that don't compute with their narrow, conservative worldview. They would probably call a lot of music I love "shit".

So I've learnt - for the 100th time - don't judge. Observe. Appreciate. Try to understand. Be calm. Let others shine more brightly than you do in areas you don't relate to and appreciate that they're doing their thing while I do my thing.

So what of these people who call everything shit? Must be a fair few of my vintage and pining for the past. I guess it's rough for passive consumers of music - the stuff they would come across is no doubt worse than in the past - imagine Macarthur Park or Bohemian Rhapsody or Classical Gas being a hit today. Too far from the formula strictly refined by the suits to keep the shareholders happy.

Finished my mock metal piece today. Absolutely kicks butt IMO. Funny and scary all at once - Stephen King meets Mel Brooks?
 
Honestly?

There's more good music around today than there ever has been. The main difference is that you're expected to look for it yourself and with new digital media that's perfectly possible. Just a few weeks ago I bought a great new album by Amon Tobin because it was recommended to me by a lady in a specialist music shop.

The rose-tinted spectacles are mostly just that. Sure, the charts today are generally much worse than a few decades ago (I'm in total agreement there) but time is a natural filter of detritus. How many number ones do you actually remember from the 1970s? Number twos? Number threes? There weren't that many worth remembering; it's just that we tend to remember only the better material of the date.

As for the lack of dynamic contrast - yes. Although this is changing and there are plenty of groups advocating change.

Do yourself a favour and stop looking at the charts. Look elsewhere. It's not exactly difficult - get yourself a Spotify subscription (I had one for two years) and explore. In fact, why not experiment? Go to a real record store (they do still exist) and talk to somebody knowledgeable.

For any of our UK constituents, if you want exciting and innovative new music there's a fantastic shop in Totnes (Devon):

http://www.driftrecordshop.com/

I went in there just over a month ago and the owner was quite happy to play music we were discussing over her (beautiful) sound system that was connected to her point of sale. Genuinely wonderful.

If you want the same, boring guitar music you've been listening to for thirty years you can go to HMV. If you want the same, boring pop music that's been flooding everything for decades, you can go to HMV. If you want something interesting and exciting then you're going to have to do a little less complaining and a little more exploring.


I understand your point, but the discussion (and the study, as I read it) were about pop music.

Sure, there is good stuff out there too. But that wasn't the point, really. The point was that pop(ular) music has grown increasingly homogenous. And loud.
 
No wonder I miss the old recordings, where so many wonderful instruments were used... Instruments that are criminally absent from today's pop landscape, like the electric organ, the saxophone and even the (REAL) piano...

.

And you forgot the best instrument of all thats been replaced: Drums.
 
I understand your point, but the discussion (and the study, as I read it) were about pop music.

Sure, there is good stuff out there too. But that wasn't the point, really. The point was that pop(ular) music has grown increasingly homogenous. And loud.

To some extent I would say that 'Popular' music has but this isn't anything new. Disco was a similar experience and I would say that a lot of the 1980s were dominated by 'Pop' that sounded much the same. The 'current' complaint probably started in the 1990s. I'm 24 and I find most modern chart music difficult to differentiate from late 90s 'Pop'.

On the other hand, sometimes interesting songs become popular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

Ok, the lyric is fairly asinine but there's some interesting things going on. The melody is vaguely Phil Collins-esque (in the good way) and the instrumentation is totally off the wall. The video is great. There are gems out there.

Watch the album charts, too. Those are often much more interesting.
 
To some extent I would say that 'Popular' music has but this isn't anything new. Disco was a similar experience and I would say that a lot of the 1980s were dominated by 'Pop' that sounded much the same. The 'current' complaint probably started in the 1990s. I'm 24 and I find most modern chart music difficult to differentiate from late 90s 'Pop'.

On the other hand, sometimes interesting songs become popular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

Ok, the lyric is fairly asinine but there's some interesting things going on. The melody is vaguely Phil Collins-esque (in the good way) and the instrumentation is totally off the wall. The video is great. There are gems out there.

Watch the album charts, too. Those are often much more interesting.

Agree with this. There are gems. And that Gotye song is pretty cool.
 
Back
Top