Why Modern Pop Music Is So Awful To Some!!!

AzHeat

Platinum Member
It's been a while since this has been debated, but not trying to rehash any old debates. Those debates usually included: well, if you don't like it, then your too old or narrow minded. No point in beating that same dead horse.

I came across this today and it kinda reminded me of the documentary on Netflix a while ago about how the same studio musicians have been responsible for most of what we hear today. I forget the name of the Documentary. I'm sure someone will recall. There may be more to it for those of us who have grown board with modern music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVME_l4IwII&frags=pl%2Cwn
 
Standing in the Shadows of Motown was one film, and I think the other was Muscle Shoals. I'm not bored with todays music, I hardly listen. Too much computerization for me. Music is too thinned out meaning anyone can cut or produce a CD in their basement now using a DAW on their computer. I don't even know if there is a Pop or modern music station in my area, because I haven't gone looking. You may say, well then you are missing a lot, and I may be, but I'm fine with everything up to about 1980.
 
Here's a thought, Repetition is not songwriting.
 
The problem I have with listening to a lot of modern songs is the extreme dynamics being used (not soft dynamics but just plain loud from beginning to end).

That and any song where the chorus is heard 3-5 times more than a verse of only one or two sentences in length being "sung" with autotune.
It gets me out of the grocery store asap every time. But maybe that's their plan??
 
Compare the music used on commercials today vs 60's and 70's. The singer-songwriter little girl voices that sing iindecipherable unintelligible lyrics in today's commercials. And everywhere else I hear that drivel. It's what modern "pop" music is all about. It's pretty horrible.
 
Modern pop music makes me cringe, if its like the kind being played in the gyms and even force-fed into public shopping venues.

Whenever possible, I avoid it like the plague.

Too much like fast talking rapping, a jumble of words and horrible rhythms with little or no melody, incoherent electronic beats, etc. The effect of listening to that regularly must confuse a sane mind:)

Stop the Madness!
 
Real quick point. There is plenty of good music being made and it's easier than ever to access it. You may have to comb through more because it's easier to release music now, but music didn't stop in 197whatever.
 
..a jumble of words and horrible rhythms with little or no melody, incoherent electronic beats, etc..


Such, kinda weak, arguments are oft used by people who are not really into electronic music..

My argument against that would be that many of those beat-producers of Hip-Hop, EDM, etc have way more understanding about how a drumbeat works than 99% of all the people on earth who actually play a drumset..

In my opinion musicians should always have a curious mind about new things that are going on..
 
many of those beat-producers of Hip-Hop, EDM, etc have way more understanding about how a drumbeat works than 99% of all the people on earth who actually play a drumset..
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Such, kinda weak, arguments are oft used by people who are not really into electronic music..

My argument against that would be that many of those beat-producers of Hip-Hop, EDM, etc have way more understanding about how a drumbeat works than 99% of all the people on earth who actually play a drumset..

In my opinion musicians should always have a curious mind about new things that are going on..

https://youtu.be/QfsdIb-UuXs tell it to these guys.
 
Such, kinda weak, arguments are oft used by people who are not really into electronic music..

My argument against that would be that many of those beat-producers of Hip-Hop, EDM, etc have way more understanding about how a drumbeat works than 99% of all the people on earth who actually play a drumset..

In my opinion musicians should always have a curious mind about new things that are going on..

I meet a lot of young people through work and consequently a lot of so-called "dj's" or "producers" and whatever other names they bestow on themselves. Through talking and experimenting musically a bit with them, and I have to say... I have a hard time considering most of them actual musicians.

Did some "testing" on a few occasions and it turns out I have a much easier time replicating what they consider their art than the other way around. And I don't even mean sitting behind the set or even just a pair of conga's and producing something even somewhat resembling real rhythm...that would just be unfair, seeing as they don't have thousands of hours of their life dedicated to mastering an instrument. I mean coming up with a beat that somehow sounds as if it was played by a real human. Nope, no sense of nuance, no sense of dynamics and only a hint of how a drumbeat works inside a piece of music.
I, on the other hand, needed only a few examples to listen to, to come up with some typical beats that survived the scrutiny of their fellow producers without them knowing it was just a bit of messing around. I also did some work as examples on creating something that sounded more human and that takes a lot more time. There's just so much more that goes into it. Even a simple hihat part needs specific dynamics for practically every hit throughout a song to resemble a human effort. No wonder they failed miserably.

Please remember this was all in good fun though, as it was just a middle aged drummer talking with people barely in their twenties. We did it for fun!

Are there folks in the genre that are really talented and do groundbreaking stuff with all the dots and blocks of data in a DAW? Undoubtedly, but I'd submit that most people with actual playing ability can do a better job at creating stuff on the computer grid than 99% of the so-called "deejays and producers"! Maybe they'd need a listening crash course on what would be hip these days, but then they'd have the enormous headstart of actually knowing how a drumbeat works
(to paraphrase you)
 
Real quick point. There is plenty of good music being made and it's easier than ever to access it. You may have to comb through more because it's easier to release music now, but music didn't stop in 197whatever.

It's not even hard to find, Spotify is always recommending me great new music.
Just avoid mainstream radio stations and people will find that it's very easy to enjoy modern music.
 
Since my adolescence, I've honestly only liked a small percentage of what passes for "popular" music. To me there were proportionately just as many songs which I wasn't the least bit interested in in the past as there are today.

As for drum set drummers, we don't have a monopoly on rhythm. There are producers out there who couldn't play a physical drum if their life depended on it, but can not only out-program or out-sample not a few drummers, but can create music in which EVERYTHING contributes to the rhythmic propulsion of the work.

How can we not be enamored with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXD0vv-ds8

or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgdoPtMAobU
 
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