Is Old Music Killing New Music?

He really is. It’s gems like Marcus that I really enjoy finding. There’s a lot of great music out but not at the clip it used to be. I try to enjoy all kinds of music and if it speaks to me in any way then that’s what it’s about.

When my son was growing up I subjected him to a lot of great old music. Prowling around the desert and playing all kinds of stuff. Lot of old ZZ Top. He’s been into a lot of styles but has settled on old style country, blues, and stripped down rock. Meaning nothing big or over produced. We jam acoustic when he’s over. If it wasn’t for him I’d never hear of guys like this.
 
When my son was growing up I subjected him to a lot of great old music. Prowling around the desert and playing all kinds of stuff. Lot of old ZZ Top. He’s been into a lot of styles but has settled on old style country, blues, and stripped down rock. Meaning nothing big or over produced. We jam acoustic when he’s over. If it wasn’t for him I’d never hear of guys like this.
That’s such a great story. It’s something he will never forget. The driving around and discovering music with you. It’s similar to my experience. My father sat me down one day on the floor at the stereo and he pulled out his albums. We spent a few hours that day. It was my first exposure to zeppelin, frampton, deep purple, humble pie, Hendrix and the list went on and on. I still remember the cabinet the stereo was on. Stylish green 70s doors wirh wood trim. The stereo was a pioneer and one of those big suckers. Music is what we shared. Some years later he and my mom split and it wasn’t amicable. I was angry with my father for a long time. In my 20s we reconnected and music was the glue and no matter what we always had that. I got the chance to return the favor and introduce HIM to new music. He heard cult of personality for the first time while we were driving and the joy we shared was just the best. I feel bad for people who don’t “get” music. People who never experienced the hair on their neck stand up or that electric shock through the body when somethjng just hits you. When you go back to a point on a song over and over Becusee it’s THAT good. Thank God for music!
 
Being 63 years old now I see the problem in not much noteworthy new stuff coming out of the woodwork. There just aren’t any new milestones like Hendrix, Zeppelin, Stones, Beatles, Deep Purple, Sabbath and so on (just to mention an example), some of which people are still listening to a half a century later, just isn’t happening anymore. Everything has become to commercialized, homogenized, streamlined, economized, compressed and sterilized to ad nauseum. Even my 26 year old daughter is continuously discovering dad’s music collection as a treasure trove of outstanding music with a musical-quality-lifespan > 10 Minutes and a recognition value over decades.
 
There's nothing new under the sun now is there - it's all been done, and better than anyone can do it now. That's one issue for new music, the iconic bands, iconic albums, ground breaking artists - you can take your pick really from the 50's to the 80's, but after that, not so much, so what you get then are covers, samples of the great songs etc, but nothing really new.

My favourite bands from thirty years ago are still my favourite bands now, and a lot of them are still far bigger on the live circuit than the newer bands who followed.

Thank god we grew up in the era that we did, when music had real value. Music now, has no value - stream a few tracks here and there? Album's mattered when we grew up, we absorbed them. Music to the younger generations now, is just a fashion accessory that's all.

Anyone wanting to be a rock guitar player as a career now, is 30 years too late. It was attainable back then if you were good enough, and you could make a pretty good album, because there was an audience. That type of audience doesn't exist anymore, which is probably why new music is a shrinking market.
 
Since Napster opened the floodgates, music has since been seen as something that just exists in thin air and is free for the taking. The industry missed the boat in terms of squashing that. Now the money is made via monthly subscriber fees that, as we all know, do not filter down to the artists in an equitable way.

Lars Ulrich was right on that one!!!

Now music is a tease and is given away freely so someone might sell concert tickets, merch,
or VIP packages to a special camp where fans can interact one on one with their favourite
musicians.

Devaluation of music indeed!!! :(
 
That’s such a great story. It’s something he will never forget. The driving around and discovering music with you. It’s similar to my experience. My father sat me down one day on the floor at the stereo and he pulled out his albums. We spent a few hours that day. It was my first exposure to zeppelin, frampton, deep purple, humble pie, Hendrix and the list went on and on. I still remember the cabinet the stereo was on. Stylish green 70s doors wirh wood trim. The stereo was a pioneer and one of those big suckers. Music is what we shared. Some years later he and my mom split and it wasn’t amicable. I was angry with my father for a long time. In my 20s we reconnected and music was the glue and no matter what we always had that. I got the chance to return the favor and introduce HIM to new music. He heard cult of personality for the first time while we were driving and the joy we shared was just the best. I feel bad for people who don’t “get” music. People who never experienced the hair on their neck stand up or that electric shock through the body when somethjng just hits you. When you go back to a point on a song over and over Becusee it’s THAT good. Thank God for music!

Amen!!! :)

What a great story. Thanks for making me smile. :)
 
There's nothing new under the sun now is there - it's all been done, and better than anyone can do it now. That's one issue for new music, the iconic bands, iconic albums, ground breaking artists - you can take your pick really from the 50's to the 80's, but after that, not so much, so what you get then are covers, samples of the great songs etc, but nothing really new.

That's part of the issue with "new music" discussed in the article linked in the OP: that there is risk
in writing new music that may sound too much like old music and make one liable to a lawsuit.

Labels are definitely feeling that now---since the lawsuit involving Robin Thicke and the song, appropriately
titled "Blurred Lines." Marvin Gaye's estate/family won a suit in court for infringement of copyright.
 
Lars Ulrich was right on that one!!!

Now music is a tease and is given away freely so someone might sell concert tickets, merch,
or VIP packages to a special camp where fans can interact one on one with their favourite
musicians.

Devaluation of music indeed!!! :(
He definitely was! How can you have ANY business where the product is free to obtain? I love the accessibility of digital but would go back to the old way in a minute. I remember having to buy music and would spend hours trying to decide what I would go home with after spending my hard earned money. Another problem with this digital/phone age is it’s robbing the experience out of just about everything. Ah don’t get me started. Lol.
 
Another problem with this digital/phone age is it’s robbing the experience out of just about everything. Ah don’t get me started. Lol.
It is also shedding light on a lot of BS that got swept under the rug by the establishment in previous times, since almost everyone has a video camera in their pocket. I guess that's just me looking for the silver lining, though....
 
Obviously it is brickwall mastering that is sucking the life out of the music that prevents music from being great ;-)

Can I get some dynamic range up in here???? And if the loudness war is over, how come all these bands are still brickwalling the crap out of their new releases?
 
Obviously it is brickwall mastering that is sucking the life out of the music that prevents music from being great ;-)

Can I get some dynamic range up in here???? And if the loudness war is over, how come all these bands are still brickwalling the crap out of their new releases?

I remember hanging out with a friend many moons ago, and he was playing this very weird album called Suiciety by Realm in the background. All of a sudden, the music just jumped out of the speakers from where it had been, and we stopped talking and just looked at each other. It was so cool, and, we realized, so out of the norm. It was absolutely one of the most dynamic moments I've ever heard from a metal band. Not that the album sounded good overall, but it is a very cool album, and fearlessly dynamic haha.
 
Obviously it is brickwall mastering that is sucking the life out of the music that prevents music from being great ;-)

Can I get some dynamic range up in here???? And if the loudness war is over, how come all these bands are still brickwalling the crap out of their new releases?

It's an artistic and intentional decision, Bra. ;)
 
So many factors, but could be an embarrassment of riches for the masses that's diluting everything. Maybe the signs of a culture peaking and about to decline.

Anyway. Back 50 years ago, think about the value a kid put on new music (and how picky they will be) because they had to save up their own money to buy a single (or double!) album -- versus having access to milliions of tracks for a fixed monthly fee. Or think about the the care and effort to play a song on a record player -- versus have a playlist at your fingertips ready to go. This applies to shows/movies and almost all content these days (Blockbuster vs. streaming). Perhaps this all began somewhat with the i-pod paradigm: a high quantity of lower-quality background music streamed into a brain at any and all times. That was never my thing, but it seems like it's been a default for the last few generations.

My big "declining quality" pet-peeve is with the CGI in movies. It just looks fake to me. I mean most gaming engines strive for realistic physics, but for some reason a lot of CGI has strange unnatural jerky quality that I can't stand. The creepy realism of Ridley Scott's Alien and Bladerunner used old-school filming techniques which might go the way of the dodo with a younger generation employing so much computer-generated content these days. We have yet to see the impact of AI-generated "artistic" content, but it's coming soon.

It's sad. So sad.
 
My big "declining quality" pet-peeve is with the CGI in movies. It just looks fake to me. I mean most gaming engines strive for realistic physics, but for some reason a lot of CGI has strange unnatural jerky quality that I can't stand. The creepy realism of Ridley Scott's Alien and Bladerunner used old-school filming techniques which might go the way of the dodo with a younger generation employing so much computer-generated content these days. We have yet to see the impact of AI-generated "artistic" content, but it's coming soon.

It's sad. So sad.
Yup. CGI sucks, because digital modeling will never be as good as the real thing. Oh, wait...

Actually, CGI has improved so much that it’s often impossible to tell.
 
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