Why old music is better... and - Truth.

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xjwmx

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In the pre-internet days music was controlled by moguls competing against each other with their artists, and the bar was continually raised higher and higher. The egalitarian material of today is released while still unfinished.

And in the current internet days with free distribution, the people who make the money determine Truth. Those who make money are those who sell a product that is not digitally transferable, like Walmart..



And...unfinished material is gettin' out there today, and it...is...mediocre.

 
In the pre-internet days, the only people making money were the record companies. They paid the the artists very, very little. About a dollar per record sold. The only thing the record companies were good for was marketing. Which, in turn, got people to come to the shows. Where the artists made their real profit. Ticket sales and merchandise sales.
When the internet came along, the record companies were forced to pay the artists more money because the artists didn't need them anymore. They were already selling records and gaining popularity. Seems like, now, they are finding their new artists from the internet and scooping them up before they have a chance to make it without them.

I think the music (if you can call it that) of today is crap. The digital age has brought laziness and the ability to not have to hone your skills and learn your craft. For example, autotune. Now singers don't even have to have correct pitch. You use to have to know how to play and understand music.
I could go on and on about it, but, I'll stop now.
 
Most of what's 'popular' today is that hiphop/rap crap. But just when I think there is no hope, I turn on one of the alt-rock Sirius/XM satellite stations and ya know something? There are some decent musicians out there who have something to say.
 
There are lots and lots of good musicians and bands out there. You just won't hear them on commercial radio. If at all.

"kids and their wild ways, everyone knows the only real music is thumping a hollow log with a big stick"

Yes, if it's accompanied with a jug, a washboard, and some hollerin.
 
I watched the video and it was very insightfull, Thanks.
He is a very smart guy and he knows his stuff. The record companies did have some of the most talented artist`s back in the day.
I know most of them worked on their subsiqent album while they toured their current and so on.
Records cut in just 7 hours that are classics today, It seems unbelievable now but our old school artist were just better then anything you will find today.
Now I`ll have to watch all this guys video`s...For free:D
 
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picker said:
Now I`ll have to watch all this guys video`s...For free:D
Click to expand...

Ha ha! He was paid for the interview. Not sure who's losing out. Maybe HBO or MTV or the like.

But yeah, he's a very entertaining speaker.
 
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I have tried to turn people on to music that I like many times over the years...I stopped trying....seems most people just want to hear the same crap over and over...dont want to hear anything new or different or out of the norm. I love voices, even bad voices sometimes sound good. Allways looking for some body and something different.
I think when most artists get famous and make some money , they lose their creativity.
Their hunger to make heartfelt music....then go for the formula that sells.
OK....I'm done...did I make any sense?
 
here's a thought: one reason that more recent music seems so un-distinctive is that at this point it's all just being re-chewed.

Think about what happened musically in the USA starting with I dunno exactly, but let's say ragtime music, then you get jazz and blues mixed in, then country gets mixed in and it all equaled something like a musical tsunami, being surfed by a thing called rock and roll. Then in the 60's you get the brit influence mixed in TOO. Then mid 70's it started to stop, lol. Musicians burned out and all the new stuff by late 70's onward was a continual re-hashing of that huge, distinctive "wave" - which I don't think will ever happen again on this planet - the great wave that happened mostly in the USA in the 20th century.

I don't see anything that outrageously original ever happening again. Partly because of the internet, satellite radio, etc. Nobody has to hide under the covers at night, tuning in some far away station that plays blues or whatever.
We're definitely "running rich" in the music dept and as a result it seems things are mushy.
It's all re-hash. Some of it is FANTASTICALLY great re-hash, but it is re-hash.

Funny, it seems it's almost come full-circle, in that if you want to hear something gritty, you pretty much HAVE to go out and find some under-paid band playing live - like in the 50's juke-joint days.

Seems like some TV series feature good music by new bands, but it all sounds like rehashed stuff, too. Like the show WEEDS - great soundtrack! mostly current artists and good listening - but there's nothing really groundbreaking there.
I don't think there's any ground TO break right now.

ok sorry I went on and on - I'm bored outta my head at work. This seemed like a good bone to chew.
:wink2:

ps: I had the pleasure of seeing Richard Thompson playing live with his electric trio a few weeks ago. Wow!!!! now that's one dude that didn't slow down..... wicked band
 
Hey emzdogz...I kinda agree. Much like TV and movies are a rehash of the best of the old stuff. There are some new talents sticking their heads out all over. I really think the interweb helps us to discover much quicker and easier the new talent and decide for ourselves what we loke and dont like. There is a wide range of new music if you look for it. I love finding a new and different band with a new or even an old sound.
The Black Keys
Alabama Shakes
The Gourds
Ben Howard
The Civil Wars
Adele...yes I said it
and a lot of the older musicians are still making great sounds...its just people forgot about them and only listen to what the RADIO plays and what the sponsors want you to hear....
til I get another ramble on....Kev.
 
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Man... One of the most amazing bands I ever saw was a local band that never put a recording together. That was 10 years ago though. This was a band that completely changed my view of music. I think that's really the benefit of technology... documenting these songs (recording) is so much more attainable.

I do agree there are some bands that are getting released unfinished, but I think part of that is how fickle the scene is now. I don't always mind a little roughness, but people don't stick with a band long enough for them to become polished. There is just a constant inundation of artists.
 
One thing he assumes though is that record labels were doing a good job of deciding who should be heard.

I think the problem, as with most every problem today... the public wants everything, but doesn't want to pay for it. While I think some were making way too much in the recording industry... they should be paid something reasonable. Part of the problem is that people were being charged too much and there was a backlash.

The current technological scene could be great for bands... if people acted like investors. (Not the type of investors that buy low and sell high... the investors that see a product they believe in and put something into it). When I go to a local show and really like a band, I buy their cd. There's a mc shop in the area I really like. I've been able to throw some business their way, but I've also bought 3 of their tshirts.

One local band I really like is Old Capital Square Dance Club. When their record comes out, I will buy it.

http://www.oldcapitalmusic.com/home.php
 
Jaguargod - "I think when most artists get famous and make some money , they lose their creativity.
Their hunger to make heartfelt music....then go for the formula that sells."

I think sometimes, but I think it's also possible that the music industry in general sours the artist's outlook of writing/performing.

Then there is the fact that no one is ever happy with what a band does. Either they don't change enough or change too much from album to album.

A comment on this story pretty much sums up how I feel:

http://gizmodo.com/5890109/how-auto tune-and-digital-recording-suck-the-life-out-of-music

Jerseyboy160 @a_of

I beg to differ, the idea of there being a decline in music over the last 20 years is a common misconception. People often look back to the past through the "rose-colored glasses" of nostalgia, not realizing there were just as many crappy songs that had no business hitting the charts back then as there are today.

To prove my point, I'd wager you feel video games, movies, TV shows and maybe even sports aren't as good as they used to be when sales numbers prove otherwise.

What people are sensing isn't a decline in quality, but rather a decline in value. You know the basic principle that the less you have of something, the more valuable it becomes and when you have more of something, the opposite applies. The same can be said with music. A good, well composed song isn't as valuable as it used to be because we now live in the era of the internet where the world's catalog of music is just a few touches/clicks away on your smartphone.

You're exposed to so much music that most of it doesn't touch you the same way it used to. You could almost say we've become desensitized to music the same way we've become desensitized to violence and sex.
 
To nj1639...saw Rt and Teddy in Philly At the WXPN music festival. The girl I was dating at the time said at the end of that song "There is not a dry female seat in the house right now" Ha ha....
 
Chito, the person you're quoting there is pretty agile, but it's nonsense. What you see with your own eyes is the best music lost in a vast sea of mediocre, with no mechanism in place to present only the best to us, just like Livingston says.

It doesn't apply only to music either. If everybody in the world wrote a book and made it available on the internet leaving behind the concept of book publishers, the best would remain unknown. And the best could not make a living at it.
 

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