The state of music today

N

Neo Ash

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Henry Rollins is right. It's all Pro-Tools and vocal pitching. Mainstream music is dead. The Taylor Swifts and Justin Biebers have killed it. It's all about the money, not creating something original. I can't think of any artists that are remotely mainstream that I consider to be honestly talented musicians. Jack White is the one person that jumps to mind as a truly talented musician that is recognizable in the mainstream. He's an artist and I get what he's doing. I have been listening to a lot of older blues recordings. It's stripped down to the basics, reflects talent, and is mind blowing when compared to the junk the record labels are mass producing.

/Rant

Discuss.....
 
cdamm

cdamm

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Neo Ash said:
Henry Rollins is right. It's all Pro-Tools and vocal pitching. Mainstream music is dead. The Taylor Swifts and Justin Biebers have killed it. It's all about the money, not creating something original. I can't think of any artists that are remotely mainstream that I consider to be honestly talented musicians. Jack White is the one person that jumps to mind as a truly talented musician that is recognizable in the mainstream. He's an artist and I get what he's doing. I have been listening to a lot of older blues recordings. It's stripped down to the basics, reflects talent, and is mind blowing when compared to the junk the record labels are mass producing.

/Rant

Discuss.....
Click to expand...

its been gone longer than that.
 
OrochiEddie

OrochiEddie

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who fucking cares. So many great artists are making music now. Some of the best stuff was never popular. Dig through the record bins and go to shows.

All that happened is big music companies realized the general population knows squat about music as an art form and have taken advantage of that.
 
Ajax

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My 14 year old self is saying, "yeah, dude!" My now self is asking... Are you just realizing this?
 
Magician

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Of the newer stuff, I listen to Silversun Pickups. They remind me of Smashing Pumpkins alot. Other than them I stick to classical and oldschool hip-hop. Top 40 radio definitely isn't my thing.


 
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N

Neo Ash

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Ajax said:
My 14 year old self is saying, "yeah, dude!" My now self is asking... Are you just realizing this?
Click to expand...

Hell no. This thread was prompted after finding nothing but pure shit on the radio.

I'm fairly removed from the pop garbage; I listen to a lot of blues, jazz, etc on vinyl. A search across the the FM radio reminds me just how much most music sucks today.
 
Kid Panda

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It's just all cookie cutter stuff, whatever studio crap they can whip up real fast and package cheaply, pop concerts are nothing more than a choreographed puppet show for the fans that simply want entertainment. Look at the shit shows on TV for an example as well.
 
RabbitTroop

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LOL, like mainstream music was ever good... That shit they used to play on the radio and you loved as a kid? Yeah, there were people sitting around asking who the hell could listen to that shit. There's a grand tradition in music, and especially radio, to force-feed what nobody really wants to hear. This isn't new. This didn't start 15 years ago. There's just as good underground/indie/whatever you want to call it music being made today as there was 40, 50, 60 years ago as well.
 
F

Fuzzytaco

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Pop music has never been worse. Some truly disturbing trends in music these days make me weep for the future. I haven't bought anything in the past few years that wasn't made by MF Doom or MadLib or related artists. It's a fucked state of affairs when bands like Broke'n'cyde are making it, meanwhile absurdly talented people like Asheru remain vastly unheard, and albums like Madseason's "Above" will probably never see another release.

Fuck you America.......Fuck you!
 
Poonman

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Honestly, mainstream shit was always bad. In Ontario the radio stations are so broke they play nothing but free public domain shit (ie: "classics) from the 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s and today...and no decade was without its shitty, empty pablum. And make no mistake, that shit was WAY "cool" back in it's day.

I'd have to echo OrochiEddies sentiments and say there's plenty of great shit out there from all over the world ...from genres old and new....that's why we have youtube.

Turn off your radio, rip songs from youtube, put them on an ipod, and install an aux input on your car. Problem solved.
 
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fake

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Preaching to the choir. And I don't think any pop fans care enough or are emotionally invested enough in their music to fight back and say "XYZ band has artistic integrity."

There's no conflict, so why even talk about it? It's not like there's some war between mainstream and non-mainstream music. Justin Beiber leaves Every Time I Die alone and Between the Buried and Me leaves Taylor Swift alone.

And it's not like the record companies are doing anything different than before. Bands have just smartened up and realized that the chances of success on a major label are very very slim. And technology has become advanced and affordable enough that musicians can record on their own. Major labels are a glorified, greasy bank. They are completely irrelevant to almost anyone with artistic integrity and a knack for self-promotion.
 
OrochiEddie

OrochiEddie

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Spoon said:
Honestly, mainstream shit was always bad. In Ontario the radio stations are so broke they play nothing but free public domain shit (ie: "classics) from the 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s and today...and no decade was without its shitty, empty pablum. And make no mistake, that shit was WAY "cool" back in it's day.

I'd have to echo OrochiEddies sentiments and say there's plenty of great shit out there from all over the world ...from genres old and new....that's why we have youtube.

Turn off your radio, rip songs from youtube, put them on an ipod, and install an aux input on your car. Problem solved.
Click to expand...
rip songs off youtube?

Oh god no.
The sound quality man...the sound quality!
 
fake

fake

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Spoon said:
Honestly, mainstream shit was always bad.
Click to expand...

I can count the number of major label releases I've bought in the last five years on one hand. That said, I disagree. Taste varies, but I don't think you can say Michael Jackson, The Police, Prince, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, etc were bad.
 
S

SSS

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You can find almost any album regardless of how obscure on file upload sites like rapidshare etc.. compressed in .rar

There's so many folks who have music blogs where they upload their favorite albums. Google is all you need.
 
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OrochiEddie

OrochiEddie

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fakeXsound said:
I can count the number of major label releases I've bought in the last five years on one hand. That said, I disagree. Taste varies, but I don't think you can say Michael Jackson, The Police, Prince, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, etc were bad.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I'd say up to the late 80s, the "mainstream" artists were of a much higher quality and actually had talent. Nowadays with the increase in technology it is easy to make any pretty face a pop star.

cdmann said:
there are some bright spots.
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no, what I meant is the sound quality on a youtube file is already not great, but then to rip it is even worse. I think its like 128kbps type quality.
 
goombakid

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OrochiEddie said:
rip songs off youtube?

Oh god no.
The sound quality man...the sound quality!
Click to expand...
How is that any different than recording shit to cassette from the radio back in the day? Ever made a cassette recording from a cassette recording from a cassette recording? Early music sharing, fo sho!

I feel Neo Ash, though. I've filtered through couple "pop" stations here in Portland. I had enough of them playing Taylor Swift, Justin Beiber, Nikki Minaj (still a fucking joke). I now listed to an alternative station; loving Silversun Pickups, The Black Keys, and other great bands.
 
Ajax

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No offense... Kind of... But, since the day I registered at this site, I've always looked across the forums and thought you all basically had shit taste in music. :emb:
 
terry.330

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Yeah mainstream music is at an all time low, but the amount of good independent music is a an all time high.

The internet is like an unending easter egg hunt of awesome music.

It also help to know how to look for good music. Take your favorite bands/artists find out who else is on their label, find out who influenced them etc. You are guaranteed to keep finding awesome stuff like a Bust A Move chain reaction.
 
RabbitTroop

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fakeXsound said:
I can count the number of major label releases I've bought in the last five years on one hand. That said, I disagree. Taste varies, but I don't think you can say Michael Jackson, The Police, Prince, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, etc were bad.
Click to expand...

Haha, and for every one of those classic releases, there was an absolute barrel of drivel to follow it up. I'm not trying to sound like an old geezer here, but if you were alive when Michael was still making good music, and Prince and the Police were still dropping new albums, then you know what I mean. As someone who actually grew up and was alive for all of the 80s, I can promise you there was a LOT of shit released back then as well. Thing is, only the good survives the test of time. The cut-outs don't get played on VH1 Classics, or the R&B stations, or the classic rock rounds. Same thing with books, movies, and etc. It's no surprise that the good stuff stays in circulation, but you're talking about outliers of bygone eras. What about the millions of other releases from those same periods?
 
PleaseKillMeNow

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Everything bad about modern mainstream music is what's made mainstream music bad for the last sixty years.

If you don't believe me, I can prove it.

Also, Henry Rollins is a moron who fell out of touch sometime in the early eighties.
 
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