I’ve long suspected that there was something qualitatively different about popular music today compared to earlier decades. This study underscores it. Popular music - first due to disco and second, and I’d argue, more powerfully, because of hip hop - is becoming melodically more simplistic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/science/song-melodies-getting-simpler.html
The listeners have gotten dumber, less demanding and easier to please. Add to that, music, at least popular music, is not made by artists nor is it considered an art. It’s a product made by people who think of themselves as brands. Taylor Swift, for example, is not an artist but a brand. Music is made by people who have nothing to say for people who have nothing to care about.
Okay, boomer. This is literally the opinion of every generation of old people about young people music. Some music has always been simple and silly. Some music has always been more complex and nuanced.
Is music getting dumber?
I’m not that old. Two things: make sure that you know how old someone is before using that term and know that if you do use it, you’ve admitted defeat.
No, it’s not. It’s actually the opposite. The older generation feared, to some degree, the subversive elements in music; the social, cultural and political messages. My critique speaks to the absence of those elements. Give me an example of a Taylor Swift or Beyonce song that is on the same level as Machine Gun by Hendrix. Where is this generation’s Sex Pistols? I could get into obscure bands like the Velvet Underground to further the point but I’ll stick with popular artists.
Compositionally, they do nothing on the level of the Beatles, Zeppelin, the Stones or Pink Floyd.
There’s a reason why these performers today have 10 or more songwriters per song: they can’t write songs. It’s the same group of writers writing songs for everyone.
Now that would be most.
And in the past, it was popular. Now, it isn’t.
I know young people like to think they are on the cutting edge of everything and are too cool for school. I’ve been around a lot of them and have found them to be boring as shit and uninteresting. I’ve had students try to blow my mind with their music and they end up disappointed when instead of shock, they’re met with a yawn. I would play for them the music I grew up with but I would get fired.
Interesting topic as I was just discussing this with some friends the other day…well, we weren’t talking about “dumber”, but more along the lines of, there has been a very dramatic drop-off in new artists/bands creating quality music. We were trying to pinpoint when this occurred and we all thought that it was somewhere in the early 2000’s. And while we couldn’t definitively give an answer to why this happened, we do think that napster, or the internet, played an obvious role somehow.
It just seems like these newer generations, millenials and Gen z, have completely dropped the ball when it comes to music in general. Before the early 2000s, you have grunge in the 90s where there seemed to be a new band literally every week. No, scratch that, several new bands/artists every week and they all were coming up with, for the most part, really good music. Same with rap/hip-hop, everyday new artists were emerging and carving out their own unique style/sound and the rhymes actually rhymed, the beats were created by gifted, real life DJs (NOT all autotune/computer), and most raps told/crafted some sort of story/tale. They didn’t just repeat stupid shit like “molly molly percocet” (that clever rhyme was from “future” a supposed rapper).
During this time period, you had bands like Incubus, STP, Soundgarden, Oasis, Nirvana, Sublime, Everclear, Veruca Salt, Linkin Park, 369 Mafia, Dre, Nas, Snoop, 8 ball and MJG, Fat Pat, Ludacris, T.I., Big Tymers, Missy Elliot… You get the point.
Can anyone argue that the past decade of music has been able to introduce people to this same LARGE amount of POPULAR new artists/bands/sounds? Hell, can anyone actually name SUCCESSFUL bands from the past decade or so? And yes, before you jump in here, I’m not talking about the obvious ones like Taylor Swift, Drake, Rihanna, etc (although they and others were also present in the early 2000s as well), but new groups/artists who did NOT lean on autotune/computers and actually knew how to play a fucking instrument and create a story, etc with their song/rap?
Yeah, it’s a real headscratcher because you will quickly start to wonder “what the fuck happened to all of the musical talent in this world? Why can so few musicians actually play an instrument, or be able to actually SING? Why does all rap music now just repeat a few words or phrases and then have some half assed autotune lyrics & beats added in?” Again, this is not the old man shaking his fist in the air, yelling to get off his lawn, I’m not being that guy, but really think about it. Although, be forewarned, it’ll make you sad when you realize what has happened to music…
Something to consider is that kids today will protest Israel on campus and treated with kid gloves. There are no consequences; it’s really not a courageous act of defiance and they have no skin in the game. They aren’t feared. Compare that to Kent State.
The music today reflects that lack of substance we see in young people today. Music has to be simple and meaningless because it reflects how they think.
You guys should turn off Taylor and Crank Up some Bad Bunny.
Music doesn’t matter anymore. It doesn’t hold the same place in young peoples lives as it once did. What Beyonce fan can honestly relate to her music? She’s approaching middle age, she’s married and has a kid. She’s the voice of the younger generation?
You do see metal fans connecting to the music but metal, whether you like it aesthetically or not, does keep it real.
Which corresponds to most every era of music, which, generally speaking, reflects society when it is written?
Pre Vietnam War music seemed carefree and spoke to a carefree time. The Vietnam War drastically changed the attitude of the youth, and it corresponded with the music of the time.
Unless you are talking about Jazz.
I asked my oldest friend (who sang in our garage band back in the 80s) what music his teenage boys listened to these days. His answer? “whatever song is on the video game they are playing.”
But Jazz was not popular. I understand that Jazz reflected a portion of society that was less fortunate than those that I lived among. So Jazz did reflect the society it was written to tell their story.
I’m a rap fan, and mostly prefer older over newer stuff. But some people like Kendrick Lamar are still making decent hip hop.
Who cares, if it sounds good to you, that’s all that matters.
I would agree that pop music is increasingly lacking in quality when taken as a whole. I believe this is similar to how popular film and television has also taken a step backwards in overall quality.
Great stuff is still getting made across all genres, but it seems like a lot of carefully curated unoriginal crap is what gets amplified by the monied interests. Some of the stuff my kid listened to in high school was objectively terrible. Mumble rap and a variety of other awful sounds I lack words to describe.
“Compared to what?” is always a good question to ask. The most controversial pop artist of my childhood was probably 2 Live Crew, who went out of their way to be provocative and crude. Compared to a lot of the crap my kid used to play, it is like a sophisticated night at the symphony.
Thanks for the Jazz history. I had always looked at the ‘40’s as Big Band and the beginning of the Crooners. I never connected it with Jazz.
Disclaimer: I firmly classify myself as a music illiterate.
My music of choice is ‘50’s and pre-Beatle ‘60’s, especially, Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis. So my taste lacks a little diversity.
Have not enjoyed any new music in the last 20 years besides maybe kings of Leon, Florence and the machine, Bonobo, mudvayne , some of Maynard’s stuff, and a handful of others.
You tell me.