Moby Explains Why Music Today is Shit

[MusicLover7]

Moby had one of those “old guy conversations” with Bill Maher this week and they discussed why music today is pretty ordinary.

“I’ve got Spotify on my phone and when I first got it I thought I would hear all this new music but immediately I began using it as my nostalgia machine,” Moby told Maher. “Spotify is basically my high school playlist. My musical tastes end around 1984. Modern music might be great but it can’t complete with The Clash or Public Enemy or John Lennon or Neil Young, on and on and on.”

https://www.noise11.com/news/moby-ex...9f8a-302566781

[Foxhound]

Here's a Youtube clip elaborating on the same thesis:



The fellow argues that there's been a dramatic increase in homogenization/sameness of pop music these days across both specific artists' catalogues as well as across artists. There's been a dramatic decrease in timbral diversity in pop music over the last fifty+ years. Moreover present day pop hits all tend to feature the "millennial whoop" sound pattern which is not at all surprising since the majority of pop hits these days are written by one of two fellows, Max Martin or Lukasz Gottwald.

[Foxhound]

Here's another very good article about the music that dominates hit charts these days:

Is Pop Music Fake? - The New Yorker

Originally Posted by The New Yorker

Almost all the music you hear on Top Forty radio these days is made on machines. You may hear a real guitar once in a while, but an actual drum sound is pretty rare.

Originally Posted by The New Yorker

But was it just the whiskey talking, or was Grohl onto something? The gist of the backlash against his comments was that in extolling the playing of an instrument over the programming of a computer, Grohl was privileging rock over dance, electronica, and hip-hop.

Interesting that sneering at recordings done by computers is seen by some as politically incorrect these days. And expecting groups to play their own instruments is somehow "elitist" and "hurtful" to certain groups.

Another one:

Yup, it really does all sound the same.

And a quickie:

Science Proves: Pop Music Has Actually Gotten Worse - Smithsonian.com

A quick executive summary:

The video and articles address the increasing homogenization/sameness of pop music these days across both many artists' individual catalogues as well as across artists. Modern pop music all sounds the same (awful) because of lack of variety in four ways:

1. Tonal/frequency range. There's been a dramatic decrease in timbral diversity in pop music over the last fifty+ years meaning there's not as much range these days between the highest and the lowest notes in pop hit recordings.

2. Lack of dynamic range. It's all LOUD, as opposed to soft, soft, LOUD or soft, soft, soft, LOUD. This phenomenon has come to be termed the "Loudness Wars". And these loudness wars have also decreased the tonal range of pre-existing recordings because in order to get extra loudness throughout an entire recorded piece, the tonal range must be concentrated/compressed into the mid range frequencies. The way this is done is by clipping the extreme high and low notes from the recording. That's right, notes are clipped from recordings and presto, we're left with a LOUD but lossy recording.

3. Drummers with as wide a variety of drum beats and styles as the human imagination permits have been replaced in recording studios by drum machines operated by recording engineers. Sorry, but if you rely on the imagination of recording engineers, variety is the last thing you're going to get.

4. Present day pop hits all tend to feature the "millennial whoop" chord structure, i.e. sound pattern. This is not at all surprising since at the time these articles were written, the majority of pop hits were being composed by one of two fellows, Max Martin or Lukasz Gottwald.

[BeatlesFan3287]

And expecting groups to play their own instruments is somehow "elitist" and "hurtful" to certain groups.

This reminds of one of the main reasons generation Z hates rock music; they seem to associate it with white bigotry and consider the genre too white overall. They don't seem to realize that most rock stars are/were left leaning and that the genre has had a fair number of African Americans and other non white performers over the years.

[BeatlesFan3287]

I think the rise of streaming has done more than anything else to dumb down popular music.

[Foxhound]

Originally Posted by BeatlesFan3287

This reminds of one of the main reasons generation Z hates rock music; they seem to associate it with white bigotry and consider the genre too white overall.

If that's true, it would certainly not say much for the intellectual perceptiveness of the whole generation.

Originally Posted by BeatlesFan3287

They don't seem to realize that most rock stars are/were left leaning....

Not that there's any reason why there should be any kind of correlation between musical creativity/excellence and "left leaning" political beliefs or those of any stripe. And why would anyone be so daft as to assess music in light of an artist's political leanings?

Originally Posted by BeatlesFan3287

...that the (rock) genre has had a fair number of African Americans and other non white performers over the years.

Indeed, with Jimi Hendrix being perhaps at the very top of the list of legendary rock guitar players! Moreover modern rock actually evolved directly from the post-World War II rhythm and blues popular with the black community in the States. I don't believe that this Generation Z has much interest in the black artists that appeared up high on the R&B charts back in the day. Nor does any of the music which dominates the hit charts these days seem to have been much influenced by these old black bluesmen or soul singers. I wonder how many Generation Zers have even heard of Sonny Boy Williamson, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Elmore James, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Solomon Burke, Ben E. King, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, etc?

[dr wu]

Well..the current Grammy nominees certainly support Moby's ideas.
But I have never followed the top 40 except when I was young in the 60's and early 70's. I got into album oriented music in 1970 and never looked back.

[BeatlesFan3287]

Not that there's any reason why there should be any kind of correlation between musical creativity/excellence and "left leaning" political beliefs or those of any stripe. And why would anyone be so daft as to assess music in light of an artist's political leanings?

I'm just commenting on the excuses I've heard generation Z give for hating rock music; particularly their accusation that rock music is white and racist (and I'm pointing out that this accusation has no weight since most rock stars including the white ones are liberal and therefore most likely not racist). I agree that a rock star's political stance doesn't have any real bearing on their creativity and innovation, but apparently that notion is lost on most young people.

[BeatlesFan3287]

For me, worse than any of the aforementioned is the vocal style that seems to have dominated pop music over the past ten years. Nearly every pop song I've heard seems to have the same breathy choppy vocals (both male and female).

[Foxhound]

Originally Posted by BeatlesFan3287

I'm just commenting on the excuses I've heard generation Z give for hating rock music; particularly their accusation that rock music is white and racist....

And the same people I'm sure want their attitudes, their stupidity, to be enshrined by law. How long will it be before music is subject to the same cancel culture we've been seeing in other media?

Originally Posted by BeatlesFan3287

Nearly every pop song I've heard seems to have the same breathy choppy vocals (both male and female).

Yes. Rhythmic chanting a.k.a. rap lite.

[BeatlesFan3287]

And the same people I'm sure want their attitudes, their stupidity, to be enshrined by law. How long will it be before music is subject to the same cancel culture we've been seeing in other media?

Don't even get me started on cancel culture. Seriously if we were to ban the works of every artist, innovator, creator or whatever that has done shady things in their lives, we would effectively erase all our history, culture and achievements. We would be starting back at the stone age. I guess that's what these people want though.