What's Behind Today's Lifeless Music?

OGBama

Big Clit Energy
Lack of music education and/or music literacy?

Infinite (or finite, depending on if software isn't future proof) access to professional (?) sounds, etc.

Music seen as background noise as opposed to a sociocultural experience meant to be shared?
 
With the crippling depression and anxiety caused by the myths created & spread by the mainstream media, the unbelievable narcissism of the gen z and the cycle created between need for acceptance, using social media to fulfill that, becoming more of a narcissist because of the social media and then craving for more acceptance, addiction to social media is becoming a norm and thus the effects of it on the society is inevitable.

One of the effects of that addiction, is that our attention span has been demolished, that's the reason you see many people have their Televisions on in the house while nobody is watchin. turn that tv off and u can watch people go crazy. besides the fact that they are addicted to being distracted, they don't want to think about one subject for a long period, they don't wanna worry about anything, so they keep themselves distracted as much as they can.

This damages music deeply, because people don't wanna focus on anything anymore, and that applies to music too, nobody would focus on music anymore. i think we all have that habit to spend our free time to do nothing but listen to real music, feel the instruments, feel the emotions, have sympathy with the music, or in other words, experience music. people don't do this nowadays, that's why genres like jazz and classical are literally dying.

With all this, one disturbing fact remains that music is now a business, and whatever sells the most, is what the companies give a shit about. and the music people want to hear is lightweight, it sounds like nothing. it can't be deep, nobody wants to listen to what a rapper says, i swear if mobb deep released their first album in 2019, they couldn't sell 2 records. the fact that people don't want to focus on anything, damaged melodies, as nobody wants to hear melodies anymore. it damaged rap as no one wants to hear someone actually say something significant, and it damaged many many other forms of art.

People want to have something playing that they don't need to pay attention to. and that's when trap music gets popular. like for example listen to arrest the president by ice cube, its a real headbanger, but nobody wants to listen to it because it's too loud. but listen to gucci gang by lil pump, it doesn't have Any details, the lyrics, the beat, the artist ... none have any details to make them different from every other song.

as people listen to these music, they get used to it, and their childs get used to it as well, so they think Music is the bullshit they heard when they were kids. that's why we see them bang their head to some bullcrap beat that doesn't even have a kick. Everything is starting to sound the same because 1 : Companies dont wanna risk on creativity, and 2 : because if something sounds different, it wont sell, cuz people can only enjoy the song if they pay attention to it.

This new era of teenagers reminds me of fight club, expect instead of insomnia we have the addiction to social media & distraction, and instead of hospitals for testicle cancer, we have the social media, while everyone in it has the same crippling depression that came from the same source.

"I became addicted. I felt more alive than I've ever felt. If I didn't say anything, people assumed the worst. They cried harder. I cried harder. I wasn't really dying. I wasn't host to cancer or parasites; no, I was the warm little center that the life of this world crowded around."

"The things you own, they end up owning you. With insomnia, nothing is real. Everything is far away. Everything is
a copy of a copy of a copy. When you have insomnia, you're never really awake and you're never
really asleep, either."

- Tyler Durden, Fight Club
 
Also with the companies pressuring artist to make money for them, they are forced to make as much music as they can. they listen to billboard #1s and try to copy. these 2 things makes them release fucked up music. no emotions in it, no nothing. and the fact that they don't wanna lose their jobs prevents them from risking and being creative. so no new shit will ever be made by them. no revolutions. the same thing over and over again. the fact that the #1 hit is usually some song that has no melodies or good lyrics because of the distraction thing that i said before, they copy shit and paste bullshit.
 
People are probably going to roast me after this post but IDGAF. :D

I wouldn't say that today's music is lifeless. I reckon it depends on what someone is looking for. There is a huge amount of very good music out there and to be honest with you I don't quite understand your use of a word 'lifeless'. I think that each historical period had 'lifeless' music and each of them was perceived differently by different people.

I'm gonna give you a very good example that may serve as a good reference here:

Nowadays, music by Louis Armstrong is perceived as a very noble one. Louis Armstrong now is the icon of jazz music, trumpet virtuoso with very original bass voice.

However, a friend of my grandfather once said to him "I can't listen to this growling... It's not music, it's noise".

The same thing goes with new music today. I reckon that it is a sort of a human characteristic that we tend to think that old things are better, more classy and more valuable. But we often forget about the fact in the past our "classy" and "more valuable" music was treated very similarly to the one we hear today on the radio. Take a look at the beginnings of rap, metal, punk etc. It was something that was very hard for people to comprehend and to accept. Of course now those genres are described by the use of such words like "revolutionary". But back in the day most of the people was looking on them with smirks on their faces and they were treating members of those subcultures in a very derogatory way to put it delicately.

I am more worried about the fact that due to infinite access to professional music tools the market and Internet has been flooded with low quality music and basically it made music less valuable in general.

However, everything has its pros and cons and an infinite access to music tools gives a lot of opportunities to people who wouldn't be able to go to music school or who are limited by lack of money or personal matters. It gives people the ability to try it and express themselves. In the past only the chosen people were able to fulfill their dreams of becoming the music stars.

I realise that it may be quite difficult for you to understand but I'm gonna give you another example from my country. Until 1989 Poland was under the surveillance of the Soviet Union. Only a few people had enough connections and money to get products from the West. Basically we suffered from the lack of food (there were food ratios divided among the citizens), lack of products and the quality of them was very low. At that time if you had a guitar, bass or whatever instrument and you could play something on it your chances of becoming famous and successful were sky-rocketing.

So be happy that you have easily accessible means to realise your passion. ;)

I definitely disagree with the third point that music is seen more as a background noise as opposed to a sociocultural experience meant to be shared. Of course I think it depends on the environment where the music is used. For example I sometimes listen to music at work and then I don't pay much attention to it. It's more like a filler. But when I'm at home or at the concert it's a totally different story. However, if you look at the classical music which is nowadays the highest and purest form of music you should notice that in XVII and XVIII century music composed by Mozart or Haendel was created mostly for the purpose of banquets. It was a background music. Surprise, surprise! :D

I don't want to be salty but I think you take music too personally and I'm sorry to inform you but with all due respect music is and was mainly created for the purpose of parties, dance etc. Very trivial reasons. Mozart wrote dances, Beethoven wrote dances, Strauss Brothers wrote dances. Music is created to make people move their bodies. Most of the classical stuff are dances. Now they are perceived as very classy and noble but back in a day they were just a normal form of entertainment.

Besides my approach to music in general has changed as I moved from being a teenager to being an adult who has to care about very down-to-earth things.

When you are young you have the time to contemplate music and maybe to think about it in a more deeper sense but at the moment when you have a child (I don't have one yet but it's just an example ;) ), you have a family, you have bills to pay etc. music becomes just some element of entertainment and trust me, the vast majority of people don't have the time nor will to pay attention to music. Not to mention analysing it.

People seek easy music they can understand and relate to. And once again, I'm really sorry to break it to you but average music consumers don't care about things WE care about. They don't care about what kind of progression was used here, what kind of snare was used here etc. They do not care about it. And they will not do it. It has to make them hooked and this is the point. It is meant to relax them, to make them enjoy their free time. I know that most people here including me look at music in a little bit more detailed way. We care about what we hear. We take interest in what we listen to. We are curious why it was done in this or that way.

But people are not curious in general.

Another example. I have a car. I like driving it but I have no idea how particular elements of its engine work. And I don't want to know. I don't care. Mechanics are the people who should know this and help me when I'm in need. Not me. I just want to drive safely from point A to point B. And that's it.

The same goes with music and its perception by the average listener.

The same thing goes with blaming some artists for selling themselves. I mean, isn't it something most of us dream of? To live off of music? I mean I don't understand why it is so bad for some people to earn money on making music. I don't get it at all.

I mean we all should get rid of this stereotype that a true artist is a poor artist.

Personally, if I came across the opportunity of making a lot of money on music I would go for it no matter what kind of genre it is. It can be pop, rap, techno, whatever. I would use my five minutes to the fullest. I would appear in commercials, TV shows and all this stuff. And I don't care at all what other people would think about it.

Final example, there was a time in my life when I wanted to make very ambitious type of music. And you know what? Nobody cared. Why? Because it was boring to majority of people, because majority of people didn't have knowledge to comprehend it. And this is why some genres will never be as popular as others.

I'm sorry but statements like "why today's music is lifeless" are like quotes from Don Quixote. I don't know why but a lot of people lives in some nostalgy to the old times. But I'm sorry to disappoint you. They are not going to come back... So please leave your utopian ideas at home at let's face the truth and reality... And there is no pun intended to any of the members. Just to the general concept.

At the end I would like to praise very good point made by @ArvinArmani about the distraction world. It was very accurate and I fully agree with it.

I'm gonna close this post with the paraphrase of Eminem's verse: "I'm not a musician, I'm an adapter. I can adjust."

Period.
 
People are probably going to roast me after this post but IDGAF. :D

I wouldn't say that today's music is lifeless. I reckon it depends on what someone is looking for. There is a huge amount of very good music out there and to be honest with you I don't quite understand your use of a word 'lifeless'. I think that each historical period had 'lifeless' music and each of them was perceived differently by different people.

I'm gonna give you a very good example that may serve as a good reference here:

Nowadays, music by Louis Armstrong is perceived as a very noble one. Louis Armstrong now is the icon of jazz music, trumpet virtuoso with very original bass voice.

However, a friend of my grandfather once said to him "I can't listen to this growling... It's not music, it's noise".

The same thing goes with new music today. I reckon that it is a sort of a human characteristic that we tend to think that old things are better, more classy and more valuable. But we often forget about the fact in the past our "classy" and "more valuable" music was treated very similarly to the one we hear today on the radio. Take a look at the beginnings of rap, metal, punk etc. It was something that was very hard for people to comprehend and to accept. Of course now those genres are described by the use of such words like "revolutionary". But back in the day most of the people was looking on them with smirks on their faces and they were treating members of those subcultures in a very derogatory way to put it delicately.

I am more worried about the fact that due to infinite access to professional music tools the market and Internet has been flooded with low quality music and basically it made music less valuable in general.

However, everything has its pros and cons and an infinite access to music tools gives a lot of opportunities to people who wouldn't be able to go to music school or who are limited by lack of money or personal matters. It gives people the ability to try it and express themselves. In the past only the chosen people were able to fulfill their dreams of becoming the music stars.

I realise that it may be quite difficult for you to understand but I'm gonna give you another example from my country. Until 1989 Poland was under the surveillance of the Soviet Union. Only a few people had enough connections and money to get products from the West. Basically we suffered from the lack of food (there were food ratios divided among the citizens), lack of products and the quality of them was very low. At that time if you had a guitar, bass or whatever instrument and you could play something on it your chances of becoming famous and successful were sky-rocketing.

So be happy that you have easily accessible means to realise your passion. ;)

I definitely disagree with the third point that music is seen more as a background noise as opposed to a sociocultural experience meant to be shared. Of course I think it depends on the environment where the music is used. For example I sometimes listen to music at work and then I don't pay much attention to it. It's more like a filler. But when I'm at home or at the concert it's a totally different story. However, if you look at the classical music which is nowadays the highest and purest form of music you should notice that in XVII and XVIII century music composed by Mozart or Haendel was created mostly for the purpose of banquets. It was a background music. Surprise, surprise! :D

I don't want to be salty but I think you take music too personally and I'm sorry to inform you but with all due respect music is and was mainly created for the purpose of parties, dance etc. Very trivial reasons. Mozart wrote dances, Beethoven wrote dances, Strauss Brothers wrote dances. Music is created to make people move their bodies. Most of the classical stuff are dances. Now they are perceived as very classy and noble but back in a day they were just a normal form of entertainment.

Besides my approach to music in general has changed as I moved from being a teenager to being an adult who has to care about very down-to-earth things.

When you are young you have the time to contemplate music and maybe to think about it in a more deeper sense but at the moment when you have a child (I don't have one yet but it's just an example ;) ), you have a family, you have bills to pay etc. music becomes just some element of entertainment and trust me, the vast majority of people don't have the time nor will to pay attention to music. Not to mention analysing it.

People seek easy music they can understand and relate to. And once again, I'm really sorry to break it to you but average music consumers don't care about things WE care about. They don't care about what kind of progression was used here, what kind of snare was used here etc. They do not care about it. And they will not do it. It has to make them hooked and this is the point. It is meant to relax them, to make them enjoy their free time. I know that most people here including me look at music in a little bit more detailed way. We care about what we hear. We take interest in what we listen to. We are curious why it was done in this or that way.

But people are not curious in general.

Another example. I have a car. I like driving it but I have no idea how particular elements of its engine work. And I don't want to know. I don't care. Mechanics are the people who should know this and help me when I'm in need. Not me. I just want to drive safely from point A to point B. And that's it.

The same goes with music and its perception by the average listener.

The same thing goes with blaming some artists for selling themselves. I mean, isn't it something most of us dream of? To live off of music? I mean I don't understand why it is so bad for some people to earn money on making music. I don't get it at all.

I mean we all should get rid of this stereotype that a true artist is a poor artist.

Personally, if I came across the opportunity of making a lot of money on music I would go for it no matter what kind of genre it is. It can be pop, rap, techno, whatever. I would use my five minutes to the fullest. I would appear in commercials, TV shows and all this stuff. And I don't care at all what other people would think about it.

Final example, there was a time in my life when I wanted to make very ambitious type of music. And you know what? Nobody cared. Why? Because it was boring to majority of people, because majority of people didn't have knowledge to comprehend it. And this is why some genres will never be as popular as others.

I'm sorry but statements like "why today's music is lifeless" are like quotes from Don Quixote. I don't know why but a lot of people lives in some nostalgy to the old times. But I'm sorry to disappoint you. They are not going to come back... So please leave your utopian ideas at home at let's face the truth and reality... And there is no pun intended to any of the members. Just to the general concept.

At the end I would like to praise very good point made by @ArvinArmani about the distraction world. It was very accurate and I fully agree with it.

I'm gonna close this post with the paraphrase of Eminem's verse: "I'm not a musician, I'm an adapter. I can adjust."

Period.
I agree with a lot of that, yes there are loads of talented musicians everywhere, but they dont get any airtime. Its only ignorant shit that ever gets any airtime. The gatekeepers are the labels, and they are insistent on releasing unadulterated crap that all sounds the same. The diversity died in hip hop, like its dying in movies. Movies have become not much more than pushing liberal/progressive propaganda, trying to socially engineer the masses into their own mental slavery.
 
I agree with a lot of that, yes there are loads of talented musicians everywhere, but they dont get any airtime. Its only ignorant shit that ever gets any airtime. The gatekeepers are the labels, and they are insistent on releasing unadulterated crap that all sounds the same. The diversity died in hip hop, like its dying in movies. Movies have become not much more than pushing liberal/progressive propaganda, trying to socially engineer the masses into their own mental slavery.
exactly what i was about to say
 
I agree with a lot of that, yes there are loads of talented musicians everywhere, but they dont get any airtime. Its only ignorant shit that ever gets any airtime. The gatekeepers are the labels, and they are insistent on releasing unadulterated crap that all sounds the same. The diversity died in hip hop, like its dying in movies. Movies have become not much more than pushing liberal/progressive propaganda, trying to socially engineer the masses into their own mental slavery.

I agree. I think when it comes to movies there are too much political correctness nowadays and as you said they are mostly used to socially engineer people. Jokes that were used in 80s and 90s wouldn't find the place today. And it's very sad. There are too many snowflakes among people especially young. People are too sensitive.
 
I agree. I think when it comes to movies there are too much political correctness nowadays and as you said they are mostly used to socially engineer people. Jokes that were used in 80s and 90s wouldn't find the place today. And it's very sad. There are too many snowflakes among people especially young. People are too sensitive.
The last 5 to 6 years in particular has really highlighted to me how cancerous political correctness is and what a dark place it is taking us to. A persons "offence" allows weak people to exercise some form of power, and its very dangerous to human rights and freedom of expression, a subject that is at the core of our favorite hobby/pasttime and our very freedom. The UK, the birthplace of the Magna Carta, common law and human rights and innocent until proven guilty, now sends people to prison for reporting on child gang rapists because the rapists are muslims, and we have people being convicted for training a pug to do a nazi salute. Comedians are no longer allowed to be funny. Fucking clownworld.
The nutters are running the asylum and Im sure its going to get worse before it gets better.
 
The last 5 to 6 years in particular has really highlighted to me how cancerous political correctness is and what a dark place it is taking us to. A persons "offence" allows weak people to exercise some form of power, and its very dangerous to human rights and freedom of expression, a subject that is at the core of our favorite hobby/pasttime and our very freedom. The UK, the birthplace of the Magna Carta, common law and human rights and innocent until proven guilty, now sends people to prison for reporting on child gang rapists because the rapists are muslims, and we have people being convicted for training a pug to do a nazi salute. Comedians are no longer allowed to be funny. Fucking clownworld.
The nutters are running the asylum and Im sure its going to get worse before it gets better.

Really someone sent somebody to prison for training a pug to do a nazi salute? XDDDDDD Do you have any reference to some article about it or something? :D This is ridiculous.

I know what you are talking about when it comes to the first point you made about the UK, because I'm quite familiar with what is going on in there as I have almost daily contact with people from the Great Britain. I heard that you can't even do almost anything to people who are Muslims and from what I know the police are not willing to intervene in cases that include Muslims. This is what I heard. But if it's true then it's crazy that you can't be free in your own country and the foreigners have more rights that the citizens of the country they're in.
 
Really someone sent somebody to prison for training a pug to do a nazi salute? XDDDDDD Do you have any reference to some article about it or something? :D This is ridiculous.

I know what you are talking about when it comes to the first point you made about the UK, because I'm quite familiar with what is going on in there as I have almost daily contact with people from the Great Britain. I heard that you can't even do almost anything to people who are Muslims and from what I know the police are not willing to intervene in cases that include Muslims. This is what I heard. But if it's true then it's crazy that you can't be free in your own country and the foreigners have more rights that the citizens of the country they're in.
He was convicted and fined but didnt get sent to prison, but even that is utterly ridiculous.
Hes a scottish youtuber called Count Dankula aka Mark Meechan
Heres a link

Our law puts the power in the hands of anybody that wants to say words hurt them. Words.
 
He was convicted and fined but didnt get sent to prison, but even that is utterly ridiculous.
Hes a scottish youtuber called Count Dankula aka Mark Meechan
Heres a link

Our law puts the power in the hands of anybody that wants to say words hurt them. Words.

I just read this article and watched the video with the pug. XDDDDDDDDD This is hilarious. :D

As far as the second part of your post is concerned, this is really scary. :(
 

OGBama

Big Clit Energy
I @Memento Beats grew up in the 1990s and came of age in 2000 and remember when people shitted on Hip Hop and other genres for not being deep, etc. and the only thing that would be awesome in this era from the 90s would be people's attention being longer than it is today, and the byproduct of that was the news cycle, etc. being slow alongside the tech of the day.

I get your Louis example as Jazz came from the word "jass" which was a precursor to the word "jizz" and Jazz's sociocultural framework was that it was whorehouse music that the gentry wanted no parts of, and for it to be played, Blacks had to present themselves in tuxes, dresses, etc. to give the air of respectability when performed in the company of Whites, who considered Blacks to have natural rhythm (e.g. the stereotype that all Blacks can dance, etc.) which gave way to the idea that Black music wasn't something to be studied because it was said to be primitive aka jungle music.

I never thought nor think that a true artist is a poor one as there is nothing noble about being broke and/or poor (which is two different things), regardless of occupation and I feel the truest artists know what and/or how they want to express what's inside them and manage to develop for themselves a business mind (albeit w/a team of like minded associates).

The one thing that excites me to a degree is the infinite access to whatever I want to consciously educate myself about musically thanks to professors, etc. of known music education programs putting the courses, free and/or paid, on the Internet, but even w/that I hope that face-to-face real time music education doesn't disappear or at least feel like only trust fund types w/money and/or children w/a parent and/or other relative in the business can be the recipients of said music education, as education, like all else in society, is a business.
 
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