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Thread: Why is modern pop so terrible?

  1. #31
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    I watched the first 4 minutes of the original video and turned it off. You can't compare The Beatles' "A Day In The Life" to Britney Spears, you can't suggest Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, etc, were just "pop". For the argument to be valid, you need to be comparing true like with like, so maybe comparing modern pop with pop singles of the 60's, 70's, 80's, etc. Of course, it is still probably generally getting worse but you still need valid comparisons. There was some dire pop around in the 70's - I recently played a whole Bay City Rollers album - blimey, it was sh*te.

    My faith in "modern" music was recently restored by The War on Drugs, but they do have a retro feel

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcxWyfGR-2A

    Sounds better via You Tube than many 70's prog rock albums too

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by montesquieu View Post
    fat arsed diva clones
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    "lack of passion is fatal"


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  3. #33
    Join Date: Oct 2017

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    Quote Originally Posted by Phil Bishop View Post
    My faith in "modern" music was recently restored by The War on Drugs, but they do have a retro feel
    There is some excellent modern music being made, it just takes a bit of effort to find it. Having two young daughters really helps, and I must admit I really like much of what they listen to. I'm secretly very proud of them for having such good taste.

    As an aside, I take great pleasure in comparing old and new with them (Phil - to your retro feel comment), to show them that much of the music made today is inspired by the music of decades prior. Sometimes they are blown away by the similarities - e.g. the opening chords to a song on Arcade Fire's Reflector album are almost exactly the same as Simple Minds' New Gold Dream....they were floored when I put on that old LP from the '80s. They used to look at me like I was daft when I said that a new song was basically like, say, the Beatles White Album, or Oasis (a bit more current), or something like that...but now they take me seriously enough to want to hear the original, and I smile when they've discovered something new to them. So what's old really is new again. Still sounds great though!

    Cheers,
    Svend

  4. #34
    Join Date: Dec 2017

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    Enjoyed that video. Thankfully I'm not familiar with most of the music he refers to, as I largely manage to avoid crappy pop.

    It just seems to me that the industry has become so slick now that they know they can maximise profits by using a proven process. Why bother with creativity when you know that Beiber, Perry etc will make the profits without the risks or diversity. Hence the apparently much smaller pool of household names now in pop music.

    It's the 80/20 rule, which he alludes to in that video.

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  5. #35
    Join Date: Jun 2010

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    Quote Originally Posted by Crackles View Post
    Enjoyed that video. Thankfully I'm not familiar with most of the music he refers to, as I largely manage to avoid crappy pop.

    It just seems to me that the industry has become so slick now that they know they can maximise profits by using a proven process. Why bother with creativity when you know that Beiber, Perry etc will make the profits without the risks or diversity. Hence the apparently much smaller pool of household names now in pop music.

    It's the 80/20 rule, which he alludes to in that video.

    Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
    The industry was nearly always that way. If music weren't about money, Elvis would have been an also ran while the black musicians who inspired him would have been the new kings on the block.

    The snobbery has to end. For every Lady Gaga I give you a Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick and Titch!
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  6. #36
    Join Date: Dec 2017

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    I'm John.

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    Quote Originally Posted by oldius View Post
    The industry was nearly always that way. If music weren't about money, Elvis would have been an also ran while the black musicians who inspired him would have been the new kings on the block.

    The snobbery has to end. For every Lady Gaga I give you a Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick and Titch!
    I agree that there was always crap music, the point is that there is very little decent music becoming successful now. At one time a wide range of artists occupied the charts, and the public conscience, from skilled musicians to novelty acts. I listen to loads of modern music that isn't commercially successful because it doesn't fit the modern pop formula, which means people in day to day life have never heard of it. They could only name the obvious mega stars of modern music. It didn't used to be like that when the mainstream music people were exposed to was a lot more varied.

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  7. #37
    Join Date: Dec 2008

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    Quote Originally Posted by Phil Bishop View Post
    I watched the first 4 minutes of the original video and turned it off. You can't compare The Beatles' "A Day In The Life" to Britney Spears, you can't suggest Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, etc, were just "pop". For the argument to be valid, you need to be comparing true like with like, so maybe comparing modern pop with pop singles of the 60's, 70's, 80's, etc. Of course, it is still probably generally getting worse but you still need valid comparisons. There was some dire pop around in the 70's - I recently played a whole Bay City Rollers album - blimey, it was sh*te.

    My faith in "modern" music was recently restored by The War on Drugs, but they do have a retro feel

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcxWyfGR-2A

    Sounds better via You Tube than many 70's prog rock albums too
    You clearly use hearing aids.


  8. #38
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: Reading, UK

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    Quote Originally Posted by Haselsh1 View Post
    You clearly use hearing aids.

    Not yet and tests suggest my hearing is pretty good. Check out the KEXP stuff on You Tube - I find the audio quality surpasses many dire 70's recordings. Why? Because the engineers know what they are doing. Bit rate does not come into it - far more important is the original recording - that's why Buddy Holly from the 50's still sounds so amazing.

    My taste is mainly grounded in 70's rock but most of it sounds dire to me - there are notable exceptions, Floyd's "DSOTM" and Caravan's "In The Land Of Grey & Pink" for example. An example of a classic rock song that has never sounded right to me is Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks". Held up as an example of cataclysmic drumming the whole just sounds like a muffled din to me.

    Svend - "New Gold Dream" is an amazing album An 80's classic. I have two daughters, now 19 and 22. The only band one of them recommended to me that I took to was "First Aid Kit". Again, to explode a myth their iTunes session sounds better to my ears than any of their albums on vinyl or CD. My youngest daughter is a big Taylor Swift fan In an attempt to find any of her music that had any texture or interest to it I bought a couple of her albums on vinyl. They both sounded awful - flat and dimensionless. With the technology available today there is no excuse for this - well, I guess there is - they want it to sound best on PMPs, etc.

    Cheers

    Phil
    Last edited by Phil Bishop; 17-01-2018 at 12:34.

  9. #39
    Join Date: Oct 2017

    Location: Ontario, Canada

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    Quote Originally Posted by Phil Bishop View Post
    Svend - "New Gold Dream" is an amazing album An 80's classic. I have two daughters, now 19 and 22. The only band one of them recommended to me that I took to was "First Aid Kit". Again, to explode a myth their iTunes session sounds better to my ears than any of their albums on vinyl or CD. My youngest daughter is a big Taylor Swift fan In an attempt to find any of her music that had any texture or interest to it I bought a couple of her albums on vinyl. They both sounded awful - flat and dimensionless. With the technology available today there is no excuse for this - well, I guess there is - they want it to sound best on PMPs, etc.

    Cheers

    Phil
    Hi Phil,

    Sorry for the late reply -- just saw your post today. I had a listen to First Aid Kit -- great sound. I just punted their info to my daughters for them to have a listen. Coincidentally, they are doing a concert here in Toronto in a couple of weeks.

    I've been a big Simple Minds fan since their early years. Have a listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E0fVfectDo. It's the hit song Reflektor from The Arcade Fire. Tell me what you hear in the first few bars, say from about 0:12 to 0:42

    Cheers,
    Svend

  10. #40
    Join Date: Nov 2008

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    Quote Originally Posted by Phil Bishop View Post
    An example of a classic rock song that has never sounded right to me is Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks". Held up as an example of cataclysmic drumming the whole just sounds like a muffled din to me
    It sounds the way it was intended to sound.
    It was an attempt to evoke some of the sound & feeling of playing an old 78rpm record, something they also did on the beginning and ending sections of "Bring It On Home" on Led Zeppelin II.
    Muffled din is not an incorrect way of putting things.
    Chris



    Common sense isn't anymore!

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