I know this sounds like another rant about how music sucks today and how things were better in the old days, But I really don't hate all current music; in fact, some it is quite fresh. But I watched 106 and Park yesterday, since nothing elese was on at that time, and it seemed that just about every song, whether it was a hip-hop joint or R&B song, was using cookie-cutter beats played off of some computer, and all of it seemed sterile and lifeless. Now I don't have anything against electronic music in general, but I like some creativity with it, and nothing in the state of what passes for current popular R&B and hip-hop is creative. This is what passes for a drum kit these days.

Whatever happened to playing basic instruments? I know a lot of these artists grew up in areas where school funding for the arts was severely slashed, but what about wanting to grow as an artist? Even the Beatles admitted to being a crappy band when they were playing clubs in Germany, but it was those constant gigs that got them to earn their musical chops. Isn't there anyone in the R&B and hip-hop side other than Kanye that's willing to evolve as an artist?

Each generation hates the music of the next one.

Whatever happened to playing basic instruments? I know a lot of these artists grew up in areas where school funding for the arts was severely slashed, but what about wanting to grow as an artist? Even the Beatles admitted to being a crappy band when they were playing clubs in Germany, but it was those constant gigs that got them to earn their musical chops.

The Beatles, Jackson 5, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis Jr, and many other acts from that era were children and teenagers performing in bars, juke joints, and strip clubs. That won't fly today. There's laws and regulations that didn't exist then. The ones that did weren't always inforced. In the 1980s, you had Debbie Gibson playing in malls before getting a record deal.

Most of today's music is garbage lyrically and musically. Artist are not original anymore-just using other folks work. What's really sad is that some young people don't even know who the original artist are of the songs they like u tell them it's a remake and they get offended

smoothcriminal12 said:

Each generation hates the music of the next one.

There is nothing that can be done ab9uot that either.

Just had an older cat tell me that the lat 70s and 80s was when the music died. I wanted to laugh...but I could not...I understood where he was coming from.

I think part of the reason for the monotony of today's music is because everything has been pretty much been done. Basically all rap songs sound the same now, but back in the late 70s/early 80s it was something new and exciting.

Maybe now that's why everybody's trying to do this Europop/electronic thing now. To get people back interested.

Terrib3Towel said:

I think part of the reason for the monotony of today's music is because everything has been pretty much been done. Basically all rap songs sound the same now, but back in the late 70s/early 80s it was something new and exciting.

Maybe now that's why everybody's trying to do this Europop/electronic thing now. To get people back interested.

If this is true....music is OVA.

Terrib3Towel said:

everything has been pretty much been done

Definitely not. Hell, the best is yet to come. Music is a vast world of endless possibilities. There may be some slow points, but I believe we haven't even covered the majority of what music has to offer.

smoothcriminal12 said:

Terrib3Towel said:

everything has been pretty much been done

Definitely not. Hell, the best is yet to come. Music is a vast world of endless possibilities. There may be some slow points, but I believe we haven't even covered the majority of what music has to offer.

Well you're optomistic aren't you?

I hope you're right!

Terrib3Towel said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

Definitely not. Hell, the best is yet to come. Music is a vast world of endless possibilities. There may be some slow points, but I believe we haven't even covered the majority of what music has to offer.

Well you're optomistic aren't you?

I hope you're right!

I will remain optimistic 'till the day of my death. Remember how the industry was before Thriller came out?

smoothcriminal12 said:

Terrib3Towel said:

Well you're optomistic aren't you?

I hope you're right!

I will remain optimistic 'till the day of my death. Remember how the industry was before Thriller came out?

How was that? Quality from what I saw: Prince, Pfunk, Ohio Players, Dazz band, Ojays, Smokey, Confunksion, Hall and Oats, Kraftwerk, .....................

smoothcriminal12 said:

Graycap23 said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

I will remain optimistic 'till the day of my death. Remember how the industry was before Thriller came out?

How was that? Quality from what I saw: Prince, Pfunk, Ohio Players, Dazz band, Ojays, Smokey, Confunksion, Hall and Oats, Kraftwerk, .....................

YEP... with Thriller I think it put POP back on the map but in years to come it would just get horribly worse

smoothcriminal12 said:

Each generation hates the music of the next one.

And once again, so many of us loved disco and it was our parent's generation that was partying in the discos. Hell, we were too young to get through the doors. Just go ahead and admit that today's music actually is bullshit.

Graycap23 said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

I will remain optimistic 'till the day of my death. Remember how the industry was before Thriller came out?

How was that? Quality from what I saw: Prince, Pfunk, Ohio Players, Dazz band, Ojays, Smokey, Confunksion, Hall and Oats, Kraftwerk, .....................

I meant sales wise, but that does have nothing to do with quality.

But I meant it more in this way:

I can't speak from experience, but I've read that the industry was seen in decline before Thriller came out and sales exploded. The connection that I'm trying to make is that, both creatively and sales wise, the industry is ripe for an explosion. We may be in a "slow point" right now in some eyes, but music fluctuates and changes easily, so I don't think it's completely accurate to say that all that has been done is done. Music evolution can't have halted at techno derivatives and hip-hop.

vainandy said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

Each generation hates the music of the next one.

And once again, so many of us loved disco and it was our parent's generation that was partying in the discos. Hell, we were too young to get through the doors. Just go ahead and admit that today's music actually is bullshit.

That's actually an impossible claim to make.

Terrib3Towel said:

I think part of the reason for the monotony of today's music is because everything has been pretty much been done. Basically all rap songs sound the same now, but back in the late 70s/early 80s it was something new and exciting.

Maybe now that's why everybody's trying to do this Europop/electronic thing now. To get people back interested.

The 2010s are still stuck in the 1990s. Nothing has changed since then. Shit hop dominated then and it still dominates. As for the Europop, that's nothing new either. It was in the white gay clubs in the mid to late 1990s and was known as trance. It's only new to straight people.

Objectively speaking their hasnt been any MAJOR music innovation over the last 20 + years now... If you look back at the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s etc EACH decade WAS DIFFERENT from the other and each time presented something NEW....

Thats why alot of folks prefer those decades not necessarily because the music is better but you can hear new dinstinctive genres from each era.

Over the last 20 years now ALL we have heard from artists primarily mainstream is trying to COPY or recreate genres that are already established. Not that it necessarily mean ALL the music is bad but it is has shown to be more bland and less creative.

The thread HAPPYPERSON posted on Chris Brown and Rihanna is GREAT example of why this industry is so fucked up now...

I mean, even look at the charts right now. Music is not all that bad. In the Top 20 alone:

[Edited 5/10/12 11:05am]

smoothcriminal12 said:

Graycap23 said:

How was that? Quality from what I saw: Prince, Pfunk, Ohio Players, Dazz band, Ojays, Smokey, Confunksion, Hall and Oats, Kraftwerk, .....................

I meant sales wise, but that does have nothing to do with quality.

But I meant it more in this way:

I can't speak from experience, but I've read that the industry was seen in decline before Thriller came out and sales exploded. The connection that I'm trying to make is that, both creatively and sales wise, the industry is ripe for an explosion. We may be in a "slow point" right now in some eyes, but music fluctuates and changes easily, so I don't think it's completely accurate to say that all that has been done is done. Music evolution can't have halted at techno derivatives and hip-hop.

The ONLY reason it exploded was because of the music video in my opinion.

There is an old saying that I think applies. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Translate that 2 the music business? A video is worth a 1,000 radio spins.

Graycap23 said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

I meant sales wise, but that does have nothing to do with quality.

But I meant it more in this way:

I can't speak from experience, but I've read that the industry was seen in decline before Thriller came out and sales exploded. The connection that I'm trying to make is that, both creatively and sales wise, the industry is ripe for an explosion. We may be in a "slow point" right now in some eyes, but music fluctuates and changes easily, so I don't think it's completely accurate to say that all that has been done is done. Music evolution can't have halted at techno derivatives and hip-hop.

The ONLY reason it exploded was because of the music video in my opinion.

There is an old saying that I think applies. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Translate that 2 the music business? A video is worth a 1,000 radio spins.

No, I'd wager that it even started with the Motown 25 performance and the video only helped accelerate what was already taking place.

But I'm unsure of the point you're making.

Graycap23 said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

I meant sales wise, but that does have nothing to do with quality.

But I meant it more in this way:

I can't speak from experience, but I've read that the industry was seen in decline before Thriller came out and sales exploded. The connection that I'm trying to make is that, both creatively and sales wise, the industry is ripe for an explosion. We may be in a "slow point" right now in some eyes, but music fluctuates and changes easily, so I don't think it's completely accurate to say that all that has been done is done. Music evolution can't have halted at techno derivatives and hip-hop.

The ONLY reason it exploded was because of the music video in my opinion.

There is an old saying that I think applies. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Translate that 2 the music business? A video is worth a 1,000 radio spins.

Agree... but see with the Thriller video that video was something that had not been done before. Artists were doing videos before the Thriler video came out. I think with that video, although presented alot of great things in the industry, it kinda negatively has affected the industry today as well because people feel they can make a flashy video in replace of a mediocre song and that kinda is what has happened... But these videos today arent anything that I would call "art" either.

mjscarousal said:

Objectively speaking their hasnt been any MAJOR music innovation over the last 20 + years now... If you look back at the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s etc EACH decade WAS DIFFERENT from the other and each time presented something NEW....

Thats why alot of folks prefer those decades not necessarily because the music is better but you can hear new dinstinctive genres from each era.

Over the last 20 years now ALL we have heard from artists primarily mainstream is trying to COPY or recreate genres that are already established. Not that it necessarily mean ALL the music is bad but it is has shown to be more bland and less creative.

The thread HAPPYPERSON posted on Chris Brown and Rihanna is GREAT example of why this industry is so fucked up now...

EXACTLY!

vainandy said:

mjscarousal said:

Objectively speaking their hasnt been any MAJOR music innovation over the last 20 + years now... If you look back at the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s etc EACH decade WAS DIFFERENT from the other and each time presented something NEW....

Thats why alot of folks prefer those decades not necessarily because the music is better but you can hear new dinstinctive genres from each era.

Over the last 20 years now ALL we have heard from artists primarily mainstream is trying to COPY or recreate genres that are already established. Not that it necessarily mean ALL the music is bad but it is has shown to be more bland and less creative.

The thread HAPPYPERSON posted on Chris Brown and Rihanna is GREAT example of why this industry is so fucked up now...

EXACTLY!

smoothcriminal12 said:

vainandy said:

EXACTLY!

All those genres except for the rock oriented ones, originally came from either shit hop or trance and continued further with the two genres adding things to make them more mainstream. Some of those genres are actually a combinatiion of both shit hop and trance. They're nothing new.

smoothcriminal12 said:

Graycap23 said:

The ONLY reason it exploded was because of the music video in my opinion.

There is an old saying that I think applies. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Translate that 2 the music business? A video is worth a 1,000 radio spins.

No, I'd wager that it even started with the Motown 25 performance and the video only helped accelerate what was already taking place.

But I'm unsure of the point you're making.

MTV and the video killed the general idea that u had 2 have talent 2 make in the the record biz. A good video concept started 2 outweight a good musical composition/song. Look at the talent pool on today's Billboard 200 vs 1982's Billboard 200. Imho the talent is NOT even close.

vainandy said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

All those genres except for the rock oriented ones, originally came from either shit hop or trance and continued further with the two genres adding things to make them more mainstream. Some of those genres are actually a combinatiion of both shit hop and trance. They're nothing new.

I realize a lot of these are sub-genres...but one could wager that most major genres all start as a sub-genre of some sort.

The best comparison that nothing has changed in 20 years would be to play some of today's mainstream music up next the the music of the 1990s. It only sounds slightly different. Then play some 1980s music up next to some music of the 1960s and you will hear how it drastically changed. Folks like Prince, Rick James, Midnight Star, etc. sound way different than folks like The Supremes, The Temptations, Martha and The Vandellas, etc.

Graycap23 said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

No, I'd wager that it even started with the Motown 25 performance and the video only helped accelerate what was already taking place.

But I'm unsure of the point you're making.

MTV and the video killed the general idea that u had 2 have talent 2 make in the the record biz. A good video concept started 2 outweight a good musical composition/song. Look at the talent pool on today's Billboard 200 vs 1982's Billboard 200. Imho the talent is NOT even close.

http://www.umdmusic.com/d...mp;ChSong=

http://www.billboard.com/...r=position

Graycap23 said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

No, I'd wager that it even started with the Motown 25 performance and the video only helped accelerate what was already taking place.

But I'm unsure of the point you're making.

MTV and the video killed the general idea that u had 2 have talent 2 make in the the record biz. A good video concept started 2 outweight a good musical composition/song. Look at the talent pool on today's Billboard 200 vs 1982's Billboard 200. Imho the talent is NOT even close.