why is modern music so soulless and low quality?

wil this change in the foreseeable future?

>>126677181 (OP)
Creative bankruptcy, late capitalism grinds artistically gifted people into dust even though they’re the most important valuable people in terms of contribution to society and human joy. Expect nothing but extremely mediocre nepo baby art until the shooting starts

I noticed how a lot of new successful artists, not industry plants but genuine artists, are still in their early 20s. It's horrible. I don't feel pessimistic or devastated, such has always been the case, but with the democratisation of audio engineering, it's much easier for people to produce music on their own terms. The quality is just representative of what people in their early 20s do.
Not long ago you'd have to go through a producer who would straight up tell you you suck ass. Nirvana didn't produce themselves, and Cobain had beef with his producers who eventually knew better. Now, Beabadoobee or some shit can record herself in her bedroom and get exposed to millions of people on TikTok, and it's shit, but nobody has to tell her, she can do whatever.
Will this change? No. Why would it change? It's perfect the way it is. Just be gifted bro. It's horrible, but such has always been the case.
You're not starved for good music anyway.

>>126677181 (OP)
I'm under the same impression, but only because I have only heard whatever algorithms have spread the widest on social media. I'm pretty sure I would find interesting new releases if I looked for them. I would go to the All New Releases section on allmusic.com if I wanted to find interesting new stuff. You can search by genre on there.
Even back in the "good ol' times" there were heaps of audio diarrhea that didn't stand the test of time unlike the very best, which we now know as classics.

>>126677181 (OP)
out of your mouth now

>>126677684
or what?

>>126677181 (OP)
God I wish I was her mouth

>>126677213
>late capitalism
leftist equivalent of da joos

>>126677862
Funnily enough it's the same concept caused by the same people

>>126677835
i wish i was her foot

>>126677865
THIS

>>126677181 (OP)
Corporate over-consolidation starting in the 90s, plus over-optimization and managers who only think about the quarter. See also tv and film.

>>126677447
>>126677575
There is no good culture that surrounds the music either, no good criticism, curation etc.

Basically newspapers and magazines are dead and irrelevant and the new media is social media trash but it's meant to deceive and manufacture opinions and not inform, every single e-celeb with a large enough reach on it eventually starts using their follower count to shill things for money etc. The recommendation algorhitm is literally arbitrary bullshit and corpos trying to force agendas on people and doesn't even give anyone what they want anymore..

All this results in that very few people are willing to try and contribute something creative to the internet anymore, not just that people aren't finding it.
Even hipsters/ /mu/ in 2010s was better than this.

>>126677862
That would be the capital C "Capital". Either way, the difference is that the Jews one makes some sense.

Mass communication. The last huge musical scene was grunge and it happened just before the internet took off. There has never been any musical happening as big as that since.
Musical scenes cannot thrive in an era of mass communication because they need isolation to survive.

I'll pick up the piano and save it don't worry

>>126681184
Nah you had "scenes" in the 2000s. Being "huge" is literally what destroys it and what it's trying not to be.

>>126677447
>Beabadoobee
Isn't her stuff professionally produced? I also don't quite see what a producer would really tell her to do all that differently either. She just makes pleasant pop music that apes 90s alt rock. It's nothing special but also not really bedroom demo tier stuff.
I know you were just naming an example but it seems like an odd choice. If anything I feel the sheer abundance of tutorials and plugins for every step of the music production process, from writing to mastering, leads to a very narrow view on what is deemed acceptable and what not.

The problem isn't so much music being "soulless" (what does that even mean??) or "low quality", the problem is that it all sounds the exact same. You'd think with everyone being able to produce at least decent sounding recordings for little cost would lead to all kinds of interesting, out there music since you could just go with your craziest ideas without being constrained by what the label tells you. Instead, it leads to extremely formulaic music because most musicians are clout chaser and those who want to make it have to learn to play the algorithm, which encourages aiming for the lowest common denominator possible. This phenomenon always existed of course but the internet amplified it a ton.

I'm learning keyboard right now. Give me some time..

>You'd think with everyone being able to produce at least decent sounding recordings for little cost would lead to all kinds of interesting, out there music since you could just go with your craziest ideas without being constrained by what the label tells you. Instead, it leads to extremely formulaic music because most musicians are clout chaser and those who want to make it have to learn to play the algorithm, which encourages aiming for the lowest common denominator possible.
It's simply because when you include literally everyone, the vast majority of people just like listening to formulaic and conventional music and so end up producing that.
>This phenomenon always existed of course but the internet amplified it a ton.
The deal with the internet is that it has zero curation or critique or any literary culture surrounding the music. Even a music publishers critiques and curates music before it publishes it, the internet is unique in that for the first time there is zero, absolutely noone of this.

>>126677983
YWNBAWF

>>126681275
By 'huge' I mean in terms of making a lot of music that becomes a big deal in the wider world. Those scenes in the 2000s existed but what impact did they really have?

>>126681624
The way modern music or culture in general is brought to the masses is through a contest decided purely by a machine or through an anonymous individual in a tech company covertly manipulating the back end of this machine. Instead of as in the past having labels or organizations with real people working and searching to provide music listening customers with desireable material.

>>126681799
And what "impact" did grunge have apart from being popular? No modern music sounds much like it.
>anonymous individual in a tech company covertly manipulating the back end of this machine
When you say this people seem to think it's some kind of conspiracy theory, but the truth is it is actually these social media companies official position that it is their platform, they do whatever they want with it and the customer does not get to know anything about it.

>>126677862
>it's da joos
broke
>it's capitalism's fault
woke
>da joos are doing capitalism
REAL SHIT

>>126682063
>And what "impact" did grunge have apart from being popular?
A big impact in terms of the culture. Kurt is the last real 'rock star'. The wave broke in 1994.

It inspired a lot of mostly bad music with post grunge in the 00s, but the fact that no modern music sounds like it may be a testament to the fact that it was the last major music scene before the internet era obliterated them forever.

>>126677181 (OP)

This is my own take as a notoriously poor DIY guy who tried to have a serious career in music -

>gay economy
>everyone is poor
>cant afford to do music even as a hobbie
>the ones who do - take it serious otherwise its a 'waste of time'
>'hmm how do I turn my music into a profit so that I can eat?'
>"I have to get streams and make it onto a playlist'
>Realize you have to mix all your music the same with a brickwall limiter so it sounds like the rest of all the slop on there so you'll make the same playlist.
>Realize you literally have to choose between creative mixing (actual art) or being able to eat.
>Not going on bandcamp fuck that

T. - When everyone is poor you can no longer afford to be creative. You literally make NPC jangle pop or starve.

The most fucked up realization though is that any great music ever had insanely distinguishable sonic characteristics, all the 60's, 70's, 80's. 90's even early 2000's you could literally tell that the drums and guitars were recorded in entriely different spaces - touching real air and going into microphones.

Now you'd just be called 'weird' or 'lo-fi' for mixing anything out of the ordinary. The average npc would listen to a creative mix and just think "This doesnt sound like the radio, it sounds cheap, why does it sound like that?"

Fuck life.

>>126683167
That problem with mixing has been bad in all genres too. It's one of the reasons that rock and metal have become dull.
>Every metal song has the same double tracked 5150 high gain tone played through a vintage 30 and miced with an off axis 57 close mic
>Drums are always on a grid, sample replaced
>Bass may as well be ai generated, never doing anything interesting, only audible via high midrange clank anyway

Tbqh though the problem with mixing becoming boring is just a symptom of everything becoming boring. There is an immense lack of creativity going on.
I'd say part of this is because there isn't enough conviction these days. I remember hearing Peter Hook talking about how in Joy Division people would complain that he wasn't following the guitar and his response was 'fuck you, the guitar can follow me instead'. The idea of anyone telling you how you're meant to play your music was insulting. Nowadays everyone's fixated on it, especially with the internet where everyone thinks you need to do things the correct way or else you're a noob.

it's actually higher quality than ever. probably why it's so soulless imo

>>126683167
"weird" mixing is pretty cool. i love sly stone riot album, it sounds so cool and unique, production really makes you feel like you're driving stoned in a caddie on a sunny day in LA

>>126683905
Stopped all metal music at drum triggers. Cant fucking stand them.
At least 80’s thrash drums sounded punk and a bit cheap and like the guys had hangover ears from the partying.
I think I’d rather listen to actual sounds of dog shit than anything perfectly mixed.
Imperfection will be tulip mania within the next decade. Calling a full grunge 2.0

>>126683936
Exactly we never know until it’s too late.
Like peaking in video game graphics in the 90’s and early 2000’s. The more real the graphics become the less enjoyable the experience is. It’s cooler when it’s stands alone as its own thing vs trying to recreate reality in a little box.

>>126683936
Correct. This anon understands.

>>126677181 (OP)
Because you got older and now have cynical asshole syndrome

>>126677181 (OP)
>wil this change in the foreseeable future?
MUSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAARRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

>>126682223
> it was the last major music scene before the internet era obliterated them forever
Vaporwave, The Memphis Revival, Cloud Rap and the Emo revival.

>>126677213
finding out Gracie Abrams was related to JJ Abrams changes shit.

>>126677181 (OP)
I miss the studio system honestly also in videogames too. Just some big ass gatekeeping filter dude that keeps the amount of music lower but better quality. People also need to STOP using the exact same songwriters and producers. Shit, give me 20 year old producers and 40 year old singers rather than the opposite at this point.

The way its going is that music is too cynically gameplanned by 40-70 year old's who thought they figured out the TikTok algorithm and giving everyone what they want. When someone who was piss and vinegar and raw won't ever get to produce Addison Rae.

>>126677181 (OP)
overproduction

DEIbucks but that's gone now. However it lasted an entire decade.

>You must wait 120 seconds to post

>>126683167
1. Nobody but Pajeets take stream #s seriously and 2. The economy wasn't so hot in the '70s either and yet...

>>126684604
tl;dr?

who is she??

The tl;dr is that they should stop hiring Jack Antonoff/Dan Nigro to produce albums. That's like if the Beatles were produced by Mitch Miller or Don Costa. Chappell Roan basically doomed herself to meme status by doing that.

all i'm saying is in the 60s they had exciting young producers/songwriters like Carole King and Terry Melcher nobody was hiring 50 year old ex-big band arrangers to produce young upcoming acts.

>>126684554
Then again Terry Melcher didn't get his job either purely because he earned it.

>>126684527
not music

Telecommunications Act of 1996

>>126683905
>Tbqh though the problem with mixing becoming boring is just a symptom of everything becoming boring. There is an immense lack of creativity going on.
because DEIbucks. you notice that the stuff became boring in about 2015 which was when DEIbucks started.

No I'm saying that anon is right when people are broke they aren't creative which is why the Depression led to 3 labels making croonerslop for 20 years and it was almost the only form of mainstream music in existence until Elvis.

>>126683167
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1980
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1981

count all the classic songs in here and this was not exactly a prosperous era when things were thriving and people had money to burn

>>126677862
after Gaza, leftist equivalent of da joos is da joos

>>126684855
Lolibayli - Amanitalis - Alesya Bobreshova according to reverse image search

>>126685040
If only Israel really was what they think it is Greta Thunberg wouldn't be heading home now after 2 days of detention. Also if she'd managed to make it there and land in Gaza she definitely would not be heading home safe and sound after 2 days of detention.

>>126684967
kill yourself

>>126685005
>Gino Vanneli
based

>>126685005
They didn't have DEIbucks though. Why would you put effort into any song as long as you can collect government checks simply for having a brown lesbian woman in it?

>>126685075
well we know what would have happened if they'd made it there and i wouldn't wish that fate on anyone not even her

>>126684604
I don't think Addison Rae has anything useful to offer pop music no matter who produces, in fact I know she doesn't because the shit is just a vehicle to promote her modeling career and she was never serious.

>>126677181 (OP)
>.jpg

just another day of 4chan worshiping russian girls

>>126685005
>count all the classic songs in here and this was not exactly a prosperous era when things were thriving and people had money to burn
especially not in my country which then was occupied by Russian tank and we had breadline

I see no potential in AR or Billie Eyelash, they have zero intrinsic talent. You could drop them in 1972 and they would still be worthless. So it's not solely a question of "if only someone that wasn't Jack Antonoff."

>>126685507
They already had a Billie Eilish back then it was called Mama Cass.

>>126685507
Taylor Swift?

>>126685526
Would be an average middle-of-the-road pop singer like pre-Grease Olivia Newton-John and nobody would hold her up as equivalent to the Beatles.

>>126685526
She’s better but not by much

>>126685507
The analogy is more Sheena Easton who was a very mediocre singer with nothing that distinct about her but occasionally some competent handlers gave her an ok song to work with.

>>126685539
she has a work ethic and sense of professionalism which should account for at least a little something. >>126685507 these people don't.

>>126685578
The work ethic and participating in creating her music to a greater extent is what makes her better but the end result is still what it is so that’s why i said not by much.

>>126685578
that was kind of the ruination of pop in the 2010s. too many rich kids who were never that serious about it it was just a hobby they could drop when they got bored of music and they had nothing to say anyway.

>>126684984
2015 was the absolute peak in terms of ‘LOOK AT ME IM MAKING THE LOUDEST CLEAN SOUND’
It’s like how much cleaner and louder do we need really? All the audio plugins/ mastering softwares are just adding extra unnecessary digital slop now we literally haven’t progressed since.
Autotune was arguably the last real breakthrough anyway.
Literally time to throw away the computers.

>>126686125
not production but content and concept of the music. in 2015 they tried pushing Meghan Trainor and Elle King to promote fat acceptance, it was the first obvious woke push in music.

>>126685595
Having something to say is overrated anyway. We all die, and so will the music and whatever "generational statement" we thought we were making.
Ever wondered why musicians after 40 dont seem to give a shit onstage while playing their once life affirming material? You realize that life is actually very short, and the time when you have youth and luster in your eyes is even shorter, and you wonder why you ever deceived yourself you were making something timeless. As the deliverer gets older and greyer and broken down with every passing year, it renders the message null. You realize caring was a really stupid notion you let yourself get wrapped in in the first place.

>>126684058
I don't mind triggered drums if it's in electronic sounding music to begin with, but when it's in everything it sounds out of place and stupid.

>>126684984
>>126686125
It was around that time that manufactured pop music started getting treated as if it's actually good music worthy of serious discussion. This had been brewing for a while, though. In the late 00s and early 2010s it started becoming trendy to say you enjoy whatever flavor of the month pop star was on the radio as a way to show how 'open minded' you were.

>>126677181 (OP)
Every 80 years there is a turning. We are at the point rn where sex dolls/robots are more appealing than people(malignant narcissists) who want to masturbate themselves using someone else's body.

>>126677181 (OP)
>why is modern music so soulless and low quality?
picrel

>>126686495
this is an AI generated post isn't it?

>>126690958
Tyranny of the engineers.

>>126690958
Holy electronic sloppa

>>126681640
KEK

it's no longer "cool" to make a decent melody.

it's all textures, moods, gibberish raps, bleepy bloops etc.

>>126677181 (OP)
The mistake is on believing that's their problem, and not your perception's

>>126693089
Post a recently released album you though was great please

>>126692653
textures and bleepy bloops are based, sad that you can't appreciate it.

>>126684527
Yup, and those are just the bigger ones. I miss the Black MIDI scene myself

Theres soul out there. You just dont listen to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk1EtdXCDnY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL9N3ltxrTY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-nTAgOMK7w

>>126692653
This is largely the due to rap and its consequences on music at large. It made people accustomed to hearing songs with completely atonal vocals. For all of history popular songs were built around a vocal melody. Rap destroyed that fundamental element of popular music.

>>126683167
Tldr your music was called weird and cheap because it was.

People like what they like, maybe you didn't encounter the people I'm sure are out there with a taste for your style. Someone not liking your weird cheap style isn't a systemic issue. And you can prove this by looking at anyone's average playlist, and they will have a wide variety of production in it. The hangup is they have to like it. Sorry but "it's creative" is not a substitute for being good in the eyes of most people.
I agree the economy is a factor though. Playlist chasing might be a thing, I've never really experienced it but I also don't use playlists not made by myself. I have considered finding a popular playlist to put my stuff in but I wouldn't change on for its sake

>>126684080
Literally nothing but nostalgia bias. That's it

>>126693183
GLASYS - Never Present or at Ease

>>126693183
you didnt ask me, but
Passage Du Desir- Johnny Blue Skies

is coffee good for you?

>>126693269
>22yr old edgy electronic music phase

Fuck I was cringe.

Actual acoustic sounds produced from the human soul captured through a mic is literally peak sonics not blips and fucking bloops kek

>>126692653
Why not all three?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXdRl6Ml37I

>>126677181 (OP)
>why is modern music so soulless and low quality?
This is what happens when you let multinational asset management firms who own the infrastructure behind the US military-industrial and prison-industrial complexes and who hold massive contracts with the US government own the recording industry. The music that gets pushed by algorithms on Spotify is carefully chosen by BlackRock and Vanguard for social engineering purposes, and people without critical thinking skills just eat it up because it’s catchy and they want to fit in. Streaming services make it so much easier for these kinds of agendas to be carried out because all they need to do is tweak an algorithm. Back in the old days they used to have to actually convince kids to go out and buy records.

The end goal is to get to a point where the general public lets the algorithms do all the thinking for them, allowing their spending habits and

>wil this change in the foreseeable future?
Not without a world war and a massive geopolitical table flip. BlackRock and Vanguard have more power and influence than most nation states.

>>126696955
>be blackrock
>own most of the private prison infrastructure in america
>promote music by black people glorifying gangs, drugs, guns and petty crime
>lock up all the black kids who go out and imitate their favorite rappers
>13% of the population, 50% of the inmates

Sounds like blackrock is doing us a favor if anything…

>>126694741
I don't consider electronic music edgy. Were you an industrial kid?
Would explain how incredibly gay your post is

>>126677213
>late capitalism grinds artistically gifted people into dust even though they’re the most important valuable people in terms of contribution to society and human joy.

Just put the fries in the bag dude. If their art was any good it would sell

>>126677181 (OP)
Devi McCallion will save us

>>126685005
lol kid who currently matches the police, tom petty and bruce springsteen?
>>126700140
nepozoomer alert! way to delight in FF workers getting bent over backwards for mega-corps. very anti-globalist to hate your fellow citizen while supporting mickie dees

>>126677181 (OP)
Not my BASED band. We are so back
Follow @marital_bed !!!!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4aDnOKq2hvJRJ9S99RlZWg?si=2l5XrbSjTaiycTO2gVJsdA

>>126696955
>>126696987
meds

>>126693941
Rap has nothing to do with nothing. Amelodic music is the result of lazy low effort people who don't care.

>>126700140
>If their art was any good it would sell
you belong in a forced labor camp for GRIDS chasers.