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Post by soonerbillz on Feb 18, 2023 18:00:44 GMT
Interesting conclusion.
“Besides the decline of music literacy and participation, there has also been a decline in the quality of music which has been proven scientifically by Joan Serra, a postdoctoral scholar at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelona. Joan and his colleagues looked at 500,000 pieces of music between 1955-2010, running songs through a complex set of algorithms examining three aspects of those songs:
1. Timbre- sound color, texture and tone quality
2. Pitch- harmonic content of the piece, including its chords, melody, and tonal arrangements
3. Loudness- volume variance adding richness and depth
The results of the study revealed that timbral variety went down over time, meaning songs are becoming more homogeneous. Translation: most pop music now sounds the same. Timbral quality peaked in the 60’s and has since dropped steadily with less diversity of instruments and recording techniques. Today’s pop music is largely the same with a combination of keyboard, drum machine and computer software greatly diminishing the creativity and originality. Pitch has also decreased, with the number of chords and different melodies declining. Pitch content has also decreased, with the number of chords and different melodies declining as musicians today are less adventurous in moving from one chord or note to another, opting for well-trod paths by their predecessors. Loudness was found to have increased by about one decibel every eight years. Music loudness has been manipulated by the use of compression. Compression boosts the volume of the quietest parts of the song so they match the loudest parts, reducing dynamic range. With everything now loud, it gives music a muddled sound, as everything has less punch and vibrancy due to compression.”
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Post by markus on Feb 18, 2023 19:17:37 GMT
Boomers vindicated!
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Post by Buck on Feb 18, 2023 20:05:56 GMT
This analysis matches my listening impression over 7+ decades. The '50's and '60's were probably the peak of variety as far as what could become a pop hit. Records would break out of small markets and go national as a result. The Top 40 was populated by all genres of music and quirky tunes could still shoehorn in if they caught the public's fancy.
The '70's began the era of radio programming 'consultants,' who would program the playlists of 100's of stations nationwide. Great if you made that cut, but bad for the variety of what you heard, since the effort to copy the hits intensified and music became more uniform.
Then in the '80's, the drum machines and synths drove the sound of pop, and the music began to sound more similar as well as the content.
In the '90's radio had become stratified by genre, and you had to skip around if you wanted to hear anything but one type of music. Listeners DIDN'T listen to just one genre, as proved by looking at Napster playlists in the early internet days. Everyone had tunes from all over the spectrum. Sirius and terrestrial radio still stratifies music by genre, don't ask me why. I don't know.
The new century introduced AutoTune vocals and Beat Detection, further reducing micro-variations of pitch and rhythm, making music that much more identical. Every release competed to be the 'loudest' on radio, so all music now is as loud as the technology can make it. The tech today can make music so loud it's oppressive. I turn stuff down now, instead of turning it up, to try to listen to it.
Also, pop melodies today are largely simple, repeated phrases over a limited number of chord changes. Dumbed down to the level of nursery rhymes. The oldie nursery rhymes are more tuneful.
Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!
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Post by Espo on Feb 18, 2023 21:38:32 GMT
I agree with your assessment Buck. I do not listen to much post 2000's Era popular music so Auto Tune is foreign to me (but I get the gist). I've always felt the 60's and 70's were the best due to the sheer volume of genres produced. And of course you guitar gods were really blowing our minds with different styles and sound.
I also agree... Get off my lawn!
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Post by joe on Feb 19, 2023 2:55:24 GMT
Finally some scientific analyses and a more user friendly explanation of it by Buck as to why today's music sucks, in my opinion at least.
Then you have EDM which I guess is a subset of what Buck described near the end of his post.
Heck, I remember getting EDM in the 60's and 70's in my car. Turn up the volume all the way on your car radio, hopefully driving the output stage (or any stage) into clipping, and pump the mess to a pair of trunk mounted 6x9 speakers with rotted and ripped cones and enjoy. Disco seemed to yield the closest to EDM. No, didn't sound exactly like today's "sophisticated" EDM but the effect was the same. Annoyance maximus. Usually heard with three bored people in someone's car at midnight with somebody always screwing with the radio.
I'm not real listener of country music, but from what I've heard I'm not sure they have fallen into the same "trap". Today's C&W has evolved and sounds different that it did 40 years ago, maybe for the better, but it still sounds like music. Some has become a little more rock-like, but still C&W. Maybe because the personalities and mentality of the C&W fans haven't changed nearly as much over the years? I dunno, I'm no expert.
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Post by redhouserocker on Feb 19, 2023 3:31:51 GMT
You guys have all made some great points and I agree music is suffering much the past couple decades especially. That said though, there is still some really good music being made, but it seems the majority of listeners just aren't interested. I know a lot of it is the marketing of certain genres to the masses but you'd think some of the better stuff would still break through. Back in my day (70's) there was always a "mainstream" but there were college stations, wildcat locals, all kinds of outlets playing everything else that wasn't mainstream. Heck, that's how I discovered BOC circa '74....some late night dj spun On Your Feet Or On Your Knees and me and my highschool band buddies were hooked. How is it that the kids (and adults) of today just dont' seem to have the same curiosity? It's crazy to me that The Symbol Remains, as good as it is, just seems ignored by the industry....and why aren't people seeking stuff like that out on their own? IDK
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druid
Junior Member
Posts: 93
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Post by druid on Feb 19, 2023 6:24:19 GMT
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Post by sirrastus on Feb 19, 2023 16:12:17 GMT
Agreed.The 50's and 60's were the peak Top 40 years just look at two things radio playlists(The Browns,Patsy Cline(country) The Marcels(Doo Wop)Adult R&B (Platters,Five Keys) Smooth POP(Fleetwoods) Novelty songs(Mr Custer,Buchanan and Goodman) Instrumental rock(Walk Don't Run,Apache)Instrumental Pop/Adult Bert Kaempferts Wonderland By Night-still my fave of the time,Acker BIll STranger On The Shore,, and LOL Ronnie Dio's mid 60's output where he covered every attitude that was currently playing which encompassed basically everything. The radio had more variety and no one was excluded because of genre.A lot of it wasn't even genre specific sometimes a song was just a song-pop in nature but undeniably different than whatever else was on the radio-what was Eddie Cochrans Summertime Blues,THe Kalin Twins When or Glen Campbells Turn Around Look At Me-easier to call it rock n roll than decipher a particular genre.
And no I did not pilfer this from Richard Meltzers Aesthetics Of Rock hehe.
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Post by joe on Feb 20, 2023 3:10:46 GMT
I guess my musical tastes may run a little bit different from some of you, but there were a LOT of great bands/musicians in the 60's and 70's. Each had their own unique style. If I heard one of their songs on the radio a really good chance I would recognize the artist/band even if it wasn't one of my favorites. Some of these maybe just made the consultant's playlist. Some maybe just managed to get commercialized. But still SO much variety in sound and style to choose from! We had stations that focused in a specific genre, but lot of the bands below were intermixed and played with each other on about three different stations here. Like Simon & Garfunkel followed by AC/DC.
Yes, I cheated and used some online lists to refresh my memory, but I left a lot behind on the "lists".
In no particular order, some of my personal favorites in bold just FYI. Doesn't mean I didn't like the others, but some only had one or two songs that I happened to know and that I really liked. And I'm sure I missed a lot. I'd have to look at my CD collection to remember others. And my wife's stack of vinyl. I had to draw the line somewhere.
Blue Öyster Cult (of course)
Bob Dylan
Journey
Simon & Garfunkel
The Doobie Brothers
ZZ Top
Steely Dan
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Lyrnd Skynrd
Al Stewart
The Eagles
AC/DC
Aerosmith
Queen
The Who
Fleetwood Mac
Deep Purple
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Led Zeppelin
Elton John
David Bowie
Earth, Wind & Fire
KISS
Eric Clapton / Derek & the Dominos
Alice Cooper
The Allman Brothers Band
Rod Stewart
The Beach Boys
Billy Joel
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Three Dog Night
Jim Croce
James Taylor
REO Speedwagon
Ted Nugent
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Santana
Moody Blues
Electric Light Orchestra
Kansas
Linda Ronstadt
America
The Doors
Van Halen
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
The Carpenters
Air Supply
Seals and Crofts
Jefferson Airplane
Steppenwolf
Pure Prairie League
The Hollies
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Post by sirrastus on Feb 20, 2023 16:03:48 GMT
And you left out a bunch more and included at least two groups music I hated.  |
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Post by seamus on Feb 20, 2023 21:29:34 GMT
I blame high fructose corn syrup. 🤪
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Post by joe on Feb 21, 2023 3:28:43 GMT
And you left out a bunch more and included at least two groups music I hated. :) I left a LOT out, too many to include. I just wanted to show the variety of bands and artists during the 60's and 70's. I just don't think we have that anymore. One could probably come up with the quantity, but I'm not sure about the quality. Of course I have a bias toward the ones I grew up listening to. Growing up for me ran till I was almost 30 - at least :) I remember hating a lot of my parent's music. Now my generation's music IS "the parents" music to a lot of young people. There are some on the list that I really don't care for that much either, but maybe they had one good hit that I really liked or were just "unique". After this many years I sometimes remember the band/artist, a song(s), but I may not be able to match a song to a band without cheating. The type of music someone likes is very subjective. Interesting that some actual research was done. From the original post: "Joan and his colleagues looked at 500,000 pieces of music". It didn't say what all genres of music were analyzed. Just pop/rock or was classical and jazz included? |
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Post by Buck on Feb 21, 2023 3:35:38 GMT
I blame high fructose corn syrup. 🤪 Everybody else does.. ["Everybody Else Does.." Shiny nickel for where that dialog quote comes from.] |
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Post by frog on Feb 21, 2023 8:13:46 GMT
I blame high fructose corn syrup. 🤪 Everybody else does.. ["Everybody Else Does.." Shiny nickel for where that dialog quote comes from.] Rocky ? |
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Post by seamus on Feb 21, 2023 12:13:43 GMT
I blame high fructose corn syrup. 🤪 Everybody else does.. ["Everybody Else Does.." Shiny nickel for where that dialog quote comes from.] Every kid ever when told “no” by a parent? Or Seneca the Younger Or Forbidden Planet (Ann Francis) |
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