Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect

Re:Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect by mynameishere on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @09:14AM (#475152)

It's been in a rut since ~1980. Obviously, arguing on the basis of opinion is tricky, unless people are willing to use a common metric, and have common overall tastes. People have a very, very bad habit of preferring music from their own youth. This is similar to the phenomena of almost always preferring the version of a song you hear first, even if there are lots of successful covers.

So it's hard to be objective. But let the people downmodding the OP consider some active bands from a year long before my birth, 1969 (off the top of my head):

  The Beatles
  The Rolling Stones
  Led Zeppelin
  The Doors
  CCR
  Hendrix
  Pink Floyd
  [Clapton was somewhere between cream and dereck and the dominoes]

...those are the major acts. Leaving out clapton, I would posit that each one of those groups is better than any group from the past 20 years. Disagree, fine, but to say that the overall culture was comparable is to leave yourself open to ridicule.

ADDENDUM: Here's a better list. The lineup for woodstock--ONE frickin' concert, which manages to leave out some of the best groups, like Zeppelin and the Doors and Bob Dylan:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock_Festival#Performing_a...

It's almost surreal how good that list is.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect by marvin on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @10:20AM (#475250)

Music culture in the sixties/seventies isn't comparable to music culture today because the general culture of these two eras isn't comparable. There's a major chicken/egg problem here: society doesn't appreciate music in the same way, there is less openness among the general population, drugs aren't nearly as accepted, not nearly the same number of people go to music festivals etc. etc. etc. It is more of a cultural shift than the decline of music as an isolated phenomenon.

If you start dragging out the "everything was better before" argument, remember that you'll get more than the music if you go back to 1970. War, the draft, unemployment, massive amounts of LSD...

I haven't seen any commenter in this thread attempt a somewhat scientific assessment of the quality of music then and now. We can probably agree that the general culture is less friendly to good music today, but if you want to go deeper than that there is really no way to reach a consensus. I'm of the belief that you can find just as novel, inspired, creative and emotional music today as 30 years ago. There might be a bit less and it will certainly be more obscure, but artists still create. As a case in point, both Marilyn Manson, Dream Theater and The Cardigans have created large amounts of novel music the last 10 years. Even though these musicians aren't among the most obscure, I still think you're doomed to fail if you search the pop charts for good art.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect by unalone on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @01:58PM (#475675)

The culture has changed entirely. I'd argue that there are groups just as good nowadays. The music industry has just branched out far more.

Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Neutral Milk Hotel. Of Montreal. Nirvana, The Flaming Lips. Belle & Sebastian. I'm naming a very slim set of music: I'm ignoring everything that's not rock. And yeah, they're different from the 60s bandset, but different isn't always worse. Radiohead's music is more complex than any 60s musician I can think of save Zappa, and his work picked up in the 70s and 80s.

Back then, outside activities were encouraging people to all group together. Now it's all divided. You wouldn't get the guitar virtuosos of the world - and they're better now than they ever have been in history - playing next to pop acts - which are arguably catchier than the stuff back then, thanks to the science of pop writing. They're separate fields; they've split off. Now, instead of a focused field, things have split and branched and turned into a hundred thousand separate branches.

I think that I like modern culture better than I would have liked the 60s. I like the Decemberists. I like that they're quirky book rock. I enjoy Harry and the Potters. Neither one is The Beatles, but nowadays instead of 20 big names I listen to a hundred small names and each one has something to fascinate me.

This nostalgia pisses me off. You never have a period of "bad stuff." Not in anything. You just have periods where the good stuff is more focused and easier to find.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect by shiranaihito on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @05:03PM (#476065)

> You wouldn't get the guitar virtuosos of the world - and they're better now than they ever have been in history

Prince, anyone? :)

But seriously, have you seen him play?

I agree that music has become more complex along the way. For example 50's music just feels too.. primitive for me. 60's mostly too.

To me it feels like "real" music started emerging in the 70's with the advances in recording technology etc. Starting from the 70's, they could just put a lot more stuff into a song, thus making them feel a lot more "solid".

In the early 90's, music went through a period where some of it became too soulless because of their excessive use of computers for everything. Real instruments still work wonders, but computers led to songs becoming more and more intricately crafted.

[ Parent | on HN ]