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.
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.