Worst year ever for music?

Custardpi · 06-05-2016 04:29PM

So much for the dream of the internet democratising music & putting power into the hands of independent artists, eh?

buried · 06-05-2016 04:33PM

Custardpi wrote: »

This old chestnut again. Relativism at its finest. No room for cultural highs & lows? I certainly don't believe the music of my youth (80s) was the best ever, nor do I necessarily think that the music of today is the worst there'll ever be or has been but the reality is that there hasn't been any really groundbreaking stuff released in a good while.

Where's the 2016 equivalent of NWA, Kraftwerk, Nirvana, Chuck Berry, The Beatles' Revolver, The Stooges Raw Power, etc, etc? Bands & albums that really shook up the music scene, even if it wasn't completely understood at the time. While it's possible that right now a modern day version of The Velvet Underground (sold feck all albums at the time but ended up being hugely influential) is quietly putting out a release I'm highly sceptical.

Which is not to say there aren't extremely competent musicians out there & bands which are highly entertaining to see live, I just don't see anything earth shattering at the moment, there has indeed been better times for music.

It's not really feasible or fair to make a comparison to those bands and artists and say nothing new, comparible or groundbreaking is being released today in 2016. Mainstream modern radio stations won't play the modern groundbreaking stuff, they probably assume it's too risky to push or play anything new and origional, this seems to be the same logic for modern movies made by Hollywood too. Plenty of new exciting music is being made today, more now than ever there was, just don't expect the likes of 2fm or todayfm to point you where it is.
I went to see these guys last year, who have a huge worldwide fanbase without mainstream radio play. It was the best live experience I ever had, not only did I think it was earth shattering, I nearly shattered one of my ribs at the gig, it was unreal great craic. But a lot of people in Ireland would look at this band and assume - "this is too far out and crazy, I never heard this on todayfm, nope - I don't like it".Part of the problem is some people don't want to even know whats new and rather stick and cling to the past and what they deem safe.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 06-05-2016 04:37PM

Custardpi wrote: »

So much for the dream of the internet democratising music & putting power into the hands of independent artists, eh?

It's a great source to get your stuff out there independently. It's just very difficult to make any money from it.

LightsStillOn · 06-05-2016 04:43PM

Custardpi wrote: »

So much for the dream of the internet democratising music & putting power into the hands of independent artists, eh?

It did. There's an endless amount of artists making a living off music now that wouldn't have had a chance in hell without the internet. Labels for the most part are a thing of the past, you don't need a multi million corporation backing you anymore feeding tons of money into promotion and music videos. It helps having them when it comes to sales, sure. But the profit margin in what you'd pay back to them compared to what you earn doing it DIY or on a smaller independent label is massively different.

Custardpi · 06-05-2016 04:46PM

Interesting video buried, they look cool live though I'm not sure how completely stand out they are. Thrash metal fused with noise rock with a free jazz influence. I don't think they'd go beyond a small (if very loyal) fanbase in any era to be honest.

buried · 06-05-2016 04:52PM

Custardpi wrote: »

Interesting video buried, they look cool live though I'm not sure how completely stand out they are. Thrash metal fused with noise rock with a free jazz influence. I don't think they'd go beyond a small (if very loyal) fanbase in any era to be honest.

You should check out their albums, brilliant stuff! I don't play a musical instrument, I just mix and mess around on turntables, but these guys make me regret I never learned to play a string instrument. If you ever see them playing live anywhere near to where you are, you should definitely go to the show!

https://lightningbolt.bandcamp.com/

Custardpi · 06-05-2016 04:53PM

LightsStillOn wrote: »

It did. There's an endless amount of artists making a living off music now that wouldn't have had a chance in hell without the internet. Labels for the most part are a thing of the past, you don't need a multi million corporation backing you anymore feeding tons of money into promotion and music videos. It helps having them when it comes to sales, sure. But the profit margin in what you'd pay back to them compared to what you earn doing it DIY or on a smaller independent label is massively different.

Surely having your label fund expensive studio time & engineers plus great quality gear helps a bit though versus doing on the cheap yourself? True enough they'll have you by the balls after but in the lp era (long gone now of course) there were amazing albums made because of this. There's no way that Led Zeppelin's albums would have sounded as good if they had just been doing it themselves & recording onto their portable tape decks or whatever.

LightsStillOn · 06-05-2016 05:02PM

Custardpi wrote: »

Surely having your label fund expensive studio time & engineers plus great quality gear helps a bit though versus doing on the cheap yourself? True enough they'll have you by the balls after but in the lp era (long gone now of course) there were amazing albums made because of this. There's no way that Led Zeppelin's albums would have sounded as good if they had just been doing it themselves & recording onto their portable tape decks or whatever.

Yeah, I definitely agree that the money spent on studios can be hard to match quality wise. Loveless by My Bloody Valentine being a good example of that, think it was upwards of £200k spent on studio time, but what a return for the money! It is definitely getting to the stage where the technology is advancing enough where a small studio can get the same results though. It's all down to who you have behind the boards at the end of the day, you could spend tons and come out with something that sounds terrible and on the other side spend little to nothing and have someone with a brilliant ear working magic for you!

Chain Smoker · 10-05-2016 07:50AM

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

The entertainment industry rules the mainstream charts these days. Everything has become very processed, labels have songwriters on staff, the artist has very little input.

You mean like Motown?

Custardpi wrote: »

Where's the 2016 equivalent of NWA

To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar came out last year, an album sonically far more separated from its contemporaries than Straight Outta Compton was with significantly better technical prowess ...it's influence is likely to be a lot more music focused the NWA's was too (gangsta rap, glamourisation of street life).

Burial's sound has creeped all over the place in the last decade. I'd certainly say it's led to more positive than Nirvana's sound has (I mean, jesus, is there a single band who have a clear debt to Nirvana that aren't a bit awful? Same thing applies to Zeppelin, a cultural black hole of a band absorbing all that had came before them and leaving **** all to build upon, a really good piece of disruptive tech).

All the others are really too close to the infancy of their areas within modern recorded music for it to be at all fair to expect a similar level of newness. It'd be like criticising videogame graphics for no longer improving in the glaringly visible ways they did in the 80s, or scientists not making major Einstein-like discoveries. The advancements now could be far bigger individual achievements to pull off than those of 40 years ago. There's still good sounding music, there're still amazing songs, you have to actually find them yourself as they're more likely to be somewhat focused on a niche market of some kind now than when there were more limited media outlets.
It's definitely not all good, you hardly ever get really great pure pop stuff any more (e.g. Call Me Maybe), but it's mostly just different to before.

BuilderPlumber · 10-05-2016 03:27PM

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

The entertainment industry rules the mainstream charts these days. Everything has become very processed, labels have songwriters on staff, the artist has very little input.

This is different from times past when the mainstream was bands and solo artists who wrote and performed their own material.

Great stuff is still being produced out there, you just won't hear on terrestrial radio.

I agree. Today it is unfortunately about creating albums of modern songs written and sung by writers and singers who are favoured by the media, record labels, etc. and then sold to us. This includes all those boybands and all them awful Irish country singers. All these talent competitions also do not help with matters. The sad thing is that singers of modern pop genres such as boybands and country music do not care about having an input into the stuff they record. All they care about is quick money and they go along with whatever their managers and the media.

In times past, a singer or a band could write proper songs, cover other songs and revive public domain songs. This as you correctly point out is still happening but the media just want to push poor modern pop fare like boybands and country music.

Anesthetize · 10-05-2016 09:59PM

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

I agree. Today it is unfortunately about creating albums of modern songs written and sung by writers and singers who are favoured by the media, record labels, etc. and then sold to us. This includes all those boybands and all them awful Irish country singers. All these talent competitions also do not help with matters. The sad thing is that singers of modern pop genres such as boybands and country music do not care about having an input into the stuff they record. All they care about is quick money and they go along with whatever their managers and the media.

In times past, a singer or a band could write proper songs, cover other songs and revive public domain songs. This as you correctly point out is still happening but the media just want to push poor modern pop fare like boybands and country music.

How is this any different to 20 years ago?

riclad · 10-05-2016 10:47PM

Most people think the music was best when they were a teenager ,
or in their 20s.
So people over 30 stop listening to new music.
Theres always a certain amount of bad music in the charts .
alot of good music is never heard on radio,
I think maybe music was better in the 90s, or the 80s,
to some extent ,in that to be in a band you had to learn to play an
instrument , and play it well .
Alot of modern music is made by people using software on laptops ,
who never touched a guitar .
singers like beyonce will be remembered in 10 years ,
as she is a great singer .
She doesnt write many songs but her music has a message .
Alot of songs in the charts will be forgotten in a few months .
Using the internet ,soundcloud ,youtube ,
singers can bypass the big record companys .

smurgen · 10-05-2016 10:57PM

LightsStillOn wrote: »

Figured I'd give this a little bump as today has been a bit hectic for new albums, some of the best this year coming out:

James Blake - The Colour In Anything
LUH - Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing
Death Grips - Bottomless Pit
Kaytranda - 99%
JMSN - It Is
Anohni - Hopelessness
Gregory Porter - Take Me to The Alley
Skepta - Konnichiwa
Dan Michaelson and The Coastguards - Memory
Juliana Barwick - Will

Not bad for a Friday in May. Been a pretty great year so far I think!

Add radiohead and wolf parade to that list and I'm a happy man.it's set to be a great year for music.

Anesthetize · 10-05-2016 11:03PM

riclad wrote: »

Most people think the music was best when they were a teenager ,
or in their 20s.
So people over 30 stop listening to new music.
Theres always a certain amount of bad music in the charts .
alot of good music is never heard on radio,
I think maybe music was better in the 90s, or the 80s,
to some extent ,in that to be in a band you had to learn to play an
instrument , and play it well .
Alot of modern music is made by people using software on laptops ,
who never touched a guitar .
singers like beyonce will be remembered in 10 years ,
as she is a great singer .
She doesnt write many songs but her music has a message .
Alot of songs in the charts will be forgotten in a few months .
Using the internet ,soundcloud ,youtube ,
singers can bypass the big record companys .

Nice poem

Andrewf20 · 10-05-2016 11:16PM

I also feel that 2000 onward went a bit pear shaped. Nostalgia has a large part to play I find - songs go up in value the older they get.

1984 was a great year for the charts.

buried · 10-05-2016 11:54PM

The "charts" are no indication towards good modern made music. And it's no excuse either, if you can utilise the internet in the same way you can utilise this forum while being a actual fan of music then you'll have no problem finding modern music you can enjoy. If your a fan of "charts", fair enough, your f**ked, but that isn't the fault of artists making good music nowaday's. The fault is your own and your over reliance on what a dead industry wants you to listen to. That's your own fault.

BuilderPlumber · 11-05-2016 12:09AM

Anesthetize wrote: »

How is this any different to 20 years ago?

Apart from the awful modern boyfolk country drivel and the talent shows, things in the mainstream were the same in 1996: boybands, boybands, boybands and more boybands. As with now, great music was recorded but not promoted. Around the 1990s was when things started going downhill and from 2000 on, all that talent contest stuff came in. In the last couple of years, that atrocious country music has also been fired at us nonstop.

BuilderPlumber · 11-05-2016 12:15AM

buried wrote: »

The "charts" are no indication good modern made music. And it's no excuse either, if you can utilise the internet in the same way you can utilise this forum while being a actual fan of music then you'll have no problem finding modern music you can enjoy. If your a fan of "charts", fair enough, your f**ked, but that isn't the fault of artists making good music nowaday's. The fault is your own and your over reliance on what a dead industry wants you to listen to. That's your own fault.

The charts and anything on the mainstream media are for the most part awful. There is tonnes of modern pop and modern so-called country music fired at us in Ireland by the media that has absolutely not one redeeming feature. Yet why are we being sold and brainwashed by this awful fare. I thought I heard it all when it comes to the worst of the worst but nothing prepared me for hearing a singer calling himself Lee Matthews singing a boyband-disco-country version of 'Cotton eyed Joe' on a radio. It was the same beat and lyric over and over. I googled this clown and discovered he was involved in every poor Irish music scene from boybands to modern country to Irish hip hop. He is like Derek Ryan only 100 times worse.

buried · 11-05-2016 12:41AM

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

The charts and anything on the mainstream media are for the most part awful. There is tonnes of modern pop and modern so-called country music fired at us in Ireland by the media that has absolutely not one redeeming feature. Yet why are we being sold and brainwashed by this awful fare. I thought I heard it all when it comes to the worst of the worst but nothing prepared me for hearing a singer calling himself Lee Matthews singing a boyband-disco-country version of 'Cotton eyed Joe' on a radio. It was the same beat and lyric over and over. I googled this clown and discovered he was involved in every poor Irish music scene from boybands to modern country to Irish hip hop. He is like Derek Ryan only 100 times worse.

Your totally correct, but I think that a lot of people, especially in Ireland, view music as just another mass popcorn fueled, mainstream show of escapism and enjoyment and nothing else. Music isn't important to these people. They view music as the same they would view the GAA, where the thought process is kind of like - "if everyone else in my community enjoys this kind of thing - then I can just go along and enjoy it also" Its escapism and entertainment that involves very little effort, and that's fair enough if that's what's some people enjoy or want to be involved with, and the far majority of the these kind of people in Ireland ARE the mainstream and just want to view music this way.
If your an actual fan of music and like to make the effort to enjoy, discover and listen to all types of music from any age, past or present then none of this $hit that I've described above should even be of any concern

Chain Smoker · 11-05-2016 10:24AM

buried wrote: »

especially in Ireland

huh?

buried · 11-05-2016 10:38AM

Chain Smoker wrote: »

huh?

"Huh" what? Read the rest of the post where I've explained it

Chain Smoker · 11-05-2016 06:39PM

buried wrote: »

"Huh" what? Read the rest of the post where I've explained it

It's nonsense though, innit? You're not making any comparisons to other country's or anything. There's no need to bring a Irish slant into the thing at all.

Rothko · 11-05-2016 07:31PM

Chain Smoker wrote: »

It's nonsense though, innit? You're not making any comparisons to other country's or anything. There's no need to bring a Irish slant into the thing at all.

Yeah, there's nothing particularly Irish about it at all.

sryanbruen · 11-05-2016 07:42PM

Andrewf20 wrote: »

I also feel that 2000 onward went a bit pear shaped. Nostalgia has a large part to play I find - songs go up in value the older they get.

1984 was a great year for the charts.

I miss the noughties! So much nostalgia for the songs inc.:

Spiller - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)
Eric Prydz - Call On Me
XTM - Fly On the Wings of Love (my favourite song of all time)
Groove Coverage - Poison
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
Take That - Rule the World & Patience
Nelly Furtado - Maneater
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
James Blunt - You're Beautiful
Alexandra Burke - Hallelujah
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Kings of Leon - Sex On Fire
Pink - So What
Girls Aloud - The Promise

My god there's too many to name.

Not to mention, I adore these also (outside the noughties)

ABBA - Dancing Queen
Irene Cara - Flashdance... What A Feeling
Laura Branigan - Gloria
Berlin - Take My Breath Away
Europe - The Final Countdown
Haddaway - What is Love?
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You

Hearing hits like these makes me think why today's music is so crap.

BuilderPlumber · 11-05-2016 08:38PM

buried wrote: »

Your totally correct, but I think that a lot of people, especially in Ireland, view music as just another mass popcorn fueled, mainstream show of escapism and enjoyment and nothing else. Music isn't important to these people. They view music as the same they would view the GAA, where the thought process is kind of like - "if everyone else in my community enjoys this kind of thing - then I can just go along and enjoy it also" Its escapism and entertainment that involves very little effort, and that's fair enough if that's what's some people enjoy or want to be involved with, and the far majority of the these kind of people in Ireland ARE the mainstream and just want to view music this way.
If your an actual fan of music and like to make the effort to enjoy, discover and listen to all types of music from any age, past or present then none of this $hit that I've described above should even be of any concern

This is it exactly. But good music could be supported and marketed to such an audience and they still would go along with it. Why are the media totally obsessed with poor boybands and boyband country music? They select a lot of this rubbish and overhype it. They know the types you mention above will go with it. But the people in TV who choose this to promote above all else are the true musical criminals here as they surely could give something better a chance.

Welsh Megaman · 11-05-2016 09:51PM

In terms of the singles chart, the year 1999 can only be described as diabolical.

Here are just a few of the chart hits that year. Brace yourself...

Boyzone - When The Going Gets Tough
Boyzone - You Needed Me
Steps - Better Best Forgotten
Vengaboys - We Like To Party
Cartoons - Witch Doctor
911 - A Little Bit More
Martine McCutcheon - Perfect Moment
Shanks and Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate
S Club 7 - Bring It All Back
Vengaboys - Boom Boom Boom Boom
Geri Halliwell - Look At Me
Adam Rickitt - I Breathe Again
Lolly - Viva La Radio
Cartoons - Doodah
Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
Lou Bega - Mambo No.5
Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)
Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All
Ann Lee - Two Times
Vengaboys - We're Going To Ibiza
S Club 7 - S Club Party
Lolly - Mickey
Cliff Richard - The Millenium Prayer
Offspring - Pretty Fly For A White Guy
B*Witched - Blame It On The Waetherman
B*Witched - Jesse Hold On
Westlife - Swear It Again
Westlife - If I Let You Go
Westlife - Flying Without Wings
Westlife - I Have A Dream/Seasons In The Sun
A1 - Be The First To Believe
A1 - Summertime Of Our Lives

:blink:

sryanbruen · 11-05-2016 09:57PM

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

In terms of the singles chart, the year 1999 can only be described as diabolical.

Here are just a few of the chart hits that year. Brace yourself...

Boyzone - When The Going Gets Tough
Boyzone - You Needed Me
Steps - Better Best Forgotten
Vengaboys - We Like To Party
Cartoons - Witch Doctor
911 - A Little Bit More
Martine McCutcheon - Perfect Moment
Shanks and Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate
S Club 7 - Bring It All Back
Vengaboys - Boom Boom Boom Boom
Geri Halliwell - Look At Me
Adam Rickitt - I Breathe Again
Lolly - Viva La Radio
Cartoons - Doodah
Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
Lou Bega - Mambo No.5
Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)
Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All
Ann Lee - Two Times
Vengaboys - We're Going To Ibiza
S Club 7 - S Club Party
Lolly - Mickey
Cliff Richard - The Millenium Prayer
Offspring - Pretty Fly For A White Guy
B*Witched - Blame It On The Waetherman
B*Witched - Jesse Hold On
Westlife - Swear It Again
Westlife - If I Let You Go
Westlife - Flying Without Wings
Westlife - I Have A Dream/Seasons In The Sun
A1 - Be The First To Believe
A1 - Summertime Of Our Lives

:blink:

Out of that list I like only 3 songs.

Shannon757 · 11-05-2016 10:00PM

sryanbruen wrote: »

Out of that list I like only 3 songs.

There are songs you can like on that list!:eek:

sryanbruen · 11-05-2016 10:01PM

Shannon757 wrote: »

There are songs you can like on that list!:eek:

Yeah possibly because my young brother liked them very much and I had to keep listening to them in the car that they got into my head.

sryanbruen · 11-05-2016 10:02PM

biko wrote: »

Give it time OP, it's only March still.

It can still get worse..

Still nothing exciting or songs that aren't very boring.

Worst year ever for music?

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