Beato the Boomer hates music

Beato is Beato and that is fine. I appreciate what he does and I've watched a lot of his stuff on production. I just think we should be careful not to create false dichotomies, like bla-bla-bla everything was better in the good old handheld rock 'n' roll days and music has been destroyed by autotune, quantizing and search algorithms. This is as old as music itself. 99% of what the great composers did for centuries was simple scale runs and arpeggios with added variations, on commission. They would have loved being able to copy/paste, but of course many of them had staff for doing that. Anyway, everything is been-there-done-that if that's how you want to think about it.

Literally tonnes of good music is being made every single day, and it has never been easier to find. Almost every week I discover something that I really like simply by asking the internet or by letting the algorithm do its thing for a couple of hours while I'm working, and then pay attention when something interesting happens. I dunno, I guess I can appreciate so-called modern stuff that is pretty much midi copy/paste with no dynamics whatsoever just as much as I can appreciate old-school stuff that you can hear is tricky for human beings to pull off.

TL/DR a good idea that is at least somewhat well executed is to me good music regardless of genre and how it was accomplished.
 
For the most part, top 40 (top 10...whichever) have always been filled with forgettable fluff songs interrupted by occasional gems. This goes back to the 50s. It is just easier to promote looks over talent today since you can bury the lack of talent easier.

A perfect example that did not make the top 10 international list was the new release from modern country artist Morgan Wallen. When the release dropped (streaming only) it had 36 tracks and 45 writers. It is generic, programmed bro-country at its worst. Needless to say, Morgan had 8 of the ten top country songs at the same time. If you base modern country on this tripe, you would be right in dismissing it. But there is some fantastic country music still being released daily, it just rarely hits the radio stations and usually is not in the top 10 list.
 
Denverdave said:
For the most part, top 40 (top 10...whichever) have always been filled with forgettable fluff songs interrupted by occasional gems. This goes back to the 50s. It is just easier to promote looks over talent today since you can bury the lack of talent easier.
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This. As generations age their embarrassing music is erased from history. All those awful fifties bubblegum pop songs were washed away. The fifties are just rockabilly now. And nobody but John Waters remembers the dance craze songs of the sixties. Today the sixties just Dick Dale, Pet Sounds, and hippies. At some point Nile Rogers will be too old to keep playing and disco will be wiped out.
 
jp_nyc said:
disco will be wiped out.
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Excuse me, sir. You’re going to have to put on these cargo shorts and this pair of Crocs and come with us. Your membership in the LBGTQ+ community is hereby revoked and you’re going to need to wait in this line for the Foo Fighters show to start. We can get you a Coors Light if you’d like. Could you put these hideous sunglasses on. Would you like a phone holster for your belt?
 
I had to listen to top 40 radio for a bit on Thursday while on a school bus for a field trip. It was inoffensive at the time, but now I've got a few of those songs stuck in my head. That's pop music, same as it ever was. Folks crowing about music's best years don't wanna talk about how many records the Ballad of the Green Beret sold.
 
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Music has lost its soul.
 
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