I Feel Like A Dinosaur

[40Hz]

It's almost impossible to not like Bruno Mars; his music is so totally inoffensive. But also totally derivative, as I'm sure even he would agree. You can listen to the first 16 bars of any of his tunes and name the artist he's copping. I think it's deliberately his play; his songs sound instantly familiar to people and so people adopt them very quickly.

Lenny Kravitz did that too; there's nothing wrong with it, but as you say it's not moving anything forward.

Worked for the band Boston too. The first time I heard their albums I got this weird deja vu sensation. Like I had heard every one of those songs before.

And I was right.

 

[sedan_dad]

I prefer "Seasoned Hack".

 

[P-oddz]

Sorry fellas, but if you've ever muttered the words or held the sentiment that "all music created these days is no good", you fall into one of two camps:

1. Willfully close-minded
2. You're not trying hard enough

Both conclusions point directly back to you, which is fine, but admit it instead of the misplaced outrage.

It's never been easier to discover new artists/genres and talent. Look beyond turning on your local FM radio station.

 

[jamro217]

I chalk this up to not being part of the target audience of this particular artist. That's perfectly fine, though. Whenever music is written or art is created, there are people who are naturally drawn to it and others repelled by it. Much of that has to do with our environment and what we feel comfortable with, I think. In order for music to appeal to you there must be some redeeming feature, either lyrics you can relate to, a great bass line, killer solos, virtuosity... This doesn't mean music we don't care for has no value, just that it doesn't speak to us. By the way, it's cold in here, where's my shawl?

 

[DWBass]

Fools have said "nothing modern is worth listening to" untold times over throughout history as styles changed, and changed, and changed. Fixating on a single point in musical history is dismissing all of the rich musical heritage that came before, while arrogantly assuming that this time it really is the best so there's no point in moving forward. Context and perspective expose statements like "nothing modern is worth listening to" for the lazy thinking that they are. This kind of stagnant thinking is counter-intuitive to any art form.

I personally did not say all new music sucks. I did say there were some gems. Pop music is still developing. R&B music has stagnated to just looping and repeating baby a hundred times. Rap used to be about partying and having fun. I honestly feel though that the quality of songwriting has been watered down. Songs with great baselines.....where are they? Maybe you rock guys have a lot to choose from. Not so for us R&B Funk guys. We have to look for smooth jazz and urban gospel for inspiration. Or go back to listening to old school music. But, there is good music out there. Just not on the radio. The latest CD from Incognito has some excellent bass playing on it. Great funky tunes. Radio ignored it. The dumbing down continues.

 

[Toxie]

The kids in the scene started calling my band "dadcore" to describe us to their friends to get them to come out to the shows. I kind of like that. Also, when they unknowingly hand me an album from my last band to tell me to check it out, I love that too.

 

[GoesThump]

Music has been going steadily downhill the 60s.

The 1760s, that is.

Time to get Bach to that old time polyphony. These young punks and their damn newfangled instruments. Piano?! Bach-o only needed a clavichord. (His tone was never the same after he could afford a harpsichord - his older stuff was better!)

Mozart, what a damned simpleton. All flash and not much fugue, if you get my meaning.

(I'll see myself out now....)
GT

 

[burpgun]

I'm 46 and have younger kids that utterly love the stuff that comes on NYC pop radio. My roots are in post-punk, shoe gaze and dub, so yes, this radio stuff is not my first choice.

I've made a conscious effort to try to listen with open ears and some of it may use new sounds but is really no different that what dominated the radio in years past. Meanwhile, I still find tons of current guitar-based music that may lack the cultural currency rock had in years past, but is nevertheless excellent. The new Preoccupations nee Viet Cong album kicks a million tons of ass, for example.

Where I feel like a dinosaur is when I hear modern hip-hop. It's when I hear Odd Future or just about any of this stuff, I realize I don't get it and never will. To me it sounds like music from the future, in a time where all knowledge of composition has been lost but the tools remain. Folks in this post-apocalypitc landscape find these tools and do what they can, ending up like Tyler the Creator. Much of modern hip-hop just sounds like people cursing over a two bar drum loop. Was never a big rap fan and won't claim the right to judge the genre, but when Tribe Called Quest was on SNL this weekend, I was like, "that's real music."

So as I see it, the only place where I just don't get anymore is this modern hip hop scene. My wife hipped me to the Solange track mentioned at the start of the thread and it wasn't my thing to start, but I get it now and think she may be taking more chances than her sister.

 

[Rocker949]

Music has been going steadily downhill the 60s.

The 1760s, that is.

Time to get Bach to that old time polyphony. These young punks and their damn newfangled instruments. Piano?! Bach-o only needed a clavichord. (His tone was never the same after he could afford a harpsichord - his older stuff was better!)

Mozart, what a damned simpleton. All flash and not much fugue, if you get my meaning.

(I'll see myself out now....)
GT

Jack Bruce said Bach was the ultimate in bass players.

 

[BassUrges]

There was a huge amount of politics and political intent and calls to action in the music of that time.

Yeah, the politics are the part I hate the most. Rock stars are frequently, um, not the smartest people in the world, and while everyone complains about dumb Twitter arguments these days, the Twitter-level "social consciousness" of that era of music makes me cringe. It was essentially a fashion accessory no different than a tie-dye headband or one of those rubber bracelets the kids wear to "support" a cause. I sometimes hear a celebrity say something I agree with and I think "STOP HELPING, YOU'RE MAKING OUR SIDE LOOK LIKE IDIOTS!"

About the only "statement" I really dig from those days is Jimi playing the anthem. He had a lot of pain and a lot of pressure on him and I can feel it. My son thinks it sounds awful, which it does in a way. But that's kind of the point.

I do think you're right about youthful rebellion being co-opted. The constant increase in effort to shock bourgeois parents meant that I could listen to a lot of my dad's stuff as a child, but my kids don't really get to hear a lot of the stuff from my youth, when profanity and really explicit sexual lyrics were a thing. Plus kids these days are so PC and hung up about sex, if you showed up on campus with a pinup on your bass you'd probably be facing a mob. Which would be a sufficiently weird inversion that I'd like to try it sometime.

 

[ofajen]

So what we're left with is a legacy of incredibly fantastic music that was recorded during a period of four decades. All the dross got sifted out long ago, and what's left is gold.

The new music hasn't had time yet to go through that process. We're still hearing 10 bad songs for every one that's worth a second listen.

H. L. Mencken is attributed with saying "90% of everything is crap." My experience is that he was an optimist. Still, the point made above is well-taken.

A lot of current music serves as a consumable and is soon forgotten. Indeed, music is seen more and more as a commodity by many people, just something to have in the background or be a quick distraction, but not really something taken seriously in its own right.

Otto

 

[markjazzbassist]

To be honest doc neither of those records are that great. Check out Robert glasper experiment black radio 1 or 2 for better hodge stuff (his solo stuff is a bore).

There's plenty of live actual musicians playing on records types of records out there, just gotta find them.

I do agree though I don't like the programmed stuff where it's only got like vocal synth drum machine and a pad.

 

[yodedude2]

skipping from page 1 to page 7 to say:

esperanza spalding and trombone shorty.

that is all.

edit: whoops, i forgot snarky puppy!

 

[Rocker949]

Yeah, the politics are the part I hate the most. Rock stars are frequently, um, not the smartest people in the world, and while everyone complains about dumb Twitter arguments these days, the Twitter-level "social consciousness" of that era of music makes me cringe. It was essentially a fashion accessory no different than a tie-dye headband or one of those rubber bracelets the kids wear to "support" a cause. I sometimes hear a celebrity say something I agree with and I think "STOP HELPING, YOU'RE MAKING OUR SIDE LOOK LIKE IDIOTS!"

About the only "statement" I really dig from those days is Jimi playing the anthem. He had a lot of pain and a lot of pressure on him and I can feel it. My son thinks it sounds awful, which it does in a way. But that's kind of the point.

I do think you're right about youthful rebellion being co-opted. The constant increase in effort to shock bourgeois parents meant that I could listen to a lot of my dad's stuff as a child, but my kids don't really get to hear a lot of the stuff from my youth, when profanity and really explicit sexual lyrics were a thing. Plus kids these days are so PC and hung up about sex, if you showed up on campus with a pinup on your bass you'd probably be facing a mob. Which would be a sufficiently weird inversion that I'd like to try it sometime.

I think there are a number of people who would say Hendrix did better versions of "The Star Spangled Banner" prior to Woodstock. Listen to, for example, his version at the Winterland concert.

 

[jerry]

skipping from page 1 to page 7 to say:

esperanza spalding and trombone shorty.

that is all.

Funny you should mentioned them, I saw Spalding earlier this year and it was one of the most forward looking jazz shows I've witnessed. Art at the highest level. And I saw Trombone Shorty last year and he tore the roof off.

 

[40Hz]

Yeah, the politics are the part I hate the most. Rock stars are frequently, um, not the smartest people in the world, and while everyone complains about dumb Twitter arguments these days, the Twitter-level "social consciousness" of that era of music makes me cringe. It was essentially a fashion accessory no different than a tie-dye headband or one of those rubber bracelets the kids wear to "support" a cause. I sometimes hear a celebrity say something I agree with and I think "STOP HELPING, YOU'RE MAKING OUR SIDE LOOK LIKE IDIOTS!"

About the only "statement" I really dig from those days is Jimi playing the anthem. He had a lot of pain and a lot of pressure on him and I can feel it. My son thinks it sounds awful, which it does in a way. But that's kind of the point.

I do think you're right about youthful rebellion being co-opted. The constant increase in effort to shock bourgeois parents meant that I could listen to a lot of my dad's stuff as a child, but my kids don't really get to hear a lot of the stuff from my youth, when profanity and really explicit sexual lyrics were a thing. Plus kids these days are so PC and hung up about sex, if you showed up on campus with a pinup on your bass you'd probably be facing a mob. Which would be a sufficiently weird inversion that I'd like to try it sometime.

I don't think the political message was so much articulated by the musicians back then. My recollection was it was more that certain songs were adopted as anthems by the political movements. But whatever. It's all in the past now.

As far as co-opting goes, that's the American way. I forget who said that the thing that makes the American way of life virtually unassailable is the American practice of absorbing the totem of any social movement or revolutionary trend, reprocessing it, and turning it into a consumer product. Whether your movement is wearing tie dye or camo, you can be sure you'll be able to buy it on 5th Avenue at all the chichi shops within a few months. New style of music like punk or rap? No problem. There will be 200 "me too" bands appearing on America's Got Talent within six months. Write a book? The hack writers will cop your subject, arguments, and style before you know it. And dozens more will claim you "stole" their song, story, look, or idea - and possibly sue over it before the year is out.

The USA is like the tar baby. Hit it and it takes the punch, sucks it in, and then spits out something you can buy on Amazon. Even the tragedy of 911 spawned entire industries offering everything from keepsake mementos and flags, to survivalist supplies and training programs.

Look at how polluting technologies adopted and perverted the term "green." Or how the food industry got legal definitions instituted to make sure the term "organic" can be applied to many foods that are anything but. Reframing the debate, and redefining terminology, is a constant process in our society. The specter of Newspeak dwells among us. No two ways.

Up against a machine that commoditizes and monetizes everything that gets thrown at it, what chance does 99.999% of all music stand?

It's very different now. If the next generation doesn't see things the same way as the dinosaurs might it's hardly surprising. And really not something to blame them for. It was our failure to educate that's mainly at the bottom of it.

Or so I think. And I could be wrong.

So yeah. Brave new world indeed.

 

[japhy4529]

On a related note, (other than some of us old-heads keeping the fire burning), will there even be people playing electric bass in 50 years? It seems as though electric guitar-oriented music (and by electric bass by extension) is dying a slow and painful death.

 

[40Hz]

On a related note, (other than some of us old-heads keeping the fire burning), will there even be people playing electric bass in 50 years? It seems as though electric guitar-oriented music (and by electric bass by extension) is dying a slow and painful death.

Said that about guitar several times in the past. Synths were supposed to replace everything.

Then along came Knopfler, and later John Meyer - and the guitar entered a new phase of popularity.

I don't think guitar or electric bass are dying at all. And the sales figures certainly don't support that concern.

 

[MojoPenguin]

I feel like Reggae as a musical genre for example is still as fresh as ever.

 

[10cc]

It's easy to come to the conclusion that "old music was great, new stuff sucks." That's because we only listen to the old stuff that was, in fact, great. There was a ton of "old stuff" that sucked and nobody remembers it because it quickly disappeared from radio and record bins, and then when the music transitioned to digital formats, it was never re-released on CD. Why? Because it sucked.

So what we're left with is a legacy of incredibly fantastic music that was recorded during a period of four decades. All the dross got sifted out long ago, and what's left is gold.

The new music hasn't had time yet to go through that process. We're still hearing 10 bad songs for every one that's worth a second listen.

I feel fortunate because my musical foundation is blues. It's the element I'm attracted to in music and it's usually there, somewhere, in every musical style that comes along, if you look for it. And there are frequent revivals. A band like the Black Keys comes along and gives me a new lease on life. Bruno Mars comes along and suddenly all the kids are funking it up again. I don't need or want for music to be static, so long as I can find familiar old elements in the new collage.

You had something going til you mentioned Black Keys and Bruno.