Hi All.
I'm sure many young people have had discussions or arguments with older adults about the topic of music. In particular, why the younger generation's music is terrible.
Now, I really shouldn't have to say this, but the notion that all modern music is terrible is quite simply an ignorant and uninformed position. Sorry if that's a shocking revelation to people.
So here is my official defense of modern music.
Let's start with the arguments for why people say that modern music is terrible.
- The lyrics are meaningless/stupid
- Artists use autotune
- Less reliance on talent, and more on marketability
- The instruments "aren't real"
- Songs are overplayed
- Corporate
- Same few topics
So, I can agree with some of these, especially from the chart topping songs. They're often overplayed to the point where they become annoying, and the lyrics, topics, and meanings are very simple and similar. But I think where people go wrong is that many have nostalgia for the past.
For older music, many of the songs that were TRULY classics are remembered and played in the current time as an example of what good music is. However, a lot of the older music that wasn't good is simply left in the past and forgotten by people as unmemorable songs.
Nowadays though, with services like YouTube and Spotify, modern day music that isn't as good can be found very easily, and those selections can be used as a scapegoat to dismiss the tonnes of quality music content out there just waiting to be found.
In other words, it's not exactly a fair fight.
For the autotune argument, I'm going to actually argue in favour of it.
Because let's face it, music sounds better when every note is perfect. I know that some will argue it takes the authenticity out of music, but I can't imagine listening to music that has no fixing of mistakes, and no post production. It would just sound lower quality, and if we can cut the imperfections out of music in order for it to be more pleasant to listen to, why not? I can understand disliking an exorbitant amount of autotune, because it's really obnoxious, but small amounts to fix mistakes? I can't agree with you on that.
Additionally, for the medium to big artists, they often do live performances and tours, where they have to sing the song live which will expose to people whether they can actually sing or not. The other option is to lip sync it, which is a tactic people use, and many have been caught in what some call "Lip sync fails." Seriously, look it up, it's an interesting thing to spend your time looking at.
At the end of the day, music is not just about the artist expressing themselves, it's also about the satisfaction of the consumer.
Which brings me onto the next point, that music has become too corporate.
A lot of music that is popular is only popular because of the songwriters, producers, and marketing that an artist can afford. As well as the record label, which is most certainly a major factor in whether an artist will get noticed by the industry.
This has given rise to a phenomenon known as "industry plants", which is a whole other topic entirely and is a major problem for music in general. But excluding that, an artist will almost always need some kind of talent in order to actually be signed in the first place.
Definition of Industry Plant from Complex.com:
"to imply that a rapper or singer is an upstart fraud, a record label puppet, a focus group-tested vessel of creativity so-called. Any musician with a hazy or straight-up fabricated origin story"
Source:
The sad truth is that the majority of the time, except in a few small cases, an artist will never chart unless they have a record label behind them.
However, this does not negate the topic of this post, which is that modern music is still not terrible.
Modern music has more variety than ever before, and a never-ending amount of music is uploaded to places like YouTube, Spotify, and Soundcloud every day. To claim that modern music is terrible when there is such an enormous amount of music that's out there, and will continue to be released is ludicrous.
There's a style for every type of person out there, and it's your job to wade through the abundance of music that may not be your style to find the music that you like. Present-day websites and algorithms can help on your search to find music that you like, but also music that is similar in genre to what you've already found. Use the tools of today to your advantage.
Even if you still love the classics, give modern music a try. Listen to some, experiment. Because you never know what you may come across in your search for good music.