Was Music Really Better Back In The Day? (Old School Rant!)
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- Опубліковано 1 тра 2024
- In today's video I discuss the lack of innovation in much of today's music.
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Off topic - could we have an interview with Stewart Copeland? The guy is a beast of a drummer and an absolute character, love to hear him talk.
Or Summers!!!
@@Antonivs Oh yeah, I absolutely adore "World Gone Strange".
That would be great. Also, I'd love to hear about how him and Neil Peart became such good friends.
His dad was an interesting character, he can’t really talk about it tho
@@Antonivs or Bernard??
I love when Rick goes off like this. It's like a stream of consciousness rant where he juts let loose with no filter. This is when u realize how much Rick loves and cares about music. Rick-you're the best.
I gave you a t/u just for that great name. I love her n I wished we had somrone like her today. male or female 👍
@@USAMehdi She and Tomyris are my fav warrior queens of history. She certainly gave the Romans hell for awhile.
Up
In an interview John Cleese of Monty Python talks about asking a Hollywood director about what kind of ideas are the hardest to sell. The answer: original ones.
Spot on!
I had a brief interaction with Hollywood and saw it from the inside. In my short experience there it seemed to me (I was a writer pitching original ideas) that the ONLY way an executive could get fired quickly in the industry was to back an original idea and have it fail. The one's suggesting "remakes of the Brady Bunch" would show the market share of that show in the 60's and 70's and say "this kind of thing was very popular" and if the remake failed the executive could hide behind the failure saying "the writers/actors/producers or the marketing was off..." and then suggest the next recycled idea based on known marketing numbers... I could go on and on about this but this was my experience...
According to Frank Zappa, culture will die a death by nostalgia.
Sad but true. My granddaughter (14yrs) was watching the top 10 on our tv recently. She looked at my record and cd collection and asked if I had any Pink Floyd. This really surprised me. What do you like here on tv I asked. She replied they are all the same and boring. She is just a 14yr old girl, but she knows what she likes.
My two teenagers are the same. Have always been around good music from waaaay before the turn of the millennium. Even my 5 year old prefers Hendrix, loves guitar based music. Bless him. But there is definitely hope I think as the very newest generation who are getting fed up with whatever has been sold/streamed as 'so called' music in the past 20 years or so are going to simply look elsewhere. Music will never die but the 'pop charts' hopefully soon....
@@summerhillmusicfactory4216 - Have them check out Band Maid - Choose Me, Lovebites - Scream for Me, Unlucky Morpheus Cadaver/Revadac, Doll$Boxx - Loud Twin Stars, Mary's Blood - Marionette, Wagakki Band - Senbonzakura, Aldious- We Are, Baby Metal - Headbanger, Iron Bunny - 23 Twenty Three, Versailles Philharmonic Quintet - Masquerade, X Japan - Rusty Nail, Scandal - Shunkan Sentimental. (all Japanese bands)
9 Muses Gun, AOA- Heart Attack, Girl's Day - Darling, EXID - Night Rather than Day, Stellar - Crying, Mamamoo -Mr Ambiguous, Sistar - So Cool, A Pink - No No No, GFriend - Me Gustas Tu (all Korean)
Barrio Boyzz - Una Vez Mas, Julio Iglesias - La Carratera, DLG - No Morirar, Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine - Conga, Tito Puente - Mambo Number 5, Rey Ruiz - No Me Acostumbro , Marc Antony - I Need To Know, Ritchie Valens - Donna ( a wide range of Latin music)
Or lets go way back - Wagner - Die Valkure, Vivaldi - Four Seasons - Summer, Beethoven - Fifth Symphony, Chopin - Revolutionary Etude, Bach - Toccatta and Fugue in D minor, Tchaikovsky - Waltz of the Flowers from Nutcracker Sweet, Gustav Holst - Jupiter, Verdi - Anvil Chorus,
I wouldn't call any of these songs "boring" many styles all great and interesting musically
Gratulations!
This drives me crazy, why do people act like the only music that currently or recently exists is on the top 40?
Take off your blinders, there is great music being released across dozens of different genres from rock and blues to indie pop , country, and bluegrass. The music of the past isn't your only alternative. There's artists like Brian Fallon, Sierra Ferrell, Jason Isbell, Gary Clark Jr, Marcus King, Charley Crockett, Billy Strings, Greta Van Fleet, Royal Blood, etc who are every bit as talented as the artists of the past.
Absolutely music was better. And Freddie Mercury said it perfectly years ago, he seen the future of music.
Freddie Mercury
"We are in a golden age of music, there will be a time when technology becomes so advanced that we'll rely on them to make music rather than raw talent and music will lose it's soul."
@@amremorse Those trip hop bands were at their peak, what, over 20 years ago now? I wouldn't consider them modern. They're the equivalent of classic rock when I was growing up in the 90s. What they were doing was innovative, and arguably both were pretty underground (just some of the most well known from their genre).
Now mainstream pop music uses similar tools to shill out monotonous autotuned songs for TikTok to make a quick buck.
@@DCJayhawk57 nothing to say more accurate than you've did, only one guy have success Ed Sheeran at using mostly classical instruments.
And when WW3 happens and we reset back to the stone age. We must follow the words of Einstein. "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
"There's been an abuse of technology." - Greg Lake, talking about late 90s music.
Ah... Yes. Freddy was right. And Freddy was an amazingly talented musician, composer and singer who is still sorely missed.
And, you know what? Frank Zappa said more or less the same thing, about music and other media, in the early 70s already. He was also right, was also incredibly talented, and is also sorely missed.
I think the alternative/"underground"/non-top 40 is the best, largest, and most diverse it's ever been... and I don't think that point can even be debated honestly. _Truly_ independent music/DIY has become a viable business model, bringing us great bands that never would have even gotten a foot in the door 20 years ago.
However the _mainstream_ music is infinitely more boring, less diverse, less original, and less musically competent than ever before. It's basically just the Ford assembly line at this point. 99.9% is made either _by_ an algorithm or _for_ an algorithm.
In the exact same way Hollywood just bends over and pushes out nothing but reboots, sequels, and prequels of original ideas someone had 50 years ago... the music "industry" has become a steady rotation of the same low effort songs, written by the same 20 people, recycled over and over again and attached to whichever current character/archetype they're pushing this week (the "face" of which get refreshed with a newer model every couple years).
Great analysis. It’s the same in the movie and TV series world. Here in Australia we have free to air a channel (SBS) which provides a steady diet of sub-titled foreign language movies and series. The richness of content is overwhelming. At least 75% of our TV series consumption Is Scandinavian, French, Russian, German, Korean or Japanese with a smattering from South America and the Middle East.
The mainstream stuff in comparison is stultifying! Ok - Top Gun Maverick was an exception and we went as a family to the movie theatre to see it ;-)
Couldn’t have said it better myself
Black Midi, Viagra Boys and Black Country, New Road have all in the past six months released some of the most highly acclaimed and sonically fresh rock albums from young groups in years. All three also happen to have released a full length album two years in a row now.
Saying “I think” and then “cannot be debated” creates a bit of a contradiction. Opinions can always be debated.
@@owenthomas1045 Yeah virtuosity certainly isn't the main concern for any of those bands (outside maybe black midi), but atleast there is now a global movement of somewhat fresh, album-oriented, experienced, bold, tour hungry and uncompromising bands that is getting larger every year. If the movement/demand grows, even more variety will most likely be thrown into the pot.
Agreed that is not the most groundbreaking sound out there, but if the scene/movement grows long enough maybe some real risk-takers will come along soon enough? You can't most of the time say when something is groundbreaking until some decades after the fact regardless.
I work in a major retail store here in Australia and on the weekends the second in charge will change the elevator type music to 80’s. And it’s interesting that nearly all the local and foreign staff bop or sing away to it. And the general public wandering around sing and the whole atmosphere becomes a little electric, and I’m sure we sell more as well, because people feel a little happier !
Elevator music was better in the 80s. Not a statement I'd really like to defend but 80s elevator music moved into its own art form through ambient music.
@@davegold
Any resources to that? In the sense of actual examples to look up? Was too young too remember i'd guess
It's equally as interesting that you've noticed this 👍
@@davegold Elevator music was and has always been horrible. But that also shows how terrible the other music must be. That because the 80's elevator music is recognizable and was great when the original artists did the songs the imitators are emulating it shows that the music of that time and by those artists holds the power to get into the heart of the people over the other junk.
Examples?
28:34 Again, you know it's not that people don't write innovative music anymore. It's that this music doesn't get to the mainstream anymore. If people always prefer simple repetitive songs, it doesn't matter how many complex songs you make.
Interesting about the The Police, they can start a song without starting singing straight away, great instrumental breaks in the middle and still sell millions of records in the singles chart. That doesn't happen anymore. A lot of music these days is kid centric rather than music centric. It also seems that songs are vocal led and not musically led
@@ryangunwitch-black Gen X if you don't mind
Absolutely
Unfortunately yes...
Concur all around.
I say that most of the actual MUSIC has been sanitized out of the music and the songs these days are all “American Idolized.” These days, the material mostly has just enough music to support the vocals - the minimum. The band (if there even is one), is an afterthought and there aren’t any musical passages or moments where non-singers get some spotlight. Heck, there aren’t even any riffs anymore, it’s all just chords or if there is guitar, it’s what used to be referred to as rhythm guitar playing. There’s no lead playing with licks sprinkled throughout the songs or a guitar solo in the middle of the tune like there used to be.
My favorite musical act is Yes, which is one of the most instrumentally hardcore bands there ever has been. So when you’re somebody like me that listens to a lot of stuff like Yes, I really notice it.
I feel sorry for real drummers. Do any current acts even use any real drums vs. a drum machine/computerized drums? Sorry, but I want real drums in 95% of my music.
You're hard selling your products, but you're also right. The move away from playing instruments has removed the need to explore and grow musically and has created a large group of listeners that has absolutely no ability to digest anything more complex than the simplest music. And a lot of that music just ends up as background to whatever thing they're paying more attention to.
So few people see just listening to music as a valid activity.
Rick’s mental library of music is pretty incredible, being able to remember how every song goes in detail haha!
Todd Rundgren was the new super musical genius of the early 70s ,rarely ever mentioned now and never won any awards but was so damn innovative . I hope he gets a huge Re- Recognition
Interviews and videos about him are ALL OVER UA-cam! I just watched TONS of Todd this week!
@@lamper2 exactly. I love it when people imply that there was a famous boomer musician that went unworshipped. lmao.... AS IF!
Maybe these yesteryear artists will make a comeback, in the way Kate Bush did. Todd Rundgren has so many songs that could be more successful today than they were back in the day. Maybe his time has yet to come.
@@lamper2 Sure he is all over YT but never mentioned much on vids like LedZep The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and others currently in action who do get that huge amount of attention ...
@@VIDSTORAGE he wasn't huge in his prime and commercially on the same level as Zeppelin, Beatles et al so why would he garner their levels of interest now? He's more of a cult artist and that's okay. Not everyone can be massive. Maybe if he gets a song on some TV show then generation tiktok will be interested in him and then Beato will do a video.
There are hundreds, thousands of bands across the country. Greenland has bands. Africa, Asia, South America, Everywhere. The Spotify top of the pops ignores most modern. creative, listenable music.
The 80s were not much better. What was on the radio was quite horrible. It is the reason the term alternative music was coined for the few bands playing proper music. For a while in then 90s proper bands were popular. It only lasted a few years.
@@FCB-ez4fl exactly.
There was a lot of good stuff from the eighties. A lot of not so good. My take is synths were really emerging and often the best music used synths creatively with standard instruments.
@@FCB-ez4fl It depended what city or town you lived in. Growing up in my little town in the 70's and 80's, radio sucked. But when I traveled to Detroit or places like Atlanta or Chicago, I was stunned how good many radio stations were.
So did the pop charts back whenever. If you go look at any given years Hot 100 its prettymuch the same, maybe like half a dozen highights but a lot of just dull uninspired by the numbers stuff.
Perhaps the biggest change is that there's no major window for "local" success. A lot of your names only got big in their respective "small pond" regions, which helped give them a leg up onto a national or world stage. Since everyones on the same global/internet stage, bands and artists don't get that same boost.
A ton of "groundbreaking" music acts 'back in the day" hit the mainstream in the UK.... because the UK was a small market and getting a top 10 in the British Hot 100 at the time was not the challenge that getting into the top 10 on Spotify/Apple/etc would be now. Then the labels or publishers would market off that saying "Hey, here's this top 10, top 5, #1 hit new band from the UK".
@@EbonyPope Everyone is concerned with exposure. Focused on top ten this or that. I use Tidal and “discover” new music every night…More than I can keep up with! Stop worrying about what’s popular. Get out and do some work.
My theory: Labels, radio stations, and MTV/VH1 were once the gatekeepers pushing who we were exposed to. Once tech advanced to where it became accessible people to record themselves inexpensively and the internet allowed those to spread virally which reduced the need for labels and radio/TV curation. We now have a much larger pool of talent making content in many more genres than ever before, but the audience is also much more spread out as well. It's more luck these days to be exposed to the music that resonates with us individually. Thus our perception is that there is less overall quality, when in reality it's the abundance of choice reducing the chance of exposure.
Good theory, but should then not the effect in the spotify charts reflect that variation? But the opposite is the case. Never before in history has the sucessful music been more one-dimensional and boring than nowadays. Despite all the technical possibilities.
If that was the case then the charts were filled with varied and different music, which is the opposite, music structure is mostly the same, produced by mostly the same people, gatekeepers are worse than ever before, they are now lazy and completely disregard the value of a person as an artist, cause why waste time with building someone's career if next week a kid in Tik Tok gets 20m views with a boring average tune? Everything changed once the average people were allowed to rose to success, formidable people should be the ones to bless the masses to inspire us, not the average joe who is copying for the 999999th time what the other average joe copied already, as hard that sounds, once average talent is given that much attention, then the bar set is just too weak to innovation.
Due to mediocrity being now normally accepted, most people cannot even recognize formidable anymore, sad days for music, you gotta really dig these days for something decent, and I mean really dig.
@@dgtunes2857 Not necessarily. The labels didn't go away, they still exist as gatekeepers of a sort. They're still the ones that have the means to pay to get exposure. But just like the movie industry, they're risk adverse and rely on jumping on trends, rebooting, and remixing past successful works. So you have the old establishment pumping out what for the most part seems generic, getting above average exposure. Combined with what I previously mentioned is a large and diverse group of semi-independent artists competing for what's left, where the gems are spread further apart.
What we are experiencing is what happens when art/music is taken out of the classroom in early education. Not meaning to get political, but I laugh when someone complains about liberal school programs then complain about music being awful or movies boring void of creativity.
STEM education is great, but not everyone wants to be a scientist, engineer, or mathematician when they grow up. Where are young musicians and artists supposed to learn?
As much as I understand the desire to make schooling all about academics, exposure to music education at an early age is vital to fostering new generations of musicians and composers.
Maybe if they were teaching arts in a more scientific manner instead of trying to breed a generation of postmodern propaganda artists things would be better.
@@Soldano999 except not everything can or should simply be measured in metrics. The whole “post modern” rant is nothing new. You can even go as far back as the early twentieth century of people complaining about art not being “traditional” enough.
@@andrewhudson7108 there's just one difference: back then postmodern ideas was a fringe culture. beatniks, hippies etc. It was subversive and new
Now it's mainstream corporate and as a result bland and generic.
So by that logic new artists should come from counter culture, whatever it is.
But the ideologically driven mainstream today is doing all it can to prevent that from happenning just like conservative censorship backnin the 50´s.
The tables have turned.
@@InventorZahran We need STEAM education not just STEM. The A is for the arts!
Really appreciate how well-rounded and thought out Rick's thoughts are.
A balanced perspective is much needed in the music world nowadays
It's possible - and I hope it's the case now - that these things are somewhat cyclic. Nat King Cole complained when Rock 'N' Roll came along that it was so simplistic compared to jazz and such. But later on things turned back toward complexity within rock, as in psychedelia and prog. So maybe we're just waiting for another turn-around.
I hope so, but... what is being lost and may never return is the human to human interaction. Whether that's live or in studios, there is no need for in-person human connection for people to make, access or support popular music anymore. By popular music I mean whatever collection of noises and vocals that passes for a hit record in the modern era - whatever "makes money" for all the interested parties. Being in a band and gigging is a lot of effort - why bother unless you enjoy it, because unless you're already famous, the pathways to fame - radio, record deals, etc - for a real, live musical performing act are all drying up. And it's all happened really fast. Only 15 years ago you could still get record deals, but even then they were becoming 360 deals where the "company" signing you got a piece of everything - live income, merchandise, publishing rights and income from recorded music in whatever format. Nowadays? Even those deals have disappeared. As Rick says, why go to all that effort if you can sign up a TikTok or UA-cam star with 50 million streams already ? Even in the early 2000s record labels were already "Okay, how big is your MySpace fanbase?" and it's moved a million miles since then for the worse. Basically, the humanity is being replaced in music by the algorhythm, both in the way music is made and in how it reaches the listener. As I'm almost Rick's age I feel lucky to have enjoyed even the terrible music of mainstream 80s, 90s and 00s pop music in comparison to the anonymous stuff flooding whatever the charts represent today. The hope for me lies in the fact that people are still, regardless of fame or fortune, making great music and its never been easier to make it on a budget. I may be old but I love discovering new artists on UA-cam or Spotify or just random recommendations from friends and - more often - their kids lol. The light for music has not gone out yet, and I doubt it ever will, but just as the vinyl record was replaced by the CD and then along came streaming, the world of music is changing and it will never be the same as it was (Dear gawd, that last bit is the title of the Harry Styles record lol). So... after "old man shouts at cloud" ramble - yup I really hope the turnaround you suggest will come soon, as I'd love to see it 😎
Hopefully, but I can't imagine current pop artists to start doing that like are they even capable of that? Indie is the best option right now.
I would sure like to think so...but at this point I think we are to far off that path to get it back
I am waiting, but ahhell, I'm older than Rick!
Oh God. so its going to get worse? I will look back on Robin Thicke with longing??
There's always somebody making great music -- though you may not get to hear them. And there's always somebody making crap -- quite often gets crammed down your throat.
So has it ever been, so shall it ever be. :)
but today is majority crap
World without end
Ahhhhmen🎶
There’s literally an unlimited supply of incredible music coming out that isn’t on any charts just because the genre just isn’t popular anymore.
@@theend9494 It always was. The difference is that less of the "good" stuff is pushed by the industry nowadays.
@@C0urne the “industry” used to push forgettable trite back then just as much as now. Do the classic test - go through 1982’s Billboard top 10 songs per month - you won’t recognize 90-50% of the tunes that used to sit at the top. Quite a bit of the bands and artists we now know as classic didn’t even have a number one hit. It’s always been this way and always will be.
Much easier to mentally block all new music and call it derivative or unimaginative etc, than to put in effort and find new waves you enjoy.
Music tends to reflect the environment of time it was created. Look at the mid 70s in the UK where economic uncertainty spawned the punk music and metal scenes where the music reflected the frustration of the youth. Today's music reflects the rapid content creation and is like most things today disposable with little to no substance. The nostalgia of music from 40-50 years ago is driven by those who grew up in the era and are now are in positions of influence to resurrect it for the masses.
Rick I’d love to see you do a solid video digging into the massive *problem* that is Max Martin who has essentially co-written and produced every major song and album for over two decades - everybody from Taylor Swift to Katy Perry to Britney to keep right on going…everyone seems to be afraid to talk about how his iron-fisted management of “his” artists, the behavior of his protégés like Dr. Luke, and the fact that his sound (and it is very much *his* sound) dominates everything with tiny differences. It has caused a funneling effect unprecedented in rock music. To me it’s tragic how often I see people asking who Max Martin is then having their minds blown when they see his name on EVERYTHING.
For me, the late 60's to the early 80's were the best time for music.. especially for rock, it was the age of innovation! Yes, even the greatest bands had bad songs or albums...But, their good albums were some of the best ever recorded! It was much more about the musicianship..
I think you'll always remember music you first heard in your late teens to early 20s as these are the years that you are discovering new music and finding out what resonated with you (even if that music was released years before).
in the end they had huge libraries of great music, that they took on tour
1962 to 1989
Basically the Golden Era of vinyl records. The ALBUM ruled. A medium you actually had to listen to from one song to the next, then get up to flip the record over. You were invested in the whole experience. The the CD changed everything and we skipped through an album to listen to our favourite songs only. Then the MP3 cam along where we could just create playlists of just ur favourite music. Then streaming killed everything. Music, in general, died in 1989.
@@windyhillbomber embarrassing take
David. He’s not wrong
Rick, your rant reminded me of a quote my music history prof told us in the history of 20th Century music course:
“Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ear lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason we are inclined to call them beautiful." -Charles Ives (Even today his music is too uncomfortable for most listeners because it takes an effort to understand.)
Unfortunately most the dreck heard on Spotify and other platforms *IS* comforting, in it's monotony, to the great unwashed. It's the 'muzak' of the 21st century - 'elevator music' for an elevator that is forever stuck between floors'.
Well said! Lol
That said I have more enjoyment with actual vintage mall muzak.
@@alleygh0st LOL!
I release music all the time, just to make sure it is out there when I am gone, because deep down I know that it has merit. It’s simple and straightforward, and just music I’d personally love to hear on the radio. Pop music. Nothing more. Nothing less. But it’s me! It’s my life and soul. And I’ll keep releasing it until I die! As long as you’re you, I truly believe there is a market for you!
I'm exactly the same! Couldn't have said it better :) where can I listen to your stuff?
I’m like that too I make music I like. I don’t give af if it has any listens. Music for me is escapism. I write, produce and mix. My goal has always been to make music from idea to a complete song that is also good sounding ready to be sent to mastering.
The old school of jazz, blues, orchestral music, musicals and folk seeped into the 60’s which gave that decade a richness and diversity. It also provided new songwriters not only something to rebel against but also a grounding in harmony and structure, even it was sub-conscious. That richness seemed to begin to fade away around the late 70’s.
100% agree. I tell younger people this all the time, even though they get mad at me. Modern music isn't rooted in folk traditions, vocal harmony, jazz, etc. It's rooted in synthetic bleep bloop modern robotic 'music.' Young people should immerse themselves in old 20th century recordings to reestablish the link to centuries of music tradition. If not, music will continue to devolve and lose its beauty. It's that simple.
Well said. Music used to be an emotional language. Now it's strictly pleasure (at least in the mainstream music biz). 67-77 is the most rich and diverse decade in music the world (literally) has ever seen. So many youtube accounts post full albums from countries all over the world during that era that could last 2 lifetimes it's insane. Ah I wish those days would return....
Come on nan 60's 70's best ever. Nothing compares. Music died!
@@CerealDust-nStuff MTV killed actual music... idk what you're listening to. Not that the 80's didn't have anything but compared to the late 60's to early 70's........there's no comparison. Send me some stuff tho
@@CerealDust-nStuff bottom line, we've just got (slightly) different tastes. no doubt some good names, bigger names. That's what it is, really. I think I'm more a fan of the overall vibe of the early 70's as being a cosmic soup where everybody was vibing together instead of multiple towering monoliths like Van Halen and the Police, Prince, U2.... they all had their own thing. Bands from the early 70's were all products of the hippie movement basically. That vibe continued for several years afterwards with jazz fusion, R&B, Funk, Hard Rock, etc.
Hey Rick
There are lots of interesting and good music teachers online.
But you are easily the most enthusiastic, passionate and inspirational teacher of and music philosopher on the net. Your knowledge is awesome. Your intensity and joy for music and what you do is just so infectious and warm, music lovers and learners don't know how lucky we all are to be able to tune in, follow you, watch your videos and learn your lessons.
May you go from strength to strength and rack up those millions of numbers.
Just keep being you!
You really are one of the most "in-touch" boomers out there Rick. Your age and experience mixed with your knowledge and understanding of Gen Z culture really is a gift!
Stop with this f….. word “boomer” come on! Overused
@@afinn5555 You’re thinking of Generation X, not Z. And the Baby Boom generation is generally defined as having been born between 1946 and 1964, so yes, Rick is indeed a Boomer. 😎
@@carldock5223 I used it because he called himself a Boomer in the video. It's ok, I get how it can be tiresome to keep hearing it. I was trying to say that Rick seems to be able to draw from such a rich depth of knowledge from his own years but also actively pays attention to and engages with youth culture. The fact he so deeply understands the two perspectives really helps him articulate and come up with some amazing and well thought out talking points
Hes not a boomer. Learn.
@@marcd2743 7:30
When my daughter first started getting interested in pop music in the early 2000's, one thing I noticed right away about the stuff she was listening to was that very few of the songs had either bridges or instrumental breaks. They were all verse-chorus-verse-verse-chorus, or some variation on that pattern. Not sure exactly when bridges and breaks started disappearing from pop music, but that seems to be an early indicator of contemporary pop's continuing journey into oversimplicity.
It was when a lot of bands' guitarists couldn't solo bc they just banged out 2-3 minute flat chord changes.
Also, few male singers sing into higher octaves. Everything is single octave and dull. Thank you Pearl Jam.
@@zoso73 Nonsense. Eddie Vedder can sing in a really high falsetto voice. Listen to Black or Jeremy and tell me I'm wrong. PJ produced some of the best and most memorable hits of the 90's. Compare that to todays trash "rock" and have a seat. Thank you MGK 🤮 sit down zoomer.
@@gamerjamson I'm in my 50s so you got my generation wrong, jackass. And you're completely wrong about Vedder. Compare his vocal style to the male rock singers before him. Vedder is a good singer, but he and the grunge era of singers that he, Cobain and others influenced all sing lower single octave -- boring vocals.
Punk was simplistic and still receives massive amounts of critical praise. When was complexity ever the measure of value in music? Some of the most moving music I've heard has been simple and amateurish, just look at artists like Daniel Johnston and Beat Happening
My cutoff for music is basically early 2000’s. I think thats why artist jump all over the place. They start out country artist and then wind up doing pop or rock just to stay relevant. And you can forget about an artist making more than one good album these days. I strongly believe I am growing up in the wrong era. I see all the videos of woodstock and these huge rock bands from past times and can only wish i was alive during those times. Were left with 2 minute songs that are ringtones just drug out.
I am a musician/vocalist/songwriter and a year younger than you Rick and we were so fortunate to grow up in the golden age of Pop/Rock music. The sheer innovation, great production (with no auto-tune and having to record on analog), the incredible diversity of music, songwriters working at the craft of songwriting and the musicianship, especially in the late '60s and '70s, just stands way above what is coming out today, especially if you compare the popular tunes of the day vs today. The digital revolution, ubiquitous access to free or near-free music, record company budgets being slashed, music awards shows pandering to popularity instead of actual talent, the ability to record and produce a song in your bedroom for next to nothing creating a proliferation out there of average, below average or just simply awful songs and music simply not being as important to younger folks in general today as opposed to technology are just some of the things that are to blame for the decline of great music. Is there still some interesting music being produced out there ? Of course, but it is mostly drowned out by what's popular at the moment and many younger people's short attention span. So the answer to your question Rick is: YES.
I blame the fact, that Millennials & Zoomers were raised with constant adult supervision, so they never got the chance to take the initiative or take the lead which severely held back their creativity, because all they had to do, was do whatever their adult supervisor, parent, coach, teacher, camp counselor, etc, told them to do. There is no riding your bike to the park and picking teams, making up games, etc any longer. Also, there weren't those long periods of boredom from being left alone, which forced a kid to rely on their imagination for entertainment.
It's not Millennial's or Zoomer's fault, it's just reality. Lay the blame on their Boomer parents or a system which continues to frown on "free range children". Out in rural areas, there are still kids raised as free range, but rural populations in the US are pretty sparse, so their numbers are overwhelmed by densely populated cities and suburbs.
A friend is a 7th grade science teacher who also has a two hour study hall midday. Early on, she brought in a CD player and speakers. Her husband has a CD Import business so she has access to thousands of classic albums from the 50s through the 90s. She brings in 2 or 3 CDs each day to play during study hall. These 13 - 15 year old kids are amazed by all of this great music that they had never heard before. They crowd around her desk asking all kinds of questions. Initially, she did this to build a report with her students so they’d feel comfortable talking about anything bothering them. But, it also created a lot of music fans on the process. Most kids aren’t exposed to really good or great music anymore and are totally unaware.
YES
This reads like a scene from a dystopian novel 😯 I am saddened that it is fact. I cannot begin to imagine that that would have been my method of introduction to good music. Dearie me. Kudos to your teacher friend, though.
Great video, it’s like when your classroom music teacher just loses it and says “right this is what it’s really about, I am sick of the crap I am hearing…. “, the classroom goes silent and the real learning begins 😉 and hopefully a student or two go forth a create something wonderful. Rick keep at it there is someone out there who is listening, learning and creating.
Was the stuff that typically found on the primary charts in American better back in the day? Absolutely.
That said, there's plenty of wonderful music out there featuring musicians who can stand as equals with any of the legends of old and in some cases, play and compose circles around some of them. The rock and metal scene in Europe in particular is incredible.
Yeah but those good and great artists aren't topping the charts. That's the problem.
I'd like some examples of this great music. I had hopes for the Americana genre, but seems it had a brief moment in time. Of course it will always be there, on the fringes.
@@user-bx8sj6qm3w so what you gotta try a little harder to find good modern music? Music right now is incredible
@@genestone4951 Gospel, Viagra Boys, IDLES, black midi, Spellling, Sons of Kemet, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard
not only in the rock and metal scene. Lots of great music
There's an element here that I never see anyone discuss. Due to the recording technology we have had for nearly a century now, records never really disappear. If your music is good, it sticks around.. this is a blessing and a curse. How many history making records did someone have to listen to in the 1950? How many of those records do they have to listen to in 2022?
Our time is finite, and we can only listen to so many albums. A kid could theoretically need to catch up on everything from the 50's through to now, 70+ years of albums, live footage and Music videos, not including repeats of their favorites.
You do make some good points though a little wordy and confusing you might need to make it more concise but as to your point about how much to listen to don't forget something you said (ALBUMS???????) you don't have to listen to albums to get a sense of music that came from back in the day you can listen to samplings like a biopsy of different records Bobby Darin James Brown Jackie Wilson The Beach boys etc ,so the idea that it's impossible is wrong ,an older person can just say hey listen to this record ,listen to that record and they can have a sense of what the entire genre was like back in the day so your point has some validity but you need some work in in your analyzation of music history
Exactly. I think about how it's not really fair for older generations to judge the younger generations (millennials and gen z) for having no knowledge about certain charting musicians from 50 years ago when the history of pop music has expanded so much in that time.
If you were a young adult in the 1970s, you only had about 20 years of chart music to educate yourself in. Now there's about 70 years of chart music to sift through. And it's only going to become even more difficult for future generations.
Let's not forget that musicians borrow/sample from songs in the past that incorporate those things which allows someone to be exposed to many recordings without necessarily needing to listen to all of them from before. Plus today they have more access than the past since it is readily accessible and many times like Rick there are others that will discuss and break down songs and give a potential musician some of the insight into the music.
ask yourself why george michael and kate bush truly reduced or completely stopped performing... you will need to face the drums.. they recognized what was happening and the freefall in quality...
notice closely no one come close to sting or george or david bowie or roland orzabal or freddie or barry gibb or elton or prince or michael jackson or any of the greats
there is NO more quality i am sorry and no i am not a boomer.
@@michelleper5065 The problem is, I can listen to every one of the artist you mentioned, in surround sound HIFI quality, and I do!
A great example, King Gizzard released a really good Trash metal album a little while back. I enjoyed it, and the concept behind it, but in the end I was like " Damn, I need to go listen to Ride the Light again ( the whole A-side, you cant not lol), thats when I got thinking about this. Its a problem for new artists.
Hey Rick :)
just saw your livestream. I really agree with some points you have about the state of music and songwriting.
as someone who is striving to make good and unique music, I will work hard to put it out someday.
Well, travelling with my Daughter in the car the other day, we had spotify on, playing my Deftones playlist. As we went along, i said to her "you can put your music on if you want", and she just turned to me and said "this IS my music"
My Daughter gets it.
I remember Visage being pilloried as being vapid and unoriginal. Then I play Fade to Grey to my 27 year old musician daughter and she freaked out about how amazing it is. Truth is that great music is out there but not in the mainstream where there would be 15-30 different styles in the top 40 at any one time. Now mainstream is just too safe, simplistic and boring. Even if you hate some of the older pop songs, they often hold up years later. Motörhead had top 10 singles in the UK early 80s for goodness sake…with a live song and a collaboration with Girlschool! Can you imagine that now.
That’s the very definition of “mainstream”….there’s plenty of great music “out there”.
If you just limit your listening to “top of the pops” you’re getting mostly safe focus grouped POP. This has always been the case! It is nothing new.
Look for genres with “alt” in front of the name!
Everyone is obsessing over the top forty stuff (some of that is quite good) pumped out to the masses.
Remember “nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of….”
My 14 yr old kid listens to Earth Wind and Fire and loves it… her and her friends LOVE disco. It’s fun and has a groove is what she said to me. Literally “I’d kill to see ABBA back in the day” - I’m like huh?
Awesome! I now have hope for the future! (I’m Rick’s age)
@@gfcardi hope is always needed.
Art dies when the biz side of things starts to dominate
"Creativity at a cost to the end user."
Does it get any better than this? Wow! This human is a gift that just keeps giving. Truly incredible. There is not enough words. A true gem. How fortunate are we. 🙏🏼
Brilliant video. Thank you for articulating this. I'm a musician (& a boomer) that loves music from so many genres (and centuries). If something is creative and good it will last - your statement at the very end about the current state is unfortunately so true. Love your channel, too - always so informative and entertaining!!!
I don't think enough people talk about how magnificent Rick's hair is.
Ha! It was better “back then.”
Sting was born with that musical ear and knew I have a blessing of talent,and he kept working and practicing and it payed off with great hit songs,Stevie Wonder another musical genius,worked and practiced,knew theory and could put crazy notes together and create a mood and just run with it into these amazing songs that everybody knows or should know,great video Rick thank you,continue on please!
I introduced my 3 sons when they were very young to ELO, bee gee’s, Beatles and a mega Compilation of disco from the 70’s and 80’s. They were equipped to be able to spot quality music all throughout their lives.
Hear hear! A proper father fathering.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Rick. At about the 14 minute mark, you said, “Record labels go to TikTok to figure out who to sign because they sign things that are already successful, and what is successful? These songs that don’t even have anything that changes between the verse and chorus”.
Wow!!! I have been banging on about this for so long, about how much of modern music is strophic, and how there is no difference musically between the verses and choruses. Most people I speak to don’t seem to understand what I am saying, or if they do, they don’t seem to think it matters because lyrically the verses and choruses differ.
So your comments in this video were music to my ears. I love your channel and have recently subscribed. Keep up the great work. Cheers.
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Rick is right. Current music is worse than it was 1960-2000. There's still musical talent but the system to develop talent into artistry is gone.
9/11 brought more than those towers down. That was the beginning of the end for mainstream anything media. Especially music, even games now are taking a dive, except maybe their graphics that is.
We do seem to have lost the magic of the right 3 or 4 guys somehow "finding each other" and sparking off each other to create something timeless. The Police and REM are classic examples. I'd love to see this idea explored in a "What Makes This Song Great" on any song by Big Star or the Velvet Underground.
Love a good rant by someone who knows his stuff, well done Rick 👏
I'm old school punk and music form the late 70's (Stranglers, XTC, Ian Dury, Talking Heads etc ) is still the best IMO. But, here's how I look at it from a present day point of view. Even those bands of the 80's and 90's that I couldn't stand are way more enjoyable than the dross that's pumped out today. Stuff like Level 42 sounds like Shostakovich these days !
"Steal someone from another band until you go through several incarnations" a member of the rock group Kansas told me exactly that and that is what they did. It took about 5 years to get the group that got "signed" through the first half dozen albums. Mostly people from one little town of 150000. And it was mostly people who had been in Kerry Livegren's orbit for some time.
I miss the 70s / early 80s rock that combined guitar with great, melodic singing. I miss the blues-influenced guitar rhythms in songs.
When I flip to a "rock" station these days, it's mainly either non-blues synth or metal. It may have good vocals, but it's seldom melodic.
It's like there's no engaging hooks anymore. That's all a song needs. That's why "guilty pleasures" are a thing. It's like the song is great and has an engaging hook, even if you don't like the style, aesthetic, or whatever cultural tradition its wrapped in. Now there's just no hooks anymore, it seems like.
Like Bonnie Raitt? You'll love Samantha Fish. Like Led Zeppelin? You'll love Greta Van Fleet? Like the Allman Brothers Band? You'll like Larkin Poe. Like BB King? You'll love King Fish Ingram. Like Iggy pop? No. Me neither, but I've got to go see Starcrawler's lead singer freak out on stage. Like Jeff Beck? Check out Ally Venable. You don't find music on the FM dial. You find it here at Paste Studios, Audio Tree, Tiny House, and other live studios.
I don't hate blues. Yeah "The 3 Kings" are great, no doubt about that. But "non-blues" is the particular reason why I enjoy King Crimson or Primus. Lots of disonnance in their stuffs. Listening to "non-melodic" is actually also interesting :D
you hit the nail on the head, its not just about great musicianship, you need it have the songs, too many losers sitting in their bedrooms churning out crap
You could find great melodies in progressive metal and rock if you're interested. Idk about the blues influence but sometimes there's some jazz influence. Try TOOL, king crimson, Opeth, and Jinjer.
Love this stream Rick, totally agree with your philosophy, and we are both born in 62, we are so lucky
One of the very best bands to come out of the UK over the past 20 years is Kasabian. Their variety is excellent and live performances fantastic. The mosh pits are manic bedlam. Shoot the Runner/Eez-eh/ Goodbye Kiss/ Bless this Acid House/Club Foot all different and all great...esp the live versions.
As a musician myself IMO the pinnacle of music was Genesis from 71 to 77
The "who's on first?" style back and forth with Billy at 8:49 "Polyphia was opening for Periphery? No, Periphery was headlining" cracked me up 🙂
Awesome rant, Rick. And a very interesting analysis of why things might be the way they are today vs. in the past. I am still really benefiting from your ear training to develop my singing and playing skills further. Thank you so much for that.
The short answer is...Yes, it really was.
There are many reasons for this I think including (but not limited to) Technology, Social Media, Attention spans, Budgets and a complete saturation of too much music.
With technological advances meaning anyone with a laptop can create in their bedroom ,the magic that made great records is largely gone.
You're largely missing the sound of a great room/studio that will give you an amazing drum sound or that combination of the right guitar with the right amp in the right room and instead everyone uses the same software with the same sounds and same plugins so consequently everything ends up sounding the same.
The craft of making 'records' has died in the mainstream.
And yes, as Rick says, because things have got so formulaic and dumbed down, people aren't drawn to clever songwriting or great musicianship anymore.
Social media has meant the death of mystery surrounding an artist.
It used to be that the only way of really knowing the artist was either A. To see them live or B. to buy the record and spend every waking hour listening and re-listening, analyzing lyrics, looking at the cover art etc-it was the whole experience.
These days social media has meant that every second of an artist's life is documented and it ruins it.
Attention spans are also so short these days too that people don't sit through an album properly anymore either and it wouldn't surprise me if, that in years to come, songs got to around a minute in total length.
A good example of this is having the ability to change the playback speed on UA-cam or Netflix-this should never be a thing.
You can't change it when you go out to see a movie or when you go to watch a band live so why have the option?
Does nothing but encourage less attention.
A good song will never die, as we've seen with Kate Bush coming back to top the charts-a song with just her writing and producing-not a song written by committee.
And you know what, It still gives me chills every time I listen to it.
I just don't think any of the songs these days will still be being played in 30 years time.
These days bands are not at the forefront anymore and are certainly not given that chance to grow and get better at their craft.
With all the shows like American idol etc we are just fed 'singers' who are literally puppets for the record label's song writing teams.
There are definitely still great bands out there though , for example, I love Starcrawler-good ol fashioned rock'n'roll!!!
And...they're exciting!!!
It seems like so many of the 'big artists' these days are anything but....Ed Sheeran, Adele etc...Musical beige and way too safe.
You probably have to go back to Grunge and earlier Hip-Hop to get that real feeling of excitement and a bit of danger.
Much longer rant than I was expecting to write and I could go on but I'll spare you all 😂
@Dave BachRe .Technology being a bad a thing for the quality of music- it's down to everyone using the same sounds/software/plugins.
It's become now that most mainstream stuff just sounds like the same song these days.
It's also an issue where a lot of people are using sites such a s Splice just to download loops, vocals etc etc so there's no actual ability to play anything or actually craft a song-it's just cut and paste.
I myself do production music for a living and several labels now ban the use of Splice because writers were turning in tracks using the same loops and samples
There is an entire sea of great music across dozens of different genres in the past 20 years, you just have to seek it out. Not everyone is using autotune or making their music with computers. There are some insanely talented artists out there right now.
Wolf Alice is new rock band that is incredible.
I miss the production value of 70s albums like Hotel California, Dog and Butterfly, The Dream Weaver, Don't Look Back, etc. Every album had a big presence, sounded amazing with just a minimal sound bank of effects and a foundation of actual talent. Everything now sounds tinny, glitchy and sort of sterile by comparison. And sure, there are talented artists now too, but they don't evoke any real feeling or presence (at least to me they don't).
As I usually say: 80% of the mainstream music back in the day was good or at least decent, 80% of the mainstream music nowadays is horrible or at least bad. But there's still great artists today making great songs, great records, you just have to dig a little deeper.
I was a kid in the 1970s and 1980s and the popular stuff was mostly not good. The good stuff from the 1970s was not on TV and the radio. MTV was big in the 1980s, but I remember having to listen to a bunch of junk before the good stuff showed up. For me, the pop scene died around 1986. That's when I went back to listen to Led Zeppelin. When the internet showed up and it was indie acts from them on out.
Music was 100 times better than now decades ago
No not at all. 80% of mainstream music all those years ago also vapid, uninspired lowest common denominator bubblegum. We know this because no one who wasn't born at the time remembers or talks about 80% of the artist. A very large chunk of the artists that stood the test of tine didn't even chart that high, if at all.
@@shadez123 so would you say music today is just as good as in the past?
It’s max martins fault and I wish Rick would do an in depth video about it
I would love to hear your thoughts on some of the Nashville scene’s artists I follow, Andrew Ripp (incredible voice), Dave Barnes, Matt Wertz, Jon McLaughlin, Gabe Dixon. I feel like these guys are making really interesting music, I feel like it is out there in all genres, but music talent seems to have taken a back seat to business. As consumers we just ultimately find what resonates with us individually and then support it (buy the albums, shirts, whatever). Love the topics and thoughts here!
Music in the 60s and early 70s was just amazing. For me, it’s all been downhill from there. I think what music you like has to do with the age you were when you first became really aware of whatever was new.
But that early music was just such a huge amount of fantastic songs and albums. There was so much of it, it was like standing in the ocean with all the water touching you another great new song. I don’t think we’ll ever see the likes of it again.
We tend to forget all the formulaic crap and remember the music we really liked. No matter the time frame.
Nah bro
Great video. What is missing in todays music is real musicianship. There is no substitute for that. You start with the basics. A recorder in Kindergarten (remember that thing?) and let it flow from there. That progressed to clarinet and ultimately saxophone in my case. I never played pro but I sure learned how to appreciate those who did.
Never seen your videos before. Was looking for someone explaining what great music is.
Watched your Max Martin video, and this one.
Such interesting views.
I'm in an opposite situation. I've been producing music for 10 years, and I got something like 6000 unreleased projects.
Everytime I share my snippets with my friends, they like it. But when I show them to a mainstream crowd they think it's too extreme.
At the moment I've been exploring J-Pop and their chord progressions. As they use way more ii, iii and vii to create this emotional mood in the songs.
I'm struggling to become mainstream, because I've been innovating for 10 years, and it often feels like I'm from the future 😅
These videos help me understand why mainstream music works, so thank you.
I subscribed 👏🏼✨
The best decade for R&R is definitely ‘66-‘75
Yes.
No .
it's actually
74 - 84 .
Jazz, ‘55 to ‘66, and yes, R&R, ‘66 - ‘75. This with a long tail out into the future. People still doing great stuff, but it’s not like Led Zeppelin hitting the mainstream radio back in, say, ‘71.
I was just talking to somebody about this and the 20 something told me music from the 1980's was better written, the styles of music stood out.
Idk about you but all 80’s music sounds the same to me
Epic Beato rant! I also agree with all of it. This is why Rick is Rick. 🔥🔥🔥
Great video! I am an amateur musician, but these are the things I have been ranting to my friends and family about. LOL. Thank you, I appreciate your channel so much.
Lots of extremely interesting music today, just not topping the charts. Couple of suggestions: black midi (new lp is crazy), shoom (Young Dogs new single), black country new road (beautiful 2nd album).
There is of course great music out now. But the cream just isn't rising to the top in the public consciousness.
I genuinely think it would kill Rick Beato to listen to black midi
Interesting does not always equate to good, though.
@@ritarollins6664 all of those interesting albums are also really really good if it means anything
@@trvrshoe4518 i just looked up what black midi is and i am blackpilled.
Rick, at the end of your rant you nailed it on the head..... it's all about money. And people who do things just for the love of it, or in some cases, because they feel it's a calling, whether it be teachers, nurses, and yes even musicians, are seen as ripe for the picking..... or suckers if you will. People are listening to music from "back in the day" (and by the way, I hate that phrase) because there's an authenticity to it that just isn't out there these days in anything that might qualify as pop. Most of the artists from that era truly did it because they loved it, they loved being musicians, and it showed and still shows.
I hate "back in the day" too. It's as slang as slang can get.
No, they are listening to stuff from back in the day because it's good, because the bad stuff has been filtered out by time
Rick,this is the get off my lawn speech I give all the time. It reminds me to keep writing even though people beyond my circle may never hear my music. Maybe I’ll reach someone who is yet to be great!!!
You are doing a great service to mankind Mr. Rick! Tradition is not the enemy of progression.
Since “better” can be subjective, I’ll share that I think Rick’s perspective of “better” is grounded on difference in values, like genuine emotional expression, artist’s (not just producer’s) creativity or even courage of certain musical choices.
Yes, there has and will always be bad music, though even bad music from before, let alone good music from before, perhaps warrants greater weight of respect than today’s from the lens of the actual overall artistic effort put in. To give an example, here Rick talks about the work put in from playing live, learning from conflicts from band tension, the pursuit of mastery on an instrument or music theory (harmony, as he said), etc.
It’s never been easier and affordable to buy music, as an artist (sample packs, producer hourly rates, etc,). This alone removes personal commitment to growth from mastering one’s craft and the vulnerability needed to even be courageous.
My comment is my interpretation of Rick’s commentary here, not a history class nor a hard rule that always applies. Open to feedback.
Great stream! Im not into the tik tok insta world. I like Yt because it takes it’s time conveying the idea and analyzing concepts. Just like listening to a song giving it a chance and finding new stuff is inspiring. I use some cliches but try to bring a different feel to them.
I agree. Tik tok is hard to digest since its so fast
Rick, you are the best thing that happened to promote good music and educate younger generation in the last decade
One of your best..Nailed it, over and over. Thank you Rick!
I don’t think innovation is dead. I just think it’s pretty dead in the mainstream. 3-4 times a year I hear something new in the metal world that still blows me away.
What kind of modern metal do you like?
100%
Rivers of Nihil comes to mind, not my style at all usually but technical death metal with a lot of melodic/harmonic focused writing with the addition of saxophone? I'm in baby
Listening to Tesseract - Daniel Tompkins - Cages (From Polaris) - Live in the studio vocal performance 2020. Still good music if you look for it. The big 3 for me are Porcupine Tree, Opeth, and TOOL.
This is not a metal song, but Shikata Akiko's _Pantalea_ easily becomes my favorite, from the first listen, mainly due to it's unique choice of instruments; koto, banjo, violin, recorder, and some percussions. Add those to multiple layer of vocals to make a fantasy-style song. Job done.
Her style is kinda nuts, though.
Hey Rick. Great topic. I’m pretty disillusioned by current music, but I heard a track today by Wetlands - new Australian band. Quite different, they’re worth a listen.
Rick, your mixing episode was a lynchpin of the rebirth of my musical output. The other was some professional vocal lessons. Another was being able to work at home on mixing and improving old separated tracks from 16 track tapes, along with other modern source material.
The advantage people over 40 have is they grew up listening to great music. That was ear training of sorts. There's a lot of great music I liked as a kid that I couldn't begin to understand, but it sill hooked me, and some took longer to grasp. There has always been top 40, but at least people have the music of the past to let them know what the high standard is, and people age into wanting more complex music.
The other problem modern musicians have is there was no other way to make music in the past short of picking up an instrument and banging stuff out with your friends, and then recording a terrible recording at home, or a professional one at a studio that cost at the absolute minimum $30-60 hour, which was much more money back then. And many of the engineers at some of those cheaper studios were not all they should be. The ones I went to at least tracked the tracks properly. Today, there's such a pull to not learn the instruments, and run samples, and maybe a vocalist can do enough of that, and sing and write enough over it to become a quality writer, but if you don't play the instruments, you can't write the riffs to form the foundation of, or match, the lyrics and vocal melody.
The convenience of modern mixing and VSTs is amazing. However, you still need great players, great gear and good recordings, and then you need to learn to mix, and that takes several years, almost like playing an instrument. At least it sharpens up your ears.
There have never been that many great songwriters. That's still what it all comes down to, and if you don't flex that muscle for a while, you won't get the results.
Hey Rick! Just a word to say how much I enjoy and appreciate what you do. I bought the Beato book a couple of yrs ago and printed the first 100 pages, gonna have to read em now!
Aside from questions of being in tune and in time, everything else about music is entirely subjective.
It's gotten too easy for anyone with any amount of talent to create a semi-decent facsimile of music. Combine that with a music industry run for decades by lazy nepotism cases and you've got our current music landscape. The money people in music are very arrogant and annoyingly consider themselves 'arbiters of taste' when all they're doing is pushing whatever the lowest common denominator is into - they're basically doing the UA-cam algorithm but to music. Anything that's selling units must be good, because it's good for their bank accounts in the short term. Not that it's anything new, but it definitely has been getting progressively worse through the years.
A race to zero while minimizing risk taking, same happening in film (superhero movies) and tv (any high shock inane dead horse beating)
@@akketterman The media groups are the same. Not a coincidence ;) They are basically applying to real life the Duplicate or Copy & Paste commands, and on a massive scale. I'm not even blaming them at this point: if the audience is so lazy to chuck down anything that it is being fed, and makes no effort to look for better food, so be it. Believe me that if those blockbusters went bust for 2 times in a row, studios would have gone elsewhere, the same with low-level hip-hop, etc.
There is great contemporary music in any genre, as well as great films, but they very, very rarely emerge - if ever. And if the way to emerge nowadays is doing a stupid 15-sec TikTok video, then the whole industry needs to crash down and burn, and then and only then, can we start over in better ways.
Oh and modern platforms are discouraging searching more and more, so that new generations go along suggestions, algo feeds, swiping and they'll hardly know how to properly use a search engine, let alone search and navigate in the real world, like reading a map or asking a real person where a place is.
One just start "consuming content" (whatever that's supposed to mean), and then the system takes care of it and proposes content align on a) the directives of the platform owner, and b) the supposed preferences of the user. There are a million ways to find new music but nobody bothers. Getting to the supermarket to fill your fridge is easy. Now, we have gotten to the point where your fridge is automatically filled, and you just need to open it. Next step is skipping the opening part ;)
✡️
Steven & to those who replied to this: so true, all.
As a "music-maker wannabe" .. with my first rehearsal tool/method being a tape player, feeding into the other input jack of my amp & rehearsing to that .. to now possessing a modest amount of digital gear, .. I'd hate to go back to that first "glory day" of mine. And, like everyone else .. I can produce "semi-decent facsimiles" all day long .. without ever strumming a string/hitting a key. But, .. as mentioned, here .. mostly it's robotic & soul-less. (I have to say though, .. some of the algorithm stuff, can be valuable, though.)
Again, .. agree, with replies, .. it's not just the music industry, that has arrived at this "easy way out" condition. It's the global culture, of now, .. of life, itself.
I realize Rick is talking about what's top of the charts. I haven't kept up with that in 30+ years. Music is always good and bad. Finding what you like may be different. I used to be fed music by the radio/record industry, but I really didn't find what I truly still love, I had to go find in different ways. That's still the case today. I love much of what is coming out today. I'm older and not as often effected by it. I think it's because I've heard so much by now it takes a while for something refreshing to reach me. But sometimes it's something "simple" and energetic like Wet Leg, or unique like Khruangbin this really get my attention. I just have to go find them, though Wet Leg seems to be reaching everyone now.
You succinctly put the entire music industry into perspective, Rick! The old term 'cash cow' is appropriate to use when music executives sign new acts and then promote them accordingly based upon their ability to draw crowds -- BUT, most importantly have a Top Ten hit.
Cash is king, and smaller bands cannot compete on the world stage with the tried and true acts, so, naturally the powers that be put all their advert efforts into acts that provide the most revenue. More revenue equates to bigger bonuses for the execs.
Popular local bands will continue to benefit at home from the added prestige of being signed, but the arc of their national or world-class fame will only be recognized if they have a monster hit that attains Top Ten status. Record execs don't want to risk their careers or especially, their bonuses promoting anything less. As I said, cash is king!
The proof is in the pudding. Old music didn't go out of style. It got written out of style by greedy producers who wanted things more streamlined, automated, and quantified. Formulated, just like the movie industry, and TV.
I think Music definitely has trends 100% no matter what procures or labels want. Even in niche DIY scenes there were ebbs and flows and a cycle of music that was in and then out. That’s just culture.
Also, the labels used to have way more influence over what artists did because they also owned the studios. They cut tape to the beat, they used drum machines for drum replacement, and they even tuned vocals by literally speeding up or slowing the tape until they had more pitch based controls when the tech got better. The big difference is they had way way way more studio time back in the day. An artist going into a studio for 6 months nowadays, even for big artists, is pretty rare. It’s all relative to the tone and genre. A kick and snare can be locked onto a quarter or eighth note grid but you can still make it sound loose by varrying the high hats, or leaving the other instruments with out putting them on a tight grid. Of course it gets over done, but nowadays most producers know to put a bit of variation into it and the tools are just way better for editing time based stuff without ruining the “feel”. A lot of times just making sure the 2 and the 4 beat are on the grid is all you need as long as the rest of it is fairly tight. A big reason to put drums on the grid is because it gives things a lot more impact. Life is easier to get away with little things here and there because people are full of adrenaline and you’ve have actual large speakers with subs and such which I you can’t really reproduce in a recording without it being wildly different system to system.
The old days of music were not some super free and open market of musicians. Lots of artists only did covers and was almost expected as a new artist.
The big consistency is that labels still found a way to take most of the music industries lions share.
16:23 Chicago would be the best example of a band that Rick is talking about. They are also unique in that they had a friend who owned a small production company and was able to put them up in a house for a year so they could just practice and write music. He also got them a gig at the Whisky a Go Go and because they had had all that experience playing live together, they were able to make it happen.
Such a drag you're preaching to the choir Rick , but we're so lucky your educational content raised the bar for the you tube community.And your not the only one who teaches music on this level people like Aimee Nolte ,Tomo Fujita,Paul Davids,Grazie Terzian,David Bennett,Marty Swartz,Active Melody,Tasty Guitar and all those other great teachers I forgot to mention .I got to learn so much from all of you here on you tube ,my only regret is I should have had this education 50 years ago.But todays kids should take notice before they all put the same crap on tik tok .Thank you so much Rick and keep it up
You had me cursing at my computer, darn sound issue again on youtube, lol Great video analysis of today's music scene, it is definitely not the same as it was in terms of the level of musicianship in some areas of music. The bright side of social media or at least youtube is the discovery of a lot of really talented people that would never get the exposure to get a call to create music with other talented people.
Hey Rick. I really enjoy your channel! I would like you to do a “What Makes This Song Great” on Thomas Dolby’s song “New Toy!” It has a lot of interesting harmonic chord progressions that would be cool to dissect! Anyway, keep making more amazing videos!
My dad was a "Nashville Sideman" (from the late 1950's thru 1980's) I went to the studio often with him. They would sit in a circle, no charts (they couldn't read charts anyway) and create the arrangements, cut the tune. Often doing three sessions a day, plus weekend shows and road work. They all had lots of chops and a really solid work ethic. Not sure that exist today.
They absolutely do that today...except they're doing more than just three in a day.
since i found rick beato, i´m really enjoying watching his videos. I even pause them when i have to get up of my desk at work.
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As usual Rick, spot on. There is practically no innovation in "pop" music at all. There is innovation out there, unfortunately you have to search a bit to find it. But the sheeple that are just listening to the Spotify top 10, or whatever is left of mainstream terrestrial radio, have no idea what real songwriting is about. My wife and I were on an Elton kick the other day, my gosh... Both the music and lyrics.. Absolutely NOTHING today written like Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding! Nevermind the playing when they cut it! One of my favorite sayings of yours is, "Before Pro Tools there were PROS!" Hallelujah Rick, how true... And that applies to songwriting as well. Thank you as always for everything you're doing.🙂
Music was evolving, it was full of mystery we could only read and hear the exaggerated stories about rock gods that we're larger than life.
The mystery is gone, I see innovation but it will never have the impact it had in the 70's. And possibly my age 53 plays a role in my opinion.
We just witnessed a generation of singers who thought they needed to sound like the recording and developed amazing voices.
Every time I say this has to it some band shows up and proves me wrong. It's amazing what a human can do under pressure !
I think we are reaching the peak of the "Fast Culture", where everything has to be short, fast and consumed instantly. I believe people are being saturated by the lack of content because, as Rick said, in order to have content you must study it, build it.
Quality is not instantaneous. It takes a lot of steps, iterations, "blood, sweat and tears".
The current culture, which I really believe is dying down, focus on quantity, not quality. Be it likes, views, shares, etc are not linked to quality whatsoever.
Even if you don't know about that, once you face a quality piece, no matter the genre you prefer, you get shocked.
Shocked because, as Rick said, it grabs your ears. It draws your attention. It is pleasing, well made, a quality piece.
I believe better times are coming, we went to a very individualistic time period. Well, quality comes from diversity of thoughts, experiences.
We are getting to this point, where people realize they may be great but they can be greater.
Let's hope those times come sooner rather than later.
Great video Rick, as always, keep up the good work!
Back to Bach...
Completely agree with you, Rick.
Music back then was so much better. With the advent of much better technology, everyone has the secret of music on their finger tips. Everyone can now get into bands and follow the same route. But remember that all the greatness has already been achieved in the long gone past. Of course we can always point out the unique individuals in the world at any point of time, but this is a small number.
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I think you convinced me to buy a product . When I write a song the hardest part is finding interesting chord progressions
"What makes this song great?" Killers- "When We Were Young" please Rick. It's one of the greats. Also side note...Check Out Alex Cameron's music catalog. I think u would really love it. It has a true Bowieesque feel to it.
I'm a boomer (and proud of it) so I've always been a fan of the older music -- 60s, 70s and 80s. I may be way off-base, but I believe these were the best years of music in human history. Sure, there was a lot of garbage during this time but all-in-all these decades contained the best music ever. Just think about it for a few minutes and think about all the music that existed. In the current days, especially, I go back to these past decades to escape the insanity of today. Music resurrects my memories and the times I loved. In the past 25 years or so, the talent level has dropped dramatically, in my opinion. It's depressing. I always thought that the talent and creative music of the 60s, 70s and 80s would never end. I was wrong but, at least, that music still exists on streaming services, my iTunes purchases and my vinyl records.
good to learn I am not alone on this planet. Or why did I only recently start binge-listening to Earth Wind and Fire, Chicago, Police , and what have you, and , believe it or not, the Hollies, one of the technically most accomplished bands of the sixties? If one of todays rappers comes up with a three-voices harmony vocal arrangement, let me know.
You make a good point! I thought there were endless chords and melodies just waiting to be sung, and that there would always be a next wave of some sort of new rock…but it was not endless after all. It’s weird that creativity begins to die as incredibly easy access to all music via streaming and apps becomes available to everyone.
Yes, I have tickets and have been looking forward to the show. See you on August 6th.
Great rant, Beato. Keep up the good work.
Nah, there's some absolutely fantastic music around right now, and I firmly believe more of it is going to make its way into the charts, in the meantime BBC 6 Music & BBC Radio 2 are great places for new music.
yeah it seems more like an American problem for popular music. The british radio stations have some variety to it I love.