Music is now too easy to make
- Thread starter tuga
- Start date
les24preludes
pfm Member
Electronic music is here to stay, and a lot of it is very creative and interesting.
Musicians with computers can now do things they never dreamed of before.
Remember, if you used to listen to pub bands or guitars on the beach, how dire a lot of acoustic music was.......
Musicians with computers can now do things they never dreamed of before.
Remember, if you used to listen to pub bands or guitars on the beach, how dire a lot of acoustic music was.......
Yawn. I feel like I’m trolling here these days.
Even this thread is full of old man’s music…
pinkfishmedia.net
Even this thread is full of old man’s music…
Best electronic/ dance/ rave/ Albums
I’ve just listened to the Fat of the land by the Prodigy and it really stands up as a great album. I realised I have a paucity of what I’ve called above electronic/dance/rave albums in my collection. I’m particularly bad at describing these genres but what I’m trying to say is that I have...
pinkfishmedia.net
Tony L
Administrator
I wish he’d just stop with this crap and focus on interviewing people who’s music he understands and likes. This recent interview with REM’s Mike Mills was really worth a watch. He is genuinely good at this stuff.
Somafunk
pfm Member
Yeah….seconded.
He’s just upset as he is rapidly becoming obsolete with the rise of so called “bedroom” producers that he derides, when you can collaborate with musicians all around the planet and mix/produce/master from a Mac mini then what is the point of “beato”
exliontamer
Active Member
To be fair ,in this thread the OP was listening to Chemical Brothers and asking for rave recommendations.Yawn. I feel like I’m trolling here these days.
Even this thread is full of old man’s music…
Best electronic/ dance/ rave/ Albums
I’ve just listened to the Fat of the land by the Prodigy and it really stands up as a great album. I realised I have a paucity of what I’ve called above electronic/dance/rave albums in my collection. I’m particularly bad at describing these genres but what I’m trying to say is that I have...
I'd be interested in more modern stuff e.g Verracco , but that wasn't really the thrust of the thread. Why don't you post some more recs and we can all get listening?
On topic, music has always been easy to make, but difficult to produce and master. If people can now do it in their bedrooms and release it then brilliant. Doesn't mean it'll be any good, though!
tuga
Legal Alien
It’s easier to write a hit than a album of good music.
Hits are seldom good music. Hardly anything in the top 30 is decent music.
tuga
Legal Alien
I sympathise somewhat with your view, and it sounds a bit like clikbait at times, but the truth is that the music you listen to is very niche.
You can’t use that as gauge.
I have two teenage sons, one is 19 and uses Spotify as his tiktok feed, probably never listened to any album front to back except for his single vinyl record. My youngest is 16 and he only listens to albums. He sometimes recomends albums to members of his band and no one gets past the first song. Their attention span is about 3 minutes long at best. So I am with Beato in regard to Spotify and how kids enjoy music these days.
tuga
Legal Alien
No, most hits are crap music.
I mean, Taylor Swift is OK but her music is easy and formulaic.
The best films, the best book, the best music is never easy and is never a hit.
Labels are making the best of that (lack of sophistication), pushing formulas and now AI...
tuga
Legal Alien
A "lot is" pushing it a lot...
Tony L
Administrator
That is a very small sample group.
I’d argue that this easy access has brought a depth and knowledge in the minority who really care about music that never existed before. Back in the Beato years (mine too) you bought a copy of Led Zep II because it was hyped everywhere and everyone else had bought a copy of Led Zep II too. The ability to explore off the beaten path was hopelessly closed-off. Major labels, their A&R departments and the DJs they pushed records to defined taste. They were gatekeepers. In hindsight it was a very claustrophobic scene; successful middle-aged white men defining what music made it and what did not. The problem with the Rick Beatos are they have not adapted to their generation and academic type being denied this power today. That power was hugely erased with punk, hip-hop, indie, techo, R&B, rap etc, it continues to be erased today, and to my eyes this is a very, very good thing.
One thing I notice about a lot of the new music I like these days is just how well informed it is. Young bands in their 20s clearly having deep-dived stuff it took me decades to find. This has resulted in an amazing multi-genre/timeline melting pot that I love, e.g. the new London jazz scene mashing everything from modern dance culture through 70s fusion to Ayler and Alice Coltrane in one piece of music. The knowledge in modern electronica about the early electronic pioneers etc. Everything is everywhere because people have listened and learned.
They always have been. Most pop of the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s was truly awful. We only remember the good stuff.
I’d also argue that folk like Beato, me, and many others here are viewing a false reality. We are looking through the lens of being lifelong obsessive music fans who always had very, very strong selection filters. I’ve heard Beato suggest he was buying Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett etc in his 20s. That isn’t the behaviour of a pop fan. The difference is he seems to have lost his connection to the best new music of today. Thankfully I haven’t. I’m still finding a truly irresponsible amount of new records to buy!
Streaming is just another tool. Its main benefit is exploration. It can turn up reams of amazing new music, help you deep-dive past genres etc. Arguing against it is arguing against access, education, knowledge etc. Bright people shouldn’t need to be led by gurus.
PS Rereading this I’d add that I do view streaming platforms as gatekeepers too, though I feel Benn Jordan covers that vastly better. He understands what it is!
Why Spotify will fail...
Just watched this interesting vid. Yes, the guy is a musician so you can always accuse him of being biased but he makes a decent argument IMHO:
pinkfishmedia.net
kjb
Proof reading not always a strength
Beato, from looking at a fair few of his videos over the last few years, is a classic music conservative, a bit like Stanley Crouch was in jazz. Informed, intelligent, talented but absolutely committed to some notion of the tradition, which in his case is grounded in guitars, keyboard and players with chops. If he was there in 1966, Beato would have joined in calling Dylan "Judas" or in 1968 criticising Miles for going electric or in the 1990s artists for using samples.
There's no problem with this if you take it for what it is - and the more I see the more predictable it becomes in a very engaging and entertaining way. I think he's playing to his audience - and he put a lot of work into building this. I'd guess they mostly wish it was the 1980s again and overblown guitar rock ruled - proper musos like Boston or Cheap Trick.
As with all technology AI is full of possibilities for those with the creativity to explore it. It will also, as has always been the case with popular music, attract those who are less gifted and will see it as easy money and turn our formulaic but dull stuff. Wasnt it ever thus?
Has there ever been a technological advance that hasn't led to innovative music? Electricity, amplification, tape machines, computers. I'd predict there will be future Brian Wilsons, J Dillas, Kraftwerks innovating and others, like the Bowies of the world, building on and popularising what they do to create great music as has aways happened in the past.
There's no problem with this if you take it for what it is - and the more I see the more predictable it becomes in a very engaging and entertaining way. I think he's playing to his audience - and he put a lot of work into building this. I'd guess they mostly wish it was the 1980s again and overblown guitar rock ruled - proper musos like Boston or Cheap Trick.
As with all technology AI is full of possibilities for those with the creativity to explore it. It will also, as has always been the case with popular music, attract those who are less gifted and will see it as easy money and turn our formulaic but dull stuff. Wasnt it ever thus?
Has there ever been a technological advance that hasn't led to innovative music? Electricity, amplification, tape machines, computers. I'd predict there will be future Brian Wilsons, J Dillas, Kraftwerks innovating and others, like the Bowies of the world, building on and popularising what they do to create great music as has aways happened in the past.
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Tony L
Administrator
AI will never make any good original music. It will never lead a trend or create a genre. It can’t. It just doesn’t work like that. Anyone with genuine talent and an original perspective has absolutely nothing to fear.
The area where it will cause carnage is for those who write fairly generic film, TV, game or corporate music for a living. They are now effectively unemployed below the real high-end of that market. TV ads will be rammed full of AI music within months, if they aren’t already.
PS I mentioned on another thread I’ve been playing about a bit with Logic Pro 11 after getting a new Macbook fairly recently. That has some AI functionality; AI drummers, keyboard players, bass players that can be interacted with in various ways. It is fascinating stuff, but I’ve not got anything out of it that I’d describe as anything other than elevator music. The ‘mastering assistant’ is however remarkably good IMO. I really like that and will use it.
les24preludes
pfm Member
Record stores always had an "Easy listening" rack but never a "Difficult listening" one.....
awkwardbydesign
Officially Awesome
Really? Piccadilly Records used to have, and maybe still do, a section labelled Weird Shit.
tuga
Legal Alien
I can include nephews and friends’ children, nothing will change.
How old are your kids, do you have grandchildren?
tuga
Legal Alien
It can make a hit. It recently won a photo competition.