The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse | My Reaction
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Rick Beato's original video: • The Real Reason Why Mu...
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There has always been bad music , more people have become poor listeners to make the bad music more acceptable
I agree, shorter attention spans and an expansion of available music; the 'convenience' of streaming.
Not really. This is just older people not accepting that popular music is no longer rock music
Popular music never was Rock music. Well, not during my 58year lifespan, anyway. Country Music always outsold Rock. Rock songs that charted in the Top 40 were the exception. But Popular music used to predominantly have a Blues element to it. That’s gone now too, and music is worse for it.
@@keithparker1346 I think comments like this is coming from younger people who can't accept the fact their current music doesn't hold the slighest candle to what came before.
I think modern people are just uninintelligent in general. You can see it everywhere, not just music. Modern films are equally terrible, there are no major authors anymore, no notable artists. And i think the issue is lack of contemplation. Everybody is too used to quick and instant gratification to really sit down, contemplate, and grow in knowledge and wisdom.
@@sophiaperennis2360 I understand what you are saying because a lot of what is mainstream is increasingly dumbed down, but there are always exceptions even in the mainstream and especially underneath it. A lot of the cookie cutter Marvel etc films are starting to fail commercially so trends in cinema will also have to change and younger more interesting film makers around like Robert Eggers or Yorgos Lanthimos or whomever might start to get more attention.
Interesting music also continues to be made but even more so than with movies you're just unlikely to find it listening to what the corporations push to the mainstream. It has gone more to the margins, but I don't think it's a sign of people being less intelligent than before but that most people are just not that interested in music. So sophisticated music gets reduced to the margins because there aren't that many sophisticated music consumers to go around.
This guy is so funny when he goes off script, classic.
Yes. I'd love to see him debate someone he really hates!
Script??
@@geoffccrow2333 off on a tangent, meandering to himself. Any divergence or self reflection.
He's a Pom. Poms are good at straight faced, oddball humour.
Off script?
Before he passed, I recall Prince commenting on a lack of musicianship. Donald Fagen used to talk about the erosion of melody and harmony towards the end of the century. I recall Tim Minchin also talking about the lack of harmonic movement in most pop music today.
Whatever.. Prince… ugh!
I'm 61 and for me it started to go downward when rap became commercially a major genre of "music". Start of the 90s or something.
The musicians, writers and singers moved into modern blues which isn't listed to by most Americans.
@@RB-oc7tiYou have just demonstrated your inability to think dispassionately and critically.
@@RB-oc7ti Prince was a musical GENIUS and his works are amongst the greatest ever recorded for pop and R&B. He represents a benchmark for modern production and musicianship, which very few artists reach in popular music genres, even today.
The music has gone bad, thats a fact!
" The music has gone bad, thats a fact! "
I think Segovia said a similar thing when electric guitars came on the scene
Said most old people in the history of humanity.
@@ThalassicMeasurelol!
And it's really because money is being prioritized over artistry.
@@UphillGardener-ly5sh And he was correct.
The way Rick Beato has not acknowledged you is absolutely infuriating!
not really - Rick is brilliant. This guy is a twat
Rick's Handlers haven't allowed it yet.
Yes well he's potential competition!
Erkki Kurenniemi in 1967 sitting in front of a digital sequencer...
"the future of music is quite interesting, is computer generated music competitive as opposed to tradtitionally made music? I really don't know the answer at this point. The only true benefit of computers in the long term is that music generated by them is very inexpensive.The clearest distinctive feature of computer generated music is that compostitions are no longer unique. Future computer music composers are like industrial engineers or trendsetters. The thought might seem depressing right now. but if people who lived 100 years ago had been told what our world is like some of them might be depressed. but if you ask us we are often quite pleased with our times"
Great comment.
@@YtuserSumone-rl6sw Thanks, I got it from "The Dawn Of Dimi : Future is not what it used to be" a documentary about Erkki from Finland a very peculiar figure and it always stuck with me how he sussed that out decades ago sitting behind a device that's just bleeping and booping in sequences.
@@tanzkatzen Haha and wow! Thank you so much for the tip. I just realized I had seen the trailer to that many years ago but haven't seen it. I just read some introduction on Erkki Kurenniemi. A VERY interesting person and work. I will look for more. The DIMI synth and probably his other instruments was cool pioneer work. Funny connecting it to physical movements of dancers. Like science fiction before scifi movies were even portraying such ideas.
@@YtuserSumone-rl6sw Sweet! If you can find that film definitely give it a watch as it's a pretty unique document and overview of the man's life and it's frankly filled with thought provoking moments & sentences from beginning to end.. and well if you look into his eyes you can tell this man was staring into the time vortex of the future. It's eerie, eccentric and humorous as well.. He just missed the AI craze I would have loved his thoughts on that as that would have thrown him a curveball as well as he thought Humans would evolve to golfballs in space, consciousness on hardware making music and art and still obsessed with p(o)rn. Although now I think of it it's still in line with his thoughts as well if you're just a golfball you would need to make everything through prompting it. :)
Well, I can't play piano, but I can make a recording of hitting every possible note on it, and store them in files. May take awhile, but very doable. Next, I can arrange and use them in an order and repetition sequence, to make a song, or an album of songs. I can release it, correctly crediting myself with playing every note on the album. Yet, I wouldn't be able to play anything on it, in real life.
Same here. I've made hundreds of tracks over the years, but could maybe only actually perform a handful of them live.
Andy : RUclips premium. Ad free.
No. Just get a decent ad blocker like uOrigin.
Yeah, but who wants to give Google/Alphabet more money?
It's a matter of what you want. A pointy stick or less ads on your TV. I think Andy made the right investment 😂
UBlock Origin = no ads.
@@nickpolak6270 ^^this.
The big thing I think gets missed when some complain about the latest recording technology and how it’s utilized is that everyone doesn’t have access to all the musicians to play on their songs, everyone doesn’t have a “proper” studio or access to one, studios and studio time is expensive, and everyone can’t afford them. Microphones, amps, etc. are expensive. Most musicians asked to record on songs gets expensive. So, it makes sense for many recording artists to work within their limitations to produce something. Especially when one resides somewhere where the musicians and talent they need for recordings isn’t available. Some look at it all as cheating, but I say that a lot of times it’s not. It’s a situation of some doing the best they can with what they have to work with.
But even within those limitations it is possible to write something truly creative.
Frank Sinatra - In the wee wee hours. A concept album about getting up during the night to pee
With Jimmy riddle strings!!!
Andy taking the piss again at the end. Rick, it’s British. It’s actually a compliment. My Aussie mate does the same. You have to give it back.
I like Rick's video. I like Andy's video. As Andy said: "this is the conversation now."
Rick beato is pathetic pretentious guy!
I agree with Rick on these 'digital issues' for the most part. It's not possible to segregate the musicianship from the recording process. Sound engineers are also neutered, to an extent. It's why albums from decades ago usually sound better, regardless of style. (Some of the best sounding jazz albums are early Blue Note mono recordings, imo, in large part because of RVG.)
The problem is that although it's really good to be more independent and to be able to practically record in your own bedroom in a decent quality we have to be honest: You can't be great at everything. Sure there are exceptions like Jimmy Page who had also a lot of knowledge about sound engineering. But there is a reason why the profession of the sound engineer exists. Most guitar players will never be as good as someone like Eddie Kramer for example. It is what these guys excel at. You can't be great at everything. Yes it was more difficult to make music back then. But if you made it you got a team that pushed you way beyond you could do by yourself.
What is RVG?
Rudy Van Gelder legendary engineer/producer from the 50's recorded many of the great Blue note albums.
This is so great to see you react on it. I logically have seen Rick's video when it was issued. So it's really cool to listen to you what you comment on the video compared to what I thought at that time. Thank you, especially as you give even more insight to the original.
That was a great line. " To point out where Creativity resides rather than Skill "
Well done Mr Edwards.
Think I get why you have to do the comparison and ranking videos which are all fun, entertaining and always give us some new bits and tidbits but like your philosophical musing on or about music and wherever it will take you even much more. Really love your channel, keep it on! Thanks, Andy
The loss of the physical aspect of buying the music changed it for the worse by getting it for a click on line but it has been circling back to LPs and cassettes are having a small revival
Most of today's music is made by people who do not really master the new technologies. It's like you want to produce a beautiful image using a computer but your skills don't go far beyond grabbing clipart out of a preinstalled library. The medium shapes the content. If you never painted with brushes on canvas it will be very hard or impossible to produce a beautiful virtual painting on a computer. In most hands, virtual tools produce mediocre results, but polished enough to fool the masses. If all your life only had fast food meals, you cannot imagine what good food tastes. Same with music, and even worst, because the plasticity of the taste in music is short lived.
Absolutely fascinating... I enjoyed Rick's video a couple of weeks back. However, I've just enjoyed your video even more... Subscribed 👍
This was a refreshingly even handed take. I’d like to see a reaction video to Anthony Fantano’s reaction video to Rick Beato’s video.
Somebody will like any noise someone creates but very little of it will stand the test of time. No one will be listening to this shit shop trap beat horseshit fifty years from now. Rick has that part right.
"shit shop trap beat" LMAO! So good, well done! I hear this stuff coming out of every car on the road.....these poor kids.
Beats produced by pressing buttons.
@@Jellybeantiger Grade schoolers were producing those same beats on their Casio portable keyboards back in the early 1980's.
@@treff9226I don't care what I they listen to in their cars...But every public space, coffee shop, and convenience stores and restaurants is playing this garbage. I'm in the mall at the food court right now. I'm getting out of here...It's just so vapid and awful. Music for 14 year old girls.
Thanks for being contrarian Andy. For me the reason music has become so empty on the broad scale has much to do with technology, but it's not the root of the problem. I see the problem residing in meaning. If we individually and socially rediscover meaning then the music will take care of itself. The problem is that we have so many distractions that most people have substituted the distractions for living. Meaning. That's the heart of it.
You might have Hit the Nail on the Head with your Analysis.
I like your positive spin on this. You make me want to put music out. But I'm crushed by my job, which destroys my body and soul 5 days a week. I'm off for three weeks due to a workplace injury, and it's amazing how my knowledge of the guitar fingerboard has increased in the last week.
Tune your drums, 4 mics. Now let’s make the record!
I like the format and I definitely like lo-fi production
Right. Content over quality. The bigger channels that use soft editing and all those little zoom ins and outs are borderline unwatchable.
I think he must have watched a few of your vids on the topic.
Great video Andy. The deep dive on the composition of his first shot is one of the funniest skits you've done on here, I was cackling away
It is now fashionable for many to make reviews of Biato videos in order to raise their own rating
dovidas even went out of his way to criticize rick when he appeared in congress.
How it works.
I just subscribed to your channel this week. Love to hear your take on the music industry and your sense of humor. I would love to see you and Rick have a conversation. That would be interesting as hell.
You get people hooked on talent then the talented hold all the cards.
Program youger people into liking untalented garbage and the musicians become more than disposable to the record labels.
It's just business.
great point
Question. what skill do you need to be a pop star. Answer. be attractive.
@@htflsteve 💯 % on the $. I can’t even think of a major pop star that wasn’t attractive in some way. Yes average looking folks have made it big in bands but true pop stars need to have that physical allure. Sad but so true…🤷🏻
Like Ed Sheeran??
I see a lot of nonhandsome people along with the handsome. But to the standards of the public an ugly can just put makeup, some tasteless clothes and the usual ideology accessories and they become "attractive" to many.
Trends and copying/influences have always been around, I agree with Andy and Rick. The main dilemma is: too much music today and access to it all equals more opportunity for bad music. Soon, the average listener won't know the difference between good and bad music and musicians!! Soon, advertising will be included within a song. Mark my words. We need another artist/band that will shock the world like the Beatles. Something so new, innovative, and pure, people will have to rethink the importance of music again...
I will always have hope for another great innovator in rock music, but I fall back on "its all been done"!
The Beatles were just bad Buddy Holly copiers at the start
Pppoppp pas possible pmpoppopppoop pmpopppopoooopp pmpopppopoooopp ppoo😊 10:51
The average listener is always drawn to showy stuff. Let's face it, anything is better than Led Zeppelin. Yet some people rave about their gibberish, even me sometimes. I have been conned into believing that 'Led Zep IV' and 'Physical Graffiti' are great albums, whereas it is really just chicken hawk music.
We live and learn.
@@timhewtson6212.....this just isn't working out, that Zeppelin comment was just too much to overcome, I want to start seeing other people.
Thing that you're ignoring here, Andy, is why crabby old iconoclastic Rick made this video in the first place. Why is music so shtty today compared with the olden days? Dude, it's not because "we've moved on," because that implies some sort of progress/improvement, which there very obviously isn't. In 1972, the record companies gave unknown bands record contracts, artistic license, promotion and distribution. Now, they don't. Now, bands can only make any money by touring relentlessly and charging ridiculous ticket prices (on top of what Ticketmaster does.) This is where you're wrong, dude. Captain Beyond and Horslips weren't building grand, medieval cathedrals that wouldn't be finished for 800 years. Music sucks now mostly because the bidness has decided on the formulaic approach. You know this.
I leaned my copy of "Nursery Cryme" up against "Dogs Playing Poker" but it somehow didn't work.
Foxtrot would have been a better choice.
@@nicka3697 I thought of that but Nursery Cryme has more yellow in the cover.
I think the point that perhaps is not being made is actually about the ability of the musician, not about technical perfection but about the experience of playing music with other musicians, that ultimately creates musicianship, filter that through changes in technology and the chaos of not being an expert is where a lot of creativity turns up from! Wander a long to a blues festival and just about every band plays 12 bar, which is mostly very tedious, but for example Mikes Davis kind of blue is modal against blues progressions, which has the shade in harmony against what amounts to pretty basic progressions. I do think a lot of the music being produced by the younger age group is somewhat uninteresting, the technology is amazing but it has a tendency to become very predictable, this of course means we are heading to a singularity! As far as an industry is concerned AI is a problem. As far as individual artists are concerned their personalities will define their music. At the end of the day to become a great composer and musician it’s about time spent, if you can do this whilst playing music as a career then you will improve, if you have to have another job then you do not have the time to improve to the level perhaps you should. I am all for doing things differently and not conforming, that’s why I love technology as that has enabled loads of cool music!
What Rick points out is that the bigger record companies *like* the idea of getting a finished track (or nearly so) from an artist's bedroom studio. It's faster and less costly than booking days of studio time. Those artists that supply a popular product on the cheap are favored. (Seems that, for every person who's listening to Vampire Weekend, 10 more are hearing The Weeknd.) Working with samples and loops and putting your own spin on them is not necessarily a complete surrender creatively, but it seems a bit like "fan fiction" to me. Most fan fiction is merely cute and a fun read, e.g. two characters from Star Wars falling in love on Tatooine (a bit of new dialog is all that's needed). However, there are highly original stories using established characters, like Nick Meyer's "The Seven Percent Solution" or Steven Moffat's *Sherlock Holmes* TV series, requiring a lot of creativity from the author.
You forgot the most successful "fan fiction" writer of all time Philip José Farmer
I fail to see the importance of perfection in music. Even Beethoven, when he debuted his symphonies had horrible experiences with unprepared orchestra players and basically people not understanding his dynamics in music. Yet, he made his mark. His ideas came across in a startling way.
I fall somewhere in between. I love being able to get my ideas recorded using my computer instead of my old Fostex 4 Track. But I do agree that listening to a lot today's music shows a lack of musicianship. Anybody can press a button on a plugin and have a song. I hope that the music consumption public will reward artists that put the time in learning their craft. But I don't have faith in the masses.
Agreed. My first recorder was in the early 80s, using the cassette based Tascam244 that ran at double speed. Memories...
@@DonMacanaw Rub it in with your Tascam. I couldn't afford that, so I was stuck the Fostex 4 Track cassette. Funny thing is, I found that old Fostex a few weeks ago and have this incredible urge to use it again, but cassettes are F'n expensive now.
@@MrKatsdad2112 lol. Seriously!? I wasn't aware that you could even buy cassettes anymore. Sadly, everything is digital now.
Love the pokey stick and the banter. The straight assessment as well! Love Rick, too.
Thanks Andy. I'm a young pianist and composer and I'm in the very early stage of making an album. I liked Ricks video, but I appreciate the positive twist you add to it. I'll be sure to send you a CD once it's out! (Will take a while still)
If you are going to play an instrument, learn to sing and write lyrics. There are plenty of piano players. there are far fewer piano players that can sing and even fewer that write their own material.
@@orlock20 I think there's still potential for instrumental music containing piano. But funnily enough I've been singing as of recently so I'll likely be writing lyrics too. Thanks for your comment :)
8:52 I'm reminded of an interview with David Gilmour back around 1972 (can be seen in some cuts of Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii) where he addresses this same thing. Basically he was responding to criticism Pink Floyd was facing at the time of being carried by their equipment and he presented basically the same argument you make here.
I really liked this type of reaction!
I think that the point Rick Beato is trying to make is that now is so easy to record and publish music that we are drowned under tons of uninspired mediocre songs that make very very hard to found the really good music that is being done everyday by really good musicians.
Completely agree with your vision for what music will be like in the near future because it already has been like that in the underground/independent music scene for at least 2 decades, I feel that it is just now getting to the mainstream because of how more oversaturated the market is with bullshit music, and with youtube and the internet, any artist has the opportunity to reach and create their own community of like minded music fans.
Andy. I’m a 60 year old English guy, and a guitar teacher who was recording on 24 track tape in the 80s.
But personally I love the inspiration of my young students😎
As an older guy of limited financial means, if I want to listen to music I don't own then I have to listen to You Tube and Spotify. I think sometimes the purists are speaking from a position of economic privilege. It was the same as when I was younger and the better off kids were talking about their dad's elaborate speaker system and how great Dark side of the moon sounded whereas I worked my arse off in a warehouse to afford a cheap CD player but to me it was amazing. Music is seen very differently (like most things) when viewed from a working class perspective and often this perspective is ignored.
Simply brilliant. I got a lot out of Rick's vid when first I saw it. I got even more out of yours. Whereas Rick's video gave a sense that he didn't like his technical excellence bull being gored by recent trends, your video was not defensive, but appreciative: the never-resting spirit of creativity as it moves on. As ever, Rick stands for craft, but, you, Andy? You stand for art.
Great insight and alternative view on this. I agree to all you said, and I dont necessary disagree with Rick, but this was a real great follow up/expansion of the original video. I made music 35 years ago with the tech I had available then, and yes, it took longer time than now, now I can make my demos with higher quality, than before, but my ideas still need to be good, no matter the quality of the amp sims or the ez-drummer grooves... .I am just able to create my crappy ideas a bit faster than before.
Hi Andy, it's great how you brought the analog back into this digital platform! i.e., pointy stick and embedded screenshot of your monitor. And, best of all how you own it - an example of what is your main point - owning your own creative process. Your best point starts at 38:20 in the video "...the future is ours (everyone)...". I also like the point you make that creativity belongs to everyone who is alive (I'm old too, LOL). I hope that anyone who started this video watches to the end.
Hey! I was just listening to Trick of the Tail earlier today! Hello from Vancouver Canada! And ya, like the earlier comments, Beato just had a heart procedure so be kind sir. My opinion of RB is that he's very informative, asks good questions and is a thoughtful person. But I often have a disconnect on what he deems awesome or amazing. More often than not, what he goes gaga over, I hear as safe, mainstream pop or rock that is not particularly adventurous or inventive, but typically cliched. Thanks for your channel dude, I generally agree with most of your top 10s, and I think we both share a love of Holdsworth, Genesis, and King Crimson. Cheers! 🍻
Bravo Andy you are hitting more "on the nose" than Rick or the other reactors to Rick I've seen. As an "old guy", older than Rick and maybe "old enuf to be your dad" (no insinuation implied) I see it this way:
Marshall McLuhan's famous comment " ‘When faced with a totally new situation we tend always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the most recent past. We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future’. To me this points deep into these discussions. At one time "music" was purely a performance art. Even with technology Impacting it like crazy, over the centuries, the development of the modern piano, or electric guitars, etc., it has still been a performance art.
Along came recording. Now we had an artifact of a performance. The tremendous benefits of this particularly to my generation are immense. We grew up with more direct information about music around the world and throughout history than anyone here-to-fore could have imagined! As recording technology advanced, there was a morphing of the performance and the artifact( (Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper's for example). The Beatles stopped playing concerts for a while. We accepted the artifact as "music". I am not a naysayer as to the significance of this in terms of the development of music. It has had a huge impact on my own music making as well. Starting with the most basic mono reel-to-reel I've been recording for 60 years now.
Technology has advanced to the point where recording can create not just an artifact but a complete simulation of musical performance, and even do it "live" like the ABBA virtual tour, and to me there is the rub. I've been trying to come up with an analogy less over the top. Maybe a flower garden vs a photo of flowers vs plastic flowers, but because "music" is still a performing art, and it's vey personal and I have deep love for it, I'm going to go with sex. Real human intimacy= music performance, pornography= recorded musical artifact (phonography), blow-up life size sex doll= simulated musical performance.
Ultimately I believe we have nothing to fear. To quote Fripp, "the Act Of Music is the music. When we find ourselves talking about sitting at a computer slicing and dicing time and tone, etc., I'm sorry but that is just not the Act Of Music I signed up for. If that makes me an old fart bitching about what's modern, so be it... Blessings and Cheers!
Why is music intrinsically any more of a performance art than painting?
Painting without the technology of paint would be a performance art. Music without the technology of recording was a performance art. Now we have the technologies of paint and recordings, so we have a choice.
The meat of the video is in the final few minutes. Most people don't recognise or care much about quality or creativity, whether that's music or art, architecture or any other human endeavour. They just want their lives to be soundtracked with the appropriate ambience for the moment. So creativity is a marginal activity, and even a platform like Bandcamp requires a certain amount of work when it comes to networking and promotion, interacting with and listening to other peoples' music, and getting them to listen to yours. There is still a product to be pushed and petty tyrannies of self-appointed gatekeepers to negotiate in the process. And if you aren't going to break out and appeal to a wider audience, then all you have is a small community of like-minded people patting each other on the back. But maybe that's how all artistic movements start out?
Whatever you are Andy, you are entertaining. Love it.
I'm Mike Patto's nephew Andy. It would be great to see a video on Ollie, what a player.
You're right. AI is an issue in coming out with vast quantities of OK music. But the real issues now are music isn't as important to most people, the old stuff is too easy to find and play, and along with that first excuse too many other options/diversions.
Think I am pretty close to you in age and basically see this the same way. I only started making music when I got myself a DAW and a midi keyboard about 15 years ago, had never considered it really before that even though I have been obsessed with music from young age, I soon after got myself both acoustic and electric guitars even though I had never played an instrument in my life at that point and started to practise and play these so I could mix it with the electronic. Only couple of years later I was doing my first gigs, I am not very "skilled" on the instruments or at production, but I am creative and it gives me great joy.
You're on a roll these days, Andy. All the "overrated" and "underrated" videos were brilliant and so is this one.
I appreciate your views on youth not being required for creativity. Inspiration can come at any age.
Rick's totally right about modern music. I can't listen to it.
People used to listen to radio stations for the latest releases and because many people didn't have a music system. Therefore, in many parts of the world, including where I grew up the stations would play a variety of styles and artists. Whatever was popular at the time. In my case I listened to Salsa, Pop Rock, Fusion - Jazz and Heavy metal from the same radio station.
That exposed me to different genre and gave me a better appreciation of what was out there. That is not happening now where people choose what they want to listen and don't explore much outside of their comfort zone.
Andy, have you and Rick Beato actually communicated with each other.? It's about time.!!
Brilliant complementary video to RB's video. RB should get Andy on his channel.
I get what Rick and Andy are saying. Tech is a tool to be used. Music and all art are tools for expression, communication, making money and sinisterly Mind Kontrol. Music, in general, is getting worse not because Tech makes musicians lazy, but because most musicians have nothing interesting to communicate to others.
React to Fantano reacting to Rick.
Fantano? Ew.
Then react to Becoming the Knight reacting to Fantano reacting to Rick
Then react to your own reaction
@@DeadpoolX9 A human centipede of reacting? Gotcha!
Yes
I was thinking about that. I know some people can't stand him but some of the points he brought up to counter Rick's arguments were at least interesting. But I bet he would piss most of the audience here lol, which is fine :).
The example with the keyboard is a good one. It began in the 80s when suddenly you could program stuff in and even have major chart hit even if you couldn't really play. And the more things were automated the less you had to experiment and the factor of pure chance was removed. A lot of unique sounds comes from coincidences which went on to make music history. But now everything is very predictable. But being safe is not really exciting nor interesting.
This crap will eventually lead to the proliferation of AI MUSIC as the business realizes that the listening public is more easily satisfied with less.
30:20 I think Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA had the best opinion about AI. It can be used as a force of good for musical artists if they are stumped for ideas, they can use it contrast and compare different sounds that the AI can easily bring them. AI is not meant to create music, but to feed you idea examples. AI can make artists more creative or more lazy depending on how you use it.
One of the reasons why Music is getting worse is because virtuosity is almost dead. Gone are the days when people appreciated guitar, piano, sax, drum solos and followed top-ranked musicians. When more complex music was commonly heard on the radio, like Rush, or Radiohead. Today's music tends to be simple, easy to follow, predictable, methodical. Leaves very little to the imagination.
People more and more couldn't care less about who or what plays on the music they hear. They still care about live music, barely, but that will also move away to AI gadgets on stage and a pretty or iconic idol on the front. Playing an instrument, having fun with it and listening and watching someone play will be an activity from musicians to musicians (pros or amateurs).
This is so pertinent Andy. I think you’re zeroing in on all the right issues regarding Rick Beato’s tendency to hark back to a golden age in that video. His argument is akin to saying Banksy isn’t a proper artist because he paints in walls using aerosols and stencils rather than oil paint, brushes and canvas. He takes no account of the fact that one of the central roles of the artist is to be a subversive. Sure, the intention behind the development and application of new technologies for music making may be driven by capitalist motives, but creatives will disrupt that. They will find ways to bend it out of shape because that’s what they’ve always done. People often hold forth about the need for the freedom in which to create but in my experience one of the prime drivers of creative is the need to work around challenges and restrictions so as to subvert expectations. Any technology can be used to create something exciting and fresh once it is deployed by someone with a subversive intelligence.
Except Banksy isn't a good example. His art is not generic. It is very original and inventive.
which is an exception to the rule
I love your sense of humour Andy, always makes me giggle😂 From a Yorkshire lass! 1 thing the Beatles did better than ANYBODY was melodies.
I appreciate the nuanced look at music and the balanced (and funny) unpacking of some of Beato's arguments.
I'd only add that your later bread analogy is missing one key point: bread at Tesco's is going to be pretty cheap to buy (for a number of reasons including mass production and selling) while the artisan bread at a farmer's market will be considerably more expensive. Mass audiences want cheap product (hence the ubiquity of streaming services). Make it cheaply, push it out, consume, repeat.
The push-back comes from a smaller audience values something direct and perceived as 'authentic'. You might even say you value it more because you paid more or had some effort in finding it.
Back in the day, a record company could put out a niche Ry Cooder or Randy Newman album because their latest Van Halen or Michael Jackson sold in the truckloads. Nowadays, all the big companies seem to be doing is pushing the big sellers. The niche artists have to make it themselves. That's good (no gatekeepers or dodgy contracts) but it does limit distribution.
Thanks again for taking the time to elaborate, challenge and entertain.
Do we really need new music? Isn’t there enough music already in existence? In addition old music can be new music if it’s the first time you’re hearing it. New to me basically
Digital recording is horrible its ruining music
I love the way you think and the way you verbalize those thoughts. I've been watching Rick's channel for a long time. Would love a monthly Beato/Edwards show. It would be very entertaining and interesting.
There was a time when making this video would've required about 4000 feet of 35mm film, a camera that cost tens of thousands of dollars, a developing lab, tape and microphone for sound, an upright moviola (well actually you wouldn't need that - that's for editing 😁). But that's just to get the master! Then another 4000 feet to strike an interpositive from the original negative, 4000 more for an internegative from which you strike your release prints (however many you want to distribute) and then you'd send those out by mail to people who might want to watch. Making videos has gotten too easy!
Great reaction! Thank you. Rick is great. He brought a huge amount of wonderful content. I love how you treat him with respect. And I love the angles you add to it.
Great video, especially the part around 20 minutes in. I have been working bedroom recordings with drum machines for years and I finally got around to recording real drums at a friends rehearsal space, just one microphone and a zoom recorder. Crappy compressed sound or unbalanced room recordings that just sound wonderful in the context of poor quality electronic music I like to make at the moment.I am sure it sounds like SHIT to anyone with an understanding of "proper drum recordings" (not the playing, but the sound) but its what I want.
Also. there is an awful lot of music considreed niche or subculture outside of the commercial or mainstream sphere which just operates by the old and tried ways.
Best reaction video I have seen! Genuine!! Pointy stick!!!
Very interesting subject. I heard a discussion about AI and some expert was saying that AI is just a very sophisticated compiler of information but can't really innovate like humans can. When it comes to innovation/creativity humans are good at coming up with something out of nothing, something AI cannot quite achieve.
As for music technology over the decades there is good interview with Larry Fast where he summarizes quite nicely the changes in the music business as a result of technology and other forces. He starts by touching on music prior to recorded music (in the late 1800's) all the way up to today. One thing Fast states is that legislation related to copyright , or whatever, is usually about 10 to 20 years behind a significant development or change in music. Very interesting.
“That’s an old bloke talking. Don’t listen to him. He’ll be dead soon.” 💀 😂 I feel ya, mate.
Just making this comment 18 mins in. There is a very sound(!) argument for minimising the number of mics round a drum kit. The more mics you use, the greater the problem of phase differences creating a comb filtering (phasing) effect on the mixed sound. Some of the best drum recordings were made with just 2, 3 or 4 mics. The Recorder Man and the Glynn Johns methods are good examples. Also, when he talks about the "correct" way to do things, I'm reminded of a quote from Joe Meek; "If it sounds good, it is good"
The craftsmanship of songwriting and the effort in creating it is getting worse.
Why would I choose to listen to auto tune and AI over the authentic artist of yesteryear?!?
Put some effort into writing your song and I’ll appreciate it more.
Agree but there lots of great bands on bandcamp youtube, powerpop, americana who write great songs. Forget the radio its garbage.
@@paulcollins5586 true, but really when is the last time we heard a really great song? A classic song? My opinion, we won’t again due to the fact that it’s too easy now for artist.
What made songs stand out and be what they were was the hardship, the competition and just the sheer talent.
I don’t think we’ll see that again.
@@paulcollins5586agree 💯! Is this THE Paul Collins? The ultimate Power pop godfather that way too many overlook?…🤞🏻
Not sure what "auto tune" has to do with "songwriting" Does this "auto tune" writes tunes?
@@LuDux I think auto tune is taking away from the phrasing and inflection of how a song is crafted. Singing a song is part of the songwriting process.
What makes a classic song?!? The melody, the time signature, the chorus, the lyrics, the way it’s sang?!?
Probably all of those I’d guess.
The record companies took most of the money back then know an artist can build up a following on line the may never be famous ,but when a record company finally want to record them they often just say know why share the money with them.great music is out there you just have to look more places than you used to.
Thanks for being optimistic. I also enjoyed your take on the Powell Pressburger films. The under rated guitarist video was interesting as well, what a surprise to see someone else knew Ollie Halsall's music.
Totally agree with your summing up, it’s about finding your niche if you are doing creative music! The old model used is well and truly buried!
The niche sucks.
@@sophiaperennis2360 explain
good evening Nino Rota had a job offer from Duke Ellington. Rota asked why the sound of American big bands sounds different than in Europe? and Ellington’s answer is the placement of the microphones…
You are much more interesting (and funnier) than Rick Beato.
Rick doesn't try to be funny.
Great video Andy...and no ads;)
Using your analogy, it still seems like the consumers and music are losing. You used to be able to get high quality produce from the supermarkets, but now you have to go to a small bakery and it may not be the first bakery you go to that has the good bread. The result of this is that less people are finding the good bread and there is less interest in bread as a result.
Bottom line: I WANT PEOPLE PLAYING REAL INSTRUMENTS...WELL. I want the Funk Brothers from Motown. I want The Swampers from Muscle Shoals.
So do I! Lotta excellent virtuoso younger musicians all over this planet. Not sure a lot of them wanna make and create music for the masses to hear.
@@webbvandiver9139 We need the schools to make instruments and lessons available to students for free or cheap again.
I agree with so much of what you say Andy. I've played and recorded for years in big studios and venues as well as toilets and now have my own set up at home, and I'd rather retain the creative control I have with the self taught no doubt incorrect methods I use here, releasing my own music myself than go back to the days I was signed to Sony or EMI and all that went with that. If I want to record anything "professionally" I can go elsewhere but more often than not my own results are more interesting, and satisfying. We now own the means of production! Power to the people! 😎
I hear what you sat as far as the tools available but I hear what Rick says too... I maintain that the sheer diversity of music that came out between the mid sixties and the eighties, the styles, genres etc - mostly due to the technology that became available has not been matched in the last 20 years. Perhaps I am referring to what is, essentially 'pop', or chart music, as I do not deny that good music is still made, but the fodder for the masses, as Rick says, is dire. I was listening to Portishead the other night, and as you rightly pointed out in you influential artists podcast, they were instrumental in creating a whole new soundscape, with influences of course, but what similar genre breaking artist has emerged in the last decade, or even 2 decades?
There's a certain anxiety of irrelevance on the part of average music fans like me, who aren't musicians or involved with music industry, but concerned about what's available at the market. I'm in my mid-40s, do not have an exclusive interest in music, there are books to read and films to watch piling up, as all my peers try to wrest something to enjoy for themselves away from social and occupational commitments, in their overscheduled lives. The younger folk pushes the abundance of great music card, yet the cost of ability to locate is much higher (a lot more end products to sift through) and what they usually mean by "great" boils down to their own gang's music. There's bound to be a difference between mainstream and subcultures, underground, counter-culture however you name it. But in the gatekeeper universe I grew up in there was some semblance of diversity in the mainstream, from synth pop, heavy metal to grunge. I never had much care for Sepultura or Pantera but they were on TV, so I had a reasonable, possibly superficial, exposure to what I eventually didn't like too, without making any extra effort on my part. It was a world bigger than my likes and I had a rough mental map. It's hard for me to say the same thing for the contemporary music. "The test of the pudding is eating it." Is music any different? Where's this great music they're talking about? I want to feel the same thrill I had as a teenager but current mainstream doesn't allow that. It's more profitable for me to go and listen to 70s music as there are visible signposts rather than trying to find my way in the jungle of contemporary music scene. Another line of defence raised is the possibilities offered by new technology. I appreciate Imogen Heap, Agnes Obel, or Ibeyi's play-catch but then again unfortunately I appreciate them more for their basic or traditional capabilities. I enjoy people like Max Richter or Olafur Arnalds but isn't the emotive features of their music a tad mushy, a bit pastel, or RA Irisarri a bit acrylic? Where are the equivalents of watercolours or oil painting? How can one connect with Aphex Twin? Maybe the point isn't connecting at all and I'm not in tune with what contemporary music or world can offer beyond particular music tribes/roaming spaces. Should I seek and find my tribe, as one can still connect, if only, at a village level? Music video was already a hybrid, calling into question if the supplement was necessary. Some young folk mentions how video game music, anime music, film music, got them hooked and how they were initiated by these means into music, which also diversifies chances to make a living for musicians. Be it Michael Nyman, Hans Zimmer, Yoko Kanno, or Joe Hisaishi, there has to be a connection between the constraints of the genre and the motivation to make that output, but how would they and their music have fared if they didn't produce for hybrid products (visual, auditory, narrative aspects juxtaposed) but solo music? Isn't a sonicscape sufficiently pleasing by itself? From a documentary I remember Roger Taylor's (Queen's drummer) complaints about Hot Space album, how dance music made his drumming sound dead which he detested. "Oh what does he know?" any fan of the genre may reply, and all hybrid forms extend the reach of the sonicscape, but one wonders if it sets priorities outside of music too, what the unacknowledged compromises may be. Yet constraints need not be debilitating one can argue but it's naive to think that all diversification or technological novelty is meaningful, as they can only mean to the extent that they matter to specific people and their lives. Even an inner monologue, communicating with yourself, relies on language. Conventions make the ground of human communication, and groundbreaking interventions only make new grounds and conventions rather than altogether dispensing with them.
My thinking is that music is ready for a kind of labelling standard like French wine or organic food. If your music is verifiably labelled organic or original or something like that then the listener is assured they are listening to something that hasn’t been digitally manipulated. Groups that want to correct pitch or rhythms or whatever are free to do that it’s just their recordings aren’t labelled organic. Just an idea.
Generally speaking, what do you call a poisonous idea has been shown to be true over the years. Did the Beatles get better as they got older? did anybody? Not very many. And by the way, I’m older than you, Andy, and I received your CD this morning!! Nice packaging!! Will be listening carefully soon. So I do value old geezers like you but I do think that the young have a creative spark, a creative genius that is lessened in the old. creativity is a weird thing. It’s totally divorced from technical ability for example. People can continue to get technically better as they get older e.g. Jeff Beck. But I don’t think they get creatively better. But happy to see the examples of older creative people but I think they would be rarer and more special.
Classical composers generally always got better as they got older. There are exceptions but it is pretty consistently true with them. Why that is the case, i have no idea. It's only musicians from our century (20th and 21th) that reach their peak in their early 30s then decline irreparably.
Perhaps with classical composers it’s not a matter of inspiration but of knowledge and perspiration. Perhaps they learn the sequences that work and have worked in the past and are able to re-work them for the present. Just an idea of course I have no knowledge or training in music. Improvisation is very creative is it not? Does people’s ability to improvise decline with age? I’m guessing not.
I agree with your comment about 'uniqueness' however I agree with Rick too in a lot of what he's saying. There's a lot more that could be added regarding the differences between 60s/70s/80s/90s and more recent music. The audience for example. Not everything that has changed is bad. My pet hate is the compression, plus the hook having to come in straight away otherwise listener may move on to next song.
I think a lot of people watch your channel for your comical Brummie accent plus your wealth of knowledge.
Great incite. Thanks. Everything is equal. Some of my favorite music is classical from highly skilled composers and musicians, but then also a 30 second punk song with one or two chords and shouting. Both capture certain emotions and that’s what life is. Different emotions and feelings. Music reflects life.
I recently started following this channel because I'm a drummer myself and I love IQ but I don't know if I'll continue to follow it. I'm fascinated in a negative way how Andy doesn't see and if he does then he doesn't mention it at all that the AI will completely kill music and that musicians as such will no longer be needed at all and will be superfluous. This applies to sound engineers as well as to producers and everyone else in that chain.And that is something that is terrible and with which I will not agree, no matter what someone says that it is the new normal and that we should adapt to it. I will hold on to my CD collection and my drums and that will never change. And for It will always be important to me that someone who plays music must have talent, know how to play an instrument, have ears and rhythm, and that's it. Not that he's a dullard who only knows how to use a computer keyboard because he was convinced and sees that it really is possible, that literally anyone can be involved in music. And it has always been that there are musicians and an audience that listens to it, and not that the audience starts to engage in something they have no idea about, the roles should not change.
by the time AI is really up and running, it cheapening music production and the human element will be like issue ten thousand on the list of problems
One thing that has wrecked so much modern music and indeed so many re-masters of older stuff is massive hyper-compression and limiting to increase the "loudness." It distorts the music and robs it of dynamics. As an example, listen to Death Magnetic by Metallica. It sounds ghastly...
Skill level and AI are not separate issues. If we lower the skill level, why not have AI. We need musicians who are creating things that AI cannot duplicate or cannot imagine. It’s like when photography emerged we got Impressionism as a result. Creativity will get us out of the rut we’re in, but I don’t think it can do this without some combination of skill involved.
AI can sound like some musicians, but can't get Beth Hart's vocals right because she performs in too many genres. Those genres require different voicing.