“Content creation” for a serious, trained jazz musician is INSTANTANEOUS. Miles went into the studio for 2 days to fulfill his Prestige contract, cranked out 4 albums that became legendary-Workin’-Relaxin’-Cookin’Steamin. Jazz musicians are best positioned themselves in the best way to act in today’s marketplace. To the extent it is possible. Popular music exploded after WW2, during the long wave of the capitalist boom in the OECD countries. Given the doldrums of the popular music scene of the 1950s-“novelty songs” were en vogue-N.B. The war between Sinatra and, say, Mitch Miller This was the “How Much in the Doggie in the Window” era. What happened? For the first time, children became the vanguard of the musical taste public. Thus, rock exploded, and music became a commodity like never before. There was a brief anomaly from the late 60s to the late 70s-a lot of experimental music captured a large audience. (prog-Kraut, fusion). Normal service resumed thereafter, as the suits took charge again. Thus, Derek Schulman became an A&R guy schilling Bon Jovi-he was no longer the front man for maybe the most weird band of the 1970s. Today, the Rick Beato Boomers sell not new music, but nostolgia for Boomers. I was a kid in the early 80s-I discovered Yes and King Crimson in the early 80s, their current music at the time was ok, not much different than what was else on th radio. Then I heard Larks Tongues and Relayer and thought “WHAT PLANET IS THIS FROM??? The Inner Mounting Flame was far more weird to an early 80s kid than “Remain in Light”. Thankfully, then I heard Jim Hall playing the most incredible guitar on a Sonny Rollins album. Then I hard Ellington and Mingus. My mind was blown. And still is, to this very day. I love all kinds of music, but nothing is more beautiful than jazz.
do you think that kind of virtuosic and creative performance is limited to jazz? and are you positing a novelty-to-quality progression whereby the inheritors of a narrow musical culture go on to explode it? the issue with capital is at least so far it always wins, certainly in the cultural arena, and to me it seems that the creative explosion we're discussing essentially relied on a more naive industry.
There is a reason why corporations are buying the catalogues of classic rock artists. What is their thinking: that all the best songs have been composed and that classic rock and pop will be the Bach, Beethoven and Mozart of the next two hundred years. For example, younger generation love Queen. They just have to be exposed to the music. Humans have an innate attraction to nice, hooky melodies. See also The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, etc.and meaningful lyrics that they can relate to.
I've been saying this for years. People talk like the amount of hooky catchy melodies, riffs, etc, is infinite, and you can always just invent more, but it isn't like that at all. The number is finite. Repetition was reached a long time ago. It has nothing to do with the talent of new musicians, they're just dealing with a canvas that's no longer blank, so it's much, much harder to create anything truly original.
I personally don't care for Hip Hop but when I was younger in the 80s and 90s at least they paid some money to PRODUCE a Hip Hop single. Now any Ahole can make it on SoundCloud
One way to highlight new music is to highlight some of the bands that play the festivals like Lollapalooza, SXSW, Glastonbury, Coachella, Bonarooo. Foals, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix, Flaming Lips, Vampire Weekend, Silversun Pickups, Portugal The Man. There's a LOT of good new music but it's being played on college stations and the festival venues.
@@HB-zi3og.....'Believe' by Cher; 'Music' by Madonna; 'Mull of Kintyre' by Paul McCartney; 'Do ya think I'm sexy' by Rod Stewart....to name a few.....
A lot of mainstream music is rubbish. It’s designed to be rubbish. There is a lot of great music away from the mainstream. It just takes more effort to find it.
The fact that Sony have just bought for Queen's catalogue for an alleged billion tells us that a. the music industry has no interest in investing in new talent and b. we are heading to a cultural wasteland in the 21st century with famous old pop music being spewed at us with every opportunity. God help us when they get AI to homogenize famous dead film stars in the next franchises (or current ones....) playing air guitar to Bohemian Rhapsody. Looks like the corporations have won and the only good I can get out of the music/film industry is the dividends from their shares. Right, Visions of the Emerald Beyond is being slapped on at full volume right now.
No doubt, Queen's back catalogue will be mined by AI to create new Queen albums. And, the old material might be leased to allow third parties to train their own AIs.
You've got me studying McLaughlin's phrasing. Are you proud of yourself, Mister Edwards? I have avoided this little exercise since 1972 for good reason.
I started trying to play like him when I think I was 9 or 10 years old because after hearing the Mahavishnu Orchestra I just thought anyone who was any good played like that. Not so easy!
@@aliensporebomb - I want to be like Jimi, who would jam with anyone without judgement, pretty much. My brain doesn't do, well, reading and scales so much. I don't want to copy John, I want to learn about his structures and feeling. I want to expand my vibe and technique so that new layers of muscle memory are created. I've been playing since 1969 and though I don't much shred, at all, in the normal sense of shredding. I often play Django style, with 2 fingers fretting and I'm more melodic in that style. Ten years old and interested in Maha? Amazing. Keep jamming.
John's licks are great fast or slow. Listen to Carlos Santana on Santana's "Dance Sister Dance" - the studio version. From just after 3:40 to 3:52 he plays a standard McLaughlin lick at half-speed. It sounds great and fits the song perfectly.
@@flazjsg - I am checking it out as I type. Remember Devotion? I may have got that wrong but I swear I heard John and Carlos' collab in 1976. I saw/heard/smelled John and Jeff Beck jam in the early seventies. - O.k....Baile Mi Hermana! I know the song, I remember his playing, I sing the chorus sometimes just for groovy fun. Carlos really expanded his technique when he jammed with John, which is what I'm doing, half-speed. Thank you.
As far as the modern record industry is concerned, *The Warning* has been doing it right. Unsigned for 8 years when they were literally children and approached by every predatory entity in their youth to capitalize on them. Signed when they were ready, and flooding all forms of digital platforms with absolutely top notch nostalgic rock and vlogs documenting their career. From a stab at a concept album at their second attempt, which is remarkable, their forth album, recently released, should get world wide recognition. They tour like maniacs and have been putting in the hard work for over 10 years and it's starting to pay off. Bands like Muse, Foo Fighters, GnR, Def Lepard and on and on, not only asked them to open for them, but invited them back. Well worth a listen to any of their stuff for anyone that's been less than impressed with Rock for the last couple decades.
Seven Spires, Aldious, Unlucky Morpheus, Battle Beast, Unleash the Archers, Witherfall, Illumishade in a more metal mood. Great new bands with recent albums.
I'm 70, 107 pounds, male, and I play what I want in my little room and then I play what I want on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame. Tourists have much better passion for music than the residents, who can't spell "jam".
Most of my collection is from the 70's and always will be, that's when I was in my teens and music meant so much to me, but here's the thing, music STILL means much to me, and as old as I am I still enjoy discovering something new, my love of music is still growing and I hope it always will, never let that love stagnate. Hence, I look forward to seeing your content on new music and music you have discovered. Rick Beato's interview with Stephen Wilson showed how important Spotify is to the musician, Wilson said the first thing Virgin did when he signed to them was send him on a Spotify seminar, and the guy has been around since the mid 90's, but even had to learn how to adapt to the new way music is marketed.
Seeing your videos hours from the time they’re posted makes it some much more fun and fresh compared to old ones that become available, and your tone in this is like a gigantic breath of fresh air and I can breathe now after the last several have been utterly unhinged
I feel like King Gizzard's career arc is the opposite of what he is advocating for in this video. They don't make their money from long form content, there's no King Gizzard podcast, they aren't dancing on TikTok. They started as a bunch of friends making DIY garage rock in their local scene, got a grant from the Australian government to go play in the US, took advantage of that and recorded a killer album, played a bunch of small shows and gained a bunch of fans from it. They started their own record label, released album after album, played as many shows as they could, and now they're in a spot where they can do whatever they want.
My daughter, who was training as a singer / actress, bought a turntable and bought records. She'd ask me questions like "What is Jeff Beck's best rock record?" I'd say Truth. If kids are exposed to a certain music, they will search it out.
A few comments on the video: - The copyright strikes are just stupid and self defeating, in my opinion, especially for channels doing reactions. Here, bands/labels have a great, and free, way to promote their music and set it on fire for a shortsighted monetary gain/loss. What are the odds that a 20-25 year old is listening/giving a shot to an older/legacy band, or even one that defunct? also, realize that some/ a lot of reaction channels put a minimal effort into the reaction (just saying at the end that the song was great and moving on to another reaction). But there are channels that take the time to analyze the song, or try to connect it to a feeling or a moment in their life. There has to be a middle ground where the band/label and the channel (indirectly promoting the band's music) can coexist. - I like to watch music review videos (or even rankings videos) because, a lot of the time, help me discover new music, or older music I wasn't aware it existed. - New music is not all rubbish. Mainstream music is mostly, 97.235678% actually, rubbish. Good to great music is out there but you need to search for it.
One thing for sure, whether they agree or disagree with Rick Beato, there are a whole lot of people on RUclips who owe him a big thanks for his "controversial" posting, "The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse." As of this moment, he has generated nearly 3 million views. I don't know the economics of RUclips but I am sure the 3 million views equates to a lot of money for Rick. But outside of that, a whole group of people have risen up to react to him who have garnered huge numbers of views that would never have happened had it not been for Rick's original posting. So a lot of money is being made by a lot of people because of the subject and that's a good thing for everybody. Everybody should be thankful for everybody else for making it all happen. And a special thanks goes out to Rick Beato for getting it all stirred up.
People appreciated more challenging music up into the late '90s because public schools forced you to take a music class. If you didn't sing or play an instrument, you were made to sit in a music appreciation class. Public schools got rid of music appreciation and even orch and band class when their budgets dried up. Kids in inner city schools got their trumpets and snare drums taken away from them, so they invented hip hop with an 808 and a turntable. If kids get no guidance, do not expect music to evolve.
I've noticed though that when someone hears an older song on Tik Tok, they like it, but not many of them actually go listen to MORE songs or albums from that artist. When Roundabout became so well known because of 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventures' I remember asking people what other Yes songs they liked, only to be met by blank stares... We all underestimate how many people only like what's trending and aren't interested or can't be bothered diving deeper into an artist's discography. Also, Cardiacs is my favourite band but I guarantee that a mainstream audience will NEVER be ready for anything by Tim Smith 😆😭
Bang on, spot on! Provided they even know what they are listening to, they just go with the trend, and trends nowadays last like farts, not much, really ;) They won't delve into any discography. Also, all those plays on TT will hardly make a penny for the artist. Getting a lot of exposure which then does not result in either revenue or new opportunities is useless.
Most people nowadays seem to have no real interest in music at all (and if you were a teenager in the post 2000 music landscape who could blame you). Music is now just about playlists and soundtracking your life. I saw it when Stranger Things propelled 'Running Up That Hill' back to the top of the charts - rather than explore Hounds of Love or any of the rest of Kate's discography it was a case of stick 'Running Up That Hill' on whichever 'mood' playlist it fit and move on. It seems that no-one ever really listens to music as an exclusive activity any more - it's always backing for whatever multitasking thing people are doing at any given moment.
This has always been the case for the majority of people. Album's are a rock era thing. Mainly an American rock era thing. In the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties and even into the seventies it was mostly about singles and radio play. In the 80s it was mix tapes and MTV. Before any of that it was sheet music. Albums are a blip in the grand scheme of things.
@@richardpluck6658 This is incorrect. Kate Bush's streaming numbers rapidly increased after Stranger Things. Sales of physical copies of her albums increased as well. Anecdotal, but I've seen a noticeable increase in interest for her whole discography from young music fans in the past several years.
Probably worth thinking about. I spent a decent amount of my time the other night on Bandcamp trying to find some new jazz artists to listen to. There was a lot to sift through.
I just discovered your channel , and now I'm a subscriber. I think your band idea is great. I spend hours trying to find new music that I like. There's a lot of great bands out there that never get their chance on Spotify or radio play. You would really do a good cultural deed both helping the bands and us, we who are actually searching for them. I play in bands myself but we can't even get gigs anymore because why pay for a live band when you can run Spotify play lists? Thanks from Sweden!
Lots of good thoughts and ideas here today. I've been trying to work out how to adjust to the current times when it comes to being in a band and how to go about things because I was out of the scene for a long time. I've decided to get back into it now and you've been a big help to fill in some of the blanks.
This must be video nr 10, I've been bingeing your channel for the last 3 days, since I've found it out. I'd skip over the compliments, you've heard them all. I will try to keep it short as it gets: The first band i was a fan of - G'n'R. Then Nirvana. At 15, i discovered Pulp /britpop etc. Instant fan. Then, there was Andy Votel - whom I'm glad to call my friend, by now. As I would say in case of Adrian Sherwood. People say never meet your idols, there's a trick about that, tho. Would be too much, to expand on this. I have Never been ashamed of Anything i really liked - in retrospect. I learned to know what I like and why, been a DJ for two decades. I also found out, such consistence is rare, in all truth. My biggest Grand Conclusion is that people go to the club for 2 different reasons: to enjoy the very same thing they know and nothing else. And folks like me, always in for something New and triggering that instant thrill of novelty, that seduction of a mysterious affinity, that demands to be simply pursued. It's all I've got. Working on a "Bildungsroman" of sorts. First Person. Non fiction. Thought of pointing this out, for I've never even attempted to do "Art" before... (while I was a DJ or Professional Journalist/Photographer)... I would have Never even dare to play with the idea, until I Really felt it's about Time. That I Can do it Properly, for the Right Reasons only - the only certitude i maintained as an "Art" consumer/critic/curator...whatsoever. . meanwhile, Thank You, Sir! You are a Great! PS. One tune for all of You: Phoenix -- Pseudomorgana.
If I were young and starting a band I think I would create a program or podcast or whatever that lets the audience in on more of the creation of the finished piece of music. Record for instance when the writer introduces a new piece of music to the band. Follow it through edited videos of members working out their individual parts or solos then follow it up with the completed song or piece of music.
Apparently I love to watch it because I'm here again. You crack me up. And I love your TV-screen and pointer technology (from you previous video on this)..
Great content😊 And the laugh at the end was like your version of Zappa cracking up at the beginning of "Watermelon in easter hay"😄 During this video I got a thought; what if some of the RUclipsrs (I watch😁) of different content got together once or twice a year to make joint videos? What if Caspersight met Andy Edwards, Barefaced Audio and Desert Drifter? Would it ruin the individual nische they've cut out? Or maybe everyone involved could benefit from the event.
You're just describing what indie rock has been doing for 30 years. They make independent albums, used to get airplay, used to be reviewed on Pitchfork and other websites, go on tour, sell t-shirts, merch, and albums at the small venue or festival concerts. They still do most of that with the exception of independent radio airplay and indie music review web sites which have largely gone away. Wilco, Flaming Lips, Blonde Redhead, Sigur Ros, Ladytron, Built to Spill, Beck, Vampire Weekend, Slowdive, Air, The Dandy Warhols, Of Montreal, Silversun Pickups are all still making albums and touring in that way. Probably not getting rich, but widely available to their audiences on media and live performances. All still playing real instruments and making relevant music. And very few videos.
Yeah...outside of shoegaze...and industrial dance..and some some euro pop and manchester sound bands, the late 80s was pretty terrible. However...the early 90s was pretty amazing.
I feel like there might be a resurgence of interest in acoustic music played live. The sheer longing for unfiltered skill and "realness" may lead to a point where the likes of Paco de Lucia become the crowd favorites once again.
A couple of things: 1) If we're honest, back in the old days with the Beatles, Led Zep, Steely Dan, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Yes and all the rest there was a tremendous amount of rubbish as well that hasn't survived the test of time, but no one talks about that stuff (for good reason). And remember back then there were record companies, and A&R men filtering out a lot of stuff that we never ever heard, and still a lot of rubbish made it to the radio stations. The thing is, is that only the really memorable stuff has remained in our collective memory. 2) This was a great video, I think you're starting to figure this out. Good discussion for any musicians trying to figure out how to make it in this internet new world. Thx.
The difference between then and now is that back then for every 100 albums that came out you got one or two legends. Nowadays we’re getting just the rubbish with no classics.
@Wingman52 I agree and made a similar comment here as well. Even if you look at the hit songs on the Billboard charts from the 1960s and 70s, you will find a lot of junk, and titles and bands that are long forgotten. Zappa often put the quote “kill ugly radio” on his album covers in the 1960s, because they played so much worthless garbage back then (and now). Many of the best and most innovative bands and artists that we look back on as the greats of that time, received little or no airplay. @misterknightowlandco The difference between then and now is, for every 100 albums that came out then, 5000 come out now. Who has the time to hear and evaluate the massive amount of music that is produced nowadays? Who knows what’s out there?
@@williamfarr8807 very good point. For all we know the next Led Zeppelin IV is sitting on a hard drive made by some kid who did it for fun and is too embarrassed to publish or promote it.
I think the big difference is not about what music is produced (I know there's good music *if* you can find it), but what is in the mainstream. The period that got me into music was the '78-'83 post-punk/new-wave era in the UK and at that time the charts were incredibly eclectic - yes there was plenty of junk in the top 40 (Joe Dolce at no 1 leaving Vienna at no. 2, anyone?), but even the average throwaway pop was both more varied and more musically imaginative than today's charts (Bananarama, Madness, Adam & the Ants). It was also more accepting of things out of the norm - Ghost Town No 1; O Superman reaching no.2. People always say don't look at the charts, but that has always been reflective, mainly, of the taste of older teens and early 20s record buyers (and now streamers, I guess). That the charts look the way they do is deeply depressing. One of the biggest things to undermine the mainstream was something that slowly changed during the 1990s. Through the 60s, 70s and 80s 'pop' was a catch-all category - there might be music that we recognised as having a genre, but 'pop' was this big mix-and-match container and (radio) promotion pulled from the contents of that container giving people exposure to a fairly wide variety of styles. During the 90s 'pop' became a genre in its own right - and because on-line music is all hyper-constrained by genre and artists increasingly write to the genre to fit the demands of on-line music distribution, pop music has completely stagnated - everyone wants to be genre conformant with a slight twist - artists of the mid 60s to mid 80s were much more likely to come with an attitude of I don't want to sound like anyone else.. There is very little evolution from late 90s pop to mid 20s pop of today. It is easy to pinpoint a pop song from the 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s to its time period as the styles of each era are distinctive. That just isn't anywhere near as true for 00s, 10s, 20s
Very interesting, and relevant to what I'm trying to do. Like you, I'm old-school, but I'm trying to do things in a new, online way. I'd live to pick your brains futher about this. Sorry to hear about the farmers. :)
Subjectively (but I do not think I am alone), I would still say the albums matter. If I am getting interested in a musician, a few songs are not enough anymore and I start searching for releases (checking discography on Wikipedia first). And for example, Led Zeppelin youtube channel published albums in addition to individual songs - 1 long video per each album.
Albums do matter. Getting together in one space face to face and playing instruments as a band matters. Look, a digital simulacrum of music is not music. It just isn’t. No one will replace a horn player on a laptop. Nor a guitar. And fake drums are not the same as real ones. No breath, no heart beat. And certainly we have already had enough auto tune to last an eternity. Music making SHOULD take some talent and dedication. And instruments can be found at decent prices.
I'm happy that new generations get into contact with good music from the past. But I just detest that music is beginning less and less art and more commodified. It's just another thing for consumption. Music had once a very important role in society. It would address political issues and societal changes. That role is long gone. Music does not have the same impact it once had.
I don't think human beings drastically changed in the last 50 years. Political music, in my opinion, was just a trend for the majority of the people involved.. We have a pretty clear image in Zappa's "we are only in it for the money". "I want to play my bongo in the dirt", how many really had vision and integrity and how many followed the wave because it was hip ? Just like nowadays protesters, they cannot even find the nation they are protesting for in a map. I have the idea that most of those people were really dmb just like today. Full of druqks and basically brain-dead, however they were political but they had not historical background or any idea of what they were talking about (like today). Just like Zappa said was just another power structure, and if you repeated what they wanted to hear you had access to sxual partners, druqks, connections and so on.
Andy, you are inspiring. Keep doing your thing, you are onto something. Enjoy your gigs this weekend. And most importantly may the man/baby seal/penguin-enigma that hath revealed Itself upon the album covers of the band RIOT protect and guide you in your endeavors.
one of the major issues with modern music is audience attention span so if as long as your track is simple musically and lyrically you have a chance of some success however if you want to make interesting thought provoking music the chance of anyone listening is very slim indeed.
Thank you Andy - great videos, thoughtful and sharp (and funny). I agree with you on this one and you obviously invested quite a lot of thinking. However, I'm not sure my elephant is your elephant, because many aspects you mention are valuable, but they contextualize (interesting) ideas how to overcome the problem. Actually I see, or not see, two elephants: 1. Songwriting - take any UK-Single-Chart from the seventies, eighties and even nineties, there were always at least 2 to 3 catchy songs in the top ten. I could easily mention 300 or more songs, that I liked (and still like). Even if they were sort of cheesy, like "Do you really want to hurt me", they were cheesy-clever (even Kayleigh, that's a good song, all the same). Or the songwriting-legacy of Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers. Maybe you like "We are family" and everything else or you don't, but these songs live on (to the point of over-saturation, but why? because there's nothing to replace them). Of course there are dozens of other songwriters who deserve that status. So maybe it's exactly as another commentator mentioned here: the good melodies are all written - there can't be anything new/exciting. 2. The Craft - I would like to go back to Bernard Edwards: Not all of their songs were/are classic, however any song that has Bernard Edwards on bass is a delight - he is unique. And guess what, there are quite a lot of instructional videos on youtube, that teach you how to play like Bernard Edwards (which is impossible). Or let's take Little River Band, if I listen to their songs (with the original members), the vocal harmonies are mind-blowing, even on the not so great songs. There could be a long list, CSN, Toto, Beatles, Pink Floyd (yes!), Jethro Tull, Kate Bush and so forth. So, maybe those artists don't exist anymore or the don't get the attention they deserve. I am looking forward to hearing from you those worthy music/musicians, I'd like to listen to.
All the reasons you state have been making music rubbish over many decades. However, one reason why is the massive back catalog that has been built since the 50s. There is so much modern music built up over this time that there is no room for much more. I don't listen to music much anymore, but when I do rediscovering the old stuff will do just fine. Even playing a video game you completed 15 years ago can be a perfectly satisfying experience so why bother buying a new one? We are still living in houses made 200 years ago, sleeping in beds made over 100 years ago, driving cars, and flying in commercial aircraft, made 40 years ago. There comes a point where we reach the law of diminishing returns. This law is now even applying to mobile telephones. This law is why our car industries have become desperate to force disposable, and planet-destroying EVs onto the reluctant public. Once something is brought into the world it is difficult to destroy it. That massive selection of recordings you have Andy demonstrates this 'problem.' However, for mankind to continue to progress into our owner's planned Utopia nearly everything must first be destroyed, and then constantly replaced. This also includes us, so please do a better job of keeping your heads down than Donald Trump did and please avoid any needles they may offer you.
Product hard copy has to be available in vinyl. If you're gigging then merch and a proper LP is going to sell, no middle man... You still get to use digital platforms to promote. Specialized packaging helps too.
Music up to the 90's is still played today in commercials, movies, etc. The crap today is not remembered two weeks after it's released. Will any of it be future classics? Garbage.
The big problem is Rap and Hip-hop. I cannot for the life of me understand why it is popular. Why people want to idolize misogynistic braggarts that can neither sing nor play an instrument.
I will admit that as far as chart music is concerned, there’s always been trash - pop is too often about shifting product, not great art. The major labels cater for the mass audience, who don’t necessarily want epic prog rock or jazz fusion masterpieces. Remember, when we were kids we were most likely buying pop singles - Star Trekking or Living Doll by Cliff and The Young Ones for instance - when taken subjectively, trash records, but were huge hits. I try to look at it now that the ‘great music’ we all think dominated the 60s, 70s and 80s, actually didn’t. Shakin’ Stevens shifted more singles than, say, U2 during the 1980s.
Andy's take on modern music comes from being a professional musician, verses Rick Beato's take as a producer. Musicians can still make quality music, but producers need that old way of making music to survive.
@@ToddSauve Yeah, I knew he was also a musician, and a pretty good one too, but he was a professional producer too. And I see a lot of his take on the issue of new music as coming from that prospective.
@@tomconner2326 Well, that gives Rick a unique perspective on these matters. He sees what is going on behind the scenes due to his personal interactions with industry insiders.
@@ToddSauveyes but have you heard his music? It’s woeful. Maximum cringe. He has no ground to stand on as an artist. Nor a producer for that matter. His number one country hit is deplorably bad. Beato is actually the reason so much music is terrible
You got beautiful eyes. Great ending in the vid. By the way, I agree with your daughter on Psycho Killer. It has become by far my most preferred Talking Heads piece. Never watched any TikTok.
Andy - it's a point of view, but I beg to differ. There are a couple of reasons why current "pop" music IS rubbish; I don't think this applies to all "modern" music. The three main reasons, in my view, are the reasons that motivate someone to make music; the general dumbing-down of music making with sampling (or plagiarism as it is more correctly termed) and similar technologies; and catering to the ever shortening attention span of the Social Media generation, which is exacerbated by streaming services making music as disposable as toilet paper (which most of it actually is!). It is not pretentious to say that some artists still exist and are still trying to say something that might be of interest to others - like your bands, for example. The difference between something crafted and something formulaic is obvious - how many songs written by Lennon-McCartney do you remember, as opposed to how many Stock-Aitken-Waterman "compositions" do you recall? For myself, I remember all of the former and none of the latter. I worry about the attention span issue. It is why the CD market declined so rapidly - how many under-20's have the patience to listen to an entire album these days? At the same stage, I (and I suspect, you) spent many hours engaged, if not enraptured (Mahavishnu, anyone?) listening to whole albums to appreciate the full value of the artists' endeavours. Last point - technology is a two-edged sword. While it can enable genuine creatives to explore new means of expression, it can also enable those with no talent except self-importance and an overwhelming desire for "money for nothing and your chicks for free" to turn out endless, vacuous trash. Ars longa, I hope.
I’m 55. I never listened to a single Beatle’s record. I thought they were bubblegum and they didn’t say anything about my life at all. I preferred gritty bands that had meaningful things to say rather than poncey chords and dumb lyrics like yellow submarine that sounded like something off Rainbow with Rod, Jane and Freddy singing it. The fact of the matter is that musical taste is just that. It’s very personal. The fact that you don’t like modern music doesn’t invalidate it.
The band that Rick Beato produced there 1st album which went Platinum is Shinedown and they still make albums and believe in albums and have had all 7 go gold & Platinum. They are mainstream and make great music that still has heart & soul . Brent's vocals and lyrics help but the whole band is great at making albums.
Albums made in the studio by the band have a dynamism that is lost when members of a band, living in different countries, send their " parts" of the album via the internet! It generally has a more sterile feel to it having been fitted like a jigsaw and fine tuned until the " nature" has been removed.
@@gregorybolin4672 REM worked the same way, even in the early days. Buck, Berry and Mills would work on the music, give it to Stipe who would go off and come back with the lyrics.
Hello, Andy, I love your videos, have seen lots of yours as well as those of Rick Beato. I watch them all to improve my English vocab and listening skills, but also to learn something about music theory or the albums themselves - hopefully also getting some tips for new music to listen to. I am an old time fan of bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, M Efekt, but also the Stranglers, Rollins Band, various electronic music, and in the last 25 years mostly of classical (Prokofiev). Please, have you thought about including actual musical samples of the music you're talking about in your videos? For me, that would greatly increase my interest and enjoyment of your videos. Sláva, 54 years, Czech Republic
I think I am a really odd one out, the way I approach music. Ever since my discovery and love of prog, and soon after fusion, and much later, contemporary classical music, I figured out what was at the core of these genres (and subgenres), that I really loved. And that was the following attributes: high levels of musicianship, complexity, deep/broad ranges of emotional and/or intellectual content, no need for a catchy hook, or humable melody. The great things about loving those attributes, is that there are always a fresh crop of musicians who want to create them. This allows me to continually discover new music and musicians. I love modern prog, jazz, fusion, even if it's somewhat derivative (I actually think originality is a bit overrated), since it will still have those previously mentioned attributes. And it also allows me to get into new genres if they also have those attributes. Hence, my discovery of contemporary classical music in my mid 50's. Let me also add, that I haver never really had any feelings of nostalgia connected with music. I don't listen to old prog or fusion from my youth, because it was the "soundtrack of my youth", I still listen to it because it holds up based on those previously mentioned attributes.
But people forget that Prog People were the weirdos in The Seventies. There might have been more of us, but we were still the sad gits smoking joints in the back of the pub while everyone else was raving about how good Slade were. As a proportion of the population, we were not real significant. It's just that we all bought the same 15 albums! 🙂
I think the music we all hold dear is down to when we hear it. As kids and teens we encounter new discoveries and experiences while simultaneously full of hormones and extreme emotions and this has an effect on how we listen to music. Once fully grown we rarely “feel” new music to that extent but still get an emotional charge from the music that soundtracked our youth. Nuff pop psychology 😀
I think that lack of knowledge of harmony plays a big role. With all the technology it is easier to copy someone and also to imitate. Which also costs time and practice, but at the same time prevents the creative spirit of the players from giving their own impulse to a composition of their own. Many want to make music and sound like their idol of their time.
Exactly. I know that it sounds crazy but I remember being a teenager back in the 90s and discussing with other kids why 70s music was better. Well, those discussions are over, because very few people from this generation will find any arguments to defend current music anymore. Wanna find great music? Just look for anything pre-2000s. The ocean or great music is almost infinite.
There is always something good to be found. Like, I have tried to get into that Portishead album you frequently reccomend (I am older then you), and it's a no go.. But I also listen to new stuff like Atyya and Kaya Project, it's proper psychedelic music, if you allow it, and I can see some of the roots of this new music in the Portishead album. Popular culture is faddish, and goes in cycles from utter imbecelity to reasonable levels of sophistication, and everything in between. There is a period of Jazz in the 50s which is quite cool, there is 30s music my grandmother liked when she was a flapper, that is also quite good.. Cycles. You do have to suspend cultural prejudice, to appreciate things that are out of your own time. Bach, Sibelius, Scarlatti, and the rest, are examples of that..
@@westong6215 Absolutely. There are lots of great bands. But now we’re missing something: the collective memory. And it was a powerful thing. I, for instance, love The Avalanches and The Black Pumas. Those bands are amazing but they have a very modest following, generally speaking they are almost unknown. Most of listeners will have to conform with our headphones, because our bands will rarely sound loudly outdoors, as we were used when Michael Jackson released a new hit. I remember the excitement of kids at school talking about Guns and Roses. That experience is almost over. The mainstream is so full of mediocre people and the good ones have so little visibility that the musical experience gets more and more isolated.
The heavy reliance on digital processing makes a lot of it worse, in my opinion. Real rooms, reverb, tube amps, magnetic tape, etc. simply sound better.
I think people forget how much bad and terrible music that was out there when we look back at the music of 1960s and 70s. Today, when we look back and consider the music of the past, we are only looking at best of the best, the upper 20% of everything that was produced at that time, music that has passed the “test of time” or “the filter of time”. A lot of the music from the 60s and 70s was forgettable junk and has been forgotten (and rightfully so). So if you are only considering the great music of the past, and comparing it to everything that is coming out now, it seem so much better but, I think it is a distorted and inequitable comparison. Also, the enormous quantity of music that is coming out today is overwhelming compared to the past. Finding good new music requires a substantial investment of time, listening, and filtering through lots of not so good stuff. And if you are an adult, working 40 hours a week, and possibly maintaining a home and family, that time is not so easy to come by. When you are a teenager you have the time, when you are an adult, you don’t. Give us 50 years to filter through and evaluate the very best 20% of the music of the 2010s and 20s, and I imagen some pretty good stuff will emerge.
Some time ago, I went through the charts from the 70s and 80s in reverse order. The charts of the late 1980s to my ears had a few great songs, a handful of really horrible songs and a large swath of unremarkable but still enjoyable songs. In the early 1970s the charts almost always had a fair number of truly classics songs that have all by now been played to death, while the remainder of the songs were all complete crap. Unremarkable but still enjoyable tunes were mostly absent the further back we go.
If you look at some of the popular artists from the early 80’s…Talking Heads, Police, Rush, Clash, RunDMC, Hall and Oates etc….the pop charts were stacked with innovative talented musicians…this simply isn’t the case today. An artist like Taylor Swift would have had the career trajectory of a Laura Brannigan if she came out in the 80’s.
True. The 80s are unfairly maligned! Besides everything you mention, it was also a decade of superior pop! Bands like Erasure, A-ha, Yazoo. They wrote very good songs! Vince Clarke was a synth pioneer and a really good songsmith!
Sometimes a thing will have already have been covered and need no more. This is one of those times. The initial discussion was interesting. This one is just mind numbing.
This is why youtube is important. You making this video alone proves that the music industry is thriving. It just appears different now and this is true of technology's implications on EVERY industry. Patreon, RUclips, merch sales, tours backed by youtube followers, etc. It's still alive and thriving. It just appears different now. Wait until the VR and AI music market begins. It will be completely unrecognizable. Those ahead of the curb always are successful. yesterday was different than today which will be different than tomorrow. But there's one commonality which remains prevalent it's understanding the human condition and how to sell. You, my friend, know this.
I say now is the time to unite and “preserve” music . Let’s bring back guitar and its guitar hero’s - the world stay awaites a third to move guitar forward likened to Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen - playing faster ilIMHO is not the ticket 🎫
There’s so much brilliant music out there. It’s harder to find amongst all the rubbish but persistence pays off. Not only old stuff but new stuff too. Having said that at 64 aside from the Steven Wilson and modern prog rock, and Rammstein solar system I’m stuck in the 70s and 80s.
Point Two - the whole of this kind of stuff was addressed by a writer back in the day (Gristgau in Rolling Stone, mid to later '70s I think). To choose a single starting point, he cited the completely umexpected and shocking but ultra-mega success of Frampton Comes Alive. He felt that the suits looked at those numbers and realized that they coiuld not just make money in this business, but they could make gobs and gobs of huge piles of tons of money. Enter... TARGETED MARKETING! So Zep, Yes, ELP, Purple and The Who begot Foreigner, Journey and the like.
@ 13:48 that's the reality of it, exactly! 100 real people (making an effort to come and see the band live) are more meaningful than 1M jaded smombies staring at a screen for 8 hours in a row. Keep giggin - even if it does not pay well.
There's loads of music, and clearly it's not all rubbish. Plenty of good stuff, it's just that the mass popular stuff is largely rubbish, but look behind that, plenty of good stuff. I think the problem is that it's too genred, people don't listen to the radio, they just listen to what they already know and like.
Well Radio in the US has been mostly crap for decades. Blame Clear Channel/I Heart Radio and the death of college radio with stuffy NPR affiliates. However...some public radio is fantastic.
Seems to be the case that modern tunes that hark back to earlier styles are better and more catchy. They can't dream up a new sound that sounds cool. There's only afro beats, and you can only take so much of that...
I'm not sure ENOUGH people like new music or are prepared to open their minds even to their favourite bands new music. People are "stuck" in the past and as you get older the problem does get worse. I'm seeing good Tribute bands far outselling really oustanding original artists. Even in the heady days of yore, if a band toured playing songs from a new album that folk didnt know the fans wernt happy. many of us oldies just want to see their favourite band and hear their classics be it, Judas Priest, Wishbone Ash Argus etc etc, yet there are old bands playing today with new stuff like Magnum (were), Saxon, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple are producing stuff every bit as god if not technically better than in their hey day. I can't afford either the money or time to see that many bands but 3 people with original music I have seen in the last year without everrt hearing any of their music before are Joe Martin, Karnataka and Damien Wilson, some of which has been awesome as well as including Maddy Prior and her daughter from Steeleye Span. I do refuse now after seeing Priest, Saxon and Heep in Glasgow, to ever go to a concert bigger that a theatre, you know the great ones Hammersmith Odeon, New Theatre Oxford, Newcastle City hall, O2 Academy etc etc. But far better are the more intamate venues 400 or less. Ill pay double the ticket price for that. A good sound system, well behaved audience who listen to the music, maybe even some real ale or even better perhaps NO TICKETMASTER. Young, new artists though do have it tough as how do you hit the ground running when you are inexperienced. In days of old you slogged unlitil you either go better, built up a following or realised you were not of interst to anyone. So you either buy into the BTS type model, hold on to the coat tails of the Mega venues and ticket master, or just go out play for fun as a 'professionally set up" amateur hobby and treat it as "if other like it, all well and good, but I/we do" Lastly, if you are going out there to be a Star, first and foremost, with all the trappings, (the message that young folk are given, then lots of folk are going to be disappointed).
When I listen to some pop records produced from current pop stars with the last 10 years and then listen to Michael Jackson or other major pop stars from 30 years ago, or 40 years ago I do not find the listen much different. When I put on pop records from the 60s or 70's and then listen to pop records from the 30s and 40s. Big differences. Certainly the recording processes improved to mark sonic differences over that time frame, but the music itself with arrangements, instrumentation and rhythms in pop music changed dramatically, as well. Today with streaming and algorithms basically queuing up various like sounding songs from an artificial intelligence generators based on the public's likes or dislikes the listener hears the processed pablum of today that I find really repetitious and boring. Or A.I. generates the most played items from the Police, Talking Heads, etc that fit today's sampling trends. There is not a ton of real exploration by the human being today, the offerings come from mathematical equations by computers. Less streaming of music and more individual exploration would be greatly beneficial for the world in my opinion for creativity sake. Thanks for your thoughtful takes.
I love your channel. This is a great explanation. I have been trying to explain this to my band... and all they want to do is go play gigs in front of 20 people. It's a mindset that we need to change. I agree with you and Rick too. But It's important that we respect young people's music. They need to have their own music and their own way of doing it. All of it can exist together and we can a compliment each other as well.
there are still a lot of bands that work on the old fashion way of doing things because it is what their audience grew up with...and i am not talking Springsteen or The rolling Stones here, but much more recent bands that emerged in the noughties, just before technology and social media went bezirk, like Arctic Monkeys or Muse. These guys still rely on the classic formula of longer form/promotion/touring. and it still works very well for them because they established their fanbase, but their audience is getting older and you can tell that this model is gonna need tweaking, for the younger generation of bands to flourish. And it is possible. Bands like IDLES or Fontaines D.C. are very popular at the moment, and they are still doing the recording/promoting/touring thing. But the difference is they have adapted to the current media to a certain extent. So they promote themselves through RUclips videos, through special one offs performances in front of a very small audience (e.g. Tiny Desk Concerts) or filmed mini concerts in radio studios, because it ticks all the boxes for their audience of internet presence, album promotion and live performance. They might not be the biggest acts on the planet but it works...so there is still place for the album, maybe not as a cultural phenomenon, but certainly for the music lovers.
Colin Blunstone, Tony Visconti, Peter Noone, Jason Mraz and others have guested on Rob Squad Reacts. It's a sweet young American couple who know nothing about music, with 3,600 videos and over 500k subs. Reaction channels succeed because guys my age get a vicarious buzz from seeing a new gen discover music we love. Patreon song requests provide the revenue. HOWEVER, everyone on earth since 1964 has strummed a guitar, because The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan. I think there's more room for proper musicians to analyze songs.
Take a listen to Two Door Cinema Club - and REALLY listen. The arrangement, the structure, the amazing counterpoint guitaring, and excellent singing. The watch them performing it to thousands of 'kids' at Glastonbury, festivals and in stadiums across the world, and 'the kids' dancing to 7/4 songs with no clue that they are doing it. Music is doing ok - the business is struggling!
Great video, Andy ... very inspiring. Just discovered " The Henge " ... nice and crazy .... It reminds us old geezers of the holy Trinity of George Clinton, Parliament and Bootsy C. They were actually pioneering this multi media trail ... perhaps even Kiss, Gene Simmons was constantly looking for new ways of monetarizing his product ... I bet they wished they had the Net in those days ... Oh, what about Zappa ...?
“Content creation” for a serious, trained jazz musician is INSTANTANEOUS. Miles went into the studio for 2 days to fulfill his Prestige contract, cranked out 4 albums that became legendary-Workin’-Relaxin’-Cookin’Steamin. Jazz musicians are best positioned themselves in the best way to act in today’s marketplace. To the extent it is possible. Popular music exploded after WW2, during the long wave of the capitalist boom in the OECD countries. Given the doldrums of the popular music scene of the 1950s-“novelty songs” were en vogue-N.B. The war between Sinatra and, say, Mitch Miller This was the “How Much in the Doggie in the Window” era. What happened? For the first time, children became the vanguard of the musical taste public. Thus, rock exploded, and music became a commodity like never before. There was a brief anomaly from the late 60s to the late 70s-a lot of experimental music captured a large audience. (prog-Kraut, fusion). Normal service resumed thereafter, as the suits took charge again. Thus, Derek Schulman became an A&R guy schilling Bon Jovi-he was no longer the front man for maybe the most weird band of the 1970s. Today, the Rick Beato Boomers sell not new music, but nostolgia for Boomers. I was a kid in the early 80s-I discovered Yes and King Crimson in the early 80s, their current music at the time was ok, not much different than what was else on th radio. Then I heard Larks Tongues and Relayer and thought “WHAT PLANET IS THIS FROM??? The Inner Mounting Flame was far more weird to an early 80s kid than “Remain in Light”. Thankfully, then I heard Jim Hall playing the most incredible guitar on a Sonny Rollins album. Then I hard Ellington and Mingus. My mind was blown. And still is, to this very day. I love all kinds of music, but nothing is more beautiful than jazz.
do you think that kind of virtuosic and creative performance is limited to jazz?
and are you positing a novelty-to-quality progression whereby the inheritors of a narrow musical culture go on to explode it? the issue with capital is at least so far it always wins, certainly in the cultural arena, and to me it seems that the creative explosion we're discussing essentially relied on a more naive industry.
There is a reason why corporations are buying the catalogues of classic rock artists. What is their thinking: that all the best songs have been composed and that classic rock and pop will be the Bach, Beethoven and Mozart of the next two hundred years. For example, younger generation love Queen. They just have to be exposed to the music. Humans have an innate attraction to nice, hooky melodies. See also The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, etc.and meaningful lyrics that they can relate to.
I've been saying this for years. People talk like the amount of hooky catchy melodies, riffs, etc, is infinite, and you can always just invent more, but it isn't like that at all. The number is finite. Repetition was reached a long time ago. It has nothing to do with the talent of new musicians, they're just dealing with a canvas that's no longer blank, so it's much, much harder to create anything truly original.
@@TheNightBadger Beats are the new riffs and hooks :)
I personally don't care for Hip Hop but when I was younger in the 80s and 90s at least they paid some money to PRODUCE a Hip Hop single. Now any Ahole can make it on SoundCloud
Point One - my ex made a terrific statement a number of years ago. She said "the music you grow up on will always be your favorite,"
Love everything about your channel Andy, you can do whatever you like and I will tune in!
One way to highlight new music is to highlight some of the bands that play the festivals like Lollapalooza, SXSW, Glastonbury, Coachella, Bonarooo. Foals, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix, Flaming Lips, Vampire Weekend, Silversun Pickups, Portugal The Man. There's a LOT of good new music but it's being played on college stations and the festival venues.
Top Ten songs i never need to hear ever again. We need a list Andy. I'm sure everyone has 10 or more. A Clapton song or two comes to mind...
#1 - 'Imagine' by John Lennon.
@@HB-zi3og.....'Believe' by Cher; 'Music' by Madonna; 'Mull of Kintyre' by Paul McCartney; 'Do ya think I'm sexy' by Rod Stewart....to name a few.....
A lot of mainstream music is rubbish. It’s designed to be rubbish. There is a lot of great music away from the mainstream. It just takes more effort to find it.
If you ask me it’s always been that way. Yes, not so much as today, but pop was always full of garbage even in the 60s and 70s.
Oh, la di dah. Mainstream is crass music for the common people.
@@John-k6f9k spot on mate.
@@John-k6f9k I hope this is a joke
@@John-k6f9k not in the slightest. It’s rubbish music for everyone, not just the “common people” whoever they are.
Your infinitely more entertaining than BEATTO, and provide some keen insights -as to how -artists Can adapt to this paradigm , we’re in!!!thanx.
Rick has done good interviews
The fact that Sony have just bought for Queen's catalogue for an alleged billion tells us that a. the music industry has no interest in investing in new talent and b. we are heading to a cultural wasteland in the 21st century with famous old pop music being spewed at us with every opportunity.
God help us when they get AI to homogenize famous dead film stars in the next franchises (or current ones....) playing air guitar to Bohemian Rhapsody.
Looks like the corporations have won and the only good I can get out of the music/film industry is the dividends from their shares. Right, Visions of the Emerald Beyond is being slapped on at full volume right now.
Visions .. is my no 1 album!!!
No doubt, Queen's back catalogue will be mined by AI to create new Queen albums. And, the old material might be leased to allow third parties to train their own AIs.
Ya I feel like this on a bad day..
@@Dunbar0740 Nooooooooo! I feel queasy enough as it is....
@@drumsybatabamboom8022#1 album or #1 Mahavishnu album?
You've got me studying McLaughlin's phrasing. Are you proud of yourself, Mister Edwards? I have avoided this little exercise since 1972 for good reason.
I started trying to play like him when I think I was 9 or 10 years old because after hearing the Mahavishnu Orchestra I just thought anyone who was any good played like that. Not so easy!
@@aliensporebomb - I want to be like Jimi, who would jam with anyone without judgement, pretty much. My brain doesn't do, well, reading and scales so much. I don't want to copy John, I want to learn about his structures and feeling. I want to expand my vibe and technique so that new layers of muscle memory are created. I've been playing since 1969 and though I don't much shred, at all, in the normal sense of shredding. I often play Django style, with 2 fingers fretting and I'm more melodic in that style. Ten years old and interested in Maha? Amazing. Keep jamming.
John's licks are great fast or slow. Listen to Carlos Santana on Santana's "Dance Sister Dance" - the studio version. From just after 3:40 to 3:52 he plays a standard McLaughlin lick at half-speed. It sounds great and fits the song perfectly.
@@flazjsg - I am checking it out as I type. Remember Devotion? I may have got that wrong but I swear I heard John and Carlos' collab in 1976. I saw/heard/smelled John and Jeff Beck jam in the early seventies. - O.k....Baile Mi Hermana! I know the song, I remember his playing, I sing the chorus sometimes just for groovy fun. Carlos really expanded his technique when he jammed with John, which is what I'm doing, half-speed. Thank you.
😅😅😅😅
The Warning, The Sixters, Band-Maid, Plush and many others. Great rock bands and young girls look better than old guys.
As far as the modern record industry is concerned, *The Warning* has been doing it right. Unsigned for 8 years when they were literally children and approached by every predatory entity in their youth to capitalize on them.
Signed when they were ready, and flooding all forms of digital platforms with absolutely top notch nostalgic rock and vlogs documenting their career. From a stab at a concept album at their second attempt, which is remarkable, their forth album, recently released, should get world wide recognition. They tour like maniacs and have been putting in the hard work for over 10 years and it's starting to pay off. Bands like Muse, Foo Fighters, GnR, Def Lepard and on and on, not only asked them to open for them, but invited them back.
Well worth a listen to any of their stuff for anyone that's been less than impressed with Rock for the last couple decades.
Last dinner party are pretty good.
Seven Spires, Aldious, Unlucky Morpheus, Battle Beast, Unleash the Archers, Witherfall, Illumishade in a more metal mood. Great new bands with recent albums.
I'm 67. I play what I like ( in my wardrobe) 👍🤪
Wardrobe=closet? Here in US wardrobe is your collection of clothing.
You must be a lawnmower. I can tell you by the way you walk.
I'm 70, 107 pounds, male, and I play what I want in my little room and then I play what I want on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame. Tourists have much better passion for music than the residents, who can't spell "jam".
@@gregcable3250
But you see, I'm not in the US, I'm over here, watching the woke Liberals Selling England by the Pound!
@@nickpatten5263and he can always hear them talk...
Most of my collection is from the 70's and always will be, that's when I was in my teens and music meant so much to me, but here's the thing, music STILL means much to me, and as old as I am I still enjoy discovering something new, my love of music is still growing and I hope it always will, never let that love stagnate. Hence, I look forward to seeing your content on new music and music you have discovered.
Rick Beato's interview with Stephen Wilson showed how important Spotify is to the musician, Wilson said the first thing Virgin did when he signed to them was send him on a Spotify seminar, and the guy has been around since the mid 90's, but even had to learn how to adapt to the new way music is marketed.
Seeing your videos hours from the time they’re posted makes it some much more fun and fresh compared to old ones that become available, and your tone in this is like a gigantic breath of fresh air and I can breathe now after the last several have been utterly unhinged
I want some kid to post a King Gizzard song to TickTock. They deserve wider acclaim.
I feel like King Gizzard's career arc is the opposite of what he is advocating for in this video. They don't make their money from long form content, there's no King Gizzard podcast, they aren't dancing on TikTok. They started as a bunch of friends making DIY garage rock in their local scene, got a grant from the Australian government to go play in the US, took advantage of that and recorded a killer album, played a bunch of small shows and gained a bunch of fans from it. They started their own record label, released album after album, played as many shows as they could, and now they're in a spot where they can do whatever they want.
My daughter, who was training as a singer / actress, bought a turntable and bought records. She'd ask me questions like "What is Jeff Beck's best rock record?" I'd say Truth. If kids are exposed to a certain music, they will search it out.
I keep coming to your channel because, although your videos are long, they are informative, insightful and genuine. And the humor also helps!
Fascinating, but also depressing. I'd rather have an album I can listen to whenever I want than to have a video to watch over and over again.
A few comments on the video:
- The copyright strikes are just stupid and self defeating, in my opinion, especially for channels doing reactions. Here, bands/labels have a great, and free, way to promote their music and set it on fire for a shortsighted monetary gain/loss. What are the odds that a 20-25 year old is listening/giving a shot to an older/legacy band, or even one that defunct? also, realize that some/ a lot of reaction channels put a minimal effort into the reaction (just saying at the end that the song was great and moving on to another reaction). But there are channels that take the time to analyze the song, or try to connect it to a feeling or a moment in their life. There has to be a middle ground where the band/label and the channel (indirectly promoting the band's music) can coexist.
- I like to watch music review videos (or even rankings videos) because, a lot of the time, help me discover new music, or older music I wasn't aware it existed.
- New music is not all rubbish. Mainstream music is mostly, 97.235678% actually, rubbish. Good to great music is out there but you need to search for it.
One thing for sure, whether they agree or disagree with Rick Beato, there are a whole lot of people on RUclips who owe him a big thanks for his "controversial" posting, "The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse." As of this moment, he has generated nearly 3 million views. I don't know the economics of RUclips but I am sure the 3 million views equates to a lot of money for Rick. But outside of that, a whole group of people have risen up to react to him who have garnered huge numbers of views that would never have happened had it not been for Rick's original posting. So a lot of money is being made by a lot of people because of the subject and that's a good thing for everybody. Everybody should be thankful for everybody else for making it all happen. And a special thanks goes out to Rick Beato for getting it all stirred up.
People appreciated more challenging music up into the late '90s because public schools forced you to take a music class. If you didn't sing or play an instrument, you were made to sit in a music appreciation class. Public schools got rid of music appreciation and even orch and band class when their budgets dried up. Kids in inner city schools got their trumpets and snare drums taken away from them, so they invented hip hop with an 808 and a turntable. If kids get no guidance, do not expect music to evolve.
I've noticed though that when someone hears an older song on Tik Tok, they like it, but not many of them actually go listen to MORE songs or albums from that artist.
When Roundabout became so well known because of 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventures' I remember asking people what other Yes songs they liked, only to be met by blank stares...
We all underestimate how many people only like what's trending and aren't interested or can't be bothered diving deeper into an artist's discography.
Also, Cardiacs is my favourite band but I guarantee that a mainstream audience will NEVER be ready for anything by Tim Smith 😆😭
Bang on, spot on! Provided they even know what they are listening to, they just go with the trend, and trends nowadays last like farts, not much, really ;) They won't delve into any discography. Also, all those plays on TT will hardly make a penny for the artist. Getting a lot of exposure which then does not result in either revenue or new opportunities is useless.
Most people nowadays seem to have no real interest in music at all (and if you were a teenager in the post 2000 music landscape who could blame you). Music is now just about playlists and soundtracking your life. I saw it when Stranger Things propelled 'Running Up That Hill' back to the top of the charts - rather than explore Hounds of Love or any of the rest of Kate's discography it was a case of stick 'Running Up That Hill' on whichever 'mood' playlist it fit and move on. It seems that no-one ever really listens to music as an exclusive activity any more - it's always backing for whatever multitasking thing people are doing at any given moment.
This has always been the case for the majority of people. Album's are a rock era thing. Mainly an American rock era thing. In the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties and even into the seventies it was mostly about singles and radio play. In the 80s it was mix tapes and MTV. Before any of that it was sheet music. Albums are a blip in the grand scheme of things.
@@richardpluck6658 This is incorrect. Kate Bush's streaming numbers rapidly increased after Stranger Things. Sales of physical copies of her albums increased as well. Anecdotal, but I've seen a noticeable increase in interest for her whole discography from young music fans in the past several years.
Watching on my break from practice 🎸
Sad.
@@James-hd4msWell cheer up then... 😂
Probably worth thinking about. I spent a decent amount of my time the other night on Bandcamp trying to find some new jazz artists to listen to. There was a lot to sift through.
I just discovered your channel , and now I'm a subscriber. I think your band idea is great. I spend hours trying to find new music that I like. There's a lot of great bands out there that never get their chance on Spotify or radio play. You would really do a good cultural deed both helping the bands and us, we who are actually searching for them. I play in bands myself but we can't even get gigs anymore because why pay for a live band when you can run Spotify play lists? Thanks from Sweden!
Love your videos and your words, Andy.
finally an older person who understands and actually cares to try and delve into the youth culture they are commenting on
Lots of good thoughts and ideas here today. I've been trying to work out how to adjust to the current times when it comes to being in a band and how to go about things because I was out of the scene for a long time. I've decided to get back into it now and you've been a big help to fill in some of the blanks.
This is absolutely fantastic!! Great stuff. Love it.
This must be video nr 10, I've been bingeing your channel for the last 3 days, since I've found it out. I'd skip over the compliments, you've heard them all. I will try to keep it short as it gets: The first band i was a fan of - G'n'R. Then Nirvana. At 15, i discovered Pulp /britpop etc. Instant fan. Then, there was Andy Votel - whom I'm glad to call my friend, by now. As I would say in case of Adrian Sherwood. People say never meet your idols, there's a trick about that, tho. Would be too much, to expand on this. I have Never been ashamed of Anything i really liked - in retrospect. I learned to know what I like and why, been a DJ for two decades. I also found out, such consistence is rare, in all truth. My biggest Grand Conclusion is that people go to the club for 2 different reasons: to enjoy the very same thing they know and nothing else. And folks like me, always in for something New and triggering that instant thrill of novelty, that seduction of a mysterious affinity, that demands to be simply pursued. It's all I've got. Working on a "Bildungsroman" of sorts. First Person. Non fiction. Thought of pointing this out, for I've never even attempted to do "Art" before... (while I was a DJ or Professional Journalist/Photographer)... I would have Never even dare to play with the idea, until I Really felt it's about Time. That I Can do it Properly, for the Right Reasons only - the only certitude i maintained as an "Art" consumer/critic/curator...whatsoever. . meanwhile, Thank You, Sir! You are a Great! PS. One tune for all of You: Phoenix -- Pseudomorgana.
If I were young and starting a band I think I would create a program or podcast or whatever that lets the audience in on more of the creation of the finished piece of music. Record for instance when the writer introduces a new piece of music to the band. Follow it through edited videos of members working out their individual parts or solos then follow it up with the completed song or piece of music.
Apparently I love to watch it because I'm here again. You crack me up. And I love your TV-screen and pointer technology (from you previous video on this)..
Great content😊 And the laugh at the end was like your version of Zappa cracking up at the beginning of "Watermelon in easter hay"😄
During this video I got a thought; what if some of the RUclipsrs (I watch😁) of different content got together once or twice a year to make joint videos? What if Caspersight met Andy Edwards, Barefaced Audio and Desert Drifter? Would it ruin the individual nische they've cut out? Or maybe everyone involved could benefit from the event.
Great content Andy. Hopefully it helps some artists change their methods and be more successful.
You're just describing what indie rock has been doing for 30 years. They make independent albums, used to get airplay, used to be reviewed on Pitchfork and other websites, go on tour, sell t-shirts, merch, and albums at the small venue or festival concerts. They still do most of that with the exception of independent radio airplay and indie music review web sites which have largely gone away. Wilco, Flaming Lips, Blonde Redhead, Sigur Ros, Ladytron, Built to Spill, Beck, Vampire Weekend, Slowdive, Air, The Dandy Warhols, Of Montreal, Silversun Pickups are all still making albums and touring in that way. Probably not getting rich, but widely available to their audiences on media and live performances. All still playing real instruments and making relevant music. And very few videos.
I'd hope Beck is moderately rich by now, but hear you about his sound being a good fit for that great list...
@@sashaames9952 Yes (we're talking about Beck and not "Jeff" Beck, correct?)
@@eximusic Hey, yeah, I sure did, Beck Hansen. I'm quite. fan, his recent performance with Berkeley orchestra was fantastic!!
@@sashaames9952 Yes, he's an amazing artist and songwriter. Just checking as many of Andy's listeners would have only heard of Jeff Beck.
Yeah...outside of shoegaze...and industrial dance..and some some euro pop and manchester sound bands, the late 80s was pretty terrible. However...the early 90s was pretty amazing.
I feel like there might be a resurgence of interest in acoustic music played live. The sheer longing for unfiltered skill and "realness" may lead to a point where the likes of Paco de Lucia become the crowd favorites once again.
I've always been shocked there haven't been more Justin Biebers -- major stars who were discovered off RUclips or social media.
A couple of things: 1) If we're honest, back in the old days with the Beatles, Led Zep, Steely Dan, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Yes and all the rest there was a tremendous amount of rubbish as well that hasn't survived the test of time, but no one talks about that stuff (for good reason). And remember back then there were record companies, and A&R men filtering out a lot of stuff that we never ever heard, and still a lot of rubbish made it to the radio stations. The thing is, is that only the really memorable stuff has remained in our collective memory.
2) This was a great video, I think you're starting to figure this out. Good discussion for any musicians trying to figure out how to make it in this internet new world. Thx.
The difference between then and now is that back then for every 100 albums that came out you got one or two legends. Nowadays we’re getting just the rubbish with no classics.
@Wingman52 I agree and made a similar comment here as well. Even if you look at the hit songs on the Billboard charts from the 1960s and 70s, you will find a lot of junk, and titles and bands that are long forgotten. Zappa often put the quote “kill ugly radio” on his album covers in the 1960s, because they played so much worthless garbage back then (and now). Many of the best and most innovative bands and artists that we look back on as the greats of that time, received little or no airplay.
@misterknightowlandco The difference between then and now is, for every 100 albums that came out then, 5000 come out now. Who has the time to hear and evaluate the massive amount of music that is produced nowadays? Who knows what’s out there?
@@williamfarr8807 very good point. For all we know the next Led Zeppelin IV is sitting on a hard drive made by some kid who did it for fun and is too embarrassed to publish or promote it.
True enough - there was rubbish back in the 60's and 70's. The distinction with today is that MOST of it is rubbish.
I think the big difference is not about what music is produced (I know there's good music *if* you can find it), but what is in the mainstream. The period that got me into music was the '78-'83 post-punk/new-wave era in the UK and at that time the charts were incredibly eclectic - yes there was plenty of junk in the top 40 (Joe Dolce at no 1 leaving Vienna at no. 2, anyone?), but even the average throwaway pop was both more varied and more musically imaginative than today's charts (Bananarama, Madness, Adam & the Ants). It was also more accepting of things out of the norm - Ghost Town No 1; O Superman reaching no.2.
People always say don't look at the charts, but that has always been reflective, mainly, of the taste of older teens and early 20s record buyers (and now streamers, I guess). That the charts look the way they do is deeply depressing.
One of the biggest things to undermine the mainstream was something that slowly changed during the 1990s. Through the 60s, 70s and 80s 'pop' was a catch-all category - there might be music that we recognised as having a genre, but 'pop' was this big mix-and-match container and (radio) promotion pulled from the contents of that container giving people exposure to a fairly wide variety of styles.
During the 90s 'pop' became a genre in its own right - and because on-line music is all hyper-constrained by genre and artists increasingly write to the genre to fit the demands of on-line music distribution, pop music has completely stagnated - everyone wants to be genre conformant with a slight twist - artists of the mid 60s to mid 80s were much more likely to come with an attitude of I don't want to sound like anyone else.. There is very little evolution from late 90s pop to mid 20s pop of today. It is easy to pinpoint a pop song from the 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s to its time period as the styles of each era are distinctive. That just isn't anywhere near as true for 00s, 10s, 20s
Very interesting, and relevant to what I'm trying to do. Like you, I'm old-school, but I'm trying to do things in a new, online way. I'd live to pick your brains futher about this. Sorry to hear about the farmers. :)
Subjectively (but I do not think I am alone), I would still say the albums matter. If I am getting interested in a musician, a few songs are not enough anymore and I start searching for releases (checking discography on Wikipedia first). And for example, Led Zeppelin youtube channel published albums in addition to individual songs - 1 long video per each album.
Albums do matter. Getting together in one space face to face and playing instruments as a band matters. Look, a digital simulacrum of music is not music. It just isn’t. No one will replace a horn player on a laptop. Nor a guitar. And fake drums are not the same as real ones. No breath, no heart beat. And certainly we have already had enough auto tune to last an eternity. Music making SHOULD take some talent and
dedication. And instruments can be found at decent prices.
I'm happy that new generations get into contact with good music from the past. But I just detest that music is beginning less and less art and more commodified. It's just another thing for consumption. Music had once a very important role in society. It would address political issues and societal changes. That role is long gone. Music does not have the same impact it once had.
Imagine, youth is looking at Taylor Swift for guidance nowadays…
I don't think human beings drastically changed in the last 50 years. Political music, in my opinion, was just a trend for the majority of the people involved.. We have a pretty clear image in Zappa's "we are only in it for the money". "I want to play my bongo in the dirt", how many really had vision and integrity and how many followed the wave because it was hip ? Just like nowadays protesters, they cannot even find the nation they are protesting for in a map. I have the idea that most of those people were really dmb just like today. Full of druqks and basically brain-dead, however they were political but they had not historical background or any idea of what they were talking about (like today). Just like Zappa said was just another power structure, and if you repeated what they wanted to hear you had access to sxual partners, druqks, connections and so on.
Go listen to something like Ayreon and stop whining.
Andy, you are inspiring. Keep doing your thing, you are onto something. Enjoy your gigs this weekend. And most importantly may the man/baby seal/penguin-enigma that hath revealed Itself upon the album covers of the band RIOT protect and guide you in your endeavors.
one of the major issues with modern music is audience attention span so if as long as your track is simple musically and lyrically you have a chance of some success however if you want to make interesting thought provoking music the chance of anyone listening is very slim indeed.
Thank you Andy - great videos, thoughtful and sharp (and funny). I agree with you on this one and you obviously invested quite a lot of thinking. However, I'm not sure my elephant is your elephant, because many aspects you mention are valuable, but they contextualize (interesting) ideas how to overcome the problem. Actually I see, or not see, two elephants: 1. Songwriting - take any UK-Single-Chart from the seventies, eighties and even nineties, there were always at least 2 to 3 catchy songs in the top ten. I could easily mention 300 or more songs, that I liked (and still like). Even if they were sort of cheesy, like "Do you really want to hurt me", they were cheesy-clever (even Kayleigh, that's a good song, all the same). Or the songwriting-legacy of Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers. Maybe you like "We are family" and everything else or you don't, but these songs live on (to the point of over-saturation, but why? because there's nothing to replace them). Of course there are dozens of other songwriters who deserve that status. So maybe it's exactly as another commentator mentioned here: the good melodies are all written - there can't be anything new/exciting. 2. The Craft - I would like to go back to Bernard Edwards: Not all of their songs were/are classic, however any song that has Bernard Edwards on bass is a delight - he is unique. And guess what, there are quite a lot of instructional videos on youtube, that teach you how to play like Bernard Edwards (which is impossible). Or let's take Little River Band, if I listen to their songs (with the original members), the vocal harmonies are mind-blowing, even on the not so great songs. There could be a long list, CSN, Toto, Beatles, Pink Floyd (yes!), Jethro Tull, Kate Bush and so forth. So, maybe those artists don't exist anymore or the don't get the attention they deserve. I am looking forward to hearing from you those worthy music/musicians, I'd like to listen to.
All the reasons you state have been making music rubbish over many decades. However, one reason why is the massive back catalog that has been built since the 50s. There is so much modern music built up over this time that there is no room for much more. I don't listen to music much anymore, but when I do rediscovering the old stuff will do just fine. Even playing a video game you completed 15 years ago can be a perfectly satisfying experience so why bother buying a new one? We are still living in houses made 200 years ago, sleeping in beds made over 100 years ago, driving cars, and flying in commercial aircraft, made 40 years ago. There comes a point where we reach the law of diminishing returns. This law is now even applying to mobile telephones. This law is why our car industries have become desperate to force disposable, and planet-destroying EVs onto the reluctant public. Once something is brought into the world it is difficult to destroy it. That massive selection of recordings you have Andy demonstrates this 'problem.'
However, for mankind to continue to progress into our owner's planned Utopia nearly everything must first be destroyed, and then constantly replaced. This also includes us, so please do a better job of keeping your heads down than Donald Trump did and please avoid any needles they may offer you.
Product hard copy has to be available in vinyl. If you're gigging then merch and a proper LP is going to sell, no middle man... You still get to use digital platforms to promote. Specialized packaging helps too.
Music up to the 90's is still played today in commercials, movies, etc. The crap today is not remembered two weeks after it's released. Will any of it be future classics? Garbage.
The big problem is Rap and Hip-hop. I cannot for the life of me understand why it is popular. Why people want to idolize misogynistic braggarts that can neither sing nor play an instrument.
I will admit that as far as chart music is concerned, there’s always been trash - pop is too often about shifting product, not great art. The major labels cater for the mass audience, who don’t necessarily want epic prog rock or jazz fusion masterpieces. Remember, when we were kids we were most likely buying pop singles - Star Trekking or Living Doll by Cliff and The Young Ones for instance - when taken subjectively, trash records, but were huge hits. I try to look at it now that the ‘great music’ we all think dominated the 60s, 70s and 80s, actually didn’t. Shakin’ Stevens shifted more singles than, say, U2 during the 1980s.
Andy's take on modern music comes from being a professional musician, verses Rick Beato's take as a producer. Musicians can still make quality music, but producers need that old way of making music to survive.
In case you didn't know this Rick Beato is a musician. He even did some concerts last year.
@@ToddSauve Yeah, I knew he was also a musician, and a pretty good one too, but he was a professional producer too. And I see a lot of his take on the issue of new music as coming from that prospective.
@@tomconner2326 Well, that gives Rick a unique perspective on these matters. He sees what is going on behind the scenes due to his personal interactions with industry insiders.
@@ToddSauveyes but have you heard his music? It’s woeful. Maximum cringe. He has no ground to stand on as an artist. Nor a producer for that matter. His number one country hit is deplorably bad. Beato is actually the reason so much music is terrible
@@Bluepilled-c5t I don't much care for most modern music. Rick is a good guitar player however, and he knows his audio engineering.
You got beautiful eyes. Great ending in the vid.
By the way, I agree with your daughter on Psycho Killer. It has become by far my most preferred Talking Heads piece. Never watched any TikTok.
play the street,its raw, you get to travel and play what you want
Ah, geez.
You said right! Andy!!!! I enjoy watching your videos!!! So educational!.
It’s complicated.
The most efficient hand-waving away, catch-all slogan of all time.
Andy - it's a point of view, but I beg to differ. There are a couple of reasons why current "pop" music IS rubbish; I don't think this applies to all "modern" music. The three main reasons, in my view, are the reasons that motivate someone to make music; the general dumbing-down of music making with sampling (or plagiarism as it is more correctly termed) and similar technologies; and catering to the ever shortening attention span of the Social Media generation, which is exacerbated by streaming services making music as disposable as toilet paper (which most of it actually is!). It is not pretentious to say that some artists still exist and are still trying to say something that might be of interest to others - like your bands, for example. The difference between something crafted and something formulaic is obvious - how many songs written by Lennon-McCartney do you remember, as opposed to how many Stock-Aitken-Waterman "compositions" do you recall? For myself, I remember all of the former and none of the latter. I worry about the attention span issue. It is why the CD market declined so rapidly - how many under-20's have the patience to listen to an entire album these days? At the same stage, I (and I suspect, you) spent many hours engaged, if not enraptured (Mahavishnu, anyone?) listening to whole albums to appreciate the full value of the artists' endeavours. Last point - technology is a two-edged sword. While it can enable genuine creatives to explore new means of expression, it can also enable those with no talent except self-importance and an overwhelming desire for "money for nothing and your chicks for free" to turn out endless, vacuous trash. Ars longa, I hope.
I’m 55. I never listened to a single Beatle’s record. I thought they were bubblegum and they didn’t say anything about my life at all. I preferred gritty bands that had meaningful things to say rather than poncey chords and dumb lyrics like yellow submarine that sounded like something off Rainbow with Rod, Jane and Freddy singing it. The fact of the matter is that musical taste is just that. It’s very personal. The fact that you don’t like modern music doesn’t invalidate it.
The band that Rick Beato produced there 1st album which went Platinum is Shinedown and they still make albums and believe in albums and have had all 7 go gold & Platinum. They are mainstream and make great music that still has heart & soul . Brent's vocals and lyrics help but the whole band is great at making albums.
At the age of 71, I still have no problems finding music that interests me. It just takes a bit of looking to find it.
Albums made in the studio by the band have a dynamism that is lost when members of a band, living in different countries, send their " parts" of the album via the internet! It generally has a more sterile feel to it having been fitted like a jigsaw and fine tuned until the " nature" has been removed.
Sounds like Tool they make the music and send it over to the lead singer to write the lyrics.
@@gregorybolin4672 REM worked the same way, even in the early days. Buck, Berry and Mills would work on the music, give it to Stipe who would go off and come back with the lyrics.
Excellent Video Andy !
Hello, Andy, I love your videos, have seen lots of yours as well as those of Rick Beato. I watch them all to improve my English vocab and listening skills, but also to learn something about music theory or the albums themselves - hopefully also getting some tips for new music to listen to. I am an old time fan of bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, M Efekt, but also the Stranglers, Rollins Band, various electronic music, and in the last 25 years mostly of classical (Prokofiev).
Please, have you thought about including actual musical samples of the music you're talking about in your videos? For me, that would greatly increase my interest and enjoyment of your videos.
Sláva, 54 years, Czech Republic
I think I am a really odd one out, the way I approach music.
Ever since my discovery and love of prog, and soon after fusion, and much later, contemporary classical music, I figured out what was at the core of these genres (and subgenres), that I really loved.
And that was the following attributes: high levels of musicianship, complexity, deep/broad ranges of emotional and/or intellectual content, no need for a catchy hook, or humable melody.
The great things about loving those attributes, is that there are always a fresh crop of musicians who want to create them. This allows me to continually discover new music and musicians.
I love modern prog, jazz, fusion, even if it's somewhat derivative (I actually think originality is a bit overrated), since it will still have those previously mentioned attributes.
And it also allows me to get into new genres if they also have those attributes. Hence, my discovery of contemporary classical music in my mid 50's.
Let me also add, that I haver never really had any feelings of nostalgia connected with music. I don't listen to old prog or fusion from my youth, because it was the "soundtrack of my youth", I still listen to it because it holds up based on those previously mentioned attributes.
But people forget that Prog People were the weirdos in The Seventies. There might have been more of us, but we were still the sad gits smoking joints in the back of the pub while everyone else was raving about how good Slade were. As a proportion of the population, we were not real significant. It's just that we all bought the same 15 albums! 🙂
Good video, Andy... ☝️😎
I think the music we all hold dear is down to when we hear it. As kids and teens we encounter new discoveries and experiences while simultaneously full of hormones and extreme emotions and this has an effect on how we listen to music. Once fully grown we rarely “feel” new music to that extent but still get an emotional charge from the music that soundtracked our youth. Nuff pop psychology 😀
We should be glad that people like pink and swifty are still doing big successful tours. Still flying the flag for live music!!
If one's musical development is not stunted, you listen to rock and pop when you are a child , and then move on to JS Bach when you start to grow up.
I think that lack of knowledge of harmony plays a big role. With all the technology it is easier to copy someone and also to imitate. Which also costs time and practice, but at the same time prevents the creative spirit of the players from giving their own impulse to a composition of their own. Many want to make music and sound like their idol of their time.
All early Beatles songs are about 2:37 minutes long, making them PERFECT FOR TIK-TOK. I don't do sosh so please, get on this.
If the lyrics are forgettable, we don't get an ear worm for the melody, and we don't tap our foot to it, then it's rubbish.
If modern music was 17% better, it would be terrible. Been that way for decades.
Brilliant video, Andy.
Miserable old git I may be but I've got a positive take on it. It means older stuff I like will remain in the forefront and be accessible.
Exactly. I know that it sounds crazy but I remember being a teenager back in the 90s and discussing with other kids why 70s music was better. Well, those discussions are over, because very few people from this generation will find any arguments to defend current music anymore. Wanna find great music? Just look for anything pre-2000s. The ocean or great music is almost infinite.
@@carl_anderson9315 Pre-2000 ? You are generous
There is always something good to be found. Like, I have tried to get into that Portishead album you frequently reccomend (I am older then you), and it's a no go.. But I also listen to new stuff like Atyya and Kaya Project, it's proper psychedelic music, if you allow it, and I can see some of the roots of this new music in the Portishead album. Popular culture is faddish, and goes in cycles from utter imbecelity to reasonable levels of sophistication, and everything in between. There is a period of Jazz in the 50s which is quite cool, there is 30s music my grandmother liked when she was a flapper, that is also quite good.. Cycles. You do have to suspend cultural prejudice, to appreciate things that are out of your own time. Bach, Sibelius, Scarlatti, and the rest, are examples of that..
There’s so much great new music out there you just have to look for it.
@@westong6215 Absolutely. There are lots of great bands. But now we’re missing something: the collective memory. And it was a powerful thing. I, for instance, love The Avalanches and The Black Pumas. Those bands are amazing but they have a very modest following, generally speaking they are almost unknown. Most of listeners will have to conform with our headphones, because our bands will rarely sound loudly outdoors, as we were used when Michael Jackson released a new hit. I remember the excitement of kids at school talking about Guns and Roses. That experience is almost over. The mainstream is so full of mediocre people and the good ones have so little visibility that the musical experience gets more and more isolated.
that is a great idea! live music+ podcast
Go Andy. Do it mate. Lifes short!
Music is just background noise now to fit behind a video or app. It no longer has relevance as a stand alone thing.
The heavy reliance on digital processing makes a lot of it worse, in my opinion. Real rooms, reverb, tube amps, magnetic tape, etc. simply sound better.
I think people forget how much bad and terrible music that was out there when we look back at the music of 1960s and 70s. Today, when we look back and consider the music of the past, we are only looking at best of the best, the upper 20% of everything that was produced at that time, music that has passed the “test of time” or “the filter of time”. A lot of the music from the 60s and 70s was forgettable junk and has been forgotten (and rightfully so). So if you are only considering the great music of the past, and comparing it to everything that is coming out now, it seem so much better but, I think it is a distorted and inequitable comparison.
Also, the enormous quantity of music that is coming out today is overwhelming compared to the past. Finding good new music requires a substantial investment of time, listening, and filtering through lots of not so good stuff. And if you are an adult, working 40 hours a week, and possibly maintaining a home and family, that time is not so easy to come by. When you are a teenager you have the time, when you are an adult, you don’t. Give us 50 years to filter through and evaluate the very best 20% of the music of the 2010s and 20s, and I imagen some pretty good stuff will emerge.
Some time ago, I went through the charts from the 70s and 80s in reverse order. The charts of the late 1980s to my ears had a few great songs, a handful of really horrible songs and a large swath of unremarkable but still enjoyable songs. In the early 1970s the charts almost always had a fair number of truly classics songs that have all by now been played to death, while the remainder of the songs were all complete crap. Unremarkable but still enjoyable tunes were mostly absent the further back we go.
I grew up in the 80s and I distinctly remember all my friends were complaining about the "shite in the charts these days"
If you look at some of the popular artists from the early 80’s…Talking Heads, Police, Rush, Clash, RunDMC, Hall and Oates etc….the pop charts were stacked with innovative talented musicians…this simply isn’t the case today. An artist like Taylor Swift would have had the career trajectory of a Laura Brannigan if she came out in the 80’s.
True. The 80s are unfairly maligned! Besides everything you mention, it was also a decade of superior pop! Bands like Erasure, A-ha, Yazoo. They wrote very good songs! Vince Clarke was a synth pioneer and a really good songsmith!
Pet Shop Boys, The Communards…etc etc
Sometimes a thing will have already have been covered and need no more. This is one of those times. The initial discussion was interesting. This one is just mind numbing.
Fascinating discussion Andy. I think you are spot on with what you are saying
Frank Zappa would agree!!!
This is why youtube is important. You making this video alone proves that the music industry is thriving. It just appears different now and this is true of technology's implications on EVERY industry.
Patreon, RUclips, merch sales, tours backed by youtube followers, etc. It's still alive and thriving. It just appears different now. Wait until the VR and AI music market begins. It will be completely unrecognizable.
Those ahead of the curb always are successful. yesterday was different than today which will be different than tomorrow.
But there's one commonality which remains prevalent it's understanding the human condition and how to sell. You, my friend, know this.
You said .all these platforms.. and an ad popped up yay!!!!!
I say now is the time to unite and “preserve” music . Let’s bring back guitar and its guitar hero’s - the world stay awaites a third to move guitar forward likened to Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen - playing faster ilIMHO is not the ticket 🎫
There’s so much brilliant music out there. It’s harder to find amongst all the rubbish but persistence pays off. Not only old stuff but new stuff too. Having said that at 64 aside from the Steven Wilson and modern prog rock, and Rammstein solar system I’m stuck in the 70s and 80s.
Love it. Thanks Andy
Point Two - the whole of this kind of stuff was addressed by a writer back in the day (Gristgau in Rolling Stone, mid to later '70s I think). To choose a single starting point, he cited the completely umexpected and shocking but ultra-mega success of Frampton Comes Alive. He felt that the suits looked at those numbers and realized that they coiuld not just make money in this business, but they could make gobs and gobs of huge piles of tons of money. Enter... TARGETED MARKETING! So Zep, Yes, ELP, Purple and The Who begot Foreigner, Journey and the like.
@ 13:48 that's the reality of it, exactly! 100 real people (making an effort to come and see the band live) are more meaningful than 1M jaded smombies staring at a screen for 8 hours in a row. Keep giggin - even if it does not pay well.
The Telecommunications Act from 1996 homogenizing playlists would be another factor.
Bro you got 3 premieres scheduled at once. Relax 🤙
😂
I think he has too much free time these days
There's loads of music, and clearly it's not all rubbish. Plenty of good stuff, it's just that the mass popular stuff is largely rubbish, but look behind that, plenty of good stuff. I think the problem is that it's too genred, people don't listen to the radio, they just listen to what they already know and like.
Well Radio in the US has been mostly crap for decades. Blame Clear Channel/I Heart Radio and the death of college radio with stuffy NPR affiliates. However...some public radio is fantastic.
Seems to be the case that modern tunes that hark back to earlier styles are better and more catchy. They can't dream up a new sound that sounds cool. There's only afro beats, and you can only take so much of that...
I'm not sure ENOUGH people like new music or are prepared to open their minds even to their favourite bands new music. People are "stuck" in the past and as you get older the problem does get worse.
I'm seeing good Tribute bands far outselling really oustanding original artists.
Even in the heady days of yore, if a band toured playing songs from a new album that folk didnt know the fans wernt happy. many of us oldies just want to see their favourite band and hear their classics be it, Judas Priest, Wishbone Ash Argus etc etc, yet there are old bands playing today with new stuff like Magnum (were), Saxon, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple are producing stuff every bit as god if not technically better than in their hey day.
I can't afford either the money or time to see that many bands but 3 people with original music I have seen in the last year without everrt hearing any of their music before are Joe Martin, Karnataka and Damien Wilson, some of which has been awesome as well as including Maddy Prior and her daughter from Steeleye Span.
I do refuse now after seeing Priest, Saxon and Heep in Glasgow, to ever go to a concert bigger that a theatre, you know the great ones Hammersmith Odeon, New Theatre Oxford, Newcastle City hall, O2 Academy etc etc. But far better are the more intamate venues 400 or less. Ill pay double the ticket price for that. A good sound system, well behaved audience who listen to the music, maybe even some real ale or even better perhaps NO TICKETMASTER.
Young, new artists though do have it tough as how do you hit the ground running when you are inexperienced. In days of old you slogged unlitil you either go better, built up a following or realised you were not of interst to anyone.
So you either buy into the BTS type model, hold on to the coat tails of the Mega venues and ticket master, or just go out play for fun as a 'professionally set up" amateur hobby and treat it as "if other like it, all well and good, but I/we do"
Lastly, if you are going out there to be a Star, first and foremost, with all the trappings, (the message that young folk are given, then lots of folk are going to be disappointed).
When I listen to some pop records produced from current pop stars with the last 10 years and then listen to Michael Jackson or other major pop stars from 30 years ago, or 40 years ago I do not find the listen much different. When I put on pop records from the 60s or 70's and then listen to pop records from the 30s and 40s. Big differences. Certainly the recording processes improved to mark sonic differences over that time frame, but the music itself with arrangements, instrumentation and rhythms in pop music changed dramatically, as well. Today with streaming and algorithms basically queuing up various like sounding songs from an artificial intelligence generators based on the public's likes or dislikes the listener hears the processed pablum of today that I find really repetitious and boring. Or A.I. generates the most played items from the Police, Talking Heads, etc that fit today's sampling trends. There is not a ton of real exploration by the human being today, the offerings come from mathematical equations by computers. Less streaming of music and more individual exploration would be greatly beneficial for the world in my opinion for creativity sake. Thanks for your thoughtful takes.
would like a feature on 'modern bands influenced by Cardiacs' or 'influenced by Mahavishnu' etc
You really nailed the experience of watching a Snarky Puppy video
Andy Rick Beato doesnt monetise his video's
I love your channel.
This is a great explanation. I have been trying to explain this to my band... and all they want to do is go play gigs in front of 20 people. It's a mindset that we need to change.
I agree with you and Rick too. But It's important that we respect young people's music. They need to have their own music and their own way of doing it. All of it can exist together and we can a compliment each other as well.
there are still a lot of bands that work on the old fashion way of doing things because it is what their audience grew up with...and i am not talking Springsteen or The rolling Stones here, but much more recent bands that emerged in the noughties, just before technology and social media went bezirk, like Arctic Monkeys or Muse. These guys still rely on the classic formula of longer form/promotion/touring. and it still works very well for them because they established their fanbase, but their audience is getting older and you can tell that this model is gonna need tweaking, for the younger generation of bands to flourish. And it is possible. Bands like IDLES or Fontaines D.C. are very popular at the moment, and they are still doing the recording/promoting/touring thing. But the difference is they have adapted to the current media to a certain extent. So they promote themselves through RUclips videos, through special one offs performances in front of a very small audience (e.g. Tiny Desk Concerts) or filmed mini concerts in radio studios, because it ticks all the boxes for their audience of internet presence, album promotion and live performance. They might not be the biggest acts on the planet but it works...so there is still place for the album, maybe not as a cultural phenomenon, but certainly for the music lovers.
Colin Blunstone, Tony Visconti, Peter Noone, Jason Mraz and others have guested on Rob Squad Reacts. It's a sweet young American couple who know nothing about music, with 3,600 videos and over 500k subs. Reaction channels succeed because guys my age get a vicarious buzz from seeing a new gen discover music we love. Patreon song requests provide the revenue. HOWEVER, everyone on earth since 1964 has strummed a guitar, because The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan. I think there's more room for proper musicians to analyze songs.
Take a listen to Two Door Cinema Club - and REALLY listen. The arrangement, the structure, the amazing counterpoint guitaring, and excellent singing. The watch them performing it to thousands of 'kids' at Glastonbury, festivals and in stadiums across the world, and 'the kids' dancing to 7/4 songs with no clue that they are doing it. Music is doing ok - the business is struggling!
also roni kaspi!!
ruclips.net/video/xXuI6iUs9gU/видео.htmlsi=eMFBFqDwTYPXRerA
Great talk
Has anybody mentioned King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard yet?
Black Country New Road, Black Midi, Idles, Squid
@@gx1tar1er 💯
Great video, Andy ... very inspiring. Just discovered " The Henge " ... nice and crazy .... It reminds us old geezers of the holy Trinity of George Clinton, Parliament and Bootsy C. They were actually pioneering this multi media trail ... perhaps even Kiss, Gene Simmons was constantly looking for new ways of monetarizing his product ... I bet they wished they had the Net in those days ... Oh, what about Zappa ...?