Rick Beato on why music is getting worse

[marty]

I love Rick Beato and find his videos almost addictive. I knew very little regarding the technical aspects of what he discusses here and was impressed with his arguments. What do you think?

 

[andromedaaudio]

He has a point
Same could be said for architecture / paintings / art .
1500 s 1600 s 1700 s were the glory days .( if we take ancient egypt out of the equation )
Everything needs to go fast these days its the downside of digitalization.
People are to occupied by the smartphone / constant stream of new information.

 

[treitz3]

If you have this feeling? Then you are missing out and not listening to new/old music. There is more out there than we could ever listen too within our lifetime.

Tom

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I love Rick Beato and find his videos almost addictive. I knew very little regarding the technical aspects of what he discusses here and was impressed with his arguments. What do you think?

he makes clear points that are likely valid to the casual music reproduction consumer, or maybe to music makers. sad that access to music has become so watered down........in some respects. the commercial value now is less in the making or consuming, more in the event of live music. with certain niche exceptions, such as analog.

but it's not relevant to my music journey. i enjoy my relationship with my music. i still find new music that i'm attracted to every day. and all that processed musical construction has little to do with my interests.

the distant future for music creation could be dark.....

 

[Al M.]

I love Rick Beato and find his videos almost addictive. I knew very little regarding the technical aspects of what he discusses here and was impressed with his arguments. What do you think?

All true.

Yet really good music is still being made. Take for example the last album by Porcupine Tree, "Closure/Continuum" from 2022. Really great songs, complex music, super tight playing on complex rhythms by an actually great band. And that drummer, amazing in his technical and musical abilities. Yet this music is not widely known, not like Led Zeppelin or Queen back in the day. One reviewer called them "the most important band you'd never heard of". Granted, they do have a passionate following on the basis of which they could fill a stadium of 17,000 last year in Amsterdam -- and by the way, their live playing is as good as their playing in the studio.

Good music still exists, it just isn't as mainstream as it used to be. The above is just one example of many.

 

[marty]

Mike, I don’t know that Beato advocates that access is being watered down as the rise in streaming would suggest just the opposite. Rather, he seems to feel the creative aspect has taken a short-cut that he admonishes (which is not surprising since he is a superb multi-instrument musician).

It also seems that processed musical construction as you call it (a good term) may be more prevalent in your daily musical consumption than you have realized previously, especially for pop music. But as you said, if you enjoy it, does it really matter anyway?

It is alarming at what AI can do in so many fields, musical composition included. My nephew is musician in LA and uses an alias to write AI music for Spotify and other platforms. He let my brother try his AI program to create a classical piece and he was stunned at the result. He thought he was freakin’ Beethoven reincarnated!

One of the things this development might do unintentionally is renew the joy and pleasure one can only get by hearing live music across so many musical genres. I think it’s why there has been a clear sky-rocketing trend in seeing so many legacy bands even at what was once considered outrageous prices. Thank goodness there is still nothing like the real thing when it comes to the performance arts.

 

[PYP]

Mike, I don’t know that Beato advocates that access is being watered down as the rise in streaming would suggest just the opposite. Rather, he seems to feel the creative aspect has taken a short-cut that he admonishes (which is not surprising since he is a superb multi-instrument musician).

It also seems that processed musical construction as you call it (a good term) may be more prevalent in your daily musical consumption than you have realized previously, especially for pop music. But as you said, if you enjoy it, does it really matter anyway?

It is alarming at what AI can do in so many fields, musical composition included. My nephew is musician in LA and uses an alias to write AI music for Spotify and other platforms. He let my brother try his AI program to create a classical piece and he was stunned at the result. He thought he was freakin’ Beethoven reincarnated!

One of the things this development might do unintentionally is renew the joy and pleasure one can only get by hearing live music across so many musical genres. I think it’s why there has been a clear sky-rocketing trend in seeing so many legacy bands even at what was once considered outrageous prices. Thank goodness there is still nothing like the real thing when it comes to the performance arts.

and then there is this. Whatever it should be called: https://abbavoyage.com/

 

[joeling]

Let's face it, the real reason most new music cannot compare to the music of our youth is because the music from our formative years be it '70s or '80s or early '90s helped us survive of our life experiences good or bad. When we replay the said music, it is a reminder of the life we have lived. It invokes a deep emotion and connection to a more innocent and better time. We want to hear the tape hiss.

 

[tima]

The Decca Tree
drops its leaves.

Wilma Cozart Fine
rolls over in her grave.

Thanks for posting that, Marty.

 

[ChasFreeland]

Another silver-haired guy here who had a record-filled youth, all played on DIY stuff cobbled together from garage sales and wholesale speaker. companies. Modern times, in comparison to those imagined glory days can seem rather threadbare, not despite the plethora of offerings on the music market. I recall the excitement a major record release created, 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', for eg.. It would be played on AM radio hour after hour. Tech is indeed making it too easy to make and consume music. Even more illustrative, think about how people listened to music in the19th century or before: at home on their own instruments and voices. Or go to a symphony music hall to hear Beethoven play. The impact today of tech on everything to do with music, art, literature, thinking, is so pervasive, there must be big changes in the way it is conceived and received. Convenience is the key. Friends come over. I put on an LP. They like it. Within 5 minutes, they already own a digital copy from Spotify. They shop from the very chair in which they are sitting listening to the LP. And they never care that the LP they are hearing sounds so much better than the squeaky pips coming over the ear buds they use for speakers. But this is an old lament I suppose. The critic Walter Benjamin wrote about the effect of "Mechanical Reproduction" in the arts nearly a hundred years ago already. Can't stop change. Luckily, old tech still survives along with new, so we still have a few analog choices and alternatives left.

 

[ssfas]

What he is saying is that the ability to process and commercialise sound has increased exponentially over the last 20 to 30 years. This applies both to sound production and distribution of the finished product. For popular music, people seem to forget that you needed a contract with a record label to get your music out at all. My recollection is that the Arctic Monkeys were the first big band to go direct to market. Now you can go to your local recording studio and they will help you to self publish and create your own label directly on Bandcamp.

Whilst the music production industry might be far more democratic, what you choose to listen to as a consumer remains a personal choice. I listen to music from all over the world and, with regards to western music, ranging from Baroque to electronica. My music choices are mostly informed by music and artists I’ve heard live.

What he forgets is that streaming has existed for about 100 years. Before Spotify it used to be called the radio. You turn it on in the morning and listen all day. here in the UK it’s still enormously popular.

 

[wil]

Let's face it, the real reason most new music cannot compare to the music of our youth is because the music from our formative years be it '70s or '80s or early '90s helped us survive of our life experiences good or bad. When we replay the said music, it is a reminder of the life we have lived. It invokes a deep emotion and connection to a more innocent and better time. We want to hear the tape hiss.

There is great to terrible music from every decade. If a baby boomer audiophile thinks there’s nothing to be offered outside of the 70s, I believe he’s lost on Planet Nostalgia. I listened to Led Zeppelin a lot when I was 13/14 and then moved on !

I think Beato brings up an important and alarming subject, though. Vocal auto-tune is a musical abomination like no other. Same for non human drumming. And AI music creation is dark cloud.

But, at present, if anyone is mistaking
AI Beethoven for the real thing, they don’t have a clue about his music. AI and all of the stuff Beato talks about is still at the plastic blow-up girl friend stage.

There is still a tremendous amount of real (non pop) music being made. (Most pop music, even before this scary brave new world, has always sounded artificial to me anyway.)

And the live real music scene seems pretty vibrant around here.

 

[Rexp]

Overall I don't think music is getting worse but recording quality has been going downhill since the 80's and since a lot of music is now produced in home studios, we can't blame the labels, it's a recording technology/process issue.

 

[ssfas]

There is great to terrible music from every decade. If a baby boomer audiophile thinks there’s nothing to be offered outside of the 70s, I believe he’s lost on Planet Nostalgia. I listened to Led Zeppelin a lot when I was 13/14 and then moved on !

I think Beato brings up an important and alarming subject, though. Vocal auto-tune is a musical abomination like no other. Same for non human drumming. And AI music creation is dark cloud.

But, at present, if anyone is mistaking
AI Beethoven for the real thing, they don’t have a clue about his music. AI and all of the stuff Beato talks about is still at the plastic blow-up girl friend stage.

There is still a tremendous of real (non pop) music being made. (Most pop music, even before this scary brave new world, has always sounded artificial to me anyway.)

And the live real music scene seems pretty vibrant around here.

Thinking for a few seconds about that video, it is a massive nostalgic whinge. I listen to quite a lot of electronic music, mostly with dance, sometimes at home. As long as it is creative and serves the purpose for which it is produced, what’s the problem?

You could put Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons through a processor and it would sound terrible, or you can do what Max Richter did to it and it’s absolutely brilliant.

Contemporary music is exactly that – contemporary. It changes all the time. I grew up in the prog rock era and it seems like a lifetime ago. Contemporary music is not better or worse, it’s different. It’s not Led Zeppelin and if you set your bar at Led Zeppelin, it’s going to be worse. I haven’t been to a rock concert since Radiohead in 2012.

My next outing, on Thursday, is Cosi fan tutte. I’m hoping the orchestra isn’t run through a synthesiser and the singers through autotune.