Seriously why is American music trash right now.

[WMG the 2nd]

It’s fire rn y’all nikkas just old as fukk and don’t know how to find music apparently

 

[papa pimp]

People hate industry plants but before music was more accessible to make and put out, the record labels were better able to have quality control and center the public onto a handful of acts so everything seemed bigger and everyone was listening to the same thing. With the current model, there is no incentive to do any of that.

Also, yall love overstating afrobeats popularity lol.

 

[Renegade47]

Sza just dropped a classic

no she didn't

 

[Gritsngravy]

I don’t know who the mods our for the booth can somebody quote me and tag them under my post

But it should be a policy for anybody who makes a Thread about music today being terrible they should list every artist, and album they listened too recently cause y’all just be saying shyt

 

[Damnshow]

Because the average consumer has no standards, no preference. They listen to whatever comes out. Let's say you run a company and your product becomes worse quality wise, you hire worse specialists but you still sell well. And then a lot of musicians who were great and were capable of protecting the art form from losing its value so drastically actually did nothing at all.

A lot of the music is either bad quality or it tries to emulate a successful formula from the past and it sounds like something you heard many times before.

Who are the next artists that have a huge star power and make a music we haven't heard before? Someone who would influence the next generation of great artists?

 

[Ineedmoney504]

no she didn't

Absolutely did. Fire front to back. Relatable music for men and women also.

 

[Rekkapryde]

The “soul” in black music is gone.

 

[JustCKing]

Because the average consumer has no standards, no preference. They listen to whatever comes out. Let's say you run a company and your product becomes worse quality wise, you hire worse specialists but you still sell well. And then a lot of musicians who were great and were capable of protecting the art form from losing its value so drastically actually did nothing at all.

A lot of the music is either bad quality or it tries to emulate a successful formula from the past and it sounds like something you heard many times before.

Who are the next artists that have a huge star power and make a music we haven't heard before? Someone who would influence the next generation of great artists?

There's no way to quantify this though because there's no real consensus on good or bad music because it's art. Two people could be listening to the same song and walk away with different opinions.

The only real information we have to justify quality is the numbers. Nobody actually buys music any more and that's been the case since 2014. Everything is about streaming now and even with streaming, it's a lot of decades old music that is out streaming new music. There's albums that have spent an entire decade on the charts. This was never the case before.

 

[FeverPitch2]

It’s fire rn y’all nikkas just old as fukk and don’t know how to find music apparently

 

[FeverPitch2]

There's no way to quantify this though because there's no real consensus on good or bad music because it's art. Two people could be listening to the same song and walk away with different opinions.

The only real information we have to justify quality is the numbers. Nobody actually buys music any more and that's been the case since 2014. Everything is about streaming now and even with streaming, it's a lot of decades old music that is out streaming new music. There's albums that have spent an entire decade on the charts. This was never the case before.

There is definitely a way to gauge the quality of art.
But even if something is bad, people can and will still like it.
It's a slim distinction, yet it does exist.

There is such a thing as having an unsophisticated palate.
When you're 8, you think McDonald's is the best food on the planet and your mother's cooking is meh.
When you're 25, you're trying to avoid McDonald's and you hope your mother cooked when you visit.

Music is no different.
If you really feeling this music out now, it's because of two things:
1. You were raised on it. If raised on crap, you will like crap. It's the person who likes Kool-aid more than fruit juice.
2. You have severely underdeveloped taste in music.

It's probably both.

 

[African Peasant]

ADOS are not creating firing musical genre anymore. American music is ADOS music.

Modern music is run by corporations, and their primary interest is making the most money possible with the least risk possible. As a result, modern music is extremely formulaic and tends to follow generic, low-brow trends which they know come with a guarantied audience.


Of course, corporations have always ran shyt. But in the past they didn't have the formulas down so clearly. That meant they had to guess a lot more, which resulted in variety, and executives spent a lot more time promoting their personal favorites, with some executives being good at recognizing real talent. Modern music executives don't push their personal favorites or actually talented artists anymore unless they fit a particular formula that they know will result in profits.

Blame the Telecommunication Act and the mergers that created these giga mega media corporations.

Blame capitalism.

Mainstream is trash, I know it’s bad when I’m listening to a white dude who can rap better than most of these wack ass mainstream acts. Underground is where he quality is at.

It's a problem in itself. At some point, you had a certain equilibrium. Genius music reached the mainstream.

 

[Damnshow]

There's no way to quantify this though because there's no real consensus on good or bad music because it's art. Two people could be listening to the same song and walk away with different opinions.

The only real information we have to justify quality is the numbers. Nobody actually buys music any more and that's been the case since 2014. Everything is about streaming now and even with streaming, it's a lot of decades old music that is out streaming new music. There's albums that have spent an entire decade on the charts. This was never the case before.

Sometimes it's quite obvious when someone can't sing or rap on beat, things like that. Or if someone just made bunch of chaotic sounds. I remember skrillex era from like 12 years ago. It sucked, it sounded like bunch of old printer noises mixed with dial up connection sounds. Thankfully that era did not go for too long, Unfortunately we have a whole bunch of other wack shyt nowadays anyway.

And before someone mentions underground is where most of the good music is at forgets an ultra garbage shyt like this still exists underground and there are plenty of fans:

 

[Professor Emeritus]

This has ALWAYS been the case though. Nothing has changed in that regard.

There was always a science to it. Watch a documentary on Motown and look at what went into getting the music to the masses. Music is an industry for a reason.

That's like saying, "Analytics isn't new cause Vince Lombadi always had a system too." I'm well familiar with Motown and how they put together and shaped acts, had certain producers trying to create a certain sound for a certain market, brought in songs to use for particular artists, etc. But the degree of rigor and dispassionate number crunching that goes into it is FAR greater than before. Motown never had the data that they have today.

Analytics has taken over baseball. Analytics has taken over basketball. Analytics is taking over football. Analytics has taken over movies. And analytics has taken over music. It is VERY good at what it does, which in baseball and basketball means that it wins games and in movies and music means that it makes money. But the goal is clearly making money, not creating good music, and the more universal control that the analytics approach has, the more bland the musical product becomes.

Blame the Telecommunication Act and the mergers that created these giga mega media corporations.

Blame capitalism.

Well yeah, that goes without saying. So long as profit controls the music industry, this was the inevitable end result and it will only get worse.

Waaay back in the day, rich people used to just find the greatest musicians and pay them to just make great music. And whatever the musicians produced would be accepted. Now, even if you're "discovered", you still just make the music they want you to make.

 

[jadillac]

Afrobeats artists don't make vulgar music, they make music that your whole family can listen to

Even rnb artists are just cringe worthy to listen to now, everyone wants to curse and act like the rap artists do.

This is partly true. I saw a tweet talking about how afro beats doesn't refer to women derogatorily.

 

[NoirDynosaur]

Modern music is run by corporations, and their primary interest is making the most money possible with the least risk possible. As a result, modern music is extremely formulaic and tends to follow generic, low-brow trends which they know come with a guarantied audience.


Of course, corporations have always ran shyt. But in the past they didn't have the formulas down so clearly. That meant they had to guess a lot more, which resulted in variety, and executives spent a lot more time promoting their personal favorites, with some executives being good at recognizing real talent. Modern music executives don't push their personal favorites or actually talented artists anymore unless they fit a particular formula that they know will result in profits.

Spot on!

Compare music several decades ago to modern music, the difference is we live in the fast food era. The demand has become higher because people’s attention span has minimized so as the song’s length.

Before the Internet, there was a lot of anticipation towards a new album. People were hyped because we had to be patient. Wait months or even years to get a ear of the artist’s new work.

Social media is too blame for this.

Less black people being in the church. The black church was a conglomeration of talent waiting to being erupted in the public eye.
Whitney Houston is a great example of this. Who knew such a powerful voice would end up sway such a crowd!

From gospel choirs to instrumentalists, the soul was birthed from the black church.

Before social media, selling records and reaching platinum/diamond or even gold was a big deal! Having your own album reaching this level of success meant it was certified, listenable and recommended for the average music connoisseur.

Fast forward towards the 2010’s aka the SoundCloud era/Spotify/Apple music era . This is where streaming became a huge emphasis. If you song was retweeted, it was gaining traction.

So while the Internet devalued the artistry of music, it also brought out hits from the dust crates. Tik Tok opened the gateway for younger generations to discover songs that were previously chart busters in the past.