Why is modern music so bad?

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[samuelhancock]

Im 17, and personally, I dont understand today's pop music, there is no movement, boring choruses and the idea of bridges or instrumental solos is practically extinct. Personally i love those older rock bands that really wanted to say something through more than lyrics.

[guillermogouldburn]

I grew up in the 80's loving 60's rock and 80's pop. I was a teenager in the 80's who couldn't get enough of The Beatles and the Beach Boys.. Good music is good music.

[petealba]

Music has become more of a background thing than the centerpiece for many folks. Though people stream music, songs are shorter as are attention spans. Culturally, music is all around us and even more available than ever but does not have the same significance to many folks.

[bullpup]

Its not new vs old, its popular-above-else vs music the artists makes for its own sake. Also, its not just the listeners age, its about how open minded and exploratory is in one’s listening habits.

[Spikeypup]

As a Mixing and Mastering Engineer, I try not to think of music in terms of "hot garbo noise" or not, instead I try to find the objective beauty in the sonic qualities of the music and instrumentation itself in each piece. I haven't reached the "New is Noise" phase, and I'm 42, but I sense it coming. The music coming out today, the loudness, the sheer sausage waveforms coming out, it's just shocking. There isn't anything to enjoy or pick out sometimes, it's all too damn loud, it all competes, it all clips, it all distorts, so then I'm faced with .... What's to like? So that's why I don't mix/master that way. Even -14 is too loud sometimes. Yet, I'm told in my educational institution to try to push -9 dB LUFS-I, which to me just seems insane. Although, in practice, if you achieve balance in the mix and in the arrangement, and manage the space well, -9 can sound larger than life in a wonderful way. And sadly, if you don't try to go past -14 towards -10 or further, then you will just sound too quiet compared to the next song in the playlist, and that's the fear, and that's why everyone wants to be the loudest.

Bottom line opinion: I think it's all just getting too loud with no justification to be that loud other than a "Mine is bigger than yours" contest. It's hard to hear the nuance and beauty when my ears are bleeding from the piercing distortion and clipping.

[jhmusichouse]

I actually think we're in a musical renaissance, despite what's "popular" now. Today you can find a ton of new music from artists that cover any genre you like, on a wide variety of platforms. It's just unfortunate that most the popular music today comes from artists content on selling their soul to the music industry in exchange for endless promotion of their homogeneous trash songs.

[Ramtn]

It sucks the most when a genuinely good music get destroyed for being competitive in the loudness war! It does hurt the song and ears. Also I realised tracks with dynamic range have much longer lifespan compared to crunched ones! Great take as always.

[gatblau]

I’m in my 50s and probably about 70% of my Spotify playlist is music made by newer bands in the last 10 years. I don’t know if the music I listen to is “popular” but there is still great music being made.

[BadEconomyOfficial]

Modern Music isn’t bad, modern MAINSTREAM music is.

[derekdfarrington]

The sophistication of lyrics, chord progressions, timing, melody, harmony, song structure and the topics being expressed have overall become elementary compared to the twentieth century. That’s not to say that something simple can’t be brilliant, but it has to have something that makes it brilliant. Can’t say I hear that a lot today.

[christopherpaul]

I'm a bit older born '73 so 80's was my highlight for music. Today I'm into "classical" but hear a lot of kids I work with playing dubstep... which I actually enjoy to a point, but it's more or less "literally" just noise... or at least re-arranged noise. Interesting, sort of takes my 80's synth age to a whole new level 40 years later. Not really my thing but in my opinion it's one of the better and most innovated genres to surface. That being said, I still want my MTV.

[purelove]

I am 22, and I find that most of modern, trendy music lacks substance.

In the past, creating music required dedication. One needed to learn to play an instrument and master it before even attempting to produce a musical piece. This rigorous process ensured that only the most committed individuals would endure the extensive learning required.

Consequently, people created music from the heart. Today, however, music production seems driven by the pursuit of clicks, profit, and ego gratification, facilitated by the ease of creating music with modern technology. With the barrier to entry so low, a vast quantity of subpar music is inevitably produced by those who may have a casual interest in 'music' but do not invest their heart and soul into the craft.

[DanWorrall]

Zero LUFS is not the maximum. I've released a track at +2.3 LUFS integrated. A square wave at 3k would read even higher, due to frequency weighting.

[nwimpney]

Modern music has always been bad, even back in the 60s. The reason it seems old music was better is the “sieve of time”. If you went back to any time in the past, the majority of what you hear would not be very good.
Thinking back, you just remember the songs good enough to be remembered and passed on for decades. 30 years from now, people will be talking about how much better music was in the 2020s, having forgotten about the 90% that’s bad, just like in any other decade.

[stevenewtube]

I feel sad for the poor ears of the fans of this sound/music. One of the things we love about live performance is, dynamic range! It excites people. Why do people want to destroy their music by more or less eliminating dynamic range from their recordings??? Don’t get, never will. AND, we now have so much available range... it’s jaw dropping really. Go figure.

[markvandenberg]

I grew up on Nirvana and Metallica as a kid, then Dream Theater, Queen, Tool, John Mayer, Muse, Genesis and others in my 20s, as well as a bunch of jazz and classical. Now I’m 41, and lately I’ve discovered that the British progressive tradition really is what interests me most. I discovered Porcupine Tree on Spotify a few years back, rolled into Steven Wilson’s solo work from there, and that brought me back to Genesis and King Crimson (among others), and also to The Pineapple Thief. I feel like I’ve discovered this treasure and I’m unpacking it bit by bit.

The common denominator among most artists mentioned above is how beautifully and dynamic their albums have been recorded. SW, in particular, is a true modern gem in this regard. “The Raven That Refused To Sing” is incredibly well produced. My all-time favorite band Dream Theater is a joke in comparison, I’m sorry to say.

I think I can objectively say that most modern pop music is poor in terms of arrangements, creativity and originality, and it sounds crappy to boot thanks to brick wall limiting. All imagination and wonder has been replaced by the smarts of marketeers attempting to appeal to our young’s basest impulses. “It's only meant to repress and neutralize your brain.” Wilson had it exactly right. I really don’t think it’s “a matter of taste” any longer at this point.

[chrisdorsch]

Todays music lacks melody. What made Ah Ha's Take On Me so great was that it has a Melody Hook in the intro. Human League Don’t you want Me had a baseline Hook. Melodies lend to harmonics and that's what gives you goosebumps.

[Fredrik-izou]

The loudness wars is the problem. And silence is a key element in music; without pauses there is no music.

[seventeendegree]

The older I get, the more I like „old music“. I‘m currently listening to McCartneys solo work after the Beatles and love it. However, modern music can be absolutely mindblowing, if you look in the right places. Wet Leg blew my mind, now does Sir Chloe. Whitey is also a great underrated rock musician. Ex:Re - Too Sad is a modern song, that even brought me to tears. The guys from Radiohead are also getting better and better. Great times, if you ignore the charts.

[TheAgeOfAnalog]

That Wet Leg record is a hoot. So much fun and my vinyl copy actually sounds great.