music is dead - and streaming killed it

[Named User]

The decline began with Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and its never-ending modulations. Thankfully, Wagner repented of his sins with Parsifal, but Nietzsche was inspired by Tristan’s promotion of infinite sexual promiscuity with lack of closing climax (signified by an ending V-I cadence). Nietzsche hated Wagner when he recanted in Parsifal, so Nietzsche instead turned his affection toward Bizet’s Carmen with its African and in turn sexually immoral undertones. Thus, began the inclusion of African rhythms in Western popular music from Jazz to Rock n Roll to Pop to Hip-Hop.

The other side of the equation was the Intelligence promotion of Schoenberg and his horrid 12-tone harmony which was also inspired by Tristan’s lack of tonal center. But instead of using it as a license for sexual immorality, Schoenberg constructed a rigid system that promoted a frigid asexuality where no note has any relation to the other. And in a fell swoop, music schools no longer cared for the beauty and truth in counterpoint, but for confusion and listlessness. Then, we get the charlatans like John Cage being promoted even though they didn’t have the ability to compose even a simple nursery rhyme.

And yeah, muzak and all that.

 

[Aether Witch]

The best way, especially if its local and club acts, is too still support them live, even with all the garbage that's going on in the live music world now.

I'd do that if there were an actual music scene where I live, in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing actually worth it here.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

The music industry is just desperate for people to listen to half assed pop garbage because it is dying like it deserves to so much more talented indie artists would rise.

 

[Aether Witch]

The music industry is just desperate for people to listen to half assed pop garbage because it is dying like it deserves to so much more talented indie artists would rise.

According to the astrology (and other things), the new era we're heading into very rapidly is going to be based on decentralization and the individual. So I think we're going to have a lot less "superstars" and a lot more genuine craftsmanship in the art of music. Which is awesome, in my opinion.

 

[The Hardest R]

I blame the consolidation and monopolization of music companies, which @fake farts touched on. These days the only way you get any radio play is if your music is autistically designed by a couple of grungy, pervy looking Scandis who used to be in a death metal band but now make music for preteen girls.

Sure there’s some decent indie rock but the days of arena rock bangers are over. Even rap is full of SoundCloud nigs who get like five million streams one year and disappear the next (and get killed or locked up). The only thing that gets a lot of play is shit for 12 year old girls because it’s the safest, most accessible demographic out there, which is why Maroon 5 can still pinch out boring albums but anyone doing anything interesting is one of those bands that you only hear about if Spotify recommends it to you.

 

[Lowlife Adventures]

The decline began with Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and its never-ending modulations. Thankfully, Wagner repented of his sins with Parsifal, but Nietzsche was inspired by Tristan’s promotion of infinite sexual promiscuity with lack of closing climax (signified by an ending V-I cadence). Nietzsche hated Wagner when he recanted in Parsifal, so Nietzsche instead turned his affection toward Bizet’s Carmen with its African and in turn sexually immoral undertones. Thus, began the inclusion of African rhythms in Western popular music from Jazz to Rock n Roll to Pop to Hip-Hop.

The other side of the equation was the Intelligence promotion of Schoenberg and his horrid 12-tone harmony which was also inspired by Tristan’s lack of tonal center. But instead of using it as a license for sexual immorality, Schoenberg constructed a rigid system that promoted a frigid asexuality where no note has any relation to the other. And in a fell swoop, music schools no longer cared for the beauty and truth in counterpoint, but for confusion and listlessness. Then, we get the charlatans like John Cage being promoted even though they didn’t have the ability to compose even a simple nursery rhyme.

And yeah, muzak and all that.

Other genres might be flourishing but classical music (that isn't film or soundtrack) may as well be dead. Even the most conservative of the living composers (ex. Daniel Asia who wrote an entire article shitting on Elliott Carter's modernism) still make meandering quasi-atonal trash.

On the other hand, I don't think African rhythms entering pop music was a bad thing. In fact, you could argue 20th century black music sort of "saved" music by providing a new but still entertaining alternative to formal classical music, which was too busy huffing its own farts.

 

[Saddam Hussain Obama]

What sucks is that there's no current competition for bandcamp, and in the past few years it went from being a small independent site to being bought by Epic Games, which is owned by Tencent. It has changed hands again recently, and I'm glad, Tencent is garbage. But I just hope the platform stays good, at least until there is decent competition.

how hard would it be to make an alternative?

 

[Watchfuleye275]

Music isn't dead, you just suck at finding good music.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

There's a long-running meme about things for girls becoming universally reviled amongst everyone ither than said teenage girls(Justin Bieber, Twilight, etc), and I suspect this phenomenon happens because out of touch marketing managers see the numbers and start pushing them on everyone, unaware or uncaring that their market is an extremely small subset of the population.

It's because the fanbases for things aimed at teenage girls are often obnoxious at best and psychotic at worst.

 

[Saddam Hussain Obama]

It's because the fanbases for things aimed at teenage girls are often obnoxious at best and psychotic at worst.

so literally me

 

[Saddam Hussain Obama]

this video perfectly said my feelings everyone please give this a watch you will not regret it

 

[Aether Witch]

how hard would it be to make an alternative?

I guess it would be pretty hard. Not because the technology isn't there, I guess it would be pretty easy in that sense, but because most of the underground is already consolidated on bandcamp. Getting people to move to some other platform that has yet to take off is the hardest part. If you're an artist and already have a following on bandcamp, why would you move? There aren't any initial benefits:
Your sales get split across platforms meaning that sales on the new platform aren't reflected on bandcamp. Sadly, many people, even in underground circles, look at how many other people have bought a certain album or song before listening, as an initial gauge of how good the music might be. Bandcamp displays all the accounts that have bought a specific item underneath the cover:

The more accounts there are, the more likely your average Joe is of actually listening and buying your material. So my guess is that only very consolidated artists (or completely new artists) could take the risk of splitting between platforms. New artists would have more to gain, since there's so much material on bandcamp. A new platform would probably be a better option to be discovered, if it was popular enough.

The only way I could see a new platform really competing with bandcamp would be if bandcamp started screwing up big, if they got really greedy and started taking a bigger commission from artists. It would be really easy for a competitor to offer a better deal. But bandcamp would have to really go South, I think, for that to happen.

 

[Father Fornicatio]

Music isn't dead, you just suck at finding good music.

This, there is so much amazing music made at present time, granted i listen mainly to epic power metal with unicorns and rainbows and shit, but there is soooo much good artists still making great music like: Muse, Angra, Sabaton, Japan and China go deep in the classical music atm, there is a hipster movement reviving swing and big bands(can recommend Big Voodoo Daddy), there is African Boer music or Braai, that weird Russian dude from that alien tongue thing is a amazing singer(Vitas). Look me friends

 

[Aether Witch]

this video perfectly said my feelings everyone please give this a watch you will not regret it
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Pu8GUJYVM98

I agree with what he said about the digital world not being "great for experiencing and interpreting art", provided music is excluded from that, purely because of bandcamp. I disagree with the sentiment that album releases have to be this huge, marketed event, because then the only people selling music are the mainstream labels. Those are (to me) the antithesis of art and creativity. A bunch of producers and writers carefully crafting the most marketable, most appealing product for the masses to consume, that is an aberration to me.

He says "music isn't as profittable as it once was" (only in the mainstream world is this true) "so albums are basically commercials for artists' tours". Well, not much has changed, then. He also complains about how forgettable songs are now, compared to how much songs used to be played on the radio "even a year or two years after its release". I genuinely couldn't care less. Like I said in a previous comment, I find the demise of the mainstream music industry (which is and has been rotten for the longest time) absolutely delightful.
I fundamentally disagree that the problem is how accessible music is now, I think people are just tired of the same formulaic crap. I used to listen to the radio (as in Top40 type garbage) when I had no other alternatives. My family has never been very musically inclined, or at least never allowed me to explore much, so I was stuck with that. Once I discovered that there was oceans worth of music, not just what the radio puked, it was over. I haven't touched mainstream radio in years and years.
Now, I am constantly discovering music that's been produced in the 90's that's completely new to me, that doesn't sound dated at all (I'm saying that because he claims that music goes stale really quickly just because you have access to it the moment it drops). Many artists (not talking about mainstream puppet-products) are only able to thrive now thanks to the accessibility and ease in which people can arrive at their music. I live in the middle of nowhere. The only music available here, physically, is "classic rock", mainstream pop, and live religious music (which I actually enjoy). Other than that, you will have a very hard time finding anything. There isn't even a local record shop, so I would be royally screwed without the internet, in terms of music.

On the things he says about TV, I don't have much to say. I think most mainstream entertainment is way worse, but I don't miss anything on TV. Haven't had a television in any of the places I've lived in for 10 years now, since I left my parents' house, and I'm so much better off.

"People just don't have as much incentive to go out to the theater to enjoy a movie when there are so many options on streaming services." I don't know how it is for other people, but for me, I just don't ever see anything I'd be interested in watching, period. Both at the cinema or in streaming services (which I don't use and will never use, since all these companies are terrible). I learned two days ago that the new Miyazaki film came out IN OCTOBER, which would be a movie I'd have definitely enjoyed watching at the cinema. ;___;
I literally never go, and for once, when something I'd love to watch is available, I miss it. "people don't take a risk on an orignial story" [as in going to the cinema]. I'd take a risk, but again, I'm not interested in anything the local cinema has to offer, which is all the usual garbage from big Hollywood studios.

"You'd be better off buying these 2 or 3 albums or 2 or 3 shows that you enjoy instead of paying a lifetime fee to basically borrow these products". That's something I completely agree with. I hate streaming. I hate not having access to the things I've payed for, or having them on the cloud, where they can be taken away at a moment's notice. Owning the things you pay for, and having physical media is really important. At least having digital copies (I can't afford actual physical media, most of the time).

Interesting video overall, thanks for sharing it.

 

[Saddam Hussain Obama]

lots of words but i will summ it up

in your opinion mainstream music dying is good

while i see your point i think what the video said about superstars and music dying resonates with me, especially the part about streaming isolating artists listenerbases, vs back in the day everyone knew the songs, which is a point i made earlier superstars are dead, to you and many others in this threads point, while yes some obsecure artists have been able to thrive thanks to digital, for every small artist with a fanbase theres 30 thousand others you will never hear, and i think this video made that point,

something the video did not touch on that i will, is the death of local music scenes, for example local bands selling CDs vs now while you have obscure stuff, back then you could find that in record stores, and even niche artists could get their albums out and gain a following, vs now you have millions of artists who will never be heard or in some cases do not even exist, that are merely there to generate spotify streams,

so a TLDR i think mainstream music and superstars dying, and album releases dying are bad, while you would argue some indie artists making a living off the internet is better than the old mode,l and while i agree the big labels suck i miss the days when everybody could know the big artists and when you had record stores, you could find those niche artists and genres you mention

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

Nah, music is doing better than it was 5 or 9 years ago. You just got to look at some of the indie stuff and even dare I say the stuff the mainstream music industry is putting out today is somewhat better then the garbage in the mid to late 2010s.

 

[eatler]

this video perfectly said my feelings everyone please give this a watch you will not regret it
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Pu8GUJYVM98

Im not going to say your wrong because i've been hoarding DVDs, vinyls, cassettes ect for a while. I think half of the issue is were moving away from something were not used too. I'll half explain it with dating, its like the 70s/80s period of meeting someone at a bar its kind of a fad thats dying out for the younger gens. But even before the 70s/80s hooking up at a bar wasn't the norm it was usually church, deli or the train. Back to music though, It does suck though because I think because the way things were before it did make it easier for everyone to relate to each other. Im not too worried about the ownership thing because unfortunately for the average population doesn't really care to own things but I do love the surprised faces people have when their thing gets taken down. Most artist I listen to do make sure to push out cds and vinyl so I try to purchase when I can because I like the vinyl experience. Every normie I knew back in the day was very :"consume product and move onto next", it just was slower because things weren't pumped out all the time.

I think the real issue is music companies need to treat their stores, It basically needs to become micro franchises to make money. If you look at the Alice In Chains store front its loaded with crap that really isn't anything to do with music. Worse too they have exclusive crap that worth about 300 bucks. its also not at all what the grunge bands would want their images associated with. I also look at Bethesda with Fallout 4 and 76, they designed everything in game to be made into knickknacks easier for their merch page (at least that my theory). It really detracts from what your trying to make when you worry about how much sales/what else can we put out to make more money.

I dont think music is dead persay but more so in an awkward transition period. but if your afraid of loosing copies you can keep for yourself you can always sail the high seas. here's a word from RLM!

 

[Saddam Hussain Obama]

If you look at the Alice In Chains store front its loaded with crap that really isn't anything to do with music.

wait this is a thing? lol sign me up also good post

 

[ToroidalBoat]

It's possible that "social media culture" combined with "smartphone culture" is making new music overall suck more in Current Year.

 

[Saddam Hussain Obama]

It's possible that "social media culture" combined with "smartphone culture" is making new music overall suck more in Current Year.

end smartphones social media and streaming