The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song • Hacker News Board

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#21

Post by potta_coffee » Wed, May 10, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

lapcat wrote: post #14

potta_coffee wrote: post #4

Buckethead is my favorite instrumentalist. He's not a Jazz musician though.

> He's not a Jazz musician though. He's not human.

True enough. I'd like to be that good at guitar but it seems like he's somewhat of a savant. I can't say I envy his social life.

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#22

Post by yamazakiwi » Wed, May 10, 2023, 5:59 PM UTC

alex_lav wrote: post #16

svachalek wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I was surprised to find no mention of Polyphia, even to dismiss it. Are they not as popular as I thought?

Anecdotally I've never met another person that'd even heard of them. I only know of them because YouTube forces them at me a lot.

I saw them live on accident opening for another band. Not knowing I had already seen their guitarist on youtube and tiktok a bunch of times.

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#23

Post by yamazakiwi » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:02 PM UTC

recursive wrote: post #20

yamazakiwi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are reasonably popular but I personally don't find their talent better than other bands I've heard in the past in their genre, even though their main guitarist is quite talented. In contemporary music I believe King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are a better sell for talented instrumentalists.

> mathy Are they? I thought math rock was all about weird time signatures. By contrast, Polyphia is pretty accessible. And I've never heard them play a weird time signature.

Not actual math rock, I don't want to get into a genre purist debate, but I mean math-esque i.e. mathy. They flirt with changing time signatures across instruments constantly in their music; not necessarily complicated ones, but multiple through each song.

I guess this style is more common nowadays with 90% of bands writing straight up label music or their music is influenced by their label so much that they're pressured to pack their music with more dynamics.

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#24

Post by User23 » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:04 PM UTC

_2uwr wrote: post #7

If I had to name one it would be the violinist Vanessa Mae, but I think DJ's have replaced bands and musicians in many ways and have certainly added value to the original work, which ironically is a copyright nightmare. I wouldnt listen to this original soundtrack/song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N_ucgihNzk&ab_channel=fdsvf... But I'd listen to these upgrades. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vmbSXKNJ14&ab_chan…

It'll be interesting to see how AI disrupts the "mix other people's stuff and call it your own composition" space. I have to admit I look forward to DJs complaining about models being trained on their work. In a very primitive way what we calls DJs really are forerunners to the LLM.

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#25

Post by leethargo » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:06 PM UTC

Agentlien wrote: post #13

devindotcom wrote: post #11

Not to contradict the writer in any way, obviously in popular music this format has largely disappeared. But even so there are lots out there and a ton of diversity. Some from recent listening: James Blackshaw, Zoe Keating, Max Ananyev, Mary Lattimore, Anna von Hausswolf, Goldmund. and of course Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebro, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Jack Rose, RIP. Individual musical artists have so many more tools now t…

I find it fascinating that despite listening to a lot of music I don't recognise a single name in this list.

I know Zoe Keating (the cellist) mostly because of her looping setup.

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#26

Post by ahub » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:07 PM UTC

I was glad to learn about the 1942-1944 musician strike. Didn't know about it, there is a wikipedia article about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942%E2%80%931944_musicians%27...

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#27

Post by apercu » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:16 PM UTC

"No one" is a a pretty broad statement.

Julian Lage is my favourite guitar player to come along in a decade or two. And he releases instrumental albums.

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#28

Post by Minor49er » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:19 PM UTC

throwaway743 wrote: post #6

Oneohtrix

He's overdue for a new album. I didn't think he'd be able to top GoD, but Magic OPN is fantastic. Apparently he's working for Disney right now

Related: Squarepusher. His album Ultravisitor will melt your brain

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#29

Post by efields » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:20 PM UTC

It's the market || politics || technology, stupid.

Re: The decline and fall of the hit instrumental song

#30

Post by mtalantikite » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:21 PM UTC

H1Supreme wrote: post #12

If the author continued their lineage beyond hip-hop, into electronic music (house, drum n' bass, downtempo), I think they would see that "favorite instrumentalist" has transformed into "favorite producer".

Yeah, I had a similar thought around "favorite producer" as the language to use these days. I saw RZA speak a few years back and one thing he mentioned was that he just didn't have access to instruments and instrumental teaching when he was a kid like others may have had in earlier generations. He said something to the extent of "I could have been Mozart if I had had that access". What he did have access to was an ASR10, an EPS16+, a bunch of records, and great ears.

I've always wondered how much impact lack of funding for music education in schools has had, where a surprising number of people just don't know what instruments are even called anymore.