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Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

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Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#261

Post by scarface_74 »

volkl48 wrote: post #191
mschuster91 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. Thing is, there are objective metrics about quality. One aspect is "loudness war" aka compression, where subjective loudness gets increased at the cost of dynamic range [1], another (in)famous aspect is the increasing use…

Movies + Music aren't the same medium, though. Music doesn't have ever-increasing production costs, and if anything it's easier than ever to get something out there on the primary distribution mechanisms used by the public to consume media. It certainly has it's own business problems but I don't see any lack of interesting, risk-taking music out there. Even as a fan of genres largely far out of the mainstream I often…

> Music doesn't have ever-increasing production costs

“How much does it cost to make a hit song”

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/07/05/137530847/how-...

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#263

Post by shagymoe »

mschuster91 wrote: post #174
bazoom42 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the quality has absolutely cratered You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. People were whining about how Beatles destroyed music, how rock’n’roll was just monkey noise, how crooners like Sinatra wasn’t real singing.

> You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. Thing is, there are objective metrics about quality. One aspect is "loudness war" aka compression, where subjective loudness gets increased at the cost of dynamic range [1], another (in)famous aspect is the increasing use…

Nothing about the "quality" of art, including music, is objective. These sound waves are better than those sound waves? No. Beauty and the quality of art is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#264

Post by msla »

mschuster91 wrote: post #174
bazoom42 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the quality has absolutely cratered You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. People were whining about how Beatles destroyed music, how rock’n’roll was just monkey noise, how crooners like Sinatra wasn’t real singing.

> You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. Thing is, there are objective metrics about quality. One aspect is "loudness war" aka compression, where subjective loudness gets increased at the cost of dynamic range [1], another (in)famous aspect is the increasing use…

> another (in)famous aspect is the increasing use of auto-tune (both the software itself as well as the general principle after which it was named)

This is mostly subjective, not objective.

(Is it being used more? Objective. Is that relevant to quality? Subjective.)

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#265

Post by tracerbulletx »

bazoom42 wrote: post #131
jacquesm wrote: post #7

"Home taping is killing music" The record companies did a fantastic job of killing music all by themselves, the quality has absolutely cratered and the occasional great artist that has made it through the long slog to recognition has done so despite the music industry, not because of. I spent a fortune on various formats and when streaming came along I simply refused to participate. I'm simply not going to pay a thir…

> the quality has absolutely cratered You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. People were whining about how Beatles destroyed music, how rock’n’roll was just monkey noise, how crooners like Sinatra wasn’t real singing.

Yeah, there's an insane amount of amazing music of so many different styles being produced. The nature of finding it, the gate keepers, what's cool, and everything else has changed though and if you haven't been keeping up with it, it might be somewhat invisible to you. Refusing to use streaming services out of principal definitely just sounds like being old and refusing to adapt though, you can always buy physical media to support an artist once you discover them.

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#266

Post by rz2k »

LanceH wrote: post #236
bazoom42 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the quality has absolutely cratered You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. People were whining about how Beatles destroyed music, how rock’n’roll was just monkey noise, how crooners like Sinatra wasn’t real singing.

Where are the ugly singers? Music is represented my a disproportionately high number of hot women (and less so men) with no room for others. There is obviously a standard other than musical quality in play. Today, it's mostly true that everything is available. The music that reaches the masses, though, is defined by production over musical quality. Would we even see or hear from Cass Elliot, Janis Joplin, or Patsy Cl…

I don't agree at all. I've found the YouTube algorithms as good for discovering new singer-songwriters as when I used to see live music a few times a week in New York decades ago. Many, or even most, of the women that come up in my feed are no more conventionally beautiful than the people you cite.

How mainstream was someone like Janis Joplin? She was on the radio, but she was also somewhat counter culture. The women (who don't deserve to be written about as evidence of success without beauty) have hundreds of thousands of subscribers just on youtube, many millions of listens, and I hear their music in stores, commercials and coffee shops.

In addition to there being many more avenues for reaching a large audience outside of record labels, there are also quite a few mainstream performers who aren't conventionally attractive who became famous through pseudo-grassroot paths like television contests.

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#267

Post by msla »

bazoom42 wrote: post #131
jacquesm wrote: post #7

"Home taping is killing music" The record companies did a fantastic job of killing music all by themselves, the quality has absolutely cratered and the occasional great artist that has made it through the long slog to recognition has done so despite the music industry, not because of. I spent a fortune on various formats and when streaming came along I simply refused to participate. I'm simply not going to pay a thir…

> the quality has absolutely cratered You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. People were whining about how Beatles destroyed music, how rock’n’roll was just monkey noise, how crooners like Sinatra wasn’t real singing.

Plus, The Winnowing: We don't listen to most music from decades ago. We don't listen to most hits from decades ago. The Winnowing removes most works, in every medium, from the popular consciousness, leaving only the consensus favorites, also known as the canon.

Here's an example: "The Ballad Of The Green Berets" by SSG Barry Sadler was number one for five weeks in 1966, tied with "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas And The Papas. That song is effectively gone now. It's no longer remembered. It didn't make the canon, because The Winnowing got to it, so now it isn't part of The Sixties as a consensus mass memory. "California Dreamin'" which was objectively just as popular by the metric of the charts, however, is pretty well remembered and is, therefore, part of the canon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_the_Green_Berets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kj9qv6rmG8

Newer music hasn't gone through The Winnowing. More of the chaff is still remembered. Therefore, it all looks worse.

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#268

Post by deepspace »

bazoom42 wrote: post #131
jacquesm wrote: post #7

"Home taping is killing music" The record companies did a fantastic job of killing music all by themselves, the quality has absolutely cratered and the occasional great artist that has made it through the long slog to recognition has done so despite the music industry, not because of. I spent a fortune on various formats and when streaming came along I simply refused to participate. I'm simply not going to pay a thir…

> the quality has absolutely cratered You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. People were whining about how Beatles destroyed music, how rock’n’roll was just monkey noise, how crooners like Sinatra wasn’t real singing.

Watch this video, and tell me that there is no objective difference in quality between pre-2000 and post-2000 songs.

With a few exceptions, modern music is autotuned-to-death, boring, indistinguishable crap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uMW2XsMx8Q

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#269

Post by deepspace »

nemo44x wrote: post #183
bazoom42 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the quality has absolutely cratered You just got old. It happens to everyone, and every generation says the same thing: The music I enjoyed when I was young and impressionable was great, but all the stuff they make nowadays is crap. People were whining about how Beatles destroyed music, how rock’n’roll was just monkey noise, how crooners like Sinatra wasn’t real singing.

Yup. Getting old is a tough pill to swallow. An early sign is when you don’t care about new music. Face it, popular music exists for teenagers to claim their spot. Their unique identity from previous generations. The new and fresh - it’s about today and they are today.

> The new and fresh

But that's just the point. New music all sounds the same. Half-spoken, mumbled lyrics- check. Autotuned to death- check. Forgettable tunes- check.

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#270

Post by 999900000999 »

jacquesm wrote: post #7

"Home taping is killing music" The record companies did a fantastic job of killing music all by themselves, the quality has absolutely cratered and the occasional great artist that has made it through the long slog to recognition has done so despite the music industry, not because of. I spent a fortune on various formats and when streaming came along I simply refused to participate. I'm simply not going to pay a thir…

I'd argue with digital distribution there's just more of everything. Within moments I can access rap music from France, Japan, etc. This was nearly impossible just 30 years ago. In the 90s I guess I could ask an importer to sell me a French rap CD, pay 100$ for it. Etc. Or I'd probably just give up.

That said mainstream music is forced to the lowest common denominator to appeal to the maximum number of people

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