Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When do we stop finding new music?

statsignificant.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 585 posts

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#471

Post by Cthulhu_ »

wodenokoto wrote: post #424
cesaref wrote: post #389

The useful metric with these sorts of things is to ask yourself, when was the last time you tried something that you didn't like? For expensive experiences, say, going to the theatre, it's hard to see shows you don't think you are going to like, as the price pressure makes you choose 'safe bets' as the cost/reward is somewhat weighted in one direction. For something like music, the above used to be the case, as typic…

I think it is the reverse. 20-30 years ago, you'd listen to radio or MTV a lot more. They would introduce you to music outside "your tribe" of virtue of having to play a little bit of every genre that's popular. Back then, I'd say investing in a album was always safe, not because you went to the record store and asked for a new rock album, because you had heard 1 or 2 singles (unwillingly) and read a review (willingl…

It's a mixed bag; on the one side I agree that during that era, people were exposed to a somewhat broad range of musical styles if they watched TV or listened to radio - early to mid teen me would be exposed to the likes of Madonna, Rammstein, Eminem and Slipknot all in one day. But as someone else pointed out, it was all within the "bubble" of what was popular at that time, and the options to break out of there were limited because there were only so many music television and radio channels, and they would have a limited playlist of Nowadays if you have a streaming subscription or even Youtube, you have instant access to millions of songs and a multitude of curators creating playlists to fit any mood. Granted, Spotify and co will curate some popular playlists, and discovering curators outside of that bubble takes some more effort. But it's there.

We live in interesting times where on the one side we can be overwhelmed by choice, while at the same time delighted with new discoveries. Where budding artists can create from their proverbial basement and self-publish to a potential audience of billions.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#472

Post by qzx_pierri »

bdw5204 wrote: post #199
jrussino wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pandora was my go-to circa 2007-2009 and I haven't thought about it in years. Looking back, I discovered a disproportionate amount of the music I like in that timeframe... I'm honestly kind of surprised they're still around (and, if I'm reading your comment correctly, haven't morphed into something entirely unrecognizable in the meantime?)

I use Pandora and subscribe to Premium which allows me to listen to albums on demand. When I started out as a free user after I gave up on Youtube in the background apps, I didn't like Spotify because it kept forcing me to listen to awful songs that it pushes on everybody instead of what I actually wanted to listen to. Pandora was a much better experience as a free user because their "radio" plays music similar to wh…

Dude... THANK YOU. I just logged back into Pandora and the recommendations are just as excellent as I remember. I also remember discovering some of my absolute favorite songs/albums via Pandora.

One thing that Pandora has is GENRE based stations. I don't know of any other service that can do that. This will be a game changer for when I dive into new genres.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#473

Post by KineticLensman »

082349872349872 wrote: post #402
eloisius wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We really need music search which follows more interesting routes through content rather than just 'people who like this also like' or 'here's another album by someone you already listen to'. I agree with this so much. We've had about a decade of this kind of robo-curation in every single aspect of our media consumption. Read books like the ones you like, listen to bands like the ones you listen to, more videos lik…

I suspect it's the notion of a "feed" that's at fault, but then again I'm an old codger who likes to rummage in the cupboard and actively search for my content instead of being stuck in the high chair and passively waiting for somebody else's algorithm to feed it to me. (in another domain, at some restaurants it's possible to order dishes which don't appear on their menu)

> in another domain, at some restaurants it's possible to order dishes which don't appear on their menu

I've experienced this in Italy. Our host took us to a restaurant where he knew the manager and looked at the menu. He then asked 'but what have you really got?'. After a long very Italian debate (which I didn't understand) with a lot of gesticulation etc we were brought a multi-course meal that was absolutely delicious and involved various things that had just come into season, things that the manager kept back for friends, etc.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#474

Post by SiempreViernes »

lapcat wrote: post #168

I find it interesting that GenZ and Millennials show a much smaller preference for their own decade's music. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_pr... The 1980s are still doing quite well among all but the oldest generation. Is it possible that music may actually be getting worse? Corporatized, consolidated, computerized. Look at Hollywood now too: everything is a sequel, prequel, remake, reboot…

Be aware that grouping things by the respondents "generation" is actually meaningless[1] and likely to make you combine several real processes into random "effects".

Trying to explain these arbitrary aggregations with a single story is obviously fruitless and mostly a good way to make up nonsense arguments.

[1] https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2021/05/26/open-lette...

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#475

Post by dman-os »

erikbye wrote: post #431
goosejuice wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Music is absolutely not getting worse unless you're only considering top charting music which is such a small fraction of what's out there. Even then it's highly subjective and behind almost every one of those songs or albums is a handful of brilliant writers, producers and session musicians you probably never heard of. I'd say it's never been better. Music is more accessible which means more folks get exposed to it…

Of course, it's extremely subjective, but how about naming a few artists who have appeared in the last few years that you think make better music and are more talented musicians than those who came before?

At the risk of just mouthing off my favorites, there are a lot of genres today are the best they've ever been. The post-punk revival out of the UK is great. The "chambery" Black Country, New Road and the "mathy" Black Midi are some of the best we've seen and there are other exceptional talents in that scene. Noisy-shoegazy-indie rock is also a great scene right now with artists like Jane Remover and Mitski releasing what will be important albums for ages to come.

Note, Mitski debuted in 2013 but most of the strongest records over the past few years, from hip-hop, pop to experimental rock to metal, seems to be by artists or individual who've been making music for around a decade-ish roughly. Maybe this disqualifies the whole lot and you're trying to highlight some weakness in the debuts of the past few years. If so, maybe you should wait a decade? If not, I can assert that some of the most talented artists of history are making music today. By any metric.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#476

Post by microtonal »

lloeki wrote: post #408
microtonal wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m similarly weird. I grew up in the 90s and listened to a lot of grunge when I was 14 (the music age we seem to prefer according to the article). But I can barely listen to the music from that time anymore. It just sounds so dated, maybe because I listened to it too much? Something like Pearl Jam or Soundgarden just sounds so dreadful now. Instead, music has become much more timeless for me. 50/60ies jazz, 70s prog…

> It just sounds so dated, maybe because I listened to it too much? Something like that happened to me, again and again. Overlistening things I love (not necessarily because of me, sometimes it's third parties piling upon my own listening), then at some point I start to not like it anymore to a point ranging from "I have no interest in it anymore" to "it makes me cringe". Then if I manage to avoid it for some time, o…

Not listening for some time indeed sometimes helps. I now try to avoid listening music I really really like too often. It's something beautiful you take out of its box every few months/years. Stuff like Ole Coltrane or Miles Davis' Filles de Kilimanjaro.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#477

Post by tombert »

ElFitz wrote: post #445
tombert wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it kind of goes both ways? Maybe the word "uncultured" isn't right, but I feel like when I say "I don't really listen to much that was written in the last fifteen years", people kind of act like I'm some kind of luddite. I also think a lot of people feel like the smartest people go way back and listen to the classical stuff. Personally, I've never really been able to get into classical music outside of movie…

> I also think a lot of people feel like the smartest people go way back and listen to the classical stuff. […] and for awhile I was kind of embarrassed by that fact That says a lot more about those who think that it does about than those who do or do not listen to "classical" music. > Personally, I've never really been able to get into classical music outside of movie soundtracks, Not implying it will or should be t…

I don’t disagree with anything you said.

I did however try seeing some Beethoven performance a few years ago and I didn’t really enjoy it. I can respect and appreciate the talent of the musicians, and I didn’t hate it or anything, but I still didn’t really have that much fun.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#478

Post by npteljes »

lapcat wrote: post #456
npteljes wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The return of the 80s is, or rather was, just a current trend. Next up will be the 90s/00s, which can already be seen in make up and fashion, and I'm sure media will follow soon as well. Wrt/ Hollywood: I think they are not the monopoly they used to be, because the powers are shifting by streaming, and short video services. Similar to how AAA games are more stagnant than the indie gaming scene. "Music" is too broad t…

> The return of the 80s is, or rather was, just a current trend. Next up will be the 90s/00s, which can already be seen in make up and fashion, and I'm sure media will follow soon as well. Is it a "return of the 80s", or is it a rejection of newer music? Again, "GenZ and Millennials show a much smaller preference for their own decade's music." This is a difference from previous generations, which tend to hold on stro…

I believe that music's role changed a lot first with the wide spread of the internet and then smartphones and streaming. The internet gave rise to a global culture, and a new channel where culture can form, and then streaming completely changed how people consume music.

I see rejection, disappointment and disillusion as a general theme that's going on in culture, but I can't say that these weren't present in the past cultures as well - going back some decades, the popularity of punk and its offshoots show just how much these feelings resonated with the audience back then.

I think that with the widespread access and nonexistent barrier to entry to past cultures via streaming, attention just spread over the existing cultural palette, resulting in lower average consumption of the new and current. It's not that the new and current is rejected - it's rather that long tail is longer and taller.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#479

Post by cainxinth »

pxc wrote: post #303

I expect it'll never happen to me. My dad was still actively seeking out new music when I was a kid, streaming college radio via the Internet before Pandora, Last.fm, or Spotify were things. He's in his 60s today and he still listens to new music (in a range of genres) all the time. If novelty in music is actually important to you, this won't happen to you.

Me neither, for two reasons. One, I was a DJ briefly as a young person and digging crates for new discoveries and hidden gems is still as fun as ever. And two, I exercise a lot, and you can only run to the same song so many times before it loses its juice (at least temporarily).

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#480

Post by ysavir »

gregmac wrote: post #302
ysavir wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Pandora and I'm able to maintain genre-specific stations pretty well. Sometimes it will try to mix something new in but I just dislike that song and it happily keeps playing the genre(s) that I chose for that channel.

I don't know about Pandora, but I've always been cautious to use "dislike" in that way, because I don't know the scope. There's a difference between "I don't want to ever hear this" vs "I don't want to hear it on this station". I use it for the former but not the latter.

My experience has been that dislikes are station specific. I regularly dislike songs on channels in order to shape the genre, even if I actively listen to that song on other stations. Pandora's whole identity revolves around stations, so it would be weird if dislikes were global.

I've found the pandora community post below that seems to confirm it, though I'm not sure whether the community admin answering the question is actually a pandora employee or not.

https://community.pandora.com/t5/My-Collection/What-if-you-l...

Post reply on HN