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

521–530 of 585 posts

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#521

Post by erikbye »

goosejuice wrote: post #518
erikbye wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me preface by saying I listen to a lot of genres, but that jazz & funk is not my "main expertise". Of course there's no denying we have lots of creative and talented new musicians, but very seldom do I think they beat "the greats", or are even on par. Usually they feel more like knockoffs, and I find I'd rather go back and listen to the original instead. I'm not familiar with these artists, but I had a listen to…

Of course they were inspired by existing artists and by a greater set of them! This is central to my argument that music is only going to get better with greater exposure. Those are all great artists you listed but to attempt to quantify that they are any more talented or creative than contemporaries is a silly exercise. It's art. This is a small list of random artists that I've listened to over the past few years. J…

> Of course they were inspired by existing artists and by a greater set of them!

Inspiration is a given, and nothing wrong with that. But I often feel like instead of inspiring to new heights we get a watered down version.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#522

Post by jmkr »

kennyadam wrote: post #61
monksy wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The artists have made it harder. They've pushed for aggressive one sided fan behavior policies (phone less), they've increased aggressively with the prices, the quality has gone down with many established bands, pushed large shows without building a performance with the space, and they've done a ton of things that don't help their product. It feels more like greed in the business than an experience. That being said I…

I am 100% onboard with the phone bans. There's nothing worse than hundreds of phone screens glowing in your face while you're trying to enjoy a live act. I can't imagine how weird it must feel for the performer(s) too. To go from people looking at you, making eye contact, engaging with the performance, to suddenly seeing a sea of phones pointed at you, with everyone watching you indirectly via their phone screen.

No thanks, security is already ridiculous.

> There's nothing worse than hundreds of phone screens glowing in your face while you're trying to enjoy a live act.

Plenty of worse things. People throwing up on you. Harassment. Tarps. Passing out. Being sold water even though it's supposed to be free. Taking bottle caps away from you. People talking during the show. People yelling about politics.

I don't enjoy all the phones either, but it is what it is.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#523

Post by madmountaingoat »

cthalupa wrote: post #488

I'm convinced it's not that we stagnate in our ability to like new things, it's just that we stop exposing ourselves to it, and it's reinforced by the algorithms focusing on stuff we do like when we rely on them for recommendations. If you purposefully seek out exposure to new things, you'll find stuff you like, regardless of age. I have a friend that brings me along to all sorts of concerts that are well out of the…

Music as an art form is simply not that important to a lot of people. It's more a mood drug. And you're right about the algorithms. In general, the algorithms are judged by the amount of listening that occurs because of them. It's a poor metric for user happiness, but it's what gets used. And in an A/B test, the one that plays familiar tunes is going to win over one that plays challenging tunes.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#524

Post by aidenn0 »

cthalupa wrote: post #489
suoduandao3 wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this is the origin of the '90s kids' meme. Not too long ago there was one culture . Then the internet came along and there was a gathering place for fans of every obscure anime and political system. I don't miss the restrictiveness of a single culture and the expectation to fit into it, but with the benefit of hindsight I can't say it was a terrible culture, given all it had to do.

There have always been multiple cultures. This is such a weird statement I don't even really know how to argue against it since to me it seems so self evident, but I suppose I'll try. Since the subject is music, I suppose we can start there. The sort of people you found at, say, a metal show in the 80s and the sort of people you found at a dance club playing the early era of house music were wildly different. Even if…

There was never one culture, but the fragmentation was far more coarse.

I was into D&D, so I was exposed to anime, comics, Monty Python, Mel Brooks, and Tom Lehrer, because those were a certain subculture.

I was never a comic-book nerd, but I could probably name a dozen different series from image comics in the 90s because I was surrounded by people who read them.

I flat out dislike watching Mel Brooks movies, but I can quote about 90% of Spaceballs or Blazing Saddles because that was a part of the vocabulary of that group.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#525

Post by watwut »

yobbo wrote: post #436
wodenokoto wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> you'd listen to radio or MTV a lot more The selection in these channels was the tribe back then. They were the "bottleneck" of pop culture. From around 2000 with broadband etc, "payola" (broadcasters being coerced by record companies to play their flagship songs "in heavy rotation") is less and less effective. As a consequence, I think the "current fashion" of music seems less defined.

There were multiple sub-cultures warring against each other and especially against pop MTV back then.

Mainstream always coexisted wirh smaller cultures.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#526

Post by aidenn0 »

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…

I was born in 1980, so it would be before my musical "peak" so to speak, but I dislike pretty much anything from the 80s popular enough to have been on the radio in the 80s. Right now the 80s style is so popular, I find myself even disliking a lot of modern music that has that "80s retro feel"

I was in the car with an older Gen-Z'er last year and they expressed jealousy at me having grown up in the 80s because they "like the music so much" and were shocked to find out I didn't.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#527

Post by lapcat »

goosejuice wrote: post #510
lapcat wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's all there for free with an Internet connection The "Internet" is just hand waving. The internet is massive. Almost everything is available on the internet, but that's a problem, not a solution. Sometimes it's like finding a needle in a haystack. > If one can't find new music to ones taste it's not because of what's being produced. So what is the explanation for "GenZ and Millennials show a much smaller prefere…

You shared a single infographic without a source, but taking it as fact I would take a guess that it's easier to discover old music now and there's more music to listen to thus flattening the curve. I'm sorry that it's difficult for you to find what you like. My tastes are very broad and I find new artists every week just listening to Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube while working. My wife and I and our friends share music…

> You shared a single infographic without a source

The source was the submitted article under discussion in these comments!

> I'm sorry that it's difficult for you to find what you like.

I never said that. I'm not even discussing me, or you for that matter. I'm discussing the aggregate differences between the generations.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#528

Post by jahewson »

mellosouls wrote: post #353
dotnet00 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other replies are interpreting this as the algorithm failing, but I have interpreted these sorts of things as intentional design choices, wherein they want the recommender to keep trying to diversify your interests so it's harder for you to just quit the service and move to another one which might not have the same variety (or where you'd have to try to "teach" the recommender again). They've determined that the…

trying to diversify your interests In this instance - and others in my experience listening to the recommendations on this and similar services - "diversify" is used when "dilute" would be more appropriate.

It’s not really though - if it was known in advance that you did not like a track then there would be no reason to recommend it. It’s the classic precision vs recall trade off: I can create a recommendation algorithm that only recommends your favourite song, forever, and that will have perfect precision but miserable recall. To increase recall we have to accept a drop in precision.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#529

Post by goosejuice »

erikbye wrote: post #521
goosejuice wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course they were inspired by existing artists and by a greater set of them! This is central to my argument that music is only going to get better with greater exposure. Those are all great artists you listed but to attempt to quantify that they are any more talented or creative than contemporaries is a silly exercise. It's art. This is a small list of random artists that I've listened to over the past few years. J…

> Of course they were inspired by existing artists and by a greater set of them! Inspiration is a given, and nothing wrong with that. But I often feel like instead of inspiring to new heights we get a watered down version.

I don't know, maybe you're just not hearing what I'm hearing. Watch Cory Henry on Snarky's Lingus. Jacob Collier do his recent crowd work with the NSO. Cory Wong talk about Vulfpeck and their MSG show and never rehearsing. Hiromi and Tank and the Bangas on NPR's tiny desks. I'd say Abigail Lapell adds tremendously to the folk of the era you are referencing.

Watered down is just not how I'd describe any of the musicians I listed

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#530

Post by goosejuice »

lapcat wrote: post #527
goosejuice wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shared a single infographic without a source, but taking it as fact I would take a guess that it's easier to discover old music now and there's more music to listen to thus flattening the curve. I'm sorry that it's difficult for you to find what you like. My tastes are very broad and I find new artists every week just listening to Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube while working. My wife and I and our friends share music…

> You shared a single infographic without a source The source was the submitted article under discussion in these comments! > I'm sorry that it's difficult for you to find what you like. I never said that. I'm not even discussing me, or you for that matter. I'm discussing the aggregate differences between the generations.

Indeed it is! Shameful of me.

Apologizes, when you referred to it being a needle in a haystack I thought you were referring to your own experiences.

Post reply on HN