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When do we stop finding new music?

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Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#551

Post by acureau »

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.

You seem hyper focused on comparing all that you hear to what you already know you like. If you really want to appreciate new music, cut it out. You're introducing bias at the outset. If you approach a new artist as if their work is isolated, and give it some time to settle in, I think you'll be surprised.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#552

Post by r1b »

goosejuice wrote: post #405
r1b wrote: post #175

Outlier here (musician, spend hours per week trying to find new music) - some thoughts: - The search space for music is really large and noisy. Most of the stuff out there isn’t very good, and the stuff that is good isn’t always discoverable with a single strategy - The best strategies almost always exploit human connections Some strategies I use: - Spatial locality, who is performing with or near artists that I like…

How deep are you digging that you can say most that is out there isn't good? I find this surprising. Or do you mean good as in to your liking? The amount of talent out there is kind of mind blowing to me. Is this within a narrow genre?

This mostly an assessment at scale. By volume, irrespective of genre, and even accounting for subjectivity, most of the material that gets published isn’t very good.

That being said, I generally don’t agree with conclusions like “culture is frozen”. You are correct that there is _more_ high quality material available than ever before. The challenge is just that it’s harder than ever to find it.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#553

Post by r1b »

hmm37 wrote: post #497
dudefeliciano wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is a freeform radio station near me do you have any suggestions for similar online radio stations or playlists?

You can try some college radio e.g. some smaller colleges in WA, or U. Mich radio station. But for freeform, I think in the US at least WFMU is considered the best. https://wfmu.org/ Davide of MIMIC Radio is good for classical music, as it's pretty much the only one I know that usually plays a whole classical music piece, and not a single movement, etc. and it's high bitrate as well.

WFMU is indeed the one I’m referring to here :)

To get the freeform format with newer, “shinier”, and often more electronic sounding music, I also like NTS.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#554

Post by danbmil99 »

For young people just starting in life, money may be a gating Factor or at least it was when you had to buy vinyl. but as you get older, the resource you most worry about is time. Watching a 2-hour movie that you don't like is 2 hours gone from the rest of your life, which is a greater percentage than it is for young people.

In my early years I was obsessed with music and listen to all different kinds to try to expand my sphere of Appreciation. but now, I worry that I might spend a lot of time and then find that I don't really enjoy that artist, and the investment of time was not worth it.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#555

Post by _DeadFred_ »

danbmil99 wrote: post #554

For young people just starting in life, money may be a gating Factor or at least it was when you had to buy vinyl. but as you get older, the resource you most worry about is time. Watching a 2-hour movie that you don't like is 2 hours gone from the rest of your life, which is a greater percentage than it is for young people. In my early years I was obsessed with music and listen to all different kinds to try to expan…

You people can not be guaranteed that they will reach the 'get older' stage so technically they are risking a larger percentage of their total life to watch a 2 hour movie.

The real answer is obvious though. As an old man cool music doesn't make me cooler. In fact, for an old man listening to 'cool' music might actually make me less cool, and being old I have less time left to recover my coolness quotient. I can't afford to risk listening to new music.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#556

Post by _DeadFred_ »

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.

Show me someone great who when you go to their inspiration you can't find they themselves very much creating watered down versions of their inspirations.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#557

Post by _DeadFred_ »

iraqmtpizza wrote: post #460
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…

If you consider the top charting music and the typical fart noises uploaded to soundcloud which have 3 listens, yes it is worse. If you're only considering your 25 favorite new songs out of tens of millions then sure, it's better. But also there is recency/novelty bias which counteracts and may overcome any past/nostalgia bias In conclusion, if all you're doing is listening to music alone in your apartment then it's…

The world's been hating my music tastes and telling me to turn stuff off since the 1980s. And then, ten years later they love it, and 10 years after that my ex-is bragging how she used to listen to it decades ago.

And definitely don't like things based on the real world, the real world is shit.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#558

Post by _DeadFred_ »

totetsu wrote: post #237
Thegn wrote: post #224

One problem I've run into with the music services is with older styles. For example, I'm specifically into black musicians from the 1930s-1950s who played swing style music. I have yet to find a service that actually will play more than 2-3 songs in that style before deciding that what I really want to hear is rat pack or swing by white musicians. No matter how much I thumbs down it, I get Glenn Miller/Frank Sinatra/…

Last FM and music neighbors could have solved this.

Last FM was so good for this.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#559

Post by _DeadFred_ »

crooked-v wrote: post #299
KETHERCORTEX wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case it's not that ridiculous because "black" here isn't just a skin color, but primarily a subculture/subgenre with some distinct musical attributes. Nobody finds separating French electronic music into its own subgenre ridiculous. Same with Italian Disco. Such distinct movements are quite usual, so dissatisfaction about Black Swing on streaming services is understandable.

Also, the subculture exists in the US because of hundreds of years of intentional effort by the majority to destroy any preexisting cultures among black people and prevent any integration with the mainstream.

That's funny, because a lot of 'black' music in that period came from irish musical influences and totally did not come from what you are claiming.

Re: When do we stop finding new music?

#560

Post by BenFranklin100 »

mellosouls wrote: post #466
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is developmental biological factor, but how quickly you’ve leapt to cognitive decline betrays an underlying ageism. First, cognitive abilities don’t drop suddenly at the age of 30, and crystallized intelligence continues to grow for at least couple of decades past 30. Second, you need to square your conclusions with the fact that the average age for the best work by classical composers was 40 rather tha…

how quickly you’ve leapt to cognitive decline betrays an underlying ageism This is a belief I've developed over years, I used to believe the same as everybody else - that social etc factors like raising kids got in the way. But its too universal within pop music (and I think some other fields mentioned in another comment) to be explained as anything but age-related cognitive decline - which by definition will be "age…

If you sincerely believe people undergo a steep cognitive decline starting at the age of 30, at least you will have the comfort of a soft landing.
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