A deviation from norm?

[lymmo 8]

Would you say there has been a paradigm shift in as far as music production is concerned? A majority of the hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s almost followed a similar pattern; telling a story that resonated with the audience.

 

A musician was either talking about love, his journey of love, and so on. We seem to be having shorter music videos now, and it is probably more about getting you thrilled by the quality of the video and not so much about the content of a song. Do you share my thoughts?

[Guest Pluto]

I think it depends on where you're looking at. I feel like the popular music these days is more about catchy rhythm and flashy visual. It's nice when people can relate to the story, but it's not a must. But if you dig a bit further, maybe checking out some indie artists, you can probably find a hidden gem. I try to do that once in a while, but often I'm not sure where to begin.

[Zack T 171]

I've sort of noticed this as I've gotten older. Back when I was a teen and younger, rap seemed like it mostly had some substance to it. There was plenty of silliness and self-hype, but even in those, the style in which it was performed and written usually jived well with me. But as I got into adulthood, rap seemed to morph more into being all about beats and the lyrics were secondary. It became normal for me to hear the answer "Cause I like the beat" when I asked why someone likes a certain song. And then even the beats began to suck. There's this fascination with using brief but poignant sounds like exclamations all throughout your song. Using words or sounds like "BLAH BLUH BLAM" constantly, mumble rap, it all just kept adding up and the result is that I think the vast majority of rap now sucks. And I'm not intending to sound like I was a huge fan back when I was younger, but I certainly enjoyed a wider variety of rap artists back then than I do now.

 

It's all about emphasis without any actual meaning. Just being loud and in your face to get attention.

 

 

 

Anyway, I actually think Rock is better than it was back when I was younger. I feel like that genre has actually gone forward and embraced more emotion. Rock has always had plenty of story-songs and love songs or heartache songs, but now we also have a lot more about mental health, about personal struggle, and overall I feel like rock is in a better place than it was 20 years ago. I actually can't seem to properly enjoy listening to a lot of stuff from my youth in the rock genre. I mean, the artists I like, I'll still really love their old stuff. But I'm talking about in general - If I turn on Sirius XM's Turbo channel which features Rock music from the 90's and early 2000's exclusively, I won't get into it much. I'll recognize most of it, but it's like it's missing something.

[ShadowEdge 48]

I don't think many people watch music videos, do they? I think having a catchy hook and crafting the right image matters more than it used to while singing talent matters less than it used to. Courting the press and social media matters much more as well.

[didge 11]

@Zack T, what you say about how rap music has changed is true. It is hard to come across a track that sounds like the 80s or 90s hit. Is 'trap' music slowly take over that space? Time will tell! @ShadowEdge, I think more people watch videos as evidenced by the millions of views on YouTube. Again, this is a subjective topic because not everyone checks out a new song on Vevo or YouTube.

[Guest Pluto]

I don't think many people watch music videos, do they? I think having a catchy hook and crafting the right image matters more than it used to while singing talent matters less than it used to. Courting the press and social media matters much more as well.

I don't disagree, but once you get the attention from social media, where do you direct it? You can link to the audio on Spotify, for example, but you can also impress them further with your stage and dance or show them what the lyrics actually are. I think that's what I find important from music videos. At times, they help me find an artist I would probably ignore if not for the visual.

[lymmo 8]

I also use the same approach @Pluto. Any artist who doesn't produce a catchy and insightful video risks falling behind in terms of revenue. Don't we easily rate a song based on the number of views on say, YouTube?

[Guest Pluto]

@Zack T Is it because of the way genres and styles are mixed together in one song? I understand that some artists want to be perceived as versatile singers, but I feel that at times they lose their own identity.

 

I also use the same approach @Pluto. Any artist who doesn't produce a catchy and insightful video risks falling behind in terms of revenue. Don't we easily rate a song based on the number of views on say, YouTube?

Sadly, yeah. Everyone's racing to reach certain numbers of views or rankings. I know that's important. You're doing something right if people keep on replaying your song. But these numbers are easily manipulated anyway, so why not just move on and focus on music?

[Zack T 171]

I don't think it's an issue of trying to blend so many things together so much as it's just the way the general sound of rap is evolving. All genres of music slowly evolve over time, and while that does involve some blending of different styles, it's also people trying out new stuff and seeing what sticks. For whatever reason, this mumble rap and short attention span stuff has really stuck in rap.

 

I think people still watch music videos, youtube can easily prove that with how many millions of views some of them get. They're just not as publicized I think, since MTV isn't really the place to go for that anymore. I assume they still show some music videos there or on MTV-2, but it's just more convenient to go to youtube and watch it on demand rather than wait for it to show up on TV.

[Ogmore 28]

I don't think it's that different really. People write songs about what's popular at that time. It used to be drugs and sex, now it's selfies and money.

[Guest Pluto]

I think people still watch music videos, youtube can easily prove that with how many millions of views some of them get. They're just not as publicized I think, since MTV isn't really the place to go for that anymore. I assume they still show some music videos there or on MTV-2, but it's just more convenient to go to youtube and watch it on demand rather than wait for it to show up on TV.

Music TV shows are not as popular as they were before, but everyone's on their mobile phones every minute these days. People around me watch YouTube videos while they wait for food to come. If anything, I feel like music videos are becoming more important in this digital age.

 

@Ogmore I'd say they are still talking about those four things even now. The good thing is that when I check the newly released songs, other than those, I also hear lyrics about coming out of abusive relationships or going after our dreams.

[lymmo 8]

Who even pays attention to those music TV shows anymore? We are always bumping into new music every day on YouTube. With all the ads therein, we are getting to hear of a different song altogether, within a playlist. As much as a lot a changed, a lot has remained the same.