the worst things to happen to music (1 Viewer)

[Bill Cowmeadow]

What about a couple of the best things to happen to music

Mike Oldfield
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Pat metheny (not the esoteric stuff)
Pink Floyd

I also agree with everything stated in the above links.

 

[MarkHastings]

Two words: David Foster.

 

[kamyiu]

16. Replacement Lead Singers
AC/DC’s impressive recovery from Singer-Vomit-Asphyxiation is the exception that proves the rule. If the phrase “Van Hagar” fails to convince, consider Rock Star: INXS and the macabre spectacle of Queen fronted by a leatherfaced Paul Rodgers.

love it...

 

[Jeff_A]

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Andrew Lloyd Webber was on the list.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

*payola
*loudness war
*digital recording and engineering (really a double-edged sword, but I'll happily kill baby Hitler too).
*cheap (as in 'inexpensive') recording tools.
*Bose® wave radio
*Walkman

 

[frog]

The fact that no one knows how to produce an album anymore.

Concert tickets that are over $100.

Backup dancers

I agree with the earlier post of corporate owned radio stations.

Corporate sponsorship.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Raising of prices

Fewer singles

Rap (some early rap was amusing, but can hardly be considered music and has gone on far too long!)

The whole loudness-compression thing

MP3 players

Consolidation of radio

MTV adding non-music programming

The Milli Vanilli Grammy fiasco

Death of Tower Records

 

[MatthewA]

Blender Magazine is one of those magazines that's so bad that it shakes my formerly unwavering faith in the First Amendment. I mean, they actually include "White People" in their list? Is that supposed to be funny?

The worst things that happened to music, in my opinion:

—MTV (never liked them when they had music videos)
—Loudness and compression
—Rap and hip-hop, and their pernicious influence on REAL R&B and soul music
—The decline of pre-rock musical idioms
—The death of movie musicals (it's a matter of time before they die on stage as well)
—Rolling Stone magazine
—Over-reliance on synthesizers
—The increasingly creepy ephebophilia behind the marketing of teen pop stars.
—The garage band aesthetic
—Jazz and classical music becoming niche genres
—Rockism

 

[Rob P S]

Diane Warren
Boy bands
American Idol
(C)rap (with exceptions)
Justin Timberlake
MTV

 

[Garrett Lundy]

I would like to add Phil Spector to my list.

On to other business:
*Bad CD covers


You can get the worst of 2006 over at Pitchfork. (although I actualy like 3 or 4 of them).

 

[Rob Gillespie]

The tuneless wailing called 'soul' or R&B these days. Damn, why can't any of them hold a note? About as much soul as a dead fish.

 

[Parker Clack]

To which I would add Alan Parsons and Ian Anderson. Now I have to go get out my QE2, Symphony Sessions, I Robot and Songs for the Woods.

 

[Chris]

The list is terrible. The moment I saw "Sgt. Pepper's" at #50 I knew it was crap.

Here are some legitimate things that have screwed up music (in no direct order)

# Napter, illegal file sharing, etc. Yes, I know. I'm betting tons of us have done it at least once. And, I'm not sure it hurts the "big" already made artists. But it is killing independent distribution labels who basically can't get a deal worth a damn. Smaller labels have basically ate it.

# Ticketmaster. Nothing has screwed with the interest of fans in the way that ticketmaster has. High ticket prices, locked tickets, institutional scalping.. while at the same time they have basically screwed the artist while keeping a considerable amount of concert revenue - more then ever in comparison to a venue-selling. Ticketmaster's insane practices have forced out small concert shows, and made it where realistically only blockbuster corporate sponsored up the ass concerts can really put money in an artists pocket. Once again, the smaller artist gets the shaft.

* Sony/BMG - I can't think of another record company that has so managed to influence music in exactly the wrong direction. Sony's pricing practices on CDs led to an artificial high point of up to $18 a disc for a while, and their promotion of multiple formats, rootkits, and degraded audio to prevent copying have made everyone suffer.

* Itunes. Yes, I love Itunes. But I also hate it. Itunes has effectively made significantly lower quality audio "the standard". The .99 cent standard also sucks in that older songs - which otherwise would not sell, still net a dollar.

 

[MarkHastings]

But the way I see it is, nobody wants to pay CD prices for the CRAP that is being produced these days. The only way I'll pay for "Crap" is if it's cheap enough to be considered "disposable", so what do I care if my 'disposable' music is low quality?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The general public puts a premium on convenience over sound quality (beyond a certain point). Most people couldn't care less about the difference between SACD/ DVD-A and MP3/ AAC. They care a lot about being able to download hundreds of songs in their pajamas and carry them anywhere in a pocket-sized player. Them's the breaks. :frowning:

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I don't understand the whole "music is crap these days" argument. There's always been crap and there's always been great music. Most of the stuff on TV and top-40 radio is crap. More so than in earlier times, sure, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of good music out there too. And it's much easier to find the good stuff, thanks to the Internet.

Why would I bother going into a chain record store, digging through racks of garbage, and paying up to $20 for a good CD when I can log into Amazon or DDCD and have my order placed in 2 minutes? Who cares what's in that chain store?

 

[MarkHastings]

Yes, but I was talking about the crap stuff. Take a look at iTunes and look at the top sellers. Most of the top sellers are the crap stuff. You most likely won't see anything decent as a top seller because that stuff gets purchased as a CD.

 

[MikeH1]

Music's only saving grace.

 

[Brian Little]

I mistyped "dude" somehow. Fixed my previous post.