I have yet to hear a song for the first time on the radio and like it from that moment. The only times that I have instantly liked a song were at music venues showcasing local talent. So sad that great music like this isn't heard on the radios. These people are the ones with originality!

Some radio stations here in Pittsburgh have nights where the DJ picks lesser or not know bands from the area and plays them. Many times its very good.

They probably do that where you live, you just got to watch out for it.

dubstep is a good example of good basslines and boosted sub levels

I admitted to finding it quite a good feeling to having discovered something that some of my friends have yet not, are you saying you dont? If so, then happily count yourself in the smaller percentage.

radiohead's 'in rainbows' shows us music isn't dead.

>Friday: Have you considered the possibility that perhaps 90% of this board are not like you? It's a crazy notion, but it's possible.

Like I said before, if I had friends that actually cared about such stuff, I probably wouldn't be here. You may or may not have noticed, but the reason most people join on line music forums is because of that very frustration...because they have no one to talk to about music.

That, and in the case of some, like myself, wanting to find new music.

Word. Like, what's up? Hardly anybody you're likely to come across in person has any particular passion about popular music at all these days. At the least, it's a rarity. It wasn't like this back at school, totally different story. Back in 99 I could talk freely about music and people would engage with me. These days it's almost a taboo subject. You don't talk about it because nobody knows sh1t about what's going on even in the charts, and nobody tends to have any particular tastes of their own. Nothing they feel passionate enough about to discuss, anyway. Sucky times.

sigh...
 

:soapbox:Look, music is simply communication. Period.

One could make the argument that conversation is dead because it no longer follows formal rules or sitting rooms and tea. But to say something like that would make you sound ridiculous and out of touch with the world.

Music evolves, like every art form, but essential remains a dialogue we have with ourselves. Or monologue depending on your ego. We are in a fantastic time right now where we can choose the dialogue and setting rather than having only the "big five" to allot us our choices.

Talentwise, it doesn't just disappear from the planet. There are a lot of hungry musicians out there self-promoting, and dying for you to hear what they have to say. You can choose to ignore them or actually listen. The problem is that now it takes a little work.

Genres - To claim one is superior to another is just silly. A claim I read earlier saying that electronic music is the only innovative music is bogus right off the mark. Songwriting is about evoking a human experience - which may or may not have to do with manipulating sound effects. If it is done for a purpose to enhance the experience, great! If it is done for express purpose of masturbating to your superior technique then it becomes a marketing gimmick equivalent to the oscar mayer wiener song.

New songs - Ok, there is a mathematical limit to the amount of chords combinations and melodies that can be produced. But if that's all songs are then computers might as well replace us. Once again, songs are about relating to the human experience. A 1-4-5 combo might seem stale and overused but it is an essential part of western music psyche that has lasted hundreds of years. The difference is in the hands of a master it can come out beautiful, in the hands of a hack it becomes a bore. Just because you string together a new series of chords not heard on the radio now doesn't make you a genius. Anyone looking for the "brand new" is largely masterbating to their own superior music kung-fu and is not interested in music as a dialogue, only in music as a means to build up their ego.

Let go of trying to own music and embrace what is happening right now.

again, i am not saying that non-innovative music is not good. the truth is, nothing more can be done sonically with the guitar/bass/drum format. every sound has been played, in one form or another. people can write new progressions, new lyrics, new melodies, but as a style it has all been done before

That's silly to start out with the assumption that the only innovative things that can be done are messing with timbres. If that is the case then musicians are no longer needed, only computer programmers. The truth is there will always be innovative artists playing normal instruments that have been around forever, that will bring you to tears with their unique playing and understanding. They ring genuine with their innovative takes based on the obnoxious amount of time creating.

Maybe nothing new can be done with current popular instruments, but considering that they have been around for hundreds to thousands of years and have spanned all over the globe without dying kind of destroys the argument that messing with timbres is superior. In that case Ianis Xinacus or whatever his name is would be a world hero.

Instruments are just that: instruments. They are just as inferior or superior as the person wielding it. Maybe, the chords and styles are the same or similar to what has been done the last hundreds and thousands of years...but once again, the fact that some progressions and styles repeat themselves says something about expectations in western music and what we like.

To assume music is simply playing chords or changing timbres neglects the majority of what goes into a performance. What about dynamics? Or harmonies? What about meters and mixed beats as found in afro carribean styles? I guarantee you haven't heard every melody mathematically available. What about rhythm and tempo? I guess none of these matter and there are no innovations left other than timbre and instrumentation. That kind of thinking speaks more about a lack of imagination then anything else.

I just thought it might be an interesting topic. I don't actually think that music could ever actually die.

So in other worlds you meant is music exhausted as of 2008? You feel as though no one is doing anything interesting or new anymore?
Someone needs to reinvent the guitar again?

It's all down to your taste and how much you apply yourself to finding new music. And being open to different styles/genres.
Experiment and think outside the square when it comes to finding new music. Maybe you havn't being heeding to your own signature enough recently ...PM me if you want to discuss new music and ways to find it.

There are always new styles that haven't been invented yet. It's ridiculous to say otherwise.

again, GoodAnytime, you are not reading my posts.

1. every progression has not been played, every melody has not been written, every beat has not been played

2. stylistically, however, i feel that everything has been done



as for you ProggyMan, try to invent a style that no one has done. i'm betting you cannot. people have recorded tape loops for hours, people have recorded nature and chopped it up, people have dragged barbed wire across guitar frets, and these are the most avant-garde of things. are you trying to tell me that blues has not been done? are you trying to say someone will reinvent downtempo? it's not going to happen, these things have all been done

Monotony: All the instruments play the same note with the vocalist screaming over it for the whole song. New musical style, right there.

It would actually not be at all difficult to create a style with the guitar bass drum format. It might not SOUND very good, but it'd be a new style all the same.

You seriously sound like you don't have a clue what you are talking about. Go learn something about composition or whatever before opting to comment on the topic of possibilities.

..Before criticizing him please learn what YOU are talking about. Composition or whatever...? (music theory, or common sense)

Also the standard Drum Bass Guitar format has many more styles coming. Think back a little bit, they had never thought of a reggae song, or metal song, or many many other genres for that matter. Im sure people were saying the same thing then, and did not think many good sounding genres were yet to come. Keep an open mind kiddo.

I could have said music and compositional theory and it is what I wrote before, though I edited it (as the evidence shows) because it sounded extremely pompous. Thank you very much.

i'm done trying to convince you guys. i'll be back when a new music style develops, aka never

It's all downhill from here... I'm going to agree with whoever - the rock band format is going nowhere revelatory, stylistically. Still, there'll doubtlessly be interesting style combinations and plenty of pleasing chord progressions to keep me listening to that side of Western music.

Any creation has to be derived from something, otherwise you, rock fan, could claim that there was nothing original before the Beatles, or whatever.
Please.
Music doesn't just appear out of thin air, that would be ***magic***.

The last piece of music I heard that recalled nothing else was Skream's 'Midnight Request Line' a couple of years ago. Even this music from another planet turned out to be an amalgam of UK underground influences from the previous decade.

Depsite the moaning of 'what about the harmonics, meters etc' I feel that the seemingly endless parameters of digital production will offer up the coveted 'new sounds' of the future, whether you like it or not.

Like the last Panda Bear album? Try and make that work with live musicians!

or you might just draw greater influence from free jazz than punk rock.

That's kind of showing a lack of imagination on your part rather than a failure of the world to invent something to excite you.

Electronic music and manipulation is not a bad thing. But it is not the ultimate new frontier in music. Flourescent light is cheaper but bothers the eyes. The same way computer monitors bother eyes the way paper does not. Sometimes messing with different parameters that have been staples through centuries isn't innovative just excessive.

New and exciting music will always stream forth. New players will come on the scene that will see and arrange things in an entirely new way. Yoyo ma is one of the most innovative musicians on the planet - bar none. Look at the ancient instrument he plays.

Music is more than adjusting parameters. It is emotion and communication on the most basic level. Acoustic or electronic instruments can produce these effects depending on what the artist is trying to convey. But to claim that only innovation can come from a manipulation from a single parameter of music among an entire array is very close minded and ignores the entire history of music. Four strings on wood continues to find new outlets and massive originality thousands of years after it is invented.

It is never the short coming of the instrument but the person using it.

Hey no-ones denying the power of music that hasn't been sequenced, sampled and fed through some a nasty machine - and I'm only talking about musical modes that exist within acoustic/amplified music here. I'm more than happy to be proven wrong in 2008, but I'm not gonna hold my breath... :/

You are being foolish.

Question: have you listened at all to the Animal Collective? I guarantee that what they do is considerably more innovative, original and wholly other than pretty much everything in EDM.

^ do you mean IDM? That term's 10 years out of date anyway

Electronic Dance Music. The term is very much still in use. What are you referring to?

EDM = Electronic Dance Music
IDM = Intelligent Dance Music

win



and yes, to whoever asked: I have every LP Animal Collective has ever released. they were certainly innovative when they first developed their guitar-walls-plus-synth-pads-plus-distorted-vocals style, but by now they are not innovative. tons of other bands now play in this style.

and to GoodTimes, I'm not even bothering to read your "posts" anymore.

'Intelligent dance music', detestable term, refers to the whole mid-90's breakbeat/experimental thing...
EDM is a new one on me, I like it though!

Back to your point, I wasn't trying to say that the future is in 'EDM' specifically, but with the ever-increasing possibilities of digital production there has always been fertile ground for genuinely new and innovative sounds/styles (the aforementioned dubstep scene and Panda Bear's album)...

I know sweet F.A. about digital studio production, I've seen some cheap programs at work but it seems like you need an MSc just to work the bloody things, but it's a much more democratic means of making music. Middle-class kids like the Beatles and the Stones could afford electric guitars (which weren't cheap at the turn of the 50's) but now any two bit child prodigy can get started with Fruityloops on his family computer and move up from there

Real Music
 

I would say yes and no depending on what kind of music were talking about. As far as mainstream music goes that mess is dead and has been dead over the last what... 20 years now? but there is good music out there you just have to find it. Most of the underground artists make great music.Their the main ones striving for new sounds and experimenting with new things. (Im not saying ALL non hyped artists are great but majority of them are.)
Radio music= dead BUT good music is still alive and running, just got to look for it.

yeah i know you weren't, hell someone could come up with a new logarithm tomorrow and make a new pedal, and open up a whole new guitar style. i'm just saying, the future of music now is dependent on technology. all innovation will be thanks to it

@mjs: just because you don't like mainstream hip-hop doesn't mean it's bad. let's see you try to get that much sub-bass out of your mix without over modulating

you need to stop staring at your ding dong. a new pedal will NOT reshape how people handle their phallic symbols. focusing on other instruments and styles will. try to play clarinet leads on an electric tuned down to C - you won't sound like many other guitar players out there. try emulating classical horn sections on a bass. play the drums like a melodic instrument. it's not about technological development, it's about the mental development of the musicians. seriously, the idea that the future of music is dependent on technology is so 1984.

You are correct but there is still a good deal of influence technology has on music.

For instance the invention of the Moog (spelling?) synthesizer started an entire new genre of music and brought many more different sounds into play.

You are still correct in saying that it is mental, that is also in my opinion the biggest factor in the creation of new music.

Lol. Didn't you say Low was a good song in your Flo' Rida' review?

Dont worry bout what he says. I don't take him seriously either.

Rezz,
One of the great joys of listening to music is when you experiment and go listening to artists that you haven't heard before, and you listen to one songs that makes you go 'WOW!". The time and effort spent looking for that song is more than paid for by the enjoyment that you get from hearing that song. Hearing that one song is the like the key unlocking the door to a whole new range of artists and songs. Another point to rememberis that there are other genres apart from rock/pop. If you get tired of them, you can always start exploring those genres as well. I think of all the great songs out there in the musical ether that I haven't heard, and that I should listen to at least once.

And you are telling me this why?

The point that many bands imitate does not make them any less innovative for having developed the sound or for expanding it as they do. And, more importantly, the point that you admit they came up with a new sound indicates that it is quite possible...unless you are claiming that their sound was the end of innovation in indie music, which frankly would be absurd.

Animal Collective innovative ?

:laughing:

They just sound like Jonathan Donahue era Flaming Lips.