It is now official: Modern pop music all sounds the same
 

My inner hipster has a good feel in the pants.

Discuss.

Haha, that's great! :laughing:

I wonder in the case of timbre though if a lot of that has to do with improvements in recording technology. It may not be so much that musicians employed more variation in timbre back in the 50s as that their recording technology was less reliable.

I'm betting it's because the big record producers all use the same methods and tools. If a song has a certain sound and becomes a hit and you can precisely reproduce that sound by buying a software package or using auto-tune or whatever, that's going to be very appealing to people who just want to manufacture hits. It's so easy to use the same specific elements over and over again and people have become less and less demanding so it's kind of natural for this type of music to become a sterile, repetitive thing.

I wonder how much also has to do with digital vs. analog recording technology.

At the same time though, you were far more likely to hear a legitimate variety of actual instruments on older records rather than just samples run through a synth. If you wanted a saxophone solo on a tune back in the day, you got someone to physically stand there and play the sax, you didn't just spin the knob on the keyboard, right?

I don't fully buy the angle that it's just because X sounds scored hits therefore taking X sounds and putting them in Y single will create another hit. There's a bit more to it than just the sounds, it needs to tap into some sort of social climate or mood. If anything I think the use of familiar sounds are just a way to help spoon feed the 'new' material to the masses by keeping a level of familiarity at play.

I never thought of it this way but its definitely an interesting point.

As for the fact that simplifying note progressions, chord structures, and timings and reducing timber makes music more bland, that's ridiculous. Music has a culture like any medium and that culture evolves. If a song can be complicated in its arrangement and establish a feeling or evoke an emotion, than that is awesome. If it can do the same thing with fewer chords and in 4/4 timing, more power to it.

But I do agree with music becoming more loud which seems unnecessary. Its the result of bad audio engineers and producers who (in my opinion) can not find another way to engage the listener and run out of ways to earn their paycheques other than just cleaning up the sound. Most studios today subscribe to this kind of thing; that the mastering process is just cleaning up the sound and maxing out the volume. And its a shame because there is so much more interesting things you can do with today's technology and powerful recording equipment.

Ever notice how much louder commercials are compared to the show you're watching? That's why cds got 'louder' over the last few years - the new singles needed a way to compete for sonic real estate in the public sector and worked it like a tv commercial. I figure it's way more about label pressure than shoddy production work.

There are still some bands releasing material the old fashioned way, but it sounds odd when compared to the impact a modern 'loud' disc provides. Especially if you're used to listening at lower volumes.