Originally Posted by Jarlaxle (Post 1410462)

And the vast majority that cannot do so, SUCK.

Originally Posted by galt54 (Post 1410613)

Here follows my idiosyncratic hypothesis concerning the cause of the poverty in pop music nowadays. This hypothesis is based on the essential point conveyed in Ayn Rand's essay "The Comprachicos" (this essay is pubished in the essay collection "Return of the Primitive", edited by Peter Schwartz).

My hyopothesis is that the root cause of the dearth of good new pop music in our time is progressive education.

Why?

In order to create good new music the songwriter needs to possess formidable cognitive skills. Modern education sabotages the development of said skills. Therefore there is a poverty of good minds out there nowadays. And so, just as young people today are less able to read, write, do arithmetic,and so forth compared to the kids of my generation (I was born in 1954), so also kids today are less able to carry out the thinking necessary to create good new music. The minds of the young have been disintegrated by the (mostly public) schools which they have been required to attend.

A tragedy.

Conclusions (two of them):

1) We need a philosophy of reason.

2) We need to get the government out of education (in other words: NO public schools! Privatize both the production and finance of education!)

Originally Posted by Zer0 (Post 1410641)

I disagree.


How does this explain all the good music today that isn't pop music?

Originally Posted by galt54 (Post 1410667)

A plausible answer to that question is that there probably is not nearly as much good classical music, jazz music, blues music, folk music etc. being written as in earlier times either.

Originally Posted by Zer0 (Post 1410674)

That doesn't really answer the question, you are only referring to four types of music.


But you also seem to be referring to music in general as well as pop music. So which is it?

Originally Posted by galt54 (Post 1410680)

1) I am certain that there is not equally much good pop music being written today as in earlier decades.

2) I suspect that there is not equally much good music in general being written today as in earlier decades.

3) I am not certain about the cause of 1) OR about the cause of 2) IF 2) is true.

4) The reason for which I am certain of the truth of 1) but not of that of 2) is the fact that I listen to pop music all the time, but rarely listen to other types of music. I suspect that 2) is true due to mere hearsay plus the fact that if it were true "it figures".

Originally Posted by Zer0 (Post 1410685)

Even if pop music isn't as good as it used to be that's more to do with less people controlling what gets heard rather than artistic ability or education. Also, you don't 'write' popular music, it only becomes pop music if it's promoted in a way so that it becomes popular.

Also I think there's been tons of great music released in recent years that isn't popular music and is just as good as music released in past decades. Even if you don't think so that's entirely subjective.

Originally Posted by Surell (Post 1410868)

You lost me at the fountainhead.

Btw you can only make a Beatles argument for influence or doing something before another person did that same thing. There are plenty of people that made better music than the Beatles.

Originally Posted by galt54 (Post 1410884)

Also, the quality of the, admittedly modest, quantity musical artists hailed as "alternative" (REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc.) does not impress me.

Originally Posted by galt54 (Post 1410688)

You have a point. It is certainly possible that a lot of good pop music has been written in recent years - but that I am unaware of it because it has not become successfully mass-marketed.