Modern music is 

AMAZING

In 2023, the music landscape is in perhaps the most interesting place it’s ever been. Countless doors and gates have been knocked down. The average smartphone has more computing and creative capacity inside of it than a million dollar studio half a decade ago. YouTube and the online learning eco space has completely opened up the ability for virtually anyone to learn all of the technical skills required to make music. Between the advent of social media, streaming and self-publishing, the process of being an artist has been, essentially, fully democratised. This has laid the ground for a golden age of creativity and originality in the art form.

So. Why is all the music awful, then? JOKING. That was a joke. On our part anyway. It IS, however, a common opinion espoused on the internet. There’s the idea that modern music is, in major part, without soul. Over the course of the next few minutes, we’re going to attempt to explain why we think that not only is that belief not REALLY true but why we’re on the precipice of the start of a creative revolution.

Ok, so it must be said that what we’re talking about is popular music; there are of course artists and collectives producing music today that evoke nostalgia, are avant-garde and musically complex as anything ever produces. Also given the improvements in music making technology, the quality of modern music has never been better with even modest home setups producing great sonics. Also never has there been an easier time to access such a vast array of music; streaming platforms and the like have revolutionised the ability of persons from distant geographic locations to interact with each others music. So why do so many people view modern music as derivative and bland? Spoiler its more complicated than them being old and new music being trash. 

FORM & FUNCTION

One of the main criticisms levelled against modern music is how homogenous it all sounds. Predictable chord progressions, similar sounding arrangements and the lack of stylistic differences between artists in a specific genre.

Now is this objectively true? And yea, it’s definitely true, in fact it’s so true that one only has to do the mental experiment of trying to identify artists in a genre that you are not familiar with, and discover just how difficult a task it is. 

Now compare that with say popular music from the 70’s and even the hair bands of the 80’s which most modern music lovers would be unfamiliar with and notice that even though you may not know who they are or like the music, you can tell them apart sonically. So what’s the deal?

Of course there’s no one consensus on what lies at the root of this, but it’s likely that our interconnectedness plays a role. Michio Kaku a theoretical physicist and New-York Times best selling author speaks about the increasing interconnectedness and the emergence of a global culture. This we can see happening in real-time on apps like instagram, TikTok and the like. The consequences of this are a type of homogenisation of artistic acceptability based upon markers of social validation (likes, shares and so on). and given how the algorithms up triage validation, this leads to a feedback loop where popular things become more popular. Of course this means that persons wishing to emulate success would then follow the given mould. The question regarding good or bad is not relevant here, only that it’s a  natural consequence of the circumstances. 

Added to this is the function of modern music. Modern music is consumed vastly differently than before; gone is the common deep listening to an entire album, even whole songs are not being consumed commonly, instead song snippets are coming to the fore and with it persons writing songs explicitly for the soundbite, with the remaining constructs of a song draped flaccidly around the core. Form follows function. This new song model and means of distribution means that they can be mass produced and quickly saturate the market and then on to the next. 

IT’S ALL OVER

So I guess we’re entering the final death throes of music as an art form. And obviously that’s never going to happen. As we saw with the advent of Skrillex and then the wave of EDM that followed; innovation is always around the corner. The impression of a deluge of musical artists and dilution of musical tastes is simply the democratisation of the musical totem, with the public having a greater role. Before the current innovations the gates had been guarded by record companies and their lens was the view that the world saw, we now have a wider view. Some of what was held in esteem will fall away replaced by new pillars and with those will rise new icons.