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A Short History Of The Popular Song , or, Why Today's Music Sucks (Mostly)


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You can never really top the original. I love everything about that record. I will say, however, that it sounded a lot better compressed and in mono over a car radio than it does digitally remastered in stereo over good speakers. Sometimes too much clarity isn't a good thing. ec

This is so true...it had to be bumped!

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  • 3 years later...

A friend of mine pointed out a story about how pop music "all sounds the same" the past few decades, and I thought of this awesome and long-forgotten thread. First, members who missed this thread back in 2006 (or forgot about it) should go back to p. 1 and check out Eric's discussion on how songwriting evolved from the greats of the 1940s (Carmichael, the Gershwins, Porter) to the timeless tunes of the 1950s and 1960s, and into the 1970s... and then sort of hit a wall. It's one of my favorite Carmen posts of many he's done here. 

 

Then check out this link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/us-science-music-idUSBRE86P0R820120726

 

Now, the data researchers used covered pop music from 1955 to 2010. But my feeling is that the findings --- that "modern pop music really is louder and does all sound the same --- are more applicable to around 1985 to today.

 

Then again, I'm not a scientist. I just know what I like. And 80 percent 90 percent of what I love is pre-1985.   :)

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LC,

Thanks for bringing this one back.

I never tire of my fav 50's-70's jazz or pop, no matter how many times I hear those sounds. I'm thrilled as if it's the first time. Don't even get me started on my Gershwin love!

What happened to that wave of creativity? Have we gained too many distractions through technology and lost the creative drive musically to make something less mundane? Has the music industry replaced creativity and intimacy between the artist and fan with loud beats? )-: it would seem so from the evidence shown in your link.

I enjoy seeing E so engaged with everyone within this thread and understand how some would miss the old days around here...difficult to elaborate now while typing on an iPad with one finger though. (-;

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Right. I hate to leave music and songwriting quality to the judgment of scientific data, because that seems kind of... cold. But just judging by what sticks out, and what sticks, and what seems like rehash, pop songwriting in general does seem to have nose-dived (with some exceptions, of course) after the 1970s....

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