Drum replacement ....its stupid!

[cafehonda]

Devil's advocate says:
Perhaps there was more forgettable stuff back then, maybe everyone has forgotten it all.

Like Dan Fogelberg and Ry Cooder. In fact, most everything released in the 70's and 80's under "dudes name here". I have boxes of lp's that are exceptionally well recorded garbage.

It was never as good as you remember.

 

[Jake_JW]

It was never as good as you remember.

And all the records from the 60/70s that were't well recorded - it did happen (reasonably often too), but for obvious reasons those records aren't being listened to by many people now.

 

[Farview]

Unfortunately, it's hard to tell what music will still be played 40 years after it came out, without waiting the 40 years.

There was plenty of music in the 70's the has been forgotten. Paperlace, Terry Jacks, Sean Cassidy, and Leif Garrett come to mind off the top of my head.

But at the very least, every act that got to make a record had a team of people, who were supposed music professionals, that believed in them enough to put money into them. Today, anyone can get world wide distribution with a couple hundred dollars and the knowledge that their girlfriends think they are wonderful.

There are great acts out there, it's just hard to find them is the sea of garbage.

 

[Greg_L]

Unfortunately, it's hard to tell what music will still be played 40 years after it came out, without waiting the 40 years.

There was plenty of music in the 70's the has been forgotten. Paperlace, Terry Jacks, Sean Cassidy, and Leif Garrett come to mind off the top of my head.

But at the very least, every act that got to make a record had a team of people, who were supposed music professionals, that believed in them enough to put money into them. Today, anyone can get world wide distribution with a couple hundred dollars and the knowledge that their girlfriends think they are wonderful.

There are great acts out there, it's just hard to find them is the sea of garbage.

This ^^^^^^

 

[Farview]

Btw, drums started getting quantized as early as the Steely Dan albums in the 70's. The engineer created a computer program that he called Wendel to manipulate the drums. The aja album is still one of the go to discs to check a system because of its clarity.

 

[Jake_JW]

But at the very least, every act that got to make a record had a team of people, who were supposed music professionals, that believed in them enough to put money into them. Today, anyone can get world wide distribution with a couple hundred dollars and the knowledge that their girlfriends think they are wonderful.

Perhaps you're right, certainly online distribution has made things more acessible to a lot of musicians of questionable quality - it's also given exposure to loads of really good musicians who otherwise wouldnt have gotten recorded/heard.

After the Beatles first got really famous there was a sudden surge in 'me-too' bands. Same kind of thing happened to every major musical fashion from the 60's onwards, when people realised recorded music could make serious money. Not sure it's 100% related, but it certainly doesnt look like things had a huge amount more integrity in hindsight.

Perhaps its just that so much more recorded music is available to the point where you cant sort through it reliably, not that the music or production is somehow worse now (if there was ever a way of directly comparing). Quick fixes/techniques for recordings like sample replacement are an easy way to make records fit with a popular sound, you can just load up the right samples and get 'that sound' as far as many people are concerned.

 

[famous beagle]

Devil's advocate says:
Perhaps there was more forgettable stuff back then, maybe everyone has forgotten it all.

I think there was probably an equal percentage of forgettable stuff back then. But nowadays we're exposed to so much more music. In the 60s, if you wanted to hear music, you (pretty much) had to listen to the radio, listen to your stereo (records), or go to a concert. Nowadays, pop music is everywhere. It's plastered all over TV in commercials, TV shows, movies, etc., and of course it dominates the internet as well. It's hard to watch a youtube video without seeing an intro promoting some new forgettable pop song.

I think we're just bombarded with more stuff from all directions these days.

 

[miroslav]

True...and that's the earlier point....there are fewer filters in place, so we get 10 times more of the forgettable stuff than in the '60s-'70s...so that crates the impression that lots music today sucks, even if there is an equal amount of good music as there use to be back in the day.

It was better when it was harder for "artists" to record and promote their stuff on a million websites and streaming services.
I mean...do you really have the time to listen to a 200 new songs per day in order to find 5 really good ones....?

 

[Farview]

After the Beatles first got really famous there was a sudden surge in 'me-too' bands. Same kind of thing happened to every major musical fashion from the 60's onwards, when people realised recorded music could make serious money. Not sure it's 100% related, but it certainly doesnt look like things had a huge amount more integrity in hindsight.

I don't think there was more integrity back then, I just think that since there was more money to be made, people/record companies were more willing to invest time and money into an act.

I just had this discussion with a 20-something who was all excited because now an independent artist can sell millions without a record company. He sited Macklemore as an example. I pointed out to him that Macklemore hired the promotion arm of Warner Music Group to promote the album that sold millions...

It still takes that level of promotion to actually sell that amount of product. Without a record company or some really deep pockets, you aren't going to go platinum...ever.

 

[Jake_JW]

It was better when it was harder for "artists" to record and promote their stuff on a million websites and streaming services.

If there is the same amount of good music (proportionally) now as there was 'then', how can it be worse? There is more good music being recorded and released.
It's just knowing where to look that's harder, but in my opinion spending the time is worth the effort.

 

[RFR]

If there is the same amount of good music (proportionally) now as there was 'then', how can it be worse? There is more good music being recorded and released.
It's just knowing where to look that's harder, but in my opinion spending the time is worth the effort.

There lies the problem. Spending the time.
Does anyone else actually HAVE the time to search out and sift through thousands of hours of music to find the good stuff?

 

[Greg_L]

There lies the problem. Spending the time.
Does anyone else actually HAVE the time to search out and sift through thousands of hours of music to find the good stuff?

No. They don't. People just like to think there's some kind of noble honor in spending days looking for one good song in the modern sea of shit.

 

[Greg_L]

IMO it's not a matter of more or less "good stuff" than the old days. There is just way more bad stuff now because literally anyone can record their bad stuff badly and get it out into the universe.

 

[Tadpui]

There lies the problem. Spending the time.
Does anyone else actually HAVE the time to search out and sift through thousands of hours of music to find the good stuff?

I used to. I spent a LOT of time listening to music from about 2000-2010. I discovered some excellent music and artists that I still love today. I also discovered a lot of unlistenable, pretentious bullshit that people seemed to love only because some review rag site gave it a 9/10. But in recent years I've run out of enthusiasm and I can't bring myself to sift through all of the chaff. I hardly spend any time at all just sitting and listening to music any more. That makes it almost impossible to discover anything new. Pretty much every album that I've bought in the last 5 years is a release from my favorite artists from that last decade. And only half of them are still putting out interesting music.

 

[miroslav]

It's just knowing where to look that's harder, but in my opinion spending the time is worth the effort.

Like I asked in my previous post...do you have the time to go through 200 new songs each day in order to find 5 good ones...?

 

[Greg_L]

On the plus side, since music is so devalued now, at least you don't have to buy something to realize it sucks.

 

[Jake_JW]

Like I asked in my previous post...do you have the time to go through 200 new songs each day in order to find 5 good ones...?

Not normally - sometimes though. I rarely have to though.Most online streaming platforms suggest related music. It's not always perfect and sometimes it does throw some utter rubbish your way, but if you never look you won't find anything.

There are more ways to find music now than ever as well as more music, recommendations, search engines, music blogs etc. It's perhaps different to talking to a knowledgeable music shop owner (or whatever) who makes good recommendations (though I do have one of those locally which is great) but I strongly believe the tools to find good music are there.

Besides - if there ever was an age when you found good new music without a good search I'd like to hear about it.

edited for clarity - marshalling of thoughts

 

[Farview]

If there is the same amount of good music (proportionally) now as there was 'then', how can it be worse? There is more good music being recorded and released.
It's just knowing where to look that's harder, but in my opinion spending the time is worth the effort.

But in the old days, only the people in the bad band's local area were subjected to them. now, they are terrorizing people world wide.

Back then, if it was a national act, there had to be something about them that got them there.

 

[Farview]

I used to. I spent a LOT of time listening to music from about 2000-2010. I discovered some excellent music and artists that I still love today. I also discovered a lot of unlistenable, pretentious bullshit that people seemed to love only because some review rag site gave it a 9/10. But in recent years I've run out of enthusiasm and I can't bring myself to sift through all of the chaff. I hardly spend any time at all just sitting and listening to music any more. That makes it almost impossible to discover anything new. Pretty much every album that I've bought in the last 5 years is a release from my favorite artists from that last decade. And only half of them are still putting out interesting music.

That's just called getting old and busy...

 

[BroKen_H]

Here's a litmus for you: Go to amazon.com, select Digital Music and hit the search button, choose a genre, under New Releases hit last 30 days, click on albums, sort by Release Date. Select a sub-genre if you'd like. Now start listening album by album to the tracks looking for something decent.

There's some really terrible music out there in EVERY genre. There's recordings released to iTurds and Amazon EVERY DAY that sound like they were recorded in the back seat of a Buick in traffic.

There's got to be better ways to find new music. Pandora usually sucks, but sometimes something will come up you hadn't heard that's reasonable. I actually found one band I like on Twitter of all places (actually they found and followed me, which just shows they have lousy taste in music)...