Ever get the feeling you were born in the wrong era/country? - Page 3

No, bad syllogism: just because some boomers were hippies does not mean all today's youth need to be punished for having hippie parents.

 

Let's take concrete data about education. Why does the state of California, where you and I live, spend less than half per capita on public higher education now than it did only 20 years ago?

 

 

 

 

Because it isn't possible to judge the quality of education by how much money is spent on it. Kids sleepwalk through college now. They see it as a continuation of grade school, not as a privilege. Schools are tuition machines, cranking out graduates like sausages without regard for advancing culture. Aside from technology, the culture of the first half of the 20th century dwarfs anything since. We have great technology and can't think of meaningful ways to apply it. YouTube should be the greatest publishing advancement since Gutenberg, but look at the tripe that fills it.

Edit: I just noticed you didn't understand my reference to hippie parents. I'm not defending them. I'm blaming them for passing along their worst attributes to their offspring. I agree that they were coddled and are just about the most selfish and self centered generation ever.
Edited by bigshot - 4/18/11 at 3:59pm

There is no doubt the later in time you go, the better for music listening.  As previously said, you can always listen to stuff in the past and filter out what you don't like.  You can't listen into the future- yet.  As for live performances, you could argue that it was better 'back then'.  It was more about the artist rather than the production: No lip-syncing, no sampling, no pre-recorded tracks, fewer stage props, and artists that played instruments.

 

As for the hardware, no question it's better now.  We might pay for it all in the near future; but cheap imports mixed with ever increasing technology has made it a easy to enjoy high quality music playback virtually anywhere.  My dad could never have imagined being able to listen to near-audiophile grade sound while at work.

 

As for recorded music (what it's all about), we've never had better access to so much music and the ability to share that passion with people halfway around the world.  And just imagine trying to organize a meet 30 years ago!

 

It's always easy to want the things you don't have.  But I think we're in a pretty good place right now.    Oh- and as for those Oricon charts, as much as I've tried I just can't seem to get into J-pop (and I'm Japanese).  But I was somehow able to sit through a few of those videos. 

Is recorded music really a fit substitute for live performance? Maybe today, but in the past (before the Beatles) live performance of music was not just an everyday thing, it was the primary way to appreciate music. Jazz, classical, folk... They all depended on the energy of the moment and the interaction of audience and performers. I remember back in the late sixties when people were lamenting the introduction of "canned music" to stage musicals. Today, it's a given. Live concerts are supplemented by tapes. Aside from the occasional classical guitar or piano player in bars and restaurants, live performance is rare. It didn't used to be that way. Perhaps we've lost something we don't even remember.

Hard to know where to begin…so I'll limit my comments to praise of melomaniac's nuts-and-bolts info about California's education system. Fact-based analysis is something we could use a bit more of in the music forum on head-fi. Otherwise, you're always gonna find someone who feels any given period is both the best of times as well as the worst.

Edited by tru blu - 4/18/11 at 8:11pm

This depends more on the artist then on the time you are living in. For instance roger water's the wall concerts (1970's music / artist) are all about the production, whilst a silver mt. zion's tour of last year is focussed on the music. It's not about the time we're living in, it's wether artists use new techniques or not. The technological improvement isn't to blame, it's the artist who uses them that is screwing up his own preformance (or enhancing it).

Edited by Ynoskire - 4/18/11 at 1:20pm

[deleted - what's the point]
Edited by falis - 4/18/11 at 2:48pm

I was thinking about Pink Floyd too!  But at the time that was cutting edge stuff.  Now it's the norm- almost expected at any concert held by those at the top of the charts.  Heck- it's practically what they're selling.  It all falls under the umbrella of entertainment.  And I don't think you can fault anyone for that.  What exactly is entertainment?  I agree- technology isn't good or bad- it just is.  It's here now and producers can choose to use it as they often do; and audiences have come to expect it.

 

Now, back to those videos...

 

I attended a concert of The Wall at the Long Beach arena back in the day. The band was having problems with it's playback system and there was a loud hiss whenever the tape was being played. At least a third of the concert had hiss until the last couple of songs when the wall obscured the band. At that point the hiss was constant until the end of the show. It appeared as if as soon as the audience couldn't see the band any more, the musicians hopped into their limo and went home.

It's a shame jazz isn't more of a mainstream musical form any more. I have friends who are excellent jazz musicians and it's difficult for them to make a living wage. Our culture doesn't value artists any more. It's more interested in celebrity.
Edited by bigshot - 4/18/11 at 4:04pm

Even most of the 'modern' music styles were better before. Techno? 90s. Drum and Bass? 90s. Alt Rock? 90s. Rap (with actual music content)? 90s. Progressive Metal? 90s.

Just tonight discovered a drum and bass group I'd never heard of from the mid 90s that is rocking my world currently. The stuff being put out in the last few years has nothing on this. It has soul, it breathes. There's nothing worse than music for the sake of making music. It has to mean something.

I grew up in the 90s (born in 82), but I don't say the above as being biased. The last 10 years of music is really uninspired junk food by comparison. There are bright spots here and there, but as a whole there was so much more creativity with these newer styles when they were.. you know.. new.
Edited by Maxvla - 4/18/11 at 9:54pm

Keep looking backward. You'll find the trend extends back all the way to the 1930s with a bit of a dip during WWII (which may have something to do with reduced recording during the war and the recording ban immediately after.)

...and I don't say that from a biased viewpoint because I was born well after American popular music peaked.
Edited by bigshot - 4/18/11 at 11:30pm

 

I'm gonna split a hair here and say that it's less the culture of celebrity (though that's definitely operating) than it is the growth of the culture of marketing. This idea that just about any tiny solipsistic niche can be "branded" and thus marketed is hugely problematic, even more so in the digital-tech age when even more people have access to the tools to make and distribute music. Some will call this the "democratization" of the process, but I dunno…for every truly creative individual given a leg up by technological advances, there are probably several other substandard musicmakers who are getting heard because they've figured out how to shout louder through connections or outsize social networks or whatever. As that stuff gets fed through the culture of celebrity, it clogs up the channels, making the good sh-t harder to get to. At least that's how I'm beginning to see it…

I agree.  A lot of it is about what's new or the next hot thing.  That's why today's popular artists rarely have staying power.  I still think that despite what is popular today, there is plenty of music past and new out there for everybody's taste.  There is no need to panic.  Between ebay, Amazon, YouTube, and iTunes (i.e., the internet) if you can't find the music that you like, maybe you're not looking hard enough.  What I hear a lot of around here is not people complaining that there isn't enough music out there to fill their listening time.  I hear people who are upset that not enough people are listening to what they like to listen to... which doesn't really make sense to me.