Why does modern music sound so different

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 15 Apr 15 - 09:44 PM

Gotta strongly disagree with Joseph Scott, Sinatra didn't peak until the '50's when he recorded Nelson Riddle arrangements for Capitol. To me that is when he came into his own as a great singer.

I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan

Thanks for that link #. That Chinese song was beautiful.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 04:48 AM

Hi Gillymor

I guess I agree with you.
For me personally however the Sinatra early songs were the best. Laura,Nancy With The Laughing face and Dancing on The Ceiling etc.

But you are right in that the allegiance with Nelson Riddle opened up a "new Sinatra" to the wider public and so he was far more widely accepted.

Regards MikeL2

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,Blandiver (Astray)
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 05:19 AM

Kendall Morse is one of the great masters of folk music. He deserves a bit of respect here

Respect where respect is due, Old Dude. On the evidence of his contributions to this thread I find it hard to believe he's even the master of his domain let alone anything else.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Ed T
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 07:40 AM

"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song."
― Louis Armstrong

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 07:50 AM

"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song."
― Louis Armstrong
.,,.

"A dreary axiom!"
— Bert Lloyd

Fancy anyone digging that old load of bollox up at this time of day.

Ever hear a horse read an epic poem? So is Paradise Lost a folk ballad? Or seen one dance in the ballet? So is Swan Lake...

Oh, go away!

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 08:06 AM

Hi MikeL2,
In his Capitol years Sinatra did sing a lot of great songs from "The Great American Songbook" by Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, the Gershwins etc. as well as introducing newer "hits" from from the likes of Sammy Cahn, Johnny Mercer and Jimmy Van Heusen.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,#
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 08:07 AM

Thank you, Gillymor. Ol' Frankie was a giant in terms of his voice. I agree he hit big time after Nelson Riddle. His days with the Hoboken Four back in the '30s were not his best, imo. Here's a clip I expect you've heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BM5O_elYnU

However, it's impossible to hear that and not smile. But when we listen to his later material it's much easier to see the talent and vocal control he had.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 08:22 AM

Wow, #, I'll never hear "Shine" in the same way again. Dooley Wilson did a snippet of Shine in Casablanca that always leaves me wanting more.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,#
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 09:28 AM

LOL. I hear you.

I just found out that Frankie Laine had two top-ten hits with Shine. One was in 1948 and the other in 1957.

Here's the 1948 version.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 09:45 AM

"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song."
― Louis Armstrong

Ah, but to hell with the neighsayers...

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: kendall
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 09:46 AM

..master of my own domain? Huh?

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Ed T
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 09:59 AM

""Ever hear a horse read an epic poem? So is Paradise Lost a folk ballad? Or seen one dance in the ballet? So is Swan Lake... ""

Nope, only folks do that (as Louis noted) ;)

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 10:02 AM

Thanks for the ;). The great point is that Satch was joking -- Pity so many took him seriously. Bet he grew sorry he ever said it.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Ed T
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 10:13 AM

Satchmo probably took greater heat from speaking up about other things, for example, against racial discrimination at Little Rock. Some folks wouldn't even play his music for awhile because of it.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 10:35 AM

Speaking of Satchmo and
Shine.

Django and the Hot Club smokin'.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,#
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 11:29 AM

That Django version makes yer pants want to get up and dance.

Gillymor, there is a really good Wiki article, single page, with the song's history. It was written back in 1910. There is also a neat intro to the song done by Ry Cooder--the lyrics of which may be found at the bottom of the article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shine_%281910_song%29

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,#
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 11:33 AM

Ry Cooder's 'Shine' with his intro--1978

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Ed T
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 11:39 AM

A good smile deserves a laugh:

Laughing Song - Bob Skyles & His Skyrockets 

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,Blandiver (Astray)
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 11:44 AM

Speaking of Satch and recording technology (which was touched upon at the beginning!). here's some Hot Fives from 89 years ago acoustically recorded straight onto wax. Still hot:

KING OF THE ZULUS by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 11:59 AM

#, Thanks for the links. The song had some interesting origins. I'm familiar with the Cooder version with the introduction and it reminds how many of the great songs from "The Golden Age of Song" and before had such wonderful intros that usually didn't make it onto the postwar versions of them. But Not for Me and For All We Know come immediately to mind.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,#
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 12:56 PM

Brief history of 78s and some stuff I didn't know.

It also addresses what Astray alluded to in terms of 'sound change' over time. I ended up there because of Gillymor's song references. Don't ask me how. Oh yeah, for any of you Ray Charles fans, the 'best' of his music is available on YouTube.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 16 Apr 15 - 09:46 PM

Funny the direction that this discussion went--my response would have been that instrumental techniques, vocal styles, and instrumental arrangements changed a lot over
time--Jackie DeShannon sings Dark as a Dungeon , Gordy sings Dark as a Dungeon The Country Gentleman do Dark as a Dungeon Merle Sings Dark as a Dungeon Charlie Louvin Sings Dark as a DungeonThe Maddox Brothers and Sister Rose sing Dark as a Dungeon

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Will Fly
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 05:02 AM

[Modern music] sounds so samey because its sole raison d'être is to make money, as a result it is soulless commercial drivel

This is one of those irritating statements that crops us from time to time on Mudcat, quite often from someone in the traditional folk world - this time from Dick Miles, as it happens - and it's interesting to read all the fascinating conversations in this thread so far which celebrate a wide range of musical tastes and genres so positively. They give the lie to that perspective, in my view.

Why is there such snobbery about songs which are written to earn a living? Of course there are the entrepreneurs who consider music as so much cash to be earned, and they've existed in one form or another down the centuries. But it would be a mistake to consider that, just because songs are written for money, all commercial composers have no soul, no heart, no emotion or no ability to comment on the human condition. "Oh, it's just Tin Pan Alley stuff" is a typical comment - thus obliterating, with one stroke of the pen, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields, Irving Berlin, Al Dubin & Harry Warren, George & Ira Gershwin, Goffin & King, Ivor Novello, Sigmund Romberg, etc., etc. Hugely witty and talented people.

What idiocy. What does it matter if a song is written to earn a crust if the song itself touches someone's heart? "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime" is a product of "Tin Pan Alley", but that song resonates with me now as much as it did when I first heard it over 60 years ago - and probably as much as it did with audiences from 1932 onwards. And it resonates far more with me than a great deal of traditional stuff - which is not to say that I don't care for traditional songs, just that there can be - for me - as much in one as in the other. Soulless commercial drivel? Not in my book.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,Blandiver (Astray)
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 05:31 AM

I seem to recall Dick dismissing Broadside Ballads for the same reason. Just as well the curators of The Axon Collection don't agree...

The Axon Ballad Collection

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 07:57 AM

The greatest art has been produced for money, at that. You don't imagine that Signor Buonarotti spent his time lying 65 feet up on his back at the top of all that scaffolding, at serious danger to his life and safety, because he so loved looking closely at chapel ceilings, do you? Or that Will would have spent all that time reworking old stories into new plays at breakneck speed to keep the audiences coming if the Burbages hadn't given him a groat or two for doing it?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 08:00 AM

Not you, Will -- the other guy!

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 08:19 AM

"This is one of those irritating statements that crops us from time to time on Mudcat, quite often from someone in the traditional folk world"
Two-way street, this one.
Can't recall many 'pop pickers' praising ballads and folk songs in my time.
Personally I find 'pop-songs' particularly today's, somewhat vacuous and unappealing, mainly relying on effect (usually in the form of volume) rather than content. They certainly lack staying power - the industry relies on them having a sell-by date and being disposable when "the next big sound" comes along.
I realise that is my opinion, but it's one I expect to be able to express without being accused of narrow-mindedness - if someone can say that my music is boring and tedious, I'm perfectly within my rights express familiar pinions on music I am fed by the media wall-to-wall and day after day.
I don't think I know a folk song or traditional music enthusiast who doesn't listen to and enjoy other types of music.
Certainly not the case on the pop scene today, where the outpourings of the pop-music industry hold sway.
Here in Ireland we are now faced with the rather bizarre situation of a traditional music that has gained a huge following from young people on it's own merits, yet is still largely ignored by the media and the establishment.
There has been a long, uphill struggle by a handful of dedicated enthsiastic, to win a place in the sun for unadulterated traditional music - yet it is still largely ignored by the mainstream media who still fill the broadcasting hours with pop-pap, the songs usually being sung in that odd mid-Atlantic Americanese, the main support coming from a handful of local radio stations.
The arts establishment has gone some way in recognising its importance, but even there there are problems.
The Irish Times has produced three large supplements on music in Ireland, mainly aimed at classical and popular music, but nothing on traditional music that is now drawing many thousands of visitors into the country as cultural tourists.
Popularity of any art form relies heavily on public exposure - it's always been my opinion that, given a level playing field, traditional song and music could hold its own against any other form.      
To some degree, that has been borne out in Ireland can't speak for the U.S., but Britain hasn't even allowed it in through the main gate.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,Blandiver (Astray)
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 08:21 AM

Or yet the great Davie Stewart who could never pass a queue without busking it for a capful of maiks. Legend records him busking the well-to-do audience to his own debut at Cecil Sharp House as they queued up eager to see Lomax's latest prodigy from the feral realms.

I've had the honour of working with several great and late lamented traditional singers and storytellers who were pretty shrewd when it came to the value of their craft, Sure didn't diminish it any, though I've had many an interesting blether on the matter, in the wee small hours after an impromptu ceilidh* over a dram or twelve of the creature...

In could be argued it's the monetary success of artists that will propel them to their greatest creative heights which otherwise they might never attain. Could Led Zeppelin have made Physical Graffiti if they were just doing it as a hobby? And I'm sure Henry Purcell was well rewarded for his drivel in his time...      

I wonder, does the great Dick Miles do it for the good of heath?

* From WIKI : 'Originally, a ceilidh was a social gathering of any sort, and did not necessarily involve dancing.'

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 08:23 AM

my latest anti war medley is isle of capri/love is the sweetest thing medley.

i get pissed off with all these would be Eric Bogles. Wilfred Owen was over there with a tin helmet a rifle and bayonet - what did he expect - a letter of congratulation from the Kaiser for killing his troops.

Whereeas Al Bowlly had been out done his gig, put his guitar in the case, switched off the satnav, and was having a bath - when Herman Goering dropped a bomb on him..

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 08:37 AM

Highbrow versus Lowbrow art - a false dichotomy....

As an undergrad I equally loved Joseph Conrad and H. Rider Haggard

So much so that I spent a year eagerly researching my dissertation
to demonstrate that Conrad was as much a failed jobbing hack magazine story teller
desperate for an income to pay the bills,
as Haggard was a failure as a high literature novelist...

Both had thwarted ambitions trying to do something the other was better at...

[unfortunately I had to leave out 2000 words of careful analysis because I only left myself 2 days
to write the entire bloody thing, and find a typist...]

Welllll.. that was over 30 years ago and at least I scraped a 2:2 pass
rather than completely failing my degree
as some had predicted because I was too distracted by music and girls...


So I got no problems whatsoever grooving to trad folk
and the Monkees and The Archies, and The Dead Kennedys, The Fall,
Van der Graaf Generator and Gentle Giant, Hank Williams and Roy Rogers, Steve Hillage & Gong,
Billy Fury and Bobby Vee, Betty Boo and The B52s, etc.. etc... etc.....
and many thousands of more etcs...

But best not ask me to name last weeks chart top 10
because I'm not too far away from 60 and inevitably transforming into a miserable old tosser...😜

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,Blandiver (Astray)
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 09:01 AM

Can't recall many 'pop pickers' praising ballads and folk songs in my time.

Most music lovers I know tend to be an eclectic bunch with an encyclopaedic erudition in all matters appertain to Popular Music & beyond - including Ballads and Folk Songs, and their various purveyors both sides of The Revival.

That is never an issue - it's the Dick Mileses, Jim Carrolls & Kendall Morses of this world for whom pop music vacuous drivel that is the problem.

Yeah, Folk Music is okay - just Folkies you have to watch out for, those self-appointed guardians & gatekeepers of The Tradition who can spot the differences between the Eighteen Hundred and Fifty tunes in Chief O'Nell's Mo'I and have the neck to deride Hip Hop and (horrors!) Rap Music because it all sounds the same. Oh, the humanity!

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 09:24 AM

A lot of 'vacuous drivel' at that, maybe. But one must never forget Theodore Sturgeon's indispensable principle of Science Fiction:-

···95% of SF is crap -- because 95% of everything is crap···

Infinitely & ubiquitously adaptable.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 09:32 AM

As an earlier guest said, I think the why is a product of tech and taste.

---

I think I've been through some of that before with you, pfr. I'm younger than you (51) and my own "cut off" from following (as opposed to being places where you sometimes hears some things) the charts is probably early 80s.

I'm not sure I undersand the high/low brow music bit. My mother plays classical piano and my father has classical tastes. My parents met queuing for a CBSO concert at the city hall in Birmingham. I was taken to a couple of concerts, eg. John Williams in St Asaph and both John Ogden (piano) and the WNO (doing Barber of Seville) in Llandudo - all of which I enjoyed although the opera probably more for the spectacle and to listen to on recordings, I can have a dislike of "squeaky squaky operatic sopranos!).

All the same, I largely (there have always been things I love) went off classical. What's probbly hardest to discern is how much of my later life at lest becoming more open to it is down to changing tastes and how much is down to my strained relationship with my father. I let things get so bad, (perhaps outside of staying a Norwich City supporter, and enjoying watching cricket... ) I didn't want to like things he liked. Childhood can be a muddle...

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 09:43 AM

I'm glad I don't have the kind of 'tunnel hearing' that some seem to suffer from. I listen to all kinds of music from all kinds of genres and eras, and I find something to enjoy in almost all of it.

There's no such thing as bad music, IMHO - some is better, some is worse, but it's all good.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 09:54 AM

Jon - i'm a few weeks younger than Madonna and Prince,
and nowhere near as valuable to collectors as a 1958 Fender or Gibson...

Whenever, i list my 'likes' it's off the top of my head
as best as I can remember for the time of the day
and dependant on how tired and hungry I am...

Plus these days my memory and consistency & clarity of thought and expression
is crap compared to even 10 years ago...

It's bloody annoying when you can't remember something on the tip of your tongue..

I'm no longer exposed to and absorbing new music on a daily or regular basis,
because I've dropped out of the habit of keeping the radio on all hours,
or even following the Jools Holland TV show...

That's my loss..

But somehow, good new pop stuff still seems to percolate through to me
every now and then by accidental discovery on youtube,
and generous positive folks on internet forums pointing towards good emerging young artists...

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,#
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 10:19 AM

"I listen to all kinds of music from all kinds of genres and eras, and I find something to enjoy in almost all of it."

Pardon me for riding your coattail, Backwoodsman, but ditto.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 10:44 AM

yeah... Backwoodsman has summed it up very nicely !!!!!

Put it in a past tense:

"I listened to all kinds of music from all kinds of genres and eras, and I found something to enjoy in almost all of it."

.. and that would do just about perfectly chiseled on a headstone when the time comes........😎

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 10:49 AM

Responding to the initial post purely in terms of FOLK music...

Based on what I hear on the mainstream folk outlets, eg specialist folk shows across the BBC, and albums by a lot of successful and up-and-coming acts billed highly on the folk festivla bills, I think it sounds so different because the sound of folk has been professionalized.

There's perhaps an irony there. In that from the 50s to the early 70s, folk actually sold a lot of records, yet was a lot less commercial in its sound, a lot rougher around the edges. And healthily so.

The technology/studio time wasn't there to ensure every single note was absolutely polished to perfection (thankfully), with all the dynamics of the music squeezed out in order to sound as loud as the pop records of the day.

However, this state of affairs does mean that when a musician pops up who doesn't care about all that, someone not interested in making perfect, polished, sanitized pop-folk, it really stands out. I of course refer to the noble few fighting the good fight, namely: Stick in the Wheel, Amy Annelle, Alasdair Roberts, Mary Hampton, Sharron Krauss, Cath & Phil Tyler and one or two others....

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 10:50 AM

"Most music lovers I know tend to be an eclectic bunch with an encyclopaedic erudition in all matters appertain to Popular Music & beyond"
The ones catered for by the media appear to be those who recognise no other form of music other than their own - as do those who choose what to present to the public.
there is very little indication of tolerance of folk music in Britain - the last sign of this was way back when the music industry watered it down and marketed it   
I do regard most pop music as vacuous drivel and make no apologies for doing so
I was as involved as any immature youngster in the pop-music of the day, but like Topsy, I growed!
Usually, I'm happy to live-and let-live as far as I am allowed to - not always easy when I have to carefully choose the shops I buy my jeans in for fear of having my ears bleed at the pipped music blasting out - banks, building societies.... whatever.
Any respect for the music of others must be a two-way street.
I welcomed the folk revival with open arms, both as a relief from the music industry and for the democratisation of music which gave us all a chance at artistic creation.
I too have a wide taste in music and do not regard it as having "tunnel vision" because I find myself not liking one particular type - to demand that I do is 'culture policing' of the worst kind - if I was a sheep, I'd stand in a field all day and eat grass.
Jim Carroll.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 11:05 AM

Who could not love this recording?
Annette Hanshaw with Lang and Venuti and Adrian Rollini.

#, Funny you should mention Ray Charles, those Atlantic recordings, I Gotta Woman etc., were, to me, some of the best ever made.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 11:14 AM

Jim - I'd love to see you sat on the X Factor judges panel alongside Simon Cowell....

Seriously.. that'd be a major TV event to savour forever !!!! 😜

Jut imagine.. I bet you'd have a great time....
and hopefully get your own late night cult TV series out of it...

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 11:19 AM

.. and again, definitely not joking.. I'd vote to have you replace that over obsequious knob Jools Holland...

Let's bring back some of the abrasive antagonistic edge of late 70s alternative music TV..😎

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 11:46 AM

Thanks for posting that Annette Hanshaw link, Gillymor-she was one of the greats, and I love that she's been rediscovered.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: The Sandman
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 12:31 PM

"I wonder, does the great Dick Miles do it for the good of heath?" no not for heath,
but i do it for my health, definitely, if i never had another gig again, i would still be sitting down playing for my own enjoyment and health.
the amount of money i make, is very little, i could havebeen a singer of pop songs , but i chose not to , i have no regrets.
songs that are written for money in my opinion are reflected in their lack of passion and commitment, that is my opinion, and i think that is reflected in the pop parade of the 21st century.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: The Sandman
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 01:00 PM

"This is one of those irritating statements that crops us from time to time on Mudcat, quite often from someone in the traditional folk world - this time from Dick Miles"
I am sorry you find it irritating, you are someone who puts up clips on you tube for the benefit of others, and you have no intention of making money from them, I thought you might understand. the majority of people in the UK FOLK REVIVAL play that kind of music because they love it , they do not make much money from it, and in fact would make a lot more money from playing other forms of music.
I would also put forward this argument, that modern popular music has degenerated in the last 50 years, in my opinion there seems to be much rehashing of chordal progressions and banal lyrics, but in the last 50 years, from 1963 onwards there has been even more commercialisation of popular music, the initial impact of the beatles has not been reproduced by anyone, perhaps with the exception of ian dury, we seem to be at a point where hooklines jingles and catchy riffs are the be all and end all, why? because it sells, because the machinery of promotion post beatles has accelerated many times, coomercialisation may not be the only reason, it may be that the breakdown of communities is another reason, if will fly thinks this is idiotic, Iam happy to be called an idiot like my moniker GSS

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 01:05 PM

" I'd love to see you sat on the X Factor judges panel alongside Simon Cowell"
I wonder why - I detest all forms of competitive performance and certainly would not be part of anything that smacks of winners or losers.
I often wonder what you people are on.
If I were to suggest that there was something wrong with you if you didn't like big ballads or Sean Nós style singing, or, for that matter, Shakespeare or Dickens or hardy ot Eisenstein films..... or anything that happens to turn me on, we'd be deafened by the cries off "folk police" or "elitism", yet you clowns feel free to tell me I have tunnel vision because I say I don't like what you do. - extreme arrogance verging on jackboot culture - "how dare you not like what we do?" - very disturbing.
THe problem I find with most pop songs nowadsays is that thye are not around long enough to deceide whether you like or don't like them - as I said, no staying power.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: The Sandman
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 01:11 PM

Subject: BS: Why does modern folk sound so different
From: cnd - PM
Date: 11 Apr 15 - 11:34 AM

I don't understand why modern folk, country, bluegrass etc sound so different? Not different songs/styles, but artists doing covers of classic songs, even when they try to sound the same, almost always are pretty noticeably different. I have a couple guesses, one being that the use of multiple mics allows greater instrumental pickup, and a second that also revolves around mics, but this time that the mics are better and pick up more song.

But the instrumentation isn't the only difference. Another big thing I've noticed is the singing. I'm still trying to put my finger on it, but I think it's that it sounds clearer. Also, maybe more female vocalists. Anyone else have some clues?"
To answer the original question, because it has got further from its roots, it was originally music that people made for their own entertainment, artists trying to cover classic songs[ whatever that is], i presume you mean songs with a strong connection to roots?it is inevitable that for a song to have a massive commercial appeal it has to be altered in content so that it gets further from its roots.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 01:30 PM

Well, pop music encompasses the good, the bad and the ugly, for sure, but if you really think that only the Beatles and Ian Dury have made an impact then you haven't been listening. Tune in to Sounds of the Sixties on Radio 2 tomorrow morning. You'll hear good stuff and you'll hear dross. You'll hear banal lyrics even in the good stuff. Plus ça change. The Beatles could be as banal as anyone. Daddy our baby's gone. I've been doing some more of that editing of pop songs for our dance teacher this morning. I'm stunned by the superb quality of some of the stuff I hate. That's MY problem! Anyway, I don't care what anyone thinks. Everything's good with somebody. But say one word against Carly and you're dead. Or Mama Cass, come to think of it. By the way, Mozart was desperate for money when he wrote The Magic Flute. All his greatest piano concertos, and they are many, were written for him to play at subscription concerts. Beethoven's Choral Symphony was a commission, paid for by the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 01:38 PM

"I often wonder what you people are on."

Well right now Jim, I'm on a bright sunny start of the weekend vibe,
despite being stuck in the house with a touch of irritable bowel...

You do respond well to a little tongue in cheek gentle piss-take provocation,
always writing something interesting, worth reading and thinking about.

Which is why I, at least, hold you in high regard,
even though there's much about music we could find to amicably [to a point ?] disagree about...

.. and I can easily imagine a TV music show format where a bloke like you
could be an excellent curmudgeonly pop music presenter
as an antidote to all the anemic corporate presentation and arse licking
of the likes of Jools Holland...😜

I'd definitely watch it...

Subject: RE: Why does modern music sound so different
From: Ed T
Date: 17 Apr 15 - 02:02 PM

Quite possibly much of what many folks like in music is relative to a significant period, or positive social experience in their youth? Music purists may try and make it seem more than that, as do music historians and those seeking a piece of music's impact on society. It kinda reminds me of newly retired old folks driving around in the dream cars, (or motor cycles) of their youth, hoping to recapture a tidbit of the glory days of their good old past.