How will music evolve?

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^It seems music today is running out of ideas so much.

I'm seeing revivals of older styles: '80s ("Shut up and dance!"), 1950's Doo Wop (Charlie Puth, Megan Trainor).

I'm seeing A LOT of remixes/covers of previous songs ("My Sunshine" - Mash'd n Kutcher, a cover of Len's Steal My Sunshine, "Easy Love" - Sigala samples Jackson 5, etc.)

I'm honestly getting sick of it - unoriginal electronic musicians just taking some sample from some 50s jazz or 70s disco song and putting a generic electronic beat over it.

If what's old is eventually going to become new again, I'd rather we get styles of music that weren't popular even in the past when they were new, but make them mainstream.

Ambient, Space Music, Avant-Garde, Noise Music, etc.

i imagine in 40 years we'll be listening to the muffled sounds fo heavy construction sped up 400x layered with custardy grooves on top of undetectable frequencies with a couple of floor tiles, throat singing through walls.

people seem to forget that tons of repetitive, bland or outright trash music was released back then too.

I remember 40+ years ago, speaking of 4 decades, we in general were musing that the music industry had run out of fresh ideas and was just recycling old wine in new bottles. I guess some things never change. but at least in America, the land of perpetual copyright, this process will eventually run outta juice.

Melody, and chord succession given our western tonal tradition were pretty much exhausted in the late half of the 20th century.

Only thing that has changed is aesthetic.

The production process is really the only thing that has changed since the 70s

I would say music will continue to meld genres while also exploring more avenues of Production.

I would say binaural audio and 5.1 music will be prominent as virtual reality technology improves.

but Ya, I think that there are gems to be heard . The issue is the signal to noise ratio. Every as*hole with a laptop thinks hey are a producer.

Just my opinion. I work in the industry doing production l composition, arranging , orchestration and back up dancing

^^wow you are my professional aspie hero

Well, singers and songwriters who actually can sing and have talent seem to be de-evolving.

Sometimes I feel nearly everything in the world sucks now, and it's going to get worse. Music, movies, TV, cartoons, human behavior. Maybe I'm just getting old. But I was still in my 20's when I started feeling that way.

i just can't really get into today's entertainments too much, it sorta left me behind.

There are only 12 unique tones in an octave of Western music, there are 10 octaves humans can hear. That's a total of 120 possible notes. An untrained ear (those whom music is written for) can only perceive volume increases of 1 decibel or more, and human hearing ends at a max loudness of 120 decibels. So again, only 120 unique velocities (volumes). Rhythm is almost impossible to measure, I've heard of some African tribe drum men that can hear up to 64th notes @ 60 bpm or a distinct note every 15 milliseconds (most other groups tend to grade much lower, a distinct note every 25 milliseconds or so).

Point being, the limits of human hearing drastically impact what can be done with music-- human hearing is very poor (insert ask my wife joke here). Pretty much every possible composition technique in Western music has already been codified. Truth told, there's really nowhere new to go-- it's been this way for over 100 years. Obviously there's also atonal music, Eastern micro-tonal music, etc. but even those are minor variations in the big picture of things. So yeah, basically our sh***y hearing ability limits what we can do with music.

maybe i'd like the new musics better if only it were recorded in the manner of the 60s and 70s [technology].

When they moved from analog to digital processing it did change the sound. About a decade after that transition they started creating plugins that could recreate the curve of analog sound (close enough to fool a lay ear at least). That being said, analog is more a "home musician" sound these days-- it's just not "en vogue". Obviously this is genre specific, I'm merely stating the overall trend.

it is not so much analog distortions that I mean but the absence of brickwall limiting, harmonic excitation, digital reverbs/ambience et al.

Yes. There is nothing wrong with listening the previous generations music. I listened to both my parents' and my own generations stuff, and I listen to alot of the younger generation's stuff.

But she posted that three years ago. And she stopped posting on WP at all like two or three years ago so I guess she wont see our replies. Oh well.

Kiprobalhato:

But thing is, electronic music and a few other genres didn't exist, at least in their modern form, a few decades ago.

So music has evolved in this direction, but I believe electronic music has peaked and been milked dry for all its worth, and what's electronic right now is just redundant.

The suggestion of Noise Music, I don't think is too bad of an idea.

Thing is, when most music becomes popular, it is usually commercialized to appeal to a wider audience.

Noise Music might be a bit hard to commercialize, but I can see it working with Ambient and genres such as Avant Garde, Speedcore, Drone Music, etc.

'Dark' (creepy, ominous) Ambient is already used in a lot of horror films to add tension.

GTA IV has an in-game Ambient radio station called 'The Journey', and I could see a radio station like that appealing to some in real-life.

This is what I'd call 'pop' Ambient as a lot of ambient is non-conventiona and usually 10 minutes long or more.



Auntblabby: "I remember 40+ years ago..."

Nah, I still think it's a bit different today. Maybe it's because like you say, you haven;t kept up with modern music, but what I'm seeing a lot right now is an over-saturation of remixes and covers, a sign people are running out of new ideas.

I see a lot of music either sampling/taking from older songs, mainly '50s/'60s jazz or doo-wop, and putting an electronic beat over it.

Even 'original' stuff is copying and pasting '50s/'80s style music.

Some examples are:

Avicii - Levels (samples Etta Jame's 1962 'got a hold on me')

The 1987 song 'You're No Good For Me' has been sampled by countless electronic musicians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_No_Good_for_Me

The song 'Easy Love' by Sigala samples the Jackson 5's ABC.

I agree and hope this trend of electronic artist sampling some jazz/disco/etc. song and putting a generic beat over it.

"Melody, and chord succession given our western tonal tradition were pretty much exhausted in the late half of the 20th century..."

This!

I understand pop and power chords having their appeal and such, but simplistic music has simply over-saturated and milked the f*ck out of music.

Music is lacking far too much in complexity or boundary breaking.

It's all 4/4, I-V-vi-IV these days (along with excessive sampling), and has been so for many decades.



"I would say binaural audio and 5.1 music will be prominent as virtual reality technology improves."

This stuff definitely interests me. I listen to Delta Waves usually to help with meditation sessions. Usually it's just the repetitive beeping noise, but some looking around has helped me find actual songs incorporating binaural beats and such. Very impressive.

"The issue is the signal to noise ratio."

Loudness war?

"Every as*hole with a laptop thinks hey are a producer."

What do you mean? Too many amateurs simply believe they are professional?

Personally, I self-identify as an (at least future) audiophile and aim for very good dynamic range and high production values, but admit I'll still sound exactly what a 17 year old with a (currently) pathetic studio setup would sound like if they're trying to sound as good as the audiophiles do.

I'm definitely going to get EQ-Neutral monitors and not consumer speakers, I despise MP3, and want to learn to master my own productions some day because I can't trust some random mastering engineer on the internet who could possibly brickwall my stuff to pieces.

"Point being, the limits of human hearing drastically impact what can be done with music..."

Well, minor variations are certainly better than everyone just hitting Middle-C repetitively, adding a drum beat and distorted bass over it, which is usually what a lot of modern electronic music does nowadays.

Listen to this cr*p, all the same miniscule range of notes:



Every genre, incluuding electronic music, can do far better than that regarding musical complexity. Think classical music complexity,, a level of musical complexity that's been rare or dead for a long time now..
or at least something beyond power chords

"maybe i'd like the new musics better if only it were recorded in the manner of the 60s and 70s [technology]."

Some small genres are doing this on purpose, e.g. Lo-fi and other such stuff.

Not to my taste, but I can see how a raw, organic sound would be appealing.

I'm personally making my stuff with the sort of raw organicness that '90s electronic had.