The enshittification of music, by Rick Beato
The enshittification of music, by Rick Beato
Rick Beato making clear what is happening on the music scene just as Cory Doctorow or Adam Conover talk about the Internet. Please remember to use frontends like Grayjay, NewPipe, Freetube or invidio.us to watch videos like these.
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Almost all my favorite music was made before I was born. The rest was made mostly before the year 2000. And music has mostly been generic forgettable schlock since then. Rick’s analysis is spot on.
And music has mostly been generic forgettable schlock since then.
Mainstream* music.
Plenty of amazing artists out there who are not part of the music business machine.
Agreed, there are gems to be found. That’s why I said mostly.
Except that mainstream music is not "mostly". Even in the 80s, 0.1% of the music produced globally was played 99% of the time on the radio.
But I understand what you're saying.
There’s a pretty clear airplay shift in the US that starts happening beginning around 1986 where music played on the radio and tv starts changing to manufactured lowest corporate denominator. Milli Vanilli is a prime example. There are still spurts of independent music that happen after this, like the grunge movement — but they get fewer and farther between as we get closer to the present. MTV starts to die as it shifts from a creative free for all to focusing on endless boy bands hyped on TRL. Saturday Night Live starts letting musical acts lip sync. Etc. Etc. It’s not just the pop charts either — country music starts getting extremely derivative/repetitive. It’s like the industry returns to the pre-Elvis 1950s when payola was king. The consolidation of terrestrial radio stations into a handful of national conglomerates also doesn’t help.
Wait, you're saying your favorite music is from when you were young?! No way! That certainly has not always happened to the majority of people since time began!
/s
Snark aside, this is what happens to the majority of people as they get older.
Is there a lot of garbage out there these days? Absolutely. But this is in large part due to the fact that there simply is a lot more music coming out now than ever before because of how easy it's become for anyone to make and distribute their own songs. Yet is there also a lot of great music out there these days? Absolutely. And it's due to the exact same reason
I'm with you on the fact that incredible music is still being made. It's not that hard to find, either. Bandcamp collates music on blogs for all types of taste, for instance. And there's all kinds of ways to play off what we already know we like to gradually discover new artists - and expand our tastes.
It's weird to me that people settle on a certain collection of music and then just stop. It's even odder when they then complain that nothing else is as good.
I said my favorite music was made before I was born. It wasn't "the stuff that came out when I was growing up is my favorite" which is what people keep replying with.
No, we're talking about the music that YOU LISTENED TO when you're young. And young in this trope means music you listened to before you were in your like 30s to 40s.
That was a long jump.
What do you mean?
You made up a lot of stuff in your head about me to get to your conclusion.
Like what? That you were younger 20 years ago? That's literally the only thing i 'assumed' about you
Old people hating new music. I've never ever heard that before. Definitely Spotifys fault.
"Almost all my favorite music was made before I was born."
I was a young person hating new music. RIF.
Sure, fair enough, but it's just another variation on everyone else is wrong. The video is actually bitching about metrics. Music is easier to find than ever and the artists were never paid except at the top. You are always going to have folks chasing mass market appeal.
There's no such thing as 'everyone else is wrong' when it comes to taste in art. I was just providing my viewpoint that was in agreement with Rick's. I don't think he even discussed compensation to artists in this video, he's just talking about how much people value music today vs in years past.
There's nothing wrong with enjoying mechanical music. I love some of it, in fact I'm currently on a big psytrance kick. But I agree with him that most of it coming out in the last 20 years is garbage. And it's perfectly ok to disagree with that. I never said people suck if they like modern stuff. I just think it's mostly shit. :)
Edit: fact is, most of the music coming out at ANY time is garbage, and always has been - we only remember the good stuff from the past because everybody forgot about all the other trash
There's some good music in every time, it's just sometimes harder to find.
(For example, Klangphonics is something recent I think is good.)