Is Old Music Killing New Music?

[Aftermath]

Is Old Music Killing New Music?

Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market. Even worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking.

www.theatlantic.com

I saw this article on google news this morning. What do you think about it? It does not surprise me, because most young people I know seem to like old music better.

 

[Engine Swap]

Yes, just like all the old hippies killing all the young hippies.

 

[trev333]

I see your band now and it's not too bad
You're nothing like you used to be
Please write some songs that really do not suck
Please become what you were before
I like your old stuff better than your new stuff...

 

[getbent]

Time will heal it. In 100 years (a very miniscule amount of time) the issue will be resolved.

 

[TokyoPortrait]

Hi.

Dunno, but new threads are killing old ones...

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/today...-in-the-atlantic-newspaper-not-ocean.1092334/

Pax/
Dean

 

[dickey]

I hope so. New music SUX! Especially rap & metal.

 

[loopfinding]

no. it's killing big budget music. i saw the beato thing as well.

there's so much bellyaching about the industry not supporting musicians or new music. but, 40-45 years ago people decided to tell the industry to go screw itself and made their own music independently...and it still continues. not making big money off of it or getting famous is stopping nobody in those circles, the output has probably even exploded.

there's nothing stopping anyone from making music, putting out music, playing shows on their own terms. it's more affordable than ever. it's not the law that it has to be like it always was or nothing at all.

i think if you've never played DIY shows or put something out on an indie label and only expect music to operate (or only listen to music) on major label industry terms, or within the commercial industry hierarchy, the world looks comically small and fatalistic. those narrow terms have not been the case for decades. if you look at music strictly as a profession and your music as a product to compete on the market, then yeah, it's very bleak. but a lot of people don't see it that way, and that bears no reflection on quality of music or ability/incentive for many to create it - historically, or now.

bands as late as U2, police, etc. and those before them - getting to where they got was the endgame, they paid their dues going up the commercial industry rungs and their first releases were on majors. bands like nirvana, dinosaur jr, or sonic youth never had any intention of climbing, it just happened kind of arbitrarily, and they would have been doing what they were doing anyway. i think that distinction gets lost - not everyone making/putting out music is a goal-oriented career person looking to "make it," and not being a "professional" doesn't confine you to a hobby.

 

[421JAM]

Considering that old music makes up 99.99% of all the music that exists on the market, I’d say that new music having a 30% share of the market is proportionally extremely good. What percentage would make new music people happy? 100%? Should old music no longer be sold just to prevent the whining of new music creators?

 

[trapdoor2]

Is Old Music Killing New Music?

Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market. Even worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking.

www.theatlantic.com

I saw this article on google news this morning. What do you think about it? It does not surprise me, because most young people I know seem to like old music better.

Frankly, I think it ain't doing a very good job of it. New music is pervasive and tough to kill. Can't science do something? You'd think they'd invent a spray or something like that. "Roundup" for new music...spray and pray!

 

[imwjl]

This debating and articles on the topic are really just a reminders to be aware of cognitive biases and what Hans Rosling RIP described as gapminder problems.

Look at the data. The big music catalogs keep growing with new music. If you only know your little circle on the big map, or if you make judgments based on two points in time without knowing what's between them you are just out of it.

You can also say we have mostly same or old music if you think about theory and composition - are we in I, IV, V jail or I, vi, IV, V jail etc......

Mostly, just have your cognitive bias sensors on when old and new stuff gets debated.

 

[JL_LI]

Is old music killing new music or is new music killing new music? A lot of new music is most impressive by its banality. But that’s no different from any time in the past. What’s happened is that catalogs of great music has survived and it’s very accessible, on YouTube or the many streaming services. And unlike SXM, the consumer is the filter. Pick what you like. Listen to it and you’ll get more like it. So new music is in competition for listeners not only with other new music, but with the archive of everything that is available. I’ve always been selective. Maybe more so now.

That said, I use YouTube a lot and im always on the lookout for new music and “new to me” music. Back in the days of radio, I didn’t have a choice but to listen to what was being heavily promoted. I remember thinking that singles were somehow commercial and album rock was not. What nonsense. Albums were heavily promoted. Album rock bands filled theaters as a way of promoting album sales. This was before stadium concerts became a big thing.

So what’s killing new music? The landscape is changing. Some bands are masters of self promotion. Some rely on others. Also, what defines success? It isn’t album sales anymore. You’re successful when you’re the headliner on tour. But there are bands that do pretty well gathering clicks and playing festivals. The landscape is changing.

 

[rand z]

Maybe.

But, I'm not sure that I care...

lmo.

 

[buster poser]

What imwjl said, and shocker, Ted Gioia is a 64 year old jazz historian. The datapoint about all the pub rights sold since 2019 is the reddest of herrings; like, tug on the thread just a little bro, you'll quickly get to why 70+ y/o artists with five-decade catalogs are selling their work.

The intent of the piece seems to be to buttress many of his cohort's general sense that "music I haven't heard and won't try to understand must be objectively poorer than music I do know, and that's why it's not selling, hmph! Something something rap music, EDM, Billie Eilish."

 

[johnny k]

I hope so. New music SUX! Especially rap & metal.

Right ! rock and roll sucks too. nothing like a good beethoven sonata.

 

[johnny k]

Internet killed new music.

 

[jkingma]

Internet killed new music.

It killed the new music "business".

There is still lots of good newer music out there. It's just different than older music.

 

[telemnemonics]

Oh my.
Does this mean that future halftime shows we'll be stuck with Elvis impersonating Dallas Cownonbinaries?

 

[0SubSeanik0]

Pop will eat itself.

 

[buster poser]

Pop will eat itself.

88 seconds. And still counting.

 

[elihu]

I see it as good music is killing bad music. I see time as the great filter of art so most of the music we know as old has already been sifted and the chaff has blown away and been forgotten.