Quit listening to the crap on the radio. Check out the stuff in the underground. Some seriously brilliant artists out there as there always been. The pop music scene has always been handled by corporations looking to make an easy buck. Besides pop music of the past wasn't all that great either, all the best stuff has always been played far from the big record companies and the artists have always been far from famous or rich.

Yep, in the past it was college stations playing some scarce and rare unheard stuff mixed in with the popular playlist to get some of it out there. I alternated between the hits stations and the college station to get an earful of off the path stuff. The college station was pretty sophisticated and enjoyed good ratings in the local market instead of being some low power amateurish operation. No longer on the air as far as I know.

The "Wall of Sound" has been re-discovered

"....the diversity of transitions between note combinations - roughly speaking chords plus melodies - has consistently diminished in the last 50 years."

Yeah man, it all began with "Louie Louie."

I don't listen to too much radio any more, but I still love the 80's station. However, I'd rather listen to my mp3 player where I have a huge mixture of my favorites. Yes, pop music too loud
and too hard for me to figure out what they are saying!!!

Lynn

What they do to the sound now that's different from the analog days is to compress the dynamic range. Now, instead of songs having a wide range from soft to loud, the soft passages are brought up to the same level as the loud. Then all of this is compressed even further as a whole using sophisticated digital gear to keep the signal from clipping. Sounds like crap when you compare say, an older analog LP to a new digital master. They suck the life out of the music...

Not to be contraceptive, but someone will say it if I don't Analog recordings can be quite compressed. The nature of the compression may have changed--bands and time constants--but for example the Beatles is compressed within an inch of its life, particularly the Capitol/US releases. They're also band limited. The bottom two octaves are more than 6dB down.

Play any Dave Clark Five recording into a VU meter. The meter won't move more than +/- 2dB. Even Phil Spector isn't that extreme.

This is why with a consumer reel tape machine properly set up it is possible to record at +6VU without perceptible distortion. There really aren't any transients left above +6VU in a distribution recording. They're already compressed.

BTW, don't do that (+6VU) with an Akai. Many Akai record amps begin clipping promptly at +3. Especially the tube models.

Pop/poop music does all sound the same. It is made to a formula dating back roughly to Led Zeppelin, for whom I had little regard even at the time.

There would be lots of contemporary musicians/bands around the planet who would wholly disagree with that blanket statement.

Yeah I know, I have blanket-mouth. I haven't liked anything "pop" since after Hotel California. Except Eminem's 3rd. Which surprised me as much as it does anyone.

If "contemporary bands" gave a shatner what I liked, they wouldn't sound like they do.

So... Led Zeppelin was the end of good music... first time I have heard that one

I suppose I keep an open mind about music. Especially since my mother and more-so my grandfather would always badmouth the music I liked back in the late 70s and 80s.

seeing how they reacted I suppose, made me want to keep an open mind about music.

Growing up in the 80s, it is my favorite time period for music! I love the 80s! However, most 80s stations play the same old worn out limited playlist over and over and over again! There is SO MUCH more to 80s music than what they play!

Is it a licensing deal? Is it that they can't play the "other songs" from the 80s? Or is it what they have and they will play the same songs repeatedly through the day and run their listening audience away?

Interestingly, I'm finding that I like much of the music coming out these days. I'm even starting to like some of the music with Rap such as Flo-Rida's "Wild Ones" and "Good Feeling" or Outasight's "Tonight is the Night".

There are also some music coming out that has an 80s synth-pop flavor. Such as Snow Patrol's "Called out in the dark" Or the pumping beat of Breath Carolina's "Blackout".

Maybe I just have a more open minded feeling about music. Either that or I just DON'T want to be like my parents!

-Steve

I once asked a radio programmer why the local oldies station only had 200 songs on their playlist. "Because it works!" was his answer. What he meant was the 200 song playlist got the station higher ratings than it would have gotten with more depth.

I can only see this working for the short term. Like me, people will grow tired of the same old songs and turn them off.
Seems thats all execs can see is making $$ for the short term. They can't see 3 feet past their noses to save their lives!

-Steve

I would disagree that the variety and diversity of available music has diminished. If anything there's more to listen to than at any other time. I have at least 30 stations that do a web simulcast, meaning they are a real radio station but also broadcast online. These are all over the country and the world. Most are supported by local listeners and online ones as well. I listen to alt country, bluegrass, Americana, French pop, old 20s-40's music, symphony, rock, and so on and so on.

As far as not liking "today's" music, well that's an age-old debate and there will always be people who don't like the new stuff. Its always been that way.

Yep, remember the devil's music?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT_ylGuj ... re=related

Yep! There was a time where it was sacrilegious in most families to play ragtime music on Sundays.

-Steve

I was in a R&B band for a while and we played a benefit for a hospital. One of the old retired doctors later told me we were just "way too loud" - but he and I hit it off and he invited my wife and me to visit them at their mountain cabin the next weekend. When we got there, he had the big band music playing so loud I could clearly hear it from the road before I turned into the driveway - and it was ear-piercing inside..... At lot of times it has less to do with the volume as it does with the style you're biased to.....

Well, Steve, in a way you're right, because the oldies station in question switched formats about four or five years after the programmer made that statement. I think people got tired of hearing the same exact Motown hits and Beach Boys hits all the time, day after day, like clockwork.

I have to agree with statements here that the radio has more to offer than people think. I can tune into a pop station, rock station, jazz station, classical station, adult alternative, oldies, soft pop, country, Mexican Norteno and Latin pop, and even a station that plays 20's to 40's swing and old jazz (that one's on AM, though). At night I can hear Chinese and South Asian music on the AM band. There's a lot to hear, it's just sometimes you have to seek it out.

As far as the quality of the modern music -- I'm hearing a lot of 80's influence in the new pop and new alternative rock. When I tune it in, I often find myself pleasantly surprised, as I liked a lot of the 80's sound.

Chris

I think a good deal of the new pop music sounds quite good. It is after all, pop music which is aimed at the teen demographic. For those who want Haydn or Gillespie, you know where to find it-by the way, I love Haydn and Gillespie....and pop.