Is Old Music Killing New Music?

Yes, I hope so. Especially rap.

And stay off my lawn!

ozzy

...the same generation using up the planet's resources, spreading consumerism everywhere, and keeping housing and healthcare unaffordable for younger generations is also quite ok with keeping the airwaves to themselves. 

I'm not sure where to look it up but my guess is that current artists rake in a lot more money than older artists. Record companies are not in the business of supporting new artists, they are in the business of selling product. Nothing has changed except the delivery system and huge social media platforms.

@mike_in_nc :

"Going back to music, studies have shown that one’s musical tastes are fixed by age 30. I think that with effort, one can expand them, but it’s not always easy. Still, I feel sad when I see an educated person listening only to the pop music of their youth".

In my twenties I grew bored with Rock and began a still--ongoing exploration of Jazz. Now in my late 60's, I've been compelled to recognize that my capacity for appreciating unfamiliar music is inherently limited by deeply-ingrained subjective preferences. Now, I spend more time than ever  searching for music to buy and I buy less and less. Perhaps this is inevitable. It is also disappointing. 

If going against R&R hall of fame or general pop stuff, then yes. Otherwise things a-bit different outside of pop and R&R hall of pop.

Interesting article - pretty long, I'll read the whole thing later. I used to work in retail and wholesale record business from '74 - '84, and the record business today is nothing like it was back then; the business is different, the model is different, the consumer is different. But I notice he brings up the Grammies - are they really significant anymore? I don't know, maybe they are, but I never cared one bit about them and never watched them. And to me, there is no 'good music' or 'bad music' - there's music I like and music I don't like, but I try to make no value judgements. 

THere is a composer/conductor named Steve Hackman who is taking new music like Rap, Radiohead, Coldplay, and others and mixing it with the classics to form new hybrid versions of the older classic standards that might appeal to a wider modern audience. So using newer music to freshen up the old. I saw his Radiohead versus Brahms show at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore the other weekend and it was very well done and most enjoyable, mixing in parts of OK Computer with Brahms 1st Symphony to create something new and similar but different. It featured three lead vocalists to-boot so the Radiohead lyrics were part of the new thing, no editing for parental approval either... The younger generations represented a good portion of the crowd (mostly full house) and a long standing O closed things out. The show opened with a rousing version of "Creep", followed by the new hybrid Symphony.

Steve Hackman's symphony shows  are a must hear for music lovers if the show comes your way.  Most highly recommended!

Neither of my 20 something kids are big fans of new music only. My daughter likes the 80s in particular and both mix it up quite a bit. I’ve always exposed them both to all kinds of music growing up both at home and about. Streaming services change the game. They emphasize the new but it is all out there at ones fingertips. A far cry from when I was a kid with only a handful of decent broadcast radio stations to choose from and everything to come in the future not even there yet.

@hilde45 - " young people have gotten the shaft. "

It is not the whole boom generation doing the things you complain about. All that is necessary is that some very wealthy ones are allowed to do as they please and influence many others. A great deal of money can be made by riling up stupid people.

It is indeed to younger persons that the results of elections, and corresponding policy decisions, will be most important. At least in the US, if young people voted at a higher rate, they easily could change the course of the theocratic plutocracy that is arising. However, many don’t use the power they have. This makes it grating when they stereotype others and blame them for societal ills.

Materialism didn’t begin in 1945. The long history of war, conquest, and enslavement in the world shows that the lust for money and power is as old as mankind.

As a boomer, I’ve devoted considerable resources (time and money) to voter registration drives, primarily among the young or disadvantaged.

Going back to music, studies have shown that one’s musical tastes are fixed by age 30. I think that with effort, one can expand them, but it’s not always easy. Still, I feel sad when I see an educated person listening only to the pop music of their youth. Me? I am worse: I listen mainly to Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and also Max Richter and other modernists.

Rick Beato did an interesting take on this idea and he blamed the music executives for not doing enough for the younger musicians. paying hundreds of millions for music rights of old artists but not supporting younger ones. 

As The Duke might have posed the question:  Is Good Music killing the other kind?

Answer:  Yes.  Always has, always will.

Cheers

There is more and more music to choose from over time.  That’s a wonderful thing!

My two cents: It is pretty clear that the same generation using up the planet's resources, spreading consumerism everywhere, and keeping housing and healthcare unaffordable for younger generations is also quite ok with keeping the airwaves to themselves. The lack of oxygen -- that is, viable ways to make a living for artists -- started with Album Oriented Rock, and has continued to this day. Boomers and the generations they trained (in business school, law school, and with conventional "wisdom") have been amassing cultural and financial resources at an increasing pace, and young people have gotten the shaft. 

cadavers, botox preserved cash cows and pretty young baubles provide their staple income. They get a kick up the posterior every once in a while, then it‘s back to business as usual..

guilty.

I am not sure I agree with the main premise of the article. It is an interesting question though. I worked in a record store for years after high school to pay for college. I saw trends ebb and flow constantly. I do think it's easier for record companies to push a known commodity rather than market new music. Maybe they've gotten lazy?

If you were around at the time just before the punk explosion you would have heard that mantra a million times