Interesting piece. Personally I'm more interested to see an analysis from 2016 to now. It seems that is when the relative musical stagnation is the most obvious
I guess my bigger point is the “stomp clap” genre was the last genre that aged badly. I myself see superficial changes over the past ten years but I can’t register anything released as far back as 2016 that would sound “cringe” now. Funny thing about it is Millennial style in every other way has been deemed lame but Taylor and Bruno still rule the charts. I know cultural stasis is a dead horse but still not convinced that it isn’t real, especially in the realm of music.
Great Piece! Stomp clap makes me think of the music on suburban supermarket playlists - every song has this distinctly yell at the top of your lungs chorus a la Imagine Dragons. I blame the Champions League theme song and the intro to QOTSA "no one knows" for starting it lol
Is stagnation just about whether change has happened or does quality come into play? Sure that’s totally subjective, but at what point does stagnation have more to do with whether or not “this is good” rather than “there has been change.” Your three points of change, all having to do with pop and rap, seem a bit limited on this score. In any case, comparing 98-18 to 58-78 wouldn’t be a fair fight on any metric.
Well that’s the interesting thing about the cultural stasis debate. People have been complaining the music, or culture, is getting worse since the beginning of time. But the idea that nothing is changing feels like a very new thing people are saying
It's tough to manage expectations though, right, to want big things. Maybe even more so in turbulent destabilized times. Your examples of the shifting styles from one decade to the next are relatively small ball aren't they? They're not exactly like taking the journey from Elvis and the Everly Brothers at the start of the 60s to Abbey Road and Led Zeppelin at the end of them.
I think the tech has overwhelmed culture. The digitization and migration of music onto streaming apps on our phones is the biggest change and perhaps there's a feeling that there hasn't been innovation in music itself during this era that is commensurate with that huge shift in how we listen to it.
It feels akin to the primary innovation in the film world in this era, Netflix, a distribution service. The innovation was the platform, not any of the actual film or TV the company funded.
When the Remember the Titans movie came out my then nine year old daughter was surprised that I knew the songs she thought were new. It temporarily made her think that Dad might be cool, but it soon passed.
Interesting piece. Personally I'm more interested to see an analysis from 2016 to now. It seems that is when the relative musical stagnation is the most obvious
Might be worth another essay!
I guess my bigger point is the “stomp clap” genre was the last genre that aged badly. I myself see superficial changes over the past ten years but I can’t register anything released as far back as 2016 that would sound “cringe” now. Funny thing about it is Millennial style in every other way has been deemed lame but Taylor and Bruno still rule the charts. I know cultural stasis is a dead horse but still not convinced that it isn’t real, especially in the realm of music.
sounds like data mining
Great Piece! Stomp clap makes me think of the music on suburban supermarket playlists - every song has this distinctly yell at the top of your lungs chorus a la Imagine Dragons. I blame the Champions League theme song and the intro to QOTSA "no one knows" for starting it lol
With the exception of the Mumford and Nick Drake tracks I don't find any of the posted tracks appealing in the slightest.
Thats totally fine. But thinking something is bad doesn’t mean it is stuck
Is stagnation just about whether change has happened or does quality come into play? Sure that’s totally subjective, but at what point does stagnation have more to do with whether or not “this is good” rather than “there has been change.” Your three points of change, all having to do with pop and rap, seem a bit limited on this score. In any case, comparing 98-18 to 58-78 wouldn’t be a fair fight on any metric.
Well that’s the interesting thing about the cultural stasis debate. People have been complaining the music, or culture, is getting worse since the beginning of time. But the idea that nothing is changing feels like a very new thing people are saying
It's tough to manage expectations though, right, to want big things. Maybe even more so in turbulent destabilized times. Your examples of the shifting styles from one decade to the next are relatively small ball aren't they? They're not exactly like taking the journey from Elvis and the Everly Brothers at the start of the 60s to Abbey Road and Led Zeppelin at the end of them.
I think the tech has overwhelmed culture. The digitization and migration of music onto streaming apps on our phones is the biggest change and perhaps there's a feeling that there hasn't been innovation in music itself during this era that is commensurate with that huge shift in how we listen to it.
It feels akin to the primary innovation in the film world in this era, Netflix, a distribution service. The innovation was the platform, not any of the actual film or TV the company funded.
When the Remember the Titans movie came out my then nine year old daughter was surprised that I knew the songs she thought were new. It temporarily made her think that Dad might be cool, but it soon passed.