"Why Our Generation's Ability to Play Music is Dying"

[Palovana]

I came across this article and found it heartbreakingly accurate. 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-our-generations-ability-to-play-music-is-dying_us_5a57a1e3e4b00a8c909f7f0b

 

Now I'm depressed...

[StormySky]

This sucks...

 

My parents wanted me to be "academically talented and athletic..." yet I decided to be a choir geek and learn music production.

 

I feel like values are shifting in schools, parents are prioritizing different things, and every time someone even mentions "I'm a musician" people either think you're trying to be the next Taylor Swift or the next Mozart and "you'll end up broke anyways"

 

However, there will always be musically minded people, born that way or who grow into it (I literally think in melodies and my thoughts are in rhythms) and it's a choice of the individual to pursue. We just need to encourage music more in schools...

[Ashmedai]

That is rather sad. I can see why one would be depressed.

[RoseGoesToYale]

I do agree that in many places, the arts and music have been played down in favor of quote unquote "hard skills", and it's really sad, but the whole generation hasn't succumbed to it yet! There are pockets, it depends where in the world you go. A few summers ago I visited my friend in Portland and got to see her and her band record a few music videos. It was one of the coolest things I ever saw. There was no tuning, no editing, just a few lights and them jamming up on stage. The music scene is huge there, and people are really passionate about listening to it and playing instruments. Places like Portland, Seattle, and Nashville etc. are still interested in making music the traditional way, but I too feel like the English-speaking world has lost some of its best musical possibilities to the desire for profit.

[Palovana]

I really think it's a lot more to do with this generation's quest for instant gratification and attention without really doing anything to warrant it. Everyone wants to be famous but no one wants to do anything meaningful to deserve it. Look at how many vapid social media "celebrities" exist. People don't play real instruments because it requires actually acquiring a skill; people would rather upload a million pictures of their face on Instagram and call it a day. That, and Apple basically owns music now. Kids don't care anymore about who has a cool guitar or a new drumset. What they DO care about is who has the newest smartphone/tablet/computer/whatever. Those are not instruments and it doesn't require any real skill or passion or creativity to download a few patches and use a drum machine to put a beat to it. And don't even get me started on how god-awful the lyrics are. It's really a sign of the times. Even music that is considered rock now (lol) are loaded with electronics and digital samples, or they're very mediocre indie hipster bands who all sound the same, have nothing important or different to say, and beyond the two or three same chords they play on their acoustic, couldn't play a guitar to save their lives. What the fuck happened to people shredding? Even metal bands nowadays sound like shit, and most of them I've heard are more like metalcore anyway, which is a genre that in my opinion just shouldn't exist. All of those vocalists sound the same and most of them can't scream or growl anyway. If you want a band that sounds fantastic blending metal and hardcore, look at Suicidal Tendencies. 

 

I read that Warped Tour is ending for good this year because of low ticket sales and a declining pool of participating bands. Does anyone even remember that? Granted they haven't booked many decent bands since like 2005, but the garbage that passes as "rock" the last decade makes shit like Dashboard Confessional and Black Veil Brides sound like the fucking Jimi Hendrix Experience. In any case, it marks the end of an era. 

 

Local music "scenes" are shit now too. And that's everywhere. I've been to lots of local shows since about 2008, in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina, and it's all the same - people just standing around with their face in their phone drinking PBR and trying to look cool, and if you try to talk to them they act like they're so superior to you, or ignore you completely. And it doesn't matter if there's a metal band or a punk revival band or a hardcore band playing (and these are becoming few and far between), it's all the same hipsters with superiority complexes in the crowd. I'll tell you, I've seen one decent local band in the last 10 years, a metal band down in FL. Everyone there was like "ya I totes love metal!" And when this band tore into a cover of Crystal Mountain, they were all just standing around all perplexed like "what is this?" YOU'RE SEEING A DEATH METAL BAND AND YOU DON'T KNOW CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN? YOU DON'T KNOW DEATH??? The fuck is wrong with people??? And I'm sure someone on here will say "oh, well my scene's not like that, you should come to [insert location name]. I doubt it. It's this generation. They wouldn't know a good rock/metal/hardcore band if they came up and kicked them in the ass.

 

*breathes heavily*

 

Okay, I had to get that out of my system. I'm sure I'll be back.

[iff]

Last year I was going to a gig but beforehand, I met a friend for a business meeting that resulted in drinks and talk.

 

Anyway, this was a topic we talked about. Our conclusion was that lack of boredom is a big issue in young people not taking up music. Today every 5 minutes, checking phones or internet. There isn't the lulls needed for music and more importantly, the time to get it right (which is a lot more time) because there are so many other things to do.

 

What i find is there seems to be a lack of bands coming through, mostly it is solo artists or if it is a band, it is composed of siblings (usually doing indie folk but that might just be close to my taste) .

 

There are some coming through but of the six gigs so far this year that I went to, 5 were established acts together since the mid 00s (or earlier) and one was new touring their debut (actually an exception to the above as it is 3 friends from school). Of the remaining six, 4 more are established acts while one is a solo musician and the other is composed of 8 people who live in a commune type situation I think.

 

Of the 12 gigs in 2016, 9 were by established acts, of the other three, one was three sisters (and only one of them played an instrument), two are solo with backing bands for them.

 

So rather than a group of friends getting together, it is either one person on their own or I'm guessing with a sibling act, it was something important to a parent or grandparent's influence.

 

It really does seem that the music band is dying, which is a pity.

 

On the local scene, a thing is it might be just to easy to get a few people. Before mp3s and streaming, it was a lot harder to get a small local audience. You really needed to put in the graft and work to establish yourself, to practice and improve. One of my favourite live musicians is hamell on trial (he is in his 50s) but he has talked about what he had to do to get shows, maybe doing 3 or 4 open mics in one night in Austin, Texas in order to get practice in performance and to hone the graft in the 1990s but I think now it is less work. 

[Palovana]

And what the fuck is up with the extreme overproduction nowadays? I can't stand it. EVERY BAND SOUNDS THE SAME. Everything sounds so plastic and sanitized, because it's all 20,000,000 digital recordings layered on top of each other. I fucking miss the grit and rawness of older bands, before all the recording equipment was owned by Apple and ran through fucking computer software. Even as late as the early 2000s, lots of bands had very distinct sounds, because of how they played. Someone recently recommended I should listen to Creeper because supposedly they were influenced by one of my favorite bands to ever grace the stage. "They sound different", I was told. So I looked them up. No, they don't fucking sound different. They sound just like Imagine fucking Dragons and every other band that formed in 2010 or later. I could stomach about :45 seconds of that shit and I couldn't listen anymore. You can't even tell bands apart anymore if you're hearing something for the first time, or if you're hearing a song and don't already know who the band is. Meanwhile, I was in a restaurant yesterday and they were playing a song, and I thought "I know this song, I've heard it before, but I can't remember who did it. It sounds like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers." I pulled up Google and what do you know? That's exactly who it was.

 

My cousin lives in Philadelphia and plays in two bands. One he plays guitar and sings in a sort of folk rock three-piece inspired by Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and he's the drummer in a more of a deathrock type band like Type O Negative. Every time I talk to him he's got a lot of shit to talk about the current state of music and the local scenes in Philly, NJ, and New York, where they play regularly. Shows are boring for them because people would rather just stand there watching them play through the lens of their fucking smartphone than actually have a good time. And it's so hard to find anyone who listens to the same music. Even the other members in his band don't really listen to the same stuff, and even if they all listen to Bob Dylan, for example, the rest of the music they listen to is all shit like Adele and Kendrick Lamar and god fucking knows whatever drivel is being forcefed to the masses in 2018. They'll play a Rolling Stones cover and no one under the age of 30 even fucking knows it. IT'S THE STONES.

[Palovana]

I'll leave these here. Just for contemplation. 

 

 

[Fog Brain]

Hello there. I'm new to this site, sorry if I mess this up. I listen to the stones, fleetwood mac (not really anymore), Jimi Hendrix, and a ton of other musicians. Sometimes in a conversation people start talking about music. I talk about a few of my favorites, maybe a song I've been listening to a lot lately, and they won't know who or what I'm talking about. I normally end up playing it, and their reaction is almost always "What is this crap? You need to listen to some actually good music." Or "Oh I used to listen to this when I was younger. My parents played it." They end up gushing about Beyonce or Taylor Swift or some rapper. We listen to talentless musicians, with meaningless lyrics, and expect kids to learn how to play an instrument and make meaningful music when the ones they look up to don't. 

[Palovana]

@C-Otter Hi there, you're absolutely right. When I was in college I used to jam to a lot of old punk rock and hardcore bands, and people I hung out with would just stand there with these blank looks on their faces. Then they would all want to go listen to dubstep bullcrap. 

 

You know what I think it is though? I think older music - music with an electric guitar and a real bass and a full kit - intimidates them. I really do. For whatever reason. They are so insecure.

[Fog Brain]

1 minute ago, Palovana said:

You know what I think it is though? I think older music - music with an electric guitar and a real bass and a full kit - intimidates them. I really do. For whatever reason. They are so insecure.

You're probably right. Also, I just saw this video a little while ago. People might find this interesting.

 

[uhtred]

I grew up learning to play a musical instrument because my family was very music-oriented (mother had been a professional musician), spent a huge amount of time doing it.  When I went away to college I realized that I love *music*, not the physical process of *playing* music.

 

Frankly I regret the huge amount of time I spent learning to *play* music - I feel that I could have spent that time doing other things, and instead listened to music.

 

 

[Visenya]

I don't know exactly what to think about this subject, except that I can relate to your sentiment about every band sounding the same. I mostly listen to 60s, 70s and 80s bands and artists (like Pink Floyd, Sisters of Mercy, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk, etc). I'm sure there are some great bands out there, but I have no idea how or where to find new music I'll actually like. I don't have any friends with similar taste in music (they like Avenged Sevenfold, 30STM, BTS, etc), so I can't ask them for recommendations. Spotify and Youtube help a bit, but not much.

 

Anyway... I just saw this posted on Facebook, and I don't know whether I agree with it, but it reminded me of this thread and I thought I should share it here.

 

How did music become so unimportant?

http://www.getintothis.co.uk/2018/05/music-become-unimportant/

 

     "[...] That night I listened to it over and over, terribly pleased with myself for tracking down a recording that most fans would never get to hear. It was like being told a jealously-guarded secret. These days of course, it’s officially available to buy or download in spruced-up form, or you can listen to it all on Youtube and probably elsewhere too. Consequently it’s somehow less special – less valuable both literally and metaphorically. [...]

 

     Consider the legacies of bygone youth sub-cultures like the hippies, punks and ravers. The impact of these movements spread far and wide exerting their influence in areas as diverse as identity politics, the media, and commerce, as well as other art forms including literature, poetry and film.

     They also fuelled endless moral panics in certain sections of the media. Today it’s difficult to imagine a new music-led youth movement that could unsettle the authorities to such an extent that they would actively legislate against it, as happened with the hippies, punks and ravers. [...]

 

     Changes aren’t permanent, but change is, so it’s entirely possible that we’ll see popular music restored to its former glory again although that looks increasingly unlikely at present. There will never be another Beatles, we’re often told and I’m inclined to believe it. That’s not to say that we’ll never hear music as good as that again, but rather that we’ll never see another band make quite the same impression or have quite as much of an impact on popular culture. [...]

 

     Today the young are arguably more likely to copy the style of a reality TV star or youtuber than a pop star. Serious, earnest teenagers are not getting their values, politics and ideas about vegetarianism etc. from pop stars but from memes and Ted Talks. Angry, young dudes are more likely to turn to GTA 5 or Call of Duty than to punk or heavy metal as an outlet for their teenage angst. Crucially, they have better things to spend their money on than music which, in any case, they could still obtain free of charge elsewhere. [...]

 

     When I speak with evident nostalgia for a time when there were record shops in every major town and scores of them in our cities, I can see those too young to remember such a thing looking at me indulgently in the same way that I would look at my parents as they described listening booths and wind-up Dansette record players. It’s unwise to wish that things could once more be like they used to be, but also probably unavoidable."

[Ms. Carolynne]

I can agree with the sentiment that music seems to not be valued as much. The state of mainstream / pop music is just dreadful as well.

 

However, I disagree with your opinions (which I feel you kind of push).

 

I myself enjoy a wide variety of music, enjoying modern stuff as well as older stuff, and find electronic music can have artistic integrity.

 

I can tell you prefer a few specific styles of music. Which is fine, but you also seem to be closed-minded on the matter, which irks me. 

 

People are too closed minded about music, only listening to a few things, and deriding everything else, and thinking their favorites are objectively superior. They don't expand their tastes, or give anything new or different a chance. They chant the same mantras "x genres have no integrity / talent", "x is afraid of y", "x all sounds the same".

 

If you actually listened to the music and set aside your predispositions to dislike it you could learn to appreciate a lot more stuff.

 

You just rubbed me the wrong way there. I don't see how you can claim to appreciate music in general, if you can't appreciate it in its many forms. I just see more of the tribalism that plagues the music community at large.

 

 

[Amnesiac]

On 5/13/2018 at 11:09 PM, Palovana said:

I really think it's a lot more to do with this generation's quest for instant gratification and attention without really doing anything to warrant it.

I'd agree with this. I tried to teach my little sister guitar and because she couldn't play a song in an hour, she got bored and did something else. Kids these days just don't seem to have an attention span or the want to work for something they want which is filtering through into the lack of instrument based music. I also know there's an underground scene of bands but even then, they're diminishing and roughly the same age as me.

[Fog Brain]

11 hours ago, G1P0 said:

I can agree with the sentiment that music seems to not be valued as much. The state of mainstream / pop music is just dreadful as well.

 

However, I disagree with your opinions (which I feel you kind of push).

 

I myself enjoy a wide variety of music, enjoying modern stuff as well as older stuff, and find electronic music can have artistic integrity.

 

I can tell you prefer a few specific styles of music. Which is fine, but you also seem to be closed-minded on the matter, which irks me. 

 

People are too closed minded about music, only listening to a few things, and deriding everything else, and thinking their favorites are objectively superior. They don't expand their tastes, or give anything new or different a chance. They chant the same mantras "x genres have no integrity / talent", "x is afraid of y", "x all sounds the same".

 

If you actually listened to the music and set aside your predispositions to dislike it you could learn to appreciate a lot more stuff.

 

You just rubbed me the wrong way there. I don't see how you can claim to appreciate music in general, if you can't appreciate it in its many forms. I just see more of the tribalism that plagues the music community at large.

 

 

I can agree with this. There are some cool, modern artists that I have found. But overall, current pop music just can't compare. Yes, there are some genuinely good songs and artists out there that fit into the pop genre, but to me the majority is lackluster. Too repetitive, with songs that sometimes sound so similar to each other that there are copyright wars. But this is supposed to be a conversation about this generation not willing to play music anymore, or learn.