The Day the Music Died

[NOMBEDES]

Ken Kessler, surely one of the best writers in the audio world, has posted a glorious rant ( Has Music All Been Downhill Since 1969?) in the PS Audio on-line magazine Copper #37.  Kessler's position is that the HiFi (audiophile) sales are related to the quality of popular music.  He claims that the decades long decline of all things audiophile is related to the poor quality of today's music when compared to the golden years of the 1960s.  He goes on to make valid points about the onset of digital downloads, iPods and other diversions which detract from sales but the central point is that there is very little good music when compared to the past. I strongly recommend you read the full article.

 

Example: "How can it be that television drama – Game of Thrones, Blacklist, Orphan Black, Peaky Blinders, Breaking Bad, Ballers, Better Call Saul, Preacher, Arrow, ad infinitum – has never been better, but popular music is so mindless, samey, and/or unoriginal? Did the Beatles and their progeny and contemporaries simply do it all, leaving nothing for anyone else?"

 

Well that is a good question.  I remember when the Beatles hit the US.  I have been waiting for over 50 years for the same thrill I got hearing "I wanna hold your haaand" over the radio (tube?) in my 1949 Dodge.  Alas, either those thrills are reserved for the young or no one can do it now.  

 

 

 

 

 

[wwaldmanfan]

I didn't read the article, but to dismiss all music in the last 40+ years as worthless is stupid. There was plenty of mindless pap back then, too. I won't bother listing the artists who I think have put out good work. In my mind, the biggest "quality" problem today continues to be the loudness wars. I don't think one person on this forum would think a crushed, brickwalled, DR 6 "hi-res" download or CD is worth buying.

[NOMBEDES]

3 minutes ago, wwaldmanfan said:

I didn't read the article, but to dismiss all music in the last 40+ years as worthless is stupid. There was plenty of mindless pap back then, too. I won't bother listing the artists who I think have put out good work. In my mind, the biggest "quality" problem today continues to be the loudness wars. I don't think one person on this forum would think a crushed, brickwalled, DR 6 "hi-res" download or CD is worth buying.

 

+1  You got that right.  I cannot believe the DR on the Blue and Lonesome (Rolling Stones)  CD.  Who records this shite.

 

 

[esldude]

1 hour ago, NOMBEDES said:

 

+1  You got that right.  I cannot believe the DR on the Blue and Lonesome (Rolling Stones)  CD.  Who records this shite.

 

 

I've mentioned before how friends earlier this year recorded some music in a local studio.  One song was an acoustic Christmas Lullaby.  It came back initially as a DR4.  And this after specifically telling the people they did not want it crushed to death.  Their entire CD hovered around DR4 to DR6 for all acoustic Christmas music. I wonder what the heck is going thru someone's head to do that.  It took a couple more rounds of redoing the tracks to get something close to reasonable at about DR12.  What forces have these pro people almost unwilling not to crush everything?

 

I posted something like the equivalent of a DR6 photo once.  If films were being made that way nobody would care about them either.

[fas42]

Yes, there is still plenty of very interesting stuff being created - you just have to keep your ears open. As an example, this local band appeared on TV, we were instantly hooked, bought the album and it's become a staple for listening ever since ...

 

 

[esldude]

2 hours ago, NOMBEDES said:

snip

 I remember when the Beatles hit the US.  I have been waiting for over 50 years for the same thrill I got hearing "I wanna hold your haaand" over the radio (tube?) in my 1949 Dodge.  Alas, either those thrills are reserved for the young or no one can do it now.  

 

 

 

 

 

Your answer is in green. 

 

There are other issues going on in music as things change.  Too much rose tinting to that nostalgic look back to the 60's however.  Heck one could make the case there has never been a time of more inane trivial music than some of the most popular top 40 dreck in those days. 

 

Good music is always a slice of the whole and there is good music right now and at all times since the 1960s'.  So he should add, "hey you kids, get off my lawn". 

 

Lower music sales have to do with many things beyond music, just like the peak of music sales rising and rising for a couple generations did as well.  So I find his rant nothing more than an old man rant.  Not worth the time it took me to read it honestly.  I like KK's writing, but this is not his best work. 

[jabbr]

2 hours ago, NOMBEDES said:

Kessler's position is that the HiFi (audiophile) sales are related to the quality of popular music.  

 

Kinda funny. AFAIK the establishment has always had a low opinion of the "quality of popular music", whether that be "Jazz" in the 1920's: http://www.1920-30.com/dance/jazz-must-go.html or Hip Hop/Rap today....

[Ralf11]

I saw the title and thought it was going to be another Kenny G. thread...

[jabbr]

14 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

I saw the title and thought it was going to be another Kenny G. thread...

That would be the day the Muzak died ...

[new_media]

20 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

I saw the title and thought it was going to be another Kenny G. thread...

And I thought it was going to be another MQA thread. 

[Albrecht]

23 hours ago, NOMBEDES said:

 

+1  You got that right.  I cannot believe the DR on the Blue and Lonesome (Rolling Stones)  CD.  Who records this shite.

 

 

The specific answer to that is the mastering engineer at the direction of the label. Compression was largely applied with RIAA settings and EQ to Lacquer masters at the mastering/manufacturing facility. If the label didn't like the sound of the test cassette (usually on the equivalent of a boombox) at the daily listening session, - they sent it back K-Disk, or whatever mastering/manufacturing plant. Record label A/R guys and Execs listen for compression, - if they don't hear compression, - they send it back.

[gmgraves]

23 hours ago, NOMBEDES said:

Ken Kessler, surely one of the best writers in the audio world, has posted a glorious rant ( Has Music All Been Downhill Since 1969?) in the PS Audio on-line magazine Copper #37.  Kessler's position is that the HiFi (audiophile) sales are related to the quality of popular music.  He claims that the decades long decline of all things audiophile is related to the poor quality of today's music when compared to the golden years of the 1960s.  He goes on to make valid points about the onset of digital downloads, iPods and other diversions which detract from sales but the central point is that there is very little good music when compared to the past. I strongly recommend you read the full article.

 

Example: "How can it be that television drama – Game of Thrones, Blacklist, Orphan Black, Peaky Blinders, Breaking Bad, Ballers, Better Call Saul, Preacher, Arrow, ad infinitum – has never been better, but popular music is so mindless, samey, and/or unoriginal? Did the Beatles and their progeny and contemporaries simply do it all, leaving nothing for anyone else?"

 

Well that is a good question.  I remember when the Beatles hit the US.  I have been waiting for over 50 years for the same thrill I got hearing "I wanna hold your haaand" over the radio (tube?) in my 1949 Dodge.  Alas, either those thrills are reserved for the young or no one can do it now.  

 

 

 

 

 

I have always had a theory about the decline in the quality of popular music. I don't think anyone would argue that the "golden age" of popular music was the 1930's through the War years. After that, the music started a slow decline. The reason is the rise of the "youth culture". After WWII, teenagers suddenly became affluent in a way that they had never been before. In the Thirties, it was the adults who set the bar height for the quality of pop music and being a teen was just something you went through waiting to become an adult. After the war, youth became the dominant force molding pop music, movies, TV, etc. The realization that these kids had the money to spend on music came slowly to the record companies, and the first glimmer of things to come was the "Bobby-soxer craze over a young Frank Sinatra in the early '40's. But eventually, the music business caught on to this new marketing reality that the way to make tons of money is to cater to this burgeoning youth market. Record companies soon learned a vital (to the bottom line) truth about this market. It's very generational. Each successive generation of youngsters want their own music. They want to be able to be identified on their own, not by what their parents did, or indeed what their older brothers and sisters did. So, each new generation of teens wanted their own music, the main characteristic of which being that it is different from the music of the previous generation of teens. The music industry realized that these kids are very malleable. The "new" pop music didn't need to be as good as the previous generation's music, it just needed to be different. Thus began the inexorable decline in the quality and form of each new generation's music. 

 

And, each generation tends to stick with their generation's music for their entire life. That's why cable and satellite music sources have separate feeds for the music of each decade. There's a 50's channel, a 60's channel, a70's channel, and so forth. How many audiophiles do you know (and perhaps you are one of them) who have elaborate and expensive stereo systems solely to listen to the pop music that was popular when they were teenagers!  I know several. 

 

It it is a peculiar imbecility of the notion of "change for the sake of change" that it inevitably causes entropy. 

[NOMBEDES]

Kessler offers (in support of his thesis) this list of album releases for the last four months of 1969:

 

"a dear friend and former record shop owner named Fred Jeffery sent me a revealing e-mail.

Fred once owned Rockit Records in Saugus, Massachusetts, and attended the University of Maine with me and Rich Colburn, also of this parish. He was going through some old magazines and came up with this list. It dealt solelywith the four-month period of September-December 1969 – the 1960s’ adieu.

Primarily in order of their release, record buyers (including Fred and myself) were offered for the Christmas season Fleetwood Mac’s Then Play On, Janis Joplin’s I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, the Band’s eponymous second LP, the Beatles’ Abbey Road, Steve Miller Band’s Brave New World, Arthur from the Kinks, Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats, Elvis Presley’s From Memphis To Vegas, Led Zeppelin 2, Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma, Johnny Winter’s Second Winter, Pentangle’s Basket Of Light and Spirit’s Clear."

 

I know there is still a bunch of good music being released, but you got to admit that this is an impressive list.

 

I still listen to Fleetwood Mac's "Then Play On"  on original vinyl.  Go figure.  

 

 

 

[mansr]

22 hours ago, esldude said:

I posted something like the equivalent of a DR6 photo once.  If films were being made that way nobody would care about them either.

The film equivalent is the "teal and orange" phenomenon. It really is just as ridiculous.

[wgb113]

Looks like the Hair soundtrack ruled the charts from April through July...

[Albrecht]

50 minutes ago, gmgraves said:

I have always had a theory about the decline in the quality of popular music.

 

And, each generation tends to stick with their generation's music for their entire life. That's why cable and satellite music sources have separate feeds for the music of each decade. There's a 50's channel, a 60's channel, a70's channel, and so forth. How many audiophiles do you know (and perhaps you are one of them) who have elaborate and expensive stereo systems solely to listen to the pop music that was popular when they were teenagers!  I know several. 

 

It it is a peculiar imbecility of the notion of "change for the sake of change" that it inevitably causes entropy. 

I very much disagree with your opinion there, but will defend your right to have it. IMO, - it's all art, - and all undefined. Depending on how one chooses to define that art, one can cite examples of how one form may be "better" than an another. IMO, - there was great art existing alongside crap art in every time period.

[esldude]

44 minutes ago, mansr said:

The film equivalent is the "teal and orange" phenomenon. It really is just as ridiculous.

Yes, I put up a reduced dynamic range photo.

 

Teal and orange are an over the top, highly overdone, photo treatment which seems to now be unavoidable everywhere in the same sense of too much audio compression.

 

I have seen comments like,

Orange and Teal is the new stupid

 

The photo equivalent of a spray-on tan.

 

 

[Samuel T Cogley]

Is it that new music isn't as good, or is it that most of us middle-aged dudes can't accept our increasing irrelevance?

 

I see twenty-somethings with Ramones or Led Zep or Pink Floyd (black) t-shirts and usually ponder how much of the artists' catalogs they've been exposed to.  These are brand new t-shirts.  Yes, there is apparently an enduring "coolness" there that has transcended the actual music.  Maybe it's just shorthand for, "Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll"?

 

Personally, I think it's just quixotic to mourn the demise of "good music".  Let it go.  We had our turn.  It's time to move on.

[esldude]

50 minutes ago, NOMBEDES said:

Kessler offers (in support of his thesis) this list of album releases for the last four months of 1969:

 

"a dear friend and former record shop owner named Fred Jeffery sent me a revealing e-mail.

Fred once owned Rockit Records in Saugus, Massachusetts, and attended the University of Maine with me and Rich Colburn, also of this parish. He was going through some old magazines and came up with this list. It dealt solelywith the four-month period of September-December 1969 – the 1960s’ adieu.

Primarily in order of their release, record buyers (including Fred and myself) were offered for the Christmas season Fleetwood Mac’s Then Play On, Janis Joplin’s I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, the Band’s eponymous second LP, the Beatles’ Abbey Road, Steve Miller Band’s Brave New World, Arthur from the Kinks, Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats, Elvis Presley’s From Memphis To Vegas, Led Zeppelin 2, Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma, Johnny Winter’s Second Winter, Pentangle’s Basket Of Light and Spirit’s Clear."

 

I know there is still a bunch of good music being released, but you got to admit that this is an impressive list.

 

I still listen to Fleetwood Mac's "Then Play On"  on original vinyl.  Go figure.  

 

 

 

For starters, everyone knows the 1960's didn't actually end until 1972.  So wrong ending period. 

 

Then 1969 was Tammy Wynnette's Stand by Your Man year.  It also was the year the first Bee Gees compilation album, the Best of the Bee Gees was released.  No year in music with those two can be considered a great year in music.  Those are automatic disqualifiers.

[jabbr]

37 minutes ago, esldude said:

No year in music with those two can be considered a great year in music.  Those are automatic disqualifiers.

This would be true except that:

Led Zeppelin

Velvet Underground

Dusty in Memphis 

... and not even done  with March 

[esldude]

31 minutes ago, jabbr said:

This would be true except that:

Led Zeppelin

Velvet Underground

Dusty in Memphis 

... and not even done  with March 

Sorry, can't be of any help. Sometimes it only takes a little bit of something added to poison a lot of something.

 

Or maybe two bad apples spoils the bunch.

 

VU had music in earlier years as did Dusty Springfield.  LZ members had the Yardbirds. 

 

I guess one could take the philosophical approach that music is a yin and yang thing.  All the exceptional music in 1969 was counterbalanced by the other kind. 

[firedog]

On 7/19/2017 at 0:45 AM, NOMBEDES said:

 

+1  You got that right.  I cannot believe the DR on the Blue and Lonesome (Rolling Stones)  CD.  Who records this shite.

 

 

The Stones have apparently decided they want all their remasters crushed  to death. I think they are one of the bands that can control how their catalog sounds (at least the post ABKCO albums), so I think this is on them. 

I won't be buying any of those remasters. You are better off getting a good quality needle drop of an album like "Exile on Main St" than you are buying the anniversary remaster. 

[Le Concombre Masqué]

On 18/7/2017 at 11:39 PM, wwaldmanfan said:

I didn't read the article, but to dismiss all music in the last 40+ years as worthless is stupid. There was plenty of mindless pap back then, too. I won't bother listing the artists who I think have put out good work. In my mind, the biggest "quality" problem today continues to be the loudness wars. I don't think one person on this forum would think a crushed, brickwalled, DR 6 "hi-res" download or CD is worth buying.

6 is too much, at 5 Bowie's Blackstar is the real deal ; seriously I love the sound

[AnotherSpin]

Everything in the world and world itself declines as we grow older. The phenomena is thoroughly described by ancient poets and philosophers. Nothing new for a couple of millenias.

[christopher3393]

11 hours ago, esldude said:

Or maybe two bad apples spoils the bunch.

 

"One Bad Apple" was a number-one hit single released by The Osmonds on November 14, 1970. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 2, 1971. It hit the top of the chart on February 13, 1971 and stayed there for five weeks.... This is the music we learned quickly to ignore.

 

 

Quote

 If taste registers a negative reaction to something, it is not able to say why. But it experiences it with the greatest certainty. Sureness of taste is therefore safety from the tasteless.  --  H. G. Gadamer

 

In his book  Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, Pierre Bourdieu writes: "'Pure taste, purely negative in its essence, is based on the disgust that is often called 'visceral' (it 'makes one sick' or 'makes one vomit')"