I had to watch this to see how Rick deals with the hate.
We live in a funny world, with so many marketing messages incoming, people are preaching to their choir, the usual suspects, it's not only politicians who do this.
So...if your income is dependent upon recording income, you say you love what's on the radio, in the Spotify Top 50. If you're a boomer, or even a Gen-X'er, you act like you're younger, you say that today's music is no different from what came before, it's just as good, and that the nature of music is it's made to offend parents.
I'm not down with that. Don't believe it. I think that's an easy explanation. Yes, are some parents offended by the new sounds? Of course! But the story is most millennials grew up with the music of their boomer parents, and they like it. Furthermore, many rappers know not only the history of hip-hop, but Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith too, so just because older people don't like the new sound that does not mean that older people are inherently wrong, that they just don't get it.
And then there's the touring side of the business. Where the most bucks are made by the boomer artists. Furthermore, it's not only old people going to the shows, talk to anybody on stage, they're stunned by the number of youngsters in the audience.
But the world revolves around the new. The fresh. Today we're crippled because there's so much of it, but inherently we want new experiences, that's what thrills us. Sure, it might be fun to watch one of your favorite old movies, but the thrill is when you see something new that is great.
So, Rick Beato references the blowback, and then he delineates what the dislike is about. And as you listen to what he has to say, as he plays the keyboard to illustrate the sounds, it's hard not to agree with the boomers, because it seems modern music has been chiseled down to the most basic elements. As Rick says, boomers are looking for changes, and a lot of today's music doesn't have any. But isn't it the Beatles who've lasted longer than anybody in the past fifty years? And their records were loaded with changes!
After watching the above video, you might want to listen to the video that inspired it:
"I just listened to the Top 10 on Spotify...WTF?": bit.ly/36dP4IH
Actually the title does not reflect the content of the clip. Beato is respectful of the new sounds. And in both clips he talks about the production... But that's like admiring the assembly line and at the end you get an Edsel, not a Tesla. It may be well-made, it may be interesting to see how it was made, but is the end product really interesting?
In today's L.A. "Times," there's a story on TikTok:
"TikTok has been saved. But for music, is that a good thing?": lat.ms/345roUs
Once again, I don't think the content truly serves the headline, at least not artistically, but the question is significant. What works on TikTok is bites. And some music can be distilled to this, but a lot of music cannot.
So, we might be seeing a great bifurcation. Between pop music and everything else. Everything else never enters the Spotify Top 50, never gets on Top Forty radio, the mainstream music business ignores it, the blockbuster mentality rules in a world where nothing is as big as before nor as successful. It's akin to the movie studios making high concept movies that can play around the world...now their thunder has been stolen by Netflix and other streaming outlets, making niche product, the kind of stuff that used to be Hollywood's bread and butter.
Maybe there no longer is a mainstream. Maybe it's not as simple as other genres superseding hip-hop and pop on the Spotify Top 50. Maybe it's more about other genres growing in mass, just like a lot of what is distributed by the majors is actually indie, they're claiming market share based on the indies utilizing their pipeline.
So, in this world if you're not questioning yourself, your opinion means little. But we're also in an era of groupthink, and if what you say is contrary to the accepted wisdom not only are you alone, but you're excoriated, hated, burned to the ground, and that doesn't feel good for anyone.
But music was always the land of individuality. It was always based on those undeniable hits, the one listen smashes, the innovative stuff in between not only the tripe, but the B's and B+'s. It's one thing to create for TikTok, it's quite another to push the envelope with something that is for your ears only.
Food for thought.
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