Best Ever Albums

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

revolver94 — Wed, 6 Mar 2013 14:39:22 GMT

Author: revolver94

Posted: 03/06/2013 19:39

lethalnezzle wrote:

When was the last truly original music released anyway? I think there are fairly pure ideas being formed as we speak (even if they have some remnant of a previous vibe or sound instilled in them), and we just haven't found them yet. It's fairly easy to say that nothing truly original has happened in music for decades, and saying so wouldn't necessarily be untrue.

With regards dubstep, I'd refer you to my dubstep chart. I'm now convinced that the vast majority of people are utterly confused as to what dubstep actually is. It's a far wider-ranging genre than most people seem to think, and I'd argue that it's the most important UK dance music genre since jungle (although garage and grime both deserve a shout, given dubstep essentially arose from those. In fact, dubstep and grime are both offshoots of garage anyway).

Yeah, it is kind of paradoxical concept, hence my use of quotes around purer. Using the term "creation" more loosely, though, I stand by what I said.

Yeah, I was definitely one of those people at that point, but discovering the breadth of the genre made me realize there was a lot more to it than Skrillex and whatnot. I'll definitely give your chart a glance!

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

RoundTheBend — Wed, 6 Mar 2013 12:53:25 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/06/2013 17:53

For me the problem I feel in this era of music is that it often feels a bit stagnant. Bands that were newer that I liked broke up (Thrice[Alchemy Index and later] or As Tall As Lions) and although I like some newer music, I just don't get a "music stiffy" when I listen to it like I do bands, like I did with them, but now they have gone the way of the grave.

Sadly my favorite "newer" bands aren't new at all and are all mainstream: Muse and Coldplay.... yes you can hate me and laugh at me, but I just don't dig anything else right now. I went through the top albums of 2011 and some of it was interesting, but it was like this one off album... I don't know no artist to really stand behind that I know will be a solid artist to bring me musical joy for years to come. I geek with bands who can produce full discographies worth listening to... and well, I don't know if it is the way music is released these days, but I don't feel like I have found an artist that is "new" that makes albums I like anymore. Coldplay and Muse do...

Sure Minus the Bear is pretty cool but... well just not as solid as I'd like. Maybe I'll enjoy older music until I "catch-up" with those that thrive on "finding" the next band or whatever. Until that amazing band is found, enjoy listening to a bunch of shit suckas... hehe.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

RoundTheBend — Wed, 6 Mar 2013 12:45:46 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/06/2013 17:45

purple wrote:

Kranky records musicians will soon begin focusing on process ambient music rather than "natural" ambient music. This will quickly spread across such veritable rosters as Constellation and Warp, eventually making it's way into "indie music" acts like Grizzly Bear and Tame Impala. Soon after, only process music will be able to get "Best New Music" on Pitchfork. Process will quickly become adopted by discerning pop artists such as Katy Perry and Robyn, and Ovalprocess will become the new autotune. In the year 2020, Kanye West will make a 70 minute long magnum opus called "Runaway 2.0," in which he parodies Ovalprocess to hide his "emotions" and clunky raps.

hahaha.... I don't know if this was meant to be sarcastic, but it made me laugh.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Anonymous — Wed, 6 Mar 2013 09:22:07 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/06/2013 14:22

purple wrote:

"[not] the process of composition but rather pieces of music that are, literally, processes. The distinctive thing about musical processes is that they determine all the note-to-note (sound-to-sound) details and the overall form simultaneously. (Think of a round or infinite canon.)" - Steve Reich

Much of Steve Reich's music, much of John Cage's music, all (to my knowledge) of Oval's music, and a significant portion of William Basinski's music, among others, would be considered process music.

Rather than necessarily having explicit control over the sounds being made, the composer inflicts a process on a (usually pre-existing) sound. For example Basinski's Disintegration Loops is simply music he made previously that he sent through a recorder to melt the magnetic tape, or Oval's 94 Diskont is simply some audio CDs scratched up and colored on and then sent through a machine/program called "Wohnton."

It's a very interesting genre philosophically, and has the power to output some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard as well as the most cacophonous.

EDIT: And Ovalprocess is referring to a computer program that apparently Markus Popp put out where you can upload any music into it and it subjects it to some similar processes he uses, so you can make similar music to his. I haven't found it yet, but I've heard it mentioned a few times.

Nice definition. Cheers. There was clearly an element of satire in your initial response, but it did raise a valid point regarding the potential popularity and widespread usage of process music, even if that initial response (just as with ButterThumbz' response) did point out the possible futility of such a discussion. Personally, I think it's one worth having, even if there's no way of correctly predicting the future.

revolver94 wrote:

I agree with a lot of what lethal said, especially about music being "rehashed" today. While I still think that the caliber of music being released is very high, (2012 is also one of my favorite years in music), I am somewhat bothered by this rehashing. A mixed with B is fine, but what I really want to hear is C, and it seems like the level of innovation in terms of "purer" creation seems to have slowed down. Maybe it just seems this way because I've only been paying attention to music for about 2-3 years now, but that's my impression, and it frustrates me.

In terms of short-term trends, it's clear that dubstep is becoming VERY popular, even on mainstream radio. Although I'm usually not a fan of dubstep (most of it is tastelessly bombastic and relies completely on "shock factor"), there are definitely great dubstep artists out there (Burial rushes to mind), who are pushing music forward. Long-term, I think your description regarding the melding of genres is pretty accurate.

ButterThumbz wrote:

As with anything that's constantly evolving, I'd regard any attempt to guess where it was heading would be a fruitless endeavour, even if the next "innovation" was just a matter of combining or re-purposing old aesthetics.

I think it's quite telling that when I encounter something new and exciting, I always feel like it was just what I had been waiting for despite having no prior knowledge of it's existence.

You make a good point, and one I'd considered whilst making this thread. But that doesn't mean that there aren't signifiers in terms of where we may be heading within certain genres (the weirdo hip-hop thing was sort of inevitable given the impact that the music of MF Doom and Madlib, amongst others, and the personality of Lil Wayne have had, for better or worse).

Anyways, more thoughts would be greatly appreciated. There are no right or wrong answers, and I think it's an interesting topic for discussion. At least, more interesting than just naming your favourite seventh track on an album or whatever it is we're doing these days on the forum.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Anonymous — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 17:13:44 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/05/2013 22:13

an_outlaw wrote:

lethalnezzle's done such a great job with writing this thread that I don't really deserve to give my opinion as it is no where near as good.

I hope nobody feels like they don't deserve to give their opinion, and I'd certainly value yours Outlaw.

Also, @paladisiac I mean "popular music" in the wider sense, not just whatever is being called "pop music". So rock, metal, electronic, hip-hop, reggae, shoegaze, whatever, whatever, et cetera, et cetera. Basically, music made for popular consumption via single/album format (not jazz or classical; not to say those can't apply to my very basic definition).

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

paladisiac — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 15:25:13 GMT

Author: paladisiac

Posted: 03/05/2013 20:25

Quote:

Where do you see popular music heading from here, as a whole?
Where do you see your preferred genres heading from here?
Which genres could benefit from a sonic shakeup, and what influences would you like to see make their way into those genres?
Which artists do you think will stand out from the crowd in terms of quality and innovation?
What new ideas would you like to see within popular music?

an_outlaw wrote:

lethalnezzle's done such a great job with writing this thread that I don't really deserve to give my opinion as it is no where near as good.

I can't answer the questions either so... well down I guess Neil. Very well thought out topic here.

Yeah, i guess my answer didn't fully address lethal's initial post. While i do think "popular music" will be gone within a generation (say 80 years at most), while it's still around it's going to be driven by technology. More auto-tune, maybe completely-computer-generated vocals and instrumentation. (Software programs already give us the artificial instrumentation.) Pop stars won't have to sing anymore at all either -- they can be auto-tuned into saccharine oblivion -- just as long as they have a pretty face. That's sort of the case now, but soon they'll be more like an actress than a singer.

That's in regards to popular music.

In regards to music in general, technology will continue to wind its way into all other music, and there will always be a segment that rebels against that technology.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Anonymous — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 15:18:14 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/05/2013 20:18

lethalnezzle's done such a great job with writing this thread that I don't really deserve to give my opinion as it is no where near as good.

I can't answer the questions either so... well down I guess Neil. Very well thought out topic here.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

paladisiac — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 15:02:46 GMT

Author: paladisiac

Posted: 03/05/2013 20:02

Jasonconfused wrote:

I can see where you're coming from with this, but I just don't see it happening. People need their pop/rock icon to worship.

they can still have the pop/rock-type of icons to worship. they can be found on american idol (or some other reality show) or some cross-promoted website where JLo puts out a new song and new fingernail polish or the big song people like is the soundtrack to World of Warcraft 15..

Radio itself and approximations of it will be too fragmented for any one artist to generate too big of a following without scoring the "iWatch login" or Star Wars 10 credits soundtrack.

There will still be celebrity, it's just the entity known as "popular music" that's going away.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Anonymous — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 14:57:59 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/05/2013 19:57

Norman Bates wrote:

What's "process music"?

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Jasonconfused — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 14:54:17 GMT

Author: Jasonconfused

Posted: 03/05/2013 19:54

paladisiac wrote:

i think popular music will dissolve into other formats. Goodbye radio. Hello american idol cross promotion, direct-from-website streaming-and-sales, and muzak. The pop/rock star had a good run and it's almost over in a fizzle of wide-angel merchandizing and general celebrity and media programming.

I can see where you're coming from with this, but I just don't see it happening. People need their pop/rock icon to worship.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

paladisiac — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 14:24:01 GMT

Author: paladisiac

Posted: 03/05/2013 19:24

i think popular music will dissolve into other formats. Goodbye radio. Hello american idol cross promotion, direct-from-website streaming-and-sales, and muzak. The pop/rock star had a good run and it's almost over in a fizzle of wide-angel merchandizing and general celebrity and media programming.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

revolver94 — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 14:03:39 GMT

Author: revolver94

Posted: 03/05/2013 19:03

I agree with a lot of what lethal said, especially about music being "rehashed" today. While I still think that the caliber of music being released is very high, (2012 is also one of my favorite years in music), I am somewhat bothered by this rehashing. A mixed with B is fine, but what I really want to hear is C, and it seems like the level of innovation in terms of "purer" creation seems to have slowed down. Maybe it just seems this way because I've only been paying attention to music for about 2-3 years now, but that's my impression, and it frustrates me.

In terms of short-term trends, it's clear that dubstep is becoming VERY popular, even on mainstream radio. Although I'm usually not a fan of dubstep (most of it is tastelessly bombastic and relies completely on "shock factor"), there are definitely great dubstep artists out there (Burial rushes to mind), who are pushing music forward. Long-term, I think your description regarding the melding of genres is pretty accurate.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Jasonconfused — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 13:42:28 GMT

Author: Jasonconfused

Posted: 03/05/2013 18:42

Well with all the new technology I see music becoming more and more electronic, if that's even possible at this point. More pronounced mixing of genres.

One of my preferred genres of music, metal, will probably continue to head in a direction that I'm not really interested in. I'll stick with more retro sounds as far as metal goes.

Not sure what genre needs a shakeup right now. I guess metal? I'd really like to see a return to baroque instrumentation. Something about that gives music a really nice, broad sound that I really enjoy.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Jasonconfused — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 13:36:47 GMT

Author: Jasonconfused

Posted: 03/05/2013 18:36

Norman Bates wrote:

What's "process music"?

I have the same question. Is that anything like through-composed music?

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Norman Bates — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 13:27:23 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 03/05/2013 18:27

purple wrote:

What's "process music"?

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

ButterThumbz — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 10:48:20 GMT

Author: ButterThumbz

Posted: 03/05/2013 15:48

As with anything that's constantly evolving, I'd regard any attempt to guess where it was heading would be a fruitless endeavour, even if the next "innovation" was just a matter of combining or re-purposing old aesthetics.

I think it's quite telling that when I encounter something new and exciting, I always feel like it was just what I had been waiting for despite having no prior knowledge of it's existence. [Edit] On second thoughts, that seems so obvious that it seems rather idiotic of me to point it out. If I already knew what music was missing, I'd make it myself.

Re: Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Anonymous — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 10:48:14 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/05/2013 15:48

Kranky records musicians will soon begin focusing on process ambient music rather than "natural" ambient music. This will quickly spread across such veritable rosters as Constellation and Warp, eventually making it's way into "indie music" acts like Grizzly Bear and Tame Impala. Soon after, only process music will be able to get "Best New Music" on Pitchfork. Process will quickly become adopted by discerning pop artists such as Katy Perry and Robyn, and Ovalprocess will become the new autotune. In the year 2020, Kanye West will make a 70 minute long magnum opus called "Runaway 2.0," in which he parodies Ovalprocess to hide his "emotions" and clunky raps.

Where do you see popular music heading from here?

Anonymous — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 08:11:12 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/05/2013 13:11

I know this thread has doubtless been done many times before, but I can't recall it recently and I'm on here on an almost daily basis.

Instant access culture has lead to an interesting homogenization within popular music, whereby artists are drawing from a far more varied field of influences than ever before. We see this throughout all genres, and I'd just like to bring up some recent examples; How To Dress Well sounds like he took his cue from Basinski and Beyonce in equal measure; A$AP Rocky melds classic Dipset-esque Harlem flashiness with a Southern flow, and does it over Clams Casino's trippy, Bjork-influenced beats; Ariel Pink uses the lo-fi aesthetic of Daniel Johnston and Beat Happening and twists it to his will, most notably adapting the New Pop of ABC and the like throughout parts of his breakthrough record Before Today; even in metal artists like Clouds Collide and Consciousness Removal Project have taken cues from post-rock, shoegaze and electronic music to expand the sonic palette of the genre (I won't pretend I'm an expert on this, and I understand if this isn't a remotely new phenomenon, though I'd be surprised if this sort of thing was being attempted so widely and successfully five years ago). Simon Reynolds argued in his excellent book Retromania that popular music is stuck in a constant cycle of rehashing certain sounds over and over again ad infinty (even now we're essentially seeing this, with trap bearing many similarities to the early grime instrumental that are now over a decade old), but whilst it is undoubtedly true that certain sounds are destined to be dragged up and molded into the de rigeur every few years or so (look at early Faust records and their influence on post-punk, and then the subsequent post-punk revival) I tend to think that the increasingly adept melding of influences - and subsequent blurring of the lines - is leading to, if not quite new genres, genres that are being twisted and forced in strange, unexpected and largely uncharted directions. There's a strong argument to be made for 2012 being the greatest year ever in music, and I think this is down to the aforementioned "blurring of the lines". Take hip-hop for example, whereby rappers who just five years ago wouldn't have been commercially viable due to their experimental bent are now the genre's rising stars (the aforementioned A$AP Rocky and his innovative ear for beats; Kendrick Lamar with his Beach House samples and his willingness to create a complex story-telling concept album that asks the listener to step their game up a bit, which listeners have clearly felt obliged to do; even Action Bronson, who is ostensibly a New York rap formalist in the mold of Kool G. Rap, teaming up with producer Party Supplies to scour YouTube for low quality samples and then fluff his lines on record and keep the mistakes in; it would be remiss not to mention how influential Madvillainy was on all of this), or electronic music (John Talabot forging his own path in house music; Flying Lotus' stream of consciousness electro-jazz). All the artists mentioned above have clear influences, and many elements of their sound are not remotely new, but the way they are being put together is genuinely innovative, and even more impressive is the amount of popular acclaim and success they are achieving whilst doing so.

So my questions are these:

Where do you see popular music heading from here, as a whole?
Where do you see your preferred genres heading from here?
Which genres could benefit from a sonic shakeup, and what influences would you like to see make their way into those genres?
Which artists do you think will stand out from the crowd in terms of quality and innovation?
What new ideas would you like to see within popular music?

This thread is meant to be a fluid thread in which people can discuss their ideas about the future of pop music, and also their thoughts on the sounds of the last few years. The topic is a pretty open one, so it shouldn't be difficult to stay within those wide parameters. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.