Most music on the radio is trash?

Steffan

Junior Member
I'm not a hipster but the way things are being produced these days is complete trash. I may be 16 but I know a thing or two about how important the human element is in a band and even recording. There are very few bands on even the rock radio trying to keep rock alive, for example Queens of the Stone age is 100% human, and they are helping with keeping rock alive. Most bands you hear today scream and are kids barely out of high school and they think straightening their hair to get girls and adding effects and techno is "cool", this thread is to vent problems with rock these days, or even music in general. Drum machines and high priced apple computers don't make music.
 
Which is why I don't listen to the radio for new music.

If I have on the radio, it's classic rock. If I want to hear something new and good, I hit the net.
 
Which is why I don't listen to the radio for new music.

If I have on the radio, it's classic rock. If I want to hear something new and good, I hit the net.

+1. Exactly the same with me. Much of the new music (aka artificial musiclike product) you hear on the radio is made for teenyboppers. Like McDonalds.

I felt lame about having a classic rock station and news radio in the car as my defaults. I found a indie station playing new music - and the song sounded pretty cool, although with a drum machine. In the next month I noticed that you rarely heard a real drummer on that station. Then I found out about an extra classic rock station so now I can toggle between them and the new radio channel when the ads come on.

YouTube is my source of new music - often tracks suggested by people on this forum or the auto-recommend feature the site has when you log in.
 
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Brother, I gave up on radio when was around your age. You are learning what you like and that radio ain't where to get it. Welcome to the music-snobbery club, welcome.
 
It's hard to argue about the state of pop music, but if you want to keep finding new music, radio is still a source even though you may need to wade through a bunch of stuff you don't like.

I listen to a major station (Clearchannel owned) that I guess you could classify as "new" or "alternative" and yeah, they do tons of Chili Peppers, STP, Bush, Soundgarden, AIC, etc, (basically a bunch of classic rock that I was never really that into anyway), but they also manage to play some newer things that are different and interesting. If I hear a song that I like, I get online and start sampling the rest of their catalog - Middle Class Rut was a nice surprise since the one song they have on the radio sounds nothing like the rest of the album - which sounds even better! Crash Kings, The XX, The Naked And Famous, (and on and on) are other bands I got into based on just one song they briefly had in rotation.

Radio for me is just a portal into finding out about new bands - and there are some good ones. I may have lost faith in most of the "biz" but I haven't lost faith that there are many good bands out there waiting to be discovered and radio's ability to occasionally find them.
 
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Like anything else - you just need to keep searching. Fortunately for the young people today, you have lots to search. I was fortunate at your age to have parents that not only encouraged me to listen to different kinds of music, they'd give me money to go to the record store to find stuff. At least today, you have iTunes where you can at least listen to a minute of a song you've never heard before before you pay for it.

Sometimes radio does put up some gems, but sadly, this isn't always the case. So like many, I've given up. I kinda' miss the days when radio stations would play things so new and different people would complain about it or love it. Nowadays, everything sounds so much the same, nobody ever complains because it just becomes this line-level din. Like a patient flat-lining at a hospital.

But I'm like everyone else here: people hip me to new things and I'll go on YouTube and find it. There's a lot of good stuff happening, you just have to listen and find it. I do alot more listening than I do liking, though ;)
 
I agree that many bands today are well not great. I'll admit I enjoy listening to some of the songs on the radio. But you also gotta realize that the radio is there to sell, and most people don't care if what they hear on the radio could be considered "real" music. There are a lot of bands out there who are unique, great musicians, and know a thing or two about rock. These kinds of bands rarely get on the radio, but rock is definitely not dead as many people claim, it's just not the powerhouse it once was.
 
When you have lived a while, I guess popular media has in many ways played out it's role. Which is fine, because with age ,usually also comes an income you can use to pay for the music, movies and books you personally prefer.
 
Im gunna have to disagree with that! Listen to asking alexandria, They scream, straighten their hair, and use effects... but they still keep music alive.
 
I'm not a hipster but the way things are being produced these days is complete trash. I may be 16 but I know a thing or two about how important the human element is in a band and even recording... Drum machines and high priced apple computers don't make music.

It's unfair to generalize like that. All sequenced music isn't necessarily bad, and all live bands aren't necessarily good. The resulting music is as good - or bad - as the people behind it. When you say "Drum machines and high priced apple computers don't make music" you're exactly right - it's the people who use those tools that make the music.

As for what's good or bad on the radio, at 16 you happen to be at the prime age for buying the most new music. It's always been that way. You're definitely an exception to the rule, and that's refreshing, but you also have to keep a perspective so you don't automatically overlook good music just because it doesn't meet your criteria. Every song has to be judged on its merits as a song, and not judged simply on the principle of how it was created.

Bermuda
 
It's unfair to generalize like that. All sequenced music isn't necessarily bad, and all live bands aren't necessarily good. The resulting music is as good - or bad - as the people behind it. When you say "Drum machines and high priced apple computers don't make music" you're exactly right - it's the people who use those tools that make the music.

As for what's good or bad on the radio, at 16 you happen to be at the prime age for buying the most new music. It's always been that way. You're definitely an exception to the rule, and that's refreshing, but you also have to keep a perspective so you don't automatically overlook good music just because it doesn't meet your criteria. Every song has to be judged on its merits as a song, and not judged simply on the principle of how it was created.

Bermuda

You're right that I was generalizing alot and I thought about it. There are some new bands that are good on radio, but the songs they play are not the ones that I constantly look up on youtube to either get the drum part or the Guitar part then learn from it, I just believe there is a thin line between creativity using the studio and modern methods, and taking human element out of it.
 
Im gunna have to disagree with that! Listen to asking alexandria, They scream, straighten their hair, and use effects... but they still keep music alive.

For my style of listening I am going to have to disagree, My friend listens to that stuff and I just am not fond of it, However for the straightening of the hair, I find it kinda douchebaggy for instance [ imagine that you are in their shoes and you get called for curtain and you tell the guy the concert can't go on because your hair isn't done yet] seems pretty Axl Roseish to me
 
It's unfair to generalize like that. All sequenced music isn't necessarily bad, and all live bands aren't necessarily good. The resulting music is as good - or bad - as the people behind it. When you say "Drum machines and high priced apple computers don't make music" you're exactly right - it's the people who use those tools that make the music.

Bermuda

Definitely. The different instuments/mediums that are used to produce the sounds have a much less significant bearing in the music overall as the integrity and creative intelligence of who is behind it.

Having said that though, there are a lot of pretty average radio stations out there that play music which most musicians find uninspiring. I listen to a non-commercial station that plays a lot of stuff you'd never normally hear. They also support a lot of local up and coming artists. Great way to find new sounds.
 
Im gunna have to disagree with that! Listen to asking alexandria, They scream, straighten their hair, and use effects... but they still keep music alive.


one of the worst trendy bands I have ever heard.......they dont even do a good version of what metal has become
 
Tell me about it.
My family gets annoyed at me when I rant on about how sick I am of repeating synths (especially that one that sounds like a power drill in almost every techno/house party song) and how every second song is Kesha or some Chris brown impersonator.
And the only DECENT drumming you get on the radio is the occasional foo fighters or kings of Leon song. I know I'm am generalizing a lot, but when most songs are within the range off about 3 genres (rnb,house party and techno) and you're as stubborn as me, it drives you insane, and being at high school liking bands like queens of the stone age, led Zeppelin and the mars Volta these days in a very marketed and pop/mainstream group of teenagers makes it worse.
When someone asks you "what are you listening to" and you say "the mars Volta" and then they hear you're music, think you're... Weird or something then tell you to listen to Bruno mars is the most annoying feeling in the world.
And yes, I am very aware that I seem very self centered but even though I should have other things to think about, my mind just won't let me get over this one, honestly, I wish I could

I know many of you will disagree, but, that's my thoughts to this topic


(I told you I rant on about this stuff)
 
I'm in agreement with Bermuda here. Todd Rundgren has been making his music almost entirely on an Apple Mac in his linen closet for a number of years now and, in my very biased opinion (being a huge fan of his, hence the avatar), he's still making soulful, rocking and very human music.
 
for example Queens of the Stone age is 100% human

Really? They still quantize and sample,it's produced like most everything else. It's how the industry is today.
 
... there are a lot of pretty average radio stations out there that play music which most musicians find uninspiring.

Well, that assumes that most musicians need more esoteric music in order to enjoy it or to be inspired. Perhaps I'm an exception, but I find just as much joy listening to The Monkees as I do Steely Dan. I'm just as excited and inspired by Ringo as I am Buddy Rich. I listen to and can appreciate everything from ABBA to Zappa. I know musicians and non-musos who just can't open their ears - or mind - to certain music. It's kinda too bad for them. I have my preferences, but I don't absolutely hate anything. People flip when they learn the ridiculous variety of music in my 3,000+ CD collection.

But I'll agree that most stations play a consistent type or genre of music, and that's really just about having an appealing format. Not so much appealing to the listener, but appealing to the advertisers who target the kind of audience that listens to certain types and genres of music.

So on a mainstream station with a demographic of young people, you would hear ads for the a show on the CW network, or the upcoming Twilight movie, or the KIA Soul. But on a jazz station for example, you'd be more likely to hear an ad for Austin City Limits or maybe Guitar Center.

Basically, if a station's format brings in ad dollars, they stick with it. If it doesn't work, they change formats - it happens all the time.

Ad dollars drive pretty much everything. You don't think Facebook is there to simply facilitate connecting with friends, do you? They want to attract as many people - and their friends - to the site to be bombarded with ads from advertisers hoping those people will click on them and buy something. Same with MySpace. YouTube, Google, magazines, etc etc.

Anyway, if music on the radio is trash, or great, or somewhere in-between, it exists that way simply because that station is making money by playing those songs.

Bermuda
 
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