Is talent needed to make it big in the music industry nowadays?

[blue_dragon]

You turn on the radio in your car. It seems your daughter has messed with it. What you hear is a series of simple chord progressions to a basic drum and bass beat, and meh vocals to boot. What you are hearing is the latest trend in mainstream music, unimaginative crap.

This is happening across all genres of music:

Country - turned into "New" country; lost all of the soul and stoicism of Country

Rap - Now Gangsta rap which is about "The Life"; lost it's value about the hardships of life, backing music is mainly "Sampled"/Stolen. And only basic rhythm can be found.

Pop - Still pop Good voices, meh music.

Blues - No one innovates anymore and all songs sound the same.

Rock - Hardest hit. Spread into multiple categories, all of which follow the same structure. A guitar "solo" is an arpeggio up a scale. Basic beats and chords are used. No great vocals.

Metal - Trash. Now singin in metal consists of Growling like so, "AHHMF HTBB IRSBD DKDHW VR." Playing is based on speed now, often to the point where a certain dischord flies at your face and makes your ears bleed. Music is now about speed and Complexity.

Jazz and R&B - Only genres to retain all of their soul and sound.


What happened to the time when music was innovative and sounded good? There are still exceptions to the patterns, but most follow them. So I ask, is real musical talent needed in this music industry? Or is everyone tone deaf?

 

[Deleted member]

I really really hate music elitism. This is a stupid thread. What sounds good IS good, in my opinion.

backing music is mainly "Sampled"/Stolen

Umm..so? Samplers can make some amazing stuff. Every form of artistic expression has ways of taking old things and making things new and exciting.

For the music industry, take one look at DJ Shadow and Endtroducing. One of the best albums of the 90s, and entirely sampled.

What you hear is a series of simple chord progressions to a basic drum and bass beat, and meh vocals to boot.

Playing is based on speed now, often to the point where a certain dischord flies at your face and makes your ears bleed. Music is now about speed and Complexity.

You contradict yourself.

 

[blue_dragon]

I really really hate music elitism. This is a stupid thread. What sounds good IS good, in my opinion.


Umm..so? Samplers can make some amazing stuff. Every form of artistic expression has ways of taking old things and making things new and exciting.

For the music industry, take one look at DJ Shadow and Endtroducing. One of the best albums of the 90s, and entirely sampled.


You contradict yourself.

The problem is when you hear identical songs all the time, they often tend to start to sound bland.

You do have a point on how the music can sound great when sampled, I can't deny that. But It isn't the 90's anymore, hard to find good "samples" nowadays.

And I do not contradict myself, thank you for reading the whole post. The former was referring to the situation in most music, the latter focusing on how the metal genre doesn't even focus on the music. The central idea of the whole comparison was about how the music industry nowadays isn't about making good imaginative music.

 

[AltF4]

There's nothing wrong with music today. I bet every generation ever since music was invented has thought that the younger generation's music sucked.

It's entirely a subjective matter, and most people disagree with you, Blue Dragon. This is evidenced by the incredible popularity of those genres you seem to think lack quality.

If today's metal is becoming about complexity and speed, then what's the problem? Just because it's new? I happen to like it, and so do a lot of people. I fail to see how you can substantiate a claim that it's somehow "worse" than older music.

To answer the thread title directly: Now, all that being said... There certainly is a lot of no talent hacks that somehow get popular. Take Hanna Montana for example. wtf. I mean wtf really...

Talent helps, but really you just need to look good. But that's true of life, not just music.

 

[Xsyven]

If music sounds good, I'll listen to it. Mainstream or not.

That being said, mainstream music has so many talentless idiots out there that it makes me sick. But nothing compares to film and television.

As long as an 'actor' has the right face or personality, they'll be cast in tons of movies. Take for example, one of my favorite talentless actors of all time, Will Ferrell. He's extremely funny, and I love all of his movies. But the fact still remains, that he really has nothing going for him, except for being Will Ferrell. Stepping into one of his movies, you know exactly what to expect. And that just pisses me off. Thank god for Stranger Than Fiction, right? His only role where he actually acts.

On the other side of the spectrum, go to a movie starring Johnny Depp, and you have no idea what to expect! That's the difference between gimmicky actors and actually talented actors.

And then there are actors that just suck...

 

[blue_dragon]

There's nothing wrong with music today. I bet every generation ever since music was invented has thought that the younger generation's music sucked.

It's entirely a subjective matter, and most people disagree with you, Blue Dragon. This is evidenced by the incredible popularity of those genres you seem to think lack quality.

If today's metal is becoming about complexity and speed, then what's the problem? Just because it's new? I happen to like it, and so do a lot of people. I fail to see how you can substantiate a claim that it's somehow "worse" than older music.

To answer the thread title directly: Now, all that being said... There certainly is a lot of no talent hacks that somehow get popular. Take Hanna Montana for example. wtf. I mean wtf really...

Talent helps, but really you just need to look good. But that's true of life, not just music.

True, but it's more the sacrifice of sound for speed that gets me. Dethklok, even though they're a joke band, doesn't sacrifice sound like the others. You have great points, though. And you know, the horrible songs of other decades have been forgotten. But it's almost the end of the decade and our hit bands consist of A&A, Red Jumpsuit Apparratus, and MCR. Is that what we want to see 2000-10 as?

 

[Crimson King]

Since I plan to go to music school for record production following college, I follow the music industry. What you see is a changing of the guard. The internet is creating new musicians, and the old musicians must compete so the fall back on the lowest common denominator.

Regardless, this is not a debate for this room. The media metropolis maybe, but you are going too much on your own opinion to define what is good and what is bad music.