As Streaming Booms, Songs Are Getting Faster

[GlacierNine]

Anything to get the Radio DJ to stop talking over a song faster is fine with me.

Lul radio.

What century are you listening from?

 

[Dekoth-E-]

It has basically been stated already, but I believe you could find a better correlation between the "quality" of music and this trend than streaming. I believe streaming only made it easier to quickly skip through all the shit songs to find the slightly less shitty ones.

Also this is why I finally caved and resubbed to XM. I get a huge selection of stations dedicated to "good" music, not top 40 garbage.

 

[kju1]

I dont listen to music as I find it to be stupid and utterly annoying. However why is this a big deal? Be adaptive or fail...and remember not everything can be appreciated right away. Some of the great artists (and by this I mean painters not those hacks with a keyboard) were not very successful in their lifetime and it took decades for anyone to appreciate their work.

 

[GlacierNine]

I dont listen to music as I find it to be stupid and utterly annoying. However why is this a big deal? Be adaptive or fail...and remember not everything can be appreciated right away. Some of the great artists (and by this I mean painters not those hacks with a keyboard) were not very successful in their lifetime and it took decades for anyone to appreciate their work.

"I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE, CONTEXT OR APPRECIATION FOR THE THING BEING DISCUSSED, LISTEN TO MY OPINIONS"

Jog on lad.

 

[Uvaman2]

Song in the 50s were 2 minutes and change.. so even worse attention issues back then?

 

[kju1]

"I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE, CONTEXT OR APPRECIATION FOR THE THING BEING DISCUSSED, LISTEN TO MY OPINIONS"

Jog on lad.

You equate a lack of interest and not listening to a lack of experience. Surely that hind brain of yours must have twitched before you attacked me that maybe just maybe you were making a bad assumption. Not liking and not listening to music doesn't mean I haven't heard it noob. Nor does it mean I havent had education in music and other art. Preferences like mine are borne of long years of experience not snap judgements of the ill informed like yourself.

 

[GlacierNine]

You equate a lack of interest and not listening to a lack of experience. Surely that hind brain of yours must have twitched before you attacked me that maybe just maybe you were making a bad assumption. Not liking and not listening to music doesn't mean I haven't heard it noob. Nor does it mean I havent had education in music and other art. Preferences like mine are borne of long years of experience not snap judgements of the ill informed like yourself.

By all means, inform me of the deep and longterm musical education you've pursued.

 

[TechLarry]

Millennials got no fucking patience. Based on this news story, Pink Floyd would make their heads assplode.

 

[Darunion]

Millennials got no fucking patience. Based on this news story, Pink Floyd would make their heads assplode.

pink floyd is good relaxation/sleep music.

 

[kju1]

By all means, inform me of the deep and longterm musical education you've pursued.

Why? So you can make more ad hominem attacks rather than focus on the issue at hand? That artists, if they want to be financially successful in their lifetime, need to adapt. Stop trolling and start focusing on the real issue. Why dont you come up with a real opinion instead?

 

[TechLarry]

pink floyd is good relaxation/sleep music.

It is. I don't see too many relaxed Millennials though

And I'm not entirely convinced they actually sleep.

 

[JayteeBates]

According to this Al (and I suppose George too) is a genius ahead of this time:

 

[GlacierNine]

Why? So you can make more ad hominem attacks rather than focus on the issue at hand? That artists, if they want to be financially successful in their lifetime, need to adapt. Stop trolling and start focusing on the real issue. Why dont you come up with a real opinion instead?

More because I don't believe for a minute that you actually have any education or experience in musical performance, analysis, criticism or similar, whereas I actually do.

So, by all means, cite your qualifications or stop wasting everyone's time by throwing out hyperbolic troll statements about something you've absolutely no standing to discuss.

 

[Armenius]

No surprise. They are already speeding up tv/movies, so they can fit more commercials in too.

Which is why I don't watch TV anymore. Or listen to radio, for that matter.

Modern movie scores are being bastardized by the studios like never before unfortunately. The stuff in the below video about recycling songs in films is super depressing.

Thankfully, we still have Hans Zimmer. He must still be good if everyone else is intimating him. Thankfully there are still directors like Chris Nolan who recognize the importance of soundtracks in their movies to help intensify and convey emotion.

Spoiler: Interstellar scene that goes with that

 

[kju1]

More because I don't believe for a minute that you actually have any education or experience in musical performance, analysis, criticism or similar, whereas I actually do.

So, by all means, cite your qualifications or stop wasting everyone's time by throwing out hyperbolic troll statements about something you've absolutely no standing to discuss.

4 yrs college including various classes in history of. Studied jazz for 2 yrs in high school as well. Numerous years having to listen to this shit because idiots like you don't know how to use head phones. Thats experience and context. How about you state yours? So get off your high horse and make an actual statement about the issue at hand rather than attacking someone for stating their opinion.

Just because someone doesnt like something and doesnt want to do it anymore doesnt mean they dont have a standing to discuss it. Now how about you fess up to your "qualifications". /eyeroll

 

[GlacierNine]

Sure. 15 years instrumental experience and a degree in Popular Musics focusing on composition and critical analysis, wherein I further focused on the development of instrumental construction re: the electric guitar whenever possible.

I'm also scattered across various videogame remixes around the web.

 

[kju1]

Sure. 15 years instrumental experience and a degree in Popular Musics focusing on composition and critical analysis, wherein I further focused on the development of instrumental construction re: the electric guitar whenever possible.

I'm also scattered across various videogame remixes around the web.

Cool and what about my comment that: If artists want to succeed financially they adapt or fail. So this really isnt so much of an issue as this is the way our culture is arguably moving...so either you buck the trend and maybe be successful after the fact or you do what sells and make it big.

 

[Armenius]

Cool and what about my comment that: If artists want to succeed financially they adapt or fail. So this really isnt so much of an issue as this is the way our culture is arguably moving...so either you buck the trend and maybe be successful after the fact or you do what sells and make it big.

What do you consider succeeding financially? Earning a living wage or earning millions of dollars? Because there are plenty of acts out there doing the former that don't fall into the greater market trends.

 

[kju1]

What do you consider succeeding financially? Earning a living wage or earning millions of dollars? Because there are plenty of acts out there doing the former that don't fall into the greater market trends.

Thats highly subjective. To me succeeding is being financially independent. I.e. being able to live the lifestyle you want without having to work unless you want to. They dont call them "starving artists" for no reason .

Maybe for some artists they are just happy making their product. But you have to admit there is a choice there: make something your market wants or you wont be able to sell it reliably.

IMO its no different than anything else. Books are shorter or have less complex stories etc but authors that are widely popular have found something that everyone wants. The niche authors have found their market and cater to it. Those that do neither dont get read.

 

[GlacierNine]

Cool and what about my comment that: If artists want to succeed financially they adapt or fail. So this really isnt so much of an issue as this is the way our culture is arguably moving...so either you buck the trend and maybe be successful after the fact or you do what sells and make it big.

I couldn't possibly care less what your opinion is on that. Music hasn't been bound by the concept of appealing to a large audience for a very long time. Bandcamp is full to bursting with artists whose music is so consciously noncommercial that there's no paying audience that could possibly exist. Plenty of them have critical acclaim among small but dedicated circles. They're making what they want to make and they're beholden to nobody. Adaptation for them impinges upon no perception of success.

 

[otherweeb]

I think I can understand a correlation. In the olden days if you didn't want to listen to a song you could play 'hunt the channels' for something else, but you would catch things in the middle, change from your favorite DJ's etc. With streaming you hit the button and BAM, new song starts. So getting the 'hook' in as soon as possible could be a tactic artists have developed.

 

[GlacierNine]

In all seriousness, analysing pop music trends is one of the most soul destroying things a musician or musical researcher could possibly be doing.

It's essentially searching for a worthwhile musical needle, in a haystack made of lowest common denominator musical marketing buzzwords. The musical equivalent of trying to figure out what the fuck a project lead is trying to say when he prattles on about "conceptualizing outside the box, we need blue sky thinking on this one".

 

[GlacierNine]

Also the artists themselves very rarely have a say in trends like this. It's usually handed down, or trends from, focus group testing done by marketing departments.

A good example is the loudness war. It came about because when played short segments of tracks, focus groups that are used to determine things like what songs are going to get positive reactions from radio listeners, have a stronger reaction to louder music, regardless of quality or style.

As a result, music companies would level the volume of a track out as much as possible in order to ensure that whatever snatch of a song was played, it would gain that benefit.

Fast forward to now and we've already passed the cusp of this trend, as people have slowly begun to back off on mixes that were so loud they clipped and distorted (RHCP Californication for example, is infamously badly mastered for loudness, and clips constantly).

That didn't happen because musicians wanted the desk clipping. It happened because record execs pushed for louder and louder mastering.

 

[thekipper]

I'd like to see the songs/data they used. It's kind of like people don't have the patience for a great guitar riff to build the song anymore, like everything else, society wants the best part of the song as fast as possible. Any build up that isn't catchy is basically a commercial in today's mainstream music...you've lost the audience because society has such a short attention span these days. JMO

 

[nilepez]

What do you consider succeeding financially? Earning a living wage or earning millions of dollars? Because there are plenty of acts out there doing the former that don't fall into the greater market trends.

All I can say is I know people in a few indie bands and virtually all of their money comes from licensing. Whether it's getting into a game like FIFA or having a company use it in a commercial or a film, that's where the money is. Streaming doesn't pay shit, unless you're a major act and so few buy music that sales dont' cut it either. Touring works to some degree, but if you're in clubs, you may or may not make money. OTOH, the same band does great if they're booked at festivals....but what they want is licensing. 2 of these bands got little, if any licensing from their most recent album and that hurt them. It remains to be seen if that affects the songs on future albums.

 

[Dr. Righteous]

Don't listen to Top 40?

I listen to Mastodon for instance, and some of those songs are 7-10 minutes if I recall.

Thats nothing. In the good old days of progressive rock 1 song was a double album.

 

[GlacierNine]

Thats nothing. In the good old days of progressive rock 1 song was a double album.

The old days?

You haven't been listening to Transatlantic, have you?

 

[Dr. Righteous]

The old days?

You haven't been listening to Transatlantic, have you?

Wow. Have to admit I've never heard of them. But listening to that I like. I can hear a Kansas influence, early Genesis, and YES.
It is definitely old fashion Prog Rock.

Any what I jokingly had in mind was YES Tales of a Topographic Ocean

 

[martianho]

It's depending of the king of music maybe. There are many styles and kind of music today.

 

[RaxusCraxurFace]

I'm in my thirties now and I remember growing up listening to a lot of what my parents listened to. Sure, their voices weren't perfect sounding but it gave them a sort of authenticity that's seriously lacking in today's music.

Then there's the fact that everything has to be a "pop" song. Happy. Cheery. Up-beat. Something you can dance to. Well I don't care about any of that, I want some easy listening stuff that I can sit back in my chair and listen to in peace. And then there's the fact that everything is "electronic" in the sense that there's no real instruments, it's all keyboards and shit; no real instruments.

I don't know how I found it on YouTube but I found a video by UB40 that happened to be playing alongside a full orchestra, yes... a full orchestra complete with violins, trumpets, flutes, trombones, and everything else you would find in a typical orchestra. It was perfect man. Complexities in sound I've not heard in years.

You might dig Lindsay Stirling. Puts a modern twist on violin.

 

[GlacierNine]

You might dig Lindsay Stirling. Puts a modern twist on violin.

I personally became extremely bored of her after listening to about an album's worth.

She's very pretty, somewhat unique, and she likes to do a good stageshow and/or music video, but musically I find that she has quite a small repertoire of actually good ideas.

 

[RaxusCraxurFace]

I personally became extremely bored of her after listening to about an album's worth.

She's very pretty, somewhat unique, and she likes to do a good stageshow and/or music video, but musically I find that she has quite a small repertoire of actually good ideas.

I'd probably agree with you.

I think she is a good start on trying to get good music back into the main stream. Impossible to go from the garbage we have now back to straight classical music or even stuff from the 70's.

 

[GlacierNine]

Theb

I'd probably agree with you.

I think she is a good start on trying to get good music back into the main stream. Impossible to go from the garbage we have now back to straight classical music or even stuff from the 70's.

The mainstream has alway been mostly garbage. Don't kid yourself.

I mean just go and look at some lists of number ones. 1970 saw the english football team reach number one for christs sake.

The reason people get rose tint has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of popular music, and everything to do with the fact people don't remember or bring up the complete shite that existed around and alongside the stuff they actually liked.

Pop music now is terrible, yes, but its no better than it was at any other time. It's just a different kind of shit.

 

[dethklokworkorange]

Don't listen to Top 40?

I listen to Mastodon for instance, and some of those songs are 7-10 minutes if I recall.

I saw them at Ozzfest a million years ago in WI. They covered Thin Lizzy's "Black Rose", and it was killer. I had kind of written them off as some talentless stoner thing until I saw them live.

 

[RaxusCraxurFace]

Theb

The mainstream has alway been mostly garbage. Don't kid yourself.

I mean just go and look at some lists of number ones. 1970 saw the english football team reach number one for christs sake.

The reason people get rose tint has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of popular music, and everything to do with the fact people don't remember or bring up the complete shite that existed around and alongside the stuff they actually liked.

Pop music now is terrible, yes, but its no better than it was at any other time. It's just a different kind of shit.

Has some of it been shit? yes absolutely

But I think decades past the ratio of shit to decent music was way better than it is now.

 

[TType85]

Thats nothing. In the good old days of progressive rock 1 song was a double album.

I am currently listening to Rush 2112. First track is 20:37, first vocal is like 4:30 in

 

[DrLobotomy]

Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother Side 1 is one song which is the Title song.