I listen to a LOT of music, and I get bored with songs and genres so I switch it up frequently. I like pretty much every genre except that trash pop-country that Karens and @Roscoe Arbuckle love. What I've observed is that musical innovation seems to have stalled out since the early 1990's. Before that there was massive innovation and experimentation from the 1950s through the early 1990s. The only two 'new' sub-genres I can think of since the 1990's are Dubstep and that weird Doom-Rap-Metal that I started a thread on. Genres have evolved a little but haven't really changed. I guess the tempo of music has gone up a bit as well. mu·sic /ˈmyo͞ozik/ vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. in·no·va·tion /ˌinəˈvāSH(ə)n/ a new method, idea, product, etc.
When CDs started fading away to digital players and took record stores out along with it? For all the talk about empowering artists, the digital medium is a more savage winner takes all system filled mostly with derivate YT comments and expectations, whereas people with all the time could roam around record stores could find like minded people and focus on a curated supply of music. My guess is it went downhill after the 90s, but I'm a millennial who listened mostly to 90s and 2k music.
I get a lot of new exposure to music via Pandora and YouTube algorithms. It will take me down a rabbit hole of discovery. But I'm not seeing a ton of innovation. Another genre that is newer that I forgot to mention is Trap.
Yeah exactly, there's a treasure trove beyond the top 100, but it's a squeeze at the top and bottom. I'm sure there are forums like these that are devoted 100% to sub genres of punk or death metal, but there aren't as many custodians of all music like there were when these shops ruled the day. Something like a Tarantnino who watched all the movies when he clerked for a video rental shop rather than just the ones he mostly liked. At the top, we'll likely verge into some AI assisted algorithm that's similar to what those Swedish producers did with pop music or what the Koreans are continuing to do with making K-Pop stars a global thing. Hopefully I'm wrong, because posterity would probably view it as a creative death of sorts. I'm sure music will definitely evolve but not in the ways it blew up in the past.
Not really the case for me with music. I just don't see wild innovation like we saw back in the day. I dig it. I like the mixed in flamenco guitar.
If I had to guess I'd say the core of modern music was established by the early 90s, but you can certainly make a solid argument it was complete a decade or more before that. Music is always evolving, but I can't really think of anything completely new -- this point could really be made about most music in the 20th century so it's confusing.
When you start looking at these trees it quickly becomes overwhelming -- this is a pretty simple one that only breaks down a fraction of what's out there.
This is a great site I believe someone posted here years ago. https://everynoise.com/engenremap.html Every Noise at Once is an ongoing attempt at an algorithmically-generated, readability-adjusted scatter-plot of the musical genre-space, based on data tracked and analyzed for 5,934 genre-shaped distinctions by Spotify as of 2022-08-27. The calibration is fuzzy, but in general down is more organic, up is more mechanical and electric; left is denser and more atmospheric, right is spikier and bouncier.
I'm not sure I really like it. But. It's different. There's a band called Omnific that is just 2 BASSISTS and a drummer. Not my thing either but they're doing some wildt stuff.
Big data. Everything is reduced to a formula and categorized for maximum popularity. New stuff is different, and different is scary and might fail. Same reason chain restraints are everywhere and there are 20 Fast and Furious movies - find that formula and beat it to death.
Agree 100%. I guess that's why innovation doesn't sell (at first). That doesn't mean that there isn't art out there to be discovered. It's just not as prevalent. Here's another one I like, Poppy: she constantly shifts her music. This song is half Beach Boys half Metal:
Not sure where you are frequenting that chain restraints can be found everywhere...but I'd like to know.
