Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?

I think political music is a red herring but what did happen was generations expressed their desires through music and and that itself is what changed the culture around them.

Jungle wasn't political but it was a new voice. Grime wasn't political but it was a new voice. Those people hadn't ever been heard before. Hadn't existed before.

luka said:

Mistaken possibly but I'm not sure it's rude. It's not a question of whether individuals still engage meaningfully with music, that's a given its more a question of whether it occupies the same space in the culture. There are people who still read novels, perhaps even passionately, but the novel is culturally irrelevant.

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I would say the issue there is the value was inflated to begin with this last century or so when it became a commodity (like all other art forms), and at this point its become soooo consistently wormed into aspects of digestibility.

Admittedly I don't know what the perception is of the presence of music is for your generation or people older, but I want to say its still there. Its just harder to detect overtly as the radio format, with things such as an MTV-style presentation or just regular radio, has been utterly reduced in omnipresence and power moreso for my generation. You hear it in the physical world less, and there's an auditory quality in the naturalization of privatized music; headphones, portable MP3 players, cars are made insular, "noise-cancelling".

there were fewer distractions for kids in the past, so maybe music filled their time more consistently. we didn't spend hours texting, playing video games, making/watching youtube clips, surfing Facebook/instagram, snapchatting, sending vines, etc. it was pretty much just tv, music and sports when i was going up.

music, like tv and film is just old media. people will always like music, but the novelty of recorded music is over.

people need to find what the next novel aspect of music might be (that can be commodified). it just needs a new medium/format. something that makes it seem new again, almost. a new way to experience it. or maybe we are already there and im just too old to realise it. its def a massive transitional time though. be interesting to see where we end up.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...gions&utm_term=162603&subid=40319&CMP=ema_630

Last summer, a survey by “millennial insight agency” Ypulse surveyed 1,000 young adults. When asked about their favourite artists, many respondents couldn’t answer, not through ambivalence but because, it was concluded, “this generation is interested in so many music genres and artists”.

It found that while millennials are passionate about music (76% within the 13- to 17-year-old bracket said they wouldn’t be able to last a week without it), 79% of 13- to 32-year-olds said their tastes didn’t fall into one specific music genre. Just 11% said that they only listened to one genre of music. “It seems,” Ypulse noted when it published its findings, “that millennials are a genre-less generation”.

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i can't even imagine the spectacularised horror of growing up with social media (obviously there are benefits too), so that figures...

again from the Guardian, which shapes my view of reality to an alarming degree these days. EIther way, it's hard to imagine that this is total bollocks:
http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...in-and-relax-why-millennials-dont-go-clubbing

Posted particularly because of the chilling: “ I think dancing and sweating gross amounts to loud music is good for the soul. But you can now get cheap city breaks for the price of a good night out that you won’t remember in London. And city breaks look better on Instagram.”
I genuinely don't know whether the last line is ironic or not.

sadly, so much of this is actually accurate...

http://fusion.net/story/283080/nyt-millennial-trend-story/

baboon2004 said:

again from the Guardian, which shapes my view of reality to an alarming degree these days.

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Christ almighty, man, get out while you still can!

Edit:

There are a lot of reasons why Kaley, 23, doesn’t go clubbing any more. For a start, it’s too expensive, with taxis, door fees and alcohol to pay for. Plus the clubs, even in the capital, are disappointing: they shut at 2am, much earlier than venues in Berlin, and just when you start enjoying yourself it’s lights on.

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The cost of clubbing in the UK (and esp. London, obviously) is undeniably ridiculous, but you're clearly not trying hard enough if you can't find a club playing some kind of music you like that stays open any later than 2.

But perhaps I'm just feeling smug because I've got a ticket for World Unknown tonight.

Edited edit:

Ruth, 22 from Edinburgh said: “With a competitive work environment and everyone looking for graduate jobs, I cannot imagine turning up to work hungover or tired on a weekday and still performing well enough to get ahead. Going to bars and clubs is too expensive, everyone’s too busy worrying about whether they will ever be able to afford a mortgage or children to throw away money every week on a club.”

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Kill me. Please just kill me right now.

Leo, that piece had me in stitches, nice one.

so this is a thread about old people theorising what's wrong with the kids who they don't know and gauging their opinions from the guardian then?

pretty good

A lot of the sub-culture tribalness of the past is highly romanticised and exaggerated so most of the comparisons are off to a shaky start to begin with. There are big changes in how people are coming into contact with and consuming music for sure and that is having a new effect that hasn't been sufficiently explained yet. We have probably passed the days of reading interviews where seemingly every DJ "heard their brother's jungle tapes" but kids are still 'discovering' and getting that 'wow'. The big difference is they have the whole history of everything at their finger tips to get hooked on. Top of the Pops died by redundancy after all.

The guardian have been churning seven articles a day for months about 'millennials' but they and most other writers are only ever talking about certain white, educated, person in their twenties. Boomers, Gen X, etc, have been sort of useful in talking about certain trends but have their limits and generational categories are largely bullshit. More often then not because a diverse group of people are being attacked and labelled rather than the world the diverse group of people in the previous generation have left for them.

the guardian LOVES articles about how things are fucked for millenials (or whatever the group after the millenials is). they are unable to resist repeating how earth-crumblingly terrible it all is for youth of today. which it might be, but i cant help thinking its become its own little cottage industry. older readers get to feel alternately charitable/quietly smug and secretly condescending, younger readers get to, well im not sure what they get out of it, other than a small fee for coughing up their own story of doomed 21st century youth.

as far as music, i think its such a massive change happening right now, that no one can really know where we are going exactly. i remember when soulseek was still new, and how exciting it was to have all that music available, and get into genres i prob wouldnt have been able to properly hear otherwise. i cant imagine what it must be like to be a kid living with that x10. but its prob not terrible. at all. it might just be a bit dwarfing. though whether they are even aware of this, im not sure. and for the accusations that they are simply being 'recreative' rather than creative, which i think myself sometimes, most of the biggest music around right now just doesnt sound like its simply rehashing. you would not have had records like the life of pablo, young thug, drake even, for example 10 years ago. the recombinant thing is very of the moment. it just requires a diff criteria to measure its worth p'raps.

again from the Guardian, which shapes my view of reality to an alarming degree these days.

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at least read the economist or new statesman or something, from time to time.

Leo said:

sadly, so much of this is actually accurate...

http://fusion.net/story/283080/nyt-millennial-trend-story/

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“When it comes down to it, life is really all about finding a hashtag for yourself and sending hilarious emoji on Venmo,” Packard said, and then, after a moment of reflection, added: “Lena Dunham.”

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this like a funnier version of a tao lin book.

the future.

YouTube gaming sensation KSI, recently signed to Island Records/Universal Music, has announced the launch of his new mobile App. The App has been created by Disciple Media. It will launch in April this year, ahead of KSI’s debut Single release this summer. The single follows KSI’s debut EP (featuring JME among others) which earlier this year debuted at no. 1 on the UK iTunes Albums charts and no. 13 in the official UK Albums Charts.

YouTube phenomenon KSI is the most viewed in the UK, has over 2.5 Billion video views and over 15m subscribers over his two channels - an audience built through viral content, online gaming and savvy brand partnerships. In launching this App, KSI further proves he is at the forefront of next generation media moguls.

The App is ‘one spot for all things KSI’ right at the cutting edge of smartphone tech it delivers unparalleled direct-to-fan access, connecting him with his millions of fans. It features real-time live streaming, brand new music, exclusive videos, audio and images, fan chats/Q&As, App-commerce, pre-sale and tour ticketing, special competitions, App-only merchandise, friending and messaging, a meme generator, social media aggregation and more.

Founder and CEO of Disciple Media, Benji Vaughan, said:

”Working with a young, British, YouTube-entrepreneur is such a rewarding experience. KSI is supremely talented in creating viral content that resonates worldwide, and we can’t wait to support him as he takes his unique personality, into the mobile app space. His community is going to go bonkers and we expect many other YouTubers will be following his lead this year”.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0555e320-e5f7-11e5-a09b-1f8b0d268c39.html

Clarke always confounded British culture. As a working-class director whose projects were sometimes about the working class, there were attempts to box him up as another Ken Loach, a poet of the kitchen sink. But Clarke’s worldview was too singular for that. His politics were leftwing, but unruly. Danny Boyle remembered Clarke advising him to read The Sun rather than The Guardian (with the latter, “you always know what they’re gonna say”).

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