The internet's impact on music megathread

[william kent]

How many here have ever really been invested in the mainstream and how many of us retroactively realised some of it was actually quite good years after the fact?

 

[william kent]

I've probably made the point before, but I find it tough to tease apart personal cynicism and an objective decline in quality.

Everything feels faker and lazier and more soulless, but is that because it is or because I've heard enough music, read enough cynical critical theory and been around long enough that I'm just recognising the repetition of techniques and patterns that's always occurred and mistaking it for some unique doomsday scenario?

 

[sus]

Apologies as usual I've opened Pandora's box and then wandered away to have a lie down

I was being quite flippant in the original post and in the follow up saying all those things are bad

I think it's all a fascinating mixed bag. E.g. you might think a mainstream of music is lame, tending towards mediocrity, and even coercive -- but there must be something to be said for a musical mainstream, in terms of providing common cultural touchstones, for example...

Anyway the intention of the thread isn't to argue that THE INTERNET HAS RUINED MUSIC, despite that initial unfortunate framing of it

Conflict is okay Corpsey you don't have to apologize the important thing is "where do we go from here" lead us to the promised land

 

[sus]

the mainstream is undoubtedly worse which is bad as thats the ambient sound of your public life and it separates you from your fellow man to a degree but outside of that the internet is great for music

"Undoubtedly"

defend this word choice. What is your basis besides intuition and solidarity

 

[william kent]

Music definitely feels more disposable to me at the moment. I listen to less of it than I think I ever have before and when I do listen it's more often than not pre-2000s and from a film. The thought of actually buying any seems like a waste of money.

I don't even find myself actively hostile to contemporary stuff, it just doesn't register. It's like background music for an ad or something. Just bounces off and fades into the background.

 

[Corpsey.]

"Undoubtedly"

defend this word choice. What is your basis besides intuition and solidarity

2001 A space odyssey was once the biggest movie of the year. The wasteland was mass cultural event.

 

[Corpsey.]

a poem!

 

[sus]

Every generation thinks their era's mainstream is uniquely, unprecedently bad. Probably this should cause us to re-evaluate our intuitions and wonder about the processes of survival, curation, synopsis that lead to the effect Version describes, which is very important IMO

How many here have ever really been invested in the mainstream and how many of us retroactively realised some of it was actually quite good years after the fact?

 

[william kent]

The 1976 nominees for Best Picture were,

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Barry Lyndon
Dog Day Afternoon
Jaws
Nashville

I dunno that you can look at that and the current state of the Oscars and not feel there's been a decline.

 

[sus]

Wait this is a music thread lol why are we talking about movies

 

[william kent]

The mainstream extends beyond music and Linebaugh brought up 2001.

 

[Corpsey.]

Every generation thinks their era's mainstream is uniquely, unprecedently bad. Probably this should cause us to re-evaluate our intuitions and wonder about the processes of survival, curation, synopsis that lead to the effect Version describes, which is very important IMO

feels youre fighting against someone else here- a Big Boring Platitude. I also think its obnoxious and obviously its more complex but I think its equally as reactionary to not acknowledge that mainstream culture is definitely worse. the idea that that every historical era is a just new coat of paint on the same factors feels as mystical as the boomer myth making of the past.

 

[sus]

If we begin cherrypicking random media and years from the past century, I do not think we will make progress on the question "Why do we always love the pop music mainstream in retrospect, but never in the moment?"

That was your question version and it is the best question in the thread, stick by it

 

[Corpsey.]

you sound like youre sworn nemesis Padraig arguing that the NBA is exactly the same as its always been its just that inconsequential things have shifted atop an unchanging base equilibrium state

 

[sus]

feels youre fighting against someone else here- a Big Boring Platitude. I also think its obnoxious and obviously its more complex but I think its equally as reactionary to not acknowledge that mainstream culture is definitely worse. the idea that that every historical era is a just new coat of paint on the same factors feels as mystical as the boomer myth making of the past.

I agree that a big question "cultural decline: yes/no" is Big and Boring, which is why I am trying to stay focused on mainstream music

 

[william kent]

If we begin cherrypicking random media and years from the past century, I do not think we will make progress on the question "Why do we always love the pop music mainstream in retrospect, but never in the moment?"

That was your question version and it is the best question in the thread, stick by it

I don't think it's possible to stick to one position.

 

[sus]

you sound like youre sworn nemesis Padraig arguing that the NBA is exactly the same as its always been its just that inconsequential things have shifted atop an unchanging base equilibrium state

Padraig has sworn to be my nemesis, I only feel warm affection and brotherhood toward Padraig

 

[william kent]

If we begin cherrypicking random media and years from the past century, I do not think we will make progress on the question "Why do we always love the pop music mainstream in retrospect, but never in the moment?"

I imagine it's partly because after the moment it's escaped the machinery somewhat and can be taken on its own terms.

 

[sus]

I imagine it's partly because after the moment it's escaped the machinery somewhat and can be taken on its own terms.

Yes!!

 

[sus]

It is liberated from discourse

(for most people—for scholars and ultra-fans, Poe's orangutang issue remains deeply gridlocked by conflict lines)

Now I am fantasizing about living outside the discourse all the time.