When compared to the works of classical composers, modern music seems boring. Classical composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart wrote complex melodies for entire symphonies. Modern music rarely has more than 4. Much of this can be blamed on the music industry. According to the research article Instrumentational Complexity of Music Genres and Why Simplicity Sells, album sales of a given style typically increase with decreasing instrumentational complexity. Many artists start creatively but stick to the beaten path once they have established success. The article explains that the music industry capitalizes on a “recipe” for a successful song. These songs often contain repetitive melodies and lack musical depth. The piece above is a relatively simple one written for a single organist, yet it is as or more complex than may songs on the top 100 charts today. Our desire for simple songs is ruining musical creativity. Many “popular” songs that people play take parts from old music and rap over it. I think that doing that is an insult to the musical geniuses that defined western music. By establishing cookie-cutter methods of musical composition, music has degenerated. As in many aspects of life, industrialization has transformed how we perceive music.
Monday, November 18, 2019
Liam Week 2 - Industrial Music
When compared to the works of classical composers, modern music seems boring. Classical composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart wrote complex melodies for entire symphonies. Modern music rarely has more than 4. Much of this can be blamed on the music industry. According to the research article Instrumentational Complexity of Music Genres and Why Simplicity Sells, album sales of a given style typically increase with decreasing instrumentational complexity. Many artists start creatively but stick to the beaten path once they have established success. The article explains that the music industry capitalizes on a “recipe” for a successful song. These songs often contain repetitive melodies and lack musical depth. The piece above is a relatively simple one written for a single organist, yet it is as or more complex than may songs on the top 100 charts today. Our desire for simple songs is ruining musical creativity. Many “popular” songs that people play take parts from old music and rap over it. I think that doing that is an insult to the musical geniuses that defined western music. By establishing cookie-cutter methods of musical composition, music has degenerated. As in many aspects of life, industrialization has transformed how we perceive music.
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We were just talking about this the other day. We went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra, and they play arrangements of rock music that is based on classical music. We were saying how it's such a testament to those composers that their music is still alive today, not only alive but adapting and being turned into new fresh art as well.
ReplyDeleteI've had many debates with my mom on this, and by debates I actually just mean conversations. Sometimes we take the same side, and sometimes we argue opposing each other. I think that the complexity in classical music is absolutely incredible, but sometimes I marvel at the simplicity of music today. How amazing is it that something that uses different variations of the same 5-6 chords throughout a 4 minute song can draw the same amount of emotion as a classical piece that is 1000x as complex. I also think that because of the different things we value in music today, the complexity and detail of lyrics that come out of true artists (I'm not necessarily speaking about mainstream pop here) makes up for the difference in actual instrumentals.
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