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It's Official: Pop music too loud and all sounds the same


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A team led by artificial intelligence specialist Joan Serra at the Spanish National Research Council ran music from the last 50 years through some complex algorithms and found that pop songs have become intrinsically louder and more bland in terms of the chords, melodies and types of sound used.

 

 

 

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Since many of us have known this for a long time I'm more interested in causes. I hope they follow-up with a careful study of the transition from analog to all-digital processing, from tracking to end product. Why did bass frequencies increase? Why did practical dynamic range shrink on a format that was sold on its greater potential dynamic range? That

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Since many of us have known this for a long time I'm more interested in causes. I hope they follow-up with a careful study of the transition from analog to all-digital processing, from tracking to end product. Why did bass frequencies increase? Why did practical dynamic range shrink on a format that was sold on its greater potential dynamic range? That

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Since many of us have known this for a long time I'm more interested in causes.
I hope they follow-up with a careful study of the transition from analog to all-digital processing, from tracking to end product.
Why did bass frequencies increase? Why did practical dynamic range shrink on a format that was sold on its greater potential dynamic range? That

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A team led by artificial intelligence specialist Joan Serra at the Spanish National Research Council ran music from the last 50 years through some complex algorithms and found that pop songs have become intrinsically louder and more bland in terms of the chords, melodies and types of sound used.


"We found evidence of a progressive homogenization of the musical discourse," Serra told Reuters. "In particular, we obtained numerical indicators that the diversity of transitions between note combinations - roughly speaking chords plus melodies - has consistently diminished in the last 50 years."


They also found the so-called timbre palette has become poorer. The same note played at the same volume on, say, a piano and a guitar is said to have a different timbre, so the researchers found modern pop has a more limited variety of sounds.

 

 

They must have some pretty advanced software that can figure out chord progressions and melodies. They could make a fortune with that one.

 

What do they consider pop music?

 

50 years worth of music is a lot of music.

 

I would agree that pop music (or American top 40) has become louder and less melodic in the last decade, but I don't see how they can say it has more limited variety of sounds. I do think highly compressed music can make mixes sound muddy which may give the impression of a limited variety of sounds though.

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Yuk!!! I despise what passes for Pop music these days with that square wave synth crap happening and tired production. It DOES all sound the same. Country radio is pretty bad as well but there is some diversity in crappiness at least! It's the only current music I can listen to for years now. To me, rock doesn't even exist anymore although I've heard a few things here and there by recent bands that sound OK..DON'T even get me started on "hipster" music that passes for good these days...I feel like such an old man when I hear out of tune wailing and high pitched falsetto singing by bands and artists who are lauded as "genius".....Not by my standard. The Times they are a Continuing to change...:)

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that square wave synth crap happening

 

Lord have mercy, I thought I was the only one who couldn't stand it !

 

That's up there with the electronic clappy sound in terms of obnoxiousness for me.

 

The first time I ever heard this one I had to change the station about a minute into it because it was giving me a headache:

 

[video=youtube;sAebYQgy4n4]

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To me the big change is you don't have do be a musician or play any instrument to create product today. I have a friend that is a wanna be rapper and he always plays me this stuff that has piano parts, bass parts, guitar parts everything under the sun and he didn't create or play one note of it. He samples things and then manipulates them with extra drums from a computer and says how he "just wrote this" and I keep thinking "what did you actually write other then the words spoken on the track. He isn't a musician and to my way of thinking he has only used others true creativity to make it seem like the ideas on tape are his own. If you put him in a room with a multi track recorder and all the instruments the world could make he couldn't make music or anything resembling it. So does he have talent? I don't think so at least not as a musician and song writer but Who knows, but he doesn't have the skills needed to actually create something original without jumping of the backs of those that do. I just don't have the heart to tell him that he isn't really doing anything but ripping off people that actually have talent.

 

Technology has gotten to the point where people without ability can think they are really creating something but that doesn't make it true. And in the end even with all the sampling the end product still reflects something produced by a person with no real creative jiuce to speak of, I guess thats justice for those of us that have toiled for years to hone our musical abilities.

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Technology has gotten to the point where people without ability can think they are really creating something but that doesn't make it true. And in the end even with all the sampling the end product still reflects something produced by a person with no real creative juice to speak of

 

And the people running the music industry apparently can't tell the difference.

 

Everybody with a computer these days is a "producer". I can't believe some of horrible production music I hear in the background on some of these reality type TV shows. Some of it is just plain un-musical and sounds like it was made by tone deaf twelve year olds manipulating unrelated acid loops on their bedroom computers. Yet somebody had to make the decision to include it in the soundtrack.

 

A lot of top 40 pop music is not much better.

 

And don't get me started on YouTube video background music. I can't count how many times I've had to stop watching a video on YouTube because of the grating homemade, pulsing, amateurish, techno, hip-hop, square wave, clappy sound, loop cacophony blasting in the background.

 

I used to think that anybody who would like to make music should be encouraged regardless of their talent and abilities. I now believe some people probably need musical interventions and should have their computer use restricted. :lol:

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And the people running the music industry apparently can't tell the difference.


Everybody with a computer these days is a "producer". I can't believe some of horrible production music I hear in the background on some of these reality type TV shows. Some of it is just plain un-musical and sounds like it was made by tone deaf twelve year olds manipulating unrelated acid loops on their bedroom computers. Yet somebody had to make the decision to include it in the soundtrack.


A lot of top 40 pop music is not much better.


And don't get me started on YouTube video background music. I can't count how many times I've had to stop watching a video on YouTube because of the grating homemade, pulsing, amateurish, techno, hip-hop, square wave, clappy sound, loop cacophony blasting in the background.


I used to think that anybody who would like to make music should be encouraged regardless of their talent and abilities. I now believe some people probably need musical interventions and should have their computer use restricted.
:lol:

 

Just can't help myself, wanna hear a real band with real talent? I just posted a thread under the "Greg Andertons, Sound Studio and Stage titled "The greatest band in the world no one has ever heard of" Check it out if you can, very talented fellows, even back when players were players they stood out as superior musicians. Nothing has changed, they still are better then most anything out there. They are know for being the best live band in the world to many.

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I've heard many TV spots where I knew the music was from the stock sound bank library from such and such program, but only because I owned the same program. Also, I'm a recovering loop junkie so to speak. I spent a lot of money buying loop CDs over the years to use in my music. One day I realized that I wasn't being creative at all. I was just repackaging someone else's creativity. I threw away all of my loops CDs and deleted them from my computer.

 

I'm spending more time learning my chosen instrument (bass) and songwriting. For me it's more rewarding, challenging and fulfilling than slapping some loops together. Last month I recorded some bass tracks to some sequenced drum tracks I put together. It sounded like a real record. I was pretty proud of myself.

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Just went to see the Lumineers. The show was nicely mixed with a good deal of dynamics. In the encore, they came and sat at the edge of the stage with no amplification and sang. The crowd, mostly college students, was amazingly quiet and, when asked, kept their cell phones stashed away. Now, this was an old theater building, so the acoustics were good. I was heartened that a group like the Lumineers and Mumford and Sons have gained a lot of popularity without excessive compression and effects.

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Just went to see the Lumineers. The show was nicely mixed with a good deal of dynamics. In the encore, they came and sat at the edge of the stage with no amplification and sang. The crowd, mostly college students, was amazingly quiet and, when asked, kept their cell phones stashed away. Now, this was an old theater building, so the acoustics were good. I was heartened that a group like the Lumineers and Mumford and Sons have gained a lot of popularity without excessive compression and effects.

 

 

Don't know these two groups very well. But I've heard plenty of good things. Definitely will be checking them out.

 

Actually, I completely disagree with this sentiment of all pop music sux. It sounds like sour grapes old man syndrome BS to me. I actually think this post is about 5 to 10 years behind schedule. The current brand of POP is really {censored}ing creative and all over the map these days IMO. Sure there is still over compression, some use it for effect now days. The other sentiment I don't is the " you have to look for good music" I disagree, I say there is good music all over the place. And if you think there is too much bass in the world today, screw you.

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Do a harmonic analysis on the following huge AM mainstream hits.... and compare them to the musical sophistication of any modern pop record today. Now this is what has been lost: those rich harmonic implications... There was so much for the ear to "chew on" back then! It was civilized, somehow, and respected the intelligence, integrity and sensitivity of its listener. Its goal was not to shock, offend or titillate its listener.

 

[video=youtube;HhMuCiAe6vA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhMuCiAe6vA

 

[video=youtube;dUyTKl815MU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUyTKl815MU

 

[video=youtube;0WHx0B90FUc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WHx0B90FUc

 

[video=youtube;DrajELQjXpA]

 

[video=youtube;QTfwcLdP5Xk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTfwcLdP5Xk

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+1 on Mumford & Sons.

 

I'll have to check out The Lumineers.

 

Totally agree with you rasputin. There was greater diversity in sounds and production then, compared to now. Even in the new stuff that I like, I don't find it as diverse.

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The current brand of POP is really {censored}ing creative and all over the map these days IMO. Sure there is still over compression, some use it for effect now days. The other sentiment I don't is the " you have to look for good music" I disagree, I say there is good music all over the place.

 

 

I was wondering if you could tell us what kinds of pop are really {censored}ing creative and all over the map these days. I'd love to get turned on to some really great stuff. Thanks.

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