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Out of context: Reply #73878
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- Continuity0
At the gym this morning, I took my headphones off briefly, and was aurally assaulted by what passes for 'music' these days over the gym's speaker system.
Some dreadful, nasal autotune thing having to do with (repeated more times than I can count) someone apparently going out tonight. No further lyrics.
And then it dawned on me: when — and, more importantly, why? — did modern music stop being somehow dangerous, threatening, and/or subversive? What happened?
Elvis, The Beatles, and rock 'n' roll caused a moral panic in the 1950s and '60s. Psychedlic rock in the mid-'60s to early '70s had every parentl fearing their kid would be a countercultural junky. Punk was throwing two fingers up to the whole of society in the mid- to late '70s. Heavy metal put the fear of satan and 'bad' language in everyone (especially political Karens) in the late '70s and 1980s. The late 1980s and 1990s saw rap making lots and lots of old white men and Karens feel very, very threatened.
And then ... nothing. It all died. Absorbed into the broader culture, all of these things either ran out of steam, or became the things they hated.
Granted, there's always been pop music over the decades. Safe, non-threatening. But there's always been something else in music being a danger to something.
What's threatening a new moral panic in the 2020s? What's being subversive right now, today, in 2022, musically? Where's the musical tension, the sonic up-ending of a comfortable society?
I'm simply not seeing or hearing it. I just hear more samey, autotuney drivel, all of which is some variation on the theme of getting laid.
Am I missing something?
- Also, Gen-Xer yelling at clouds.
Whilst listening to chill house.Continuity - you are missing a lot...LOL!oey_oey
- Point me in the right direction, my guy!Continuity
- ofc a gym (or any public place) will play the lowest common denominator of muzak, to avoid scaring anyone away, and/or to ensure everyone is offended equallyhans_glib
- Heard that the latest Drake album was made in colaboration with Zara the fashion retailer...********
- But just listen to some Run the Jewels, Roots..Death Grips even********
- Wet ass pussymonospaced
- Totally feel you, Continuity!SimonFFM
- I'm feeling this too. Not seeing anything earth-shattering or whatever on the music scene in the last while...exador1
- Old man complains about the cool music********
- “Kids these days!”
- every generation ever******** - Keep in mind that users of the gym probably aren’t in the mood for thinking-man’s music that 40 YOs enjoy********
- The point isn't gym music, my guys.i_monk
- ^ What i_monk said.Continuity
- Oh just look at the mushroom haircuts and stupid dancing on tiktok. It's all going to hell.NBQ00
- I oscillate between exactly these thoughts, and wondering if I'm just too old and out-of-touch to get it and it's all going over my head.nocomply
- There’s plenty of aggressive music, just listen to ‘music’ blasting out white mercs driven around London by dealers “fuck” “bitch” “n****r” heard between beatsshapesalad
- I must add the music these merc drivers play is also auto tuned, auto tuned agressive rap. Sounds almost Bollywoodshapesalad
- shape you never fail to deliver lolfadein11
- You don't listen to my show do you?Gardener
- @Continuity, I feel you but since I've read "Sex Revolts" I changed my mind about a lot of things regarding music.oey_oey
- I all seems washed up, absorbed, morphed, mixed and remixed, auto-pilot mode...but there are crazy new things.oey_oey
- Thing is never in history there was so much music of different styles being made. That doesn't mean that we won't see another musical revolution.oey_oey
- But i guess there's more smaller revolutions happening now then one big one happening as before when there wasn't so much offer and things got noticed more.oey_oey
- Sorry for my mistakes, I just woke up from taking my daughter to bed :-)oey_oey
- Music industry is dead, decentralization of everything, too many musicians who have nothing to say with their musicdrgs
- The students I teach in their early 20s don’t seem to want to rebel. They seem zombified.Chimp
- being woke is their version of rebelling. music is so ubiquitous now am not sure it's ever going to subvert culture or create moral panics as it used tointeliboy
- ^ That's the shame of it all. Music — once upon a time — had power. Real power. Power to influence a veritable sea change in society.Continuity
- if you cared that much about music you would make the effort to look for new stuff instead of expecting it to be spoon-fed to you like a fucking child.face_melter
- Nothing but abject misery and groaning from all you cunts.face_melter
- ^ Point missed, I guess.Continuity
- You have to seek out good music and the gym is the last fucking place to look. Always has been.mort_
- Also, Gen-Xer yelling at clouds.