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I'm a 21 year old guitarist so I guess I represent the upcoming generation here. While I love real musicians and live shows as much as anyone else here, I also love the new music that's started up in the last 5-10 years. The biggest wave of new music is Electronic Dance Music (EDM) which is the music my generation will be remembered for. There are almost no instruments involved. Everything is produced within a DAW like FL Studio or Ableton Live using built in effects and external MIDI controllers/synthesizers. EDM has such a huge following now that it may be bigger than any other genre. Some of the EDM shows and festivals that are held yearly make Woodstock look like a backyard party. People, mostly my age, show up in the tens of thousands for these shows to see their favorite DJs and producers perform. I've only been to one of these shows and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. The one I went to was a two day show with over 40,000 people in attendance but many of the larger shows have several hundred thousand people there and last for three days to a week.

 

That being said, I absolutely love playing guitar and I love older music. Especially classic rock and blues. However, I also love a lot of the new music coming out today that doesn't necessarily need or involve musicians in any way.

 

I hearby pronounce live music officially dead. We're doomed as a species

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My kids introduced me to a bunch of music too. I even developed a taste for the hip hop, of course I wanted to lead all over that groove!

 

And I must have rubbed off something on them, though they learned some intro theory I let them slip in and out of fascination with the guitar. Having the jack busted clean out of an electric kinda slowed my 'Hey take this and play it' gumption.

 

Kids.

 

You just gotta love them. That's where it starts and I wonder if Joe has fathered a couple or 5? Through this is an opportunity to KEEP LEARNING about yourself mostly. I have never met a perfect parent or perfect human, so I forgave Joe for his post the minute I read it.

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Most people know they aren't doing anything up there but pushing buttons and turning knobs but that's not what it's about. You won't see a better light show anywhere else....

 

I remember when I first learned that "being a (working) musician" included more than just making music, but also included some degree of "performance." I always thought the music should be enough. Now you're telling me that not only is the music not enough, it's not even necessary at all! Haha! (I am laughing - this is hilarious.) So the performance aspect of the enterprise has become so central, it's now all that matters? Haha, that's a good one. Well, I'm happy to see young folk having a good time and making their own "revolutionary" changes, but here, I think there should perhaps be a distinction between a party and a concert.

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you're just not looking in the right places.

 

there's plenty,, but it's not going to be shoved in your face like the tripe in Pop music today.

 

Make a product, sell the product, that's what it's all about Kayne West? LAdy Gaga? Justin Beiber? woa.. enough already.

 

But it's out there you gotta go looking for it..

 

I get a big chuckle every time I read posts like this.

 

If you have to look for it, it looks to me like it's dead.

If not dead, it's at least lost.

Has any rock act that's members under 50 years of age filled MSG or Albert Hall in the last 20 years?

Dead Dead Dead. In 20 years the guitar will be what the clarinet is now.

Sorry

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These things go in cycles.

Various musical fads come and go.

 

But in the end, quality musicians and quality singers will always be in demand.

 

Is the current state of the musical industry in the toilet?

Yes.

 

Is pop radio and pop country radio currently dominated by vo-coded, computer-modified CRAP, produced by dorks and 'sung' by no-talent bimbos?

Yes.

 

In the long run though, people with discerning tastes (and the money to spend on satisfying the urge to hear quality music) will pony up and drive the market back in the direction of REAL musicians producing real music.

 

A corollary to consider is the notion (a few years ago) that all future movies will be purely digital CGI, and there will be no lavish sets or quality actors doing quality work.

It will all be done inside computers.

 

And then movies like Sling Blade come along.

Open Water.

Juno.

Lost In Translation.

Little Miss Sunshine.

 

 

This computer-perfected CRAP on the radio right now.

 

This too shall pass.

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These things go in cycles.

Various musical fads come and go.

 

But in the end, quality musicians and quality singers will always be in demand.

 

Is the current state of the musical industry in the toilet?

Yes.

 

Is pop radio and pop country radio currently dominated by vo-coded, computer-modified CRAP, produced by dorks and 'sung' by no-talent bimbos?

Yes.

 

In the long run though, people with discerning tastes (and the money to spend on satisfying the urge to hear quality music) will pony up and drive the market back in the direction of REAL musicians producing real music.

 

A corollary to consider is the notion (a few years ago) that all future movies will be purely digital CGI, and there will be no lavish sets or quality actors doing quality work.

It will all be done inside computers.

 

And then movies like Sling Blade come along.

Open Water.

Juno.

Lost In Translation.

Little Miss Sunshine.

 

 

This computer-perfected CRAP on the radio right now.

 

This too shall pass.

 

So when will the clarinet make a big comeback as a lead instrument?

Sorry again. I hope I'm wrong.

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I get a big chuckle every time I read posts like this.

 

If you have to look for it, it looks to me like it's dead.

If not dead, it's at least lost.

Has any rock act that's members under 50 years of age filled MSG or Albert Hall in the last 20 years?

Dead Dead Dead. In 20 years the guitar will be what the clarinet is now.

Sorry

 

 

When I read posts like this, I crack up.

 

Just a few years after the Stones / Beatles et al hit the big time, many music producers said "guitar bands" would die out within the "next" few years. That was 40-50 years ago.

 

I was just looking through old magazines- an article from MUSICIAN magazine, August 1997, article written by Mark Dery entitled "The Death of Live Music" he "foretells" the replacement of "live" music by internet broadband / pod casts, even actual musicians being replaced by computer generated....whatevers. He said he gave up on live music after watching David Bowie on a large television screen. If my math is good, 1997 was 21 years ago.

 

Hey, as long as there are those who appreciate it, there will be live bands.

 

I'll sum up my feelings with the lyrics of a song I'm co-writing with a good friend:

 

"video games to me ain't fun; I live real life, I shoot real guns..."

 

Sad to say, we live in a time when many folks would rather text than talk in person, would rather bury their heads hovering over a video game console, would be "just as happy" living an electronica fantasy than experiencing the good and bad, joys and pains of real life, real interaction with live human beings.

 

If I have to explain why I love live music, folks hearing my explanations probably won't get it.

 

If I sound like a dinosaur...put me in a museum after I croak...

 

Thank the Lord I was born when I was...

 

Brian

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I feel sorry for young people today because of what computers have done to music. They have very little quality to listen to. They listen to music recorded in studios where no two musicians ever played together. Songs are recorded by adding one player at a time on a digital ladder almost like stacking pie plates. Drums are typically computer generated.

Sorry to bash but there are too many Beyoncé and Pink type female singers that are studio creations. Mamma Cass Elliot and Etta James could never earn a living singing today. Looks and dancing win out over musical talent. Lady Gaga is one of the few female singers that can play and sing. I was listening to a Pink song and was unable to identify and name a single instrument. It all sounded computer generated.

 

That being said: the Beatles and Stones lip synched on tv too.

 

When did the Beatles and Stones lip synch? Prove it!

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When I read posts like this, I crack up.

 

Just a few years after the Stones / Beatles et al hit the big time, many music producers said "guitar bands" would die out within the "next" few years. That was 40-50 years ago.

 

I was just looking through old magazines- an article from MUSICIAN magazine, August 1997, article written by Mark Dery entitled "The Death of Live Music" he "foretells" the replacement of "live" music by internet broadband / pod casts, even actual musicians being replaced by computer generated....whatevers. He said he gave up on live music after watching David Bowie on a large television screen. If my math is good, 1997 was 21 years ago.

 

Hey, as long as there are those who appreciate it, there will be live bands.

 

I'll sum up my feelings with the lyrics of a song I'm co-writing with a good friend:

 

"video games to me ain't fun; I live real life, I shoot real guns..."

 

Sad to say, we live in a time when many folks would rather text than talk in person, would rather bury their heads hovering over a video game console, would be "just as happy" living an electronica fantasy than experiencing the good and bad, joys and pains of real life, real interaction with live human beings.

 

If I have to explain why I love live music, folks hearing my explanations probably won't get it.

 

If I sound like a dinosaur...put me in a museum after I croak...

 

Thank the Lord I was born when I was...

 

Brian

 

Hey Brian, I think you missed my point.

 

"Has any rock act that's members under 50 years of age filled MSG or Albert Hall in the last 20 years?"

 

I'm also very happy to been born when I was.

An old dinosaur here too. Here in SoCal we had major concerts every week. Whether it be The Long Beach Arena or The LA Forum or Santa Monica Civic.

I'm lucky enough to say I've seen every band I ever wanted to see that was alive when I was old enough to go to concerts.

I saw Led Zeppelin with a $7.50 price on my ticket in '77.

 

Carry on

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I hearby pronounce live music officially dead. We're doomed as a species

 

 

I remember when I first learned that "being a (working) musician" included more than just making music, but also included some degree of "performance." I always thought the music should be enough. Now you're telling me that not only is the music not enough, it's not even necessary at all! Haha! (I am laughing - this is hilarious.) So the performance aspect of the enterprise has become so central, it's now all that matters? Haha, that's a good one. Well, I'm happy to see young folk having a good time and making their own "revolutionary" changes, but here, I think there should perhaps be a distinction between a party and a concert.

 

Actually the music is a huge part of the show. For my generation, EDM tracks are just as easily recognizable as any Led Zeppelin song. When a famous track plays on the radio I immediately know the track title and who produced it. We go to EDM festivals because we love the music, not just for the performance. It's all part of the experience.

 

Here's a great example of what I'm talking about. This is footage from this year's Ultra Music Festival which regularly has 200,000+ people from all over the world in attendance. The artist playing is David Guetta. He is hugely famous within the genre. Whether you like the music or not, pay attention to how he opens his show. He starts with a song everyone recognizes and immediately gets the crowd involved in the show:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdmpBeLrzys

 

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Hey Brian, I think you missed my point.

 

"Has any rock act that's members under 50 years of age filled MSG or Albert Hall in the last 20 years?

 

Foo Fighters - Wimbeldon - 86,000 people. It does happen but you're right, it is increasingly rare.

 

I think the Tman born in 93 is right on. I've seen those gigantic shows. There is a lot of creativity going on. Nothing about music is dead, just a metamorphosis is happening.

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Foo Fighters - Wimbeldon - 86,000 people. It does happen but you're right, it is increasingly rare.

 

I think the Tman born in 93 is right on. I've seen those gigantic shows. There is a lot of creativity going on. Nothing about music is dead, just a metamorphosis is happening.

 

I think that's a fantastic way to say it. Music as you know it may be dead but that's only because it has taken on a new form. Music is an ever transforming art. It has not and will not ever stop changing.

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I grew up on a lake in the 1960s and 70s. Every kid on it could water ski. There were so many people water skiing on the weekends there was hardly room to navigate and pull a skier around this big lake.

Today you rarely see people on skiis at all. They're riding jet skiis. They lack the physical strength to hold a ski rope and be pulled behind a boat. They don't water ski because they can't. They're weak. They have no idea how fun it is to be able to ski. Yes jet skiis are fun but even old people can ride a jet ski.

It isn't just live music that is being lost to mankind. Young people only want what's easy. They're too lazy to even bang on a drum so they get a computer to play drums. For sex they turn on a computer. They've given away everything. They've dropped everything it is to be a human. Kids don't even play outside anymore. Soon we will have robot kids playing hop scotch in the yard while the real kids are in the house wearing goggles watching Harry Potter. We are Borgs now.

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Guest Farnsbarns

"Has any rock act that's members under 50 years of age filled MSG or Albert Hall in the last 20 years?"

 

 

On my way home from my most recent visit to the Albert Hall I worked out, with Flight959, that I have been to at least 150 shows at the Albert Hall in the last 10 years or so. I can answer your question with certainty. Yes, a lot of them.

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A lot of debate and good posts here. Too much for me to concentrate enough to respond to everything. So I'll just post some random, disorganized thoughts:

 

I try to be open minded to all art and music, regardless to whether or not I personally like it. I do like a lot of the newer stuff coming out even though much of it is not great "guitar" music. A lot of todays "pop" stars that get slammed on sites like this (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Megan Trainor etc.) are all very trained musicians who know and work very hard at their craft. If most of us here were to sit next to them at a piano or with a guitar, and try to compete with what they can play, we would be embarrassed.

 

As far as that EDM stuff that Tman posted. Yeah, I could not even imagine sitting through a whole show of that. I could probably listen to some of it in small doses. But, I will admit there is a certain (but different) talent to putting on a show like that. It's more knowing how to navigate all the controls and blend everything in at just the right times. If you were to put me up on that stage with all that equipment, I would have no clue what to do and it would sound and look even worse that what we might think it sounds like now.

 

But one thing that really surprises me about this "younger" generation of music fans. How closed minded and opinionated some of them are. Just going by my own sons (aged 18, 23 and 25) and their peers. Most of these kids like what they like this week, and everything else"sucks" or is "old man music" or something like that. Even the songs they supposedly like, they're bound to change after about 30 seconds. They give no credit or even make any attempt to find any value in music that they have determined "sucks", regardless of whether it's new or old. It really depresses me because they are missing out on so much great stuff IMO.

 

Now to be fair, not all younger people are like this. And Ive made this point before...it's mostly fans (old or young) that are overly opinionated and closed minded. The people who actually learn to play music, usually appreciate the talent it takes to play or write a good piece or music, no matter the age, or style or genre.....

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...Whether you like the music or not, pay attention to how he opens his show.

 

This is the part that astounds me about a group of "musicians". I don't have to like anything at all, but I sure do know what it took to do it, so I respect it and love it for what it is.

 

Does Swedish House Mafia count as this? They were great. Crowd control on country size levels. No band I've ever been in could do that, and no band I've ever seen could hold everyones attention long enough to do that.

 

rct

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Music as you know it may be dead but that's only because it has taken on a new form.

 

Well, this new (mostly rhythmic) form you've illuminated is still just one genre out of thousands, albeit a currently popular one. I expect the next generation will want something different. (Hopefully less electronic, less robotic. Maybe they'll go back to a new kind of folk, haha. [flapper] ) I keep thinking of Dave Brubeck. He made a revolutionary change by breaking a standard "rule" and was wildly popular (well, he was a really good musician, too). But it's pretty rare that anyone messes around with 5/4 or 9/4 time signatures anymore (I guess since that's already been done - it was a major innovation at the time). Then, of course, there was atonal jazz. Different, popular with some, but not very long-lived. I think there's a reason music tends to swing back to simpler forms with, you know, chord changes and things, adhering to the "laws" of music theory (it's physics, after all). Most people like music to be pleasing, not jarring.

 

Music is an ever transforming art. It has not and will not ever stop changing.

 

Right. All art is ever transforming. Some artists are always looking for new, innovative ways to express themselves. Still, old art doesn't die. Ars longa, vita brevis!

 

Now, the music business, that's really been undergoing major changes for decades. We still have the select major groups with huge $promotional$ expenses, but at the same time there are now millions of musicians (of various talents) creating CD-ready music in their garage and home studio. I guess they're typically not really part of the business, but there's a heck of a lot of free music out there, which, at a minimum, is available. Most isn't that good, but there are exceptions.

 

My favorite music is what was popular when I was in my teens and 20s. If that's typically the case, I kind of feel sorry for today's teens and 20-somethings. Are they still going to be into EDM when they're 50?

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A lot of debate and good posts here. Too much for me to concentrate enough to respond to everything. So I'll just post some random, disorganized thoughts:

 

I try to be open minded to all art and music, regardless to whether or not I personally like it. I do like a lot of the newer stuff coming out even though much of it is not great "guitar" music. A lot of todays "pop" stars that get slammed on sites like this (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Megan Trainor etc.) are all very trained musicians who know and work very hard at their craft. If most of us here were to sit next to them at a piano or with a guitar, and try to compete with what they can play, we would be embarrassed.

 

As far as that EDM stuff that Tman posted. Yeah, I could not even imagine sitting through a whole show of that. I could probably listen to some of it in small doses. But, I will admit there is a certain (but different) talent to putting on a show like that. It's more knowing how to navigate all the controls and blend everything in at just the right times. If you were to put me up on that stage with all that equipment, I would have no clue what to do and it would sound and look even worse that what we might think it sounds like now.

 

But one thing that really surprises me about this "younger" generation of music fans. How closed minded and opinionated some of them are. Just going by my own sons (aged 18, 23 and 25) and their peers. Most of these kids like what they like this week, and everything else"sucks" or is "old man music" or something like that. Even the songs they supposedly like, they're bound to change after about 30 seconds. They give no credit or even make any attempt to find any value in music that they have determined "sucks", regardless of whether it's new or old. It really depresses me because they are missing out on so much great stuff IMO.

 

Now to be fair, not all younger people are like this. And Ive made this point before...it's mostly fans (old or young) that are overly opinionated and closed minded. The people who actually learn to play music, usually appreciate the talent it takes to play or write a good piece or music, no matter the age, or style or genre.....

 

Being a kid in the 60s you were commonly exposed to an incredible variety of music styles from Kate Smith and Frank Sinatra to Jimi Hendix. We saw big bands on TV. Mitch Miller and Ed Sullivan had every genre of music imaginable. Perry Como had a show. Hullabaloo was popular week days after school. You ended up hearing more styles of music than you were aware you heard.

However, all the instruments used in that music were real.

I decided not to listen to music that is virtual. Everyone needs to make that choice. Yes I bought Joe Walsh's new CD "Analog Man". I listened to what he had to say as well as his guitar.

 

I think we are heading into another "Dark Age" like Europe plummeted into after the Great Plagues and Barbarian Invasions. Mankind doesn't always evolve. Sometimes it de-evolves.

Remember hearing about the "Renaissance Period"? That came after "The Dark Ages".

It is not far fetched to think we will have other Dark Ages because we've had them before. We probably had people touting how great the Dark Ages were back then too. Look how we are having new Plagues like Ebola and Hiv. Look how we are being inundated with great masses never seen in the West. We may already be in a Neo Dark Age and not know it.

Music may be the perfect indicator to show we are now de-evolving. As we go into decline so does our music.

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But, I will admit there is a certain (but different) talent to putting on a show like that. It's more knowing how to navigate all the controls and blend everything in at just the right times. If you were to put me up on that stage with all that equipment, I would have no clue what to do and it would sound and look even worse that what we might think it sounds like now.

 

On the other hand, that whole show could be pre-recorded, and all the controls and buttons could be "finger-synced." There could be just one button that starts it all off. How would anybody know? You could do it! :) Of course, you would have to clap your hands above your head and put on that "I am God" persona. :rolleyes:

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