PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production The Real Reason Why Today's Music Is Starting To Sound The Same

This is a very interesting subject.

My observation of the sameness of new music comes mainly from awards programs such as the Grammys, American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Billboard Music, iHeartRadio Music, CMT Music Awards, Academy of Country Music, Latin Grammy Awards, BET Awards, etc. We don’t seek these programs out, but while channel flipping in the evening we have stumbled upon these over the years. And year after year we hope that this is the year that some quality music will finally be presented. Sadly, we have been disappointed for well over 10 years. We will listen to a song or two and then conclude our time is too valuable to be wasted on such uninspiring “music”. Am I a music snob? . . . Probably, and I wish more people were.

Stale, emotionless, dumbed-down, regurgitated, commercialized, flat, soul-less, formulaic, unoriginal, unintelligent and lowest common denominator are ways that I would describe music that is showcased on these ceremonies. Clearly the culture at large has moved on and I’m glad to stay where I am.

There are always exceptions to the rule and one exception was when Seattle Grunge hit the airwaves. I found that genre, refreshing, inspiring and passionate.

Over the years I have often thought about why music creativity has declined and have concluded that all the good stuff must have already been written. There are only so many chord progressions, bass lines, piano or guitar riffs and drum solos that are truly inspiring and perhaps most of them have been written already. When Elvis, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Hank Williams, etc. were doing their thing, their genres were much newer than they are today. They plowed new ground.

I watched the Billy Hume video and I think he makes many good points. However, imho, those points may not add up to the dominant root-cause. Musicians and produces may be able to tell if everything is “on the grid” or this or that same piano plugin is being used over and over again. But the general public is oblivious. Such folk have attention spans of maybe 60 seconds and many of them probably want everything to sound the same anyway.

The most thoughtful response in this thread so far is from Andrew Dee. I think his 5 points much better explain what is going on that Mr. Hume’s points.

The worst response is from Mike Holleran. “He doesn't have a clue.” Is far from a thoughtful response and far from accurate. Mr. Hume does have a clue and makes several good points from the perspective of a pro in the business.

Hi mates! Very interesting topic. In my opinion, the main reason why most music sounds the same is because technology has developed too much and allows all kinds of lazy people to copy other people's music that has already become famous. You can easily use almost ready-made beats, whole loops, melodies and claim to be a musician. In general, most people want to copy famous music and not create their own ....

I totally agree with oodles of what's been written by contributors above - thanks to all - but it's time to mark this thread as done with and stop following it. Once again thanks to all who've contributed to the topic.