They Don't Write Them Like That Anymore

[Peter]

Multi-millionaire songwriter moans about people exercising choice by listening to stuff they like and not what "songwriters" want them to like.  Sounds a lot like "The world owes new song-writers a living" to me.  Looks like old fogeys were right all the time.  We had the best tunes and even young fogeys are listening to them!  Maybe you really do have to get out on the road and strut your stuff to see if you really are as good as you think you are?  Tedder himself has obviously done that but I think he might be misunderstanding what most of the world seems to want.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58329477

[Jaded]

He is whining because one of his band's songs is out selling another. Weird.

I had to look up OneRepublic, in a Wowbagger moment. Ryan Tedder too...

[Peter]

So did I, J.  I'm quite happy about that!

[Mr Larrington]

And clicking through one of the links in that piece it is obvious that he's never heard of Morgan Fisher's “Miniatures” albums.

[T42]

Multi-millionaire songwriter moans about people exercising choice by listening to stuff they like and not what "songwriters" want them to like.

Funny, that: I've just been reading about the propensity of medical specialists to see a patient's problems solely in terms of their own specialities.  Witness the time a dietician's recommendations wasted my quads to hell, the GP consulted for the pain this caused when riding sent me to a neurologist who duly punctured an artery and the vascular surgeon I was sent to for the resultant pulsating haematoma in my calf reckoned the best thing for me would be a bypass.  Turned out I just needed to eat more.

[fd3]

 

[Kim]

BONG! Modern music is rubbish. BONG!

[Peter]

Not necessarily, but it's not going to be a shoo-in!

[T42]

BONG! Modern music is rubbish. BONG!

I've been saying that for the last 40 years.

[Cudzoziemiec]

BONG! Modern music is rubbish. BONG!

I've been saying that for the last 40 years.

Only ten years longer than Blur.

[fd3]

I guess, what is fair to say is that "back in the day" radio DJs would look for the next big thing and would promote new music.  With Spotify there isn't a method to promote new music.
I am not sure how much of an issue this is for "real" bands, as for the last 10-20 years they have been making their money from gigs and selling merch at gigs, not selling music (unless they sell direct).  I guess those bands would still have benefited from Radio play to give them the next step up. 
Possibly it's relevant to consider
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-58329657
Basically, festivals still have the same headline acts they had 10 years ago - playing it safe or are the new kids just not up to it?

[Cudzoziemiec]

It seems to be case that festivals also have the same individual visitors they had 20 years ago. It's no longer a teenage pursuit, it's middle aged people. In fact, the same applies to rock/pop generally. It just isn't rock n roll anymore. Even rap is no longer new.

[Kim]

Teenagers can't afford festivals.  Stands to reason that the promoters will follow the money.

[Cudzoziemiec]

When I was a teenager, you could save your pocket money up and get a ticket for Glastonbury. Maybe a tenner.

Nowadays, middle aged people seek to recreate the experiences of their youth by paying several hundred quid to get stoned in a muddy field.

[Kim]

Nowadays, middle aged people seek to recreate the experiences of their youth by paying several hundred quid to get stoned in a muddy field.

I believe NSTN OTP was doing exactly that last week, in the absence of other campsites in the area.

[TheLurker]

I expect young people have got ways of finding out about new and exciting music cheaply that we're all far, far too old to understand and even if we knew where they were finding this "music" we'd describe it as a racket.   Personally, I think it's all been downhill since we abandoned conch shells.

[fd3]

Elitist conch shells bollox

[Ian H]

I see it as a grumble about money.

[citoyen]

Multi-millionaire songwriter moans about people exercising choice by listening to stuff they like and not what "songwriters" want them to like.  Sounds a lot like "The world owes new song-writers a living" to me.  Looks like old fogeys were right all the time.  We had the best tunes and even young fogeys are listening to them!

I think he has a point though. I listen to 6music, but even though they like to bang on about how eclectic they are, and how supportive of new music they are, they’re actually pretty conservative in what they play. And most of their DJs are over 50. There’s no current equivalent of John Peel playing the really cutting edge stuff on a national broadcast platform. Not that Tedder is cutting edge, but if even he can’t get his stuff played on the radio, that shows just how bad the situation is.

As for mainstream stations like Heart… pffft.

Streaming services don’t help - fleecing the back catalogues of classic artists is money for old rope. There’s no incentive for them to push new music.

You might say they don’t owe new acts a living, but it’s a short-sighted business model and will come back to bite them in the long term. They’re stifling creativity. This is not good for society as a whole.

Luckily there are services like Bandcamp, which not only properly promote new music, they also give the artists a fair cut. If you want to find out what’s new and exciting in music now, that’s where to look.

And online radio stations like KEXP - when a band gets invited to do a live session for them, it’s a sign that they’re worth listening to.

[citoyen]

I expect young people have got ways of finding out about new and exciting music cheaply that we're all far, far too old to understand and even if we knew where they were finding this "music" we'd describe it as a racket.   Personally, I think it's all been downhill since we abandoned conch shells.

Cavalcade by black midi is one of my albums of the year so far, this is the lead track from it, called John L - I think you’ll enjoy it:

https://youtu.be/GT0nSp8lUws

(I think they’ve been listening to their dads’ King Crimson records myself)

[ian]

(I'm sure we did this thread not so long ago...)

As Citoyen says, there's a valid point in that labels take the safe bet and keep recycling existing staples rather than gamble on new music, and what new music there is frankly struggles on streaming income, whereas that's free money for long-established artists. It's a fair point that modern streaming services mostly benefit those established artists. I always try to find newer stuff, but it takes an effort sometimes. It gets harder too, much music that I liked as new is now – I'm unnecessarily reminded - often 20-30 years old. So while I'll publicly deprecate the dad rock of my generation (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and that all that turgid shit), I'm listening to the dad rock of a later generation.