Running out of new music

Factual Questions
21

Not only, as Bosda mentions, do works disappear, but the vast, vast majority even of music accessible right at this very moment languishes in utter obscurity. The quantity of music that permeates our overall cultural awareness is tiny.

That said, I’d wager that we have ‘run out’ in as much as pretty much any chord progression, melody, harmony, etc. could be construed as an unintentional reference to some previous work. Luckily, due to the effects described above, it doesn’t really matter because for most works nobody’s going to notice or ever know.

22

[QUOTE=Airman Doors, USAF]
That assumes that Rush ever made good music to begin with.
[/QUOTE]

And I thought that *I * was shameless. :dubious:
hh

23

Its been explained better than I could but here is my two cents…its all been done and anything new is simply a variation of something old. Sure, there are nearly limitless mathmatical possibilities for arranging different tones or even semi-tones around but how many of them make musical sense? Its finite and I would even go so far to say that all the good combinations are well known and used by modern producers in different genres. That’s not to say someone couldn’t go out and create something that sounds new using new instruments or electronics but when you boil it down the notes, progressions, and variations are all out there in another song, its about how you present it.

24

Years and years ago, I saw (reprinted) a letter to the editor of Rolling Stone on this subject. The writer asserted that he’d “done the math” and expected us to run out of music in some finite number of years, which I recall being not too far away (as of the date of the letter). Anyone remember this or know what I’m talking about?

25

[QUOTE=Bongmaster]
Sure, there are nearly limitless mathmatical possibilities for arranging different tones or even semi-tones around but how many of them make musical sense?
[/quote]

Define musical sense. The way they’re arranged by Kanye West would have made no sense to Kraftwerk. Theirs would have made no sense to Mahler. Who would have made no sense to Bach. Etc. etc. etc. (And that’s just talking about the western European tradition)

You really think it’s impossible to arrange harmonies and melodies in a way which hasn’t been done before?

26

[QUOTE=Spartydog]
. . . and to think that George Harrison had to rip-off “He’s So Fine”, note for note, in order to come up with a hit tune called “My Sweet Lord”.
[/QUOTE]
If you listen to both these songs like I just did, then you will see it is obvious that “My Sweet Lord” certainly is not a “note for note” ripoff of “He’s So Fine.” The only similarity is a sequence of four notes within the melody. Moreover, the melodies are not in the same key.

Opening melody of both songs compared:

“He’s So Fi - ine”
– A - F# - F# - E

“My Sweet Lo - ord”
–B – G# - G# – F#

These note sequences do repeat a few times in their respective songs. The notes have the same relative pitch and same timing in each song but are not the same notes. IANA musicologist, but I do have absolute pitch (basically the opposite of tone deafness); this is the only similarity I can find between the two songs. I find it difficult to believe that a person could listen to “My Sweet Lord” and be reminded of “He’s So Fine.” Overall, the songs have a completely different character.

[QUOTE=the article linked above in post #17]
With all the evidence pointing out the similarities between the two songs, the judge said it was “perfectly obvious . . . the two songs are virtually identical”.
[/QUOTE]
Umm No! I think George got screwed.

If all publishers of music made it a habit to scrutinize songs to this same extent, then lawsuits would be much more common IMO.

27

[QUOTE=Lama Pacos]
Not only, as Bosda mentions, do works disappear, but the vast, vast majority even of music accessible right at this very moment languishes in utter obscurity. The quantity of music that permeates our overall cultural awareness is tiny.
[/QUOTE]

It’s shocking how true a statement that is. Right now there are thousands of excellent bands/solo artists sharing their music on MySpace that 1) no one’s ever heard of, but on the other hand, 2) they’re on MySpace and are more easily and quickly discovered than they would have been 10 years ago. I’ll give as an example the Happy Rhodes MySpace page. I maintain it and if you scroll down to the “Friends” section, everyone on her extended Friends list are bands/solo artists I really really like. They may not be to everybody’s taste, but they are good to great, and I’ll bet most people won’t have heard of let alone heard most of the artists. No matter what one thinks of the owner, MySpace has been a boon to music lovers.

[QUOTE=Lama Pacos]
That said, I’d wager that we have ‘run out’ in as much as pretty much any chord progression, melody, harmony, etc. could be construed as an unintentional reference to some previous work.
[/QUOTE]

Hmmmm, I’m not sure I agree. I do a podcast that some might say constitutes a fairly narrow spectrum of music (female vocals, generally in a genre I call “Ecto music” because it doesn’t fit easily into the rock/pop/alternative genres) and I have no problems finding music that fits but doesn’t really sound like anything else. Not that I’ve heard every piece of music ever recorded or written, so consider that a disclaimer of sorts, but it hasn’t been a problem so far.

Did I come in here to tout my artist’s MySpace page and my podcast? Not really. I don’t expect my tastes to be shared among too many here, but they are handy to use as examples (though if anyone were to sample the short clips on my podcast, I would suggest skipping sampling the music on SIG 5 unless you’re VERY adventurous. The others are much tamer.)

Whenever music starts sounding too much the same, a certian amount of people go looking for something new. If that hits big then copycats (or perceived copycats) are right around the corner, then it all gets to sounding the same, then people go looking for something new, and so it goes. If only more people who are looking for something new would actually seek out new music themselves instead of letting the major record companies and radio stations tell them what they should be hearing, more good music would get heard. It’s changing, slowly, with the reign of the Internet and Satellite Radio, but I suppose I’m impatient.

I’m sorry, what was the question again? I go off into musical tangents sometimes.

Oh, to answer the OP, no. There are enough and will always be enough creative people out there who will keep music fresh. As Lama Pacos indicated though, most people will probably never hear the music they make.