Ninetales

huh the "rihanna makes bad music because she didnt get proper education" argument is something ive never heard before.

I wonder what noted college dropout john lennon thinks of this hypothesis.

Isbjørn

Haha, good point

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Spykakos

There has always been bad and good music. It's true that nowadays the "bad" music has increased a lot, but I think it's just a phase. Things will get better.

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Soulflower

Such a GREAT post!!!

neardeathexperience

Well where are the people who can write and sing a song like "The Sound Of Silence", or "California Dreaming "? If it's that good they will find a way to get it out there. In my opinion this is not a case of the so called older generation labeling today's music as crap it's just the reality of what is out there and being made these days!

Urban Hat€monger ?

How much have you looked?

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Ninetales

This is like saying the ocean only has dolphins in it because you saw one jump out of the water once.

galt54

My answer to that is that you must have observed a few instances of low quality in America, hastily generalized and leaped to the conclusion that "business" as such has nothing to do with quality.

Well, in a capitalistic society the businessmen who produce good quality at reasonable prices outcompete the ones which don't sooner or later - usually not much later. But there is a lot of junk on the market, in music as well as elsewhere, today. The reason is not "business" or capitalsm. America today is a mixed economy - and in a mixed economy shoddy goods can stay around for a long time, since the government suppresses the free market.

Here is one concrete which goes a long way to explaining why you may have observed that a lot of crappy popular music is commercially successful today:

The government regulates the ether (i.e. radio and television). In order for a businessman or idealist to start a radio station, he first needs to get a broadcast license from the government. So it is really difficult or an "upstart" to break into the radio broadcasting business. No one can establish a radio station without the permission of the bureaucrats at the FCC. What do you think that does to the value of diversity in the ether?

In a capitalist society it would be much easier for upstarts to start their own radio stations. There would therefore be many independent radio stations. The effect of that on the music industry is that "small" and independent pop and rock artists would have more of a chance of getting their songs played on the radio. And, of course, radio play can make or break a song and an artist.

Here is a concrete piece of advice for improving the state of popular music:

Abolish the FCC and deregulate TV and radio!

galt54

It is an objective fact that much of popular music today is noise. I have listened to modern punk, metal music and rap. Many of the songs I heard were devoid of melody.

It is not easy at all to come up with a good melody. I have tried and failed miserably (I am not a musician. I merely tried to invent a new melody to see if I could do it.)

I stand by my hypothesis that the minds of young people today have been screwed up by the day care centers and the schools. Read that essay "The Comprachicos".

galt54

I am aware of the fact that there were school districts and school districts. Kids in the slums got an even worse education than us kids in the prosperous suburbs.

The trouble is that when the government provides "free" (i.e. tax-financed, i.e. financed by the looting of your fellow citizens) education - that not only makes "education" availible to the poor - it also destroys education for everyone.

The solution to this problem is capitalism. Abolish the government's involvement in education. Education would not cost very much at all on a free market.

Ask yourself the simple question: What is necessary for a kid to get a good education?

Answer: A classroom, some simple furniture, a competent teacher and some decent books. That is all.

So private education would be much less expensive than the public schools America is cursed with today. But of course socialists would be unhappy about the fact that the parents would have to pay out of their own pockets for their own children's education!

The poor would have access to education in a capitalist society. They do not have access to education worthy of the name today. The kids in the slums and in the suburbs of America today often do not even learn to read and write decently!