Old Songs Are New Songs -- The Death Of New Music

“Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market, according to the latest numbers from MRC Data, a music-analytics firm. Those who make a living from new music—especially that endangered species known as the working musician—should look at these figures with fear and trembling. But the news gets worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. All the growth in the market is coming from old songs.

“The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams. That rate was twice as high just three years ago. The mix of songs actually purchased by consumers is even more tilted toward older music. The current list of most-downloaded tracks on iTunes is filled with the names of bands from the previous century, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Police.”

(Ted Gioia. “Is Old Music Killing New Music?” The Atlantic. January 23, 2022.)

Ted Gioia – who writes the music and popular-culture newsletter The Honest Broker on Substack and is also the author of 11 books, including, most recently, Music: A Subversive History – tells us that never before in history have new tracks attained hit status while generating so little cultural impact.

In fact, the audience seems to be embracing the hits of decades past instead. Success was always short-lived in the music business, but now even new songs that become bona fide hits can pass unnoticed by much of the population.

If the entire business model of the music industry is based on new songs – those classified as “new” have been released in the past 18 months – it is evident new music has been marginalized in a growing crisis.

The industry includes radio stations, retailers, DJs, nightclub owners, editors, playlist curators, and everyone else with skin in the game. Giola says, “Yet all the evidence indicates that few listeners are paying attention.”

Even the Grammy show has been put on hold. A decade ago, 40 million people watched the Grammy Awards. The once-popular event showed a huge declining TV audience. In 2021, viewership for the ceremony collapsed 53 percent from the previous year – from 18.7 million to 8.8 million. It was the least-watched Grammy broadcast of all time. Even the core audience for new music couldn’t be bothered—about 98 percent of people ages 18 to 49 had something better to do than watch the biggest music celebration of the year.

(Ted Gioia. “Is Old Music Killing New Music?” The Atlantic. January 23, 2022.)

Please read Ted Gioia's entire Atlantic article by clicking here: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/old-music-killing-new-music/621339/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

They said we'd be artistically free
When we signed that bit of paper
They meant "Let's make a lots of money
And worry about it later"

Ooh-oh, I'll never understand
Ooh-oh, complete control, let me see your other hand

I don't trust you, so why should you trust me?
All over the news spread fast
They're dirty, they're filthy
They ain't a-gonna last

From “Complete Control” by The Clash

 

Gioia asks us to consider these other trends in music:

• The leading area of investment in the music business is old songs. Investment firms are getting into bidding wars to buy publishing catalogs from aging rock and pop stars.

• The song catalogs in most demand are by musicians who are in their 70s or 80s (Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen) or already dead (David Bowie, James Brown).

• Even major record labels are participating in the rush to old music: Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, and others are buying up publishing catalogs and investing huge sums in old tunes. In a previous time, that money would have been used to launch new artists.

• The best-selling physical format in music is the vinyl LP, which is more than 70 years old. I’ve seen no signs that the record labels are investing in a newer, better alternative—because, here too, old is viewed as superior to new.

• In fact, record labels—once a source of innovation in consumer products—don’t spend any money on research and development to revitalize their business, although every other industry looks to innovation for growth and consumer excitement.

• Record stores are caught up in the same time warp. In an earlier era, they aggressively marketed new music, but now they make more money from vinyl reissues and used LPs.

Gioia also explains that radio stations are contributing to the stagnation, putting fewer new songs into their rotation, or – judging by the offerings on my satellite-radio lineup – completely ignoring new music in favor of old hits.

• When a new song overcomes these obstacles and actually becomes a hit, the risk of copyright lawsuits is greater than ever before. The risks have increased enormously since the “Blurred Lines” jury decision of 2015, and the result is that additional cash gets transferred from today’s musicians to old (or deceased) artists.

• Adding to the nightmare, dead musicians are now coming back to life in virtual form—via holograms and “deepfake” music—making it all the harder for young, living artists to compete in the marketplace.

(Ted Gioia. “Is Old Music Killing New Music?” The Atlantic. January 23, 2022.)

When the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights

Well the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end

From “When the Music's Over” by the Doors

Music Lovers Regret

Geezer music lovers like me may say the decline is because new songs and popular genres generally “suck” – we say that old songs had better melodies, harmonies, and musicianship. Of course, we seniors do believe that. After all, we're old; we're products of our generations; and many of us now resist change and novel sounds that may provide ample evidence of talented new artists but sound foreign to us.

Still, accepting the obvious musical prejudices of those of us in our golden years, music lovers of all ages cannot fathom the present disregard for new music and the resulting shoddy production of new products. Not many albums are produced for discerning ears these days. No matter the cause for the drop off in the supply, the priorities of the industry have changed. Music lovers fear a future with no new quality product being produced.

For example, I love music, and I have been an avid collector for over 55 years. I still regularly check out new releases and reissues expecting to find new offerings that satisfy my obsession for great sounds. Lately, the pickings are so slim that my expectation for great new music releases is not even lukewarm. It seems the great demand for popular albums (CDs) is virtually nonexistent.

Amy X. Wang, Rolling Stone's senior editor overseeing the business of music, writes (December 2020) …

“In ye olde days, an album’s cycle involved months and months of teasers, magazine covers, talk-show circuits. But in this one year — thanks to a confluence of factors, chiefly the market chaos wrought by a global lockdown — the biggest, most talked-about music of 2020 was either spun out of the wormhole that is online virality or tossed into fans’ laps without warning.”

And, if you can find new recordings of interest, they often suffer from compression. Compression is the process of boosting the quietest parts of a song so that they match the loudest parts, thus reducing the dynamic range or “distance” between the loudest and quietest parts. The effect of this application is to make the entire song sound louder, no matter how loudly the listener sets the volume.

Many “loudness disciples” are musicians and engineers who believe louder recordings grab your attention – and will often be perceived, at least at first, to have better sound quality than a less compressed album – and they don't want their products to sound weak by comparison. Maximum loudness, it was thought, was a prerequisite for commercial success. But, in truth, when the loudest parts exceed the maximum possible peak, the sound wave “clips,” becoming dense and distorted. 

For centuries, dynamic range has been one of the many tools used by musicians to evoke emotion: from the subtle volume swell to build tension to the powerful climatic fortissimo that brings down the house. With compression being so popular in the studios, there is a problem – it can squeeze dynamic range. Once a song is compressed within an inch of its life, you can't compress it more without drastic audio problems like distortion and clipping. Record producers – and even some artists – keep pushing for a little more volume, at the expense of everything else. To be honest, some of the newer recordings just sound terrible – they lack quality

A 2012 study by the Spanish National Research Council concluded ...

“Over the past few decades, the timbre of music has dropped drastically. “Timbre” is the texture, colour, and quality of the sounds within the music being listened to. Timbre variety peaked in the 1960s and has since been steadily declining. Songs increasingly have less variety in their instrumentation and recording techniques. Instead of experimenting with different instrumentation and recording techniques, the vast majority of pop music today use the same instrumentation: a keyboard, a drum machine, a sampler and computer software. Consequently, all modern pop music sounds the same.

(500,000 recordings of all genres of music between 1955 – 2010 run through a complex set of algorithms. Spanish National Research Council.)

A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while

But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died

So bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

From “American Pie” by Don McLean

Now, recordings are made for streaming and play on portable devices and phones. This is positive in that it has taken convenience to a whole new level. No physical media is required for the user. Songs exist on a server somewhere, and your phone or computer became your stereo.

The quality of audio production has become less important since the public now listens on these devices. Steven Stone, editor of AudiophileReview.com., says …

“As recording studios became more and more complex during the 70’s and 80’s, the number of engineers and producers who bothered to learn how or cared how everything worked so they could use the gear to maximum fidelity diminished. In some famous sessions the soberest person at a recording studio was probably the janitor…”

(Steven Stone. “Are Older Recordings Really Better?” Audiophile. July 30, 2019.)

Stone concludes that sound quality never really improved over the decades, and sure, today’s over-compressed music is partly to blame; however, “a skilled sensitive recording engineer can do wonders with minimal gear while, conversely, in the wrong hands, even with state of the art gear, any recording can be turned into a disposable commodity.”

And, audiophiles – dedicated music lovers – want those wonderful recordings with beautiful details and nuances. In newer recorded music, they are so-often missing. It is such a shame considering the outstanding equipment available today. Is the cost too great for producing audiophile-quality recordings?

Of course, vinyl has made a modest comeback in recent years. Analog audio is said to have a warmer sound than digital audio which uses samples (think individual frames in a film) of audio to create an audio wave. But vinyl is an imperfect media that also introduces imperfections in the music like speed distortions, clicks, pops, etc. Musician and writer Mark Starlin believes enjoyment of the tactile experience or nostalgia has probably spurred its comeback more than the actual audio quality, which degrades with each play.

Let's face it. Largely gone are audiophiles and their passion for great audio components. I remember when a trip to a great sound lab or a stereo outlet was a great experience. You entered a display room where home audio equipment was housed to give the potential buyer a critical sound comparison from different components. Lack of demand has evidently reduced these audio stores to nearly extinct status. What a shame. I wager most younger people have never heard great stereo sound. Echoes of places like Sun Electronics in Columbus and the Pied Piper in Huntington remain in my ears.

And how about the almost total absence of the record stores themselves? So much of my money in younger days went toward new releases. I couldn't wait for the latest offerings from favorite artists. Jesus, I would actually get so excited waiting for the release dates that I would worry they would be delayed. On the day of release, I would make a beeline for Smiling Ed's Record Shop in Portsmouth to purchase new albums and singles. Then, later road trips to Columbus always included Used Kids Records and Magnolia Thunderpussy on High Street, Ohio State Campus.

Sometimes you realize
That there is an end to life.
Yesterday I heard them say
A hero's blown away.
And it's so hard to lose
Someone who's close to you.
Oh me, I did not see
The danger every day.
But music's something in the air,
So he can play it anywhere.
Old records never die.

From “Old Records Never Die” by Ian Hunter

Old Songs

Hold on. We still have old songs, great recordings that continue to find new, young listeners who love their sound and vision. As an ex-mobile DJ, I have thousands of them, and I put them on the best computer software I can find (at the best bitrate) and direct them through a digital-audio-converter to the best home system I can afford. What a pleasure it is to listen to these recordings on playlists I frequently comprise – the computer allows me to sequence long lists of songs without getting up and changing CDs or albums.

Listening to great popular music can be as highly expensive or as relatively cheap as you wish; however, an initial investment of several hundred dollars (thousands?) is a basement figure to acquire good audio hardware. I would suggest finding a friend who is already and audiophile for direction. If you love music, I guarantee the investment will produce great returns. Many of the CDs I purchased were used or online … some at budget prices. Compilations are often available also. The more you learn about sound, the more you will refine you purchases.

I really believe most people these days who do not listen to music on a system that accurately reproduces the recordings don't realize what they are missing. At its best, audio reproduction has a religious aspect. Some say the magic is a primacy. As human beings, we are programmed to react to rhythms and natural sounds. I know of no other experience that continues to provide as much pleasure and emotional release. Unlike watching a film on a good home theater system, listening to recordings on a good stereo never makes one tire of the selection: great songs and albums are meant to be heard over and over, delivering the same dynamic effect with every repeated play.

With some decent sound equipment, becoming an audiophile can be as simple as a lesson in music appreciation, or it can develop into something as complicated as becoming a recording engineer. I think the best way to break in your ears to the wonders of recordings is to merely satisfy your “itch” for finding your individual passion – begin with your personal favorite artists and discover the influences that contributed to their sound. Digging into the roots of genres is one of my favorite pastimes, and with online resources, its so easy.

I suggest that a novice center on acquiring his favorite recordings in their original recording quality or in a reputable remastered version that may produce better sound quality. An audiophile will often opt for a remastered version of a song if it shows an improved sound quality when compared to the previous original version.

I have not re-entered the vinyl comeback. My album glory days are over, and I do not miss them except for the cover art and liner notes. I would strongly suggest that DAC and a upgraded computer sound card instead of falling into the vinyl craze. Personally, I purchased a good online media player (JRiver Media Center – around $50) and a Soundblaster AE5 Plus sound card (around $150). Great sound investments to me, but it is up to you as far as your approach to storage and playback.

I download all of my CDs into my JRiver player to make a great library of sound. Possibilities are endless. Then, all I have to do is run the output – digital or analog – to my home stereo. You can color the sound with effects and filters, but very often things like equalizers overdo the job the engineers have already done in the studio, making sound quality worse. Purity and hints of ambiance are the desired products. Go easy on coloring the music. Remember, its the quality of the recording that delivers the best sound – at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it after thousands (millions?) of hours of listening.

So to me, what is the key? Audiophiles look for masterfully produced recordings. They research before they buy. Then, they compare outlets for price. (I use Amazon, and I'm not afraid to buy used CDs as they have return policies if problems exist.) An audiophile's main quest is to search for anything that might give him or her a so-called “eargasm.” I know what you're thinking – how weird. However, f you really love music, I can assure you a masterful recording makes all the difference in your listening pleasure. I don't care if you're listening to Buddy Holly or the Foo Fighters, the best recording delivers the best listening experience.

Audiophiles are looking forward to music as it was truly meant to be heard. Research reveals new music has it own problems now. I see those difficulties as no reason to let your ears suffer. If you have never tried to acquire the best recordings of your favorite artists and genres, you should. Get that home stereo/computer system refined and load it up with good sounds.

Drift Away

By Dobie Gray

Day after day I'm more confused
Yet I look for the light through the pourin' rain
You know that's a game that I hate to lose
And I'm feelin' the strain, ain't it a shame?

Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away
Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away

Beginning to think that I'm wastin' time
I don't understand the things I do
The world outside looks so unkind
Now I'm countin' on you to carry me through

Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away
Hey, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away

And when my mind is free
You know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue
A guitar's coming through to soothe me

Thanks for the joy that you've given me
I want you to know I believe in your song
And rhythm and rhyme and harmony
You've helped me along, makin' me strong
Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away

Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away

Hey, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul (free my soul)
I wanna get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away

Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away
Now won't ya
Won't ya take me?
Whoa-ho, take me

Written by Mentor Williams (1970)