Raymond Nahikian
December 6, 2017
Rhetoric and Narrative
Professor Welling Final Paper
What Killed Music?
The Slow and Mysterious Death of Music
“Real music is dead! Why isn’t there any good music like this nowadays!” I have seen this short, exclamatory sentence frequently in the comments section on YouTube. They can be found on multiple videos involving music approximately from the 1950s to the mid-to-late 2000s. Online comments like these have divided music lovers and casual listeners for over a decade. For some, the people that post this type of rhetoric come across as close minded, and unwilling to let go of the past. To others, they are appreciated for their brutal honesty and musical awareness of how everyone else has been brainwashed …show more content…
From my observations, low quality music was beginning to appear on the Billboard charts along with music of higher quality by late 2001. The low-quality songs were already outnumbering the higher quality songs the following year. This trend continued until there eventually was low quality songs all throughout the music charts, with no other music in the mainstream. However, there were still some unsuccessful attempts at making songs with more quality in 2008 and in 2009. Though the songs had competent instrumentation and lyrics, the polished, modern production had stripped the singing and instruments of much of their natural elements, and as a result, stripped the song of some the factors that contributed to its quality. The over-polished production might be another factor in the declining quality of music that continues to the present day. Specifically, the auto tune or pitch correction supposedly “erases” the flaws of the voice, while at the same time robs the singer of the imperfections that give the voice and lyrics character and charm. For example, a low-quality song such as Justin Bieber’s 2015 hit “Where Are U Now” has lyrics such as “I need you the most!” and “Where are you now that I need you?” that might sound good with a voice with sadness or concern in it. Instead, the layered pitch correction makes them sound like “Ineedjyiew dauh moahhwst!” and “Wearauer u noahw datihhh neeedjyiew?”, distorting the lyrics into indecipherable, robotic mumbling, and destroying their meaning. This led me to the realization that a huge part of what made music have quality and meaning was mostly not the lyrics themselves, but how they were presented by the singer’s voice, and how they were structured. A good example of this is the lyrics of numerous songs from the 50s. Most of them were
December 6, 2017
Rhetoric and Narrative
Professor Welling Final Paper
What Killed Music?
The Slow and Mysterious Death of Music
“Real music is dead! Why isn’t there any good music like this nowadays!” I have seen this short, exclamatory sentence frequently in the comments section on YouTube. They can be found on multiple videos involving music approximately from the 1950s to the mid-to-late 2000s. Online comments like these have divided music lovers and casual listeners for over a decade. For some, the people that post this type of rhetoric come across as close minded, and unwilling to let go of the past. To others, they are appreciated for their brutal honesty and musical awareness of how everyone else has been brainwashed …show more content…
From my observations, low quality music was beginning to appear on the Billboard charts along with music of higher quality by late 2001. The low-quality songs were already outnumbering the higher quality songs the following year. This trend continued until there eventually was low quality songs all throughout the music charts, with no other music in the mainstream. However, there were still some unsuccessful attempts at making songs with more quality in 2008 and in 2009. Though the songs had competent instrumentation and lyrics, the polished, modern production had stripped the singing and instruments of much of their natural elements, and as a result, stripped the song of some the factors that contributed to its quality. The over-polished production might be another factor in the declining quality of music that continues to the present day. Specifically, the auto tune or pitch correction supposedly “erases” the flaws of the voice, while at the same time robs the singer of the imperfections that give the voice and lyrics character and charm. For example, a low-quality song such as Justin Bieber’s 2015 hit “Where Are U Now” has lyrics such as “I need you the most!” and “Where are you now that I need you?” that might sound good with a voice with sadness or concern in it. Instead, the layered pitch correction makes them sound like “Ineedjyiew dauh moahhwst!” and “Wearauer u noahw datihhh neeedjyiew?”, distorting the lyrics into indecipherable, robotic mumbling, and destroying their meaning. This led me to the realization that a huge part of what made music have quality and meaning was mostly not the lyrics themselves, but how they were presented by the singer’s voice, and how they were structured. A good example of this is the lyrics of numerous songs from the 50s. Most of them were