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Has all the good music already been written?
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mobilehaathi
macrumors G3
Even if we could decide on a common objective metric for "good," I'm not sure if we could determine this without an exhaustive compendium of "all possible music."
Errrr, I mean no.😉
Errrr, I mean no.😉
QuarterSwede
macrumors G4
I take it you don't listen to much indie stuff. I continually hear new great things being done with music every week.
Shrink
macrumors G3
simsaladimbamba
Guest
localoid
macrumors 68020
By "other dudette" do you mean Anton Bruckner?
If so, then yes, the music of Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, and Bruckner were all defined as "good" German music by the Nazi regime.
simsaladimbamba
Guest
Luckily those composers all lived before the Nazi regime was even thought of by GröFaZ, thus they can be seen as great composers independently of what the Nazis classified and misused them as and for, but then again, one says Wagner, one has to always say Hitler or Nazi, but that was not Richard's work, it was Winifred's work, a Wagner by marriage, but hey, let's go to Bayreuth and enjoy the heat and second cycle now. The Ring is one hell of a piece of theatre.
localoid
macrumors 68020
Personally, I not very concerned about the music that the Nazis considered to be "good" music (although I find the concept of "good" music is itself rather absurd.)
But I did find it rather amusing that the first three "serious" composers named in the thread were all "good" German composers who were highly revered by the Nazis.
But then, the Nazis utilized music by non-German born composers. For example, Goebbel's office used Liszt's fanfare from Les Prelude to introduce their announcements of military victories.
simsaladimbamba
Guest
Liszt lived in Bayreuth near Wahnfried, thus he was probably considered a good German, especially since Cosima was his daughter.
They were a bit weird those Nazis sometimes, had some crazy ideas and got through with some of them, albeit the ones, that are now looked upon as horrifying and not those good ones like proper Autobahnen, as the current regime is horrifyingly devastating those roads. But then again, every age has to have bad regimes, though nowadays they all seem to work together quite well to their common goal of not really doing anything except supporting the rich.
Anyway, back to the music. I saw Backstreet Boys on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson some days ago. Were they not considered good?
As music is diverse and woven very deep with human history for several thousands of years, it will always be there, it just is, that the current climate allows music to be exploited for money, and the most money is currently be had with generic music, which has existed already for quite some time.
There will always be new music and new sounds, but it will not arrive in mainstream music first. It will come to some overlooked musician sitting in a run down flat, broke and probably digesting some kind of hallucinative plant and having the worst day if her or his life.
Or it will come from a robot. Who knows now? We will only know, if it has been discovered, and the masses will only hear it in a remix or citation in some pop sampler anyway.
The Reckoning for example has been remixed several times, a colleague played a remix once, I liked the melody, found out what it was called and then found the original and was astonished by that song. It happens every year at least once to me, often twice, but I am also not that interested in music.
And I only mentioned Wagner before due to me having to have been listening to hours of his work due to having to do something for those friends of Bayreuth. While the texts in those songs are not really my thing, due to being 140 years or so old, the music was astonishing in many places, as he tried a lot of new things that were unheard of back then. If it happened back then, it will happen again and again and again. It has so several times already in the past 140 years, why stop now.
And I am tired and should clean my room instead of writing this. I probably copy it for my snippet usage in a later post about cats and their fur.
localoid
macrumors 68020
Everyone, from the Nazis to plain ol' common folk, likes to think they know "good" music when they hear it.
Naturally, I assume all "good" music must rely heavily on the using the "good" chords that the OP mentioned.
Scepticalscribe
macrumors Haswell
I must say that I like the discussion on GroFaZ's musical preferences; however, the music was appropriated by the regime rather than the other way around. Indeed, Felix Mendelssohn was one of the few classical German composers whose music did not benefit from exposure - or recognition - during that period, as the regime banned it instead.
To answer the question asked, no, of course not. Actually, I'd argue that it is silly to suggest that all 'the good music' has already been written.
More worrying, to my mind, is the fact that businesses everywhere are so profit orientated, (and lacking in imagination) that most are unprepared to risk money, or take a gamble on promoting anything new. The music business is one of the worst offenders, constantly behind the curve of where innovation, imagination, creativity and originality lie. Too risky. That is why most of what is promoted by the music business is derivative, and also, why it is so hard for unknown groups to break through.
Good music will still be written; to me, the question is - will it be able to achieve sufficient exposure to obtain recognition as something worth listening to?
To answer the question asked, no, of course not. Actually, I'd argue that it is silly to suggest that all 'the good music' has already been written.
More worrying, to my mind, is the fact that businesses everywhere are so profit orientated, (and lacking in imagination) that most are unprepared to risk money, or take a gamble on promoting anything new. The music business is one of the worst offenders, constantly behind the curve of where innovation, imagination, creativity and originality lie. Too risky. That is why most of what is promoted by the music business is derivative, and also, why it is so hard for unknown groups to break through.
Good music will still be written; to me, the question is - will it be able to achieve sufficient exposure to obtain recognition as something worth listening to?
localoid
macrumors 68020
Well, sometimes it take a while for a "good" tune to catch on...
Pachelbel's "Canon in D" was heard by relatively few during the composer's lifetime and soon fell into obscurity. Only a recent times has it become a tune familiar to a significant percentage of the earth's population, more than 200 years after it was written.
Apple fanboy
macrumors Ivy Bridge
I'm more of a Nikon man!
Seriously there is always good music coming out. The problem is the term good music is very subjective. What I like to listen to would not be considered good by some people. What's listed above would not be considered good by me.
I don't follow particular bands or whatever. If I like the song I download it. If I don't, I do not. Some music I like for a short period and then go off. Other tracks appeal lasts much longer.
Music also depends on your mood. A track I might like to listen to in the evening before I go out, would be different to something to listen to as I drive to work
Don't worry my friends, there are many years left of good music!
Giuly
macrumors 68040
Yes. Music's over, folks. Nothing to hear here, move along. The last one turns out the lights.
On a more serious note, what is the source of inspiration for current music? Also, music and art in general used to be the métier of eccentric people. Do those still exist? I just ask because I haven't seen any in a while.
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Mathematically... we're never going to run out of great new music.
If you consider just the 12 notes in the Western scale, and assume that a 1/16 note is the shortest most people would recognize, then there are 12^16 = 1.84 x 10^17 possible melodies in a single measure of music.
For the non-musical out there, a measure is about a second or two worth of music. (The "duh-duh-duh - DAH!" at the beginning of Beethoven's Fifth symphony are played over two measures.) And you'd recognize that intro if it were played on anything from an accordion to a zither. Check out Yngwie Malmstein's version on electric guitar sometime.
That ignores the possibility of introducing notes in a different octave; or the many different ways of playing the subsequent note (slide, hammer-on, pull off). It also ignores grace notes, trills - to say nothing of the wonders of Arabian and Indian music scales.
If you consider just the 12 notes in the Western scale, and assume that a 1/16 note is the shortest most people would recognize, then there are 12^16 = 1.84 x 10^17 possible melodies in a single measure of music.
For the non-musical out there, a measure is about a second or two worth of music. (The "duh-duh-duh - DAH!" at the beginning of Beethoven's Fifth symphony are played over two measures.) And you'd recognize that intro if it were played on anything from an accordion to a zither. Check out Yngwie Malmstein's version on electric guitar sometime.
That ignores the possibility of introducing notes in a different octave; or the many different ways of playing the subsequent note (slide, hammer-on, pull off). It also ignores grace notes, trills - to say nothing of the wonders of Arabian and Indian music scales.
I thought the same thing almost immediately. The commissioner of the US Patent office in 1899 reportedly uttered this.
Having been subjected to the current fad of dubstep, I can say with certainty that we are done with good music! 😀
jav6454
macrumors Core
The same question could have been asked back when Beethoven wrote his "Moonlight Sonata" masterpiece. The answer will be, regardless of genre of your liking, no.