Why do millennials suck so bad at music? Any theories?

Music isn’t an “industry” like auto making or book publishing

It is an art form

Making money?

That’s an industry

Salieri made far more money than Mozart


I’m gonna bet you have never been a recording artist, and therefore just uninformed

Which is ok, cuz lots of people are uninformed; you can fix your errors of ignorance.

Mebby you need to go see a proper gospel church band and choir

Those church kids are amazing musicians

They might be amazing musicians but the problem isn’t playing the instrument. It’s the songwriting that is the hard part. Sorry but there aren’t a lot of really good songwriters out there. A lot of people can play a guitar or the piano but how many can genuinely sit down and write an actual good song?

You have to spend a lot of time playing, and even their parents weren't very good at it.

Playing with people, not machines, like Guitar Hero.

That requires time spent studying the meaning of the songs you listen to and play.

There are secrets not written in any book about how to write songs. At best, they only hint.

Why do they love a song? Why do they have a favorite part? All sorts of parts and implicit structure contribute to the favorite part.

If you can't recognize song writers by their bag of tricks, which they use over and over, you don't know songs well enough to write one.

gen z is better at music than millennials

low attention span is one....

and the end of albums...everything is just a single....gone are the days of double albums......concept albums like Pink Floyd the Wall...where one can put the headphones on and get lost in them.....

now just singles.....disposable music,,,,

Not enough drugs

Correction..

Not enough GOOD drugs

Erdogan is drunk again.

Bad muslim.

I'm not saying they do suck, because I'm pretty uninformed, but it does surprise me what I've seen regarding problems staying on pitch, or maybe even knowing that's something to aim for ?

"public indoctrination centers" have gradually had funding cut for "extras" like music and art for decades, has been my impression, though not a "Trained Noticer" or anything like that.

And then , of course, everyone now 'understands' that parenting is not something amateurs can hope to do adequately, and that 'professionals' [ the most tone -deaf pro's you can find] are needed to professionally manage this process 24/7

It is not their fault.
It started in my generation of "Boomers".
And the Beetles.
And went down hill from there.
We should not be so hard on "millennials"
as it was the generation before them that
decided that "ugly" was more beautiful
than "beauty. (???) And that was all that
was produced on any level for enough
decades to create a transition in every
area from music to art to fashion to
cars etc etc etc. Has anyone noticed
how unattractive cars are? And that they
ALL look alike. I went to a family T-day
dinner this week. The girls all had their
hair tied in a knot on top and were wearing
missmatched clothing that looked like they
fished them out of the dumpster behind the
good will store. Worst part was their
parents could easily afford to buy them
decent clothing. And their mothers could
have taught them how to wash their hair.
We live in one of the "richest" countries
in the world and yet our culture rivals
some of the worst third world contries
on the planet !!!
And it saddens me that i have lived long
enough to watch this transition.

Whilst this is 'not funny' and I feel bad for laughing, I'm still roflol at this! Starting with "dumpster behind goodwill"-

The key to good songwriting is tension and release. Kids these days just want da phat beatz! You're absolutely right though, the good songwriters use a few tricks everytime, and if you pay attention they're easy to spot. Replicating that technique whilst playing into your own sound is the trick. Songwriting is methodical and takes some thought. Most aren't willing to sit down and think.

Discipline they lack.

You need a depth of soul to play music.
They have facebook for that.
Creativity is gone with the new brainless mob generations.
They are black holes of despair trying to fill them with forced/extorted attention.

Beethoven was deaf when he wrote the Ninth

It’s really just math plus muscle discipline right?

But no, cuz aesthetic judgements are arguments of pathos, and thus nether systemic nor quantitative

Do you know the word “frisson”?

Only a tiny percentage of humans experience this whilst listening to music

So, what makes music “good”?

The answer is far bigger than the question, which means we are moving in the proper direction...

That's blatantly untrue; you suck. Some of them are making some of the best music ever. You'd really have to be a curmudgeon not to like some of them. They have a lot more freedom of expression than we did that's for certain. No need to self edit anymore or take stupid songwriting classes from obsolete jerks looking for a payday.

One thing I would never do today is go to college BEFORE you launch a career in music, unless it just happens that way. If you can you launch the career first at 14, 15, 16, then your offered scholarships. In some genres kids blend being in college with being a pro. Lots of actors did that also.

Can you imagine what they would have tried to do to say a Billie Ellish at some dumb shall be unnamed music school? I remember I once tried to sing for a producer and he told me to "stop whispering".

The first thing to learn in life at 3 or 4 years old is to ignore the bullies. As soon as you start self editing the way most of us end up doing, you lose your self to social norms and standards. You can't create great art that way.

Your wrong , you little piss ant bitch

This one is so easy!
Idiocy = bad music.

Music was good when the label owners stayed out of the creative process of the music. When musicians where given resources and told to create music.

You can still find good music though, you just have to know where to dig. Software and the internet have made it much easier for people to release independent music and sustain very lucrative carriers without signing any major deal.

There is a young man by the name of Ryan Upchurch That is a GREAT example of this. This young man has had top 5 albums in 3 different genres with zero radio play; in country, rock, AND hip hop. Black people hate this guy because he out raps the fuck'n shit out of them while flying the rebel flag.

His Rock

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

his Country

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His hip hop

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Hybrid Hip hop/country

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His Trump anthem

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Tell me that's not talent and I'll call you out on your bullshit you old fart.

This

Billie Eilish isn't a very good example for good music.

I know a millennial who is the best guitar player I've ever heard. He grew up without video games. My son complained to me that I didn't push him to play music more. (i'm a musician) but he really just wanted to play with the computer. He now has a lucrative job in the field he was playing around with back then. People choose what they really want, and if you want to be a musician, you have to practice for several hours a day for several years to get half way good. That's why they suck. They use machines to make music instead of playing real instruments because they have no time to dedicate to actually practicing an instrument. They want instant gratification.

To produce/play music takes one or both of two things:

(1) Psychological depth ("soul")

(2) Intellectual rigor (those who can become master technicians with an instrument/voice.

Millennials tend to lack both.

You should see this guy named YungBlud that my niece likes. I was looking for merchandise to get her for Xmas and her Bday, which are both in December, and kept spelling it wrong. I saw a poster of him when I was up there visiting a couple of weeks ago, and this guy has to be the most gay ass looking pop star I’ve ever seen. I know that girls her age are usually into whatever gaywad is the gayest at the time, but he has to take the cake on homo.

Boomer here. And a university trained composer. One of the big problems is not the fault of millenials. Nowadays, the record industry CEOs are lawyers and not musicians. So whatever is promoted by them is based on how much money they can make. While the philosophy of money-making through music isn't new and was certainly the case in the music of the Sixties and Seventies, nonetheless, the assumption in those days was that talent makes money. In those times there was such an animal as the "talent scout." Note that the talents of the Sixties were often awkward looking and not exactly beautiful with perfect bodies and looks. For example, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Mama Cass. The Turtles looked like dorks.

The music being assumed here in this thread is Pop Music. And generally, yes, it sucks. I'm in a great jazz/blues band that has a millenial drummer. The guy is an amazingly talented player. The first thing I asked him when we auditioned him, after having heard his playing was, "do you play piano?" From my experience the best drummers play piano as well as drums. Indeed, he's fully trained in music theory and piano. This guy is educated. When I went into a tirade similar to OPs, about millenial music, he began sending me jazz, funk, blues and electronic music tracks from millenial musicians. Each was superbly executed. The problem is what's being pushed and promoted. These lawyers who run the record companies only have dollar signs in their eyes and have no interest in art, beauty or perfection in music.

Given that, perhaps there is some hope for the Gen Y and Gen Z musicians. For example, check out little 8 year old Yoyoka on drums. She is awesome and guaranteed to make you smile. On top of that, she will utterly blow your mind.