Tony Bennett: "Modern music is terrible."

[VeritasLuxMea]

blog.sfgate.com/dailydish/2014/03/20/tony-bennett-modern-music-is-terrible/

Legendary crooner Tony Bennett has dismissed modern songwriting as “mostly terrible.”

The “Rags To Riches” singer is dismayed by the state of popular music and believes record label executives are obsessed with ensuring their releases make money quickly rather than backing records that will stand the test of time.

Bennett also accuses music corporations of dumbing down by refusing to release music that will engage listeners on an intellectual level.

The 87-year-old star tells BBC Radio 4′s Today Programme, “The songs that are written today, most of them are terrible. It’s a very bad period musically throughout the world for popular music. The corporations took it over and they want to make so much money and they don’t care whether the public likes it or not. They think the public is ignorant so their attitude is don’t give them anything intelligent as it won’t sell.”

He is also convinced that labels are struggling at the moment because they are only concerned with selling records to a younger audience, adding, “I grew up in an era where the record companies just sold records to everybody, and the whole family bought songs. Today record companies are failing because they’re putting their eggs just on the young, and I think it’s rather silly. They’re missing out thousands of people, but they don’t buy them (records) because they don’t have lasting quality.”

Well, it’s an interesting opinion. I grew up in the 90’s and I love lots of 80’s and 90’s music, but my parents (who grew up in the 60’s) prefer 50’s and 60’s music. Just a case of someone preferring the music that they grew up with, or legitimate point?

 

[ServusHumilis]

Of course it’s terrible; it can’t even be called music. I’m probably around your age and can hardly even listen to music of the 60s-70s that I used to like now that I take into account the lyrics. I’ll take the Verdi Reqiem Mass any day over the mindless lowbrow drivel more likely to be heard on the radio.

 

[ServusHumilis]

Of course it’s terrible; it can’t even be called music. I’m probably around your age and can hardly even listen to music of the 60s-70s that I used to like now that I take into account the lyrics. I’ll take the Verdi Reqiem Mass (first performed in 1874) any day over the mindless lowbrow drivel more likely to be heard on the radio. Do you honestly think anyone will remember Justin Bieber in 140 years?

 

[scameter18]

I would mostly agree with him. Modern music, like pretty much everything else in the modern world, is first and foremost a business. It’s objective is not art or quality; it’s about capitalizing on a market, and currently the main market they focus on is youth because youth tend to get fixated on bands and buy everything they put out. The music is much more about feeling, following a formula of flash and show to elicit certain feelings in the listeners. I think there is still some good music of most genres today, but it’s harder to find. As someone born in 1990, when I see infomercials about music from the 50’s, I find it amazing how clear, strong and musical their singing was yet with how little flash and special effects. I think any genre can do this even with effects creativity, most just don’t. I also think the internet and shows like American Idol have had a relatively negative effect, as they tend to get people who are not really very talented but who appeal to a certain audience and have marketable qualities like looks or catchy tunes. It’s hard to find Toney Bennets or Bing Crosbys or Bobby Darins or even Steve Perrys today. I personally like singers such as Christina Perri, Taylor Swift, Kina Grannis, the replacement singer for Journey, and a few others.

 

[Ponyguy]

blog.sfgate.com/dailydish/2014/03/20/tony-bennett-modern-music-is-terrible/
"Tony Bennett:

Legendary crooner Tony Bennett has dismissed modern songwriting as “mostly terrible.”

The “Rags To Riches” singer is dismayed by the state of popular music and believes record label executives are obsessed with ensuring their releases make money quickly rather than backing records that will stand the test of time.

Bennett also accuses music corporations of dumbing down by refusing to release music that will engage listeners on an intellectual level.

The 87-year-old star tells BBC Radio 4′s Today Programme, “The songs that are written today, most of them are terrible. It’s a very bad period musically throughout the world for popular music. The corporations took it over and they want to make so much money and they don’t care whether the public likes it or not. They think the public is ignorant so their attitude is don’t give them anything intelligent as it won’t sell.”

He is also convinced that labels are struggling at the moment because they are only concerned with selling records to a younger audience, adding, “I grew up in an era where the record companies just sold records to everybody, and the whole family bought songs. Today record companies are failing because they’re putting their eggs just on the young, and I think it’s rather silly. They’re missing out thousands of people, but they don’t buy them (records) because they don’t have lasting quality.”

Well, it’s an interesting opinion. I grew up in the 90’s and I love lots of 80’s and 90’s music, but my parents (who grew up in the 60’s) prefer 50’s and 60’s music. Just a case of someone preferring the music that they grew up with, or legitimate point?

Do the lyrics to “Murder on Music Row” mean anything to you?

(If you haven’t heard the song, Google it. George Strait and Alan Jackson sang it together.)

 

[Tenofovir]

“There’s no business like show business”.

That’s why most of this stuff is terrible.

 

[Portrait]

blog.sfgate.com/dailydish/2014/03/20/tony-bennett-modern-music-is-terrible/

Well, it’s an interesting opinion. I grew up in the 90’s and I love lots of 80’s and 90’s music, but my parents (who grew up in the 60’s) prefer 50’s and 60’s music. Just a case of someone preferring the music that they grew up with, or legitimate point?

Dear VeritasLuxMea,

Cordial greetings and a very good day. Yes, Tony Bennett is quite correct in his appraisal of modern popular music.

The songs that emerge from the modern popular music industry are simply wanting in enduring worth and are eminently forgettable. Moreover, it is mostly an unmelodious din that makes its appeal exclusively to a young audience and the brash ‘X Factor Generation’ of our morally and culturally bankrupt age.

What you have today, dear friend, are lyrics devoid of any lyricism and technology employed as a substitute for a want of genuine talent, jolly sad state of affairs, I say. In the Sixties and Seventies we had very talented song writers and/or record producing partners on both sides of the Atlantic, which were behind many of the popular songs of the day - David and Bacharach, Leiber and Stoller, Holland and Dozier, Lennon and Mc Cartney, Cook and Greenaway Tony Macaulay, Tony Hatch quickly spring to mind. The great and tuneful songs written by these chaps continue to remain immensely popular even unto to this day because, as Mr. Bennett says, they do have this “lasting quality”. Indeed, this is why there is a huge demand for compilation CD’s containing hits from the charts of yesteryear. People just love this music and even the younger generation, when they discover it for the first time on ‘You Tube’ say, are jolly impressed with what they hear and are not afraid to say so.

Finally, dear friend, what was so jolly splendid about the Hit Parade of the Sixties and Seventies was the sheer diversity of music and artists, which engaged all ages and not merely the youth or the ‘in crowd’. Lets look, for example, at the British Hit Parade this very week back in March 1967, which exemplifies both diversity and talent. At No. 14 we had I’m A Believer by The Monkees (written by Neil Diamond), at 17 I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman by one Whistling Jack Smith (a jolly catchy whistling number that you just cannot get out of your head once you have heard it), at 15 Give It To Me by The Troggs (previously had scored a massive hit with Wild Thing), at No. 8 we had Georgy Girl by The Seekers (title song from a British film of the same name starring Lyn Redgrave and James Mason), at 4 was the great Vince Hill with the lovely Edelweiss, at 2, something completely different, Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields a double a side 45 from The Beatles and, top of the charts at No.1, we had that old crooner Engelbert Humperdink with Release Me.

Now, dear friend, who can deny that popular music of this calibre is truly *popular *music that has very wide appeal and will stand the test of time. Will the so called popular music of today be fondly remembered in 40 years time and will it be eagerly sought after by popular music afficionadoes? Methinks not.

God bless.

Warmest good wishes,

Portrait

In Christos

 

[hamandcheese]

Any of you guys ever check out Postmodern jukebox on you tube? They redo modern pop songs in the style of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Its pretty cool. I’d put a link to it here but I don’t know how to do that.

 

[ServusHumilis]

Any of you guys ever check out Postmodern jukebox on you tube? They redo modern pop songs in the style of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Its pretty cool. I’d put a link to it here but I don’t know how to do that.

I just looked them up and listened to them sing “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus. While it sounds better I’m sure (I really couldn’t tell you having never heard the original), there’s no getting around the lewd lyrics.

 

[Cat]

I agree with Tony. I miss powerful, complex melodies.

I play piano in my city, and the kind of music that he sang is definitely experiencing a revival among the young musicians. There is a band of young people in our city that does exclusively “lounge” songs–the type of beautiful songs that were sung in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and some 60s. Very popular.

I would take this conversation further and say that much contemporary Christian music is in the same melody-less hole. So many of the songs are more like rap/chant than singing–no strong melody line. Just sing/shouting out words. Sometimes there are some very thought-provoking words in the songs, but without a strong melody, they won’t last.

Here’s an example: Was It a Morning Like This? a beautiful contemporary Sandi Patty song from a few decades ago youtube.com/watch?v=eb1ayV5sTtM

Now listen to Christ is Risen by Matt Maher youtube.com/watch?v=IExdrZGQVeI incredibly monotonous. To me, it sounds like a chant, over and over again, the same few notes. I suppose to Catholics who are looking for something “cool”, this sounds like really good stuff. It isn’t. But I guess when music education programs in the schools have been so abominable, those few notes are the only ones that people are capable of singing nowdays.

 

[christofirst]

I’m not sure that such a blanket statement is truly warranted. Not every song from the 40s and 50s, or whichever period Mr. Bennett might be nostalgic for, is a great classic. There were a lot of mediocre tunes back then as well.

I do often wonder how many great melodies or lyrics might be composed which never get heard, because of the way music is marketed. Of course, if this is so, I share in the blame because I do not go out of my way to find good, new music. I still listen mostly to the radio, or pick up on whatever is popular when I eventually hear it through some other form of modern media.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

Tony was right, modern music is just mindless junk. Of course it boils down to taste. The trouble is that most moderns have not been exposed to the classics.

Linus2nd

 

[Railsplitter]

Why take it so seriously? Remember that Futurama episode where Fry is listening to that Sir MixaLot song ( You know the one) and is accused of listening too much to “classical music?”

 

[Scott_Waddell]

From the Pope Emeritus:

On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense (populus). It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a cult of the banal. “Rock”, on the other hand, is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe. The music of the Holy Spirit’s sober inebriation seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind is a shackle, and breaking out from both appears as a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments.

 

[Origen52]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you like Tony’s style his songs are great. I’ve never liked that middle road jazz swing big band combo. One singer who has produced an incredible body of work is Bob Dylan. If you don’t like his singing style listen to the sung by others.

That being said, I find the older I get the more I’m drawn to classical music. Mozart can calm any heart.

 

[alexandratm]

Three thoughts on why I don’t really agree with him.

1. Everyone says some variation of this as they get older. Along with how society is worse, kids these days, blah blah blah.
2. He did a duet with Lady Gaga.
3. There’s good music to be found in all times. But it’s not usually on the pop charts, whether it’s 1950 or 2050. Anyone who talks about the good old days, I’m pointing you to such chart toppers like “Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)” or “Mashed Potato Time.”

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

blog.sfgate.com/dailydish/2014/03/20/tony-bennett-modern-music-is-terrible/

Well, it’s an interesting opinion. I grew up in the 90’s and I love lots of 80’s and 90’s music, but my parents (who grew up in the 60’s) prefer 50’s and 60’s music. Just a case of someone preferring the music that they grew up with, or legitimate point?

When he’s right he’s right, but for some here to suggest that all popular music of all eras should be rejected … Isn’t.

 

[PietroPaolo]

Compared to Palestrina (16th c), Bach (17th c), Mozart (18th c), and Beethoven (19th c) most of the music made in the twentieth century is “terrible.” But I do listen to stuff from the 90’s and early 2000’s (when I was in HS and College).

And, yes, I’m aware of Stravinsky, Debussy, Schoenberg, et al. And, yes, I’m sticking with “terrible.”

 

[new_atheist]

Hurray, Tony. Thanks a lot for speaking the truth! These so-called music artists are just pre-packaged pretenders. They rely on technology just to hide their real lack of talent. Britney Spears once performed in Perth, Oz and she was caught lip-synching and several of the audience stormed out. Rock bands, country and folk musicians are the real thing - they sing live, they write their own songs, they know how to play instruments and they’re not pretentious.

 

[hamandcheese]

Compared to Palestrina (16th c), Bach (17th c), Mozart (18th c), and Beethoven (19th c) most of the music made in the twentieth century is “terrible.”

You guys are getting a little carried away. Some of the best music ever made came out of the 20th century and it came from our country, the USA. Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, etc. Jazz is our classical music and every American should know it and be proud of it. Id put Ella Fitzgerald right up there next to Cecilia Bartoli or anyone else. I think this music might be the best thing we’ve ever given the world.