Today's generic music

[Fade]

I'm posting this in The Lab because I'm looking at this from a production standpoint.

Today for some reason I was checking some Rap stuff in Canada and what I noticed in @Fury Beats thread here: https://www.illmuzik.com/threads/contemporary-underground-hip-hop-artists.42234/ - a lot of it is generic.

I'm not trying to shit on today's music or production style, but I just find it interesting how everything sounds the same. I know in the 90's a lot of the beats sounded similar in the sense that they sampled a lot, whereas today it's the complete opposite. But with sampling it opens you up to so many possibilities because of what you're sampling. When you're using the same synth from the same software that a million other beatmakers are using, beats are bound to sound the same. I swear almost every Trap beat uses that same damn snare lol.

With sampling, there were plenty of producers that used the same sample as another producer, but they flipped it differently (pretty much). It was sort of an unwritten rule that you don't use the same sample as someone else. If you do, it better be a good flip.

But it's not about sampling vs. synths. I've just noticed how something like Trap beats are so damn generic for the most part. Some do stand out, and some are really good, but a lot of them just follow the same formula that I don't hear the difference between this guy and that guy.

Like if some rapper puts out a song that gets a billion Youtube views, I think to myself, "how is that beat any different than someone on ILL?".

Anyway, I'm just curious for those that make Trap/Drill/whatever and how they feel about making beats that sound really similar than pretty much most of today's beats out there.

 

[Fury Beats]

I'm posting this in The Lab because I'm looking at this from a production standpoint.

Today for some reason I was checking some Rap stuff in Canada and what I noticed in @Fury Beats thread here: https://www.illmuzik.com/threads/contemporary-underground-hip-hop-artists.42234/ - a lot of it is generic.

I'm not trying to shit on today's music or production style, but I just find it interesting how everything sounds the same. I know in the 90's a lot of the beats sounded similar in the sense that they sampled a lot, whereas today it's the complete opposite. But with sampling it opens you up to so many possibilities because of what you're sampling. When you're using the same synth from the same software that a million other beatmakers are using, beats are bound to sound the same. I swear almost every Trap beat uses that same damn snare lol.

With sampling, there were plenty of producers that used the same sample as another producer, but they flipped it differently (pretty much). It was sort of an unwritten rule that you don't use the same sample as someone else. If you do, it better be a good flip.

But it's not about sampling vs. synths. I've just noticed how something like Trap beats are so damn generic for the most part. Some do stand out, and some are really good, but a lot of them just follow the same formula that I don't hear the difference between this guy and that guy.

Like if some rapper puts out a song that gets a billion Youtube views, I think to myself, "how is that beat any different than someone on ILL?".

Anyway, I'm just curious for those that make Trap/Drill/whatever and how they feel about making beats that sound really similar than pretty much most of today's beats out there.

In one of the other threads, @Fade, that group Griselda is a brainchild of Eminen I think (or at least he has a hand in it). I know they have a distribution deal if nothing else. On the other topic, especially now that BeatID and ContentID are out there, it is way too easy to get flagged for lifting someone else's stuff (even if "Royalty Free"). From a musical standpoint, I don't want to run a BeatID on one of my distributed or published tracks and see 100s of variations of a free loop or sound that I used. I am now as a result tryning to make more beats using variations of one-shots and other sounds to keep the uniqueness factor going. I'd rather know for sure, yes, this person stole my track and then contact them to see where we can come to an agreement (especially if it blows up) rather than, as I said before seeing 100s of variations of small parts of songs used by others. Those up and

To your other points about the views, I think it's all in the ads, marketing and promotion that they put out there. Some of those beats are no better than the one's here but the difference is who's ears those beats are getting to the fastest. Same thing can be said about startups. The ones that get funding, marketing and ads are more likely to succeed than the ones that are just bootstrapped (with a few exceptions). Not only do the funded startups get more chances to fail and pivot, they also have a stronger marketing and advertising engine.

I guess the underground rappers up-and-coming are still underground for reasons you stated.

 

[Fade]

In one of the other threads, @Fade, that group Griselda is a brainchild of Eminen I think (or at least he has a hand in it). I know they have a distribution deal if nothing else. On the other topic, especially now that BeatID and ContentID are out there, it is way too easy to get flagged for lifting someone else's stuff (even if "Royalty Free"). From a musical standpoint, I don't want to run a BeatID on one of my distributed or published tracks and see 100s of variations of a free loop or sound that I used. I am now as a result tryning to make more beats using variations of one-shots and other sounds to keep the uniqueness factor going. I'd rather know for sure, yes, this person stole my track and then contact them to see where we can come to an agreement (especially if it blows up) rather than, as I said before seeing 100s of variations of small parts of songs used by others. Those up and

To your other points about the views, I think it's all in the ads, marketing and promotion that they put out there. Some of those beats are no better than the one's here but the difference is who's ears those beats are getting to the fastest. Same thing can be said about startups. The ones that get funding, marketing and ads are more likely to succeed than the ones that are just bootstrapped (with a few exceptions). Not only do the funded startups get more chances to fail and pivot, they also have a stronger marketing and advertising engine.

I guess the underground rappers up-and-coming are still underground for reasons you stated.

Oh for sure about the sampling and contentid and all that. That's why I'm not saying this is sampling vs. synth, but for those that make synth (Trap/Drill/etc), why not make something different?

Why not make a new type of Trap? A new set of chords? A new style of drum pattern?

By using the built-in synths and drum loops, why use them like that? Why not chop them up and do something different?

Let's be honest, there's a LOT of lazy beats out there. It's just cookie cutter stuff. So my point is, why should I listen to rapper A when I could listen to rapper B who sounds the exact same?

 

[Fury Beats]

Oh for sure about the sampling and contentid and all that. That's why I'm not saying this is sampling vs. synth, but for those that make synth (Trap/Drill/etc), why not make something different?

Why not make a new type of Trap? A new set of chords? A new style of drum pattern?

By using the built-in synths and drum loops, why use them like that? Why not chop them up and do something different?

Let's be honest, there's a LOT of lazy beats out there. It's just cookie cutter stuff. So my point is, why should I listen to rapper A when I could listen to rapper B who sounds the exact same?

Well, the industry is copycat. Everyone wants to be the next thing like that of the past. They might think that copying is the fastest way to success. I mean literally, there is no such thing as a new idea, but I get the point. It is better to be unique through variations rather than a carbon copy. Same way when you start a company. Why be a carbon copy, what is your secret sauce that makes you better than Company A? Do you just execute the same idea better. I have had a company started literally because I started a company and they had a better UI and got more traction as a result. So, if you have the formula, you tweak it a little but don't change the main ingredient to make it a winner. That sounds like the ideology of a lot of the rappers these days.

 

[Fade]

Well, the industry is copycat. Everyone wants to be the next thing like that of the past. They might think that copying is the fastest way to success. I mean literally, there is no such thing as a new idea, but I get the point. It is better to be unique through variations rather than a carbon copy. Same way when you start a company. Why be a carbon copy, what is your secret sauce that makes you better than Company A? Do you just execute the same idea better. I have had a company started literally because I started a company and they had a better UI and got more traction as a result. So, if you have the formula, you tweak it a little but don't change the main ingredient to make it a winner. That sounds like the ideology of a lot of the rappers these days.

Once my MPC is up and running I'm going to do an experiment.

 

[Fury Beats]

To your earlier point @Fade Here is a song one of those rappers did to Nautilus sample. I remember you had a Flip It contest a year or two about this:

 

[OGBama]

The @Fury Beats music industry has been about copycat behavior since the days of the Brill Building but in today’s era the modern equivalent would be AI spitting out perfect tempos, etc. and it feels like the masses are blindly accepting cookie cutter corporate template copy/paste, rinse and repeat, on to the next one Muzak (‘cause I damn sure don’t, can’t and won’t call it music).

The @Fade main reason everything sounds the same is the fact that everyone has almost equal access to music tech. I hate how we humans claim we want “different” and “novel” although I’ve understood since my late teens that there is a difference between “different” as opposed to “different for different’s sake” which in the case of music the latter can reek of trying too hard. What irks me is when people claim they want different but then also want nostalgia.

 

[Iron Keys]

Beats are so identical producers dont exist no more.

Before you'd have a Dr Dre style beat, or Timbaland style beat... now you have "drake x lil baby type beat"

I made this argument ages ago and everyone got up in arms. Glad to see people are finally catching on.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Was having this discussion at the studio and somebody made a good point. Its all the kids know, because thats all the radio plays.
They honestly dont know any better because they are fed crap

 

[Iron Keys]

Most use the same samples(one shots), follow the same tutorial, use the same sound, in the same key, clicked in using the same daw (FL), using the same melodies, titling their beat the same, using the same beat tag.

Then to top it off, the rapper on top uses the exact same flow (triplet; 123 123), with autotune.

Like i said, you have a million people making the same one song over and over.

The kids making this shit probably don't even have the capacity to make anything different, because they're not listening to anything different.

 

[2GooD Productions]

The kids making this shit probably don't even have the capacity to make anything different, because they're not listening to anything different.

basically this

 

[Fade]

Well of course that's all the younger ones know, so they try to emulate it. It's just when making those style of beats, they're using all kinds of virtual instruments, so they have a lot of sounds at their fingertips and can create whatever they want. Instead they make the same thing as the next guy. It's sad.

It's kind of like how nobody reads the manual anymore, instead they get a fresh copy of FL Studio and immediately go to YouTube and look for a tutorial. I just wish people would try to make something different. Think back to when Dre came out with the Chronic - that completely changed the West Coast sound. Wu-Tang came out and that flipped the East Coast on its head.

Now there's no more West Coast, East Coast, Dirty South, etc. In the 90's here in Canada the beats and rappers were influenced by the New York sound but we definitely had our own style. When I listened to the stuff that's across Canada now, it's all the same! It sounds like everything else out there.

So this is why when we do battle themes here, I see it as a good way for people to try different styles, sounds, techniques, etc. Maybe they will discover something they really enjoy and start making a different style of beats. But hearing the same style of beats, and the same kind of rapping today is tiresome. Very tiresome. We've gone from the 80s where rappers were talking about not doing drugs, now the rappers are ON drugs and glorify it.

Anyway, I just thought it would be good to discuss today's music and how generic it is, with no end in sight.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Well of course that's all the younger ones know, so they try to emulate it. It's just when making those style of beats, they're using all kinds of virtual instruments, so they have a lot of sounds at their fingertips and can create whatever they want. Instead they make the same thing as the next guy. It's sad.

It's kind of like how nobody reads the manual anymore, instead they get a fresh copy of FL Studio and immediately go to YouTube and look for a tutorial. I just wish people would try to make something different. Think back to when Dre came out with the Chronic - that completely changed the West Coast sound. Wu-Tang came out and that flipped the East Coast on its head.

Now there's no more West Coast, East Coast, Dirty South, etc. In the 90's here in Canada the beats and rappers were influenced by the New York sound but we definitely had our own style. When I listened to the stuff that's across Canada now, it's all the same! It sounds like everything else out there.

So this is why when we do battle themes here, I see it as a good way for people to try different styles, sounds, techniques, etc. Maybe they will discover something they really enjoy and start making a different style of beats. But hearing the same style of beats, and the same kind of rapping today is tiresome. Very tiresome. We've gone from the 80s where rappers were talking about not doing drugs, now the rappers are ON drugs and glorify it.

Anyway, I just thought it would be good to discuss today's music and how generic it is, with no end in sight.

Everything has become generic, all entertainment. Its all cookie cutter, playing it safe label execs.
Its either that or they are trying to shoehorn globalist "woke" agendas into everything even though its not profitable. Like Ghostbusters, Lord Of the Rings, Star Wars and Dr Who.
When you are surrounded by mediocrity, and mediocrity is all anybody wants, then mediocrity is all we will ever get.
Comedy is on life support, so is good music.

 

[Fade]

Everything has become generic, all entertainment. Its all cookie cutter, playing it safe label execs.
Its either that or they are trying to shoehorn globalist "woke" agendas into everything even though its not profitable. Like Ghostbusters, Lord Of the Rings, Star Wars and Dr Who.
When you are surrounded by mediocrity, and mediocrity is all anybody wants, then mediocrity is all we will ever get.
Comedy is on life support, so is good music.

Yeah the same can be said for all entertainment. On one hand there's just TOO MUCH of everything. There's tons of movies out there, a lot are low budget, but then on the music side, anyone can make a beat, rap over it and upload it online. So we're left with a lot of low budget music, in a sense.

The bottom line I guess is that if music fans are perfectly content with listening to the same stuff over and over, that's too bad for them. They're missing out on a lot of potentially good music.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Yeah the same can be said for all entertainment. On one hand there's just TOO MUCH of everything. There's tons of movies out there, a lot are low budget, but then on the music side, anyone can make a beat, rap over it and upload it online. So we're left with a lot of low budget music, in a sense.

The bottom line I guess is that if music fans are perfectly content with listening to the same stuff over and over, that's too bad for them. They're missing out on a lot of potentially good music.

I just dont see people consuming music in any way like we used to. Our avenues of entertainment were limited.
I remember there only being 3 channels on the TV, when it was only pirate radio stations playing good underground music.
I watched Kiss FM in London go from pirate radio to legit radio. People like Tim Westwood started out on Kiss FM, had Rodigan on Kiss FM. We didnt have internet, if we wanted to watch a movie we could wait for the saturday night movie, or go and rent a video cassette. The internet just opened up a whole new world of accessibility to entertainment like music, games and movies. The easy access IMO has cheapened and devalued it. People dont appreciate good art like they used to, because they dont have to, they can move on to the next new trend. There are of course always exceptions to the trends but generally thats how its gone down.

 

[OGBama]

It @Fade and @2GooD Productions doesn't and won't help that the music industry favors nostalgia ad nauseam by way of releasing legacy catalog music in the form of boxed sets, etc. 'cause it's less risky as opposed to taking risks (like back in the day) via artist development (which is a thing of the past). It's the music industry equivalent to when Hollyweird releases (or it is rehashes) the same franchise remakes, sequels, etc. and people know no better nor want and/or care to.

The too much of everything phenomenon saddens me to no end.

 

[2GooD Productions]

The too much of everything phenomenon saddens me to no end.

An overabundance of everything but common sense and critical thought.

Watched a panel the cast of Revenge of the Nerds did. The actors came up with most of the funny stuff while filming the movie, they had a big part in what the film became and its cult success. It just doesnt work that way anymore, I dont think. There are teams of writers, publicists, and all other sorts that have made a career out of piggybacking on the careers of successful talented artists, where the talent gets less and less and the talentless parasites get more and more(360 deals).

 

[Fury Beats]

I think its more the fault of record execs and A&Rs searching for the same ole...Whoever makes the final decision on what they are gonna push. Creators are really just acting upon where the demand is.

 

[Fury Beats]

Illmuzik should create a label called "Illstalgic Records" and try to bring back the glory days, lol...would there be a market for it though?

 

[2GooD Productions]

Illmuzik should create a label called "Illstalgic Records" and try to bring back the glory days, lol...would there be a market for it though?

there is still a market for it, its just small, and getting smaller.