The Demise Of The Electric Guitar In Music

There are times when a trend happens so fast that it’s just like being hit in the face with an ice cold towel, and then there are times when it’s so slow moving that you can feel something happening, but it takes a while before you realize that you’re totally immersed in something new. A little of both happened to me over the last week as it finally sunk in that mainstream pop music is now totally represented by the latest music trend. And guess what? The electric guitar, staple of modern music for more than 50 years, has no part in it.

In case you’re wondering, it’s electronic dance music (or EDM as we’ve grown to call it) that has totally blended with pop music to become the current background music of our lives. It’s now in every nook and cranny where the hippest music is played.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m in the music business up to my ears every day and I’m totally aware that EDM has become both a phenomenon and a giant money maker over the last three or four years in terms of live events. I’m also more than aware that over the last two years elements of EDM have permeated the Top 40 charts on the vast majority of hits. You have to be completely musically unconscious to not to have seen and heard that.

And I read the stats and watch the revenue numbers involving EDM, where you could see the big money of the major promoters and record labels making their moves to claim their territory over the last year. It’s usually a sign that a trend has peaked as the big brands move in to stake their claim and squeeze every last drop of financial juice out of the trend that they can, as seems to be happening at the moment. You read and absorb all this data, but sometimes it just doesn’t sink in. Needless to say I was unprepared for my recent mini-revelation. Read More On Forbes.

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Scientists Confirm That Pop Music Is Bland

I've always felt that when people said that current music isn't as good as what previously came before, that it was more of a sign of a "generation gap" rather than a serious evaluation of the music. After all, this has been a reoccurring theme since the 1920's or so that still continues to this day. But now it seems that there's some real scientific evidence that actually confirms the argument.

A study by the Spanish National Research Council has found that current music is indeed more similar sounding, and louder, than ever. The study looked at over a million songs from the last 50 years and found that pop songs have become more bland in terms of the chords, the melodies and types of sounds used. In other words, music has become just what we've always feared - more "homogenized."

One of the more worrisome things they found is that the diversity of transitions between note combinations of chords and melodies have consistently diminished in the last 50 years. And for producers and engineers, the fact that we've settled on a more limited variety of sounds.

Of course, they also verified on of the things that everyone in the industry has been complaining about for the last 20 years - recorded music is indeed louder than it ever was. No surprise there.

And what was their recipe for turning things around? To record older songs with simpler chord progressions and with different instruments, and of course, louder. That's where they lost me.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.