Have All The Best Songs Been Written?

[Ryan81]

Hello. I'm sorry if this has been discussed here already. I just found this place a couple of weeks ago so I'm just kind of finding my way around. Anyhow, as the title says, have all the best songs been written already? I know that "best" is very subjective, but there are only 12 tones in our music (without taking octaves into consideration) and only a handful of those sound pleasing to the ear when they are combined or layed out one after another (ie chord progressions). Obviously the rhythm they are played in and the instruments that are used add a tremendous amount of variety, but think about the massive number of songs that have been written.
Take Rock N Roll for example. By rock n roll I mean music consisting of drums, bass, guitar, and usually with vocals and sometimes a keyboard instrument of some type. There have been hundreds of thousands, if not more, rock n roll songs written. So when you take into consideration the finite number of notes, progressions, and appropriate rhythms that work for rock n roll one has to imagine the well is getting pretty dry.
While some might argue, I think most around here would agree that the music of the past 20 years or so pales in comparison to the music that was coming out in the 60's through the 80's. I think one of the main reasons for that is because it's all been done already. It's easier than ever to make a decent sounding track in your bedroom these days so that means you have more people than ever putting their music out there, but yet...nothing is really lighting the world on fire.
So is the well really dry or perhaps maybe people were saying the same thing in 1962 right before four guys from Liverpool figured they would give it a try and in the process open up a whole new world of songs for us all to enjoy for the next several decades? Sadly, I think it is the former.
(Sorry for the long winded post. It's a bad habit of mine on forums like this. I am completely unable to edit my thoughts into a few concise sentences that people tend to appreciate more, but I will work on it.)

 

[Hydrazoic Acid]

So is the well really dry or perhaps maybe people were saying the same thing in 1962 right before four guys from Liverpool figured they would give it a try and in the process open up a whole new world of songs for us all to enjoy for the next several decades? Sadly, I think it is the former.

Yeah, some "very smart" managers and critics said to early Fab Four, that "guitar bands are out of trends" (today such a nonsense is impossible to read without laughing).

Nowadays, I personally think, that yes - the source is dry. If Queen, Uriah Heep and ELO oriented to Beethoven, Chopin, The Beatles and The Who - than now too many of today's musicians have a lot of low-quality and shoddy examples to follow, so, hence the very significant decline in the quality of music.
In addition, there are a huge number of musicians playing some "genre", "style", instead of focusing on creating high-quality melodies and harmonies.
IMHO.

 

[dr wu]

I think it depends a good deal on what era one grew up in and lived through. I like the songs of the 60s and 70's the best but that's my prime listening times. I'm betting that someone who grew up in the 80s and 90s onward into the 2000's might think some of the best songs came from that time frame.
I know people in the 22 to 40 something age group and they aren't particularly enamored of many of the old classic rock things I like even though I think they are brilliant.

 

[CP/M User]

It's possible to overplay a song, you can get tired of a song that way.

With regard to Musical Genres, even to this day music from any Genre is still being created, I still hear it on a community based radio station with community DJs promoting their wares.

What gets me is why people or hospitality businesses continue to play the worst sort of music at parties or their venues, drowning out guests or patrons forcing people to yell, which simply becomes a wall of noise!

 

[dr wu]

It's possible to overplay a song, you can get tired of a song that way.

With regard to Musical Genres, even to this day music from any Genre is still being created, I still hear it on a community based radio station with community DJs promoting their wares.

What gets me is why people or hospitality businesses continue to play the worst sort of music at parties or their venues, drowning out guests or patrons forcing people to yell, which simply becomes a wall of noise!

I'm with you on that....I have a favorite watering hole/eatery in my town where the servers know me onsight . A few of us go there a lot for craft beers and food.....they always play the same top 40 canned music lists (80s to 2000s) which only has a a few older songs in the mix. I always rag the servers/bartender I know but they say they have no control that its the owner/mgr who gets to decide.
Average age customer is probably early 40's but I see plenty of older people.
Thankfully they dont have it up that loud.

 

[CP/M User]

I'm with you on that....I have a favorite watering hole/eatery in my town where the servers know me onsight . A few of us go there a lot for craft beers and food.....they always play the same top 40 canned music lists (80s to 2000s) which only has a a few older songs in the mix. I always rag the servers/bartender I know but they say they have no control that its the owner/mgr who gets to decide.
Average age customer is probably early 40's but I see plenty of older people.
Thankfully they dont have it up that loud.

I just asked Google "Venues with Ambient Music" and initially the results looked promising until I discovered they're all places of catering, booking functions and that kind of thing, in that situation you'd have control of the music to play.
I then asked "Cafes with Ambient Music", though that just lit up every single cafe regardless. Maybe in time Google will get Smart about this and select either zero or what places Management have decided to use Ambient music.
Perhaps ChatGPT offers better suggestions, though I'm not on it and understand you have to pay to use it?

 

[Saiyan Rocker]

I have to say that every generation has brought something to the table, granted post 2010 the industry itself has been lacking but a few gems have squeaked by.

It is something about this era, that lacks creativity and imagination. I don't what it is, but is definitely showing

 

[Saiyan Rocker]

Lately I've gone to gas stations and Walmart, for some reason they have this cringe country music playing. I would rather hear nothing at all than that awful noise.

I can't stand radio stations today, which is why I'm glad my car has a USB function. The play 5 songs on a loop, or talk followed by hours of ads. It is truly awful

 

[Magnus59]

There are still many great songs being written, some of the best in my opinion being from the brilliant composer Tuomas Holopainen.

 

[Aero]

There are a couple things at play here:

First of all, music played on the radio is bad on purpose. Our globalist overlords want to destroy Western civilization. And turning our art to ugliness is part of the plan. Since they control all of the media, they dictate to record companies who to sign and who will get played on the radio.

Secondly, even if you try to find great artists off the radio, you will have a hard time doing so because musicians these days do not put in nearly the same amount of time mastering their craft as people did in the past. With all the distractions these days (like the Internet), there just isn't enough time put into learning their instrument to become really good at it. And the music suffers because of this.