[rdnzl]

Yes. Strip away all the tech stuff. No overdubs. No autotune. No fancy processing, and the talent will always reveal itself. Good OR bad.

I can't stand the group Train. I seriously dislike their songs. But their lead singer can SING. I've listened to him sing on a couple of shows, singing other people's songs,  and he really does have a good voice.  Even a great voice can't make up for poor songwriting.

Then there's people like Neil Young. Most people would say he's a bad singer. But his songs are magic for the most part. Musically quite good, even with him croaking out the lyrics.  His music shines through. 

I'm not particularly impressed with Bruce Springsteen's vocal prowess. But the songs are great. You can feel the lyrics as they are delivered.  You don't have to have a perfect singing voice to be a great singer.

[PhilcoPhan1936]

One of my favorite artists has been around since 1979, and is still producing honest, uplifting music. I just ordered one of his latest albums for a friend a couple weeks ago, and then a week later, for myself, from his website. He actually called to confirm I was in fact ordering another copy. He is a true, humble gentleman and musician. It was an honor and pleasure to chat with him briefly.    

Here's the title track from his CD I'm anxiously awaiting in the mail.  

[Video: https://youtu.be/rzFiAIJWovQ]

[Paul Philco322]

Getting a bit off track from the thread but this is a topic that folks like to speak on, Philco Phan fellows like Mr. Bennett are in a niche, always good musicians and singers around, so if a great singer performs their own song in the woods and no one hears, no Pandora, no Apple, is it still beautiful?

Paul

[rdnzl]

Good music is in the music itself. It matters not if it is heard.

[morzh]

Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him around anyhow…




As for todays music, I don't listen to it.
My son when he was about 11 asked me, "dad, how come all good music was written before the 70-s and now it's scuch a crap?"
I only have to agree. Every once in a while there's something interesting but this happens rarer than my kids were born. I have two.

To be fair, this is not just music. The whole concept of life is getting artificialized. Tamagochi instead of pets. Hundreds of Facebook friends instead of a few real ones. Strawberries that don't taste, milk that smells and tastes like plastic. Houses that are built fast, cheap and like crap.
The whole idea is - faster, cheaper and it should sell. Oh....and - disposable.
Yes, this is it. This music is just that . Disposable.

[rdnzl]

When I am around a young person who proclaims how great song X is, I always ask them, (not that they get it) if they think the song will hold the test of time, or be forgotten? Will get airplay any sort of sale in 30 years. Or 20. Or even ten.


Most of it is so disposable, it won't be remembered next YEAR.

[Paul Philco322]

I think Mike is about spot on, I can vividly remember having a GE AM/FM that I would listen to the top ten, Band On the Run, Rock the Boat, etc.....the silvertone was only AM. I still hear those songs, and disposable is in. 

I have a young neighbor from Poland, she and her husband renovated a 1949 home next to mine, she asked me once "why do people tear down good houses and build and live in plastic houses"? Listen to real music, or plastic music. As this thread was started it seems modern pop is produced on the writing of a few and packaged to be the same, commercially safe, like movies, risk on a different idea is too much, so more movies about giant Gorillas, sequels.....

I wonder?

Paul

[rfeenstra]

Been following this thread with great interest.  I find myself listening to more and more jazz and classical as I can't find anything else on the FM band worth listening to. If I'm working on my DAW, I can bring up countless hours of good music.  I would love to be able to broadcast that locally in high quality FM stereo, and in wide band AM.  What transmitters are you guys using that put out a good quality signal - particularly multiplex FM?  I want to be able to get away from scanning the dial for no good music.  (Put this in another thread if it is too far removed from the topic!)

[morzh]

It seems like there is a campain has started around the world against plastic and disposables.
Maybe it will touch music too?

[Ron Ramirez]

rfeenstra

I'm using an EDM TX-LCD-EP FM Stereo transmitter; John (Eliot Ness) pointed this one out to me when I was wondering out loud what I could use to transmit FM just within my home.

https://www.edmdesign.com/orders-1.html

No, it isn't (and wasn't) cheap, but it is FM Stereo, stable as a rock, and it just works! I'm very pleased with mine.

For AM I have the same transmitter many other collectors use - an SSTRAN AMT3000. Unfortunately these are no longer available unless you find one on the auction site or are lucky enough to buy one from another collector.

I know what you mean about not being able to find good programming on FM. Where I live, about 80% of the FM stations are country. The remaining 20% are some form of rock/pop and maybe a "Oldies/Classic Hits" station or two. One of the local FM stations plays a strange mix of oldies and newer stuff, but they gleefully cut away for any/all of the sports they can think of.

[Arran]

I don't know if this would be considered a political comment or not but I think that the downturn in the quality of entertainment, recorded music, movies, and television has a lot to do with the consolidation of media, and also the personal views, and tastes, of whomever runs these conglomerates. Take the Walt Disney Company for example, it started with animated shorts under Uncle Walt himself, then moved into television and movie production, now it owns ABC, ESPN, and other cable channels, and several dozen radio stations, but do they produce what the public wants anymore, NO, they produce what appeals to the executives of the company, and their friends at Hollywood cocktail parties. Their attitude is that they can turn out any kind of shlock, and if they market it hard enough though any of their outlets, people will buy it. The attitude is not much different at CBS, NBC, or the CW networks, all with the same unimaginative, Hollywood elite based group think, nobody really has any new ideas since they all came out of that same bubble, and nobody really tries to compete, just match whatever the other guys are doing. The same is true of many radio stations, most of their programing is set at a head office somewhere, beamed in via satellite, and they don't really care what the listeners want since most are owned by conglomerates, who average their profits, and losses, out over 50 or more stations. 
Regards
Arran

[NostalgiaRadioTime]

You're absolutely right, Arran. Conglomerates like Clear Channel and iHeart radio all crank out pre-determined songs and scheduling of those songs to their radio affiliates. Disc jockeys, as they were, are becoming obsolete (unless you have a specialty show airing weekly on a sustaining basis ) DJ's don't even have to be in the studio anymore....it's all auto-pilot. They record their liners and song intro's ahead of time and it's all digitally edited together. I know of one local long-time DJ in the area that left a prime morning drive time slot all because of one of those conglomerates, moving to a different station where they are independent and control which songs get played themselves. Listen to any of those "big box" stations for an 8 hour shift at work and you'll hear the same songs played at least 5 or 6 times during that period. That is no accident. They think it helps create a hit song but all it does (for me, anyhow) is make me get sick of hearing it that much faster.

[rfeenstra]

Thanks Ron. I ordered one of the EDM transmitters. I've been looking but didn't know what to buy. Your input helped. When I get tired of all of the canned music programing, I'll be able to make my own canned music programs.

[rdnzl]

My Bluetooth receiver cost 20 bucks. But it does require an input jack on the radio for it to work. I use an equalizer on my laptop to tailor the sound a bit, but my antique radios sounds great using this setup. Anything I can get on my laptop, or my iPhone can be transmitted to my radios. I was fortunate to have phono jacks already on my radios, but I understand that it's not hard to add a jack if you know what you are doing. I had to get an adapter wire that goes from 1/8 mini stereo to 1/4 inch RCA mono. That was all.

The AM reception in my area is pretty poor, and I've got some long wire circling around up in my attic as an antenna.

[Ron Ramirez]

rfeenstra, don't thank me...thank John (Eliot). Without his input, I might still be looking as well.