Stop Making Music Until You Watch This 

Well, just remember, how we approached music back then. A friend told us about this great new record or played a song to us. Then we pondered, if we could afford to buy the album. And when we could, we were all exited to listen to it. And when we listened to it over and over again and sometimes the songs that ended up being the most valuable ones to us , took 4 or 5 times of listening, before we digged them. Today on spotify people skip after 20 seconds, if they don‘t like a song instantly, especially, if they don‘t know the artist. We all know the Max Martin rules, that tell us to bring up the first catchy chorus within this very short attention span. So no, that kind of music will never be back in mainstream. But it is still out there and everybody can find it.

I was born in 61 and couldn’t agree with you more.. Nostalgia and memories in general, are typically triggered by smells and music. There is too much monotony in todays music and lyrics are often an afterthought. I’m hopeful the trends change, there is much talent out there to think it won’t..

What a great message. I agree 100%. When I hear people complain about lack of substance in today's music, I always say it us up to US, the independent artists, to fill that void.

Great episode Barry. I agree! We need more music that moves us. The tricky thing is, the music you suggest requires an even deeper level of vulnerability. And let’s face it, just putting yourself out there with a poppy feel good song is challenging enough for many. I hope more will find the courage to push through and be truly vulnerable.

Right said.... Not only the sound aspect of it but the melody & emotions likewise play a vital role in how music moves us

Great speech! So true. Since the monetary value of music is gone, we need to move people, even if we do not become rich.

Very inspirational Thanks Barry. I sure will

Great words Barry your so right 👍

Couldn’t agree with you more Barry. Keep doing what you do and thank you for your generosity with your time. All the best!

Great video Barry. Thanks much!

Great message Barry! Cheers.

That's my life. I don't regret it. I'm fully identified with your thoughts. Cheers

Man, I am loving this channel and your videos so much. Sometimes we concentrate and look for videos on just the technical aspects of music that we miss this type of video which I think is equally important. The inspiring type of video just like all the ones I have seen here in your channel Barry. Thank you so much and blessings always!

I just wrote a 70’s ska tune ala Specials tributing Terry who recently passed. I played it for my 25 year old niece and she really loved it and knew about The Specials. Played it for my 80 year old mom and she loved it. Playing in 2 ska bands for 10 years in the late 90’s and at 44 my playing is a lot more refined and focused. Now is when I’m playing to my fullest potential and it is showing in my final productions.

Great point!

Great. Thanks for the inspiration. Let’s make some music.

Barry, hope you're well. thank you for your thoughts. Now it's the time for me to take control of my life musically speaking. It's crazy how your message came in the right time for me. Just want to say thank you, I will do it. have a good one

I am 61 years of age, and I know exactly what you mean. The social issues of the day are burried beneath whats "Popular" and no one address the culture with poetry with-in the music.

Thanks, Berry. And, Right On! I'm a little older than you (by little over a decade) and started writing music in the 70's because I loved it so much and it moved me. Been writing ever since. But, only recently (in the last decade) started recording and producing it. I've slacked off a little (mainly got caught in the "plug-in trap" and equipment envy that you talked about on another video). But, I'm going to try to take your advice and get back to seriously writing, recording and producing my thoughts .... because they move me ... and maybe might move someone else. Thanks, again.

Thank you Barry. I agree that producing music from the heart is most important and somewhat lacking in today’s mainstream. One way to fix this is to listen and discover music out of the mainstream. It’s wonderful to stumble upon artists with a few hundred likes on Spotify, SoundCloud, etc. Some of my favorites have appeared in “share your song” threads in the forums, and also in songwriting virtual meetups. Best regards

Well said!

Yes, yes and yes 👍

Thanks!

Today’s popular music has become a seemingly endless pipeline of forgettable online content.

thanks!

i'm glad you qualified that there is still great music being made today- the difference is thoughtful, experimental music is not mainstream like in the 70's

My 24 years old daughter is all about the Woodstock area...

Thanks for this very important message....I just want to add one a statement which a famous composer in India said few things on this subject.....He says the music should have life in it...a natural flow and life in it.

I'm 18. When I was 8, I started to really appreciate music, but I avoided tracks with vocals entirely, because all I'd heard were tracks on the radio, and I found it uninspiring. I listened to video game soundtracks, chiptune, and instrumental stuff. Now, having spent a long time actively searching for and discovering heartfelt music, I can promise you that there are countless artists who do seek to move themselves and others, even today. It is even more exciting to discover interesting art in such a mediocre landscape. Mainstream music made me ignorant to the possibility that people even honestly expressed themselves using their voice. Now, I find our voice to be the most powerful instrument at our disposal, and I wish I had sang more when I was little. I have a lot of practice to do.

Thank you Barry. The last band that performed music that actually moved me and spoke to my heart, soul and deepest emotions was Frightened Rabbit. Scott Hutchison put his entire soul into his lyrics that touched on sometimes very dark themes he struggled with throughout his life. The arrangements and production of the tracks are stellar. Sadly, Scott could no longer cope with his demons and took his own life. But he left us with extraordinary music.

Keep doing what you’re doing Barry , even if it means you’re the only one.

well said

Your topic was moving. I’m a 1963 baby who is truly influenced from the music before and after then. Up until the late 90‘s . My archive is so so in size., done mostly with sequencing with keyboard and a 4track .However crossing over to the computer age is saddened by my inability to latch onto the spiritual connection to this technology. At 59 it is for me more comfortable to be taught like old school , from a classroom approach. This music today is interesting but by far less work in comparison to the we wrote wrote and recorded way back when .thanks for your channel and tips on the matter. DaraShayn Riley

Agree! Today’s my birthday. March 64.

Thanks for saying this. Hanging out on some of the forums, I feel like a lot of people today are focused on generating “content” and making sure their stuff sounds “right,” whatever that means. I’ve pointed out that there are (mostly older) albums out there that, if you deleted the vocalist and had never heard the songs, you might not realize consecutive songs were even performed by the same *band*. An example is The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed: Midnight Rambler -> You Got the Silver -> Monkey Man -> You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Cripes. It’s hard to even pin them to a genre! There IS good music today. I’ve found it on Bandcamp. Dayna Kurtz, The Spinshots, MAKU SoundSystem… But there’s a lot of mediocrity as well. I guess there always has been. I just wish there was still a culture of…I dunno if competition is the right word… The Beach Boys spurred The Beatles to new heights, The Beatles pushed the Stones, and Hendrix existed on his own planet. I wish some of that crazy spirit was alive today.

I was born in 72, but the 70s had a huge impact on me musically because my Mom constantly spun records and had the radio on. All the time, at home in the car, you name it. I have music memories I tie to points in my life from when I was very, very young. The stuff that's most ingrained in me (and my first love) is the philly soul from the 70s. That stuff moves me more than anything. The other big part of me is rock and metal (I know those are complete opposite genres) from the mid-70s through the late 80s and some grunge. Reality is I like stuff from every genre from pop to yacht rock to disco to 40s big band, you name it though I do not care for older (50s-70s) country, nor do I like most of the new EDM stuff.

The reason I quited the band I was previously was exactly that. "You can't do that or that ¨cause it will not be played on the radio or people don't want to listen long intros etc...." How can I be trustworthy to convince people that my music is real when I do it just for whats in or hip for the moment!??? Screw that! I don't care if nobody likes it or not, it must come from the heart otherwise it's just fake trash! So I defenitely agree with this! Thanx! 😊

"Music that moves us" - This is what I am working on actually! My latest song about infidelity is called "What you did". Thanks for this video Barry 🙂

I've been in such a rut that I don't even feel like picking up the bass, much less write music. I tried to force myself the other day and it was painful to even listen to some chord and try to make something out of them. I've got a lot of things to say but seems I kind of lost the capacity to say them... Sorry, your video just made me want to share a bit... thanks

Wait a minute, the ToneX pedal IS A GAME CHANGER !!!

Message!

There was a time when true artists made a huge impact in popular culture. Now is not that time. True artists are as many still. But are rarely found in popular culture.

To write something of your own - from your soul you should not listen at all to what is fashionable today / you need to turn off the world and create your own outside of digital slag / thanks for your videos !!

I really appreciate you broaching this subject, Barry. It has occupied my mind for 25+ years. Your channel is becoming indispensable for me; thank you! I was born a year after you. After 25 years of pondering why I don't listen to popular music, I arrived at this: Music is a function of its cultural time and place, and, in our economic system all things ultimately become commodities; it's the logic of the system. I can't expect our current popular culture and pop-culture's music business to groom and develop Marvin, Led Zeppelin, Tribe Called..., Carole King, Gamble and Huff, Larry Levin, The Bee Gees, U2, Wynton Marsalis, Whitney, Kool-Herc, Van Halen, Michael Jackson, James Brown, Foreigner, George Michael, De La Soul, Don Henley and EWF et al.; heck even Hip Hop and House music play as derivative and do not move me in the least, since the early 90s G-Funk era and Dre sampling all those soul records, making music and creating an audio aesthetic like The Chronic. Hence, at 57, I set up a basic studio, found some professional training which I am actually starting today (after futzing around on my own for two months) and am learning how to make music (I played guitar, and bass; Dj'd hip hop and house as a younger person) because, despite the current state of our popular culture, its media and the music business/market; there is a culture and market for the type of music you speak to in this vid. It just won't be distributed via a 30 second stream on Spotify and TIc Tok... I'll get back to you with my distribution, market making model when I have some product to move. 😂❤

The fact that the ´70s music is not mainstream, doesn’t really matter. As long as it’s accessible to discover. That goes with all music, not just ‘70’s. Classical music comes to mind. That’s my humble opinion. Great video. Thanks.

The Fablemans was a great movie that i had trouble with initially wanting to watch it. Even though a always huge Speilberg fan. He was all in at an early age and his film/ stories always will be looked upon as masterworks for to years to come. Even the aliens will like ET😀

It’s a mix of things. The shift to on-demand content, be it video or audio, has resulted in everyone devaluing those medium. When you can get anything, anytime, anywhere, nothing is special anymore. Couple that with the massive movement to profits over value, and the “just get clicks (listens, etc)” mindset, and we’ve promoted the creation of bland, soulless content. The other aspect is the lack of human interaction and people living life, in order to have stories to tell. If all you’re doing is sitting in the basement playing video games, what life experiences have you gained that you can even write a song about? Easy: meaningless pop singles about playing video games that get clicks. Step 1: destroy the Internet. This from someone that actually did help build it, from 1992 to around 2002, that’s mainly what I did. We didn’t mean for it to be used the way it is, but here we are.

I don't know why when I write and compose my songs Ive always gravitated to the more "Melancholy" or sad kind of a sound. I tried to Right uplifting music before. But like you said Barry..... There's certain things in a person's blood. I've always been better at writing those sad and emotional songs that creates an emotional plethora of feeling when someone listens to it.....

It's so common to hear people say "They don't make music like that anymore" or "Music was so much better back then." I'd like to encourage those people to make that music for themselves. It's never too late to learn. Make the music that you want to hear. Who knows, you might just change the world.

I believe that pinning music to the grid is what killed much of the feel and danger of modern music. A click track can be taken as a suggestion but the grid is the difference between a high wire act with a net as opposed to one without a net.

The 60's & 70's imho were the greatest period of ROCK POP BLUES etc of all time. Having been born in 62 I'm glad I got to grow up with such epic bands and music. It truly was the greatest era of music. Just look at the albums released in say 1976 for example holy cow!

Moving lyrics are very difficult to produce because it requires a degree of vulnerability. I don’t really have that.

Ok, I saw this movie too , I thought the same, but thought it would lead up to how he got more into the Business ,, I felt that this movie, was a B movie . It shouldn't be on the Academy Awards for best picture, there are a lot more important movies out.

Hello, how do you use alesis Adat in your studio and how do you route it into your system (Daw)?

No Duel? I have one of the '71 Plymouth Valiants ;)

Make the music you love and that pleases the people you are about. Who cares about internet randos. Musician isnt a job. It’s a calling

If music don’t provoke some kind of emotions then it’s just noise imo. I try and make my music from what’s inside me,it’s normally ends up how I’m feeling at the time of concept is how it ends up. And every time I listen back I relive the same journey

Rick beato made a video on this not too long ago. Everyone wants their sic to sound perfect (auto tuned). Or the artist can’t do it well enough without assistance from pro-tools so it’s all faked. We lose the feel and heart of the music. That’s why Adele’s music is soooooo popular. She’s flawed but GOOD. She also still uses a lot of Jazz tendencies which is where a lot of heart comes from. Heaven a lot of rock and power ballads have jazz roots). We have soul- less music now

1stly old technology. You had to be pretty talented to get anywhere near a 24 track machine back in the day because it was expensive and nobody was going to burn cash on any old s#ite. 2ndly, money. Today it's quicker and easier to churn out throwaway tosh regularly, at minimal cost for a reasonable profit versus investing in quality musicianship on the off chance you might sell millions and make an absolute fortune.

The last artist that “moved” me was Elliot Smith. Long over due.

There is LOTS of amazing music being written & performed now, just as much as in previous decades, if you look for it. Equally, a lot of albums (even by great musicians) decades ago contain a lot of rubbish, history only remembers the good stuff. It’s easy to have rose tinted glasses about the past.

60s- Trailblazing 70s - innocent 80s - hopeful 90s - dark 00s empty - 10s - ? 20s - ?

There's still music like that out there but the algorithms keep it so buried underneath all of the same stuff. AI and machine learning algorithms are built on cycles and can only learn based on updated input. But people keep feeding the algorithms things from other algorithms. It takes a brave person (like who works for Spotify high up) to insert a risky change. We still need human curators. I always say, there was no demand for the iPhone. It took Steve Jobs to say "people are gonna love this. I just have a feeling about it." Without those visionaries, all this tech leaves us in circles. Circles of Drake, the Weekend, Taylor Swift. Again and again and again.

A lot of mainstream music today is what I believe to be weaponized music. It attacks the victims psychologically, and lures them into a realm of bad decision making and low morale…but its so cool. Sure some of it is just fun, but if you really listen to some of it, go look up the “trending videos” on youtube, the messaging is simply psych warfare. In the ancient past music was used to increase morale, which it still does, but today there is a tidal wave of poison and a lot of young kids dont have the capabilities to provide the necessary barriers to protect their psych formation.

The music that was made in the 70s and earlier real musicians actually played instruments....the individual talent was shared by those musicians to create the music...sort of like a home cooked meal...today a lot of music is being generated by AI...sort of like fast food...we need more home cooked music today....💯👍

Individualism stole the victim's voice

It's demographics. There are only a few young people that are able to live making music nowadays. In the old days you didn't have to work 3 jobs in order to be in a band and to develop your craft.

When music as turned into a bedroom producer world by RU-vid KNOWLEDGE what do expect.. only wack people all over the place..

Hell if Miley Cyrus can sing so can I. Not all the talent is with Britney Spears . Heck Leon Redbone, Seals & Croft. Just Try.