Music Is A Major Part of Your Life

. Malls, restaurants, commercials, movies, TV

• Your subconscious
• Influences your day to day decisions

Is profanity in music ruining our society?

Glenn McDonald

• studied the top 1000 songs from 1950-2013
• overall conclusions were that everything got more energetic, 'mechanized', and simpler
• speed of music matched the speed of life
• older/younger generations don't usually like younger/older generations music because it doesn't match what they feel

Music Hasn't Gotten Worse

• basic functions of music in society
• my personal experience as college musician
• influence of underground music and musicianship as a whole
• comparing now to the past

To know the answer for sure..
Let's acknowledge the history of how music changed from a neutral standpoint

The Beginning

Language and Nature

Instruments

The Past Century

1920s

• Prohibition, speakeasies, and the introduction of jazz
• Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington
• Music went from slow and fluid to much faster
• putting emphasis of the 2 and 4 in music. (one TWO three FOUR)
• now think of every pop song. They use the same idea

1930s

• Great Depression changed the job rate and overall mood
• Dance clubs and big bands still pursued and gave people the happiness they needed.
• Broadway musicals and radios

1940s

• World War II
• political confusion and pain amoungst people was very evident
• Musical exploration never stopped like Dizzy Gillespie's creation of bebop (faster genre of jazz, like scatting)

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• Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin emerged
• Did the idea of idling people began here?

1950s

• By now, the one TWO three FOUR idea was represented with a cymbal
• Inspiration from other music and other instruments created the kick and snare drum backbeat
• It's where the "boots 'n' cats 'n' boots 'n' cats" comes from.

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• Modern music has used this concept ever since
• Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Nat King Cole

1960s

• Some cultural tension relieved from things like positive Civil Rights Movements
• Hard Rock, R&B, and Motown
• Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Who, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix
• Psychedelic drugs also had an impact on this time of cultural change and creation

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• There are even common theorys that musical/artistic exploration died with the 60-70's because the eventual prohibition of most drugs.
• But all ages have used drugs
• It is even said that cavemen ate psychedelic mushrooms to evolve the way they think

1970s

• as the way of life continued to speed, so did music
• It was easier to take your mind off things when the beat was faster and you could even dance to it!
• Progressive Rock, Punk, Funk, and Soul as well

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• The Bee-Gees, KC and The Sunshine Band, and The Jacksons are some examples of the Disco music created
• Pink Floyd, Rush, David Bowie, Chaka Khan, and Kool & the Gang

1980s

• Economically, things were starting a new
• wealth was admired on a whole new level
• it was expressed in Hip Hop music for music to feel successful and 'badass'
• Ozzy Osborne, Van Halen, Run D.M.C., The Beastie Boys

1990s

• Pop, Rap, Alternative, and one hit wonders.
• MC Hammer, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, N’ Sync, and Britney Spears
• Lyrics got more 'intense' as time went by
• more explicit, but the masses still got what they wanted

2000s

• Modern music industry
• Pop and Rap have dominated the market
• Stars like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Kanye West popped up, making it hard to distinguish musicians from celebrities.

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• Overall the economy had more of an influence than people, so the music industry transformed into this massive money making business that it is

Conclusions Already Made...

• Scholars including Eveleth Rose studied 1000’s of songs from the past half century and concluded that, over the course of the last 100 years, the “timbral variety went down.” meaning that most pop songs sound closer to the same nowadays
• There is also less pitches overall. You could sing most pop songs within the range of one octave.

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• It was even measured that volume increased by one decibel every eight years. And when music is loud, it’s harder for sound to contrast with other sounds forcing modern music to be simpler.

So is Modern Music Worse?

• music has to be simplified to be played at high volumes for large audiences or to compensate for others level of musicianship.
• So in a sense, people have just done what's necessary to share music will the masses

Most importantly
What do you listen to?

It's Not All About Mainstream

• influence from our parents, religion, society, friends, and mostly the internet, people can listen to a vast spread of music for a variety of reasons.
• Music can be used to celebrate, vent, repair, mourn, and succeed.

Other Reasons Music is Improving

• its partnership with technology is ever expanding
• Instead of seeing a band class, you might also see recording program classes and other music tech classes.
• Instead of someone teaching scales with their hands, kids practice online

Technology is helping!

• I've experienced it myself
• more efficiency and speed than ever
• Everything from the past is available to listen to, analyze, and constantly move forward from

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• Even concepts we might not consider like social media offer a fair chance for anyone to succeed

Other Reason Music is Improving

• Underground Music Scene- local music, ‘hipster’ music, experimental music, and most music that isn’t in the mainstream market
• all those types of music experiment and challenge common believes

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• . So this puts down all the older people who might say “I don’t get it. Modern music is dumb and simple.” In reality, it’s just harder for them to adopt in new ideas just like every other human.

It has the biggest influence on future music

• Personally, I've been able to keep up with the underground scene with the internet and musician friends. So I’ve been witnessing the underground and mainstream music trends for about 10 years now.
• there’s a giant spiral effect

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• Underground music starts adopting ideologies and feelings from a past decade, and eventually mainstream pop uses these ideas a few years later. So instead of nodding off music that may seem too abstract, think about how you might be enjoying that same music in the near future, or already did enjoy in the past.

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• This concept spreads far past music as well. You can draw these same time connections from fashion, comedy, art, and food.

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• A lack of originality and creation exists in the mainstream market because of the need for money. But that doesn’t mean that those ideas are dead.
• In fact, the mainstream market music has been pushing towards these ideas.

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• Superstars who got their songs written for them to make money are now writing their own music and are trying to change the ways humans think.

What Music Does

• it was easy to see the influence that society had on music as a whole. With always be able to analyze the music of the past along with crazy cultural changes, it can be said that music has always created and explored.

Musicianship

• the knowledge, skill, and artistic sensitivity in performing music
• living a life of wonder and constnat learning while also improving the individual on an everyday basis
• This is the reason famous musicians are idled. Devotion of their lives to advancing the art form while making new strides on their own instruments

Does this still exist in our society?

• hidden in music classes or underground culture, the idea is still around
• I personally know hundreds of music students trying and all helping each other to achieve this lifestlye

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• This ideas musicianship entail have vastly improved the world we all live in and always will
• It pushes humans to their best

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• And because history has happened, we can constantly get better and learn from the past

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• Without world events and crazy politics, the world would be different. People could focus only on creation and improving their immediate lives instead of maintaining our collapsing environment
• No desire for possessions and no idling of individuals.

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• But despite what has happened, humans are positively changing the society to get there
• Our generation especially, will continue to change music and society for the better