Why Today's Music Is So BORING. The Regression of Musical Innovation

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today

is Memorial Day weekend for those of you who are doing things, have fun and eat a lot of food because I'm going to do that and the discount code of

today

passing through the Memorial Day weekend sale is rb531. It's only Memorial Day here in the United States, but this is a fantastic big weekend and my kids are out of school. It is perfect. I don't have to get up in the morning anymore, which is the best part. anyway um this particular topic has really come up a lot and it comes up every time i do my top 10 countdowns there are a couple of things that happen first of all in the comments section most people hate

music

, it's people of this. channel although it is not your general audience there are 2.3 million people but you know of the 300,000 more people who have seen the video yesterday or two days ago the comments were much more positive but one of the songs leaves before you love me the Jonas Brothers and Marshmallow Track when I was playing the song I couldn't understand what it was.

I was singing the melody and I just left it there. I did not try it. I called a couple of my friends and I called my brother. No one answered the phone because I was going to sing the melody to them to see if they could think of what it was, so I thought, well, people in the comments section will say who it was, so there were five different songs that people were reminded of. I put them in order of precision with who came back and listened to it and it was nice, although this sign of air supply depends on the year people are born, what they say, they know what songs they are familiar with. lost in in uh lost in love was one of the ones that was pretty much a direct copy of the tune and then, uh, last Christmas, wham, that's the one Billy thought it was from the beginning because he didn't know the song Air Supply.

It was 1989 uh so I can't smile without you barry barry manilow I didn't think it sounded like that um uh instant crush recent Daft Punk song 2013. I don't think it sounded like that much there's a chord progression it was kind of like and then circles by post malone that came out two years ago and I didn't think it sounded like that, although it was more or less, you know, almost a direct copy, the same key, right, billy was in the same key, um, I think it was the same key when they copy the songs, they don't even bother to change the key, you know, it's like with the Justin Bieber song that, uh, he borrowed from Toto, okay, so why is this happening?

Why is it

music

? uh, I called this why. why is today's music so

boring

the

regression

of

musical

innovation

and um and you hear me talk a lot about this a lot of people say oh rick like you know complex songs or whatever, but that's good, it's actually true, but not if we go back historically, okay, we can go back every decade. I started writing songs, uh, those are average songs that are much more complicated than anything you hear on the radio today, with the exception of leaving the door open. leave the door open is the bruno mars song right um and then the chorus then um the chorus now these are pretty standard chord progressions you have the I mean it goes to e flat from f um and then there's a part where it goes now Rarely You'll hear a diminished chord in pop music.

This is something strange. You rarely hear 11 dominant chords like this one like this f over g chord. This is unusual, but if we go back historically, I said you know, it sounds like wind of earth and fire. but if you think of a fantasy, right, uh, I'm going to think here, the course, there's your fantasy, there's your diminished chords, so you have this left dominant, you have major seven, you have minor seven, you have tons of key changes , there we have it. I suspect you have this piece that you have, I mean, change the keys everywhere, even right here, um, it's nothing, so leaving the door open is actually kind of a complexity, it's like um out of ten, it's It's a three compared to uh, fantasy, earth, moon and fire, that's not even one, the most complex songs on Earth Wind and Fire, okay, let's go back and talk about '60s music, right? you know I like 60 um so some george harrison from the beatles f e flat um to g major have already modulated uh something in the way she moves from c to c major seven to c minor seven make bridge I want say, it goes to so many different places, but it was a number one song, it's a song that plays on the radio all the time we'll take any LED zeppelin ladder to heaven or Dave, I'll let you do normally I'm a million things and then I experiment all over the place with these uh with these different chord progressions We don't have to go back that far, we can go.

I love using this black hole, kids, I mean, right in the intro, it's more complicated than anything on the radio today and we haven't even gotten to the melody yet. That song spins in so many different ways that it's actually hard to remember. You know you could take any Nirvana song. Almost any grunge song is much more complicated than anything on the radio today. Much more complicated. Any Nirvana song is more complicated than any other. the radio today so why is this happening? Why will I give you another example of another sign I thought of? If you know Radiohead, there's a song they played in the Benz, I mean, it's already like C e flat change key change key change keychains that's a tritone it moves chromatically, see?

I mean, it's not even the whole song, it changes, there are other changes on the sign, why do people you know 25 years ago when the radio played that song? I thought yeah, that's cool or 40 years ago when fantasy was on the radio, people would just accept songs like that or something like that or any Beatles song or any other, you know, name it, every song from the '70s. which was a hit it was almost more complex than anything that comes out today, every song on the list uses one or you know four one six five or four one five or one five four six or one six five four I mean, that's right, it's pretty much the popular music vocabulary why, well, there are reasons I've given why no one wants to take a chance, writers don't want to take a chance and this started happening in the early 2000s when some people who signed bands started to, uh, when, when the money started. going down in the music industry, they started hiring producers like me, not me, who wasn't one that had big hits or anything to come in and write with artists because they didn't feel that artists were good enough writers because you had to have a hit you ever have to have a section that connects with people every seven seconds or so, you start getting songs like since you've been good, which has a six-bar chorus and a four-bar phrase and a four-bar phrase. four measures. phrase and of course like a ten-bar chorus and you started to get a good handle on these songs with multiple hooks, but they still are and that's complicated compared to most things today that are so simple.

Most songs today use the pentatonic scale for the melody. they just do pentatonic scale is uh it would be like you know in the key of g g a b you find that most melodies are pentatonic melodies the way you get away from pentatonic melodies is by having chord progressions like that or like garden of sounds or like or like wind of earth and fire, that's a key change, I mean, you can tell where that thing is going, so you have to write a melody that's interesting if you're really going to follow the chords and there are some really basic rules to writing songs , most songs use what we call chord tones.

Actually, I'm going to give you the reason why okay, most songs are most hit song melodies that are based on chord tones, what are chord tones? Well, if you have a c. major chord which is equivalent to the note ce mi g once again this is all in my blessed book uh do you want to support channel rb51531 and it's my ear training course 60 off my Beyond book bundle of 700 pages in pdf and then my ear training course people like how You know, Rick, how you figure out songs so quickly? Well, they are so easy. Therefore, if it were earth when it was on fire, it would take me 10 seconds longer.

I'm not kidding you, that's actually true, no, these are the chords. tones on a C major scale, okay now and let's say I took that Radiohead song that went with the pre-chorus that goes from C to F sharp major to F major, okay, now yeah, so let's tell you that . In most songs, the chord, the notes of the chord are the notes of the melody with occasional tones or suspensions, but for the most part, most successful songs are based on the notes that are in the chords and the Triads have three notes, okay when you go into um? songs like Fantasy, although they use a lot of 7th chords that have four notes, so you have more options for your melody, F sharp major has F sharp and C sharp, there are no common tones between those two keys, right? common tones, right, you can't go from C major to F sharp major and use any of the same notes, none of those notes work and then you go to F major, F major has these three notes, so from this chord to this accord there is nothing common. tones none so that gives you starts to give you chromatic melodies interesting melodies you have to go to different places this c note I can't stay on that note okay if I play the c note okay I don't have a sustain pedal billy that's okay I'll play that for you, I'll play the guitar, it doesn't matter, so if I have it, I have C major and I say I don't C, even though that note actually sounds good in that chord because it's the sharp 11th. that note really works. between the two but the note c is the sharp four uh little trick here, just c is equal to the sharp four now the sharp four is a tension note it's an unusual note it's dissonance against this second chord think about this duh well, that turns out be the keep in mind that tom york holds right, that's a dissonant note, so it forces you into dissonance, even if you're going to hold down an o, otherwise you have to go, you have to go, you have I have to have a melody that's chromatic, okay if I take the e note and the C chord they have to move somewhere, that note will have to move there because it's in F sharp, that's a weird move you could do that will give you a Interesting move, but you get my point, you know?

If you have a chord progression like this, you have to create it, you have to create an interesting melody. Anything that's chromatic or off-key that changes pitch forces you to create a more interesting melody that doesn't sound like five others. songs the reason these songs like this Jonas Brother one sound like five other songs is because they're not doing anything that people weren't doing, they're just writing the most basic nursery rhyme melodies, I don't know how many people like that. It took me to write that song, I have no idea, probably nine, although it probably took nine people to write that song properly.

The reason I came here to talk and start my channel was because, hopefully, I thought I didn't know, no. Ideas that I was going to have a channel with 2 million followers on it, subscribers, but it was like maybe I could teach some people about music, how to think about things in a different way. Simple things like this. This is very simple. They are in these three chords, how are they related? you know if you're going to write a melody and you have a chromatic chord progression you have to think of new things but if you still write the same thing diatonic when we say diatonic that means it doesn't change the keys of every song that was in the top ten all the country songs, they were all pretty much one, four, five, six, every once in a while you had a uh and I wonder there are people like Rick, you're too easy with these songs you're too easy see if I can find a chord that's in a key, I mean, thank God, I mean, I'll take a chord out of key, we have to start somewhere to rebuild this to build Innovation in popular music is supported and I know a lot of people say, "Oh, well, You know, if you just listen to different music, look at a lot of the metal songs that people also complain about, they sound bad, why, well, there are several reasons why they use it." same thing, a lot of the songs use the same drop d riffs that people have pulled out over and over again, that's a whole other discussion about drop d tunings when i say drop d correctly, most of the songs that use a tuning of drop, whether drop d drop d flat drop c any base its open string riffs very few songs don't do it when I think of nirvana on a plane on a plane it's very sophisticated what should I do who does that do D G major seven su two b flat major seven su two hi keychain, but all these drop riffs have also been overdrawn, so in addition to playing riffs, not all bands do this,but they've taken too much out of these drop tunings and put in a lot of the same predictable pens, these same patterns are just in so many songs right, they need to try some different tunings.

What about dropping C sharp? I don't hear anyone use that. You can do it. You can't play that chord and let go. That's all I did was lower the rope again. half a step, so it is, and you come up with a completely different, correct vocabulary for writing music just by doing it, changing it a little bit. That's why I insist on music theory, it's just to try to give people new ideas, okay, that's what you know, that's why I wrote my book, it's to teach people things like how chord progressions are constructed. , what notes are in each chord, you know.

How to improve what you do as a songwriter, as a jazz guitarist, as a blues player, how do you go to different places that other people haven't gone? Do you know how you create that emotion like whoa, what is that? never when i do this top 10 countdown no matter what list i'm doing the rockless the metal list the pop list i never go oh i can't oh wow give me a second let me figure that out oh wait a minute wait a second i don't do that because i can predicting where everyone is going, it's like it starts on a major chord, okay, what's the next four, one or five, oh six, well then five and four come next? okay or whatever, five and one, whatever, they'll come in some order and then once I say, once, it'll pretty much work, no matter what it is, whether it's hip-hop, any hip-hop that has chromatic stuff rare like cardi b we talked about the chromatic bass line and i said they should do the whole thing and chain, someone needs to do that mashup of those two songs of theirs, bones and cardi b, come on someone please do that.

I did it, I tried to sing it with it, so this is really, you know, this is where we are and everything, but to go there and criticize what people are doing, I'm just trying to explain why it's so

boring

. for people and usually the people who say it's boring are older people who have been fed a much richer diet of nutritious songs, okay, and then we're just eating fruit loops right now, this is If we're eating cereals that They're on the bottom shelf, you know, supermarkets put all the sugary cereals on the bottom and then when you get to the top, they put all the healthy cereals on top because they don't want to make people mad. reaching in there to get them so you get all your Kellogg's stuff that's on the bottom and then whatever's on the top you know all your granolas and stuff that those healthy foods that cost 10 times as much are on the top shelf. they don't want you to buy that stuff, so this is really kind of a symptom of the social entitlement of food versus the nutrition of food or the lack of nutrition versus the nutrition of

musical

food, if you like, I like spicy food.

I know, I love each other, I want to have an enthusiasm when I eat something. I'm italian. I like spicy food, so I want to listen to spicy things. I'm like, you know, I want to hear the black hole sun that starts with a. sus chord a sus chord right, it's not a major chord then it goes to a six chord then it goes to the power chord power chord then it goes back to a different sus you have this one you have this one then that one it's like who thinks about that well they did it Chris Cornell and almost all the kids from the grunge era were thinking about things like this and the Beatles started but that's what they were, they're imitating the Beatles, you know and Zeppelin, and you know, I'll always play my favorite. who said keith richards was simple angie okay once again this is why i created an ear training program and my book biato is to teach people this is why you buy this stuff no this is so I give you things here to help you, that's why I give a discount when I do these live broadcasts and everything so that people can buy these things and follow my videos and know what I'm talking about when I talk about a sus chord. re like what is a sus4 chord just look it up in the book it's on page I don't know five it's right at the beginning billy right it's in triads I'm just telling you what they are, how they're built, what intervals they are build them and everything you know it's how chord progressions go together, they work together, you always hear me talk about secondary dominance or three major chords, I explain these things on these live streams all the time, all you have to do is open the book, what does it talk about Rick? about you, go to the first chapter, all the basic music theory is there that you need to know and move on, just look up the titles of the things I'm talking about, okay, if I'm talking about tritone sub, let's go to tritone sub .

C to F sharp because the baseline moves a tritone and then goes down a half tone, like what is a half tone first thing in the book, what is an interval, intervals, distance between two notes, that's why it's important to know music at least know a little bit of music theory because it will send you directions as an artist and as a writer in places you wouldn't naturally go and it's ear training to know what these intervals are when I hear c g I don't have perfect pitch but I know a perfect fourth you know, I know what a perfect fourth is you don't need a perfect pitch to know what a perfect fourth is, that's the interval of a perfect fourth when I hear the bass do that.

I hear a major chord I hear it go down and fourth it could be F to C it could be E A A it could be C to G it doesn't matter I know what the thing is once I figure out what the first note is C is fine a second is G so I have a minor, I have f is and you know, you just do these things, you repeat these things, discount code rb531, that's why I wrote these things so that people can enrich their lives with their listening experiences, it's not. just to make you a better musician, but it's also so that people who aren't musicians understand what they're hearing and maybe start looking for things like, well, what is he talking about?

Why are the men of the earth on fire? Let me. compare these things let me get a chord chart for this or wait I don't even need a court chart because I can figure it out wow that's awesome right there are a lot of chords there e minor seven to minor seven uh d over uh cap over d D eleven G major seven C major seven B flat diminished seven B its four if now you have to have a good year for that well done so it's a perfect fifth down so I know it and I know it's a minor chord and I can hear the seventh in those D G C B flat yes, I have the baseline, I know what those intervals are, what the qualities of the chords are, minor chord, minor, minor seven, dominant seven, eleven, G major, major seven , major seven, diminished seventh, sus, if you develop that recognition vocabulary. sounds I'm always harping on and you can recognize the base movement that's why we drill intervals it's the first thing in the ear training course drill intervals basically from one note to the next what is this note play a note and then go down a double adjustment uh thanks billy uh so that's the deal there this is this because we're really living in the era of uh it's a

regression

of musical

innovation

and it doesn't have to be like this this should be the most uh the best Right now, we have all of these learning aids, you have YouTube to teach people how to play everything the right way, if you watch the right channels, I mean, you have all these super virtuosos who don't have concerts. because people are being consumed by people who want to listen to that super virtuoso music because their ears are just tuned to four chords and a major key, so you gotta expand it, you gotta start adding this stuff anyway, that's my rant for today, do you want? support my channel buy something here in my store uh discount valid from monday through the weekend 60 off my 700 page pdf the self book bundle and my ear training course 40 percent off my be out of your way training course um enjoy your weekend sorry for the rant but you know I just read the comments about this stuff and people just like people acting like I'm the one making up these laughs like hey this is it the chart, I'm not, it's not my songs, I'm just, you know, showing you what did what. what's the deal with them, you know, i don't write the songs, i'm not barry manilow anyway, you guys are amazing, thank you so much for supporting the channel, have a big shout out to those of you here, watching the weekend of Memorial Day.

Have a great weekend for those of you who are elsewhere have a great weekend too, you guys are amazing. Thank you very much for supporting the channel and if you haven't subscribed, press the bell icon, only 12 percent of the people who follow my channel did. the bell icon, that's it, it's actually a common thing for YouTube channels, but that's it. 12 I know people say I always go back to Rick's channel because I do the same thing. I write on the channels I like to go to. I just type in their names and just go there, but it actually helps because YouTube actually looks at when people subscribe, they help move more videos, so if you haven't subscribed, subscribe, thank you, see you.