[Fiji Hill]

Today? There is no musicianship. No point in really listening. They autotune everything. It's all over-produced. A big voice and a mindless beat (Adele, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Pink, Beyonce -- I can barely tell the difference).

I don't listen to a lot of ontemporary popular tunes, but when I do, they always seems to be written in a major key and are lacking in the use of dynamics, key changes, changes in tempo such as rallantandos, fermatas cesuras ("railroad tracks"), etc.

It seems the best music being produced today is movie music.

[Norm Lenhart]

The lack of dynamics is the result of the loudness war. The theory is louder is percieved as better so Compressors squash everything for max loudness. It’s mixed mastered and recompressed for radio.