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The Disappearance of Key Changes in Modern Music
YouTube ^ | December 8, 2022 | Rick Beato

Posted on 12/09/2022 7:11:05 AM PST by ConservativeInPA

In recent years, the use of key changes in music has decreased significantly, leading to monotonous and predictable sound. This lack of tonal variation has made many popular songs uninteresting and unengaging. In this video we explore how the disappearance of key changes has contributed to the current state of music.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: pop
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I think there is a much broader and intentional thing occurring. Current music is displaying less variety on both a micro and macro basis. Less freedom and less choice in life is reflected music.

I’m stuck in the past when it comes to music despite trying something new. I occasionally force myself to listen to the top 50’s playlists on Spotify and all I find is redundant crap. My music journey now focus primarily on finding what I had missed when growing up, often taking tangents of the previously and forever unpopular but extremely good music that the music biz never deemed appropriate for mass consumption.

1 posted on 12/09/2022 7:11:05 AM PST by ConservativeInPA
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To: ConservativeInPA

Thanks for sharing. Beato’s channel has some excellent content and analysis.


2 posted on 12/09/2022 7:13:34 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: ConservativeInPA

To me, all genres of modern music sound just alike. I couldn’t even begin to tell the difference between any female pop singer, all the rap sounds exactly the same, and I don’t even want to think about modern “country”. I quit listening to new music in 1982.


3 posted on 12/09/2022 7:13:54 AM PST by suthener ( )
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To: ConservativeInPA

Yep. It’s soul-crushing.


4 posted on 12/09/2022 7:15:10 AM PST by drwoof
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To: ConservativeInPA

We talking “key” changes or key “changes”? We changed keys the other night at a jam session. 😎👍🎸


5 posted on 12/09/2022 7:18:32 AM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: ConservativeInPA

Not really. There’s tons of amazing stuff happening in modern music. The problem is it isn’t popular. Modern POPULAR music has flattened out with a level of sameness. Modern Optional Entertainment (to borrow a phrase from Zappa) has more variety than ever. Tedeschi Trucks, Rival Sons, Pretty Reckless, Gary Clark Jr, Alter Bridge. There’s AMAZING music being made today. But you gotta go find it. It’s no longer served up to you on radio.


6 posted on 12/09/2022 7:18:37 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: ConservativeInPA

Compared to the quality of music between the mid 60’s and mid to late 70’s, today’s music doesn’t even register on the radar. It’s that far off.

My tagline is true.


7 posted on 12/09/2022 7:19:53 AM PST by FLNittany (Autotune is jealous of Karen Carpenter)
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To: suthener

Modern country songs are so similar that mashups of five or six songs sound like only one song. Something new will come along eventually. Whenever music becomes bland and formulaic, real musicians rebel and start something new. Perhaps musicianship will return.


8 posted on 12/09/2022 7:20:33 AM PST by Poser (Cogito ergo Spam - I think, therefore I ham)
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To: drwoof

At this point the vast majority of music is written, produced and packaged by large companies.

They are products. They are meant to be sold. And make money.

By and large they are making the products that the majority of people want to buy.

Most of the music is also produced by cutting and pasting pre recorded samples/ loops on a computer and then adding in “real” vocals.

You have to delve deep. past the mass marketed pop stuff to find anything that is really new or interesting.


9 posted on 12/09/2022 7:21:05 AM PST by uranium penguin
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To: ConservativeInPA
Key changes have been used as a gimmick in songs as a way of trying to fool the listener that the artist is somehow musically savvy rather than creating interest in the piece. So a key change isn't always a sign of a good piece of music. It has to work and be necessary to the piece.

The overwhelming vast majority of current music has absolutely no staying power, is uninspired, lyrically lazy, copycat rather than influenced and repetitive beyond belief.

Every so often a really good song will come along but it is rarer and rarer because so much of a piece of music is focused on how the visual presentation will be.

All of the above is my opinion and your mileage may vary.

10 posted on 12/09/2022 7:23:22 AM PST by frogjerk (More people have died trusting the government than not trusting the government.)
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To: FLNittany
Compared to the quality of music between the mid 60’s and mid to late 70’s, today’s music doesn’t even register on the radar. It’s that far off.

True, and I would extend that from the mid century into the mid 80's.

11 posted on 12/09/2022 7:23:55 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: ConservativeInPA
The Disappearance of Key Changes in Modern Music

There. Fixed it.

12 posted on 12/09/2022 7:24:22 AM PST by Carl Vehse (A proud member of the LGBFJB community)
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To: ConservativeInPA

Maybe the purpose of music today is not to communicate sometimes complex emotions and celebrate life anymore but instead seems to be mostly rhythm and beat.

This communicates primitive mating rituals and celebrates the pervasive modern hook-up culture worship of the easy, cheap, and often “O” that supercedes all other matters.

(Also occasionally the goal is to simply disturb, which is easy to accomplish. Baroque, Classical, Jazz, Folk, Rock, now has become the Narcissism Age of Music.


13 posted on 12/09/2022 7:25:24 AM PST by epluribus_2
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To: uranium penguin

You are so correct with your first statement although this has been the case to a lesser extent it is now past the tipping point.


14 posted on 12/09/2022 7:25:27 AM PST by frogjerk (More people have died trusting the government than not trusting the government.)
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To: FLNittany

Our local PBS just ran back to back segments on The Carpenters; how their hits came to be, and then a Christmas special.

It’s a fundraiser, but I ignore that and just enjoy the music.

Karen Carpenter was really something, and Richard so, SO talented. I wish someone could’ve saved her from herself.

‘A Star on Earth And Now A Star in Heaven.’


15 posted on 12/09/2022 7:25:31 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: ConservativeInPA
The original article which this video refers to: https://tedium.co/2022/11/09/the-death-of-the-key-change/amp
16 posted on 12/09/2022 7:25:32 AM PST by KarlInOhio (Soon the January 6 protesters will be held (without trial or bail) longer than Jefferson Davis was.)
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To: Poser

I assume you were talking about this either directly or indirectly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0VXubTsAoE


17 posted on 12/09/2022 7:25:58 AM PST by FrankRizzo890
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To: ConservativeInPA

Today’s music is not music...................


18 posted on 12/09/2022 7:28:19 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: uranium penguin

“Dr. Luke” has been brought in to write entirely too many modern songs. His crap is very formulaic. Also, record companies have started to employ software that can “pick hit songs”, and he has a knack for understanding what the algorithm likes, so his crap all sounds the same.


19 posted on 12/09/2022 7:29:16 AM PST by FrankRizzo890
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To: epluribus_2

(disclaimer: prior ages also elevated the “O” as a goal too but never as impersonal, cold, mean, and soul-less as today. Other people, objects, animals are just tools to accomplish it. No romance, relationships, nor Family (eek!) considered.)


20 posted on 12/09/2022 7:29:56 AM PST by epluribus_2
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