My issue with this article is that it elevates the ‘melody’ dimension as somehow more worthy than the ‘sonic texture’ dimension.<p>I think both have equal merit and I enjoy complexity along both dimensions.<p>Modern music seems to have the highest sonic texture complexity of any music so far and is enjoyable for that.<p>Bach has high melodic complexity but low texture complexity.<p>I suspect high complexity along all 4 dimensions simultaneously is too much for the average listener. Artists like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin get close to being high complexity along every dimension but are regarded as ‘challenging’.
Does the author mean mainstream "on the radio" pop, or the plethora of music we not explore and listen to on music services? I've venture to say the Top 100 lists occupy a smaller proportion of today's listeners thane ever before. We are unconstrained. And melody is out there.
> <i>While nobody knows for sure, it is believed that when music began, the most dominant if not the only element was rhythm. No melody, no harmony – just rhythm. At first it may have been random objects, and later drums. This may have been thousands of years ago, but at the time, that was it.</i><p>What is the evidence for this theory? People sing in all sorts of societies all around the world. Are there even examples of human societies without singing?<p>It’s hard for me to imagine some time “thousands of years ago” when there was no singing or other melodic music of any kind, but only drumming on “random objects”.<p>If there are direct examples of 35,000 year old flutes, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/science/25flute.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/science/25flute.html</a> then presumably this “thousands of years ago” referred to is considerably older than that.<p>> <i>Melody was probably the next element that came into play, mostly through the various religious chants; in most cases with little to no rhythmic or harmonic context.</i><p>Chanting and singing are two significantly different forms, and chanting does not necessarily have much if any melodic content. It does not seem to me that one is obviously primary; people continue to do singing and religious chanting side by side in many cultures.<p>Maybe there’s some better evidence about this somewhere? It would be nice to see something more convincing.
I recall reading an article on the algorithmic complexity of popular music by Knuth in 1977. It is really quite funny! See [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complexity_of_Songs" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complexity_of_Songs</a>
Modern music has regressed into something primitive and tribal. In other words, completely mind numbing garbage. And it just gets worse every year.<p>Post Malone is a good indication of just how fast Western society is falling.
The author has a lot of good insights about the tends in mass media. However, there are lots independent artists who support themselves through live performances and selling cd's.<p>Another route is youtube and patreon. A good example is the young drummer Sina, who has over 600,000 subscribers and definitely makes melodic music. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/sinadrumming" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/user/sinadrumming</a>
Just saw a great youtube video about this.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Vn9V-tRCo" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Vn9V-tRCo</a>
Although the author points to the 17th and 18th centuries (Bach et al.) as the age of polyphony, polyphonic music and counterpoint were certainly highly developed in the 15th (Josquin) and 16th (Palestrina) centuries as well.
When melody was at its apogee, not only did songs have interesting melodies, but they also had a bridge -- a second section melodically different from the first. The best songs had seemed to be the ones with the most distinctive bridges. Somehow, Tin Pan Alley managed to exemplify this artifact from classical music. Sousa's marches, typically in 3 parts in different keys, with one foot in the classical tradition and one in the new world stand as a memorial bridge to melodic non-monotony connecting Brahms to Broadway.
I've tried to introduce my kids (who are college age) to the pleasures of classical music, mostly to no avail. I just recently rewatched the movie Amadeus (a 1984 masterpiece on Mozart) with my daughter, and she liked it.<p>I highly recommend it. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 8.