Even Dr. Dre is disappointed in modern music.
What is concerning to me is that people will go out of their way to vilify songs like "Baby It's Cold Outside" or to roast people for things they said about women 40-50+ years ago (Sean Connery and John Wayne come to mind) and ignore the fact that popular music today is objectively more sexist and misogynistic. The singers and the industry as a whole pretty much got a pass during the #metoo movement. What's more is that the biggest offenders are the ones getting played the most. I have no problem with any style of music even if it isn't necessarily my cup of tea. In the R&B or rap genre, I definitely prefer old school and a large part of that is the lyrics today. Objectively speaking, music has gotten FAR more misogynistic in the past two decades and the forerunner by a large margin is rap and R&B (it has to be noted that the first study does not include my least favorite genre, country music, as they are only listing the 4 most popular music genres. I was unsuccessful in finding a solid, objective study for country music)
https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00384-8
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311983.2024.2436723#d1e574
According to a study done in 2009 on rap music and negative themes, misogyny, violence toward women, degradation and objectivism were present in over half of the songs considered in the study.
Shaming and degrading vocabulary surrounding women are two of the most common themes. According to the study done in 2009, sexual objectification was the leading type of degrading language, while shaming and naming was secondary following the objectification.
The other key thing that surfaces in a study of negative, misogynistic lyrics is the praise of men who use and abuse women. Men often find that they earn respect when they are viewed as “pimps” and “players” that lord over their “hoes” and “beaches.” Notably, some rappers even discuss this in their songs.
Link to referenced study:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1097184X08327696
I think we can objectively say that music has gotten worse lyrically unless degrading women is your thing (I also think that the rhythm and flow of lyrics with the music across genres is worse but I don't have anything objective to back that up).
I also don't think there is any doubt that it takes far less talent musically due to the prevalence of computers and electronics.
Good or bad is relative, but I do agree that a large percentage of people become more static as they age
What is concerning to me is that people will go out of their way to vilify songs like "Baby It's Cold Outside" or to roast people for things they said about women 40-50+ years ago (Sean Connery and John Wayne come to mind) and ignore the fact that popular music today is objectively more sexist and misogynistic. The singers and the industry as a whole pretty much got a pass during the #metoo movement. What's more is that the biggest offenders are the ones getting played the most. I have no problem with any style of music even if it isn't necessarily my cup of tea. In the R&B or rap genre, I definitely prefer old school and a large part of that is the lyrics today. Objectively speaking, music has gotten FAR more misogynistic in the past two decades and the forerunner by a large margin is rap and R&B (it has to be noted that the first study does not include my least favorite genre, country music, as they are only listing the 4 most popular music genres. I was unsuccessful in finding a solid, objective study for country music)
https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00384-8
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311983.2024.2436723#d1e574
According to a study done in 2009 on rap music and negative themes, misogyny, violence toward women, degradation and objectivism were present in over half of the songs considered in the study.
Shaming and degrading vocabulary surrounding women are two of the most common themes. According to the study done in 2009, sexual objectification was the leading type of degrading language, while shaming and naming was secondary following the objectification.
The other key thing that surfaces in a study of negative, misogynistic lyrics is the praise of men who use and abuse women. Men often find that they earn respect when they are viewed as “pimps” and “players” that lord over their “hoes” and “beaches.” Notably, some rappers even discuss this in their songs.
Link to referenced study:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1097184X08327696
I think we can objectively say that music has gotten worse lyrically unless degrading women is your thing (I also think that the rhythm and flow of lyrics with the music across genres is worse but I don't have anything objective to back that up).
I also don't think there is any doubt that it takes far less talent musically due to the prevalence of computers and electronics.