Is new music really worse?
“Music nowadays is terrible, it was better in the good old days”
We’ve all heard that many times and rolled our eyes. I used to think such comments were the preserve of older generations and yet, I now find myself starting to espouse the same train of thought! Is that a sign I’m now one of the ‘Oldies’?
There’s a common concept that until around the age of 20, everything new is cool and amazing. Then through most of our early adulthood, anything new is just ‘normal’. And after 35, everything new is confusing, weird and doomed to ruin the world. We can apply that to technology, music and many other domains.
But the big difference with music seems to be in its staying power. We can endlessly debate the merits of whether we perceive newer music to be better or worse. But data shows us that the songs people are actually listening to overall, veer towards being older. New songs make a big splash at the time they’re released, but seem to have fewer repeat listens and longevity.
A major alternative investment asset class is the catalogs of the biggest musicians in history. Royalties are basically a perpetual income stream, and legendary artists like Bob Dylan and Tina Turner have sold part or all of their recording rights to investors.
So both data and anecdotes indicate that older music is better – what do you think?
Separating Art from the Artist
Kanye West has been my main artistic inspiration ever since listening to the College Dropout as a teenager. His fearless approach towards expressing ‘himself’, creativity and going against the grain have led to him arguably being the most influential artist of the 21st century so far.
His personal exploits and travails have been far from inspiring though. My approach has been to focus on the art, and not the artist, but that’s become increasingly challenging as you can’t even refer someone to a song of his without a response along the lines of “But didn’t you hear what he just did/said? How can you still listen to his music?”
Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Kevin Spacey, Johnny Depp – the list of artists who’ve have controversial personal lives is long! How do we reconcile our feelings towards an artist, with the art they create? Do we have to completely separate the two, or keep a healthy tension between and accept that their human flaws whilst enjoying their creations?
VFX behind Dune
We’d previously shared a highly favourable review of Dune Part One, and it recently won multiple awards, predominantly in the Visual Effects (VFX) categories. Check out this breakdown which shows why Dune’s VFX truly stand out compared to other recent releases.
The main highlight of this story is that the founder of DNEG, the company behind the VFX, is actually from India and cut his teeth creating effects for Indian movies. But after feeling that the Indian film industry wasn’t advancing fast enough when it came to visual storytelling, he moved West and well, the rest is history.
Given DNEG’s recent success, you can expect to see more Indian film-makers engaging their services and stepping up the quality of fantasy and sci-fi spectacles coming out of Bollywood.
May you live a good life, and may your art live long.