My 6th grader and I have been playing Rocksmith together. He plays lead guitar I play bass. He hangs around 10% of most songs but the best part of the experience is he gets introduced to some of my favorite hits from the past.
Tonight we were talking about Michael Jackson “Wait dad you mean Michael Myers was a musician?” No son Jackson! Michael Jackson!
We watched the king of pop dance a bit
Then he was groaning about an Elvis song. So I showed him what “rock” was like before Elvis. Then some BB king. A brief stop with Buddy Holley and went up a decade for some Jimi Hendrix.
I was born in the 80’s but I think music history is important. I think these young kids need to hear what real music made and performed by humans sounds like.
The future of music is going to be a lot of AI generated bullshit. It’ll sound great and be just what you think you want.
But the REAL future of music will be the live bands that you see in person. Where you get to chuckle with them when they miss a few awkward notes. As AI ramps up face to face good old person to person relationship building will be the new gold.
Yep robots can make music and it’ll be just what you want. But you’ll yearn even more to see someone play it. A live, breathing person. Hopefully that person or persons will get more than just free beer for playing.
That’s one of the things to do with kids, so they know how to identify good human produced music versus AI generated.
My kids were raised listening to all kinds(mostly rock/metal) of music. Both my kids can not only identify artists they never heard, but also(mostly the 10y old) can pick some metal songs I have on a playlist, from the first notes. Yesterday I was on a mood for instrumentals and skipped a couple of songs… suddenly I hear from the back of the car “Why did you skip N.I.B.?” At best she heard 2 notes… Youngest (7) needs a bit more… but she will also get there.
Also not uncommon for them to go into Alexa and ask for older bands and artists… from Blues to Heavy Metal.
Musical history is really really important… and we do spend a bit watching concerts.
2 months ago we watched a lot of Live Aid and Woodstock performances.
My 13 year old grandson is learning drums, and one of my favorite things to do is to hang with him while he does it. We talk about music a lot, and I’ve showed him a lot of stuff i was listening to at his age. ( kid loves blue oyster cult, and this makes me happy)
while i question a lot of his musical choices, i’m purty chuffed we get to do this together some.
Get every bit of that you can, that’s good stuff-and there could never be enough of it.
Ahh, music from the time when bands had instruments. In 2024 the mics have autotune built in and There I Ruined It sings everything pretty close to the final version before using an AI filter to tweak the voice. So who can even say what “real” music is anymore.
One of the things I’m digging about learning bass is how much more I’m appreciating some of the stuff I didn’t really care about growing up… Stevie Wonder and Parliament (and friends) probably being the biggest shift. The little one (2) is hip to it, but the older kids are still a work in progress.
Bands still have instruments. I’m pretty sure my SM58 does not have autotune built in. I do have it available as a software tool when I want to use it though, which is nice, because we still need to find a good singer and I, frankly, am not one.
More good music is being made right now than at any other point in history. You may not like it, or may not know where to find it, but it’s true.
Music production has been democratized to the point that anyone can afford tools that used to require hundreds of grand and a pro studio to get access to. There has never been a better time for making music.
Of course more “bad” music, whatever that means, is also being made right now as well, but that’s fine too.
I agree there is a ton of music and the problem may be finding things you like l. It’s like finding a bucket of water in a tsunami.
The industry is screwed but the industry is what broke music in the first place.
The future of music is:
1: AI, “hey song blaster bot write me a new Rancid album but have the lead singer of Pennywise on lead vocals and the bassist from rage against the machine… Oh and no lyrics about cilantro, I hate that shit”
2: “I was researching music that sounds like ____ and my AI assistant found this amazing local band with the same sound that plays every few months. They are super tuned in to their fans and always fun to watch. I just designed a T-shirt for them from some fan art I sent them”
