Has harmony/melody technique regressed in popular music?

[YoungCapone]

Whenever I watch videos of producers creating songs it just doesn’t seem like much thought is put into the chord progression and melody. It pretty much seems like everyone does the basic pick a scale - pick chords in that scale - and then pick random notes in that scale until they come up with a melody they “like”.
On a related note, I was watching a tutorial on captain plugins’ “captain chord” plugin and although it made creating chord progressions and melodies simple and easy, it just seemed geared toward that same basic format I described above. Keep in mind that captain plugins is meant to be used by professional producers.
I guess my question is, do modern producers look to advance harmony/melody techniques or is more time spent on developing sounds or maybe something else?
I know this may come off as a criticism, but I’m not saying that whatever’s happening is better or worse, I’m just curious what people’s opinions are or even approaches you use.

 

[YannFer]

I 'd say modern producers are not looking for advanced harmony or melodic features as we know the simpler the better when it comes to mass appeal.

Also the research of new, never heard before sounds has always been on (from the use of hunting horns into music, through Jimmy Hendrix and his Fuzz/Wha into 100w Matshall into two 4x12 cabs, to our digital era with millions of plugins available on as many tracks as your cpu can handle). It's a way to stand out from the crowd and get noticed.

You could argue that nowadays, as recording gears are getting more easily available, cheaper and intuitive to use. With the knowledge being shared freely over the internet, there has not been a time when this much music has been made in history. Which leaves us with thousands of sub-genres where harmony and melody go crazy complex and deep. Of course, that is not popular music.

If you ask me, popular music ain't music anymore. These guys are more focused on creating visual content than musical one. MVs, social media posts, even the concert have become more shows than it is music performance (dancers, fireworks, lightshow...). You go to concerts to watch, not to listen.
Their music is not interesting but the important thing is that it is not repulsive in order to create the largest communities of "followers" which they can sell stuff to (and get paid for to advertise brands to).

Basically most mainstream artists are entertainers and advertisers. Nothing to do with music.

Sorry for the rant and if I went off topic here...

 

[slimegreenbeats]

I think drums are becoming a bigger part of rap music in general, therefore something has to give. There's tons of songs out there with incredibly melodies, so melodies haven't died, it's just in the balance of things, it's been balanced.

Just listen to old school beats vs new school. Biggest difference for me is usage of 808's and super thumping kicks..

 

[YannFer]

I think drums are becoming a bigger part of rap music in general, therefore something has to give. There's tons of songs out there with incredibly melodies, so melodies haven't died, it's just in the balance of things, it's been balanced.

Just listen to old school beats vs new school. Biggest difference for me is usage of 808's and super thumping kicks..

True. And I imagine one of the reason for this may be that music is now listened mostly on tiny phone/laptop speakers. So if you want the bass to come through, you need to balance the mix differently, hence the bigger kicks and 808 bass.

 

[Armani]

Whenever I watch videos of producers creating songs it just doesn’t seem like much thought is put into the chord progression and melody. It pretty much seems like everyone does the basic pick a scale - pick chords in that scale - and then pick random notes in that scale until they come up with a melody they “like”.
On a related note, I was watching a tutorial on captain plugins’ “captain chord” plugin and although it made creating chord progressions and melodies simple and easy, it just seemed geared toward that same basic format I described above. Keep in mind that captain plugins is meant to be used by professional producers.
I guess my question is, do modern producers look to advance harmony/melody techniques or is more time spent on developing sounds or maybe something else?
I know this may come off as a criticism, but I’m not saying that whatever’s happening is better or worse, I’m just curious what people’s opinions are or even approaches you use.

2 words for you my friend. Anderson. Paak.

 

[slimegreenbeats]

True. And I imagine one of the reason for this may be that music is now listened mostly on tiny phone/laptop speakers. So if you want the bass to come through, you need to balance the mix differently, hence the bigger kicks and 808 bass.

I think a lot of it is just new plugins and sounds. Yea the listening devices have changed but the quality has improved if anything.