Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

[Skerik]

Bob Dylan says modern music is worthless
Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:21am ET135

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bob Dylan says modern recordings sound "atrocious," and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc.

"I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really," the 65-year-old rocker said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Dylan, who released eight studio albums in that time, returns with his first recording in five years, "Modern Times," next Tuesday.

Noting the music industry's complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, "Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway."

"You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static."

Dylan said he does his best to fight technology, but it's a losing battle.

"Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it."

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyid=2006-08-22T152139Z_01_N22476890_RTRUKOC_0_US-DYLAN.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

[KENYON06]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

Wow. What a dbag. Maybe someone should show his old *** how to use the internet and find good stuff. There's still plenty out there.

[jmood88]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

Old people are funny.

[ehh]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

Modern day mainstream music is worthless, but there's still tons and tons of great music being made today. You just gotta look.

[Nivek]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

Modern day mainstream music is worthless, but there's still tons and tons of great music being made today. You just gotta look.

Co-sign.

[pk500]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

Modern day mainstream music is worthless, but there's still tons and tons of great music being made today. You just gotta look.

I think you guys and the headline writer missed Dylan's point. He's talking about the SOUND quality, not the general musical quality.

Dylan thinks that music sounds a lot better on vinyl, produced via analog, than on CD produced digitally. He thinks vinyl conveys the "live sound" of a studio better than CD's.

At least that's the way I interpreted it.

Take care,
PK

[Skerik]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

I think you guys and the headline writer missed Dylan's point. He's talking about the SOUND quality, not the general musical quality.

Dylan thinks that music sounds a lot better on vinyl, produced via analog, than on CD produced digitally. He thinks vinyl conveys the "live sound" of a studio better than CD's.

At least that's the way I interpreted it.

Take care,
PK

I think that's true, but I also think one leads to another. Most of today's music is overproduced to hell and back. If you overproduce music it's going to sound awful whether it's laid on vinyl, produced digitally, or whatever else.

So I think Dylan's point was dual-edged, if you will....

[jmood88]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

I think you guys and the headline writer missed Dylan's point. He's talking about the SOUND quality, not the general musical quality.

Dylan thinks that music sounds a lot better on vinyl, produced via analog, than on CD produced digitally. He thinks vinyl conveys the "live sound" of a studio better than CD's.

At least that's the way I interpreted it.

Take care,
PK

You're right after reading it again I completely missed what he was saying.

[ehh]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

I think you guys and the headline writer missed Dylan's point. He's talking about the SOUND quality, not the general musical quality.

Dylan thinks that music sounds a lot better on vinyl, produced via analog, than on CD produced digitally. He thinks vinyl conveys the "live sound" of a studio better than CD's.

At least that's the way I interpreted it.

Take care,
PK

I don't think so. Why would he call it "worthless"? He would just say the sound quality was poor. Worthless isn't usually the way you'd describe something like that.

[pk500]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

I don't think so. Why would he call it "worthless"? He would just say the sound quality was poor. Worthless isn't usually the way you'd describe something like that.

Read the lead paragraph again, very s-l-o-w-l-y:

>>>Bob Dylan says modern recordings sound "atrocious," and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc.<<<

First, the term "modern recordings" refers to the production of the music. If Dylan meant the quality of the composition, then the term "modern music" would suffice.

Second, do you think that Dylan is saying there's a difference in the composition, lyrics and emotion of his tunes when played in a studio or played from a CD?

No. He was referring to the difference in the aural tones and quality of the sound when played live in the studio compared to that digitally processed on a plastic disc.

Old-school musicians like Dylan can tell the difference in the quality of the recording. Most new musicians can't, because they didn't grow up listening to vinyl and never recorded in analog format.

Take care,
PK

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

I guess this explains why he's performed with Jack White.

[SPTO]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

I think Dylan is absolutely right. Most mainstream music (sorry I don't hear a lot of the underground stuff) are very overproduced. I think some of the blame for the overproducing has to go way back to Phil Spector and his "wall of sound" technique. Have you ever listened to some of the stuff he produced from the '60s? YIKES! Talk about ear bleeding production values.

Now I have heard some magnificent recordings these days but generally most music today is either overproduced or so un-instrumental as to be rendered worthless.

As for vinyl, he's spot on there too. There's something about vinyl. I can't quite put my finger on it but the sound quality while not crystal "clear" as you get from digital media has a certain "feel" to it. I can't quite explain it but there's a warmth to a vinyl recording that you don't get from digital media.

[koebner]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

The difference these days is in the mastering process-there seems to be a strategic arms race to push the levels higher and higher.I think that is part of Dylans' beef.
A quality analog to digital conversion is possible,but inferior technique results in the "austere" or cold effect on the overall sound.
When Dylan bemoans the physical size of a CD,though,he loses me.

[Skerik]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

Btw, as a follow up, the jackasses at Reuters changed the article later today.

The headline now reads, "Dylan says modern recordings 'atrocious'" and begins with a paragraph about how he doesn't like the sound quality on modern recordings.

Like I said though, I think that sound is a factor of overproducing, not just the difference between vinyl and a CD.

[Herbsinator]

Re: Bob Dylan: Modern music is worthless

Also, I think it is too bad that all studios sound exactly the same. Back in the day all the studios sounded different so you easily tell the difference between a Chess record and an Atlantic record just by how they sounded. Now music doesn't have that same personality.