Music is not getting worse.

Perhaps, your discovery process is simply lazy.

Yesterday, Rick Beato claimed that “music is getting worse”. I wonder what he and his legion of subscribers qualify as music. Is it merely what’s on the radio? What’s rising in the streaming charts? What’s getting press attention?

More fantastic music is released now than ever in history. There is too much for Record Plug to cover in a monthly print magazine and podcast dedicated to a tiny regional and underground sliver of the larger scene. We have a list of 100 bands we haven’t gotten to yet with new releases and another 100+ who are working on their first releases who we are watching. It’s overwhelming and exciting.

My immense frustration with these so-called “Boomer Rants” like Beato’s is that I often agree with many of their conclusions at the surface level. But, I disagree with what they claim is the cause and how deterministic their stance appears to be: “These kids just don’t get it”—or worse, “these kids are lazy and under-rehearsed”—combined with “this is just the arc of society.” The artist is blamed. The listener is blamed. Society is doomed to be force-fed by tech.

No.

The problem—if there is one—stems mainly from the people in the studios, YouTube/TikTok home recording/music advice, and the surrounding parasitic infrastructure who sell the promise of fame to musicians. The point is constantly driven home for bands and artists: vanity metrics matter. Pleasing an algorithm matters. Someone’s concocted, unsubstantiated idea of marketability should inform your artistic decisions. “This is how the pros do it.” Something said off-the-cuff in an interview holds truth because the interviewee has Grammy’s attached to their name.

Maybe because I also work in marketing, I see so clearly when it is at play. None of that conversation is music-driven. None of the metrics are music-oriented. None of the credentials are achieved by only making good music. They are measures of successful marketing. Marketing is necessary and has its place, but that place is not around creative, artistic decision-making. It belongs nowhere near the rehearsal space or the recording studio.

The millisecond you show artists—or they happen upon—alternative approaches that retain artistic integrity while making them more productive, they will embrace them. When you can show alternative approaches that yield better results, do so.

If the premise had been “Production techniques used in successfully marketed music are making it suck more than it already did,” I would have given kudos. That seems to be the crux of his argument. And sure, some popular music might sound better using different approaches. I would rather see people use their platforms to raise awareness of better music rather than bemoan the quality of already popular things.

If you love music, end the wake. Stop keeping watch over its assumed dead body. Instead, highlight what is currently incredible and show how it could be even better.