Generic background music (and why I hate it)

Ask yourself, what is the music piece of this year? Or the last year. Or any year since the pandemic.
Lately, there haven’t been as many cultural events as there once were. I can’t speak for others, but personally, I feel like art and culture aren’t as important as they once were. Because there is too much of it.

The art & culture market has become so saturated that everything is worthless. I call it cultural deflation. Think about it, everyday so much generic background music is pumped out that it’ll become worthless in a couple months. Try to remember the last background track you heard at the mall… Bet you don’t know the name of the track. Or even remember the track itself too well.

I like to think it started when Youtube started their Copy ID thing. People we’re in need of background music but now they couldn’t just use any music. They needed royalty-free music.
That’s where Kevin MacLeod comes. He started making royalty-free music for anyone to use. People consider him a very generous man since he stayed afloat only from donations and exposure. But not every artist is like Kevin.

Kevin showed the music industry that background music didn’t have to be fantastic, it just had to be alright, and the principle was taken to the extreme.

Background music started to be produced in bulk, there are websites, services and entire companies based around offering background music.

Some of it is royalty free and copyleft, which is good, but there are services that charge subcriptions for using the background music they offer.

And I just have to talk about AI music. AI is the automation of art, just like how every industry was automated for more efficiency. AI fits perfectly in this new economic model of generic music.
It’s cheap, quick and has no connection to any artist, perfect for pumping out generic background music. And I hate it.

Music should connect you to the artist, his joys, his pains, his thoughts. Music is art, and art is a form of expression but its being turned into soulless entertainment.

So, I’m just going to ask you: when was the last time you listened to music. Not heard music, listened to it. When was the last time you sat down, played a track and just… listened.
If you don’t remember, then do it. Get some CDs, your old casettes, vynils and just… listen.

P.S.: I wrote this because I hate the music that plays in malls and other places, I don’t like unnecessary noise, I like hearing my conversations and my thoughts.

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