What will music be like 20 years from now?

This is something thats always bugged me more and more.. in 1980 rap was almost unheard of, and it was never though rap would be anything like it is today..

Screamo/Emo would also have been considered insanity, no one would of come close to predicting THAT.

Then you have techno, and even more so stuff like Nightwish which blends operatic vocals with metal and then other things entirely.

But it seems like.. where else can music go? How the hell is country gonna survive/evolve, what about true hip hop and metal?

This could be a fun topic, I guess just brainstorm here.

Worse than it is now. It's either that, or we'll see a revival in mid-twentieth century music.

Worse espeically since all the good bands are getting older and retiring or have retired and dieing.

Yeah but we always get a new wave of bands that are excellent.
But of course this can happen like 30 years from now.
However in 20 years I think we will be on the downward slope, as long as we have record companies around killing creativity.
But in 20 years from now record companies might be gone.

A bit like this:

I'm pessimistic. We will probably just have 10 million Britney Spears type musicians.

Hard to imagine, I hope piracy continues to grow so that record companies collapse. Also the huge success that is pop music is ruining music nowdays.
In 10-20 years I have no idea of what popular music might sound like, although I'd like it to be something like this:



Edit:

Originally Posted by The Sword of Cao Cao

But it seems like.. where else can music go? How the hell is country gonna survive/evolve, what about true hip hop and metal?

Hip Hop is probably the genre that most suffered with commercialisation, Its such a shame what passes for Hip Hop this days.
We need less from this, and more like this.
Just an example that good music is definatly alive. Music is just like any other form of media, you'll have to dig through all the **** to find the gold.

Originally Posted by Hattori

Hard to imagine, I hope piracy continues to grow so that record companies collapse. Also the huge success that is pop music is ruining music nowdays.

You may well be right. Maybe we'll get something ala punk. Everyone just picks up an instrument and: fun.

Hopefully it will be like the cantina music from Star Wars.

It will be like the "cake music" from the Drugs episode of Brass Eye.

I expect the internet will become the main method of distributing music. In which case there's going to be a hell of a lot of new artists, since they can get their music out so easily.

You think it's bad now? You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Originally Posted by ~The Doctor~

I expect the internet will become the main method of distributing music. In which case there's going to be a hell of a lot of new artists, since they can get their music out so easily.

You think it's bad now? You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Why would that be bad? Its good for artists to get their music out much easily.

Originally Posted by Hattori

Why would that be bad? Its good for artists to get their music out much easily.

Yes, but there will be millions of artists getting their stuff out. Music will become so diluted that when you mention to someone who you're listening to, they won't even have a vague idea who you're talking about. Things will come full circle. It'll be like back in the days before the gramophone.

The first of hopefully a new generation of good music is on it's way with the new album In Defense of the Genre by Say Anything. Check it out, it gives me hope.

What will music be like 20 years from now?

Hopefully better. Another Nevermind to kickstart the scene?

I say 70s inspired rock revival, judging by my future musician friends.

Black metal is a falling giant, although metal itself is pretty die-hard.

I predict a nice future!

These genres are likely to fade away:
-britpop
-emo themed genres
-black metal
-gangsta rap

Folk crossgenres are likely to survive, though likely not in its current form.

Originally Posted by mocker

I say 70s inspired rock revival, judging by my future musician friends.

Black metal is a falling giant, although metal itself is pretty die-hard.

I predict a nice future!

These genres are likely to fade away:
-britpop
-emo themed genres
-black metal
-gangsta rap

Folk crossgenres are likely to survive, though likely not in its current form.

Black metal is no more or less popular than it has ever been. Which is not very, considering it's such a niche genre in most of the world. Except der grymm north.

I've always thought that music moves in 15 - 20 year cycles, and that any new manifestation of genre is comporable to is predecessor.
For instance, this Emo/pop-punk type stuff, which is pretty much the most popular type of rock music at the moment, is directly comporable to 80's hair metal, in that it has very little substance, but attempts to make up for it in style and fashion. Eventually (with any luck) the next manifestation of the alternative scene will come along and ridicule it (in the same way that Grunge did in the late 80's/early 90's) and rock music will move on.

There is only so much dross that "society" will accept before it reacts. This can be applied to anything, and music is no exception. Of course, there will always be pop type music, because a great majority of people treat music as something superfluous to their lives, and prefer not to think about what they are listening too. But for the rest of us, I think we'll just have to hang on for a bit longer and we should start seeing some quality music again.

IDK why people say "worse than it is now" music lately has only been getting better. There will always be rap and pop **** but you have to not listen to that garbage.

Music now is better than its been in a long time.

It seems people are buying into what the RIAA wants you to believe is modern music that they think everyone should like.

Frankly, who knows?


Or rather, cares? You'll always find some type of music that you like, no matter how ****** the modern day music is.