Running out of new music?

[Sassy Milkshake]

I frequent YouTube, and I watched this video by VSauce talking about the world running out of music. There's so many different combinations of sounds that can be made into a song, yet we still have songs that are very similar in sound. Yes there's seemingly infinite possibilities, but is it possible that some time in the future that music becomes so similar to songs we've heard before, or perhaps so different we wouldn't recognize it as music?

[ShinyUmbreon189]

This is a very good question actually. Lot's of artists/musicians have isnpirations from other artists so they try to sound like them to an extent, but at the same time have they're own sound. I don't believe any particular artists sound the same but they're similar, they each got they're own sound to an extent as well. So when you get musicans that are inspired by Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Tupac, Metallica, etc that's a lot of musicians trying to sound like them. When they're inspired by that artists or specific artists they learn from them and whehter they know it or not they sound really similar to them even tho they got they're own sound.

[Mononoke Hime]

Originally Posted by Sassy Milkshake

I frequent YouTube, and I watched this video by VSauce talking about the world running out of music. There's so many different combinations of sounds that can be made into a song, yet we still have songs that are very similar in sound. Yes there's seemingly infinite possibilities, but is it possible that some time in the future that music becomes so similar to songs we've heard before, or perhaps so different we wouldn't recognize it as music?

Though I have never seen this video, I have to disagree with you. In every decade people talk about music being worse and stuff like that. Then years ago people were asking the same question.
The thing here is about what kind of music you're talking about. If it's about mass-oriented music, so yep, they have the same structure according with their genres.
But if you're talking about something much bigger, something that extends to all kinds of music, then definitively there's a mistake in thinking that in the future all songs will seem similar.

As you said, there's a infinity of combinations and sounds, melodies, and I must say that technology is helping a lot in this situation, creating even more possibilities.

Originally Posted by ShinyUmbreon189

This is a very good question actually. Lot's of artists/musicians have isnpirations from other artists so they try to sound like them to an extent, but at the same time have they're own sound. I don't believe any particular artists sound the same but they're similar, they each got they're own sound to an extent as well. So when you get musicans that are inspired by Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Tupac, Metallica, etc that's a lot of musicians trying to sound like them. When they're inspired by that artists or specific artists they learn from them and whehter they know it or not they sound really similar to them even tho they got they're own sound.

Every artist, from a painter to a writer, from a dancer to a musician, tends to copy what they have learned from other people, such as their masters or their "idols". But there's a misconception here, because using something that you learned from other people make a certain model for what the artist is supposed to create. He/she simply follows that model, and that model can be re-shaped, updated, it can merge within another model, etc. Thus, even if they follow a model, this model is much like a Ditto than anything. But this really depends on the artist him or herself and their ability to express their feelings in a structured way but at the same time in an individual way.

[Sassy Milkshake]

Originally Posted by Mononoke Hime

Though I have never seen this video, I have to disagree with you. In every decade people talk about music being worse and stuff like that. Then years ago people were asking the same question.
The thing here is about what kind of music you're talking about. If it's about mass-oriented music, so yep, they have the same structure according with their genres.
But if you're talking about something much bigger, something that extends to all kinds of music, then definitively there's a mistake in thinking that in the future all songs will seem similar.

As you said, there's a infinity of combinations and sounds, melodies, and I must say that technology is helping a lot in this situation, creating even more possibilities.

Well I'm not saying music will get worse by any means. I'm saying that if we, to put it in the words of the video, "exhaust all" the different combinations of sounds that can go into a song, there will eventually be a point where innovation becomes extremely difficult. Of course this applies to all genres of music. The video goes so far to include conversations as even an arrangement of sounds. Not to mention this will take place over millions of years. The rate at which music is changing is pretty astonishing at this moment, but how different will it be 1000 years from now? The songs won't all seem similar, but rather similar to songs from the past.

[IceGod64]

If it ever does happen it won't be any time soon.

[Scarf]

I think we'd just come up with new ideas, broaden our understanding of music before we ever "run out" of sounds.

But I also think music isn't just a combination of sounds, it's also how those sounds relate to one another. Look at literature. There are styles and themes that keep repeating, but we still come up with new stories because even if we're just rehashing the same story without adding anything new we're doing it with hindsight. So a reader reading a modern story written almost perfectly like a Jane Austen novel is going to read it with the cultural background that they have, one that includes a lot of commentary about Austen and a million other things which will influence how they experience the work and make their experience uniquely different.

[GolurkIsDaBomb]

I saw that video too! Vsauce rocks!

Anyway, I don't think we will run out of music. There are so many possible different melodies that it seems unlikely that's we'd end up just repeating ourselves over and over. Besides that, though, music evolves just like any art. The music we listen to now is vastly different to 100, 50, 25... even just 10 years ago back in the early 2000s! If we do start repeating melodies, they'll be in such a different style of music they'd probably be unrecognizable to someone who remembered the song they were taking their melody from. So I guess that we may not recognize future music as music, but I doubt Mozart would think heavy metal or rap (or even pop, I'm looking at you Ke$ha) as anything other than noise.

[AwesomeAsCrawdaunt]

At least bands like this are doing their bit to make new sounds

[Airbourne Bubblun]

I wouldn't say that we were running out of new music, I'd say that we are running out of good artists. There are many different music that could be played, I would say there is an infinite amount of melodies out there, so no, I wouldn't say that we are running out of new music.

[BassBlood]

I find it unlikely that we'll run out of music, but there's always the possibility. Some Spanish researchers found that "mainstream" songs tend to be more similar to each other than in other areas. So, I don't think we'll run out of music or good music anytime soon, but it's going to take a LOT more digging.

[Khawill]

When we run out of songs now, just go to the past! Have your heard all 3 movements of moonlight sonata? Have you heard Ray Charles? Have you listened to the Rolling Stones? I mean even if we run out now, theres music that you probably never heard before anyways, Pop, Rap, Rock, and Hip-Hop are not even close to the only music that exists.

I think another problem is that people are so mob minded that there just seems to be the same music. (Ever heard of Philip Wesley? Great Pianist. Olafur Arnalds? Also really good.) I'd say we aren't running out of music, just genres.

[Toshiro.]

It's happening now. I've noticed a lot lately how much the new music sounds really similar to other new music. It's just the way it is. A simple fix would be to listen to old stuff when songs were original.

[LilJz1234]

I don't think that we're running out of music. If you take Mozart's era, they have all classical music and such. Compare it to now, we got freaking dubstep, house and eletronic music. You would never imagine such thing to exist back in the 1700's. So with time, we'll always find new ways of making music

[Antemortem]

Things are always changing, and music is no exception. Music changes every day. There are new technologies, new sounds, new artists, people jumping around genres and doing their own things - all of these things and more will prevent music from every stopping its evolution. It might someday evolve into babies smacking metal pots with wooden spoons as the new rock or a boy trying to beatbox to the beat of a girl chewing an ice cube as the new rap/dubstep, but 'new' music will still spring up regardless of the circumstances.

[outfox]

Music is more than just sound combinations, and most songs today use the same patterns and notes as songs of the past. Everyone of every generation thinks that the music they heard growing up is original, when really ideas are cyclical, and that's becoming more clear in the mainstream industry. There are so many unique ideas outside of the mainstream industry, no one person could hear them all in an entire lifetime. I think the music industry will always be okay. I'm also a huge supporter of borrowed ideas, I quote Jarmusch all the time: "It's not where you take things from, it's where you take them to." Every idea is inspired by something and that is how growth occurs. Reoccurance is bound to happen and that is perfectly okay.

[Matty Mayhem]

I think that the world will never run out of music. The current progressive metal scene and the bands in it are so unique right now. I hear riffs that I could have never imagined before.

[AlexOzzyCake]

Although a lot of music decently does sound somewhat similar, that doesn't nullify all of the wonderfully diverse music that's being released every day. Whilst it is theoretically possible to run out of new music, I firmly believe there'll always be someone to push the limits and find new ways to do it. There's any number of new instruments that could be made, new styles left to be discovered, new timings to be trifled with, etc etc, so I think music is one of those few areas in life that'll always continue to thrive and throw new turns at us. (At least I really, really hope so!)