Top music educator Rick Beato gives his verdict on the chart topping hits

[editor]

Although some will no doubt accuse him of being a 'boring old fart' for pouring scorn on some - but not all - new music, it is interesting seeing him disseminate hugely popular songs.

I'm sure the people who stream the hits won't care if the song has no chorus or structure and uses the same beat as a zillion other songs, but I enjoy his take on song writing skills...

 

[Pickman's model]

I suppose you'd call him a young fart

 

[souljacker]

I suppose you'd call him a young fart

Young farts
Be free

 

[Knotted]

I consume a lot of music theory/analysis youtube and I generally only pay attention to those with something positive to say for the reason that I think there's an art to music analysis, it's not just saying "this and this and this are happening" and then adding your opinion. Rather it is about suggesting why things work. I can recognise that songs I don't like (or even dismiss) work in one way or another and thinking about that is more interesting to me than an opinion piece (whether or not I agree with that opinion).

Having said that a more opinionated (and frankly less artful) commentator such as Rick Beato is good for generating discussion. He had an opinion piece a couple of years ago on modern music here:



Which generated this reply:



fwiw I think Beato has a bit of point still even if there's a tonne of objections to it. A lot of (certainly not all) pop songs are pretty samey these days and the industry has made it that way.

 

[savoloysam]

I used to like his videos until he did one on the top 20 unique guitar sounds in rock video and missed out Black Sabbath

 

[Knotted]

Beato's take on this is really bad:



He focuses on the chord changes and he does this all the time. It's his go to. But for this song it's like focusing on the rhythm of the bassline in Pachelbel's Canon in D as the starting point of a critique. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? Can't watch his videos without shouting at the screen.

 

[RubyToogood]

Although some will no doubt accuse him of being a 'boring old fart' for pouring scorn on some - but not all - new music, it is interesting seeing him disseminate hugely popular songs.

I'm sure the people who stream the hits won't care if the song has no chorus or structure and uses the same beat as a zillion other songs, but I enjoy his take on song writing skills...

That's 14 minutes of my life I won't get back.

I was pleasantly surprised that most of the top 10 weren't that awful. At least they were less tedious and derivative than was the case about 10 years ago.

 

[hipipol]

I do enjoy watching his stuff,he is a Classic - ie utterly shite, Rock guy but his love of musicians skills is what I like about him. When he starts taking utter bollocks about "Totos world changing impact" I have to cut it short

 

[rubbershoes]

When he starts taking utter bollocks about "Totos world changing impact" I have to cut it short

Was their impact less in Europe, Asia and the Americas?

 

[hipipol]

Was their impact less in Europe, Asia and the Americas?

Who knows?I always thought em crap. whether they made money, that does not equate to quality

 

[SpookyFrank]

I do like Rick Beato, his tastes are not the same as mine (I got bored of shreddy guitar solos twenty years ago) but his ability to pick out the structure of a tune is incredible.

He'll give credit where it's due and doesn't just slag off all modern music. But a lot of popular stuff right now is objectively bad. I don't think AI is writing the songs yet but so many people have been rehashing and reiterating the same handful of bankable elements for so long that the result sounds a lot like how AI pictures look.

 

[Knotted]

I do enjoy watching his stuff,he is a Classic - ie utterly shite, Rock guy but his love of musicians skills is what I like about him. When he starts taking utter bollocks about "Totos world changing impact" I have to cut it short

I think he's more a jazz guy really.

He has opinions which I can take or leave and that is fine. He also seems like a decent guy. My biggest bugbear with him is that his "why this song is great" series does not do what it says on the tin. He's very good at saying "this is what is happening" (at least in terms of chord changes and some of the production) and then he goes and pulls a face to say "yeah I love this" and there isn't a link between the objective and subjective. It's music as a technical exercise rather than an art form. How is this all connecting with what artist is trying to do?

Justin Hawkins out of the Darkness has a more interesting channel for instance. He can talk about vocal technique, guitar style, drum style, video aesthetics, pop aesthetics and all sorts, not necessarily to any great depth, but he talks about the music as an art form. I hate this idea that the most important thing are the chords.

 

[Kaka Tim]

I think he's more a jazz guy really.

He has opinions which I can take or leave and that is fine. He also seems like a decent guy. My biggest bugbear with him is that his "why this song is great" series does not do what it says on the tin. He's very good at saying "this is what is happening" (at least in terms of chord changes and some of the production) and then he goes and pulls a face to say "yeah I love this" and there isn't a link between the objective and subjective. It's music as a technical exercise rather than an art form. How is this all connecting with what artist is trying to do?

Justin Hawkins out of the Darkness has a more interesting channel for instance. He can talk about vocal technique, guitar style, drum style, video aesthetics, pop aesthetics and all sorts, not necessarily to any great depth, but he talks about the music as an art form. I hate this idea that the most important thing are the chords.

He is passionate, artiuclate and very knoweldglable - which is all good - and he really good at deconstructing the musical structures - but yeah - he doesnt really do things like the importance and impact of the vocal delivary and the lyrics - which is often a major part of why a song is great or not.

 

[hipipol]

I think he's more a jazz guy really.

He has opinions which I can take or leave and that is fine. He also seems like a decent guy. My biggest bugbear with him is that his "why this song is great" series does not do what it says on the tin. He's very good at saying "this is what is happening" (at least in terms of chord changes and some of the production) and then he goes and pulls a face to say "yeah I love this" and there isn't a link between the objective and subjective. It's music as a technical exercise rather than an art form. How is this all connecting with what artist is trying to do?

Justin Hawkins out of the Darkness has a more interesting channel for instance. He can talk about vocal technique, guitar style, drum style, video aesthetics, pop aesthetics and all sorts, not necessarily to any great depth, but he talks about the music as an art form. I hate this idea that the most important thing are the chords.

Justin Hawkins rides again...again... love him well funny but with some serious bits too

 

[Knotted]

He is passionate, artiuclate and very knoweldglable - which is all good - and he really good at deconstructing the musical structures - but yeah - he doesnt really do things like the importance and impact of the vocal delivary and the lyrics - which is often a major part of why a song is great or not.

Even if he's just talking about the chords, I still want to know how he's thinking about them rather than just what they are. He's good at labelling things in terms of music theory, but that's not deconstruction. But even in terms if labelling, there are often choices about how to label and generally just comes up with the standard textbook label. Eg. the so-called Hendrix chord, is it best to think of that as a sharp nine chord? How does that tie in with the blues roots of it?