Back in the 1990s, as a teen, I remember parsing the structure of much of the techno music I heard (before it was called EDM). The DJ would play something for like 10 seconds/16 beats/4 measure, then drop a new element/sound/layer. He'd do this like 6 times, and it'd take a whole minute. Then finally the song would begin in earnest with all the elements layered up.
Later I recall noticing that songs might start with 2 layers, and go for those first 10 seconds/16 beats/4 measures, but then drop all the remaining layers immediately for the next 4 measures. Faster, more to the point. Later they'd just start at the moment it was all layered up.
On some level what was going on was, that "our" ability to process information sped up. At first we couldn't make sense of all the things sonically happening, so we eased into it. Then once we were more familiar with it, "we" began toying around with presenting sonic information faster.
This sped up presentation of more sonic information, was happening in tandem with our experience of the internet, where we were exposed to more and more content faster and faster. MORE FASTER. Music mirrored this.
Now in 2025, I am starting to feel intolerant of how things used to be. I don't want to hear a verse, then after the chorus hear a verse where the sonic landscape is identical to the first. Like in the song Allstar by Smashmouth, the 2nd verse has an identical landscape to the 1st but with the addition of an organ to the mix. Just barely bearable. Good news is that 3rd verse has a totally different sonic landscape! It almost sounds like a Sugar Ray song, or that one good Sublime song. It almost changes genres. NICE! And this is what I WANT and EXPECT for all new songs. Old songs are like eating a whole box of ritz crackers. I want a plate with various crackers, cheeses, meats, deserts, etc. In fact I want to encounter a new tasty treat I've never had before.
There has been a trend to slow down and speed up music. It is like saying "lets turn this jam packed upbeat song into one of those old songs that is decompressed!" But I mostly find such slowed down songs intolerable when they are longer than 2 minutes, and they often are just 2 minutes, as if the creators feel the same as me. Being trapped in one sonic landscape for longer than 2 minutes just seems like more than I want.
I was so confused why I liked Taylor Swift so much, and part of it clicked when I finally heard interviews with Jack Antonoff explaining the music in the background. He is constantly shifting around the sonic landscape and it is not repeating. But he has been doing it subtly so you don't notice, and with a awesome attention to detail. I want that in EVERY song. Every bar labored over. Constantly shifting and presenting new sonic landscapes so that I never land. It feels like flying.
I am listening to the song 757 by 100 gecs, and where the bridge would go, they instead just slow the whole song down. The final bit of the song is a totally different sonic landscape. Then more recently I heard Ten by Fred Again, and he too does this trick of dropping the song down to a slower tempo, but then he only stays with it like one measure, maybe two before ditching it and going back to the main speed and doubling down the beat to speed it up. It is so ADHD. The landscape just jumps all around. It sounds SO FRESH it makes all other songs sound boring by comparison.
The problem that is bringing this sonic shift to my attention, is that I keep finding these songs that are all over the place, and I can't put them on playlists beside normal songs, and it just doesn't work. They make normal songs sound BORING. They just don't shift around fast enough. Tedious to listen to.
In my mind, 20 years ago "we" stumbled into the dream/vision/future of noise pop, where we realized that many ugly sounds could be Music. And we've been living in that future ever since, where lots of songs sound like car alarms blaring. Old people who lived before the transition have not been able to come with "us" into this future. They are stuck listening to music that sounds like before, and to me is too boring to listen to. It was a music cutoff point like electric guitars and rap were. Now I feel like we are in a new one. Songs that just present SO MUCH sonic information, and present more of it faster. I don't feel like I can play this music for almost anyone I know, because they haven't made the leap yet. They need their time.
I am across the gorge and this hyper pop future is AWESOME! The music is screaming at me like a car alarm and I LOVE IT.
Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1naVyl0mSGJkfJHvUtqodV?si=0deddfbdd7354563
