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in 20 more years, will we have run out of fresh melodies?

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in 20 years will we run out of fresh melodies & have to reuse old ones?
yes, that is likely. 19%  19%  [ 3 ]
no, we will fail as a civilization before then. 19%  19%  [ 3 ]
no, sampling has countless permutations available to it. 31%  31%  [ 5 ]
i just don't know. 13%  13%  [ 2 ]
i really like icecream! 19%  19%  [ 3 ]
Total votes : 16

Stargazer43
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20 Jan 2012, 1:26 pm

Many melodies are already being re-used, I think its only natural that over time really good melodies will get used repeatedly in different ways. However, when you look at all the dynamics, nuances, rhythms, harmonics, etc. that add to the music, you realize that there really are a huge amount of possibilities that I don't think will ever be fully exhausted. And simple melodies can be altered in such a way that they may end up sounding almost completely different, even though they contain the same notes.



auntblabby
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20 Jan 2012, 6:08 pm

RarePegs wrote:
consider what you could produce in your own style of music by using motivic techniques!


my good man, will those translate into pops compositions accessible to the casual radio listener?



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20 Jan 2012, 8:42 pm

I've heard and played so many songs in my life that every new song reminds me of another one.



theaspiemusician
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20 Jan 2012, 9:33 pm

I think it matters whether or not the musicians want to recycle the old music. A lot of pop "musicians" recycle the old and hardly have their own tune. Even some METAL bands do that!! !


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auntblabby
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22 Jan 2012, 12:47 am

Fnord wrote:
I've heard and played so many songs in my life that every new song reminds me of another one.


the organist for lawrence welk knows over 3000 songs by heart, imagine having that many songs in your memory.



abacacus
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22 Jan 2012, 1:07 am

theaspiemusician wrote:
I think it matters whether or not the musicians want to recycle the old music. A lot of pop "musicians" recycle the old and hardly have their own tune. Even some METAL bands do that!! !


Every band does that to some extent.


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RarePegs
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22 Jan 2012, 10:28 am

auntblabby wrote:
RarePegs wrote:
consider what you could produce in your own style of music by using motivic techniques!


my good man, will those translate into pops compositions accessible to the casual radio listener?


I'm sure there are those who could do it. It has happened to some extent in crossover music in the opposite direction eg modern classically-trained composers like Michael Torke who are influenced by popular music but write motivically for groups of mainly classical instruments. There are probably people who could and would grab this form of crossover and pull it more in the pop direction.



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22 Jan 2012, 10:45 am

Uprising wrote:
Haven't we ran out of melodies already?


This ^^^

I also recall a Tomorrow's World documentary saying that round about now, every kind of composition would've been done.

I notice that many pop tunes borrow the chord structure of my favourite song of all time "Blue Monday" by New Order. :wink: