People are Getting Smarter...Content is Getting Dumber

Atlantis

Well Known GateFan

I thought this was an interesting ted talk, I found that music genres can be subjective but when it comes to individual kinds of tracks then I believe that subjective taste should not be taken into account.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member

I thought this was an interesting ted talk, I found that music genres can be subjective but when it comes to individual kinds of tracks then I believe that subjective taste should not be taken into account.

Being a pianist myself, I can admire the skill of someone able to play certain pieces of music fluently, based upon known skill to do so and training to do so correctly. That is probably why have zero respect for autotune, loops and rap. I might like a few things using those elements, but I do not respect it as being real music in the sense of requiring training and compositional knowledge to perform.
 

Lord Ba'al

Well Known GateFan
I must have missed the part where he talked about people getting smarter.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
I must have missed the part where he talked about people getting smarter.

I really sort of disagree with him thinking people are getting smarter. I think people are getting dumber and the content is getting dumber as well to stay within reach of them. Like what we see in Idiocracy.
 
I really sort of disagree with him thinking people are getting smarter. I think people are getting dumber and the content is getting dumber as well to stay within reach of them. Like what we see in Idiocracy.

I don't disagree with you but I would say that modern technology has made it so that ignorance has to be a choice now. Everything to know about the world is now literally in the palm of our hands. We don't have to travel to experience different cultures. We don't even have to go to the library to edify ourselves anymore. So on one hand we are smarter than previous generations but we are also much, much lazier. Illiteracy is no longer a shameful thing to be hidden from others. In fact it's put on display every single day in just about every tweet and Facebook post out there. And if you point out other people's illiteracy you are derided as a "grammar nazi"; as if comprehending the language you speak is a bad thing and how dare you judge another person's argument by such arcane, Patriarchal standards? :rolleye0014:

The thing that bothers me about our society is when I run into someone with an advanced degree who doesn't understand the basics of grammar in the language they got their degree in. How did these people get through high school, let alone college, without being checked by their teachers and professors on spelling and grammar and basic reading comprehension skills?
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
I don't disagree with you but I would say that modern technology has made it so that ignorance has to be a choice now. Everything to know about the world is now literally in the palm of our hands. We don't have to travel to experience different cultures. We don't even have to go to the library to edify ourselves anymore. So on one hand we are smarter than previous generations but we are also much, much lazier. Illiteracy is no longer a shameful thing to be hidden from others. In fact it's put on display every single day in just about every tweet and Facebook post out there. And if you point out other people's illiteracy you are derided as a "grammar nazi"; as if comprehending the language you speak is a bad thing and how dare you judge another person's argument by such arcane, Patriarchal standards? :rolleye0014:

The thing that bothers me about our society is when I run into someone with an advanced degree who doesn't understand the basics of grammar in the language they got their degree in. How did these people get through high school, let alone college, without being checked by their teachers and professors on spelling and grammar and basic reading comprehension skills?

Proof that people are getting dumber is that companies are ignoring the alleged skills of the fluff degree graduates who are being churned out of diploma mills. They are testing for those skills and if the skills aren't there, not even a Ph.D. from Harvard is going to help them. I can't speak about other professions, but it is definitely like that in Information Technology fields.

Ever sit with somebody and listen to them spout nonsense because they don't know any better?
 
Last edited:
Proof that people are getting dumber is that companies are ignoring the alleged skills of the fluff degree graduates who are being churned out of diploma mills. They are testing for those skills and if the skills aren't there, not even a Ph.D. from Harvard is going to help them. I can't speak about other professions, but it is definitely like that in Information Technology fields.

Ever sit with somebody and listen to them spout nonsense because they don't know any better?

Oh God, don't get me going about Millennials in the workforce today, lol. A close friend works in engineering and he's beside himself on how bad the profession has gotten. His company has been infected by Millennials and it's pretty bad. I have seen first hand just how bad it's become. It makes me fear for the future.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

heisenberg

Earl Grey
Being a pianist myself, I can admire the skill of someone able to play certain pieces of music fluently, based upon known skill to do so and training to do so correctly. That is probably why have zero respect for autotune, loops and rap. I might like a few things using those elements, but I do not respect it as being real music in the sense of requiring training and compositional knowledge to perform.
Not all rap is 'shit'. There are some great rappers out there. No swear words/no racist words in this track.

 

heisenberg

Earl Grey
I don't disagree with you but I would say that modern technology has made it so that ignorance has to be a choice now. Everything to know about the world is now literally in the palm of our hands. We don't have to travel to experience different cultures. We don't even have to go to the library to edify ourselves anymore. So on one hand we are smarter than previous generations but we are also much, much lazier. Illiteracy is no longer a shameful thing to be hidden from others. In fact it's put on display every single day in just about every tweet and Facebook post out there. And if you point out other people's illiteracy you are derided as a "grammar nazi"; as if comprehending the language you speak is a bad thing and how dare you judge another person's argument by such arcane, Patriarchal standards? :rolleye0014:

The thing that bothers me about our society is when I run into someone with an advanced degree who doesn't understand the basics of grammar in the language they got their degree in. How did these people get through high school, let alone college, without being checked by their teachers and professors on spelling and grammar and basic reading comprehension skills?
College/Degrees have no meaning. It's 12 weeks of hell and pretty much no one learns anything because you are forced to cram shit and vomit that in an exam. Ask anyone that finished their degree if they remember anything they so called 'learnt'. 99.999% of those said that they didn't. I don't know if I am oldschool, but I like to sit in front of a classroom where there is an interaction between people. That is how we are suppose to learn and in a slow steady fashion. Our brains are designed to learn small bits at a time but unfortunately you are thrown in the deep end and are expected to know shit within weeks. I unfortunately can't finish my degree because it's not how I learn stuff. I like to take my time to learn because the more time you take, the easier it gets and better your understanding becomes.

The lack of Grammar is down to poor teaching at elementary school. It has nothing to do with how 'smart' someone is. Internet dialects has also bastardised the English Language. Instead of teaching Grammar, you are instead forced to read some bullshit text from 600 years ago from a tool who used to write Soap Operas...:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:

Atlantis

Well Known GateFan
Being a pianist myself, I can admire the skill of someone able to play certain pieces of music fluently, based upon known skill to do so and training to do so correctly. That is probably why have zero respect for autotune, loops and rap. I might like a few things using those elements, but I do not respect it as being real music in the sense of requiring training and compositional knowledge to perform.


Would you consider this to be music? I don't, yes it has silence but silence needs to evoke an emotion this does nothing it's just pure garbage and people are dumb enough to pay to see performances like this.:shep_lol::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao:



PS: If you like piano music then check out Brian Crain he is from America and a great friend of mine too.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
Not all rap is 'shit'. There are some great rappers out there. No swear words/no racist words in this track.


I did not say it was shit, I said that it requires no training or advanced skill to create or perform it. It is a "dumbed down" form of musical expression in comparison to other forms of music.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
Would you consider this to be music? I don't, yes it has silence but silence needs to evoke an emotion this does nothing it's just pure garbage and people are dumb enough to pay to see performances like this.:shep_lol::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao::icon_rotflmao:



PS: If you like piano music then check out Brian Crain he is from America and a great friend of mine too.

:smiley-laughing021::SmileyLaughingTears::icon_rotflmao::smiley-laughing024::lol::lol::lol:
 
The lack of Grammar is down to poor teaching at elementary school. It has nothing to do with how 'smart' someone is. Internet dialects has also bastardised the English Language. Instead of teaching Grammar, you are instead forced to read some bullshit text from 600 years ago from a tool who used to write Soap Operas...:rolleyes:

I get what you're saying and I'm not exactly disagreeing with you, but I tend to look at it from a different angle. An adult person's ability to properly spell words and use proper grammar is a direct sign of their intelligence level. If one is too lazy to cognitively retain the different definitions of the words 'there, their and they're' or 'your and you're' that makes their intelligence level suspect. (The laziness isn't just on the part of the grade school educators, although they do share the blame in the long run.)

When one repeatedly misuses words and/or misspells them that means that person doesn't care about their own intelligence level. And if they don't care about getting the raw basics of language correct then why would they care about getting the tenets of their beliefs correct? The answer is they don't care and therefore many people have warped, incomplete life philosophies and that is what makes the world a lousy place at times.

It's funny (read: sad) how people understand the importance of being accurate when it comes to math and physics but they don't place that same importance on language. Get the math wrong when calculating a budget and you're screwed. Get the physics wrong when determining a rocket launch or how to balance the weight of a skyscraper and you're screwed. Get the chemistry wrong when concocting a formula and you're screwed. Get the biology wrong when you're developing a cure for an illness and you're screwed.

And the exact same thing happens when you're not precise about language. People just don't want to see it. The misuse (abuse?) of language is detrimental to society. It's literally how we communicate as a species. Precision is vitally important in this regard. Intellectual laziness on a small scale becomes a cognitive habit of intellectual laziness on a big scale when it comes to cogitating the global issues we face. That is clearly not healthy for the planet.

Language is more important than math or physics or chemistry or biology or any of the sciences. Without language those other things become unintelligible and noncommunicable. We would never have been able to advance in those sciences without a proper respect for language to begin with. And jettisoning that respect for language is not helping us as a species. Being able to properly, intelligently, use basic words and basic grammar is immensely important to whether we expand or contract as a species.

*I should note that I'm not criticizing anyone here for misspelling and grammatical mistakes. We all make them, myself included. But those mistakes are genuinely that, mistakes. They aren't willful laziness or a slovenly disregard for language. (Unless of course you're from the Netherlands in which case all bets are off. ;) )
 
Last edited:

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
Not all of it.

No not all of it, but most of it (more than 95%). Are you aware that some of the "OG" rappers and some of the new ones are functionally illiterate? Rap requires no skill, other than to be able to rhyme words and make the words tell a story or make a statement. It requires no training, no singing, no instruments and the artist does not even have to be able to read.
 

Atlantis

Well Known GateFan
No not all of it, but most of it (more than 95%). Are you aware that some of the "OG" rappers and some of the new ones are functionally illiterate? Rap requires no skill, other than to be able to rhyme words and make the words tell a story or make a statement. It requires no training, no singing, no instruments and the artist does not even have to be able to read.

Being able to Rhymes is a skill because the definition of a skill is the ability to do something well. I am not a fan of most of the commercial rap artists out there.
 
I did not say it was shit, I said that it requires no training or advanced skill to create or perform it. It is a "dumbed down" form of musical expression in comparison to other forms of music.
No not all of it, but most of it (more than 95%). Are you aware that some of the "OG" rappers and some of the new ones are functionally illiterate? Rap requires no skill, other than to be able to rhyme words and make the words tell a story or make a statement. It requires no training, no singing, no instruments and the artist does not even have to be able to read.

Exactly this. The production of rap generally consists of a guy sitting in a studio taking "beats" and "hooks" that someone else created and rearranging them to create a "new" song. It's more of an engineering job than a musician job. One isn't creating new music as much as one is cobbling together marketing content based upon a well-established genre template. Sure some stuff is clever and interesting, but ultimately the genre is limited.
 
Being able to Rhymes is a skill because the definition of a skill is the ability to do something well. I am not a fan of most of the commercial rap artists out there.

Learning to drive a car is a skill. So is learning to successfully pick up women at the bar. But one look at the world shows you that most people are bad at both, and rap is no exception to this rule. ;)
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
Being able to Rhymes is a skill because the definition of a skill is the ability to do something well. I am not a fan of most of the commercial rap artists out there.

Poets have been rhyming words for centuries. Musicians have been trained classically, mastered composition and orchestration and studied the harmonic modes for centuries. In the 1980s, the hood destroyed a legacy of decades of skilled musicianship. Skilled instrumental artists got outsold by gang members who can't read or play instruments or read or write music. Today, you can't find many who want to pay for a classical concert or sit and appreciate jazz played by people playing actual instruments. Even singers no longer have to know what they used to know. How much skill does it take to sing a few words and then have them dubbed and looped over and over? Even the very best rhymes still do not count as music to me. Even a mediocre musician playing a scale on a recorder in a park has more musicianship (recorder the instrument, not the device!).
 
Top