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>Sure, there are more producers then ever. But at the same
>time, there is more accessibility to make music than ever, and
>as someone who doesn't make music and thus has no vested
>interested, I think that's (mostly) a good thing.
>
>It no longer takes equipment that costs hundreds, if not
>thousands, of dollars to make beats, nor do you need a to
>spend a fortune on records to sample.
>
>Who knows how many talented people were dissuaded from
>pursuing beat making 20 years ago because of all the costs
>involved. Now, they're doing shit in their moms basement on
>Fruity Loops.
>
>While some may be threatened by this because they "don't
>appreciate the music" (whatever that even means, and as if
>anyone really knows if these kids do or not), I think that's a
>positive.
The cost involved 20 years ago was high, sure, but you appreciated it more. If you weren't really serious about music, serious about making beats, you wouldn't waste your money or your time fucking with it. It was something only those with the dedication to the art got into. It also forced some cats (like myself) to be more creative because of the limits imposed by what you could afford to buy. A lot of dudes got on using older (at that time) gear instead of trying to buy new shit. Instead of saving up for an SP1200, S950, or MPC60/60II, you had cats buying second hand Mirage's, cheap Casio SK-1's, Casio RZ1 or an FZ1 or FZ10 if they could catch one just so they could get their feet wet, and ending up squeezing some amazing shit out of them.
Some of DJ Premier and Large Professor's early joints came out of the Casio SK-1.
I used to have a fairly well rounded recording setup in my apartment years ago made up of whatever I could cop for under $200 at a time. I had drum machines, keyboards, sound modules, a sampler, mixers and a PC that I used as a sequencer. I invested time in learning the ins and outs of each new piece that I added and could extract sounds out of some of that gear that made a number of seasoned vets say "You did this with what???". But that's what happens when you put time into your art.
The problem stems from several places, many of which have been outlined here already, but the one that sticks out to me is "work". The current generation doesn't work for shit, so they don't value anything like those before them. This and the fact that everything is at their fingertips immediately makes for an environment of individuals that don't see the value in hard work, and therefore can't understand why everything SHOULDN'T be easy. You got cats that whip up a bullshit beat, spit garbage rhymes over said bullshit beat, then shoot a video with their camera phone and upload the results to Youtube or Worldstar and they stand a halfway decent chance at attaining star status and a record deal...
... and they just started rapping and producing that afternoon!
A lot of these "producers" can't program a synth for shit, they use presets that came with their plugins (and rate them based on those presets, not by what you can actually do with them). They can't sample for shit, they rely on sample packs and pre-made loops. They don't know how to structure a song, how to give the vocalist room in a composition to spit, which is why a lot of the songs today have the rapper fighting the beat to get attention. They also don't know how to mix and don't have proper monitors opting to use their "Beats By Dre" headphones, wondering why their shit sounds like ass anywhere other than in the cans.
This is a product of this "gimmie now"-type generation. Zero work ethic, and the music they make fully reflects it.
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I miss Tha D... But I'll never move back there.
R.I.P. Disco D
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