Angela Beltran Culture 12.21.2022 01:Dec AM EST

Bob Dylan Criticizes Music in the Modern Age

Bob Dylan is known to be among the legends in the music industry, so when he has an opinion about it, it's a big deal. The singer-songwriter is convinced that streaming has made music production "too easy, too democratic."

A Traditionalist at Heart

In an interview, Bob Dylan expressed his opinions about the emergence of streaming services over the years. He believes that convenience has made today's music "toothless," as mentioned in Gizmodo.

He also mentioned that everything has been made too easy and that all it takes is the stroke of the ring finger, middle finger, and one little click. There was also mention of "blue devils, black mollies, nose candy, and ganga grass" being consumed nowadays.

When it comes to making music easily, he's not entirely wrong. Technology has made it easy for musicians to create music without the need for an actual studio. There are devices that can help singers record music in their own homes even.

There are now applications available to get rid of the need to gather an entire band to play each instrument. Musicians are getting creative with sounds that they incorporate into their music to create a rhythm or a beat.

Take Charlie Puth, for example. He created an original beat using a laptop, a mug, and a spoon right in the middle of an interview with Jimmy Fallon. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that easy is a bad thing.

Dylan's opinion is more or less subjective in the matter. There is a certain heft to it since he has been in the industry long enough to have extensive knowledge, but it still takes a certain amount of creativity and musical knowledge to produce music, which singers work hard for.

Has Music Become Painless?

According to Dylan, music has become painless as of late. If he means the overall mood of the music being released, a study says that's not the case. As mentioned by Pitchfork, "happy" and "bright" songs released between 1985 to 2015 have gone down.

As for the subject of the songs, there has been a shift compared to what artists were singing about before. There is an evident rise in lyrics that has adult content. Mainstream music has some innuendos and even explicit mention of drugs or alcohol.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine studied hundreds of popular songs back in 2007. The study shows that around a third of the songs had lyrics about drugs or alcohol, according to Reuters, and it has gone up since then.

In a screenshot posted by Third Hour, 21 songs out of the top 25 most listened to in the US are marked "explicit," which means it has 18+ lyrics in them. Overall, 34 out of the US Top 50 are marked explicit.

Still, despite having adult content in the lyrics, some of them can be considered "painful." There are songs that have more swearing than some would like, but the context still shows the point of view of a person in pain, like Drake's "Marvins Room."