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Classic tracks - are they getting more scarce?

I had a thought, almost at random today. I sometimes hear it said, usually by jaded and predictable bores on forums, that there are less classics around today, or rather less tunes that will be remembered "in 20 years time". And it definitely feels like tunes don't feel as iconic today - very few of my favourites from any year are ones everyone will know about.

The thought I had was an explanation - these days there are far less mix compilations and DJ mixes that are heard by thousands or even millions of people. My thought was that most classic tracks are immortalised by their inclusion in at least one hugely popular mix. A lot of old tunes would be completely forgotten today if we didn't find them in tracklists of recorded sets. A perfect example is Northern Exposure - just about every track on there is regarded as a stonewall classic now, but even in 1996 Sasha described the tracks they used as "forgotten classics" - tracks that had been bypassed even at the time. If Northern Exposure hadn't been made, almost none of those tunes, brilliant as they are, would be remembered today by anyone but collectors and a few ardent veterans.

So now CD mixes don't sell any units and everyone and their dog has a radio show so nobody all tunes in to one particular show (such as the Essential Mix), there are far less opportunities to feature as part of a brilliant mix or have a memorable transition that immortalises it in the minds of millions of people.

Now unleash the jaded wankery insisting it's just because music has been steadily getting worse throughout history.

I think classic tracks will always continue to appear and be made. They may not be immmediately recognised as such in the sense that it might be a bit further in the future when we acknowledge their input to the scene rather than the 'instant classic' that some may have had with people. One thing we have to bear in mind is that as new generations expose themselves to the music they'll find their own classics personally which we might not think as such but again time will be the indication of that. The digital age just gives us a lot more mediocrity to deal with but the cream will always rise to the top imo.

i suppose so yes. Although i think it takes a little more then to be featured on a mix CD. There are plenty of tracks still being made that have 'classic' properties, like instantly memorable melodies or unusually high energy content. They just don't blow up like they used to anymore. It basically needs to be drilled in to the public conscience by endlessly being played in sets, played in radio shows, written about and so on. With large quantities of music being easily accessible in the current digital age i guess the new generation of DJ's doesn't really need to do so anymore. plus there's so much you can do with mixing these days it's far less important to center you're set around the big tunes, more can be done with less.

nowadays i think it just sounds hopeless to keep playing out classics just to try and get the crowds attention. (Just saw Oakenfold play this weekend , prime example there)

Something from Ian Van Dahl, Vengaboys, Sash... might be considered a classic so will David Guetta - Sexy Bitch be a classic? The whole edm has gone to the bin even commercial tracks are shittier , maybe there are some good tracks around 2005 but i doubt you can find a classic by definition after 2010. Let's wait till 2030 and see

After reading this post i just gotta say, yes!

That being said, i think the quality of tracks has gotten better the recent years. Its just so many of them.

Re: Classic tracks - are they getting more scarce?

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I had a thought, almost at random today. I sometimes hear it said, usually by jaded and predictable bores on forums, that there are less classics around today, or rather less tunes that will be remembered "in 20 years time". And it definitely feels like tunes don't feel as iconic today - very few of my favourites from any year are ones everyone will know about. The thought I had was an explanation - these days there are far less mix compilations and DJ mixes that are heard by thousands or even millions of people. My thought was that most classic tracks are immortalised by their inclusion in at least one hugely popular mix. A lot of old tunes would be completely forgotten today if we didn't find them in tracklists of recorded sets. A perfect example is Northern Exposure - just about every track on there is regarded as a stonewall classic now, but even in 1996 Sasha described the tracks they used as "forgotten classics" - tracks that had been bypassed even at the time. If Northern Exposure hadn't been made, almost none of those tunes, brilliant as they are, would be remembered today by anyone but collectors and a few ardent veterans. So now CD mixes don't sell any units and everyone and their dog has a radio show so nobody all tunes in to one particular show (such as the Essential Mix), there are far less opportunities to feature as part of a brilliant mix or have a memorable transition that immortalises it in the minds of millions of people. Now unleash the jaded wankery insisting it's just because music has been steadily getting worse throughout history.

Basically what you are describing is the music being diluted. Everyone's attention and time is diverted in so many directions that its hard to get a large group of people to focus on one track at any given time. That's really what makes a classic a classic (everyone knowing it)

More music being released = less chance of any given track to be made special. Its really just a statistical thing.

Re: Classic tracks - are they getting more scarce?

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J The thought I had was an explanation - these days there are far less mix compilations and DJ mixes that are heard by thousands or even millions of people. My thought was that most classic tracks are immortalised by their inclusion in at least one hugely popular mix. A lot of old tunes would be completely forgotten today if we didn't find them in tracklists of recorded sets. A perfect example is Northern Exposure - just about every track on there is regarded as a stonewall classic now, but even in 1996 Sasha described the tracks they used as "forgotten classics" - tracks that had been bypassed even at the time. If Northern Exposure hadn't been made, almost none of those tunes, brilliant as they are, would be remembered today by anyone but collectors and a few ardent veterans.

Yep, basically.

There is plenty of quality music, but there are so many different venues and so much being made that it is hard for one track to reach and impress a large percentage of EDM fans anymore. Combine this with a shorter shelf life due to massive volume of new tracks coming out, and you end up getting fewer "classics."

Re: Classic tracks - are they getting more scarce?

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I had a thought, almost at random today. I sometimes hear it said, usually by jaded and predictable bores on forums, that there are less classics around today, or rather less tunes that will be remembered "in 20 years time". And it definitely feels like tunes don't feel as iconic today - very few of my favourites from any year are ones everyone will know about. The thought I had was an explanation - these days there are far less mix compilations and DJ mixes that are heard by thousands or even millions of people. My thought was that most classic tracks are immortalised by their inclusion in at least one hugely popular mix. A lot of old tunes would be completely forgotten today if we didn't find them in tracklists of recorded sets. A perfect example is Northern Exposure - just about every track on there is regarded as a stonewall classic now, but even in 1996 Sasha described the tracks they used as "forgotten classics" - tracks that had been bypassed even at the time. If Northern Exposure hadn't been made, almost none of those tunes, brilliant as they are, would be remembered today by anyone but collectors and a few ardent veterans. So now CD mixes don't sell any units and everyone and their dog has a radio show so nobody all tunes in to one particular show (such as the Essential Mix), there are far less opportunities to feature as part of a brilliant mix or have a memorable transition that immortalises it in the minds of millions of people. Now unleash the jaded wankery insisting it's just because music has been steadily getting worse throughout history.

You're suffering from nostalgia.

Song are now immortalized in a different way:



If something is good, it will spread like wildfire.

Good thread this one.

The same question crossed my mind a few times lately. Yes there are many good tracks, but there were many good ones next to the classics in the past also. But the speed of new tracks being released feels higher and amount of them feels much more nowadays.
As I bought many compilations in the 90's you could see that certain tracks appeared at many more cd's then others. I think this for sure contributed for tracks becoming classics. I think Carlos - The Silmarillia is an example of such a track.
Indeed compilations were being sold in huge numbers. In Germany there were like 20 compilations series in a battle for being most popular, there even was a chart for compilations.
Actually at that time you knew certain tracks would become classic, because of the above, but also because of the period of time these tracks were played in clubs. I don't know how long (weeks/months) tracks are being played in clubs nowadays, but it wouldn't surprise me if it would be for a shorter period of time. That also would contribute that tracks won't get the classic 'status' easily IMO.
I don't know for sure how big the influence of clubs were for tracks getting 'classics'. BBE - Seven Days And One Week for instance already got played in clubs and was popular in the club scene long before it got extremely popular in main stream (more then a year in between), same for Robert Miles - Children. Do tracks get played in clubs for a while before getting popular these days?
Is internet (and radio shows) causing people to know the track before hearing them in clubs?

I think there isn't one answer, it's more likely a combination of all here.

I think scarcity and access are key here -- whereas before you had to wait for a compilation to feature a track -OR- wait for a DJ to have access to that vinyl and play it in a set (that would not likely have been recorded).

These days a lot of mediocre tracks are given too much attention simply because of the marketing machine(s) behind them (labels/DJs).

p.s. good thread

quote:

Originally posted by Swamper These days a lot of mediocre tracks are given too much attention simply because of the marketing machine(s) behind them (labels/DJs).

I don't know for sure about that, marketing machines for similar tracks were pretty strong too back in the 90's. Eurodance was extremely popular next to the tracks we call 'classics' at the same time.

But a huge difference is the amount of people those marketing machines can reach nowadays, so even little attention does have huge impact.

quote:

Originally posted by Swamper I think scarcity and access are key here -- whereas before you had to wait for a compilation to feature a track -OR- wait for a DJ to have access to that vinyl and play it in a set (that would not likely have been recorded).

Of course nowadays a lot of sets get recorded and some ghetto youtube clips of a track will likely arise at some point, but I feel like today, in an effort to keep themselves relevant among the mass of DJs, the big DJs are using exclusives more than ever. And some scenes like (UK) Dubstep sill run very much after the classic dubplate system.

It's a funny thing to think about what turns a track into a 'Classic Track'. I saw you guys posting here that a Classic Track should be a popular track too, but hey, also it has to be good right? . If this is right, perhaps our concept of a Classic Tune can change dramatically.

Nowadays it seems the majority of popular tracks are shitty and the underground ones are the REAL good music, specially in EDM scene. Just an example: Armin van Buuren - In And Out Of Love is an example of a VERY VERY VERY popular track and i bet a lot o people will say it's a Classic, but c'mon.....really? That shit tune will be a Classic? So this is an example of a crap popular track.

Now an example of fabulous tune that never will become a Classic: Digital Blonde - Rainsong. In my opinion it's such an original Trance tune that defines creativity and musical knowledge from the producer, but c'mon....really? "Who the fuck is Digital Blonde"?

That being said, i can only see hard times for the new Classics.

The Digital Blonde is an average producer, and Rainsong is an average song.

Just because you think it's something special doesn't mean it is. If that were the case, "classic" would have no meaning, since every single person's favorite songs could be called classics by them.

While everything said so far is more or less true, and popularity at the end plays a significant role even for people who aren't normally affected by it, deterioration of dance music (and I believe that most of people are referring to dance music here) certainly shouldn't be neglected. Dance music had long passed its zenith and that's perfectly fine - genres we associate with modern EDM today are more than 25 years old, and it's no wonder that the music has exhausted itself in the mean time. Its limitations certainly didn't help, especially since every attempt of envelope pushing and boundary expansion diverted the emphasis from its functionality. That doesn't mean dance music is dead. It just means that conditions for a track to be called classic increased significantly, and that present and future classics will have to offer something really exceptional to outshadow the established collective classics (which can, ironically, even appear banal and ordinary compared to this new stuff). That will surely happen from time to time, but the 90s (in relation to EDM) and the atmosphere of freshness and originality that adorned it will never repeat again. Kinda like 60s in psychedelic rock and 70s in funk or progressive rock never repeated after.

Fuck Paul Oakenfold

nah, i find new classics everyday. so much shit out there yes, so much music spanning so many generations means there will always be enough classics to grease the anuses on a greek freighter.

quote:

Originally posted by Rodri Santos Something from Ian Van Dahl, Vengaboys, Sash... might be considered a classic so will David Guetta - Sexy Bitch be a classic? The whole edm has gone to the bin even commercial tracks are shittier , maybe there are some good tracks around 2005 but i doubt you can find a classic by definition after 2010. Let's wait till 2030 and see

that's a very pessimistic outlook.

quote:

Originally posted by Rodri Santos I doubt you can find a classic by definition after 2010. Let's wait till 2030 and see

Justice begs to differ.

quote:

Originally posted by srussell0018 The Digital Blonde is an average producer, and Rainsong is an average song. Just because you think it's something special doesn't mean it is. If that were the case, "classic" would have no meaning, since every single person's favorite songs could be called classics by them.

I just took an example of an underground track that i think it's good. I'm not saying this track is 'officially' good or classic, it's just a personal choice.

quote:

Originally posted by Beatflux You're suffering from nostalgia.

Not at all, and if you think that you've basically misread this as a negative thread. Anyone who knows me on here knows my agenda is essentially anti-nostalgia. People tend to latch onto superficial observations like "There's no classics anymore" and use that as a stick to beat modern music with.

quote:

Originally posted by sljiva While everything said so far is more or less true, and popularity at the end plays a significant role even for people who aren't normally affected by it, deterioration of dance music (and I believe that most of people are referring to dance music here) certainly shouldn't be neglected. Dance music had long passed its zenith and that's perfectly fine - genres we associate with modern EDM today are more than 25 years old, and it's no wonder that the music has exhausted itself in the mean time.

A couple of points here: classics exist almost independent of personal taste, and personal classics are relative to taste. Also, the genres we associate with EDM today sound nothing like they did 25 years ago - play a deep house, trance, progressive or drum 'n bass track against its original namesake and you'll often be hard-pressed to recognise any similarities at all.

quote:

Originally posted by srussell0018 The Digital Blonde is an average producer, and Rainsong is an average song. Just because you think it's something special doesn't mean it is. If that were the case, "classic" would have no meaning, since every single person's favorite songs could be called classics by them.

The digital blonde is/was fucking amazing, the psybient version of his last album is a piece of art. And the Europa EP is legendary.

No

Aren't other genres like rock suffering of this too?

Many classics also had something which was sounding unlike anything before e.g.: Speedy J - Pull Over.

Very few tracks nowadays have something unique, although they still might sound very good.
I just think the curve of changes in time has become pretty flat.

quote:

Originally posted by Trance-MB Very few tracks nowadays have something unique, although they still might sound very good. I just think the curve of changes in time has become pretty flat.

That sounds like an excuse (legit reason?) for brostep's popularity.

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