Drummers can make a big difference to the feel of a song even when they do play to a click, by playing at the front or the back of the beat. And there’s no law to say that bands have to record to a metronome. You could put down a free drum track (or anything else) and then beat map the click to that track if you wanted to line up sequencers etc. Ableton’s had that for ages and Logic Pro added it a few releases ago.
People have been asking that question since at least the 1960s! There’s a lot of dross in the pop world (there always has been), but plenty of great music being released if you go looking for it.
This is one of my favourite ear worms at the moment, although it might not be your thing, (https://youtu.be/rPcyFQxuf0k?si=mFzzu77nbcO_Sxat)
Most of my ear worms are things from the Sixties that I didn’t like then and today like even less!
Did you try TCP?
No, can’t stand the smell!
Me neither! It’s vile, isn’t it?
We tend to listen mainly to Radio Paradise’s mellow channel steering well clear of ‘pop music’. Always hated most of it.
Absolutely. As I understood it, @Ancient_Mariner was making an observation about one aspect of modern music and the ubiquity of the click. It doesn’t have to be a negative aspect, but it often is because it’s easier to play on the beat. It takes subtlety and skill to play behind, or to push ahead, like the best can do.
On a connected idea, I heard two different versions of two songs by the same artist this weekend. The comparison was (a) solo vs solo backed by professional string quartet and (b) band vs solo + pro string quartet. The string quartet were extremely talented and experienced, but the performances with them lacked the passion of the solo and band ones.
Click prevalence does vary according to genre. Jazz is probably zero. Rock in the middle. Pop def more click ridden because of the way it’s manufactured(!).
I remember Butch Vig saying a lot of drummers got fired when their band was signed because they couldn’t play to a click. It’s definitely a skill worth learning and it really doesn’t mean you have to play like a robot. I actually prefer having a click, but then I’m lazy.
Then you get bands like the Foo Fighters who record analogue now. The late Taylor Hawkins once said they’d binned a whole album because it had been corrected in post production, so nobody really cared how they played. I think the quote was using Pro Tools is like giving your music a boob job. Everyone knows it’s fake.
Interesting about the string quartet. I think a lot of classical musicians are lost without the score because they don’t know how to improvise like jazz, blues or some rock musicians. I suspect that’s changing though.
1 Like
Apparently the fastest growing UK radio station audience is for Greatest Hits Radio perhaps because current popular music lacks energy and so much sounds the same?
Your mother will have said the same thing.
1 Like
I suspect more because a significant segment of the population likes to hear the hits from their youth and never really progress from there. Nostalgia is a money spinner and it’s been ever thus.
1 Like
Related to the old musician’s joke: “What’s the difference between a drum machine and a drummer?” “With the machine, you only have to punch the beat in once.”
2 Likes
We were brought up mostly on classical music… with the odd “Manuel and his music of the mountains…” 
and good old Fred Astaire dancing and singing his heart out…
Dad was horrified when the 60’s arrived… we were enthralled
1 Like
One of the odd things is that many people I work with in their 20s choose radio stations that play stuff I heard in my teens.
1 Like
I think it might have been Rick Beato who pointed out the ubiquity of click and the lack of life it can sometimes cause. While I have recorded a little, almost all my playing is live, and it’s really nice to respond to an audience rather than just reproduce the required songs over again.
About 10 years ago I went to an open air festival and there were some bands well known in their genre playing, but it felt and sounded just like their CDs through a slightly poor hifi. There were a couple of exceptions, but that’s just what they were.
Another thing that has made a difference is IEMs, where again you are separated from the people to whom you are playing. I have used them, but tend to leave one ear free.
Hence my listening to Classic Rock! 
I’m a member of a few Facebook musicians groups. I’m always surprised by the repertoire of teenage bands: almost always rock from the 70s and 80s.
Then again, if you want to be in a band, you probably don’t want to play rap, or Dua Lipa songs.
1 Like
1 Like
I agree with you about playing live to clicks. I did it in one band because we had a programmed light show we had to sync with. It meant playing everything the same every time, but we didn’t play often so it was bearable. I ended up stepping through songs and scenes manually on pedals (while playing the bass), which took some practice and required a lie down afterwards 
1 Like