Cagematch: Melody vs. Mix

[MBTC]

Recently I started backfilling my mp3 collection, via perfectly legal (at least by Russian standards) means. I was trying to fill in the gap between currently popular and popular a few years ago, with an admitted emphasis on the genre of "trance", whatever that label means to you.

Expectedly, the type of music that I think lends itself (natively) to a VA synth like the Virus may have fallen "out of style" as they say. Please note the usage of "natively", because I believe a good synth is capable of such a range of sounds that its up to the artist to relay to the listener what it does (or could) sound like. A synthesizer does not amount to too much until it is played in a certain style or processed in a certain way.

The one thing I've noticed, and maybe I am getting old, is that things like autotuning, wobbly gimmicks and other technical tactics or techniques seem to be more in favor when it comes to popular electronic music. Maybe by "popular" I mean "frequently played" rather than "what people like". If that last sentence is true, then the day music died may have already arrived

Honestly I've been listening to some 2000-2006 trance, and the melodies and chord progressions of that era seem to me to be so engaging and meaningful compared to some of the more modern stuff I hear. Don't get me wrong, I like hearing Skrillex fart into the microphone and all that, I appreciate it both from an engineer and proctologist standpoint, but it's probably not a tune I would whistle in the shower, if that makes sense?

Does melody matter to anyone anymore? Love to hear your thoughts.