Is this for real? Those drums?

Demons by Imagine Dragons

My daughter wanted me to teach her this song, so I listened to the "official" version (I only knew it from hearing her sing it).

Yesterday, when I first heard it, I thought "wtf"?, but it was playing from the speakers from my daughters' MBP, so I thought the awful clipping I heard on the drums was because of those speakers being overloaded - though the clipping remained, at lower volumes... and then I thought "must be a dumb "remix" from somebody having played with some DAW for ten minutes, not knowing anything about how to set levels or even how to line up a drumloop or even how to choose a fitting drumloop", but no, this is "produced" by a "producer" and this has been approved somehow by the band and others, and, to add insult to injury, hardly anybody cares about the abysmal quality of what could have been a meaningful, dark and brooding or mystical song but became this clipped mess with an out-of-time and unfitting lummoxy drumloop, and in spite of the ruïned sound it became a blockbuster (look at the number of plays). And then again I though: "wtf"? Or is this again the power of the three/four chord song, combined with the very "earwiggy" quality of the melody that just will stick out of any pile of "produced" garbage..?

Could it be a generation of listeners that's getting so used to badly clipped mono concert recordings made on smartphones, starting to think that this is how it should sound...?

I've heard my daughter listen to this song a couple of times on her Iphone.

I'm liking it. It's a good modern pop song.

I had a new listen thru my Beyer Dynamics DT 990 and it was obvious how spot on the OP was on the drum sound.

So I had a new listen on my Iphone (built in speakers).

It didn't sound that bad.

So to me this is not MFIT (mastered for Itunes), it's an example of MOIP (Mixed on Iphone)

Where's the 'puke' emoticon ??

This is as close as it gets here, the pre puker

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-basic/puke.gif

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-basic/puke.gifhttp://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-basic/puke.gifhttp://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-basic/puke.gif

My ears did not enjoy this

As someone from this "generation?" or whatever, what I think is happening is the artist trying to get that John Bonham classic rock sounding kit. That's just my intuitive feeling. What I imagine is happening is them using a compressor to try and recreate that sound.

I can understand artistically the idea, the juxtaposed content of vocals and percussion, but I imagine there are better ways to execute that idea. I appreciate it the more I think of it; the attempt at destroying their inevitable pop sound by introducing something different. Trying to add "the grime of real life" to better fit the lyrical purpose...just didn't really go all the way with it? :shrug: