Is the music of today worse than it was 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years ago? Or am I just old?

[Yavin4]

Fine. I'm old. Show me today's equivalent to Stevie Wonder, to Earth Wind & Fire, etc.

And get off my lawn. I'm cold.

[skylucy]

1. Yes. It is worse.

[DUgosh]

13. Yes

[joshdawg]

83. Much, much worse.

[Left-over]

120. It is worse!!

What you hear on the radio is what the corporate music world wants to force feed to you.

[jmowreader]

159. That's ALWAYS what you heard on the radio

Please study payola, song plugging and the rise of the canned setlist.

[RKP5637]

2. To me, past music back in the 50's, 60's and 70's was far better. n/t

[joshdawg]

86. Late 60's to early 70's

was the era when the best rock and roll music was being produced. JMO.

[RKP5637]

94. Definitely ... and I thought back then it would last forever. n/t

[joshdawg]

100. Yeah, and a damned shame it didn't.

[llmart]

122. Absolutely agree!

But then those were the years of my youth, so I must factor that in.

[OAITW r.2.0]

135. Seemed like every week a new super group was forming...

I consider myself lucky to be in the musical sweet spot that defined music from 65-75. After that, it morphed into Disco...

[maddiemom]

140. When I was teaching junior/senior high school,

our periodic "talent shows" always were full of kid bands playing late Sixties thru Seventies music (it's been a decade or so back). I used to kid them, "Hey, that"s MY music!" Those then- teenagers knew a LOT about the musicians of that era.

[ooky]

202. Yeah. I kind of feel like Joe does about it.

[CurtEastPoint]

3. I stopped at a light recently and the lady next to me had Michael Jackson blaring and ...

I waved at her and said, 'THAT is music!' She laughed and said, 'Yes.' I said, "That mess they play today...." and she said, 'You're right... This is music!"

[OriginalGeek]

102. lol

I was at a stop light the other day blasting Rush's Spirit of the Radio and a guy pulls next to me, looks over and seems to be processing for a few a seconds and then he grins and hits the air drums in perfect time... we jammed until the light turned green and went on with our days.

It really kinda made my day.

[ProfessorGAC]

125. That Must Have Been Fun!

I did that once with a pretty young guy who was blasting Jimi's Voodoo Chile.

When the riff going into the second verse hit and Jimi does that hammer trill, (i drive a ragtop so it was easy), i held out my hand and did the trill. He smiled.

[OriginalGeek]

134. I had to youtube that so I could do it too

my cubicle-mates here at work thank you!

[ProfessorGAC]

150. Cool!

Glad to be of service!

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. You have to pick and choose. There is some great stuff but it isn't easy to find

I am 62,and find myself edging more toward jazz - but a band like The National makes great music.

I can't stand any recent pop, though - autotuned, shrieky, no real music - just synths and drum machines and unreal.

Some artists just keep on keeping on - I loved Pat Metheny in the 70s, and his new music is still stellar....just one example.

[Ferrets are Cool]

24. Pat was my idol for many, many years

and I still think The Way Up is one of the greatest pieces of work ever composed. I have moved on to Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson now though. His work is absolutely brilliant and the catalogue is "almost" as large as Methenys.

[NRaleighLiberal]

26. The Way Up is the peak of what The Pat Metheny Group was capable of....amazing.

I've got the DVD of the concert- stunning.

I went through my Porcupine Tree/Wilson phase a few years ago - still listen now and then but am one that tends to move on, discover...

right now I am working through a phenomenal trumpeter - Mathias Eick - all of his ECMs are streamable on Echo - and there are essences of the best of the PMG in his work.

BY the way I think I've seen the PMG or Metheny with other combos about 15-20 times in concert - incredible energy!

[Ferrets are Cool]

30. I have the bluray of The Way Up....it is incredible...

my wife and I bought tickets to see him several years ago right after Orchestrion was released. I have to say it was the most disappointing concert I've ever attended and really put a sour taste in my mouth.
We drove 4 hrs each way to the concert and Pat played for 45 mins, including the encore. I was devastated. Im sure it was a fluke, but it still hurt.

I am sure your experiences have been much better.
I will have to check out Mathias....I love trumpet.

[sweetloukillbot]

49. I saw him play it live

It was at a high school auditorium that my fat ass didn't fit into the seats. Most uncomfortable show ever. And I couldn't move. It was just breathtaking. The whole auditorium erupted into a long standing ovation when he finished.

[zipplewrath]

80. Only the good stuff lasts

Someone pointed out to me that we tend to remember past music more fondly because you only hear the "good stuff" as time goes on. The crappy songs and music tend to just fall off the play list. So we tend to remember the past based only on the enduring music of the day. When was the last time you heard "teeny weeny polka dotted string bikini"? There's always been more "bad" music than "good". It's just that we stop listening to the bad, and the good lives on.

I grew up in the "folk rock" era which led me to all kinds of music, some of it over 100 years old. You begin to realize that every generation has their "folk" music. But we might call it Jazz, blues, country, or even rap. I chuckle these days walking through a Barnes and Noble CD section and seeing what is in either the "easy listening" or "oldies" section. Some would have been considered "the devils music" in my day.

[NRaleighLiberal]

90. absolutely! with any art, what one hears in their formative years plays a big role

but I think there is also a personality element - I love change, to seek new things (that's why I've grown 4000 types of tomatoes in my 30 years of gardening!) - some of my friends loved the 70s, say, and that is where their music tastes remain.

There is also an element of "get off my lawn" in music - that things when we were young are of course better than newer stuff - but it is just different.

I sometimes go back and listen to bands I loved at various times - Chicago, Yes, Kansas, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Steely Dan, the Beatles just to name a few. Of those the only ones I can still listen to without cringing are Steely Dan and the Beatles - and even they are not in nearly heavy rotation.

It also depends on what we "use" our music for - I remember getting stoned and doing nothing BUT sitting and listening. Now, it is more to set a mood - we have our morning breakfast music, our energy music, I have my writing music, we have our night time sleeping music. Little of it is rock - it is nearly all ambient or jazz or classical.

Fascinating topic!

[zipplewrath]

95. I'm pretty eclectic

My roots and focus tends towards folk, although my definition of that might stretch compared to some others. But when we entertain it's often soft jazz type stuff ( I won't force my guests to listen to Chad Mitchel Trio or Peter, Paul and Mary). I also have an afinity for Big Band music that I get from my WWII parents. The two forms for which I've never "warmed up" is Classical and "Old country" or whatever they call it.

I have a Broadway musical streak that is very out of place ranging from about Oklahoma through to about How to Succeed in Business. If you wanna hear some funny "it was better back then" discussions, get a bunch-o-broadway musical fans in a room. You can start the whole "Sondheim/Weber/Hammerstein/Berlin" arguments going real fast.

[OAITW r.2.0]

136. My dad was a big Jack Teagarden fan!

In 1972, I thought it sucked, today, I love that Luis Armstrong/jack Teagarden sound.
<

>

[wcmagumba]

5. I'm with ya...

age challenged and they're on my lawn too...

[Va Lefty]

6. I agree. However Rock n Roll has always been for the young.

I'm 56 and it's not made to speak to me.

[OriginalGeek]

105. Rock will keep you young

I'm 54 and just bought this album (on vinyl because I am also stubborn)

I just saw these guys in concert a couple weeks ago

And I see Necrot is coming on tour in March so I'll be there for that (With Morbid Angel, Immolation and Blood Incantation).

Iron Maiden is mounting a world tour and will be here in July - I saw them many times in the 80s and 90s but I might have to catch this tour too - it's a great setlist leaning heavily on classics with a few new songs thrown in (and a cover of UFO's Doctor Doctor)


I still don't like commercial radio music (not hardly any of it but there are a few cool tunes out there) but I didn't like any of that in the 70s or 80s or 90s either.

But like has already been said, for every genre of music there is great new stuff being being produced - but very little of that gets on radio. Same as it ever was.

[sweetloukillbot]

165. Maiden is still great live.

I love that they alternate between hits tours and new material tours.

[jmowreader]

168. Which show are you going to?

I think I'm going to the Barclays Center show on the 26th. I like the idea of going to the Charlotte show, being as how I lived in NC for over a decade and never really saw Charlotte...but Barclays Center, which I've been to once already, is REAL easy to get to on the subway. PNC Music Pavilion, OTOH, is in the middle of nowhere.

As to the "cover" of Doctor Doctor...it's not a cover. I saw the Book of Souls tour's last stop in 2017 (which is why I don't want to go to the Tacoma Dome or Moda Center shows that are very close to me), and they played Doctor Doctor from tape before coming on stage to play If Eternity Should Fail. According to setlist.fm, on this tour the first song is Aces High. Unfortunately, they're not playing Heaven Can Wait or Ancient Mariner...but this is a really kick-ass set.

[OriginalGeek]

195. If I get to go

It will be the Sunrise FL show. Dang I woulda liked to hear them play dr dr. I last saw the Somewhere Back in Time show and it was almost as good as the original SWiT tour. But not quite as good as the Piece of Mind or Powerslave tours.

The last show I saw in Charlotte was Morbid Angel and At the Gates in some little club around 95. But I saw AC/DC with Quiet Riot at the Coliseum in the early 80s. My dad lived there for decades so I'd go see shows when I visited.

[aquaman]

200. PNC is a great venue......If you have seats.....

I got tickets for the show in Charlotte, presale, seven rows back from the stage.

[jmowreader]

201. I decided to go to the Tacoma Dome anyway

I looked at the prices of Barclays Arena tickets...hundreds of dollars. I got a seat with a full view of the stage and very few heads in front of me for $45. And it'll still be a hell of a show.

[GusBob]

7. There is so much good music today

I'm almost 60 so.

It's not like back in my day I guess, the top 40 or the top 100 rolling stone albums.

There is so much music today in so many genres. Too many different genres to name and so many good bands in each.

It is literally impossible to keep up.

There is no equivalent for blockbusters like Stevie Wonder because the music scene is different

Also, no music lovers listen to commercial radio anymore, so there is less commercial success

[jberryhill]

14. Well put

[LisaM]

55. We need more of a shared platform.

When I find a new song I like, it's almost by accident.

[GusBob]

72. Thats what Im talking about!

You plug a seed into your music feed ( I use pandora) and it takes you down these paths, you hear a new great song and you are like wtf? where has this artist been all my life? you start listening to that seed and you find 3 more artists. And on and on it goes

You literally cant keep up.

The modern music scene is almost like a full-time job.

You don't have to listen to some radio station or the same CD over and over, lest you get stuck in a groove

[LisaM]

119. But I don't always want a unique path.

I think we'd all be better served with more shared experiences. More than politics is dividing us.

[GusBob]

174. Music is not divisive sorry

The beat goes from Native cultures to religious cultures to the mosh pit

Music is played at weddings and funerals and festivals

It's everywhere.

I don't what you mean by a shared experience. Everyone has their vibe

[LisaM]

193. I mean that thirty years ago, it would be common for people to all know some of the same songs.

I don't mean that people didn't have individual tastes, or that generations weren't different from their parents or children when it came to music. I mean that the reason you go to weddings now and sing popular songs from 30 or 40 years ago is that there's very little (if anything) now that everyone hears on the radio and knows. As an example, when the Carpenters first came out, I found them hopelessly cornball, my mother sort of liked them, my grandmother probably didn't mind them, but two years later, we probably could all sing along with one of their songs if we heard it on the radio (that may not be the best example, but there are others, the Beatles, Elton John, Motown), catchy songs that everyone knew and when you hear it ten years later, everyone recognizes it.

I don't give these examples to argue about the quality - or lack of - of the artists mentioned, just to say that in the last 15 years or so, I can think of very, very few songs that most people in the country, particularly three generations riding in the same car, would know anymore, and I don't mean just recognize, I mean know every word of. What I'm trying to say, and it's clearly not coming through, is that we no longer seem to have these catchy popular songs with hooks that we can expect to become classic and hear at a wedding or party ten years later. I'm sorry if I'm unclear. But I think we'd be well served if there were more things in this country that people could enjoy together.

[Codeine]

76. My kids never listen to the radio.

They get their music by entirely different channels. The world keeps on changing, and old people keep on not liking it. So it has always been.

[GusBob]

176. First the came for the big bopper

Then they came for Elvis
Then the Beatles
Then the Rolling Stones
Then Bob Dylan
Then Neil Young

It has always been this way

[Ron Obvious]

8. You are objectively correct.

Compare the thin, reedy, auto-tuned voices of today to the singers of the past. The melodies are provably less complex with fewer notes as well.

[Yavin4]

11. Music seems less and less complex. Less instrumentation. Less composition.

It's overly simple. Listen to how awesomely complex Stevie Wonder's Superstition is.

[GusBob]

20. With all due respect

It's hard to open your ears with a closed mind

Plug in the latest Pinegrove music, Josh Rouse, The Heartless Bastards, the Shins, Modest Mouse, Beth Orten, the Avett Brothers

Jesus you want complex? I could go on and on

You don't have to drop out to tune in anymore man. There is so much good music you are missing

[Ferrets are Cool]

22. Great post.

[enough]

77. Thanks for the suggestions. Keep going.

I think for us old people (I’m 74) one of the problems is we don’t know how/where to find the good music.

[Silver Gaia]

188. You make a very good point. I wish someone would respond to it.

My daughter and I have talked about this (she's in her 30s). We used to find new music on the radio. We listened while driving, and in our living rooms and bedrooms, at the beach or a party. I think this is what someone earlier was referring to as a "shared experience." When something struck our fancy, it was often doing the same with our friends. I gave up on trying to listen to the radio somewhere back in the 90s because I couldn't find any stations playing anything I could listen to consistently. I can't find squat now. If finding new music means I have to spend even more time online going down various rabbit holes to maybe find something I like, well, I just don't have the time for that. I used to have a few DJs I trusted to do that for me. And life was good. I miss the shared experience, too.

[Codeine]

71. Try a little math rock.

The fact is there’s all sorts of great music buried in all the shitty music. Puerile pop is obviously everywhere, but it hardly represents the whole of currently-available music.

Most of the music from your time was also shitty, but you don’t remember the shallow, meaningless crap. We winnow out the garbage with the filter of our memory.

[sweetloukillbot]

162. I love how prog is acceptable now

It just isn’t called prog anymore...

[Codeine]

163. I was three years old when my favorite prog

record came out. Genesis Live, 1973

The Return of the Giant Hogweed will always be one of my favorite songs.

[sweetloukillbot]

166. My first concert was Genesis in 82

I was twelve and really into Abacab. That was the last tour they played Suppers Ready. Caught Hackett a few years ago doing his Genesis Revisited tour and it was amazing to hear those old tunes.

[rocktivity]

9. The music of today is worse because it is no longer dependent on musicianship

Last edited Wed Nov 22, 2023, 12:55 PM - Edit history (1)

It depends on synthesizers, sex appeal, auto-tuned vocals, wardrobes, publicity soap opera plots, and clicks. Even if the aspiring Stevie Wonders of today weren't a lot fewer and farther apart, you can't expect them to bother investing themselves in trying to score on talent alone.

Adele is the closest I can come to a true modern-day living legend.


rocktivity

[flibbitygiblets]

36. Agree, would add Lady Gaga

after seeing her in A Star is Born. Her voice gave everyone goosebumps . I never thought much of her before, but holy shit is she good.

Arianna Grande has an amazing voice. But like Mariah Carey and Whitney before her, she wastes her talent on pop tripe. Sell outs.

I haven't cared for much new music since the 90's alternative/ grunge stuff like Nirvana. Bush and Pearl Jam. I feel the 80s were generally horrific, musically speaking. Mid 60s to mid 70s had the best music of any era IMO.

[shanny]

39. I agree about that era

(Lady Gaga too, incidentally). And I think it is not so much that Music These Days is so bad, but that Music Then was so great.*



*my dad, who was a big classical / baroque / opera fan, absolutely HATED the music of his own generation (40s/early 50s) (Dixieland Jazz was an exception) and loved ours--later Beatles, Eric Clapton, Simon & Garfunkel, he even appreciated Bob Dylan!, The Band, Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits. Also too bagpipe music but I assume that was genetic.

[rocktivity]

45. Lady Gaga? See post #43, LOL!

Last edited Sat Dec 1, 2018, 12:22 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181146457#post43


rocktivity

[LakeSuperiorView]

115. I find Lady Gaga horribly repetitive.

The same phrase, over and over and over...

She may have a good voice, but has terrible choices in lyrics.

[Codeine]

73. There are any number of amazing instrumentalists

working today. Hell, a lot of the old bands that people thought were so talented in the sixties had half or more of their material composed and performed by session artists like the folks who came to be called The Wrecking screw.

You’d hate the genres, but one can hardly say that technical death metal or symphonic black metal aren’t reliant on instrumental mastery.

Older people always compare the dross of modern music to the pinnacle of older music, but an honest appraisal of the “old days” would reveal that the radio was as full of pablum then as now. The difference is that the crappy, meaningless light pop of that day has been forgotten, just as the Drakes and Gagas of this era will be consigned to artistic oblivion in time.

[Duppers]

143. +100

[Anon-C]

10. Oh...you're old...

...Old School!

These kids can't keep up.

[rzemanfl]

12. Stream this commercial free station-

wzig.org

You will get some of all eras.

[3catwoman3]

15. My now 26 yr old younger son used to like a rap song that...

...i swear only had 3 notes making up the melody line, if you could call it that. It was boring as hell to listen to.

I don’t know what the actual notes were in the composition, but it sounded like playing the following notes over, and over, and OVER. Not much musical talent needed to do that.

C C# C B C C# C B C C# C B

[joshdawg]

84. IMHO, rap is pure crap.

But then I grew up with Bill Haley, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, etc.

[PJMcK]

106. Transpose your musical example down a couple of octaves

Play it with cellos and basses.

It'll sound like the theme from "Jaws."

I have no idea where that thought came from!

[ProfessorGAC]

131. If You Do That. . .

. . .wouldn't nearly everything sound like the theme from Jaws?

Drop it 2 octaves, slow it down and repeat it over and over. No matter what, it's gonna sound ominous.

[Laffy Kat]

16. I barely tolerate the pop music today. It's a generational thing.

Those synthesized, auto-tuned, high-pitched songs just don't do it for me. To each their own, I guess. I don't think my parents enjoyed rock-n-roll.

[LuckyLib]

170. Overwrought vocals. Nobody needs that when they are grocery shopping!

[msongs]

17. corporate homogenization of writers, artists, music outlets. less diversity

every musical genre has its own outlets, artists in that genre all use the same writers and recording techniques, radio stations all get their programming from centralized sources and just plug in their short local news commercial and advertising bits

[calguy]

18. Today's music can't even come close

In my opinion the mid 60's to the mid 70's was the greatest and most influential period in musical history. It's about all I listen to and I never get tired of it.

[flibbitygiblets]

38. Couldn't agree more!

[BlueTsunami2018]

19. Pop music, yes.

But there’s plenty of good Metal, jazz and Rock from newer bands. You just never hear it.

[Ferrets are Cool]

21. It's according to what kind you want...

When I think of 60-70s rock, I believe there are TONS of artists/bands creating music today that are just as good or better than yesteryear. My favorite artist atm is Steven Wilson formerly the force behind Porcupine Tree. If you liked Pink Floyd, Yes, old Genesis, King Crimson or any progressive band, then there is a massive amount of great music being produced.
Others will have to speak to the mainstream or pop scene. I am not into that.

[mr_lebowski]

41. PT is a great band ... dig me some Opeth too ...

[sweetloukillbot]

53. Opeth continues to evolve

They're the first band that I was able to appreciate cookie monster vocals, and they've just gotten more diverse and exciting as they've moved away from the death metal stuff.
Love me some PT and SW as well.
It's funny, we're talking about them being new, and both bands are 20+ years old...
I'd also add Mastodon, Baroness and Sleep as great new(ish) metal bands.
Veering away from metal, the Decemberists are really good, although their newest album is a bit of a dog, but Hazards of Love is one of the best prog albums of the last 10 years.
Another new prog group/singer I like is Lonely Robot (John Mitchell). He sings with a bunch of different British prog bands, but Lonely Robot is his solo project and it's amazing.

I will admit that most of the time if I put something on to listen to, however, it's Pink Floyd, or Hawkwind, or Sabbath...

[mr_lebowski]

108. Hazards of Love IV (the Drowning) is one of my top 10 favorite songs ...

That's it IS great, great album, and so is King is Dead in my book

Thx for the input!

[Codeine]

110. If your tastes run to metal

give a listen to Deafheaven.

[sweetloukillbot]

155. Interesting... Shoegaze w/ cookie monster vocals

Not crazy about the vocals, but it isn't your typical death metal. And I REALLY dig the music.

[Codeine]

160. The first time I heard them

I had to drop everything and just. . . listen. One of those moments.

[NBachers]

173. Wow- Those San Francisco scenes are places I'm intimately familiar with, on a daily basis.

Music's not bad, either!

[prudence54]

152. I adore the Decemberists

and have since they played in 2008 at an Obama rally in Portland (I think it was his biggest campaign rally ever). I try to catch all their shows, which is easy because they play a lot up here in the Pacific Northwest. I also really love the Avett Brothers, Death Cab, Modest Mouse, Real Estate, Keane, Travis, Brandi Carlisle, First Aid Kit. So many great bands, but they aren't on any radio station around here! (Central Oregon)

[Ferrets are Cool]

82. Love Opeth...not into growling, but their other stuff is great.

[OriginalGeek]

107. something for everyone!

death growls are my favorite...My best friend loved Opeth and we went to see them open for Dream Theater a few years ago. That was a him show. I enjoyed it but they aren't my favorites. He went to a Carcass show with me.

[sweetloukillbot]

153. I just discovered Haken

Another decent new prog-metal band.

[dae]

23. Dang skippy it's worse.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

25. It's just different, that's all. If you think there isn't any good music today, you're not looking

hard enough.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

27. Also, you're old when you stop growing.

[riverwalker]

28. Give me Sinatra

I used to hear people talk about his “phrasing” and didn’t know what they meant until I really got into him. Amazing artist. I get lost in his music.

[joshdawg]

85. That makes two of us.

[rzemanfl]

132. For a surprise, listen to Willie Nelson's new album.

He does stuff with Sinatra is simply amazing.

[maddiemom]

142. His "Stardust" album is over thirty years old now.

It's the first I remember of his doing the classics (classics not his own).

[rzemanfl]

145. Where does the time go? n/t

[DBoon]

29. I believe your tastes in music are formed by the age 30

I used to make fun of "aging hippies" who hated punk rock.

Then I turned 30, hip-hop became popular, and I had no idea why it had such appeal

[sweetloukillbot]

54. I think its a muscle that needs to be exercised

If you stop listening to new music your tastes calcify. I was a music journalist for 10 years into my late 30s throughout the 2000s, and I was constantly exploring new stuff - up until I lost that job and wasn't being forced to stay current. Then I started sliding back into the stuff I was listening to when i was younger.
But 10 years ago I was still discovering amazing bands - Gaslight Anthem, Arcade Fire, The Decemberists, Devandra Banhart, Dawes, Divine Fits, Explosions in the Sky, Spoon...

[dawg day]

31. Not really fair--

The 10 years between 1964 and 1974 were transformative-- every YEAR was transformative. Check out the difference between Meet the Beatles (1964 and totally wonderful) and Rubber Soul (1966 and epically advanced). Or between early Stones and Sticky Fingers. By 1967, Gracie Slick was singing White Rabbit, which sounded like nothing ever before... and Motown had the Four Tops doing Bernadette and Marvin Gaye and Tammie Terrell doing Ain't No Mountain-- and Smoky must have had 12 perfect songs that year.

Point is, 1964 was amazing. 1967 was exponential.
I'm not sure that progress-- which was truly a collaboration of genius across an ocean and a continent-- could be duplicated.

I was just hearing that Procol Harum song-- Whiter Shade of Pale-- 1967, and it's stunningly different-- lyrically and musically. And... this band was basically a 2-hit wonder (Conquistador is also stunning), maybe the 50th best band that year-- and this is really a wonderfully eerie song. From an unknown band.

It was probably easier to be great then because everything was so new. It's harder now. We're running out of notes. <G>

I don't know if young people today would resonate to this sort of song. My kids do, but they grew up hearing it.

[dawg day]

35. Funny video. They didn't really have videos back then--

Not anything sophisticated (video tape had pretty much just been introduced to the general public (this was probably filmed). And you'd never see them on TV, except maybe on Hullaballoo or one of those music programs. But this is sort of primitively cute.

[PufPuf23]

196. My 1st concert was Doors - Procol Harum at Winterland 1967. nt

[Doodley]

32. Rat pack or rap crap? Who is going to be singing the current rap crap in fifty or sixty years?

[Codeine]

78. Every 14 year old alive now?

Pop music was derided in the old days just as people in this thread are doing. Old people didn’t take the Beatles seriously, and yet. . .

[OriginalGeek]

112. I dunno

but I still regularly listen to Wu-Tang and the GZA and MURS and and others.

Not all rap is good but neither was all of any era.

[JonLP24]

203. Some people still know the lyrics to Rapper's Delight after all these years

A lot of the music is social commentary (much more so when it was first starting out and lean progressive in their politics).

Much better than political songs like "Have you forgotten" (anyone who suffered under the Bush Iraq war years will remember that song.

These days rap has racists like Iggy and Kanye so not speaking to the quality of recent rap music.

[violetpastille]

33. I think music today is great. There is so much choice out there.

Ask your kids what they like.

Even if you don't like it, give it a couple of listens. Stay open to suggestions.

Remember your parents may have thought your music was shitty because it "wasn't as good as it used to be."

That didn't make them right.

But it did make them old.

Stay flexible.

[Ponietz]

34. This video explains a big part of it

[link:http://

|

[dawg day]

37. Interestingly, we should be less "owned" by the record industry than ever--

The equipment and technology needed to record music are available very cheaply. The actual physical product (well, not even physical anymore) can be "shipped" free and quick.

It is, as with all things now, a matter of getting to the audience and getting their attention. But that's easier than it ever was to get a recording contract and get any real backing from the company.

More important than ever to set up networks to introduce people to music they won't hear 12 times a day whether they like it or not.

[crazycatlady]

204. When was this video made?

I find it fascinating but I want to make one correction.

One of the prominent songwriters today (Dr. Luke) is actually fairly well-known now thanks to his sexual assault trial against Kesha.

I'm no boomer (I'm of the generation the boomers fucked over) and I agree with this thread. Boomers win the music wars hands down.

[dickthegrouch]

40. I must be really old

I don't think there's been any really good music since 1750. And, no, I didn't forget the ":"

I'd far rather listen to classical than almost anything in the 20th or 21st centuries.

That said, ELO, OMD, Yes, and Erasure were awesome.

Christine and the Queens are the only new band I've heard in years that are interesting enough to buy.

[Tikki]

42. Some of today's music is just amazing and some is just plain awful.

You need to search out the new music you will like and avoid the music you just hate.

Tikki

[rocktivity]

43. I winced when I learned that Lady Gaga was in the newest remake of A Star Is Born

Last edited Thu Nov 30, 2023, 01:11 PM - Edit history (20)

I knew instantly that it wouldn't work for me because her voice is too generic.

I had no problem imagining the characters played by her predecessors Judy Garland (in 1954) and Barbra Streisand (in 1976) being told, "Sorry, but while you have the right voice, you don't have the right look," and needing someone further up the ladder to help them through the door.

To his credit, director/co-star Bradley Cooper realized that in these times, Gaga's character would be told "Sorry, but you don't have either the right voice OR right looks," and has her complain instead that she's not good-looking enough for her songwriting abilities to be noticed, never mind respected. But even that is a crock, of course: if her lyrics WERE that good, they would have been noticed by someone who could give her the opportunity to sell them to the kind of vocalists who could make them BOTH rich and famous!

rocktivity

[hibbing]

44. "The music" is rather open-ended

I'm an old fart and am finding new music that I really like all the time.

Peace

[drmeow]

46. I was going to find some examples

of awful music from 40 or 50 years ago (Bay City Rollers, Saturday Night came to mind) but then I ran across this:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (1967)
Voted the worst record ever made in a 1998 Melody Maker poll of pop stars, DJs and journalists.[3] Among the harshest detractors was musician and journalist John Robb, who described the album as "the benchmark of 1967 - the low water point of rock 'n' roll".[3] In a scathing appraisal of the record prior to its 40th anniversary in 2007, Guardian critic Richard Smith wrote that it is, "if not the worst, then certainly the most overrated album of all time." He also contended that the "excruciating" LP was often ranked by members of the music press as the best ever due to affection for its cultural impact, and "not because of anything intrinsically great about the record".[4] Asked in 2007 to nominate the "supposedly great" album he would "gladly never hear again", artist and writer Billy Childish named Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and argued that it "signalled the death of rock 'n' roll".[5] Musician and author Bill Drummond, in a 2010 publication, called the record "the worst thing that ever happened to music".[6]

And also this:

"Ebony and Ivory", Paul McCartney featuring Stevie Wonder (1982)
This duet, which used the materials that constitute the black and white keys on musical keyboards as a metaphor for the potential for racial harmony, ranked number one in a BBC 6 Music poll of the worst duets in history,[73] number 10 in Blender's poll of worst songs ever, and has repeatedly been described as "saccharine" for its heavy-handed approach to its subject.[74][75]

For the most part, the really crappy older stuff just doesn't get played anymore so we forget about it.

I'm personally not a fan of pure rap (which I consider unmitigated crap) or very much hip hop but I also have songs from the 10's which speak to me as deeply as stuff from the 60's. I suspect that if I listed to college radio now like I did in my youth, there would be even more of such songs.

[sweetloukillbot]

58. BIll Drummond is an interesting guy

He was involved in the post-punk scene and a producer of early new wave bands. He was also a provacateur in the early 90s w/ the dance band KLF - (setting all his royalties from their big hit on fire and filming it - things like that). He is likely just trying to get a rise out of people, but he is still an interesting figure, even if I despise a lot of his dance music.

[mr_lebowski]

47. There's been plenty of great records in the past 10 years ... just not on the radio ...

Last edited Fri Nov 16, 2018, 01:09 AM - Edit history (1)

Just to name some of my faves ... bear in mind, I'm 52 and grew up on The Beatles, Elton, Stones, Zep, Floyd, Yes, etc. Though I've always also tried to 'stay up with the times' lol ...

Band - Record
The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream (if you've never heard this record, and you like 70's guitar rock like Springsteen and Dire Straits and Floyd, YOU SHOULD, it's freaking amazing)
Jason Isbell - Southeastern & Something More Than Free
Spoon - They Want My Soul
The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers
Destroyer - Chinatown
The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe
Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
M83 - Wide Awake I'm Dreaming
The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
Arctic Monkeys - AM
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Sons of Bill - Sirens
Iron & Wine - The Shepherds Dog

A bunch of very good, fairly new (last 10 years-ish) acts not listed above:
Janelle Monae
Florence & The Machine
Bat For Lashes
St. Vincent
Allison Grimes aka GRIMES
The National
Arcade Fire
Fleet Foxes
Kings of Leon
The Hold Steady
Justin Townes Earle
The Avett Brothers

[sweetloukillbot]

57. Good List

I'd add Broken Bells, Dawes, Father John Misty, Sza, Childish Gambino, Trombone Shorty, Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett and the Divine Fits for more recent. Death Cab for Cutie and the Black Keys are great as well, but older.
The early 2000s were incredibly vibrant as well.

[GusBob]

175. Hell ya

Thank you

[bedazzled]

48. There is good stuff around...check out the struts

Combination of queen and bowie. I try to listen and keep an open mind but there is some annoying music nowadays it is true...

[colsohlibgal]

50. Some Of It Is

I still hear current or recent things I like...and think music is a better place than it has been in a lot of the recent past.

My tastes were always varied, loved the Stones, The Who, etc but also am a huge Bee Geess fan, love the Hollies, Fleetwood Mac, Matchbox 20 and others.

[JHan]

51. great music is made everyday.. every generation gotta complain tho ;)

[Hoyt]

52. It depends when you were young, and music was a giant part of life.

Today’s music is likely great if you are 14 to 25, or so.

[NotASurfer]

56. How do we know what they'll think is great music in a thousand years?

[LeftInTX]

59. The stuff the play at the gym sounds like muzak....Cool music videos, but the stuff sounds flat

I'm sure there is good stuff in hip hop, but the generic pop just sounds flat

[Doreen]

60. Worse.

My friend who is 56 and me 51 ( I mention our ages because I do not know if age is a factor or not ) agree that sometime between the early and mid 90's music just lost its originality. It just does not seem to have emotion to it. It just seems to be lacking something.

We both like music from the 80's down to music from the 50's and before. We like just about every kind of music out there and introduce each other to older stuff the other did not know. We do try to listen to new stuff but a lot of times it is just as I said...lacking.

Oddly, the small amount of new music we do like is prog rock from Germany. Oh, yes, he introduced me to what his father from Germany liked which was German polka. Who would have thought...I like it. Yes, sometimes old is better

[Jake Stern]

61. There are contemporary artists that I think put out pure garbage

And there are some that I think put out great music

Most of the time it's a little of both.

The only poplar artist I really can't stand anything by is Nicki Minaj. Hate me if you wish for saying it but my opinion is the sound of someone in the throes of projectile vomiting is far superior in talent and quality to her songs.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

62. The older generation ALWAYS complains about the younger generation.

Always. Whether it's their music, their taste in clothing, their work ethic, it doesn't matter.

I'm a Boomer and I recall all too clearly how our parents thought our music was just awful and possibly the downfall of Western Civilization. And how none of us was even remotely reliable on a job. So it makes me batshit crazy when I hear exactly the same criticism of the current younger generation. If you only listen to the older generation you'd think that by now young adults could do nothing but drool and gibber incoherently and not even be able to scratch where it itches.

Yeah, I prefer the music of my youth. One of my sons did get me to listen to some pretty amazing music of his generation.

Anyone older than 21 or so needs to get over it. There will always be a younger generation with music you simply won't get. Too bad. You can choose to listen to and understand/appreciate the music of the younger set, or stay stuck in a rut. Either way, stop complaining. You had your day. It's now time for another kind of music.

[mbusby]

63. Yea verily....

...I like old music, new music, in between music. It all boils down to do I like it, not what age it is.

[Codeine]

79. And people always forget the crappy music

of their youth, remembering only the quality things that stood the test of time.


I grew up in the 80s, and to me the greatest bands are The Smiths, Bauhaus, and The Cure. The fact is those bands were buried beneath a pile of crappy bands I can’t even recall.

[AllyCat]

138. That was my era! Love those bands.

Also liked New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, and UB40. I have to search but find things I like that are more recent. Love The National, Muse, Arcade Fire, and just bought Foster the People. It’s out there. Most of the time I turn on the student station in whatever town I am in. Typically 91.3 or 91.7 in any given locale.

[raccoon]

81. Looks like they were right about that.

possibly the downfall of Western civilization

It took until November 2016, but it happened.

LOL.

[quickesst]

64. the four chords that killed pop music

Today's music is like today's cars. The biggest percentage no matter the make look alike. I call them cookie-cutters.


https://m.

[question everything]

65. I do not consider "rap" music

Years ago, singer could at least carry a tune, yes, Elvis, Simon and Garfunkel and others.

Today all one is talking in a beat.

[Codeine]

74. Elvis was famously off-key when he sang.

And Paul Simon is overrated as a vocalist, with his true talent being songwriting. Art Garfunkel is absolute perfection, however.

That said, rap is far more than “talking to a beat,” as can be demonstrated by the ham-handed cock-up that an amateur rapper can make of an attempt. It’s a true skill. I personally don’t like hip-hop at all, but it’s certainly music.

[Kahuna7]

97. When I listen to Paul Simon with headphones his voice..

is as pure and melodic as it gets.

[unblock]

104. in what way is rap not music?

you can say you don't like it, fine. most rap is not my cup of tea, either.

but it's certainly, undeniably, music. the emphasis may be on beat, rhythm, rhyme, wordplay, etc., but it's definitely music.

[Act_of_Reparation]

207. Buddy Rich didn't consider Elvis or Simon and Garfunkel music.

Grumpy old men are grumpy.

[lunamagica]

66. The thing I find amazing is the number of young people who love music from the '60s and '70s and

claim it is their favorite musical era. Maybe you are on to something...

[cemaphonic]

67. IMO, it's more that the business side only pushes the blandest crap to the fore

Hardly anyone actually buys music anymore, so producers/labels only want to back the guaranteed moneymakers. And all the big, vertically integrated media companies have figured out how to develop and market their musicians with surgical precision. There was plenty of generic music performed by manufactured stars in earlier decades too (Think of all the teen idols and girl groups of the 50s and 60s) But there was also money to be made by jumping on whatever weird music bubbled up from local scenes, so labels were always on the lookout for new talent.

Oh, and those local scenes are on life support, because it's much cheaper (and usually more popular with customers) to install a music system than to hire a band. There will always be a certain demand for live music in a large enough market, but the days when every last nightclub and dive bar needed to constantly book musicians are mostly gone. So there's less opportunity for bands to build up enough of a local following for labels to give them a chance.

But on the plus side, cheap recording technology and the global reach of the internet has made it so that every creative weirdo out there has a chance to record their music and find an audience. There is a dizzying array of diverse styles and genres made by musicians that are every bit as creative as ones from earlier decades (and often with technical skills and recording tech to create much more elaborate arrangements that were available to bands of earlier eras).

So, there's a lot of great stuff out there, probably more than ever before. But it's mostly not on the radio, and you have to have an open mind and be willing to sift through a lot of junk to find the occasional diamond.

[demosincebirth]

68. If you can't hum it, it isn't music

[LibDemAlways]

69. Without reading any other responses, in

my opinion, nothing compares to the music of the 60's. Look at any top 40 list from '64 on and find musicians as diverse as The Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Sinatra, Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Doors, Hendrix, Beach Boys, Cream, Who, Creedence, Buffalo Springfield, Janis, Kinks, Mamas and Papas, 5th Dimension, Roy Orbison, Otis Redding, Animals, Four Tops, Joan Baez, Zombies, Donovan ... off the top of my head, snd I'm sure I'm leaving out some greats. They brought us memorable songs that are still instantly recognizable.

My 25-year-old daughter is the first to admit that much of what passes for music today sucks and she's genuinely bummed that she didn't experience 60's music firsthand.

[DetlefK]

70. According to science, music nowadays is indeed qualitatively worse than in the past.

The reason is simple: Sound-mixing.

In the past, artists were more likely to experiment. They used all possible tools, mixing high and low frequencies, mixing loud and silent sounds. Plus they dared more to try something new. The songs were more complicated and more intricate. More details.



Nowadays, all songs are mixed the same. They use the same patterns. The various strands are mixed to have equal volume, because that makes the song sound louder to the human ear.



Good song: Loud sounds overlayed with hushed sounds, for the details.

Bad song: The whispers are as loud as the shredding electric guitar.

Bad song: Always that same damn whooping-cry that gets used in every song.

[Codeine]

75. Songs are mixed like that for a reason, unfortunately.

The majority of listeners partake of their music on crappy earbuds, phone speakers, and laptops. Loud mixes can compensate for the technical deficiencies of those platforms.

That same mixing makes the music sound flat, boring, and genuinely mentally exhausting for an older listener, but older listeners have never been the target market for modern music in any era. Younger listeners don’t notice because that’s what they’ve always heard.

[malthaussen]

99. Now, that I didn't know.

Makes all sorts of sense.

-- Mal

[ghostsinthemachine]

87. Its much much better now

So many incredible bands out there. Turn off your commercial radio, go to festivals and hear bands you've never heard of.

Tedeschi Trucks band. You'll LOVE them. Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, the next big thing. Leftover Salmon (25 years in my ears) my favorite band, not named The Grateful Dead. Wilco. My Morning Jacket. Phish, an absolutely incredible band. All the bluegrass bands. The funk bands. Slightly Stoopid the worlds only reggae death medal band. MICHAEL FRANTI AND SPEARHEAD. Listen to Stay Human or Yell Fire and tell that doesnt measure up to anything, ever.
Railroad Earth. Americas best songs. What an incredible band with some of the best songwriting since Dylan.
Lukas Nelson and Promise of theReal. Americas next male rock star. Willies kid. Great live show. Plays guitar 'ike crazy and the band pounds it down. Why they are Neil Young's band too.

Youre not a teen anymore. People have a connection in their teens with the music of that time. Classic rock. Then, for most people, music becomes less important. (Frequently timed with the same day cannabis use is curtailed,).
Thats why festivals have a predominately younger demo, the music means something to them.

For me, its all I've ever been. The Grateful Dead opened my ears early. Got me into everything, jazz, Stockhausen, bluegrass, you name it. Its weird but not only does Dead and Co play to large arenas and ballparks, but JRAD and DSO play large theaters and they are both very very different bands that play Dead music... The Dead phenomena is crazy, so many different interpretations of that music. All of it pretty amazing.

Govt Mule is great, if you like Led Zep, hard southern rock. Ghost Light is incredible, the best guitaring I've seen in a looooong time.

Do you have a community radio station? They open ears. If not, try www.kvmr.org for my local station. Awesome music. Kmud. Kzfr. Www.wwoz.org ,(great New Orleans radio)

[MuseRider]

88. I will agree on what we actually get fed by the powers that be

but I do believe there is some very good music that is just delivered differently. Like everything else, the music business has changed greatly. The "popular" music IMO, like yours, is horrid. Much of it depends on so much more than music. That has been with us for a long long time and I don't disagree that performance is not important in some types of music. Getting attention by using words that offend and doing things that push societal boundaries are more common now and if you need that your music needs much more than feeding it to kids.

I really don't listen to much anymore. I am a classical musician and I know where to find that, and other music I love. Most of it cannot be found on the radio, some can but not most. My kids play jazz and listen to and play some phenomenal music but you are going to have to look for what they do and what they listen to.

I think our problem is that things have changed so completely that we can keep up with some things but while we were figuring that all out, things like music exploded into many different ways of being heard and now that just about anyone can make their musings and messing arounds available it takes more time than I want to invest to find it.

JMO

[Rustynaerduwell]

89. For the most of it, I think 80's music was as bad as it gets.

Type "80's music" into google. Does anyone listen to any of what pops up? Even my favorite artists, with a few exceptions, did their worst music in that decade. Look at this list. Defend it. https://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/the-50-best-80s-songs

[LiberalArkie]

91. Try some "Greta Van Fleet"

[mr_lebowski]

109. Totally dig these guys, too!

[Codeine]

111. I guess Led Zeppelin stole enough material

that they deserve to have their sound slavishly copied in return.

[mr_lebowski]

178. A lotta bands have tried ... GVF is actually doing it pretty well ... unlike most ...

And they're hella young, so, I think it's reasonably impressive.

I have some high hopes for this group ... thematically and lyrically, they need to mature (and the singer needs to expand his range ... vocal training should be in his immediate future), but overall they have the chops ... kinda cool that the frontmen are all brothers, with the singer and guitarist being twins, and their younger brother on bass ... rockin' it.

The fact that this vid has 29,000,000 views ... doing straight up ass-kickin' old Led Zeppelin ... kinda warms my old heart, lol ...

[StarzGuy]

92. For Sure

I was on my way home listening to what is suppose to be an oldie station. They were playing some sort of c**p that must have been from the 90's or early 2000's and they call that classic oldies? Really? Unfortunately, where I live there isn't any real golden oldies radio stations.

Besides, I think all the recent "pop" music is just plain awful. I refuse to listen to a single bar of it.
Fortunately, I don't have to drive long distances just to local doctor appointments and grocery store visit.

[BillyBobBrilliant]

93. Worse

Once the music transitioned from artist based to production based, the whole industry went to shit. That happened in the late 70s.
Now it's all about record sales, so the music is pretty much throw-away songs that have no shelf life, because they need to keep the money flowing. Another example of toxic capitalism.

[zipplewrath]

96. Industry is changing fast

The kids don't buy albums, they buy songs. And it's getting easier to be ones own producer. There will always be "popular" music, but I suspect we may see a rise of the "singer/song writer" again soon.

[Codeine]

114. "All about record sales"?

Nobody has sold much in years. Artists make money via licensing, live shows, and merch.

A few years back a band I like called Cake dropped an album; it was their first Number One album — it was also their lowest-selling album ever upon release. The bar had dropped that far, and has only dropped further since.

[Permanut]

98. I still miss disco. nt

[malthaussen]

101. The perennial returns.

Do you know, the Lounge has this topic at least four times a year?

De gustibus non est disputandum.

-- Mal

[Nitram]

103. You are just old. Like me. Every generation thinks their music is better, but each generation's

music is exactly what they need. I swore I'd never do what my parents did, which was reject all the music of my generation and term it garbage. Music isn't a pissing contest. Listen to what you like, don't listen to what you don't like, and leave it at that. My musicat taste is broad partly because my Dad's was, and partly because I've lived in many other countries during my life. I'm proud of my generation's music because, largely untutored, we created very original music, adapted numerous different genres to the "rock" medium, played their own instruments, and made music that was relevant to my life at the time.

[beachbum bob]

113. Just gotta look....I am 65 and amaze at the young music talent

Larken Poe, a sister band from Atlanta, opening for Bob Segers last tour...

In blues arena...and all round best guitarist out there, Joe Bonamassa....and then there is Kenny Wayne Sheppard, Quinn Sullivan, Samantha Fish....

[roody]

116. Or Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner.

[bif]

117. You're old. I'm 64 and have found tons of great new music.

You just have to look a lot harder. Give the group London Grammar a listen. Amazing vocals, songwriting, and musicianship.

[49jim]

118. I am 69 and my wife is

68. We have been together since 1967, married in 1971. Anyway we've been enjoying the Beatles channel on XM and listening to music when we first started out 50+ years ago. We saw Paul McCartney in concert two years ago in Syracuse, it was the best one we ever attended! Wonderful memories.

[Runningdawg]

121. 40 years ago at the height of my music fandom

there were thousands of bands and at least 20% of them sucked.
Now there are millions of bands and 50% of them suck.
That still leaves A LOT of good, new music out there but since you no longer have a DJ spoon feeding the new stuff to you, you have to go look for it. Join a music group on social media. Hell, join 4 or 5 for different genres. You WILL find new music you like!

[LudwigPastorius]

123. "Is the music of today worse than it was 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years ago? Or am I just old?"

The answer is: both.

...but, I'm right there with ya.

[Corgigal]

124. I'm old too,

however I saw Bruno Mars and U2 this year. I have 26 year old daughter, and we love to sit together and share music with each other.

I'm still looking for a new Freddie Mercury, but that hasn't happen yet. I'm opened to new music. Loved Maroon 5 summer hit. Saw Maroon 5 in concert with my older daughter, then we went to see Tom Jones. Saw Coldplay a few years back. I love concerts, and feeling the music and the people. Your age goes away if you share an experience. I call going to a concert, going to church. It lights up the neuropathways for me.

Guys, just find another generation and let them share with you. Then share your music with them. It's a nice experience and I'm always opened to a new artist.

[Silver Gaia]

189. I don't think there will ever be another Freddie Mercury!

He was one of a kind.

[guillaumeb]

126. My parents said the same thing.

And yes, you might be old. I am 67.

[qazplm135]

127. Yes. nm.

[ornotna]

128. Lots of good music and artists out there

You won't find it on commercial radio though.

[Cattledog]

129. The 60's were a complete social and cultural shift.

All the arts had a renaissance. Happens once every 100 years or so.

[Cetacea]

130. "The TRUTH Why Modern Music Is Awful"

[Locrian]

187. yep - same thing I was going to post nt

[ProfessorGAC]

133. Hot And Cold, Yav

I hear stuff i like and stuff that does nothing for me, because the song doesn't go anywhere. It's just kind of treading water.

My only real compliant about the most recent stuff (aside from rap which is really tone poetry, like 70's Gil Scott-Heron) is that there is a lack of stylish singers.

Plenty of people with good enough voices, but i don't hear people lagging the line or pushing the lyric, gritting it up for emphasis, doing vocal tricks, and so on.

Here and there, but it seems to be willfully de-emphasized and even the good, pitch solid singers are using autotune so there are zero rough edges.

Also, if you have autotune cranked up enough, one cannot intentional catch the note low and lag it into pitch. So, everyone has to hit the note dead on. Which goes back to stylish.

[dixiegrrrrl]

137. It seems there may be reason for that, actually.

Read an interesting article little while ago about how music of today does not "feel" like the music we grew up with.

turns out, sez the article, that may be due to use of computer generated background tracks. Doesn't have the same feeling, the "warmth"...the soul.

One exception...Blues. Lots of talent still to be found today. It's mostly what I listen to anymore.

My favorite artist is Tim Laughlin, plays clarinet. New Orleans style music, loaded with feeling.
If you ever find a copy of Blues for Faz, treat yourself to a listen.

H also covers the wailing soulful Burgandy Street Blues that George Lewis made famous back in the day.
Luckily, there still is an excellent copy of that tune by Lewis available on YouTube....complete with video of New Orleans street scenes of 50 some years ago.

[OAITW r.2.0]

139. Started HS in 67....

No doubt that was a real intense generational change in culture and society underway. Opposition to the Viet Nam War had a great impact on music and the role it played in formulating opposition to the US role there. I'll never forget an English teacher (a Scholastic (sort of a Jesuit Priest in training and hiding out as a CO) who dedicated some time to poetry and music that was exploding on the scene. Leonard Cohen, Jefferson Airplane, Joni Mitchell, Grateful Dead....the list went on and on.

Can't really say music is better or worse today. My tastes are biased to those years. I've listened to new music, but it kinda sounds derivative, like it's been played by someone at some point in the past.

[GeorgeGist]

141. I'm biased for the late 60s/early70s

but I'm old too. Fortunately, with streaming one can listen to anything.

[mahina]

144. I love Stevie and EWF but yes there is good music today.

There was crap on the radio then too.

Check out NPRs tiny desk converts to find new music. Stevie is there too. You won’t like all but might like some. https://www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts/

[shenmue]

146. You are old.

[Chakaconcarne]

147. check out kexp in seattle

cutting edge just about every kind of music you can think of.

[SunSeeker]

148. Music peaked in 1967. It's been downhill since.

But you (and I) are old too.

[rzemanfl]

151. You are confusing music with my life. n/t

[SunSeeker]

154. LOL

[paulkienitz]

149. Absolutely, it's worse

Last edited Fri Nov 16, 2018, 01:15 PM - Edit history (1)

I've appreciated music from a great many times, from medieval chants to Mozart to Minor Threat, and I think I can state objectively that music has gone downhill since the nineties.

In both Jazz and Rock, there are cycles where popular music gets stale and repetitive, but then is replaced with a new sound that revitalizes the genre. In rock this happened on a surprisingly regular schedule: 1951, 1964, 1977, 1991, ... but in 2004, it never happened. When the old sound got stale and commericalized, nothing new came out of the garages to replace it.

It is not an aesthetic opinion, but an objective fact, that commercially sold music is now far more than before a product of digitally automated studio production lines rather than of actual musicians playing for love of the art. I think it's also pretty objective to say that a lot of the music that becomes popular and gains listeners is a product of surprisingly little human effort, with little grounds to describe those who make it as musicians. And I think it's also objective to say that less music nowadays is really about something beyond simple aggrandizement of the singer. Given these facts, I don't think I'm putting all that much subjective spin on it to say that the result of these changes is music that sucks.

Lack of music education in the schools is one factor. Nobody learns to play instruments in their youth anymore. Another big factor is that real musicians can't make real money anymore, thanks to services such as Spotify which suppress their royalties to absurdly low levels, doing more harm to creators than piracy ever did.

Musicians who are happy to live with touring can still make an adequate income with live shows, but they now have nowhere above that level to aspire to. When's the last time anyone became a rich star by playing guitar or piano? It doesn't happen anymore. Pop and rap stars who are willing to totally embed themselves in the mass production machine are the only "musicians" who make good money anymore.

[Silver Gaia]

190. Excellent points.

[brewens]

156. This article says many of the hit songs are written by just two guys these days. I personally

couldn't tell you much about that, since I so seldom listen to new pop stuff, or new pop country. Not by choice anyway. I hear enough of the new stuff to be familiar with some songs, but rarely care to know who it is. I'm not impressed.

I put some classic rock on for the crew of kids I was working with one day and heard one of them say, "I hate this kind of music!" I believe it was The Allman Brothers Band. One of the other kids thinks he's all Christiany and always listens to Christian rock on his phone. He didn't like it either. I just shook my head.

https://nypost.com/2015/10/04/your-favorite-song-on-the-radio-was-probably-written-by-these-two/

[gtar100]

157. Old people back in the 70s said that about modern music.

Old people said that about modern music in the 80s. Old people said that about modern music in the 90s. Old people said that about music in the 00s. I hear some people saying that about the modern music of today. They must be old.



I remember hearing a lot of shit music in every decade. The good stuff survives, the new stuff just hasn't been fully vetted yet. And then I hear all this nostalgia for the music of yesterday. If the kids these days like the music they hear, you know what they'll tell you if you tell them their music isn't as good as previous generations? Probably something very similar to what each generation said to the old people in their day.

The Kids Are Alright.

[warmfeet]

158. Interesting.

I didn't think Republican type questions, or answers for that matter, were allowed to be posted on DU.

In answer to your query, every single generation that has ever existed thought the same thing (things were much better in my generation). Weird huh?

Perhaps each generation has their own thing. Perhaps none of the generations are any better than any other.

Perhaps, just perhaps, you are somewhat biased in your opinion.

Hmm? Food for thought, fer sure man.

Yes, you are old. Very old.

[Freethinker65]

161. You are old. So many options are available for music today.

[randr]

164. Both--Pop music has always been bad and you are older my friend

[The Polack MSgt]

167. NO, music is the same ratio of shit to classics it always was

Sure in the 60s you remember Stevie Wonder but don't mention "Volare" or the Partridge Family being on the radio over and over.

Earth Wind and Fire shared the radio waves with "Disco Duck" and You Light up my Life"

Selective memory is a currse -You have to fight - 90% of music from every era was complete trash. Including today, including whichever era you love best

[jmowreader]

169. No, it's about the same

There's some good music out there today. Unfortunately, it's all winding up on commercials and in movies, not on records. And this is all our fault; Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind and Fire would have stayed in the business for one album if they knew they'd sell one copy of their album to one kid with a Windows box who would rip it and upload it to YouTube the second he got home, and they'd never sell a copy again.

OTOH, let's talk about bubblegum pop and disco. The kids think old music was all great...what they don't realize is for every good song on the Classic Rock station, 99 others vanished into history - and those other songs were all over the radio when they were still new.

[smirkymonkey]

171. Yes, it's worse.

Every once in a while a good song, artist or band will pop up, but they are few and far between.

I find that I only listen to older music, from classical, to older jazz, swing, blues, classic rock, soul, etc. There is decent music from every decade, but lately it just seems to be made for video and not for listening.

[mac2766]

172. I have to agree with the OP...

I've been listening to music since the late 60's and music today is thin and without much substance. The shame of it is that we have to rely on artists that grew up in the 50's and 60's to see decent music. I do see the merit in the arguments that there is a tremendous amount of new music being released today. I believe it was Steve Perry that said that at the time that Aerosmith was coming into the industry, there may have been 80 or so artists competing for radio time and/or record sales in the Rock genre, but now there are 8,000. Anyone with a digital recording device can master a record in their bedroom.

This is relatively new music from a guy that I admire.

&index=5&list=PLe94uy9mYcVrYmVSRBoUoQ4CxBeLvDQaW

[fishwax]

177. of course 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years ago people were saying the exact same thing

Plenty of good music around now, just as there was then. Plenty of crap, too, just as there was then.

[Major Nikon]

179. I think the answer is either yes or no depending on perspective

If you just compare what’s popular then and now, the quality has deteriorated. This seems to be due with the increased reliance on technology and marketing that can produce greater sales despite an inferior product.

Another way to look at it is technology has opened the doors to a many more musicians the world over who have many more options for distribution to a wider audience. There’s also tools you can use to seek out the types of music you like and just about anyone can have access to a virtualy limitless music library instantly available to them just about anywhere.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

181. .

[ificandream]

182. Oh yes

Music today just doesn’t make it.

[YOHABLO]

183. You're not old. It's what the music industry is making off of young pop singers. $$$$$ !!!

It's all thug / hip-hop / bling, jets, big asses, and big boobs. That's what sells. Much more materialistic today. Says something about our young culture and our society. There are really great artists out there, it's just harder to find them.

[JohnnyRingo]

184. I'm 66 and I find better music today

The reason is in those days a band had to be discovered by a major label to press albums. That means there were some great bands, but fewer than there are now. Now anyone can make an "album" for a few hundred dollars (for better or worse) in their garage. As a result, there's a whole lot more artists to sort through now than ever. The problem is they don't get airplay on the corrupt FM stations, so you have to find them.

Anyone who laments the good old days of music forget how many one hit wonders are in their vinyl collection, where they bought an LP and discovered there was only that one good song. They weren't all Beatles & Stones.

BTW, I saw Dylan last night in Youngstown. It's time for both of us to move on from those days. I have four vintage stereos set up in my house (Sansui, Pioneer, Marantz, and another Sansui) with four speakers on each. My house rocks daily.

Elle King is the latest CD I play loud:

This one is more rock:

And I can listen to The Ting Tings all night:

[democratisphere]

185. I like the current music in country, pop, hip-hop, rap and more!

Most seniors react to the new music like you do; music like everything else moves on and changes. Can't help you with your grass issue but my dog and I will be bye later to check things out!

[Glamrock]

186. No, it isn't.

There's plenty of good music still being made today. But you have to seek it out. You're not going to just hear it on the radio. MTV won't play it between it's inane "pregnant at 13" and "my spoiled ass debutant ball" or whatever they claim to be programming. You might hear the occasional good stuff in a commercial or movie, but other than that it's on you to find.

Once upon a time there were DJ's that filtered out the crap. Not anymore. Now radio stations are owned by conglomerates who play the same playlist on station after station based on who pays. Capitalism man. Capitalism destroying art.

But there's still really good stuff out there. Avett Bros. for amazing writing in the folk vein. Rival Sons and Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears for rock. Gary Clark Jr. for blues. Leon Bridges or St. Paul & The Broken Bones for soul. That's just a few off'n the top o me head. It's out there. Really. It is.

[Silver Gaia]

191. Yup. I get it that there's good NEW stuff out there.

But it's not there for a lot of us if we can't, don't know how, or simply don't have the time to find it. It's how it's marketed that's problematic for a lot of us. I've always loved music. The first thing I ever bought on credit was a killer stereo in 1972. $500 bought a decent stereo back then. I had that, a bed, a couch, some dishes and pots and pans, a husband, and a dog. We had a killer collection of vinyl, many of which I still have. And I still have the turntable from that stereo, too. I've loved many types of music through the years, but at some point, it just became too difficult to find new music. I'm not a musician. I'm a listener, an appreciator of music, but I don't have the time to search for it, and I'm not sure I'd even know what I'm looking for until I heard it. That takes time I just don't have. I need someone to curate music for me, find stuff I might like and bring it to my attention. There's a lot of us like that, I think. And we're here waiting. If someone could figure out how to market new music to us, we'd be happy to buy it. And listen to it!

[Codeine]

198. That's what Pitchfork, Onion's AV Club and similar sites

are for; new music and new artists are constantly showcased and material from established acts are also reviewed. They do a great job of curating new releases.

Satellite radio is also good for this sort of thing — select the channels that cover your interests (I listen to 80s alternative, modern alternative, extreme metal, indie rock, and classic jazz) and you’ll hear new stuff weeks or months before it filters out to the rest of the world.

[kentuck]

192. We have seen music evolve.

Every generation tends to think their music is superior, in my opinion.

Many people believe that music peaked in the 1940's with swing.

Many others believe it peaked in the 1950's with early rock 'n roll.

Still others will argue that the Motown sound of the 1960's was the peak in music.

Many in the Baby Boomer generation will defend the Beatles and the music of the late 60's and early 70's as the best.

Somewhere in this world is a musical note that can bring peace across the land.

[Iggo]

194. Yes and Yes.

[jazzcat23]

197. Oh it is so much worse!

There isn't really music attached these days to the rap. Why not enjoy our age? I love the fact that some day in the near future, we will be the ones blasting the Doors, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, Eric Clapton, The Temptations, Barry White..(there's a sexy voice, eh?)the Supremes, too many to name, etc. from our old age home! Actually, that might make the kids enjoy coming to see us!

[mia]

199. I'm old too and catch up on new music when I'm driving.

Here's one of my latest favorites.

[Act_of_Reparation]

205. Boomers invented music. There was no music before. There has been no music since.

Boomers did not produce or listen to vapid, formulaic, mass-produced pop songs. Only young people who do everything wrong do that.

Or so we've been told.

[ProfessorGAC]

206. Mozart, Beethoven, Louis Armstrong. . .

. . .et al.

Fake news. Those records were all recorded on a soundstage by NASA when they were faking the moon landing!

[Act_of_Reparation]

208. I would have said Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker...

...you know, the guys the Boomers stole their oh-so-original music from.

[ProfessorGAC]

209. They Were Fake Too

I'm tellin' ya, it was NASA trying to fake EVERYTHING!

On Edit: And even though i actually saw John Lee Hooker play, i'm certain he was a stand-in.

Damned NASA!