Why Does So Much of Today's Music SUCK?

[Placebo]

I'm flipping through the MTV channels, and myyyyyyyy GAWWWWWWWWWWD, what the fuck happened to music, it is all such crap!!!

When did musicians and artists get so lame? It all sounds like corporate owned and packaged crap to me, and I've yet to hear a single song that was actually ABOUT something.

Add this to the fact that something like 11 million kids in the US are on prozac...there is no hope.

[mairceridwen]

1. stop watching MTV

I happy with most, if not all, of the new music i've aquired lately;

[Placebo]

3. Good point...

yay for iTunes

[mairceridwen]

5. what do you like?

maybe we can swap recommendations

[Placebo]

12. I liiiiike...

PLACEBO, my #1 favourite band, which has never caught on in the states, Interpol (obviously, check my sig), bands like Franz Ferdinand, Fiona Apple, The Killers, etc...

but i listen to a lot of older stuff mostly, or new music by older artists, like David Bowie, The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Bryan Ferry...

[mairceridwen]

17. Interpol is terrific

I like Franz Ferdinand too. Do you like Ween? Their album Quebec is excellent and, while still silly at moments, not as wierd and incomprehensible as some of their older stuff.

Broken Social Scene is good. From Canada. They've got a typical indie sound, but really eclectic.

I also like a lot of that post-punk/rock electronica like Explosions in the Sky, Four Tet, Mum, Sigur Ros (but they're kind of boring), Mogwai, and that sort of thing.

What about Yo La Tengo? Les Claypool (not just primus, but the frog brigade?), Material?

I also like classical, Rachel's (modern classical) is good...not to heavy (if you know what I mean) and way-out-there Jazz like John Zorn

When music starts sounding crappy, it's always good to go back in time. That's how I got into a lot of really great reggae (Lee Perry) and blues (John Lee Hooker, muddy waters, bessie smith)


dig?

[Placebo]

18. dig

:smoke:

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. It's about image, youth, production, money

Talent and message have been thrown out the window.

[Placebo]

6. Yea seriously

there is some weird video on now where a band is playing in the woods while these people dressed in old clothese slowly walk through a swamp crying....its pointless, i tell ya what

[SmileyBoy]

4. I hear ya, buddy.

Most of the bands I'm into are semi-famous, but aren't generally played on the radio, and who aren't in a big way connected to MTV.

A good example would be one of my favourite bands called Epidemic. They kick ass both on and off the sound stage.

MTV is a plague among the teenage and pre-teenage populace in this country.

[The Traveler]

7. It goes in cycles

I remember how lame music was in the late 80's ... and then I heard bands like Nirvana, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Tori Amos, NIN, .. a new idea/attitude was let out of the box and music changed.

OK. That whole movement has played itself out. Time for a new movement. In the meantime my current faves include Tool, APC, Lynkin Park, Seether, Marilyn Manson, and Flaw and ... But, hey, I'm just an old fart who loves rock and roll ...

[LeighAnn]

8. First sign you're getting old

Welcome to the club!

[elperromagico]

9. Shut up and have a cigarette.

:smoke:

[Placebo]

15. mmm cig

:smoke:

[LynzM]

10. Dude...

Go to Launch (.yahoo.com, I think, but ask Briarius) and customize your own radio station, videos and all... WAY better. Finding all sorts of new groups who we like that way. Oh, and watch Korn's 'Y'all want a single' video while you're at it, for some scary stats on the 'music industry'...

[wtmusic]

11. There's no money in it anymore n/t

[Maple]

13. OMG

What's the matter with these kids today?

Do they call that racket music???



sound familiar? hmmmm?

[EnfantTerrible]

14. MTV and formatted radio killed music

Music peaked in the '70's IMO and has never been the same since... now it's all a soundtrack to a video with corporate tie ins, product placement, clothing lines, manufactured life-style...

It sucks.

[SmileyBoy]

22. I disagree. The death started in 1997.

MTV didn't have as much of a hold on America's youth before Hanson, Spice Girls and the Backstreet boys came out. While MTV had already bastardized what it originally stood for, the true pursuit of money in music started at that time, or 1996-97. In the early-90's (my grade-school/junior high days), there were noticable fresh, independent bands bucking the trend and who had more of a unique sound of their own. You had Grunge bands ranging from Nirvana to Alice In Chains, each with its own distinct sound. Nowadays whenever I turn on the rock station, 90 percent of the bands sound alike. The homogenization, greed and dillution of music started in 1997, IMO.

[EnfantTerrible]

29. When I was growing up

Fleetwood Mac's Rumors was the #1 album, Pink Floyd had Dark Side... and The Wall, Led Zeppelin had Presence, Physical Grafitti, In Through The Outdoor... that's just to name a few bands that all recieved air play on the same radio stations and I haven't even mentioned bands like Queen, Styx, Boston, Kansas etc... What ever you may think of these bands they were completely idiosyncratic. I agree that there is an homogenization of music now, but I would argue that it started much earlier than 1997. I was areound for the very first airing of MTV and the writing was on the wall when "Video Killed The Radio Star" was the first video they ever aired! It was a, albeit brief, breath of fresh air when the Seattle movement reached national status, but that was a reaction by those artists against exactly what we are discussing... Grunge quickly became as commercial as the rest of it. IMO
:smoke:

[Ron Green]

16. Maybe music sucks so bad because kids don't really learn any music

in schools anymore. Basic theory and harmony and "music appreciation" used to be pretty routine in most school districts, along with bands and choirs that would learn to sight read and play difficult music. Even if most kids didn't keep it up after they graduated, they had a basic grounding in the elements of music. Now the overall musical taste of the American public is so lame that jazz, the true American art, has trouble finding audiences in this country, while in other parts of the world it's much more popular. I mean, when Britney Spears is a star and Elvin Jones passes away with hardly a notice in the news, things are upside-down, musically speaking.

[huellewig]

19. check out www.emusic.com

They just re-opened and sport tons of non-sucky bands for .25$ per song. And they are in mp3 (192 VBR) DRM less format. They have the Pixies, NoFx, At the Drive In, and tons of other great indie stuff. Now they charge per song which sucks, it used to be all the music you want for fifteen bucks per month. Ahhh, those were the days.

But it is great way to check out Indie bands..

[AverageJoe]

20. Brian Wilson is releasing SMiLE

on the 28th of this month. Makes me happy.

[truthbetold]

21. SLIPKNOT!

So good, oh my god am I drunk
and underage, god bless america

[WinterStorm]

23. Music was better when musicians were allowed to be Ugly

It's all about the look now and the talent has nothing to do with it.

[JI7]

24. i can't stand MTV

[Bake]

25. Gawd, where to start???

MTV: video truly killed the radio star. Image over content.

ON a higher, larger level: there is precious little originality at any time, whether it was the 60s, 70s, or today. But I think there was more originality in the 60s. True genius is rare, no matter what "era" it is.

Bake

[UdoKier]

26. Is that Placebo in your avatar?

I've heard people accuse them of "sucking", although the one song of theirs I know "Pure Morning" is very nice. There are differences in taste.

To me, the saddest thing is that nobody wants to take any chances - they just pick a genre and ape it to death. Like Matchbox 20, Creed, and all the other watered-down alt-rock bands, or all the tired copycat bling-bling hip-hop artists. Gads.

Remember when "Hey Ya" was a huge smash? Wasn't that because it was the first song in ages to show a little life and funk. Of course now everyone is sick of hearing it a hundred times. As good a single as that was, Prince would have put out a whole ALBUM of singles of that caliber 20 years ago.

A recent group whose work I liked was Skunk Anansie.

Why not open up iTunes, go to the radio stations in the International section and listen to the various european stations. You'll find that actual music is still alive and well over there...

[Placebo]

33. It is Placebo in my avatar!

They're my favourite band in the whole world, I'm a placebo fanatic i tell ya what.

[JSJ]

27. it's all been done before- after all, there's only 8 notes in the scale...

...and Lennon/McCartney had already combined them to maximum original effect many, many centuries ago.

[MsConduct]

28. Because it ain't got no soul.....n/t

[He loved Big Brother]

38. House music is all about the love! :o)

Yesterday, today, and forever. Funky house, disco house, deep house, yum. I love it by the pound.

Mogwai is a rockin ass band I was just exposed to. Good stuff. Goldfrapp and Laika recently caught my...ear.

Fischerspooner (not really new but coming out with new stuff still), Deep Dish and Kraftwerk are my current favorites du'jour.

I am a month into 25 and I have't watched MTV or listened to the radio since...lord...98 or 99 at the latest. I listen to streaming internet radio and I am much happier. Popular rock was really starting to suck, forst with nu-metal and then emo. Blech. Most of the rock I like is at least a decade old...Ween, Pixies, and Mike Patton's 2846 bands are all my favorites and have all been around for ages.

[bif]

30. Lots of good music out there

Check out filter and dusted ezines. Also www.allmusic.com=type in a favorite qand and look at the "similar Artists" section. Also check out this site: gnod.net (I think it is) You type in 3 bands and it makes reccomondtions.

[sundog]

31. Interpol fan checking in!

:bounce:

[Placebo]

37. New Album Comes Out Tuesday!

I'm sure you can't wait. :)

[asthmaticeog]

32. Music always sucked.

The majority of it, anyway. The old music we hear that makes previous eras seem so much like golden ages are just the good stuff that's survived. Most musicians were pumping out sonic asswater "back when everything was good," they're just largely unremembered.

[tsakshaug]

34. yes...

don't forget the #1 song in 1969 was the Archies with sugar sugar

[asthmaticeog]

36. An oldies radio station in my town

does an annual "Forgotten #1s" special, where they'll play some indisputably classic song that never got to #1 on the singles charts, and follow it with whatever justifiably forgotten rubbish was at #1 the same week that the classic song reached its highest chart position. The one that sticks with me was the face-meltingly obnoxious "Dominique" by the Singing Nun keeping a Beatles tune stuck at #2.

[mac56]

35. Remember Sturgeon's Law:

"Ninety per cent of everything is crud."