The state of music today

[Mattbro]

Am I just an old carmudgeon or does today’s music really suck?

Someone please tell me I’m not imagining things.

[CHICO13]

Originally posted by Mattbro
Am I just an old carmudgeon or does today’s music really suck?

Someone please tell me I’m not imagining things.
You're not imagining things and I'll tell you what killed it. RADIO

todays radio market is a barren wasteland of pitiful playlists, non stop talk and commercials.


I recently went for a ride in my bosses car, and he has XM satellite radio. YOWZA!! :)

I heard more rockin' songs I hadn't heard in twenty years over a 45 minute drive.

Too bad you gotta pay for it.......

[nancyb]

Chico - that's pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Most of the stuff I've bought recently was either old or I bought because of review or word of mouth recommendations. Certainly not because I heard it on the radio.

Radio is dead in my book.

[Chicago1871]

Originally posted by nancyb
Chico - that's pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Most of the stuff I've bought recently was either old or I bought because of review or word of mouth recommendations. Certainly not because I heard it on the radio.

Radio is dead in my book.
I have to say, I'd agree about radio's death if it weren't for the fact that there are still some great radio stations. Sometimes you can find one with little talk, but commercials have dug themselves permanently into radio culture. The CD player/radio I have in my car has something around 40 stations available...I use 4. A classic rock station, two newer music stations, and a classical station. Continuing on, I can't speak for everyone's tastes, but WLUP (97.9) in Chicago is one of the better stations I have heard anywhere I have ever been. Relatively little talk, too many commercials, but you can't get around that anymore, and great music (IMHO). Radio isn't dead, but it is on life support and Jack Kevorkian is standing by.

[SportBoy321]

music is bad because of TRL on MTV the stuff they show on there gets a lot of play so all the teenage girls buy the stuff in droves. 50 Cent's debut album just sold over 860,000 in its first week. This guy is just another boring,generic rapper he's not doing anything new or different than any other rapper out now. I can't believe he sold that many. Damn you MTV!

[Renegade of Funk]

Originally posted by SportBoy321
50 Cent's debut album just sold over 860,000 in its first week...I can't believe he sold that many. Damn you MTV!

Yes, but everyone knows 50 Cent would have sold 100,000,000,000,860,000...that's 100 Quadrillion and 860,000 copies, if not for those pesky downloaders...rebel scum.

[skipshady]

Originally posted by Renegade of Funk
Yes, but everyone knows 50 Cent would have sold 100,000,000,000,860,000...that's 100 Quadrillion and 860,000 copies, if not for those pesky downloaders...rebel scum. Actually, 50 Cent would tell you that he sold 860,000 in the first week because of bootlegging and file sharing. His older songs that he had recorded with Columbia have been floating around on the 'net for a while and the songs for his new album that had leaked were getting good reviews from downloaders.

[Auriaprottu]

Originally posted by Mattbro
Am I just an old carmudgeon or does today’s music really suck?

Someone please tell me I’m not imagining things.

It's sucked on and off since the 70s.

[IMissTheFusion]

I agree to a certain extent....POPULAR music sucks. The crap that sells, and is played on radio and MTV. There is good music out there, but you have to search for it a little bit.

[Renegade of Funk]

Originally posted by skipshady
Actually, 50 Cent would tell you that he sold 860,000 in the first week because of bootlegging and file sharing. His older songs that he had recorded with Columbia have been floating around on the 'net for a while and the songs for his new album that had leaked were getting good reviews from downloaders.

That's utter heresy, and you know it. The radical notion that file sharing might actually have the unexpected effect of aiding sales by raising a musician's profile is too dangerous to be freely contemplated! Expect a call from top music corporation investigators post haste, followed by an old fashioned stake burning. By the way, the world is most definitely flat.

[metrocorazon]

No doubt there arent quality acts in the mainstream, but how much is it just us getting older than the actual acts?

I mean if you were the age that you were today in the 50's you'll be complaining how crappy music is compared to the greats like Sinatra and Dean Martin. If you were in the 60's you'll be complaining about these hippy f00ks and their drugs and how when you were a kid music was great with Elvis, Chuck Berry, and all the other 50's greats. If you lived in the 70's you'll be bitching about how those violent, satanic, low lives and their metal and punk music suck and that their music is just "noise". If you're in the 80's you'll be bitching about how everyone uses synthesisers and no one plays their own stuff anymore. And in the 90's you'll be bitching about Puff Daddy redoing every song since 1950.

So let's just get a grip people, POPULAR music changes. It's always gunna suck unless you're a kid growing up getting to know music for the first time. You'll buy all the CD's just cause its the cool thing to to buy and mainly because you are not in tune with the "underground" scene at age 12, as far as you go MTV2 is the "underground" scene. SO as you get older you are more open and discover new music while still retaining those old tastes, then a new wave of music comes and since you know better know you think it "sucks" well guess what, the music YOU hear used to "suck" to other people when you were 12 and they were 20. GET OVER IT!

[Mattbro]

Maybe you’re onto something Serg: maybe music HAS been getting worse since the 50s! And I’m only half joking.

But seriously. That’s why I wonder how much of it is perception and how much is reality. All those people who grew up in the 70s listening to, say, Foreigner and Journey – did they have as hard a time accepting Whitesnake and Def Leppard in the 80s as I am having accepting Limp Biscuit and Mudvayne and Drowning Pool and Korn? Somehow I doubt it, though you might be saying, “Mattbro, you should never have been listening to Whitesnake and Def Leppard in the first place.” But that’s beside the point. I just have this sense that (mainstream) music is just getting less and less - musical, if you know what mean. All I ask for is some relatively catchy – not even necessarily thought-provoking – music performed with a modicum of musical skill, not just some hack who never learned more than four chords to begin with and has to distract attention from his lack of musical ability by jumping up and down with a red baseball hat on backwards. And I would still rather listen to Sinatra and Dean Martin than Limp Biscuit.

Okay, enough of this tirade. I know music’s supposed to be subjective and all, but man I’m having a hard time seeing it that way.

[ross from st paul]

Originally posted by metrocorazon
No doubt there arent quality acts in the mainstream, but how much is it just us getting older than the actual acts?

I mean if you were the age that you were today in the 50's you'll be complaining how crappy music is compared to the greats like Sinatra and Dean Martin. If you were in the 60's you'll be complaining about these hippy f00ks and their drugs and how when you were a kid music was great with Elvis, Chuck Berry, and all the other 50's greats. If you lived in the 70's you'll be bitching about how those violent, satanic, low lives and their metal and punk music suck and that their music is just "noise". If you're in the 80's you'll be bitching about how everyone uses synthesisers and no one plays their own stuff anymore. And in the 90's you'll be bitching about Puff Daddy redoing every song since 1950.

So let's just get a grip people, POPULAR music changes. It's always gunna suck unless you're a kid growing up getting to know music for the first time. You'll buy all the CD's just cause its the cool thing to to buy and mainly because you are not in tune with the "underground" scene at age 12, as far as you go MTV2 is the "underground" scene. SO as you get older you are more open and discover new music while still retaining those old tastes, then a new wave of music comes and since you know better know you think it "sucks" well guess what, the music YOU hear used to "suck" to other people when you were 12 and they were 20. GET OVER IT!

you make very good points, MC. i wonder about all that myself. i'm 36, so i was too young to fully appreciate punk SAVING US from the desultory crap that was polluting the airwaves in the mid-late 70's. i was ALMOST too old to appreciate how the likes of nirvana shook it up and saved us again in the early 90's. now, things have gotten so horrendously dumbed-down that we're expected to think that bilious dreck like david gray is good. yeesh!!! there's gotta be more to life than that!!! but you're exactly right: it all comes down to personal tastes, often informed by the era we grow up in....(that said, radio still mostly SUCKS!!!) :-)

[metrocorazon]

Originally posted by Mattbro
Maybe you’re onto something Serg: maybe music HAS been getting worse since the 50s! And I’m only half joking.

But seriously. That’s why I wonder how much of it is perception and how much is reality. All those people who grew up in the 70s listening to, say, Foreigner and Journey – did they have as hard a time accepting Whitesnake and Def Leppard in the 80s as I am having accepting Limp Biscuit and Mudvayne and Drowning Pool and Korn? Somehow I doubt it, though you might be saying, “Mattbro, you should never have been listening to Whitesnake and Def Leppard in the first place.” But that’s beside the point. I just have this sense that (mainstream) music is just getting less and less - musical, if you know what mean. All I ask for is some relatively catchy – not even necessarily thought-provoking – music performed with a modicum of musical skill, not just some hack who never learned more than four chords to begin with and has to distract attention from his lack of musical ability by jumping up and down with a red baseball hat on backwards. And I would still rather listen to Sinatra and Dean Martin than Limp Biscuit.

Well thats because they are basically the same sound. There's not that much change between those bands its like comparing someone who listened to MC5 getting used to listening to The Hives. Its a little different but its basically the same thing, different packaging. But I tell you what that same person is prob not going to like the new Jay-Z and Birdman albums. Unless that person is open and then he/she wont be complaining in the first place. And people ALMOST ALWAYS can look back at music and get into the old stuff and are more open to it than accepting NEW stuff.

[Knave]

Music does suck today. (It was better even a few years ago.) My sense, however, is that it's not really radio per se that's the problem but more like the radio monopoly ClearChannel.

There are still a few good stations out there. I myself grew up on KFOG in the SF Bay Area. They're a great station. True variety and - as they say - world class rock.

I don't live there anymore but can still listen over the internet.

http://www.kfog.com/

[Beau Dure]

The problem is demographics. Not too long ago, the "youth" demographic was roughly 18-35. Now it's probably 12-24.

Those of us who are in our early 30s were shoved out of relevance faster than any generation in history, thanks mostly to spoiled brat kids with too much disposable income and parents who don't particularly care if they're spending all their free time downloading music and piercing things that shouldn't be pierced.

And it happened so suddenly. In 1998, "alternative" music was still cranking out a variety of worthwhile stuff -- off the top of my head I'll mention Garbage, Belly, Harvey Danger, Foo Fighters. Most of these groups are either defunct or dismissed as "old." When No Doubt toured a year or so ago, they actually worried about their fans not recognizing "Just a Girl," which came out when, 5-6 years ago?

The other factor is the hip-hopization of America. People are afraid to stand up and say that 90 percent of this stuff (including the aforementioned 50 Cent) royally blows. The occasionally interesting song doesn't make up for the fact that "alternative" now consists of people rapping or screaming (or both), and popular music is largely pre-teen dance fluff.

Fortunately, we have the Net, music on cable, XM, etc. The day I can listen to my Launch player on my car radio is the day the local stations might as well fold, except for the classic rock station that is relatively pleasant and would be a good emergency news source.

That's today's rant.

[Lucid]

Originally posted by Beau Dure
When No Doubt toured a year or so ago, they actually worried about their fans not recognizing "Just a Girl," which came out when, 5-6 years ago?

I know... I've thought about that with No Doubt lately. They've gotten so popular with a demographic that wasn't listening to them when Tragic Kingdom came out in '95. I'm still suprised when I hear them play that as "their song" versus something more recent, like at the Superbowl.

Music does royally blow right now. I'm listening to The 90's at Noon on a radio station here in KC and am in heaven. :)

[nancyb]

Well one thing I've found that's good about getting old is that I like a lot more diverse music than I did when I was younger. But, is that because I was exposed to diverse music in the 60s and 70s? It's interesting listening to the nightly top of of year XX on the local oldies station. The wide range of blues, pop, psychedelic, and soul that made the top ten in the 60s could never happen these days.

Anyway, when I hit the used CD stores, I'm looking for old soul, blues and rock acts, as well as the occaisional newer act. Oh and not one of those newer acts have I heard on the radio. These have included Wilco, Cornershop, Steve Earle (ok, I know he's not new), Josh Joplin, Fountains of Wayne and Luna.

[kopiteinkc]

Originally posted by Knave

I don't live there anymore but can still listen over the internet.

http://www.kfog.com/

Good choice, try http://www.woxy.com too. Great alt-rock, play plenty of new stuff.

[Auriaprottu]

Originally posted by Mattbro
All those people who grew up in the 70s listening to, say, Foreigner and Journey...

Ouch.

No, really... ouch! You just named two of the most uninspiring bands of the 70s era. I bring this up only because there were so many great artists -Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin (two 60s bands, yes, but they did their best in the 70s),Stevie Wonder when he was real, Roberta Flack, P-Funk, Fleetwood Mac, War, Wings, Donnie Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, the Police, Frampton... It's completely understandable that someone raised on this level of music would have a hard time listening to much of the music coming out today. But if Foreigner and Journey are used as the reference, the dropoff seems a lot shallower.

I just have this sense that (mainstream) music is just getting less and less - musical, if you know what mean. All I ask for is some relatively catchy – not even necessarily thought-provoking – music performed with a modicum of musical skill, not just some hack who never learned more than four chords to begin with and has to distract attention from his lack of musical ability by jumping up and down with a red baseball hat on backwards.

I think many mature (not referring to age here, but mindset) listeners would agree with this statement.

Originally posted by nancyb
Well one thing I've found that's good about getting old is that I like a lot more diverse music than I did when I was younger. But, is that because I was exposed to diverse music in the 60s and 70s? It's interesting listening to the nightly top of of year XX on the local oldies station. The wide range of blues, pop, psychedelic, and soul that made the top ten in the 60s could never happen these days.

Indeed. Somewhere along the way, individual radio stations decided to appeal to a particular demographic group and ignore all the others. 70s radio, at least where I lived, was a real melting pot-you could hear any or all of the artists I mentioned on the same station, in the same timespan. Today's listeners simply don't get that experience, unless they actively seek it.