Does Music Today Suck Now, Or Am I Finally 'Old'?

[Happiness Assassin]

I like to say that the quality of an era's music is determined by the prevalence of one-hit wonders. If you have to rely on shit gimmick songs, then the music industry isn't doing good. Right now I am seeing a lot of lesser known groups pop up out of nowhere and I am truly wondering if they will last more than a year. Personally, I doubt it.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

Most pop in every era sucks, today its no different.

However if you go faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from the mainstream things sound far better.

However those people tend to not be big because they don't conform to what's popular, like when auto-tune, singing, high-pitched voices and repetative electronic sounds to a droning repetitive beat with the words "hey! hey!" shouted in the back ground in the rap game.
(seriously, what the F*ck happened to rap?)
And all the music seems hedonistic as well or is it just me?


But like I said if it's in the charts it's usually bad music put there by the masses that think is good but you can take 5 random songs from that chart of different genres and they all sound the damn same!
I'm not the biggest fan of EDM but when I heard Disclosures latest stuff I was surprised at how much I liked it, it actually sounded creative had variations in styles few songs sounded the same, I was impressed. I watched them do a live performance and they actually PERFORM too.

and are all the songs either about love or excess or addressing haters in some way? It all ends up being disposable and vacuous.

:/ *sigh*

Get off my lawn. I miss the 90s.

 

[gargantual]

Both.

Nobody gets younger, but yeah you have to dig for music thats not the same rehashed harmonies and patterns. When the top 40 EDM on Beatport all sounds like Avicii and there are hundreds of more obscure EDM subgenres, styles incorporations of older music. When rappers can barely lyricize, ppl declare rock dead, and all the young pop singers are open glamour brats Yeeeeah. There's a problem.

Power man. People at the top decided its more about selling image than sound. Let too many hacks that dont care aboutthe artform but want attention in. The artform can die.

 

[Scarim Coral]

You're getting old but we all experience that sooner or later since in my view, the early 00's dance music were the best! Sure the kids these days will experience too in the future too when they think the 10's were the best and the 20's music and onward sucks!

 

[Evonisia]

You're getting old.

Though in all seriousness, I think it's just that we filter out everything bad that wasn't memorable, and I honestly can't wait for 00s nostalgia to begin because that shit's going to be funny. In ten years you won't remember any of the bad stuff, but the odd song you did enjoy will stick in your memory.

Admittedly I don't listen to the radio (never on a regular basis anyway) so I don't quite understand the pain yet. Also because the UK has no idea what it's doing when it comes to popular songs because they aren't consistent enough. The Top 40 in the UK especially just changes so often that radio stations will just resort to playing the same four or five songs because they can't keep up.

 

[Dark Knifer]

Everyone has said it well enough that in every time period of mainstream music there is some crap and some classics but I think we should turn this thread into something useful now. So if we want to find alternative shit, where is the best place to go, because I haven't got a clue.

Suggestions?

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Hasn't it been like that since the 90s or much earlier? Popular music has lacked, for want of a better word, balls. For a long time. Think back the 60s, The Doors, Hendrix, Zeppelin were wild and when you think how conservative mainstream society was, that was extremely bold. There's nothing bold about what I hear today, even the pop songs about graphic sex acts are just tasteless. There's no character either. It's like they sought the common mean designed to appeal to the greatest number via a computer program. Luckily I steer clear of that stuff, but sometimes that's not possible. I was camping last weekend in a remote area and a campervan pulled up and played that shit all night. Incredibly irritating.

Yeah except that the 60's had more than it's fair share of corporate pop churn out systems already in place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_Singles_Chart_number_ones_of_the_1960s

how many of them have you even ever heard?

it's not new, it's been going on since post WW2

I suppose the point is not how much bad popular stuff is (the answer is always: lots), but how much good popular stuff there is? Today? Anything that seeks to shatter expectations and drastically change ways of thinking? Nope, not really.

 

[Total LOLige]

Pop music has always been "shite" and always will be "shite". I do feel that the alternative music is shitter than previous eras though. There aren't many 'new' bands that I listen to and think "I'd like a bit more of that."

 

[Solkard]

You're old. The concerns, dilemmas, and influences of the 'youth' no longer concern you. The things that keep a prepubescent teen up crying all night, seems trivial and inconsequential to you. That makes you old. Enjoy it.

 

[Random Gamer]

I think everyone has said it well enough that mainstream music from every time period is pretty crap

Which is seriously wrong.
Beatles, Who, Led Zep, Miles Davis and many others were more or less mainstream once - when they just didn't dominate mainstream. We don't have their equal nowadays.
So, there was a time where mainstream was able to spot great music - the question is if the current dreadful situation is beause mainstream can't recognize great music anymore, or because there isn't any truly great being done. Odds are on the former, I think.

 

[Silverbeard]

So...yeah.

Been thinking about this for a while now, and it seems like the local radio stations that play today's greatest 'hits'...
Well, they kind of suck.

More than that, they're actually ANNOYING.

There's this song about 'beauty' that got a horrible singer and annoying chorus.
There's another song that gets played heavy about chan-DUH-leer-learz.
Never mind that song with the 'singer' claiming to be fancy, when s/he's about as 'fancy' as McDonald's catchup.

Etc/etc/etc.

Am I just getting old, or is so (pop) music actually getting worse?

I don't know what you're talking about, mate.
Redeemer of Souls and 1000 horsepower are fabulous records and they both got released this year. Music is still just as entrancing as it always was. The bands producing those records are reasonably 'pop', in my opinion- 'pop' as in popular and well-liked amongst their listeners.
If anything I wish that more of the old bands would get back into the game. I'm still holding out hope for a new disturbed album in my lifetime...

 

[Dark Knifer]

I think everyone has said it well enough that mainstream music from every time period is pretty crap

Which is seriously wrong.
Beatles, Who, Led Zep, Miles Davis and many others were more or less mainstream once - when they just didn't dominate mainstream. We don't have their equal nowadays.
So, there was a time where mainstream was able to spot great music - the question is if the current dreadful situation is beause mainstream can't recognize great music anymore, or because there isn't any truly great being done. Odds are on the former, I think.

This is true, but there was still a lot of garbage surrounding them. Its always easier to pick classics from the past but I'll edit my post to reflect that a bit better.

I also was asking for places to find good new music as well.

 

[Frostbyte666]

really makes you want to relabel the genre 'pop' to 'generic' I know being stuck in an office with the same radio channel on day after day I'm fed up of the stuff I repeatedly hear. Would the radio please stop replaying the latest hit songs and just go out and buy some albums.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

considering that most modern pop music has more writers than public, yeah, it's bad.
Underground music, metal and indie rock still have great things, though you have to dig a lot... for example, take this Kenyan metal band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmRlyyLaHhY

or this Argentinian Power Metal band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWCWoHEhM7w

or this band from botswana:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcPLcjnS2iM

 

[Ophiuchus]

Obviously it's my personal taste, but I'll argue until hell freezes over that the last Protest the Hero album [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5_RJHsaqpA] is just as good, if not better in almost every way than a dozen 'classic' albums you could care to name.

Preach it, brother. That thing is fucking incredible.

Edit to add: Mist.

 

[SmokingBomber465]

Hahah! Naw, there's still good music happening--it's just that "time" hasn't sorted out all the crap yet.

Alternatively, it's that you haven't found it yet. The Misfits have always been my favorite and it took me forever to find a contemporary band that I cared about, but then all of the sudden: "The Creepshow", "Kitty in a Casket", "The Bombpops". BAM.

Don't give up!

 

[Gxas]

I'm sure it has been said over and over again, but I will say it because I HATE when people say that modern music sucks.

Modern music does not suck. Your closed mind sucks. Your negative view on the world with your constant longing for the past sucks.

You can call it "being old" all you want. But seriously, open your mind. Broaden your horizons.

Music is my thing. I remember when I would say, "Oh, pop music and top 40 is terrible. There's no soul there." Then, one day not all that long ago, I had an awakening and realized that my shitty attitude and shitty view of the world was why I felt that way. Once I grew up and threw aside my ego, I realized that music is great, no matter what. Even the worst of the worst (BrokenCYDE and The Medic Droid) have their merits, as few and far between as they may be, but listening to those bands, as well as listening to the "good stuff" is what helps me to appreciate music in all forms. I still appreciate stuff like Pink Floyd and Coheed and Cambria and Rush, but I also jam the new Taylor Swift song, "Shake it Off" at least once a day. Ke$ha's album, Warrior, has some of the most plays in my iTunes and on my iPod currently. In fact, because of this all, most of my friends come to me over anyone else for music recommendations (including those who are IN BANDS AND TOUR WITH THEM AND WORK IN THE INDUSTRY).

The more you broaden your horizons and open your mind to things, even things you dislike, the more you will appreciate everything you experience in your life.

More people need to understand that.

EDIT:

Hahah! Naw, there's still good music happening--it's just that "time" hasn't sorted out all the crap yet.

Hmm, I really enjoy this sentiment here.

And that "sorting" makes finding the "bad" music even more fun! You can still find some gems in digging through it all.

 

[Mezahmay]

It's a mix of your taste remaining the same as music evolves around you, the music industry changing with the times and technology, and the mass market's willingness to support anyone with an agent and a name if the beat happens to be just right and the lyrics don't completely suck. I'm also not a fan of most pop music since almost all of it sucks.

 

[Evonisia]

Even the worst of the worst (BrokenCYDE and The Medic Droid) have their merits, as few and far between as they may be, but listening to those bands, as well as listening to the "good stuff" is what helps me to appreciate music in all forms. I still appreciate stuff like Pink Floyd and Coheed and Cambria and Rush, but I also jam the new Taylor Swift song, "Shake it Off" at least once a day. Ke$ha's album, Warrior, has some of the most plays in my iTunes and on my iPod currently. In fact, because of this all, most of my friends come to me over anyone else for music recommendations (including those who are IN BANDS AND TOUR WITH THEM AND WORK IN THE INDUSTRY).

Oo love for the "Warrior" album, always nice to see. Though I wouldn't call "Warrior" your typical pop album like I would call "Shake It Off" your typical pop song.

 

[Someone Depressing]

If by "music today" you mean "modern pop music", then... yeah, modern pop music sucks. You're not old; you just have taste.

Really, I have no idea why modern pop music is as awful as it is, but it's usually like a goat being shot, but it clings dearly to life, bleeting and chewing its own mangled jaw, just never dying. That's kind of life pop music. Today. Except that was an awful analogy.

Besides, is being "Old" bad? What are you seriously missing out on? What mathematically produced, auto-tuned, uncultured, boring garbage by a filthy spoiled pig are you really, really feeling that you are missing out on?

Who needs rock and roll, swing, grunge, or 00's dance when you have, Will Pharlell and Iggy Azalea or One Dire... pfft, hahaha... I couldn't even type that without physically laughing, which I am now communicating to you through text. Isn't technology amazing? Yes. Is modern music? No, oh God no. So really, what are you missing out on? If those teenagers and young adults now a days don't want to experience the good old days (read: seven years ago. It's a YouTube search away, kids!) then just let them fester in their garbage and regret it, knowing that they were the lowest common denominator that they are complaining about in the winter of their life?

Really, that's much more cruel and much more deliciously evil than taking away their shitty rave music. Let them suffer, but not until they need support and entertainment the most. Such gleeful schadenfreude.