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

[Signa]

It's better now than what it was during the last 10 years. I'm "old" myself, so music from the '90s is where my tastes lie, but the '00s had almost no good music. There's actually enough songs out there on the radio that I can listen to it again.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Scrolling through these pages, seeing all these videos, I am so damn glad I don't follow pop-music anymore. Of all these videos, Katy Perry is the only artist I know

/Wallowing in blissful ignorance

Heh, I recently annoyed a FB friend by explaining about Iggy Azalea to her.

 

[Something Amyss]

The real sign of age is nostalgia for the past clouding the reality that most music was crap then, too.

Even with good musicians like Daft Punk

Wot.

No, seriously, I think that just broke my brain.

Yes, yes, modern music sucks. Rock is dead, what do you expect?

Rock is dead. Like PC games, consoles, and the X-Men movies.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Yes, yes, modern music sucks. Rock is dead, what do you expect? We used to songs like dust in the wind, stairway to heaven, and the sound of silence. Thise songs were pure poetry. I cannot name a single song in the last 14 years that approached that level of quality. I'm sure things must improve in the future, but for now I avoid modern music. If anyone wants to disagree, feel free, I've never wanted to be more wrong.

Got a few songs you should listen to.

Spoiler

Porcupine Tree(and any Steven Wilson projects), The Mars Volta(sadly disbanded now), Reign of Kindo, Opeth, The Flower Kings, Ayreon... There's lots of great modern music out there. It just isn't out front and center.

It's also helpful to remember that the "good old days" seem more significant than they were because we naturally tend to forget the mediocre crap in favor of what was genuinely good(or in some cases, what was unforgettably awful).

 

[Scars Unseen]

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.

Muse is quite good, and they get radio play(though I do prefer the earlier albums when they weren't doing their best Queen impersonation). Avenged Sevenfold is also pretty good. Not one of my favorites, but well written and distinct from a lot of the bands seeking to clone each other into homogeneity.

And really, there weren't that many popular bands ever that shattered expectations. Usually just one or two per decade, and then all the other bands that were influenced by them(even if the followers themselves are good). The really amazing stuff was almost always a bit off the beaten path once commercial radio took hold. Most of the stuff we remember wasn't that amazing in context; they were just the best at an established formula.

 

[AkaDad]

If you think about it, how many ways can you rearrange chords and scales to make original and memorable songs? It's extremely hard because all the memorable riffs and arrangements have been done over the past 60 or so years.

I just looked at the top 100 on the charts and listened to the ones I hadn't heard and they just don't compare to the classics. The reason songs are classic isn't just the 25 years since they've been released, it's because they stand the test of time.

In 50 years they'll still be playing Beatles songs and when someone mentions Iggy Azalea, they'll be saying who dat?, who dat?

 

[Fox12]

The real sign of age is nostalgia for the past clouding the reality that most music was crap then, too.

Even with good musicians like Daft Punk

Wot.

No, seriously, I think that just broke my brain.

Yes, yes, modern music sucks. Rock is dead, what do you expect?

Rock is dead. Like PC games, consoles, and the X-Men movies.

Well, if it's not dead, it has one hell of a hangover. It's been pretty strongly popified.

 

[babinro]

I'll go ahead and assume that you're old.

I haven't cared for 'current' music for maybe 15 years now.
I've been old for a while.

You mean some people actually enjoy dubstep? They must...twitch streamers love to use it as their background noise.

I'm not one to comment on music though...I'm among those people who didn't move on from the CD era of music on to digital. So you better believe I have a library of things like Green Day, Blink 182, Eve 6 and all the greats

Oh well...I enjoy it

 

[shootthebandit]

I'll go ahead and assume that you're old.

I haven't cared for 'current' music for maybe 15 years now.
I've been old for a while.

You mean some people actually enjoy dubstep? They must...twitch streamers love to use it as their background noise.

I'm not one to comment on music though...I'm among those people who didn't move on from the CD era of music on to digital. So you better believe I have a library of things like Green Day, Blink 182, Eve 6 and all the greats

Oh well...I enjoy it

This pretty much sums up your comment

 

[Something Amyss]

Well, if it's not dead, it has one hell of a hangover. It's been pretty strongly popified.

Never particularly had much trouble finding good rock.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

The real sign of age is nostalgia for the past clouding the reality that most music was crap then, too.

Even with good musicians like Daft Punk

Wot.

No, seriously, I think that just broke my brain.

Yes, yes, modern music sucks. Rock is dead, what do you expect?

Rock is dead. Like PC games, consoles, and the X-Men movies.

Well, if it's not dead, it has one hell of a hangover. It's been pretty strongly popified.

Again, mainstream music. Rock's actually been pretty damn awesome in the last five or so years.

Spoiler: All of these bands have released a new album in the last year or are about to release one.

Hell, even in the mainstream press everyone's been losing their collective shit over Royal Blood [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ere2Mstl8ww] (because apparently the music journos were unaware of the existence of fuzz pedals for basses), who are actually pretty decent.

The idea that 'rock is dead' is bullshit, it just doesn't have the commercial pull that it used to. Music and people's tastes are so diversified that bands can't get the same mass appeal of Zep or Sabbath, even if rock still sold. That doesn't mean that rock isn't out there, but it's in clubs rather than arenas.

 

[Me55enger]

There's plenty of good music out there, it just doesn't get radio play.

The more pertinent question, I suppose, is who the fuck listens to the radio these days?

BBC Radio 2, from the minute I wake up to the hour I go to sleep; there is rarely a moment in my house where the radio isn't on. And when someone shit is on said radio, it's usually switched to Pink Floyd on CD.

That being said, a majority of what I listen to does indeed not get any airplay whatsoever. Which is a shame. Film and books make folk feel uncomfortable, music should too sometimes.

EDIT: I'm 22. I stopped listening to the Uktop40 when I was about 15. Because whatever post-Spice Girls semi-silicone autotune with a skimpy skirt was charted higher the QOTSA's 3's & 7's. Ugh.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I think people always forget that for every 'classic' song that came out decades ago and that we still listen to today, there were 1000 other songs that people have completely forgotten about.

Whenever people point out how people had "so much better taste back then", I always like to remind them that "Disco Duck" was the #1 song in America for a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irgJPqkuakM

 

[generals3]

I'd say it depends. I find a lot of music to my taste, but than again i'm into electro. And in my opinion 60's and 70's music is generally epic crap. Except for epic classical music i think new > old.

 

[Kalashnikov2092]

If you can't find any new music you enjoy, especially in the age of the internet, then I don't know what to say. 8 out of my top 10 favorite bands/artists have been created or released music in the past 14 years. The radio is not indicative of the true state of modern music. Just pop music. If one actually puts the effort into finding new music to enjoy, then the possibilities are vast.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

Anybody who says modern music is terrible is just silly. You're just not looking in the right places. There's tons of great artists out there. Most of my favorite bands I've discovered via the internet.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

I've always liked this one as a demonstration piece.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1992

Thats what was actually popular the year Nirvana's Nevermind came out, with the groundbreaking smash hit Smells Like Teen Spirit, that supposedly murdered pop music and turned everyone into headbanging alt rock folks.

Except it didn't. Hell, Achy Breaky Heart outperformed it in pop music standards. To say nothing of the top ten, which I only know 3 of by the title.

*ahem*

Nevermind came out on September 24, 1991. I only know that because it was my 14th birthday. Yes, I'm just being an ass... that triviality in no way detracts from the 100% spot-on meaning of your post.

Thankfully, Nirvana slammed an ice pick deep into the mascara-caked face of pansy-ass hair metal. They also ushered in the much-needed death of what was "youth" music at the time like MC Hammer, Tiffany, Paula Abdul, Miami Sound Machine, Fine Young Cannibals, etc.

*** I'll pause here for a second so you can clean out the bucket you just barfed in after reading the last sentence. ***

Done? Okay, let's continue.

But as Seth pointed out above (and several others mentioned) it's almost ALWAYS been the case that good music isn't in the "What's popular this week?" charts. Even the anomalies - the late '60s, early '80s, and the early-to-mid '90s - aren't the musical watersheds that we remember them as today. Hell, I think the '90s died when Alanis and Shaggy became popular. And don't even get me started on Hooter and the Blowholes, Crash Test Dummies, Gin Blossoms (cold-hearted fuckers), or Counting Crows. Those last three bands were in the charts at the same time as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, The Breeders, Babes in Toyland, among other greats. And some amazing bands like Heavens to Betsy and L7 barely eked into the public consciousness.

So I wouldn't say today is any different than it always has been, it's just that we're in a time period in which NOTHING is breaking through into popularity that doesn't sound like the shit that's already out there. I'd also say this is the most prolonged dearth of interesting popular music that I've ever lived through. We don't have a Sex Pistols, or The Who, or a Duran Duran, or a Nirvana shaking things up while getting airplay and international recognition.

Okay... so The Who are (barely) still around and Duran Duran is still going strong (and pretty damn good after all these years), but I'm sure you all get my point.

I'll finish this post with a few examples of what I just blabbered on about.

Spoiler: November 1967, the week that The Who's song I Can See For Miles peaked in the UK charts. What was number 1?

The good:

This was the song that was Number 1. WTF?!

Spoiler: Fast forward to 1977. The year of disco. Brace yourselves.

Here's what was in the charts:


Here's what you'll find if you dig deeper:


Confession time: that Bee Gees song is actually one of my guilty pleasures... you can be scared of me now.

Spoiler: 1992, the year that grunge launched on the unexpected success of Nirvana

This was #10 on that list of top singles of the year... again, WTF?


What WASN'T on that list from 1992? Sure, there was ONE Nirvana song, but nothing else with that same energy. Like this song, for example, which was released as a single and got quite a bit of exposure on MTV, both on Alternative Nation and on Headbangers Ball. Do the charts even HINT at anything like this? You guessed it, nope!


And don't anybody dare say they look like Hole. Courtney Love stole that babydoll look from Babes In Toyland's singer/songwriter Kat Bjelland. Courtney and Kat were once in the same band (Pagan Babies) and Kat taught Courtney how to play guitar.

Also, for good measure, here's the album version of that song above. It has better vocals and is uncensored. I only posted the video because it's fucking cool.

 

[JazzJack2]

People who claim anything along the lines of 'modern x' (whether it is art, literature, music etc) is trash are generally the people who know least about x.
There is plenty of great modern music and it only takes a small amount of effort to find it.