Music now is as bad or as good as it ever was

[Donald Trump]

Music now is no different from how it always has been. People keep complaining about how music is terrible now and how it was great back in the day.
They're wrong.
Here's just a few albums released since 2000
Kid A - Radiohead
Is This It? - The Strokes
Merriweather Post Pavillion - Animal Collective
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
XX- The XX
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips
New Moon - Elliott Smith

That's hardly an exhaustive list.

 

[L]

Sometimes when I think about how I say "back in the day" I also think about how I was a child, and sometimes wonder if I'd be as upset with the gaming industry then as I am now.

That's a little less relevant, but I also apply it to when I think about how I enjoyed just about all the music that emerged in the 90s.

Maybe it's just particular genres that are suffering or my taste in music is just stuck in the past. Maybe it's just more difficult to come across more music because MTV is all about girls crying and has nothing to do with music at all, and radio stations just keep replaying the same goddamn thing for the past 20 years.

 

[Martel]

This applies to everything, actually: things haven't changed at all, you've just gotten older and considerably pickier. Everything you like looks better than what it actually was in hindsight, because you're considerably more impressionable as a child, and these things stick with you.

Although I have to point out that there wasn't quite such an influx of abysmal singing children back in the day...at least, none that got anywhere near as much media attention as the ones that do now. But then, I suppose you could blame that on the media...I'd certainly be inclined to.

 

[SaShman]

In terms of quality there are still a bunch of great bands around. Obviously there have been changes due to technological advancements but I take it that's not what this thread is about.

Some people talk about how music was better back in the day with the likes of Led Zeppelin and such, but they seem to forget that for every decent band back then, there were at least 10 shit ones, much like today.

Although I have to point out that there wasn't quite such an influx of abysmal singing children back in the day...at least, none that got anywhere near as much media attention as the ones that do now. But then, I suppose you could blame that on the media...I'd certainly be inclined to.

Off the top of my head I can think of Aaron Carter and Michael Jackson.. I'm sure there are others; I think Christina and Britney started out as teenage pop stars.

 

[Rydia]

When I think of music today, the first thing that comes to mind is Justin Bieber, Hannah Montana, Selena Gomez and among other Disney and child singers. Or the winner of American Idol comes to mind. It also does not help that companies are now geared towards preteens rather than teenagers so much of the music is more tame.

We had them back in the 90's early 00s. (Aaron Carter, all those Lil' kids) But it wasn't so saturated like it is today with them.

Of course, the late 90's had all those boy bands which I admittedly liked. Though the only one I can listen to now is Backstreet Boys because I think they can actually sing. I was a big N*Sync fan but I can not listen to their music anymore, it just sounds like it was enhanced after the initial recording. Oddly enough, I hated Hanson back in the day but I kind of like their songs now XD. And Britney Spear's voice has always been awful.

And most music in the 80's was awful. (yes I said it)

 

[Sullivan0930]

music hasnt changed, whats popular has changed. the radio now is targeted to mainly kids, and not really older people anymore. I pretty much only listen to rap so rap on the raio isnt real rap, its pop rap. If you want real music your not gonna find it by listening to the radio, you have to look around. Real music is still alive its just harder to find.

 

[Merung]

It's just that the music they play on the radio nowadays is bad. Think back to the days when Pink Floyd was one of the biggest bands out there. Now we have... Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. So yeah. A lot of the most famous artists today are pretty much products conceived by the marketing people, including Gaga, who is always hailed for being so original. This is no conspiracy theory, by the way, but a fact.

 

[Zeith]

Different eras have different tones;you might like the more straightforward rock of the 60s,the progressive rock of the 70s,the glam rock and metal of the 80s,etc.People would tend to prefer certain eras for this simple reason.

I agree that music is,ultimately,no different,though.But I would say that the machinery surounding music has gotten worse;the industry has never been this completely child-oriented before.

 

[blakstang98]

Being one to listen to a fair amount of obscure music, I'd say that music is very different now than it once was. I'll have to be wordy to explain this, so bear with me.

I'll use rock and roll as my base analysis. In the 50's, rock was based off of blues. Such artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley were some of the more well-known artists of this time. And because technology wasn't great in the 50's, most of the music played with in recordings and concerts. And music wasn't an image at this time, so it didn't matter how you looked, but rather how you played. The music did the talking.

The 60's came and what the musicians in the 50's did was being upstaged, or at least that was the intent. Considering the musicians that came out in the 60's, I'd say they certainly did an excellent job of expanding on what was done in the 50's and they added a little bit of their own touch to it. You did have sellout types like the Beatles that were there for popularity sake, but there were still a great amount of true musicians.

Then along came the 70's, which like the previous decade was trying to outplay those of the previous decade. The loss of Jimi Hendrix was a shot to the decade, but on that same token helped give greater influence to up-and-coming musicians. I suppose the play could be said to have been better or worse than the 60's, depending on who you ask, but its safe to say that musicians were still as pure as ever, with the exception of capitalistic bands like Kiss.

Then when the 80's come along, the addition of technique was more heavily applied to try to outdue those of the 60's and 70's. But the one major red flag that came in the 80's was MTV. Yes, the mighty MTV that now made image a requirement. Bands like Poison and White Snake came along and took full advantage of this. Granted the music still required talent to play, the passion of it took a step back.

The 90's introduced grunge to the mix. An image based, fairly basic set of music that didn't require much technical ability to play. Granted the music written was great and there was still some passion left in music, it was slowly declining. More technical music that came out of the 80's started to take a backseat to the new movement of a less controversial trend.

Now enter the music of the new century. With a spin-off of grunge (alternative and many other sub-genres), technicality in music and passion were still falling. A love for money was also starting to grapple up-and-coming musicians. Not to mention record companies basically veering bands off of their music in lieu of something that sells. For some, once fame was made, then they veered off to their type of music because it would now sell because of the band's popularity. And with image becoming even more grand, some just became popular strictly on their look (this is mostly pop though that makes money on looks).

Until passionate musicians start getting recognized, music will continue to be in a state of decline. There is still great music out there that people don't even know exist, but music industies tend to blanket them with a trend-based seller. The shelf-life on a trend-based seller is short, but every era has a new trend and a new music to compliment the trend will always be out there. But companies don't give a damn about real musicians, and as a result, more passionate musicians don't even bother to record their music because it's still a pipedream to make it big anyways. So why risk your day job to utilize your talents if they'll be sidestepped by popular pop musicians? So music is far worse now than its ever been. But I do believe a positive movement will happen some day that will bring the passionate musicians back into the spotlight and kick the popular ones aside.

 

[L]

Oddly enough, I hated Hanson back in the day

oombop get down bon doo wop duty ron bon doo wop get da down bon day yeeeahhaayeeeaaeeeyeah

how can anyone hate that

It's a song made up of actual gibberish and not just slurred speech.

 

[DarkShadow]

The music of nowadays in my opinion shit compared to "back in the day".......Generally people just listen to music now because of one thing: the beat (instrumental), forgetting about the main purpose of a song - the lyrics. I know you've given a list there but with all respect I don't think I've ever heard of them before. When you compare artists of today (Lady GaGa,Justin Beiber,Usher,Lil Wayne etc) they are nothing compared to the artists of the past (Bob Marley,Bob Dylan,Michael Jackson,Tupac,John Lennon etc). I think one of the main difference is the purpose of the song........

Let's briefly compare some of them
Lady Gaga vs John Lennon

Lady Gaga's music is mainly focused on dancing,partying and basically fuck all.

John Lennon's music is focused on peace,while speaking his mind on issues such as poverty.

Lil Wayne vs Tupac (I can say a lot as an old-school rap fan, but I'll keep it short)

Lil wayne's raps are basically about how good this girl looks and how much of a boner he has, while he raps like a psychologically-disturbed 4 year old with throat cancer.

Tupac's raps about a lot from his unfortunate life to socio-economic issues in the ghettos of america and the world.

So there's the difference.......I don't know why though, maybe its the illuminati, pac said it was gonna change the game.

 

[Ghost]

I think a lot of the time this phrase is thrown around people tend to only focus on what is media-dominant, and this does fairly reflect the wide variety of "new" music that is out there as the media has nowadays became incredibly constricted in what it chooses to showcase and push to its audience.

A lot of my favourite bands/artists/musicians emerged in decades past (eg. Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Pixies, Iggy & The Stooges) but there is also a [/i]lot[/i] of amazing music which only emerged recently too (imo, eg. The Kills, M.I.A, The xx). I just can't help that when people start with the "music was so much better when..." argument that the majority of their points are often completely restrained to within 'what's mainstream' which is unfortunate.

Lady Gaga's music is mainly focused on dancing,partying and basically fuck all.

Whilst, admittedly, this has been true for her first two records, Gaga has started to step into more political territory with her new record, mostly about the unequality that still exists within government, religion and society.

She is still a "pop star" though, imo, at least she is trying to do something a little more personal and creative in comparison to those around her. I certainly wouldn't lump her into the same pool as the "Justin Biebers" of the industry.

 

[Martel]

I don't know if anyone else has ever seen/heard/knows this, but this is a wonderful illustration of just how little music has changed:

http://youtu.be/5pidokakU4I

Sorry, you'll have to click the link, because the Youtube tags don't feel like working

 

[Smiley]

I grew up listening to young Britney, Spice Girls, Christina, and young Pink. At the time I was growing up (Late 90s, Early 00s) They were pop, but pop was a dominant genre back then. All that's changed is the people. Britney's life has completely fucked up, Spice Girls broke up long ago, Christina has had her fame, and done well, and Pink has turned to some sort of rock(which I actually love).

Nowdays you have Justin Bieber, Rebecca Black, Gaga, Miley, blehhhh. I'm not saying the music these days isn't shit, because believe me, it is, but these kids just wanna do their shit to survive in this industry. If that involves writing the worst song ever made and abusing Autotune, then that's when the music today becomes worse and worse.

That's Pop, though. Rock on the other hand, has not changed one bit. Sure there's your different varieties: Punk, Metal etc, but very few of these bands use Auto tune or anything like that. Such bands like Evanescence, Paramore, and Linkin Park(though their last album was more techno than rock)

I'm not saying music hasn't become worse, because you have technological advances now when people use Auto tune and such. Our older artists are still around, and are still delivering the greatest shit in the industry, and in 16 years time, kids growing up with justin bieber will look at future music and say 'this is crap! I loved the music of 2011!' Part of people thinking that music today has gotten worse has a lot to do with the fact that we're older, and have more of an opinion of what we like and don't like. The other part is just our general taste.

 

[Corvus Strife]

When people complain about the music of today, I just tell them: "You're not looking hard enough". There's plenty of good music around at this day in age. But y'know, people always complain and never do anything...

 

[Yaoi Master Gavin]

The music that is seen today is absolute shit. Keep in mind the qualifier 'seen'. The crap that gets the most attention is just that, crap. This creates the illusion that music is shittier than it was. And to be honest, I personally think it has gotten worse over time though I think that it's beginnings were only marginally better than what we see today.

The real thing that has changed are people's tastes and their stupidity. Some will say that these are unrelated but unfortunately they are. I speak from first hand experience. My sister is going through the exact same school system I did and as much as I hate her, I still check up on her and look at things. That and I'm still friends with a number of my old teachers. Yeah, hard to believe but I got the good ones -sticks out tongue-. I've seen her work and what she is doing. She's a straight A student unlike me, I had more of a 3.5, but the work she is doing is about 3 times as easy. And she's supposed to be in the advanced classes.

This twat I call my sister also has the absolute shittiest taste in music I have ever seen with the exception of one particular person I met just under 3 months ago; she is on par with him though mysteriously she is decidedly more intelligent. The girl fawns over Lady Gaga and Kesha, just to name the two she rattled off before i inserted cockroaches in my ear to start devouring whatever the hell is in there so I can't fucking hear that shit.

...I forgot where I was going with this....-looks up- Oh yeah... The correlation between shit music taste and stupidity....

People are stupid, considerably more so than in the past. This leaves them without any real ability to discern what is even partially good and without any real drive to find anything good. So they settle for the mediocre and shit that they actually know about and eventually they begin to like it.

And now I've lost interest... Maybe when people bitch at me in this thread I'll come back and probably look at mine and giggle liek a naughty schoolgirl before replying.

 

[Big Casino]

Is This It? - The Strokes

Thats a great album.

Your probadly right. Dont get me wrong, theres tonnes of shite out there but theres lotsa good stuff aswell. The radio is the problem. IT batters all these shitty tunes into your head day after day after day.
If the radio isnt on though or you can turn it off then no ones forcing you to listen to stuff you dont like. Cheer the fuck up and put yer ipod on.

 

[Marquis of Granby]

People are stupid, considerably more so than in the past. This leaves them without any real ability to discern what is even partially good and without any real drive to find anything good. So they settle for the mediocre and shit that they actually know about and eventually they begin to like it.

some people are genuinely satisfied with listening to what they hear on the radio or in clubs and thats fine. there's no single "good" taste in music. it doesnt make you superior if you search out obscure bands, it also doesnt make them good or in keeping with the "right" taste just as those who dont actively look for new bands arent stupid. thats a ridiculous thing to say.

there's just as much technically bad music now as there was in the past and there's just as many people who like it - their perogative. each to their own, son.

 

[Will Graham]

How people can think that music is still as good or bad as it ever was, is beyond me. It's not like years ago there was far more absolutely awful bands than good ones, or that only the good music will survive the passing of time. This is absolutely not the case at all

It's not like when Rock and Roll or whatever was first starting to appear around the world, that people called it 'noise' and 'worse then shitting in your own ears'. Or that a radio station is most likely to play only the very popular songs, that the majority wants to hear. Also obviously all radio stations play the exact same kind of music

Well my hip hurts, so that's enough sarcasm


First of all if there is no talent required left in music, then how come everyone isn't a super star? Not all the people who are massive atm are easily marketable? Have you seen what Lady gaga wears?

Ah but my beautiful pal Conor, the content of songs is in decline u c?

Ah well that is as my grandmother would say, absolute horseshit. Yeah a lot of the big songs in clubs or that, are filthy dance tunes about getting 'crunk'(I have literally know idea what this is, some kind of STD I presume) etc. etc. etc. But artists like Katy, Perry, and Lady Gaga who sing a lot of these songs, also write some pretty deep and emotional songs. The former has a song about losing an ex-boyfriend to drug abuse for example. I know they have far more songs with depth because I have been asked to listen to them by many pals, I just don't remember them because I am not a fan of pop.

Not to mention even back in the day plenty of artists wrote all about fucking bitches, doing drugs, and partying till the break of dawn. How people forget that is beyond me tbh. And even in ol' blue eyes day that kind of thing was sung about, maybe not as profanely though(mainly because cussing and such was basically banned on tv and junk)

Not to mention some of the biggest bands in the world atm, Radiohead, Mumford and Sons, and Muse etc. are incredibly 'talented' in the classical sense that elitists seem to love