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edvard2 says

Today I can't stand the Dead.

I said I don't care for the Dead today either.
As for old dead recordings, I've done already heard it ten different ways to Sunday.

You're simply getting older.

Adults wondering at how the whole world is going to hell are a staple of society since the Pleistocene. It's the same reason every message forum on the Internet is full of horror stories about kids these days, or authorities doing something stupid to schoolchildren, or Sweden having to ban bestiality: we're conflating the collapse of our bodies with the state of the world at large.

The world's just the same; we're not.

If you really feel pop is getting worse, I can only say: "Funky Town," "Whip It," "Everybody Wants to Rule The World," "You're Much Too Young," "Tom Sawyer," and the deep lyrics of Billy Joel: "You may be wrong but you may be right" - can't argue with that! And there's always the "travel the world and the seven seas," being the most cliched line I can think of in music. Special shout-out to Pat Benatar.

BTW, my beef with "Tom Sawyer" is the line "Love and life are deep" - wow.

I also think almost all music made after sometime in the late 80's sucks.

You have to dig for new music. Most doesn't get played on the radio.

Some of the recent stuff I like is The Killers, Shinedown, and Fun.

Blackberry smoke is pretty good as a retro sounding blues/southern rock band.

Tom Keifers(lead singer of Cinderella) new solo album is great if you like mainsteam American rock. First newly released music by him in nearly two decades.

You tube is a great free source of listening to new music . Then I download whatever I really like on iTunes.

Top 40's pop music has largely been crap since the mid 60's I beleive(dunno for sure as I was born in early 70's). You'll never go broke appealing to the masses but you might go braindead.

I don't necessarily hate all new pop music. I'll even admit I will on occasion listen to some of the hooky stuff from Lady Gaga. I feel she is at least pretty original. I still to this day really don't like it when older people will ONLY listen to the music of their youth. Its like their interests in music shut down as soon as they graduated from college. That's sort of sad. Many people seem to equate music with a time period. Any good music can always be played in any number of different styles and would be just as good today as it was however long ago.

edvard2 says

Am I simply getting older or does a lot of new pop music suck?

I hate to break this to you, but it's probably mostly just you getting older. People tend to like the music that was popular when they were adolescents and in their early 20s.

Granted, royalty free music sucks, which is why it's royalty free. So anything you hear in bar or nightclub is probably going to suck for that reason.

But as far as mainstream music goes, I guarantee you that high school and college students think today's music is great and that most of the stuff people on this thread have mentioned as "good music" sucks. And in twenty years, those people will be saying the exact same thing you are.

My gym plays the local Jesus station 24/7. Would you prefer that?

Working out at the YMCA in South Carolina...I guess I should expect it. The f'in gym doesn't open until 1 on Sunday.

Talk about unbearable to listen to.

Automan Empire says

Speaking of organ music, I can never tire of E. Power Biggs playing baroque era classical.

I bought a player piano on a lark several years ago, and have acquired a taste for foxtrot and stride piano.

I am guitarist learned at an early age. Never learned the keyboard.
I play with a classically trained Organist. Though he has every classic rock keyboard that were featured on any classic tune from the 60's to the early 80's. Which he keeps in storage, he rents a small room. All he ever played in our group was a digital Motif or Triton. Being an analogue diehard, I could hear what he was trying to do and it frustrated me. That he has this whole storage locker full of keyboards like a Prophet 5, and Moog Tarsus pedals, Arp Odesy, Hammond B3 and a C3, Leslie 31H and 145, (I've helped him move his crap twice. To cheaper storage lockers)but refused to break any out. So I finally in 2006 saw a B3 on Craigslist with Leslie 22H for $1200, I couldn't afford NOT to buy them at that price. I would have kicked my self for years saying... "and it was only $1200 but I didn't buy it".

He makes that sing, but playing mostly either long hair music(the old timer term for Classic Music not Hippie) or 70's rock that feature long hair music on those instruments listed above. He doesn't know any Jazz.

In the 7 or so Years I've had it, I've learned some and enjoy playing it. It's a mechanical oiled machine, there aren't any chips in the thing, making chirps and burps. Those are cog wheels spinning around with electromagnetic pickups to frequency of the sine wave the tines on the wheels create as they spin.

Also picked up a few other analog keyboards my self. But I over did it last year and gave my self tennis elbow, by trying to play trills like play on the guitar. No matter how hard I try, I'm just not as accomplished on the keys.

But it's still fun fire them up and hear them roar.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

I heard SD performance Mahler's (very rarely performed) 6th a few years ago. Sublime, spirited performance that should have been sold out and provoked street riots and orgies but was maybe half filled.

I would have enthusiastically joined a riot one night at Cosi Fan Tutte in 1990. The crowd was just one or two more jolts from going off - as in, "Let's burn this motherfucker down" - around "Per Pieta" in the second act.

A friend once said "If you don't occasionally wonder if you're going to have a hear attack at a concert, you shouldn't bother going to the symphony."

dodgerfanjohn says

You tube is a great free source of listening to new music . Then I download whatever I really like on iTunes.

You can download music from YouTube as well. Look for a FireFox plug in.

zzyzzx says

I also think almost all music made after sometime in the late 80's sucks.

There is always some hope left... not far from home we have a great music store.

back about 6 years ago.. met this 15 year old who was belting out some old schools rock and roll on a Les Paul.. he was belting riffs everything from Stones to Zep.. and doing it fairly well for his age.

and sometimes you catch others who also have some talents which might do well..

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz2fWwdvhOY

the real problem is that the night clubs are dead..

I'm a musician too, but I play the accordion, which is difficult to play anywhere that people are around as it is VERY loud even without a mic or an amp. As far as younger people, well what's interesting is that at least when I was in college, me and most of my friends didn't listen to much of the mainstream music to start with. Most of what we played was pretty obscure, non-commercial type stuff.

The thing is we're still the same way. We still listen to mostly under-the-radar type music. Its just that its gotten easier to find these sorts of artists than it used to be. Even back then most of us felt that the top-40 music was sort of like the equivalent of goods bought at a Big Box store. In that regard it makes sense: Most of the radio stations are owned by just a few huge media companies whom format a set amount of genre stations to play the same songs nationally. Don't believe me? Drive across the country. They even have the same damned names. You won't hear a difference. The DJ does nothing put push a button and play whatever it is has already been arranged by the corporations they work for.

edvard2 says

Give me Hank Snow, Hank Williams and Cash anyday as they told it like it was.

You know how it goes, 10 years ago, we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope, and Johnny Cash.

Now, we have no jobs, no hope, and no cash.

HydroCabron says

If you really feel pop is getting worse, I can only say: "Funky Town," "Whip
It," "Everybody Wants to Rule The World," "You're Much Too Young," "Tom Sawyer,"
and the deep lyrics of Billy Joel: "You may be wrong but you may be right" -
can't argue with that! And there's always the "travel the world and the seven
seas," being the most cliched line I can think of in music. Special shout-out to
Pat Benatar.

BTW, my beef with "Tom Sawyer" is the line "Love and life are deep" -
wow.

This shit is delicious! Wow, pop really *was* better back then!

Difference being, the music in these songs is still pretty ripping good, but the music in current pop songs sucks ass.

edvard2 says

We still listen to mostly under-the-radar type music. Its just that its gotten
easier to find these sorts of artists than it used to be. Even back then most of
us felt that the top-40 music was sort of like the equivalent of goods bought at
a Big Box sto

Top 40 has always been a mugs game, although the likes of Fleetwood Mac or Prince and the New Power Generation were churning out pretty lasting Top 40 back then.

The 'under the radar' stuff is certainly much better, but it suffers from that 2-album maximum that all these indie bands are prone to. I guess that's always been around, too, though.

Young people today listen to very whiny music today. I don't understand how any self respecting man can drive around blasting "Same Love".

Generation of whiners.

FortWayne says

Generation of whiners.

whining and rather flat sounding !

Music has changed from the standpoint that it is much harder to find music that questions society in the mainstream. 90s had nirvana, rage against machine, marilyn manson, etc. Nowadays music like this is nowhere to be found. That being said, music today does have nice beatz for club scene and "new age" music such as Zen channel on directv is more accessible and music like that is still original in our culture.

DJ says: New Pop Sucks.
Music died when Matchbox 20 and Candlebox took the torch from Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
Well, my frame of reference the 80's, so I was feeling a bit old and crotchety lamenting that this generation doesn't seem to have a U2 or REM... then I started listening to Arcade Fire and Mumford and Sons. From what I can tell, they've built up quite an audience based on the strength of their live shows. I consider the torch passed and enjoy listening to their live sets on youtube.

FortWayne says

Young people today listen to very whiny music today. I don't understand how any self respecting man can drive around blasting "Same Love".

Generation of whiners.

That's a bit of a gross generalization...dublin hillz says

Music has changed from the standpoint that it is much harder to find music that questions society in the mainstream.

Give me about 30 seconds and I could probably find you any number of new and upcoming bands or musical groups whom do exactly that. IMHO, there's way, way more options and different sorts of music, including many songs that totally questiom the status-quo

Nah -- you're getting younger and music is getting better and better.

Whaddya think??

All the really good stuff has been written -- books, films, music.

Then again, anything after the 16th century humanist composers like Janequin is overly flourid dogshit to my ears.

JodyChunder says

Then again, anything after the 16th century humanist composers like Janequin is overly flourid dogshit to my ears.

I like me some Harp-si-cord music.

edvard2 says

I like me some Harp-si-cord music.

You'd be surprised how feel people know what the hell a harpsichord is! Me, I prefer the virginal.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

It's been downhill since 1974.

I'd say more like 1971.

CiT said: Polkas must be on your favorites list....
Welcome to the 21st century. Any hipster band worth its salt will have either:
1. An accordion
or
2. A Banjo

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

the Blue Oyster Cult

Seems a smidge tepid for your tastes, Shostakovich...try some vintage from '71.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/odSl-7BNmTA

Them squareheads got some stuff right, complete with a jacket fit for the hood of your '69 Chevelle SS.

Makes me wanna break shit.

Music is more like wallpaper these days. People don't listen to music so much as put something on to mitigate silence, which they find awkward, as it's a midwife to things like quietude and introspection.* And it has to match their lifestyles. That is to say, people don't stumble on music and have their lives shaped by it so much as they buy music like they would buy a utensil for the kitchen. I think fewer and fewer listeners really connect with and fixate on a composer or group, let alone a genre.

*If you're going to engage in those things, you need to call it something trendy like meditation.

Don't listen to music, he'll say anything to cover his ass.

edvard2 says

At least that was what it was like when I was in high school in the early 90's.

Poor child, you have no idea what it was like...

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

Maybe because the Blue Oyster Cult was just fucking right about it all and no one wanted to fuck with them!

great live band.. worthy of being called a Band.

The amount of choices have led to fragmentation and listen and throwaway. Before napsters and such, the amount of music accessible was extremely limited. Most people just listened to whatever the radio or TV were playing. A few did go on excursions to the record store to find more obscure stuff. The music playing medium also made it difficult to constantly change between songs and albums. So many people played records the from beginning to end many times. I remember before the popularity of mp3, I used to have periods of times when I sat and actively listened to music the way a person would read a book or watch a film. Nowadays as others have mentioned, I can't just listen to music, I have to be doing other stuff with music being background music.

The narrow flow of musical output allowed people to really digest certain songs and become united around the few songs the way people unite for Football teams. Nowadays with the fragmenation and incredible output of music, it's hard to really delve deep into songs and to develop collective musical moments in memory.

This fragmentation and overabudance of choices applies to books, films, and other entertainment media. Remember watching certain VHSs dozens of times? I rarely ever watch the same thing twice.

Most of what passes for music is about rapidly changing channels on the radio over and over again, something to match the hyperactive, fast food information age.

Vinyl records are nice because they sound great and make you stop long enough to actually participate and listen to the music again, no remote control or touch pad to whirr through the experience and leave it rapidly in the rear view mirror.

I was in my car yesterday, after reading this thread and the 70s Aerosmith
hit "Dream on" was played. I'm not a huge Aerosmith fan, but that was a great song.

I thought, "would it be a hit if it came out now ?"

I would say yes, but would a band today get the practice in playing rock music that it takes before writiing such a song ? Would they be able to get the high production value added ? Other factors involved then and now in getting radio play?

Rock as a music form will never die, and yet there is an anachronistic aspect to it. There's so much awesome historical rock for today's youth to choose from. How do new bands compete with that?

Also, as someone else said, sadly that type of club that plays live music isn't as big anymore. The rise of the DJ for clubs and high school dances etc, seems to be another thing that's here to stay.

In any case, for one who's willing to do their homework, in whatever genre you're interested in (some more than others), I think there is a lot of good (new) music out there still.

About feeling old. Hip hop makes me feel old in that I haven't been able to embrace it very much, except for the more derivative stuff (e.g. Red Hot Chili Peppers).

Just to add. Yeah, pop music does suck. It usually has. But there was a time, when there was so much going on in the rock music world that there were a lot of bands that could rise up to commercial success. Back then, the prefab commercially built band such as "the monkeys" was an exception rather than the rule.

These days I feel like virtually all of the "artists" that get air play are commercially backed and produced from the beginning. This includes almost all hip hop, it's obviously all prefab. The real bands that came up on their own, are actually the exception now, that is for commercial radio play.

So it is kind of inverted from how it was in the golden era of radio music. In my youth especially '67 - '79, FM radio, was all good (yes somewhat commercially successful) stuff. Just so many great artists.

There was a distiction then betyween FM radio, where relatively small radio stations selected their playlists, from an awesome menu just looking at billboards current top 100 albums, versus AM which we considered teeny bopper and too commercial. Sometimes we got it wrong. Thinking for example of Don McClean's "Ameican Pie" as an AM hit, because it got so much (too much) AM air play.

It was, but it was good none the less.

I am getting old though, and our early taste (before age 30) does shape us and stays with us.

Speaking of which. Check this out if you haven't seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsZFiMo8TIc

Nothing is as good as it was when we were young. Back then, crime, vandalism, pornography, corruption, laziness, and airbags were unknown. Small print was easier to read. You could walk faster, eat without getting fat, and your joints didn't ache.

Everyone had a job, and everyone was content. It was one big paradise built by non-union labor, where your tires lasted for 280,000 miles because the streets were paved with gold. Government left Job Creators alone, and so they gave all the extra money to their employees. The only bad thing was all the singing and dancing all the time - brass bands played through the night most nights - but we didn't need the sleep because our backs and knees didn't ache back then.

FortWayne says

Young people today listen to very whiny music today. I don't understand how any self respecting man can drive around blasting "Same Love".

Generation of whiners.

I refer you to two early 80s hits: "Tainted Love" & "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?". These heights of whiny self-pity were equalled only in the "Complaint Rock" wave of the early 1990s.

If guess about 98-99% of all new music is poorly crafted or has stupid lyrics. This makes casual listening difficult for people who pay attention to both aspects of a piece. Honestly, I think we'd have better music out there if you divided music comp from lyric writing, putting talent with education in music theory for the first, and good poets for the second.
Relying on some fast-food-employed, dope smoker, garage band rejects to write the music of the age is so fucking 1980s.

No offense to original poster, the answer to both queries is probably yes.