Your Likes and dislikes about the "Current State of Music"?

[Kwesi]

Just like the topic says! Let's not make this some massive argument just straight up pros n' cons. Simple, right ? Here are mine:

Likes:

-Loads of variety
-So many outlets to get music from
-I can fit everything I want to listen to in my pocket (not really, but a lot of it, lol)!!

Dislikes:

-I don't have nearly enough money to get all the music I want
-As much as I love electronic music I still haven't gotten my @R$3 to a rave...

[champbassist]

Agree with you on variety. Also, we have a great rock scene evolving in India.
But I dislike the fact that the kind of music *I like* is not really very popular nowadays (read: Disney pop). Too much brainless stuff hogging the limelight today. Or may be I don't like the music that's popular nowadays.

[kommando84]

Likes:

Imports no longer necessarily mean "cheap, crappy gear"

Emerging niche markets means you can find an audience for whatever music you like to play

Dislikes:

Current "guitar/bass culture" is mostly focused on gear marketing and brand recognition instead of actual musical trends or developments

Shred mentality has turned my favorite medium for expression (music) into a contest to acquire the most playing virtuosity in the shortest period of time

[Bruce Lindfield]

Actually the number of outlets for buying music is reducing every day - I used to browse for CDs in several high street chains which have closed down in the last year :

Borders
Virgin/Zavvi
Woolworths
Fopp
etc. etc

I'm sure that other people in the UK can confirm and name other music retailers that have gone bust in the last 1-2 years...

Here's a quote from an article on the BBC :

Graham Jones, who manages the distribution company Proper Music, believes he has visited more record shops than anyone else in the UK.
In the past four years, he says more than 500 stores have closed down, leaving around 300. "If you take Bristol, for example, there used to be five record shops on Park Street just four years ago," he says.

"Now they are all gone. It is such a shame because they were a part of the community and people gathered there to talk about music or to make friends. You can't replicate the experience online."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8005324.stm

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

Actually the number of outlets for buying music is reducing every day - I used to browse for CDs in several high street chains which have closed down in the last year :

Borders
Virgin/Zavvi
Woolworths
Fopp
etc. etc

I'm sure that other people in the UK can confirm and name other music retailers that have gone bust in the last 1-2 years...

Here's a quote from an article on the BBC :

Graham Jones, who manages the distribution company Proper Music, believes he has visited more record shops than anyone else in the UK.
In the past four years, he says more than 500 stores have closed down, leaving around 300. "If you take Bristol, for example, there used to be five record shops on Park Street just four years ago," he says.

"Now they are all gone. It is such a shame because they were a part of the community and people gathered there to talk about music or to make friends. You can't replicate the experience online."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8005324.stm

I see one big dislike and not a single like in there! And yes while it is a shame that physical outlets are going "out of style" (I'm sure they won't entirely), digital outlets are constantly being created and more effectively putting the artist in direct contact with fans and labels alike.

[aborgman]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

Actually the number of outlets for buying music is reducing every day - I used to browse for CDs in several high street chains which have closed down in the last year :

I'm willing to bet what you really mean is "the number of brick and mortar outlets for buying music is reducing every day"

[yehongxiang]

I like how many up-and-coming musicians are experimenting with different musical elements, but I dislike how the music sounds.

[sarcastro83]

Likes: Everything is so bloody accessible. It's a wonderful thing

Dislikes: The burden of too much choice!!! I find I don't make the time to filter through everything because of the fact that it is so bloody accessible. Seems new places to obtain music pop up every day that I'm not hip to. I have a very, very, very hard time opening myself up to new music and find myself just listening to old, reliable standbys. I just find myself bored by the whole process of filtering through unremarkable (to me) tunes to find those rare gems...

[noahw1]

Likes: So many places to hear new music.
Dislikes: Commercial radio is terrible. Shows like American Idol creating new "music" stars without any true creative bones in their bodies.

[M0ses]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

Actually the number of outlets for buying music is reducing every day - I used to browse for CDs in several high street chains which have closed down in the last year :

Borders
Virgin/Zavvi
Woolworths
Fopp
etc. etc

I'm sure that other people in the UK can confirm and name other music retailers that have gone bust in the last 1-2 years...

Here's a quote from an article on the BBC :

Graham Jones, who manages the distribution company Proper Music, believes he has visited more record shops than anyone else in the UK.
In the past four years, he says more than 500 stores have closed down, leaving around 300. "If you take Bristol, for example, there used to be five record shops on Park Street just four years ago," he says.

"Now they are all gone. It is such a shame because they were a part of the community and people gathered there to talk about music or to make friends. You can't replicate the experience online."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8005324.stm

It's called piracy, and it's putting every record company out of business. No one in my generation pays for music. Ever. IMO this is a good thing. They never did anything but rip artists off, anyway. Music will live on without them, I promise.

[ColinGWood]

Shred Mentality! What a great term

My biggest dislike is SHRED MENTALITY!

Slow the eff down and feel the groove

[uethanian]

cons: i have to hear sh*t like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-agl0pOQfs

[thetawaves]

Like:
-better access to the abundant range of styles of music
-huge amount of free information to help budding players start off

Dislike:
-Marketing directives behind music overriding the original musicality...seems to be the cause of the rise of this faux RnB and plastic pop crud.
-Music approached in the ever-growing instant gratification perspective - hence Guitar Hero, kids who know nothing but speed slap solos and kids who know nothing but guitar shredding.

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

Actually the number of outlets for buying music is reducing every day - I used to browse for CDs in several high street chains which have closed down in the last year :

Borders
Virgin/Zavvi
Woolworths
Fopp
etc. etc

I'm sure that other people in the UK can confirm and name other music retailers that have gone bust in the last 1-2 years...

Here's a quote from an article on the BBC :

Graham Jones, who manages the distribution company Proper Music, believes he has visited more record shops than anyone else in the UK.
In the past four years, he says more than 500 stores have closed down, leaving around 300. "If you take Bristol, for example, there used to be five record shops on Park Street just four years ago," he says.

"Now they are all gone. It is such a shame because they were a part of the community and people gathered there to talk about music or to make friends. You can't replicate the experience online."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8005324.stm

But whatever you could have found in those stores can no doubt be purchased for less on amazon.com

And I believe you can still talk to plenty of people online about music.

[Barkless Dog]

Love the infinite amount of music from around the world you would have never discovered before.

Dislike the amount of bad music you need to sift through to find the Gems, regardless of genres

I'm finding that label (whatever sized) music is usually better than bedroom recordings. More thought out, better produced. There is usually a reason a band gets better production.

I really miss large album covers (art), credits & the free stuff you used to get.

[Jonyak]

Likes: I think there is a ton of amazing music being made out there today.

dislikes: popular music
How the whole industry is based on greed and money.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

But whatever you could have found in those stores can no doubt be purchased for less on amazon.com
.

So we have towns full of empty shops, city centres allowed to run down and get trashed by vandals - great..

We saved a few pennies on the price of books/records and lost the ability to walks about in shops...

[baalroo]

LIKES

• The Resurgence of Vinyl
• Many more outlets for listening and buying music than ever before
• More direct contact with bands
• In my own area there is a much more accepting attitude towards different genres and styles than I've seen in my lifetime
• Small locally owned record stores seem to be returning and large chains are dying off
• Bands have much more control over their products
• Equipment is very affordable

DISLIKES

• Pop music is worse than ever
• Recording industry consistently putting their music on filesharing sites and then suing them for it when it's convenient for them (like they did with piratebay for example)
• Metalcore

[bass12]

I like the fact that, thanks to the internet, I was able to find a record I'd been looking for for fifteen years - and buy it for $150!

At the same time I miss the excitement of scouring through record stores and finding stuff that wasn't necessarily available anywhere else. Each record store provided a different selection of music and that made record hunting fun. Any time I was in a different city I'd seek out the record stores and (with any luck) find some things that I hadn't been able to get elsewhere. Now you can find almost anything on line and, while that can certainly be nice, it also takes a lot of the fun out of the chase.

[baalroo]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

So we have towns full of empty shops, city centres allowed to run down and get trashed by vandals - great..

We saved a few pennies on the price of books/records and lost the ability to walks about in shops...

The first part of this is a good point, but I haven't seen it happen yet in my town. In fact, I've seen the opposite. We have a few locally owned RECORD stores that have popped up over the last few years when we have NEVER had ANY locally owned music stores that I'm aware of since I've been old enough to have known about them(15 years or so).

To the second point, I don't know about you, but if I'm not keeping money in my local economy by buying from a local shop because they don't happen to have the album I'm looking for, I save money by buying directly from the artists and they make more money in that form of transaction. I can't expect our local shops to possibly keep up with all of the albums in all the genres that are worth checking out these days, they would have to be giant warehouses and that just isn't feasible now is it?!

From what I can tell, pretty much any city with a college or that is big enough to be mentioned on a map of the US here in the midwest has AT LEAST one locally owned record store. Maybe that's not the case over on your side of the pond, no?

Besides that, nearly every band on tour that comes through here has Vinyls for sale that they printed themselves and are selling for $15-$25 a pop, and they seem to sell pretty darn well... much better than I ever remember CDs selling for 10 years ago at the same caliber of shows. Is this renaissance of bands actually making money off of their music a purely american phenomenon or something?