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Music is declining

#41
This chart makes a point for me I'm sure you didn't intend.

baalroo said:
here's the billboard top 25 from 1967 (the year sgt. pepper's came out):

01. To Sir With Love » Lulu
02. The Letter » Box Tops
03. Ode To Billie Joe » Bobby Gentry
04. Windy » Association
05. I'm A Believer » Monkees
06. Light My Fire » Doors
07. Somethin' Stupid » Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra
08. Happy Together » Turtles
09. Groovin' » Young Rascals
10. Can't Take My Eyes Off You » Frankie Valli
11. Little Bit O' Soul » Music Explosion
12. I Think We're Alone Now » Tommy James & The Shondells
13. Respect » Aretha Franklin
14. I Was Made To Love Her » Stevie Wonder
15. Come Back When You Grow Up » Bobby Vee & The Strangers
17. Sweet Soul Music » Arthur Conley
18. Kind Of A Drag » Buckinghams
18. Expressway To Your Heart » Soul Survivors
19. Soul Man » Sam & Dave
20. Never My Love » Association
21. Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie » Jay & The Techniques
22. Come On Down To My Boat » Every Mothers' Son
23. Incense And Peppermints » Strawberry Alarm Clock
24. Ruby Tuesday » Rolling Stones
25. It Must Be Him » Vicki Carr

Almost all of that is cheesy, soul-less pop music. The worst part is that back then you only had the radio to listen, so if you didn't like that drivel you were screwed.
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Some big hits here -- all in one week. And notice the diversity = soul, rock, hard rock, pop, R&B - that's gone. There's even big band singers in there! Genres seem so narrowly focused now and a band almost has to stick to one style within a style to have "their sound" for "their audience": read marketing.

The bold, big font are classics, now 40 years old and you still hear these as main fodder for classic rock stations.

The red are cheezy pop classics, but I appreciate them now waaay more than when they were hits. I'll take these over-orchestrated things over the snively whiny pop, "gentle rock" or yuppie dance soul now. The greens I'm sure most would recognize today - big (but admittedly kinda lacking)hits; do you think today's charts are gonna hold this many familiar songs in forty years? 10? 5? Even as many as even the forgettable green ones? The blue a personal fave. :D

Rap, metal, hip hop, dance, hard rock hasn't changed much since '89 except their was an interesting little "wave" in the mid 90s with the blending of rock/rap/R&B like Eagle Eye, John Meyer, et al.

Today what is hot? The Killers, The Hives, Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay, Interpol, Perfect Circle? C'mon. they don't totally suck, but they aren't very strong IMO.

But then, yeah - I'm really old. I hate the prospect of sounding like my GPs. :atoz:

ps> I hated Sgt Pepper - beginning of the end. Rubber Soul and Revolver were way better! Thank God for Abbey Road, too! :ninja:
 
#42
seanm said:
I would say there is no way music could be worse now than it was in the 80s. To me, that was the low point in music.
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The 80s were only bad if you were as radio-focused then as the OP is now. I mean:

The Smiths
Mission of Burma
Jane's Addiction
Husker Du
The Replacements
REM
Dinosaur Jr.
The Jesus & Mary Chain
Sonic Youth
The Pixies

Even a ton of more popular music was awesome: The Police, Kate Bush, Duran Duran, freakin' Graceland by Paul Simon and Thriller by Michael Jackson...

The 80s ruled. If we're strictly talking about crappy pop music, the late 90s were far worse.
 
#43
*sigh* so many of you obviously don't know how to find music and require it to be shoved down your throat, it's sad that you can't evolve with the time. Yes, you are old and lame. There is 100000x times as much good music available to be heard than ever before.

HITS =/= good music
In the past you HAD NO CHOICE, so you could be lazy and just had to think that the cheesy corporate crap on the radio was great. Now that you're older and you're tastes haven't moved on but the cheesy corporate crap on the radio has, you are bitter. Get off your *** stop complaining about crap music that isn't any more or less lame than the old crap you were FORCED to listen to out of neccesity and find stuff you do like. Trust me, it's out there. Old Motown artists were the original Britney Spears and NSYNC and if you lack the perspective to see that those artists were corporate shills performing other people's music it's your own problem.
 
#44
gee Baalroo - I guess you're right. Thank you for your profound wisdom and judgment.

I know I come across as old because I am. Hopefully my post wasn't bitter - I do ask kids what they listen to and borrow their stuff so I don't stay stuck in a comfortable past.

As far as being lame my wife would agree with you. I still think I'm golden though.

Maybe it was in the PAST this stuff was new and there wasn't the catalogue built up. Yes, a lot of ppl depended on pro writers for their material. Motown did for sure and admittedly Berry didn't treat most of his artists that well. But I thought HDH and the writers at the Brill Bldg put out some amazing stuff.

I agree to find to find some good stuff one must search. Gotta move a lot of dirt to find a few diamonds. It's always been that way -- and not just with music.

Hope you find some peace to cure your rage. Good luck
 
#45
Ben Lesser said:
There's more music out there now than ever. Turn off your radio and start exploring what's out there on the net, and in your local scene.
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Perfectly said, in the first reply.

The difference in today's music isn't the music, it's the medium.
Whereas 30 years ago radio brought the best music, nowadays radio is a shallow, meaningless corporate ploy.

Trust me, there's music out there that easily meets and exceeds the best music of 30 years ago.
 
#46
ryco said:
gee Baalroo - I guess you're right. Thank you for your profound wisdom and judgment.

I know I come across as old because I am. Hopefully my post wasn't bitter - I do ask kids what they listen to and borrow their stuff so I don't stay stuck in a comfortable past.

As far as being lame my wife would agree with you. I still think I'm golden though.

Maybe it was in the PAST this stuff was new and there wasn't the catalogue built up. Yes, a lot of ppl depended on pro writers for their material. Motown did for sure and admittedly Berry didn't treat most of his artists that well. But I thought HDH and the writers at the Brill Bldg put out some amazing stuff.

I agree to find to find some good stuff one must search. Gotta move a lot of dirt to find a few diamonds. It's always been that way -- and not just with music.

Hope you find some peace to cure your rage. Good luck
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lol, I'm certainly not angry. I just think it's funny to hear all these bitter people whining about problems that don't exist. Your post certainly wasn't the worst I've read, and I wasn't responding directly/only to you, I was speaking in generalities. However your posts did not include a single band that isn't what I would consider a household radio-friendly consumer-driven pop act. If that's all you can talk about than the problem is YOUR perspective rather than the art itself. It's like staring down an empty papertowel roll at the Mona Lisa from 1/2 an inch away and complaining "it's just a little 1/2 inch black circle, what crap!'
 
#47
Some of you younger guys don't realize that we old f@rts had our own underground prog and college scenes back in the 70's. I remember well as I was a real true believer in it. One band I was in actually gigged around and did a number of prog-based radio concerts. In the end though most of the genre was doomed to obscurity unless you want to check a lot of it out at:

Invalid Link Removed

There were lots of non-commercial radio stations that played the stuff. For some reason, all I want to do these days is connect with an enthusiastic live audience -- and I find the best medium for me to do that with is with a blues/rock trio. Incidentally, most of our shows are attended by people between the ages of 21-35. We never have a problem with repertoire (75% cover/25% original) with respect to the crowd...but then again we only play in noisy bars so I guess we're considered appropriate.
 
#48
ryco said:
Today what is hot? The Killers, The Hives, Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay, Interpol, Perfect Circle? C'mon. they don't totally suck, but they aren't very strong IMO.
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way off. these bands are pretty popular on the rock scene, but the rock scene itself is not as popular as it used to be. People that listen to these bands are usually people who enjoy music a bit more than average and have some taste. MOST people who listen to music don't really get into certain bands anymore, they might have few favorite songs by the same artist, but it is unlikely that they have all their albums or know more than just their hit songs. MOST people who listen to music dont really have any of their own taste at all, and are just force-fed whatever is on the radio, whether or not they listen to the radio. they will absorb whatever is HOT by way of radio, MTV, their friends mix CDs, whatever is playing at parties, in clubs...
f
or those who care enough to do so, there is plenty of great music to be found.
 
#50
guitfiddle0409 said:
. Or maybe I'm just sounding like one of those guys in my parent's generation that would say to me when I was young "The rock 'n roll you kids play is garbage...but the big band era...now that was really something". I guess history repeats itself. :confused::eyebrow:
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But they were right. If you grew up listening to Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, then Chuck Berry would sound primitive and juvenile to your ears.

I try to keep that in mind when I hear some bands but I usually just can't do it. No nuances, in many cases, and the screamo stuff turns me completely off. I get it. You're angry. What about? I have no idea. Enunciate, please. To each his own.

But, there is really good and tasty stuff out there. You got to look for it. Very, very little makes the radio.
 
#51
I'm old and cranky, and I think there really needs to be some sort of upheaval. When high school kids are wearing more Beatles, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin and AC/DC T-shirts than anything current... should kind of tell you something.

The good thing about that is that if kids are listening to that stuff, and I believe there are more people playing now than ever before- there's a chance something really cool could be coming right around the corner.
 
#52
The Golden Boy said:
I'm old and cranky, and I think there really needs to be some sort of upheaval. When high school kids are wearing more Beatles, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin and AC/DC T-shirts than anything current... should kind of tell you something.

The good thing about that is that if kids are listening to that stuff, and I believe there are more people playing now than ever before- there's a chance something really cool could be coming right around the corner.
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I hate to break it to you, but .most of those kids wear that stuff IRONICALLY. Y'know like the John Deere stuff a few years ago.
 
#54
Music isn't really declining, Its just an Overabundance of crap. of the sixty thousand albums that are released every day MAYBE 50 of them are worth a second listen. That said MAYBE 10 of them you would consider buying. Radio wise the last good rock radio station here in chicago was shut down back in 03.

It also doesnt help when these crappy bands are giving away their music hand over fist, since nobody will pay for it.
 
#55
jomahu said:
for real. on sale at wal-mart too...
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yeah, I found the clueless nature of the "all the kids wear old band t-shirts!" line of reasoning pretty humorous, but completely understand the mistake. I'm only 28 and I'm often clueless myself on what's hip/cool these days, but ask any of the kids with an AC/DC shirt on to tell you about the band and 9 out of 10 of them will either:

A) have no clue who they are
or
B) laugh and say they were some crappy band from the 80s (yeah, most of them usually associate AC/DC with the 80s) with some funny joke songs about "balls" and sex.

which in all fairness isn't really true... those songs aren't funny at all, they're juvenile and sexist. *shrug*
 
#57
Araillac said:
This is how I feel. All that music that comes on the radio isn't even that great anymore. Most of it is fake music like techno that goes behind all that annoying sound alike pop, rap, hip hop, stuff that you hear all the time. Rock no longer has the feeling like it did back in the 60's, 70's, 80's, or early 90's. Metal, while having good complex riff, are often ruined nowadays by the ever common, scream. I use to like screamo but now it's all the same. Music started getting sour after Mr. Cobain had to leave us. What we need is some good music, not even complex, just good sounding, full of feeling that reaches out to people and changes the face of music. I can't listen to a radio with modern songs playing without wanting to rip it off whatever surface it's on and just slamming it repeatedly into the wall. We need a band to step up and take this job and I'd be more than willing but maybe when I play better and I have a band that will reach out to people. Thanks for listening, reading, if you did. Sorry to rant.
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I can tell that you're a kid, even though your profile doesn't list your age. How? Well besides the intemperate references to slamming radios into walls, it's because you apparently don't realize that this phenomenon isn't new.

I'm 52 years old, so I was around during the 60s. I've been hearing the same basic complaint all of my life - even during the golden age of classic rock, from the mid-60s to the mid-70s (sorry kiddies, with a few notable exceptions, the quality began to trail off precipitously after that).

That's because - as has been stated here already - popular music has always tended to be bland and insipid...because it's trying to make money by appealing to the lowest common denominator - not to make great art. When I was a kid, great bands like Cream could hardly buy any airplay...because the Top 40 radio stations were playing nothing but bubblegum! :eyebrow:

I also agree that there is a world of indie music out there just ripe for the picking - IF you know where to look, and you're persistent about it. Some of it is actually pretty decent. And at least a small portion of it is even excellent.

So go forth and seek, young cynic! :p

MM
 
#58
Myspace is an excellent way of finding new music. Go to the myspace page of a band you do like, then go to the bands on thier friends list, then go to the bands of those that you like and so on and so on. Ive found a ton of music i never ever would have found anywhere else. Im mostly into death metal, black metal, prog metal, and 80s new wave, smiths, police, cure...anyhow going to say Opeth myspace i found underground bands and side projects and stuff from sweden, where else would i have found that stuff. Its pretty cool to find something then a year or so later they are famous. Many of my favorite bands i found there, The Sword, Witchcraft, Paatos, Blood Ceremony. The Sword is getting good recognition now, but i never woulda heard of the others anywhere else except internet radio, which i do the same thing, find stations that play a band you like then just listen.

oh yea the original point was radio and tv is programmed for the average american who has the attention span of a gnat, to me most songs i hear on the radio are hard to differentiate from the commercials. Esp rap....back in the late 80s it was great, public enemy, nwa, Ice T, geto boys...etc the lyrics were well thought out and clever...now it appears a successful rap song is just some idiot saying yeah yeah yeah over and over again.
 

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