Today's mainstreammusic is crapola. There is however all kinds of kickass music out there if you look hard enough

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

absolutely true. there's a ton of great music out there

I agree that mainstream music is not as interesting as it used to be, but I think we should own some of that responsibilty as consumers and lovers of great music. We have a real duty to support local musicians, purchase music that we love and get the word out to others about the music that we truely appreciate. Mainstream music hasnt improved in part because many of us have sat on the sidelines and bitched and moaned while our airwaves were taken hostage by a select group of media conglomerates. Sure, we get older and our tastes become a little more conservative but we cannot have a cantankerous attitude toward what youth appreciate. I dont see where that helps anything. What does help is becomming more involved in the artform and putting your money where your mouth is.

XxAxX said:

Not to my tastes buddy.

I go to raves. They havn't moved on for years it seems. underground rock clubs just play shit what sounds like 70's indie. But ?

As for modern rock? Wrose then ever personally. Keane should get lambasted as much as bolton did. They are corn filled Power ballads for fuck sake?

Coldplay are radiohead comericalized. So radiohead fans may like them and vice versa.

If britpop was beatles, current rock is joy division, smiths etc.... then soon 80's rock will come full circle right? Def leppard anyone?

[quote]

Anxiety said:

Maybe. All I know from pop back in the mid 70s was that music pop wise did seem to be like an aftermath of the pure innovation and sucsess of 60's pop music. So maybe u have a good point and maybe that connection can give us hope that the 80's are just around the corner again So more synths, less pomp (man was 70's pomp or what in general) and err um, someone take some lessons from deff leppard, motley crewe and even richard marx. Keep it simple and stop dressing up shit in arty clothes will ya!
[Edited 6/27/05 17:34pm]

I remember new jack very well. Like every other form of R&B such as blues, doo wop, disco, funk, house, go-go, electro, etc.....new jack lived it's life span for a few years and either died or went underground. That's the way R&B has always been, styles come and go and used to be constantly changing until around the early to mid 1990s. If Clear Channel had clung to new jack instead of hip hop, new jack would be the form of music that would be dominating today and would be refusing to go out of style and move on like everything else has.

It's shit today.My 5-6 thousand cd's told me recently Use to be 30-40 major labels.Now there's 5 or 6.End of story.

Hi VainAndy I like your new avatar.

I was just saying the other day, I must be old, because I listen to an oldies station almost exclusively now.

But I think it also has to do with the music today. I like RB. There is some new RB music being made today that I find listenable (is that a word?)
The new Gerald Levert, I don't care if you have a baby,
the new is it mint condition?
I heard new song from Earth Wind and fire, and I think Rapheal Sidiqqi (not sure it it is him or not... sounds like him)

These are all good songs by good artists.
But the "hip/hop" station don't play that, because that is not their genre. They play hip hop. So I don't think today's music is on the whole bad, just the top 20 (read: popular music) is not my style. I like old skool, even if it is new old skool.

Christopher said:

This makes me wonder about when we all are REALLY old.
I used to work in a nursing home (retirement home etc) and during meal times they used to play music that was the popular music of the residents hey day.
Since most of them were of the WWII era, there was a lot of big band music and bing crosby etc.

So, what will they play when we are old and eating mushed up food??
Gin and Juice by Snoop?, Irrestible Bitch? I didn't have to use my AK, today was a good day by Ice Cube?

MsLegs said:

Ditto
I find myself listening to more talk radio. What is this dude's name, Michael something, "The baddest man on radio". And as he says, this is radio for grown folks. I like to think the music I am listening to is for "grown folks" rather than "oldies"
BTW,
Whazup 'Legs??

DavidEye said:

I'm 21 and haven't even looked at the charts in the past 3 years.

The 90s was pretty good I have a lot of great albums from that decade and even chart fodder like Baby One More Time was tolerable, enjoyable at times tbh.

often i enjoyed listening to the radio's top 10 most requested songs of the day. To listen to that same show today would be less preferable to cutting off my ears.

I think I've only bought one new release in the past couple of years, that being Gwen Stefani's album, and only really cos I have a thing for her.

I also really liked the Kill Bill and Lost in Translation soundtracks.

Aside from that I've spent hundreds of euros explorings acts from the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Sometimes I wish I'd been a teenager in the 80s, my favourite decade for music. TY Prince, Teena Marie, Rick James, New Order etc. Even the crap stuff had more lasting appeal.

i love it when there's people talking about the current music scene and i say I've never heard of them, They look at me like i'm 40 or something, but they know i have good taste.

prodigalfan said:

WhazUp Wit U Prodigal? Long Time No see.

i think around the time i turned 15 or 16, i quit giving a crap about what was in the top 40 anyway. it just didn't mean anything to me, unless it was something i just discovered on my own that happened to be popular.

there's always going to be a market for disposable music. people appreciate music in different ways. some people really like to pay attention to what's going on in the music, some people really appreciate meaningful lyrics, and some people just want something that they can work out to and that makes them feel cool. i guess there's no "rule" for how people should be appreciating music, regardless of how much some of us (hey, i'll include myself) would like to play Bad Taste Police.

frank zappa once said there's no such thing as "shit music" as long as one person really appreciates it. of course, zappa was also the first person to make fun of music he thought was dumb, so take that sentiment as you will.

DavidEye said:

EXACTLY.

like I've said more than once (here on the org & elsewhere)
it is REALLY sad
that we now have MORE THAN A GENERATION
that doesn't have a CLUE
of what GOOD music is..
music made my REAL musicians
with REAL singers who had TALENT & A DISTINCTIVE STYLE
& that (for the most part) had REAL DRUMS!

I think I hate this the most about "today's r&b" - I RARELY hear
REAL DRUMS
it's almost always DRUM MACHINES..
I am SICK of that !

& is anyone besides myself seeing the IRONY in that
most of the best funk/r&b/soul musicians have their ancestral heritage in AFRICA, where THE DRUM was THE INSTRUMENT..
& today it's.. it's.. those damned drum machines !

PATHETIC BEYOND WORDS.

goat2004 said:

I don't. What goat2004 said was so true about this being a producer driven era. To add to that, we hear the same type of songs becuase they were done by the same producer and I think that makes a major difference. There have always been producers but damn, you can always tell when a neptunes song or jazze pha song comes out. No one's trying to change their own sound so listening to the radio becomes even more of a chore.

Like Cameo used to say....I've got to "Keep It Hot".

Excellent point! I miss the hell out of real bass too.

vainandy said:

Amen To that.

purplecam said:

I agree with both of you.One major problem with today's R&B music is that almost every artist works with the same producers.There's no variety anymore.Everything sounds the same.Most of today's R&B producers are one-trick ponies with only one or two original ideas.I long for the days when we had amazing producers/songwriters like Gamble and Huff,Quincy Jones and Maurice White.....you knows,musicians who actually know how to create real music as opposed to programmed beats and samples.

People are always gonna play instruments - or at least I hope so - but, apart from this producer-led age we have, I think there seriously will come a time when most 'artists' are just prettyboys/prettygirls who - if they're lucky - can hold a note. That's certainly the way things seem to be going. The 'artists' will be their producers and songwriters.

Of course, there have ALWAYS been songwriters/production teams/singers - you've only got to look at Motown's roster - but at least the people who could only sing were picked for that reason. They could actually sing. They had some musical grounding - and not just piccked because they're sexy enough or appeared on some reality show.

It's frightening to think where the music industry may end up in just a few years' time. Which is one reason REAL musicians - like Prince - should be treasured whilst we've got them. Who'll be going to watch Lindsay Lohan's 'Musicology'-type tour in 20 years' time, I wonder?? Yeah, exactly.

mainstream "music", if u call a beat made on a machine music - nah its wack. but like I always say it will be the ones who adddddore, ( not like) what they do that will be her 4 da long haul, whatever medium of entertainment it is in.

mltijchr said:

So true.It's a shame that much of today's R&B is so heavily reliant on drum machines,samples and other hip-hop elements.Alot of this music is being produced by hip-hop "producers" who don't know a thing about melody,chord changes,or real basslines.I mean,just listen to a song like "Soldier" by Destiny's Child....that's basically where R&B is at these days,and it's a damn shame.

I haven't heard "Soldier" but I have heard the tired ass songs...."Bootylicious" and "Survivor". They even sing as if they are rapping. It's hard to explain but it's like a cross between rapping and singing. It's rediculous.

vainandy said:

Yeah,it's absurd the way today's R&B is basically just mirroring all the hip-hop trends.There was a time when only the rappers used samples.Nowadays,R&B singers use samples as well.Everytime Angie Stone comes out with a new song,it's usually her vocals on top of a sample.I think Mary J.Blige's last album was produced by P.Diddy (!).

Don't even get me started on her ass. I never could stand her from day one. I call her the "Rich Little of the Music Business" because not only does she remake songs, she tries to immitate the original singer's voice as much as possible. Also, the music she's singing over sounds like the original record sampled in the background over a weak hip hop beat. If you didn't listen closely, you would think the original artist went in the studio and remixed their old song to fit in with modern times.

vainandy said:

DavidEye - ANOTHER good point from you about the bass-playing..!


I KNOW those of us here are not the ONLY people who think this about today's music..
there have got to be others.. but are they saying anything??

even if "many" of us "say something" about this, I don't know if anything will ever really change..


once you LOWER a standard (of any type)..
it's VERY DIFFICULT to bring it back up again, if you can do it at all.

mltijchr said:

So true, so true. I had a sad feeling that if a song with real drums came out right now, it wouldn't be a hit at all. The kids have been "programmed" themselves with the drum machines so anything that doesn't sound like that will be considered wack. I got friends that only care about the beat and I know they would be lost if they got the real deal. It's frightening. How bad does it have to get before it gets better?

I've heard many young people talking about how they love the beat of these songs. Well, one of the first things that has always attracted me to music, since the disco era of the 1970s, is the beat. The beat of current music is too slow to dance to and it's too fast to fuck to. In other words, the tempo of current music serves absolutely no purpose other than to sit and listen to a "story" that is being told by these rappers and so-called singers. If someone wants to hear a story, they need to turn on the TV and watch "As The World Turns" because music is not the place for it unless you can either dance or fuck to the story being told.

Another thing is the sound of the drum machines themselves. I had absolutely no problem with the type of drum machines like Prince was using on his earlier albums. The strength of the beat was perfect. Today's drum machines have no strength or power to them.....they just barely tap. They sound like the pre-programmed beats that you can press on one of those $20 or $30 keyboards at Wal-Mart. Then there are the drum machines that beat sooooo hard that they ground out the rest of the song. That fake ass bass they use also grounds out the song. Back in the day, if a car passed by you with loud music, you could not only hear the beat, but you could also hear the words and the other instruments coming from the car. When you hear loud music coming from a car these days, all you hear is a beat that sounds like it is getting ready to blow the speakers at any moment.

Another thing missing is the handclaps. Where the hell are the handclaps? I don't even hear any fake handclaps in music anymore. These fools have totally taken anything associated with rhythm out of the music.