I see this term a lot when songs are discussed but what does it actually mean? I know the term's meaning seems obvious sounds but how exactly can music not age well and why is that negative?

Well, I guess it means, it's not timeless... it sounds dated... locked to a certain time and place! A song which you thought was the shit back then and now you kinda feel embarrassed for ever liking it!?

PatrickS77 said:

I think there are ceratin sounds in music that are used throuout all decades or eve centuries. like the piano. A song from 1930 with just a voice and piano can sound timeless because of it's producion (piano and voice)
then there are sounds like the 80s synth bassline. Unless it's cool again (like now) it clearly belongs to a certain era, one that's now out of fashion.In general real instruments will always sound well, and age well, while synthesized instruments follow trends, it sounds differs...

That's why Rock With You by MJ has aged better than Baby Be Mine.

curioso said:

It means that the music is STALE and sounds dated. Listen to Beat It by Michael Jackson.

Graycap23 said:

funny how we both took examples from MJ.

graecophilos said:

graecophilos said:

I agree but it fits.

I dont buy the whole "dated" shit. A bad song is a bad song. "dated" is not a bad thing, look at the shit coming out in the 70's, that tight production was the LAST good production decade. I mean if dated was bad than that means this decade which has no sound, is the best musical decade? oh wait HELL FUCKING NO.

Ok, thanks for the explanations. Does that mean a song like 'When Doves Cry' is considered not to have aged well?

I think it's a silly concept. "Beat It" and "Baby Be Mine" still sound great to me.

AlexdeParis said:

i agree . i feel that the bad record in general has not aged as well as thriller because thriller doenst have that 80s feel. i gues hassent aged well means it is stuck in a certain era .eg 80s 90s . synths are mostly to blame , and drum machines and clap sounds. not real claps but computerised clap sounds

Hasn't aged well usually means whatever (trendy) production technique (gimmick) of its time they were using now sounds quite generic and like nothing special... this realization happens with hindsight.

I find people confuse "hasn't aged well" with "bad". A dated song can still be a good song, even if it is obviously from 1964 or 1982 or whichever.

meow85 said:

meow85 said:

Thats true, but alot of people can't listen to a song they consider good because of how dated it sounds. If it was reworked they'd love it. Not me though, the more dated it sounds the better. But I know lot of people like that.

graecophilos said:

I agree with you about real instruments never really going out of style.This is why nobody ever says a classic song like Etta James' "At Last" sounds dated.Those kinda songs age remarkably well.The term "timeless" is often used to describe a song like that.

I think alot of late-80s songs haven't aged well at all,including some songs that I actually liked back then.Let's face it,drum machines and multiple layers of synthesizers were so common during that period.The production on alot of those songs sound cluttered.I hate to keep using Michael as an example (lol) but I agree,"Rock With You" has aged really well.It still sounds fresh and vital to my ears,as opposed to something like "Smooth Criminal".

graecophilos said:

Interesting comment coming from a George Michael fan.

Beat It still sounds fresh and will never date. But all artists from Prince to The Beatles have some songs that sound dated, but that doesn't stop them from continuing to be amazing songs
[Edited 8/28/08 5:33am]

Graycap23 said:

Or the entire Bad album.

midnightmover said:

I did not want 2 mention that.....but now that u mention it.

Graycap23 said:

Ditto.

BenS71 said:

the thing with GM is that the famous Wham! songs weren't typically 80s anyway. GM was influenced by the 60s motown sound. And a lot of the instruments are real.
His solo stuff though, with a few exceptions (Too Funky, Killer, I Want Your Sex) have stand the test of tiem pretty well.

The thing with the Beatles is, that in the 60s certain chord progressions were in, that you don't use nowadays anymore. And yes, their eraly stuff is typically 60s. But that's still okay, I'd say, because it's real instruments. I think that's it. Real instruments will never come out of fashion.

PatrickS77 said:

That sounds about right.

Except in the case of the MPLS Sound, I'm still a fan of hearing the sounds of synths & drum machines of the 80's.

Cinnie said:

The same thing can be said about Chicago house OR French house. And in the case of house music in general, the four-on-the-floor bass drum pattern will never died.

graecophilos said:

Around 80% of Faith has aged wonderfully, but I Want Your Sex, Monkey, At Last Request, and Hard Day.....they have, but not by much.

Now Wham!, that's a different situation. the only songs that has aged well from Fantastic is Club Tropicana, Nothing Looks The Same In The Light, and Ray of Sunshine.

on Make It Big, Everything She Wants, Careless Whisper, and Like A Baby are still fresh

on The Final, A Different Corner and Where Did Your Heart Go are the two songs that are still fresh (I'm Your Man does, but you can hear it and know it's from the 80s )

George's output 1990 to present is fresh

bboy87 said:

i have to disagree. I think ESW sounds pretty dated, so does Ray Of Sunshine. Well, the almost the full Fantastic album does.

Gm was always one of those who tried to write timeless songs.

curioso said:

Quite the contrary, IMO.

In '84, WDC used to (and still does) reek of originality. Hell, Phrail aped this song and "Kiss" for much of his production catalog. On the other side of the same coin, Prince's '90's output sounded as if was trying to "catch up", which just made it that much worse. The drum programming particularly.

I think WDC holds up quite well. JOTY on the other hand.....

graecophilos said:

I'm biased towards Everything She Wants and Ray of Sunshine

curioso said:

It's not necessarily negative. I, and some other people on here, actively seek out really dated-sounding music with "cheesy" synths or stuff that's considered a guilty pleasure. Depends with whom you're talking shop.

Mara said:

I don't think it's negative at all. There are two types of good songs: the kind that sound like they could've been written at any time ("timeless") and the kind that sound very much like a product of their time ("dated"). The bottom line is that a good song is a good song.