Is it possible that Music overall hasn't gotten worst, but rather, pop music in general has placed more emphasis on style than substance?

For instance, there was a time when artists considered impressionists to be childish because their form of art placed more emphasis on style than substance and technique. Is it possible today that the swagger of rap artists amongst others is just the natural evolution of music? I ask this because it was partially an idea that struck me when arguing with one of my friends, who put it in less articulate terms, as the natural progression of music.

music is as good as it's ever been. most of the great stuff just isn't on the charts

^^ BASICALLY! Fuck the charts.

The idea that talent was everywhere and then just vanished one day is preposterous. There are still plenty of great musicians and artists out there, they are just extremely hard to find, and record companies generally have no interest or patience in investing in an artist for a few years to build up a fan base for them.

They are also more expensive, as independent and talented artists tend to get more money for their music as they, you know, wrote in and performed it, instead of warbled in front of a mic, and then got autotuned to synth beats.

So they end up going independent and with small labels, and we never hear about them unless we are very lucky, then we love them so much and get upset that nobody knows who they are

I hate what the music industry has become

there has ALWAYS been a lot of bullshit music put out. it just doesn't stand the test of time, so we dont remember it and look at the past with rose colored glasses. and half the stuff that we like from 20 years ago as a guilty pleasure... if it was released today, we'd be trashing it.

errant said:

omg totally

Pop music has always been about style over substance. For example, have you heard some of the pop tunes from the 1950s? If you haven't you need to check it out. Its some of the corniest crap you'll ever hear. I don't know how people listened to that stuff.

Rap music was considered the evolution of music in the late 80s when it began to incorporate different styles. Now, it is stale with no originality and purpose.


Yes, there is good music, it just doesn't get played on corporate radio.

There's an element of nostagalia. We attach that kind of sentiment to songs from our youth, but some of that stuff was as horrible as the worst stuff out now.

On the other hand, nowadays more people try to make themselves rich playing music and that resluts in more horrifying shit.

Dont be fooled There is nothing out there approaching the creativity and originality of the great artists of the past.
Dont belive me? You name one current artist that you think is great and I will name one artist from back in the day.

elem55 said:

well, technically, that method would actually lead us to coming up with EQUAL numbers of great artists from today and yesterday.

elem55 said:

You disprove your own theory though. If there is a great artist today that you can compare to one 30 years ago, then the good music is still happening today.

InsatiableCream was right about it being out there, it's just not on the charts. Good music is the new underground music.