What do you guys think? Is music today that bad?


Because I sometimes wonder if perhaps some ,including myself, are exaggerating about the state of music today. Most new artists on this site are given a very hard time. I think maybe some are stuck in the past and don't want to give most of the new artists a chance. I'll admit I sometimes do this as well. True, there is a lot of crap out there and many of these artists aren't doing anything new or innovative, but I think sometimes some are being too hard on them. It's unfair to constantly comapare music today to that of the past. All music today isn't bad. I think there are some good artists and quality music out there today, you just have to take the time to search for it because you're not gonna find the majority of it on mainstream radio.

It's so horrible it makes Shitney Houston sound funky by comparison.

Some music is so horrible I turn it off and then some music gravitates me.

No....it's really that bad, and more.

All music is good music...

... but some is better than others.

I'm 39 and grew up during Prince's golden years and I think there has been tons of great new music THIS decade. A lot of the people on this site are around my age, give or take a few years, and it seems to me , they just don't want to give anything made after 1989 a try. While panning everything new under the sun , these people also leave out the fact that there was just as much garbage stinking up radio back in the 70's and 80's as there is now .... MAYBE EVEN MORE. The story has always been the same. You can always find great people making brilliant music in any era if your willing to dig under the surface. There are great artists making great music right now. Especially if you listen to rock. This decade even gave us nice new mainstream bands like the Killers, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Phoenix, White Stripes, etc that I think will be around for a long while.
[Edited 12/22/09 23:12pm]

ernestsewell said:

The good stuff is often the hardest to find, and I find plenty of it. Then again, it's all a matter of tastes.

yes its really bad, i honestly cant name 10 artists from this decade that i can say i enjoy their music

Well, I think music today is lacking soul and good instrumentals/productions (the backbone in songs). Both are missing. So yes, it's that bad.

No! The mainstream has been hijacked by greedy corporations and artists willing to sell out for the airplay, but there is so much great music out there.

Mainstream music is


Underground/indie music, in my opinion, is thriving

Ben Westbeech
Colin Munroe
J*Davey
Chester French
The Cool Kids
Hudson Mohawke
Charles Hamilton
J. Rawls
Janelle Monae
Carlitta Durand
The Foreign Exchange
U-N-I
Now On
Windimoto
Zo!

Depends what you listen to surely? I only buy music that I like so I think today's music is really quite something.

I think there's always been a majority of crap and a slim minority of good stuff, it's just that over time that slim minority accumulates, because people edit out the naff bit, so it seems like music from before was all quality stuff. But there was an awful lot of manufactured rubbish before, too. (I present to you Exhibit A.)

That said, there have been some real purple patches in music, like a lot of stuff from the late 60s/early 70s, especially in soul music, where there seems to have been a lot of amazing stuff produced. And also since the corporations got in on the act from the late 70s onwards, there seems to be a lot more mass-marketed, lowest common denominator rubbish being palmed-off to whoever will part with their cash for it. But there's a slim minority of good stuff around today if you look for it, too.

RnBAmbassador said:

Just go buy something different then. There are millions of artists worldwide, signed and unsigned. Perhaps you are looking in the wrong places but I seem to find great music, both live and recorded. Hell, even my local boozers have some great bands.

V's



I couldn't even stand 2 listen 2 one of these videos before I posted them, can U guess which one?... Yeah!

Modern music is completely product over substance now and not a patch on the great music that has gone before it. Yes we had some shit cheesy music when I grew up but not 2 this degree. It's taken over now, it dosen't matter now if U have any musical aptitude at all, it only matters that U can be branded, boxed and sold. Today we are told 2 be in awe of some spotty teenager or other (who's never played a gig in their whole lives before) just because they've won their first talent contest. Not me son.

I'll tell U where U can find the really talented musicians today... They are not at the Grammys, they are not playing Wembley Stadium and they are not living in Beverley Hills... No... U will find todays talented musicians busking in parks and subway stations cuz thats the most exposure they can get and its a sorry state of affairs. How many musical geniuses are we missing out on in favour of this money making bullshit?

That's why people don't understand why I refuse to listen 2 the radio and I get mad when people try 2 defend and promote these talentless poptarts. This site included... U can post a topic on this site about someone who has a real talent and U'll be lucky 2 get 3 or 4 replies but U post a topic about Kanye West or Lady Gaga and it's a hot topic in 10 minutes. It's just sad is all.

Wow, I just wrote a great essay only for me to post the response and it saying that I've logged out, I"m insane to even attempt to re-create this but hear it goes.

-----

I've questioned this myself and this is how I see it.

Music right now isn't bad it is just that the tastes of consumers of western music-pop in particular, appreciate are anachronistic to the music being made now and in the subsequent future.

The 20th Century was from what I gather an anomaly in musical history. Never before had two musical traditions(European harmonies, instruments & melodies + African rhythms, melodies & instruments) synthesized, the standard of living in western was such that millions had more and more leisure time to take up recreational activities for themselves and their offspring(who would capitalize on these outlets and become professionals one day), and technology advanced rapidly, pushing the variety of sounds the human ear could hear to the limits and making music worldwide more accessible, via our advanced information networks.

In America, where these three things were happening, an Ethos sprung up in our music which was probably attached to our societies' mentality as a whole which encouraged adventure and exploration(Manifest Destiny, Space exploration etc.) which fostered and supported expirementation and innovation over dull and monotonous tradition and conformity. This served as a catalyst for musicians to created unprecedented groundbreaking, revolutionary music created in mere decades that normally would've been stretched out into centuries.

Couple this with an information age which bridged music made in completely different and sometimes isolated parts of the planet accessible to everyone, thus inspiring more musicians who otherwise wouldn't have had such a chance even a century ago. For example look at a fellow like Mozart, who was extremely well travelled for his time, and yet never ventured outside of Continental Europe, making it arduous to experience any worthwhile music outside of his own social circle, while a man like Miles davis was privy to influences from as far flung as India, to Brazil to Spain and it shows in his work. Only stressing the fact of how hard it was for even the most prestigious musicians of the past to hear music even the common musician in America would've had access to.

As a result, audiences of this new kind've music gushed over these new songs/pieces/suites/etc. and critics littered these new works with praise, no doubt(as critics tend to do) fawning over the high points of this original music, which would usually be on the innovational side of music, and in the process subconsciously impressing upon their readers that good music=unconventional music, thus favoring original, different, and substantive music over challenging, traditional music.

And with such an intense flowering of musical progress came a all too sudden and abrupt stagnation our society wasn't and isn't ready to accept. A stagnation that I consider to infer this: the innovations buoyed by the fusion of these two traditions is nearing it's logical conclusion, with more and more musicians than ever in the past, withbouyed by technology that grants them access to the most disparate music and sounds never heard before , our brand of music as we know it is beginning to iron itself into its own tradition. The trailblazing legends of the past that were so widespread are going to be uncommon in the future, replaced with musicians ready to make challenging but not revolutionary music. We are now sort of in a post-modern part of a new tradition. An american tradition. but the ears of consumers appreciate innovation, and so substantive change is what western music fans pine for(you can see this most in the electronic music where they boast that a new sub-genre is made everyday) rather than stylistic change. But this type of music will become more and more rare in the future and our new forged tradition is cemented, and people will have to realize the jazz tradition, rock tradition, rap tradition etc. is as much a tradition as the classical music we spurned more than a hundred years ago.

-----



Note: I would like to say that this is a horrible recollection of the beautiful, eloquent essay I created but couldn't post.
[Edited 12/23/09 4:33am]

Cinnamon234 said:

With exceptions to OutKast (BEFORE they split up for real) & Lady GaGa, the 2000's is a lot worst than the 1990's for music.
[Edited 12/23/09 11:23am]

I would say there aren't a ton of great, developed artists on the radio right now, because of course label support isn't there anymore.

but at any given time there are really good songs that just seem to come and go.





this one pretty much went, yet it's one of the best songs I've heard in years.

Well stick to what you want to hear, My main issue is home music is marketed, i could care less how much Rihanna gets played its the fact that because she gets all the play no one else does (shes an example but you could lump anyone big in there) My decade of the 80's saw a level playing field, but this all ended with MTV and its sale in 1985, that was the beginning of the end, and then from their the intro of soundscam as a fucking bible of how to sell and nothing else. Then media merged with labels, so now you have someone telling you how to work your band whos a college grad in fashion and finance? I get bombarded with new music all the time from advance copies and things like that, so i give it all a shot, and this decade brought some great talent IMO (alicia,Norah,Van,Ryan Adams etc..) but as you see 2 of these artists and actually 3 now, dont get played for the most part, and yet Ryan and Norah are the most prolific new blood of this decade and for the most part, most of what they have done is unheard to the masses, that was never the way.

But another thing i see on this forum is the lack of respect for artists that CONTINUE with the craft, just because a band or singer has been around 20+ years doesnt mean they cant do good music, even better now, SHIT i mean actors get better with age, why cant we see that musicians do too, i think alot of us are stuck on our "Sign of the times" record or our "joshua tree" and think the artists cant still do things.

bboy87 said:

Yeah what happen to them they was suppose to be the next big thing , I have the bake sale too

Well I am 32 so basically my formative years in music were the late 80s/early 90s. From 1989 onwards I used to listen to the UK Top 40 on radio every week and record what I liked. I did that up to mid-1994 and I can still remember the words of hundreds of songs from that era. I still listen to the Top 40, And I still like lots of songs which I keep on my laptop (streaming not downloading). So I thought about it too a couple of times. OK the music doesn't have the magic it had then for me but maybe that's because I was a child growing up. In the end of the day I still like many songs even now...
Today I realized that isn't the case. I spent my day mostly listening to 80s/70s music, a number of songs which I hadn't played for a while and I realized that the music has really gone downhill. If you asked me since when I would say probably from 1995 onwards. There is still good music but it is not in the charts anymore and it is not pop (pop as popular). So no I wouldn't say music today is bad per se but I would definitely say that it isn't great and it wasn't great for over a decade now. Sad but true
Oh and I completely agree with the person who mentioned rock. That's where most of today's good music is. Pop died sometime between 1990 and 1995 and R&B died right before Destiny's Child came along (although there are still good stuff on both genres just they are a tiny minority)
[Edited 12/23/09 19:24pm]

There has been rubbish in every decade it's just that there's more PROMOTION around rubbish. Not all of mainstream music is rubbish tho but most of it is like "next". Like bboy87 said, there's a lot of great indie artists.

its really that bad. good thread

Yes. Music today is horrible.

I'm a musician and songwriter. I've listened to music all my life and have been captivated by its beauty and by its innovators.

When I think about the kinds of music I was exposed to as a child and compare it with the mess that passes for Top 40 and R&B these days, I actually feel sad for young people. Lil Wayne, Beyonce and Lady Gaga are who pass for the top of the game? OK...

You really have to search for good music. There are plenty of outlets where good music thrives today -- don't get me wrong. If it weren't for music festivals (Bonnaroo, South By Southwest), independent radio stations and compilation sets like WOW and WOW Gospel, I'd live in a music bubble.

OK I just received the 3 cds I ordered a couple of days ago. One is Seal's hits which is obviously not new and definitely good. The other two are La Roux's La Roux which I haven't heard yet and then Biffy Clyro's Only Revolutions. I'm hearing it now and I am halfway through and it is georgeous. So for any of you who can't discover good new music try this one.

I can tell you guys from the POV of an artist signed to a major label. First the people who have the hands on the trigger to make an artist 'blow up' no longer take chances on the unknown. Which is why most artist sound alike to some degree. The Marketing Departments want to be sure that you fit in a genre etc. So something like lets say "Blues Traveler' or 'Dave Matthews Band' would not stand a chance of getting pass them.
My band was mixed (black, white and hispanic) the Marketing Dept was soooo confused on how to market us. Though we made rock/soul they wanted us to make more 'black' music. So they choose the songs from our previous recording BUT they still wanted us to sound more 'urban' was the term.

A lot of it is pretty bad. there have been people who could not sing in every decade but now it seems to be the norm and perfectly acceptable. Also the level of sexuality is much too heightened today. Back in the 80s it was basically Madonna doing it, now everyone does it. It's not exciting or cutting edge anymore.

I also hate how much "artists" have gotten away from using real instruments. We've accepted mediocrity as a society and that's really unfortunate.

I buy a lot more current music now than I did in the 80s or 90s which I'm sure has a lot to do with my disposable income being a lot higher now, but the type of music I purchase is different. In the 80s, most of the music I liked was top 40 pop and R&B. I used to love following the Billboard charts because a lot of the artists I liked were well represented there. Now I buy predominantly albums by indie artists that would only have a chart single in their dreams. I look at The Billboard charts today and can hardly name one song in the top 40. Is it the music that has become worse or have my tastes changed as an adult? If I were a teen now, would I be into these pop acts that same way I was in the 80s? I can't really say.

Cinnamon234 said:

Music nowdays sucks big time. Nothing creative or exciting... Even Prince sucks now...

Anyway, I think we have seen the biggest drop in terms of quality this past decade, something we have never seen before... I mean really...
I worked in the music industry and everybody said it. IMO the problem is labels don't have money to polish new artists anymore, and talent is definitely lacking...



I don't have a problem with people being too hard on them...

People on Prince.org are overwhelmingly white, around between 30 and 40, grew up in the 80's. So they are logically stuck in the past...