Has the world changed or have I changed?

elmer said:

Has the world changed or have I changed?

The world changed, but you didn't like it.

rialb said:

I noticed a change for the worse circa 1995-1999. Labels have always chased trends and saturated the market with similar sounding music but in the late nineties it seemed worse than ever. The variety completely dried up and we had very few distinctive artists. As the nineties turned into the noughties the unimaginable happened, it got even worse.

That's not to say that there is no good new music, there is. But as far as mainstream music goes it is at an absolute nadir. Often people say there is good music out there you just have to dig for it. I think that is BS. In the past there was good music in the mainstream and you did not have to do any digging. If someone turns me on to a great new artist I will gladly become a fan but I don't think a person should have to work to find good music. It shouldn't be hard.

good point, but I don't completely agree, and I wanna express why: in the past, the "good" music became mainstream because it was good. Now, the so-called "good music" is not that good to begin with.

On the other hand, you have someone like Adele, which is new, good AND can write good songs.

But even Adele is basically doing something that was already done in the 60s...

Conclusion; you have a bunch of overrated new "good" artist and some of the WORST pop acts of all time...shit-hop being the overplayed genre of these times...

Just one example, folks: do you really think that the Arctic Monkeys can hold a candle to Blur, Oasis, Pixies, Sex Pistols or the Rolling Stones?? wow. Do you really think that Amy W's sound was fresh or original? wow. Do you think I give a damn about neo-soul artists when they CAN'T write a hit/memorable song to save their lives? the list goes on and on...

When did I first notice it changing for the worst?

As early as the summer of 1985 right after I graduated high school at the ripe old age of 17. Oh yes, I was a very old geezer that just couldn't accept the fact that all this fast rhythmic "devil" music was taking over all that nice slow, "pretty", "meaningful" music that had dominated when I was growing up in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Yeah right....that's the reason why grandparents and great grandparents hated the change when rock and roll took over in the 1950s. I hated the change that started in 1985 for the opposite reason. Music of the late 1980s was quickly becoming slower, less rhythmic, "prettier", and more "meaningful". That "devil" rhythm that grandparents had hated earlier was quickly leaving and things were becoming as dull as their generation. R&B artists either crossing over to pop by the droves or trying to crossover. And what was even worse was a bunch of R&B adult contemporary artists starting to take over and it don't get duller and blander than adult contemporary. Instead of going forward, music was going backwards back to the days before the rock and roll era changed things for the better. Now, as for the pop/rock side of things during this era, I didn't see no change so don't even go there with a response because R&B has always been my passion.

When did I stop listening to all current music and start playing nothing but old music?

I held on as long as I could until I just couldn't stand hearing it anymore. I had a wonderful time and an absolute ball in the early to mid 1990s partying to house music in the gay clubs. The majority of it was underground but I did notice during that era that pop radio was giving some of those artists some airplay, especially on Saturday nights, while R&B radio wasn't playing hardly any of it even though the majority of the artists were black. R&B radio was too busy continuing on with the bland adult contemporary stuff that started in the late 1980s and continued on into the 1990s and the shit hop which was equally as dull and bland. The "R" in R&B no longer stood for "rhythm" anymore, it now stood for "rhythmless".

The majority of the music I liked in the 1990s came from the black gay club scene. I continued listening to R&B radio during the 1990s even though I hated 90% of the music that was being played on the stations. I finally took the R&B stations off my dial in 1997 when it had finally gotten to the point that I couldn't stand to be in the same room with the shit they were playing. I remember it was August of that year. I was 29 at the time and had my 30th birthday coming up the next month. I remember it was August because Prince had come to my area for the first time since 1980 with Rick James. A white coworker of mine had called me one morning and told me she heard the advertisement on the radio (she listened to pop radio). If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't have even known until it was too late to get good seats. R&B advertised it later, but just barely. Pop radio went all out with contests and promotiions. I started listening to pop radio during that time and took the R&B stations off my dial. I liked some of the stuff that pop radio was playing at that time but I hated damn near all the stuff that R&B was playing. I figured why hold on to R&B radio if everything they play sounds like shit.

Pop radio was quickly becoming overrun with shit hop also. It's like the bullshit was following me and I just couldn't escape it no matter what station I went to. Also, a lot of the pop acts such as Jewel and folks like that started making that horrible country sounding folk music that I absolutely couldn't stand either.

1999 was when I finally took the current pop stations off my dial also. That's the year when we got our first oldies station that played music from the 1970s and 1980s. Prior to that, the oldies stations only played music from the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, there was a station that played lots of stuff that I liked without hearing a bunch of bullshit that I despised. Unfortunately, it was a Clear Channel station so I kept hearing the same handful of songs over and over and over.

When did I realize that music was never going to change for the better?

When the 2000s began and there was no complete style change in music altogether. Every decade has had completely different sounding music than the previous decade before it since the 1950s. It may take a year or two for a complete transformation to take place but it had always happened in previous decades. Not in the 2000s though. The same old shit hop and adult contemporary from the 1990s was still continuing on business as usual in the 2000s. In the mid to late 2000s before the current decade, shit hop started incorporating some of that acid/trance sounding mess that ruined house music in an attempt to make it a more danceable genre but it was still shit hop but just polished up a little. A complete style change is no trace of shit hop's existence in the music whatsoever. We're in the 2010s now and I don't hear a difference in R&B music now than R&B music of the 1990s. Now that we've had not one, but two more decades arrive since the 1990s, and also the fact that I now know that monopolies control not only the radio but the labels as well, I'm damn near positive that music will never change for the better.

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[Edited 3/17/12 15:23pm]

RKJCNE said:

Doesn't every generation hate the next's music? My uncle hated the beatles, he thinks they ruined music.

Now see, how did I know that question was going to come up? It always does.

Who do you think was partying in the discos in the 1970s and in the clubs in the early 1980s? It was our parents' generation because we were all underage and couldn't get in. The same stuff that was playing in the discos and clubs for them, was the same stuff that was playing in the skating rinks for us.

My mother was a teenager in the 1960s and loved the Motown era. She also loved the disco era of the next decade and a lot of the funk era of the decade after that. She wasn't a unique or special person that had such diverse tastes that she could like the different style changes when they occurred. Lots of people her age liked all those eras too because if they didn't, she would have been partying in the clubs alone all those years.

When shit hop took over, I went one way with house music and she and most of her generation went another way with blues. But before that, we were all listening to mostly the same stuff. Folks didn't start breaking off and going different directions until shit hop took over and they went in different directions to escape it.

Harlepolis said:

NDRU said:

I also hear the old excuse of "that's just what your parents thought of your music and their parents thought of their music..."

But times actually change and things get better and worse. My parents actually loved Michael Jackson and Prince. Maybe I am a geezer, but that does not mean that music HAS to be exactly as good as it was in the 70's

True. I may sound like a broken record for saying this though, but music resonate with people differently. There's no right or wrong way of acquiring/listening to it.

Maybe its the nostalgia factor, I don't know. What I do know and hate with a passion is this groupthinking attitude like there's something wrong with you if you don't listen to anything past - say 83. It really boils down to taste.

You got that right. It ain't got a damn thing to do with getting older. Hell, I'm 44 and can outjam any little whipper snapper out there and I'm even more wilder, nastier, and foul mouthed than I was when I was younger. Bring on the hard liquor, the hard funk, and the hard dicks and I can't get enough of it. I will never be a wife, kids, dog, station wagon, and white picket fence type person. I'll be a whore till I'm a dead old whore. Millie Jackson ain't got shit on me!

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[Edited 3/17/12 15:47pm]

I loved Motown and I enjoy music for the 20s, 30s, 40s, etc. I don't understand why people can't get that it does not sound the same.

I think I stopped digging radio around 1988. It's around that time that I began a job at a great local used record store. All that amazing catalog introduced a world that has dwarfed most newer stuff -- and certainly most newer radio material -- ever since.

I'm sure that good music is out there, unfortunately its the crap which gets popular now days. That's whats screwing it up.

I think for me it was around 2000, I just stopped listening to any popular music. I loved the 90's- Aaliyah, En Vogue, Salt n Pepa, of course Prince , but after the 90's, I just stopped listening to any of the new crap. I don't like any of it. I sort of liked Lady Gaga when she first came out because I was so thrilled to see someone who worked so hard and put so much into her songs and choreography etc but then I saw that she was just doing over what had already been done. So yeah, I just listen to old CD's, lots of Prince, I'm even sick of popular televison, all this reality show crap sucks, so I'm reading old books when I have time. I'm reading Crime and Punishment now and currently listening to my Aaliyah Cd in my car and the only "new" thing I'm about to embark on is Whitney's "I look to you" CD which should arrive any day from Ebay.

vainandy said:

Harlepolis said:

True. I may sound like a broken record for saying this though, but music resonate with people differently. There's no right or wrong way of acquiring/listening to it.

Maybe its the nostalgia factor, I don't know. What I do know and hate with a passion is this groupthinking attitude like there's something wrong with you if you don't listen to anything past - say 83. It really boils down to taste.

You got that right. It ain't got a damn thing to do with getting older. Hell, I'm 44 and can outjam any little whipper snapper out there and I'm even more wilder, nastier, and foul mouthed than I was when I was younger. Bring on the hard liquor, the hard funk, and the hard dicks and I can't get enough of it. I will never be a wife, kids, dog, station wagon, and white picket fence type person. I'll be a whore till I'm a dead old whore. Millie Jackson ain't got shit on me!

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[Edited 3/17/12 15:47pm]

And they blame me for loving you, Dame Andrea

Harlepolis said:

vainandy said:

You got that right. It ain't got a damn thing to do with getting older. Hell, I'm 44 and can outjam any little whipper snapper out there and I'm even more wilder, nastier, and foul mouthed than I was when I was younger. Bring on the hard liquor, the hard funk, and the hard dicks and I can't get enough of it. I will never be a wife, kids, dog, station wagon, and white picket fence type person. I'll be a whore till I'm a dead old whore. Millie Jackson ain't got shit on me!

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[Edited 3/17/12 15:47pm]

And they blame me for loving you, Dame Andrea

Hey, fuck 'em. I've got a good side that comes out from time to time but my bad side is soooooo much better.

vainandy said:

When did I realize that music was never going to change for the better?

When the 2000s began and there was no complete style change in music altogether. Every decade has had completely different sounding music than the previous decade before it since the 1950s. It may take a year or two for a complete transformation to take place but it had always happened in previous decades. Not in the 2000s though. The same old shit hop and adult contemporary from the 1990s was still continuing on business as usual in the 2000s. In the mid to late 2000s before the current decade, shit hop started incorporating some of that acid/trance sounding mess that ruined house music in an attempt to make it a more danceable genre but it was still shit hop but just polished up a little. A complete style change is no trace of shit hop's existence in the music whatsoever. We're in the 2010s now and I don't hear a difference in R&B music now than R&B music of the 1990s. Now that we've had not one, but two more decades arrive since the 1990s, and also the fact that I now know that monopolies control not only the radio but the labels as well, I'm damn near positive that music will never change for the better.

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that's completely right and that's what bothers me; Destiny'sChild/Beyonce is just a revampled version of TLC, Lady Antebellum sounds like something off the late'90s, Adele sounds like something off the mid-90s, Arcade Fire sounds EXACTLY like some wacko alt.rock band of the early-90s, dance-pop has been here since the mid-to-late'80s (Katy Perry, GaGa, Rihanna, etc), shit-hop became huge/mainstream in 1993 (killing New Jack), even The Killers call themselves "new wave revivalists"... some examples...

so no, pop music has not changed...it's just a HUGE ball of postmodernist cheese; I should like 00s music since I still dig most of the 90s music, but the problem is that the songs are not very good either, and the filler is everywhere...

so we can say that we have the same old shit and mediocre songs, wow, just wow...

Terrib3Towel said:

At what point did you guys say "screw it" and turned the radio off for good and decided to just play your old records?

I think that happened under the age of 10. Radio reduces sperm count and neurons; everyone knows that.

I still listen to some of today's new music, but I stopped listening to pop radio around 2008, when two of my favorite DJ's were laid off in a cost cutting move. I found myself getting less into pop raido much earlier than that, however, since about 2000, when the major radio stations (then owned almost primarily by Clear Channel and Infinty Radio Networks) kept repeating the same playlists and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into playing interesting new artists. Sadly, I quit listening to most hip hop around 2005, when 50 Cent lost his edge and it started being dominated by clowns like Lil' Jon, Lil' Wayne, Soulja Boy, and Hurricane Chris, and even the production started soundling like it was being created on a cheap Casio keyboard.

As for old music, it got easier for me to listen to my huge music collection once mp3 players became ubiquitous and could hold 40GB or more of music. I was no longer tied down to the radio, MTV, VH1, BET, or my CD collection, as I could listen to anything I wanted to at the drop of a dime, whether it was the latest work by Kanye West, Coldplay, a Prince bootleg, Mariah Carey remixes, some old Beatles stuff, 70's funk, 80's old shcool R&B, hair metal, 90's club music, John Coltrane, classical music, etc.

2000

lauralevesque said:

I stopped listening to the radio in 2001. When Ashanti, J-Lo, and Ja Rule were taking over I was like "later for this crap".

Most of the time (while driving) I listen to the local jazz radio station or Sirius radio.

SoulAlive said:

It was in the early 90s when I began to realize that,the music I grew up with (in the 70s and 80s) was so much better than the crap I was hearing on the radio.

Same here.

When grunge started becoming popular.

RKJCNE said:

Doesn't every generation hate the next's music? My uncle hated the beatles, he thinks they ruined music.

That was pretty much true until the 70's. For those of us born in the late 50's on, we grew up on rock and roll, or real soul, or badass funk. We haven't outgrown it either, and we'd love to hear young kids playing it right again.

Your uncle did not grow up on rock and roll. That's why he hated the Beatles.

I promise you that when you grow up/older, you will not hate the next generation's music unless it is truly bad.

Harlepolis said:

kitbradley said:

allsmutaside said:

prodigalfan said:

Harlepolis said:

The so-called neo soul movement.

I loved what I heard from Jaguar, Erykah, D, and them. But since they themselves revere the era of their musical forefathers/mothers, I decided to go back to my old folks' crates and see what I was missing.

Chaka Khan hit me in the chest and I haven't turned on the radio eversince. That was 2002, I was 20. I was content then as I am now, there's ALWAYS new "old" music to discover.

This. That is why I love unsung. After the show I find myself delving into YouTube and looking on amazon for stuff in found i liked after checking it out on YouTube.

Indeed youtube is a massive factor that led to expanding my music library. Long gone are the days when I hear discussions about an obscure song by so & so which I probably wouldn't hear unless it costs a long trip to some record store in Toronto or god knows where.

Not only that, some of our very OWN orgers contributed to this by posting the rare gems that they have in their own youtube channel, like Miss Trina(TD3) which in my case, fueled more interest on stuff I probably wouldn't come across to.

prodigalfan said:

allsmutaside said:

Corporate radio's takeover has contributed to the death of popular music for me as a geezy geezer. I know that there has been some return to fine form with XM and that kind of privitaztion of stations, but the mid 70s to mid 80s were where it's at for me. Request lines! Give aways! Lengthy artist interviews. B sides and album cuts! Concert tickets for the 7th caller! QUIET STORMS! Lee Bailey and Radioscope!! DJs! I am idealizing the memory, but it sure is easy to do cuz it was a poppin' time. I do wish that experience for younger people. But just because my lack of familiarity with their formats leaves me cold in response, that doesn't mean it isn't a valid music. Music reflects the times we live in, and "it sure is getting tough out here. It's rough out here, tough out here." (Rog)

I love this post. I forgot about request lines and calling contests. Dang radio has died. It is like MTV. songs recorded on a tape loop. What happened to real radio personalities. And you tuned into your favorite show because you liked the musical taste of that particular DJ.

Podcast came in, the problem is you probably have to search for those podcast personalities that will compensate for the radio void. There're many, as my friends follow a heap loads of them, I however have yet to find shows that cater to my taste.

Harlepolis said: