It's all over...toast and the industry knows it.......

the industry of the past 27 years has destroyed a very awesome thing

MotownSubdivision said:

-Iggy Azalea -Taylor Swift having the only platinum-selling album of the entire year with a mediocre release/ albums feeling more and more irrelevant -Billboard counting streams as official sales -Hip hop -Continual lack of star power -Releases being disappointing at best -Delayed releases -Continuation of 2013's "PR > music" -Radio play being more stagnant than ever And I thought 2013 was bad (it was) but thisc year has been outright terrible for mainstream music. Overall, uneventful and more of the same old crap.

Do you just not like Hip hop at all, or just the mainstream releases of the past year? Because if it's the former and you don't appreciate the asthetics of the genre at all it seems a bit pointless to complain about its continued existence, I mean, I'm not a fan of avocados, but whatever, they exist.

I don't particularly care about or a lot of the stuff on the radio, but I wouldn't say there's been a noticeable dip in quality from previous years, just the same kind of thing as always really, a lot of pap but some good stuff as well.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

MotownSubdivision said:

-Iggy Azalea -Taylor Swift having the only platinum-selling album of the entire year with a mediocre release/ albums feeling more and more irrelevant -Billboard counting streams as official sales -Hip hop -Continual lack of star power -Releases being disappointing at best -Delayed releases -Continuation of 2013's "PR > music" -Radio play being more stagnant than ever And I thought 2013 was bad (it was) but thisc year has been outright terrible for mainstream music. Overall, uneventful and more of the same old crap.

Do you just not like Hip hop at all, or just the mainstream releases of the past year? Because if it's the former and you don't appreciate the asthetics of the genre at all it seems a bit pointless to complain about its continued existence, I mean, I'm not a fan of avocados, but whatever, they exist.

I don't particularly care about or a lot of the stuff on the radio, but I wouldn't say there's been a noticeable dip in quality from previous years, just the same kind of thing as always really, a lot of pap but some good stuff as well.

I was talking about the mainstream releases of the past year. I'm not one of those rock elitists who still whine about how the genre replaced their precious 3 chord guitar music (and I like rock as well). Hip hop/ rap is one of the best genres of music but 2014 has been pretty miss for mainstream releases. 2015 is looking to be better though.

With me claiming this year to suck for mainstream music, it's more so due to the continuation of the same LCD crap with no substance that gets shoved down our throats as something better than it is. Not to mention the practices that the industry is looking to undertake at the expense of artists and the music they make and the overall "playing it safe and driving what's popular into the ground" philosophy it uses to keep things stagnant.

MotownSubdivision said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

Do you just not like Hip hop at all, or just the mainstream releases of the past year? Because if it's the former and you don't appreciate the asthetics of the genre at all it seems a bit pointless to complain about its continued existence, I mean, I'm not a fan of avocados, but whatever, they exist.

I don't particularly care about or a lot of the stuff on the radio, but I wouldn't say there's been a noticeable dip in quality from previous years, just the same kind of thing as always really, a lot of pap but some good stuff as well.

I was talking about the mainstream releases of the past year. I'm not one of those rock elitists who still whine about how the genre replaced their precious 3 chord guitar music (and I like rock as well). Hip hop/ rap is one of the best genres of music but 2014 has been pretty miss for mainstream releases. 2015 is looking to be better though.

With me claiming this year to suck for mainstream music, it's more so due to the continuation of the same LCD crap with no substance that gets shoved down our throats as something better than it is. Not to mention the practices that the industry is looking to undertake at the expense of artists and the music they make and the overall "playing it safe and driving what's popular into the ground" philosophy it uses to keep things stagnant.

Ah fair enough, gotcha. I realise now that my avocado thing might have sounded rather hostile, sorry about that. I guess I can understand where you're coming from, the mainstream doesn't really speak to me much personally, but even if it were 99% crap there would still be loads of great stuff bubbling under the surface, so the lack of innovation among the big names doesn't really mean a whole lot to me. My main objection would be that I don't really seem how this year is so much worse than 2013, 2012, 2011... Dunno, they all just seem like the same mix of a lot of crap, some good stuff and some great stuff, this year doesn't really feel like a total nadir to me.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

MotownSubdivision said:

I was talking about the mainstream releases of the past year. I'm not one of those rock elitists who still whine about how the genre replaced their precious 3 chord guitar music (and I like rock as well). Hip hop/ rap is one of the best genres of music but 2014 has been pretty miss for mainstream releases. 2015 is looking to be better though.

With me claiming this year to suck for mainstream music, it's more so due to the continuation of the same LCD crap with no substance that gets shoved down our throats as something better than it is. Not to mention the practices that the industry is looking to undertake at the expense of artists and the music they make and the overall "playing it safe and driving what's popular into the ground" philosophy it uses to keep things stagnant.

Ah fair enough, gotcha. I realise now that my avocado thing might have sounded rather hostile, sorry about that. I guess I can understand where you're coming from, the mainstream doesn't really speak to me much personally, but even if it were 99% crap there would still be loads of great stuff bubbling under the surface, so the lack of innovation among the big names doesn't really mean a whole lot to me. My main objection would be that I don't really seem how this year is so much worse than 2013, 2012, 2011... Dunno, they all just seem like the same mix of a lot of crap, some good stuff and some great stuff, this year doesn't really feel like a total nadir to me.

The avocado example was fine, don't worry about it!

I'm actually having fun discovering old songs and artists, being an old soul who listens to mostly 60s-90s music and despite knowing that the music is decades old, it may as well be new so I have that going for me. Not really into having to dig for music I have no interest in finding anyway; hip hop is the exception though I don't really hunt that down either.

I see where you're coming from with how you don't consider this year any worse than the past several but 2014 was a continuation of all the bad things that really got started last year and years prior. Either way you slice it, it was a worthless year for mainstream music. Top 40/ 100 music only continues to be noise to avoid at all costs.

Y'all say this like every year and will do so until we are all dead and full of maggots.

But this year was one of the worst. So for once y'all are right! every year there's a few mainstream songs i love to death. This year there was almost none!!! underground had some great shit come out. Like Run The Jewels, CLPPING, Death Grips, Shabazz Palaces etc. So it was a good year for that!

But this year was all party shit. Or Sam Smith ballads

[Edited 12/15/14 13:43pm]

You obviously overlooked the return of D'Angelo, Mary J. Blige going back to the drawing board for an interesting album, Charli XCX giving us huge hooks ("Fancy" and "Boom Clap"), PHARRELL , an adventurous release from St. Vincent, a genre-bending album from FKA twigs, Christine McVie reuniting on tour with Fleetwood Mac, a wonderful jazzier album from Kelis, and one good album from Prince!

Cinny said:

You obviously overlooked the return of D'Angelo, Mary J. Blige going back to the drawing board for an interesting album, Charli XCX giving us huge hooks ("Fancy" and "Boom Clap"), PHARRELL , an adventurous release from St. Vincent, a genre-bending album from FKA twigs, Christine McVie reuniting on tour with Fleetwood Mac, a wonderful jazzier album from Kelis, and one good album from Prince!

I know you like Iggy and all. But fancy is an absolutely horrible song you do realize it's a 1,2,3 synth beat. And a ''aye aye aye'' guy that's on every other mainstream song. I literally can make that in fruit loops in 5 minutes i can't stand cheap ass beats like that. Plus D & Mary weren't on the radio. Neither were FKA Twigs or Prince. When i think mainstream i think top 40.

Gunsnhalen said:

Cinny said:

You obviously overlooked the return of D'Angelo, Mary J. Blige going back to the drawing board for an interesting album, Charli XCX giving us huge hooks ("Fancy" and "Boom Clap"), PHARRELL , an adventurous release from St. Vincent, a genre-bending album from FKA twigs, Christine McVie reuniting on tour with Fleetwood Mac, a wonderful jazzier album from Kelis, and one good album from Prince!

I know you like Iggy and all. But fancy is an absolutely horrible song you do realize it's a 1,2,3 synth beat. And a ''aye aye aye'' guy that's on every other mainstream song. I literally can make that in fruit loops in 5 minutes i can't stand cheap ass beats like that. Plus D & Mary weren't on the radio. Neither were FKA Twigs or Prince. When i think mainstream i think top 40.

Fancy sucks, but these guys turned it into a funk jam.

I was shocked to hear that the music business is today a Forty-eight billion dollar industry! And this is really at the height of the internet. This industry seemingly will always make money, no matter how little the albums sell or all the doomsaying.

Gunsnhalen said:

Cinny said:

You obviously overlooked the return of D'Angelo, Mary J. Blige going back to the drawing board for an interesting album, Charli XCX giving us huge hooks ("Fancy" and "Boom Clap"), PHARRELL , an adventurous release from St. Vincent, a genre-bending album from FKA twigs, Christine McVie reuniting on tour with Fleetwood Mac, a wonderful jazzier album from Kelis, and one good album from Prince!

I know you like Iggy and all. But fancy is an absolutely horrible song you do realize it's a 1,2,3 synth beat. And a ''aye aye aye'' guy that's on every other mainstream song. I literally can make that in fruit loops in 5 minutes i can't stand cheap ass beats like that. Plus D & Mary weren't on the radio. Neither were FKA Twigs or Prince. When i think mainstream i think top 40.

Your list looked like it was 2012 so don't even try

lrn36 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

I know you like Iggy and all. But fancy is an absolutely horrible song you do realize it's a 1,2,3 synth beat. And a ''aye aye aye'' guy that's on every other mainstream song. I literally can make that in fruit loops in 5 minutes i can't stand cheap ass beats like that. Plus D & Mary weren't on the radio. Neither were FKA Twigs or Prince. When i think mainstream i think top 40.

Fancy sucks, but these guys turned it into a funk jam.

As if funk is so complicated.

Cinny said:

Gunsnhalen said:

I know you like Iggy and all. But fancy is an absolutely horrible song you do realize it's a 1,2,3 synth beat. And a ''aye aye aye'' guy that's on every other mainstream song. I literally can make that in fruit loops in 5 minutes i can't stand cheap ass beats like that. Plus D & Mary weren't on the radio. Neither were FKA Twigs or Prince. When i think mainstream i think top 40.

Your list looked like it was 2012 so don't even try

But they all came out this year. But you tried

Gunsnhalen said:

Cinny said:

Your list looked like it was 2012 so don't even try

But they all came out this year. But you tried

I can hear the simplicity of the "Fancy" beat, but that wasn't even my point.. my highlight was the arrival of Charli XCX , and she is mainstream. Don't you like "Boom Clap"??

Cinny said:

Gunsnhalen said:

But they all came out this year. But you tried

I can hear the simplicity of the "Fancy" beat, but that wasn't even my point.. my highlight was the arrival of Charli XCX , and she is mainstream. Don't you like "Boom Clap"??

Eh.... 3 out of 5. Not bad compared to other hits this year.

Some choice albums from 2014 include:

D'Angelo "Black Messiah"

Com Truise "Wave 1"

Little Dragon "Nabauma Rubberband"

Meshell Ndegeocello "Comet, Come to Me"

SBTRKT "Wonder Where We Land"

Flying Lotus "You're Dead"

J. Cole "2014 Forest Hills Drive"

Jesse Boykins III "Love Aparatus"

Toro y Moi "My Touch"

Rustie "Green Language"

Common "Nobody's Smiling"

This was one of the Lackluster years for Music...To be honest, Aretha's CD should have entered the charts at #1 and should still be number 1...There is no other competition...This was one of those years that a Legend could shine on the charts for months...

Chancellor said:

This was one of the Lackluster years for Music...To be honest, Aretha's CD should have entered the charts at #1 and should still be number 1...There is no other competition...This was one of those years that a Legend could shine on the charts for months...

Other than Amazing Grace & Who's Zoomin' Who, for the most part Aretha was never really a big album seller. Her biggest selling album was Amazing Grace, which is said to be the highest selling gospel album of all time and it was certified double platinum. Who's Zoomin' Who is her biggest secular album.

Chancellor said:

This was one of the Lackluster years for Music...To be honest, Aretha's CD should have entered the charts at #1 and should still be number 1...There is no other competition...This was one of those years that a Legend could shine on the charts for months...

It was just a covers album though

I really enjoyed Pharrell's album.But other than that,2014 was a sucky year for music.

2014 is no different from any other year from the 1990s on up and I'm sure 2015 will be the same.

I heard lots of music I liked this year. Just not on radio -

becasue radio is no longer the radio I gew up on.

MickyDolenz said:

Other than Amazing Grace & Who's Zoomin' Who, for the most part Aretha was never really a big album seller. Her biggest selling album was Amazing Grace, which is said to be the highest selling gospel album of all time and it was certified double platinum. Who's Zoomin' Who is her biggest secular album.

I get her past charting Status but I still feel this was the Year that Older Acts could have represented on The American Charts...

Gunsnhalen said:

It was just a covers album though

...LOL..Rod Stewart & Tony Bennet stood TALL when they released their Covers albums....

chellybeanz said:

But we had albums by Ryan Adams, St Vincent, War on Drugs, Jack White, Todd Terje... this list goes on and on. It's been one of the best years for me personally. So much good music I haven't bought a quarter of what I'd have liked.

But mainstream is always a bit awful but then I'm not really into that kinda pop. Real music, real musicians, real music lovers. I'm the same about food actually (no Gregg's shit for me thank you very much!).

And another Christmas means another "Craig Charles Funk n Soul Show" album!!!! Masterpiece indeed

Pull out the Trunk o Funk and get yer dancin' shoes on 'cause we're gonna get sweaty tonight!