Why Does Modern Music Suck As Badly As Music Has Ever Sucked?

[SPACE GLIDER]

I can't be the only one who feels that way. And it isn't about getting older or not being "hip" ... it's just that every genre seems to be cranking out complete crap. Totally disposable music ... nothing that 20 years from now we'll look back on and connect to some fond memory.

[Xstr8guy]

I can't be the only one who feels that way. And it isn't about getting older or not being "hip" ...

Oh yes it is! Lol. Every generation thinks that about the previous generation's music. I used to tell myself I'd always be musically hip too. But I just embrace my oldies now. I do however still enjoy most new electronica/techno/house. Thank god for Sirius!

[MiamiB]

It is just another clue to the decline of America'a collective intelligence. In a nation in decline you can expect this sort of lowering of standards.

Yes, the music SUCKS!!

Lee

[basschick]

i'm afraid it IS about getting older. my parents thought my music sucked when i was a teenager. my peers thought the same thing when they passed 30. i think there's always good music coming up, but you have to be willing to deal with the changes - just my opinion here, but i think change is good. it keeps us fresh.

me, i love new music and the constant evolution that music represents. i grew up in the 70's but when korn first came out, i loved their music and think their bass player is an inspiration. i loved early 90's bands like counting crows and all sorts of grunge and i own albums by system of a down and linkin park and other bands from within the last 5 or 6 years. and i love newish bands like otep and she wants revenge.

And it isn't about getting older or not being "hip" ...

[Matt 26z]

You know what they say, music is the soundtrack of our lives. I think we associate "good music" with what we consider to be great times of our life. Ask anyone what their favorite period of music is, and they will also say those were "the good 'ol days."

90's alternative will always be my favorite. Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Oasis, Offspring, Beck, REM and many others... they all had some really great albums out during that period, and I can't see the newer set of bands topping them.

But I'm sure someone who is 18 years old will say the same stuff in 10-15 years about Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy and Britney Spears.

[basschick]

well, i'm over 40 and i love music from all periods of my life - i really do

[Lee]

Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Oasis, Offspring, Beck, REM, Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy

I like all of those, last night i just bought the new Snow Patrol album too LMAO

Regards,

Lee

[Goldie]

Yeah, I agree that music is a generational thing. I love hearing my 80s music because it is what I grew up with. To today's kids... those are "oldies"... Just like the 60s tunes are "oldies" to me. My parents wouldn't enjoy the 80s stuff I like... Just like I am not in love with the stuff I hear today (for the most part).

And I also agree... thank goodness for Sirius. If you haven't checked it out, they are doing a free two day trial today and tomorrow on the Internet! See what you've been missing!

[Paco]

I truly love music, which is why I do not “do” TOP or POP 40. And because of that, I can proudly say that I am not at all disappointed with what I listen to! I love my tunes so much that I give it 12-14 hours of dedication, everyday! The entire time I am at work my speakers are pounding or my eyeballs are shaking (headphones).

I stopped listening to the radio (mainstream) ages ago because it simply did not please me and rarely did it radiate what I like! Okay, ONE university station plays one-hour of what I like! And the publicly funded CKUA offers -->A<-- funky show called Tongue and Groove. Am I supposed to give my time to something that offers me a few hours a week? NOT!

Give me jazz, house (disco mainly), Detroit techno, Goa trance (NO LYRICS ...trance does not have words!), black gospel (uplifting), soul, west coast R&B (no, not gangster rap! Stuff by gods like The Hardkiss Bros) and so on!
Hell, I still have not touched on the brilliant genres (started by the likes of Warp Records), previously known as “intelligent” techno (bands such as Autechre, Aphex Twin etc), or even “experimental”. Nobody listened to them because they were “too different”. Well, I that is what one thinks, odds are they returned to listening to what was comfortable (same ole).

I strongly believe the common problem is people only listen to what is fed to them! They look to popular media (news papers, magazines, music video channel) for popular opinion of --- you guessed it --- p_o_p_u_l_a_r music!
They’ll never search the obscure forums.
They’ll never go to underground clubs.
They’ll never swing their thingaling @ theYardBirdSuite!

No kidding you're disappointed - I would be to, in myself, if I did popular, simply because there is so much MORE!
I can see it now: one decides they are sick of their current favourite, so they scan until they hear a “new” station, whom is playing a tune they like (??) so they lock the dial!
WTF: the station plays exactly the same stuff, however it is fed to them by a different nanny (I refuse to soil the title DJ). Makes no sense.

When I am shopping at Winners (or other stores that play god-awful music such as classic ?? 80's ??); ripping up the slopes (skiing); playing disc-golf, kiting &/or whatever, I am constantly asked, "What is THAT your listening to – I am not familiar with it”. So, like an idiot, I proceed to explain, all the while they look at me as if I just blew hard in to a whistle.

I attribute my listening pleasure to the fact that I simply insist on walking a different line (I utterly refuse to follow trend!!!)!
Even when big badass skis come out, that EVERYBODY loves, I do not touch, because I am not interested in the cults!

One last thing: I am simply stunned at how people will embrace technology, and new innovations, and say they “love change” yet they refuse to listen to “electronic” or truly new music. And lets not kid ourselves with the I like real instruments excuse: exactly which popular artists record their albums live (no production what-so-ever, such as editing)?
I'll venture a guess and say NONE!

[XXXWriterDude]

I don't believe new music sucks at all. As a music journalist, I'm consistently excited and energized about the spate of excellent new tunes that are still coming out year in and year out.

It depends on what you're listening to, frankly. If you're setting your dial to the local top 40 radio station, then yes, you will probably be very disappointed with the homogeny that you are presented with. Those stations only play songs from companies who pay them to give them heavy rotation. Clear Channel radio stations are from the Devil, pure and simple. Sadly, Clear Channel owns about half the fricking world right now, so chances are, if you're turning on the radio, you're hearing something owned by them. (They're also known to support Republicans and the religious right. Gee. Go figure. A major corporation investing money in a political party that kisses their ass. Never heard of such a thing.)

But contrary to what you say, music is better than ever. There are some AWESOME and HOT new bands that I love.

Seriously, anyone who says that today's music sucks just is not listening to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rock Kills Kid, Every Move a Picture, the Strokes, the Parson Redheads, Shawn Colvin, the Pernice Brothers, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Sleater-Kinney, Razorlight, The Real Tuesday Weld, the Dresden Dolls, RingSide, Ron Sexsmith, Rufus Wainwright, Sam Phillips, the Scissor Sisters, the Silversun Pickups, Sonic Youth, Stewart Lewis, Eric Himan, Tanya Donelly, Toni Braxton, Universal Honey, Wilco, Nada Surf, The Gossip, Sondra Lerche, Goldfrapp, the Futureheads, French Kicks, Neil Finn, Everything but the Girl, Damien Rice, Mellowdrone, Bettie Serveert, the Dandy Warhols, Cracker, Corinne Bailey Rae, Chris Pureka, Cat Power, REM, Indigo Girls, the ever-brilliant Fiona Apple, or the amazing, phenomenal Regina Spektor.

And that's only scratching the surface!

Every generation wants to talk shit about the music that the younger generations are listening to. It's par for the course when you're getting older. But to say that music is no longer good just because you're getting old, crabby and too set in your ways is a big, fat, rotten, filthy, stinking lie. So there. <wink wink>

With the advent of do-it-yourself (DIY) and indie labels, music is, frankly, better than ever. People are becoming more liberated to say the things they want to say and really make music that matters.

The only thing you have to be is open to hearing it.

[IdolKnights]

Hell, I still have not touched on the brilliant genres (started by the likes of Warp Records), previously known as “intelligent” techno (bands such as Autechre, Aphex Twin etc), or even “experimental”. Nobody listened to them because they were “too different”. Well, I that is what one thinks, odds are they returned to listening to what was comfortable (same ole).

Check out "Alarm Will Sound" - if you can't find anything - they have a few things on myspace... http://www.myspace.com/alarmwillsound.

[Paco]

Check out "Alarm Will Sound" - if you can't find anything - they have a few things on myspace... http://www.myspace.com/alarmwillsound.

I was waiting for you ... and still am *looking up at the door*

Any band (2 or 20 piece) that pays tribute to AT can rock me in or out of my socks any day!

Thanks, man, for showing me there are others!

[XXXWriterDude]

I attribute my listening pleasure to the fact that I simply insist on walking a different line (I utterly refuse to follow trend!!!)!
Even when big badass skis come out, that EVERYBODY loves, I do not touch, because I am not interested in the cults!

Paco, I know what you're saying, but I always have a knee-jerk reaction to statements such as these.

Personally, I'm really bored by people who claim they are "underground" or who insist "they go against the trends." Snooooooze!

Seriously, I know people who are such snobs they refuse to go see certain movies just because the film's budget happened to be more than $10 million. I just think that's stupid.

There is a LOT of popular culture out there that is damn good, and anyone who is so snotty that they won't partake in it just because they think themselves "superior" to it is really just an asshole, in my book. I say get off the high horse and just enjoy what's good, rather than what's part of an "agenda" to be "cool." (NOTE: That's a general statement, not directed at you personally.)

Good entertainment is good entertainment, regardless of how much money was spent on it or regardless of whether or not it happens to end up as a number one single on the radio.

The artists can't help what is done with their music once they record it. But it's still good music.

I just think that people should listen to whatever they want to listen to, regardless of who else is listening to it. Because ultimately, being "different" or "non-conformist" just for the sake of being "different" or "non-conformist" is really just as much of a trend or a movement as being trendy. It's all the same. Just be happy and enjoy what you enjoy, and let everyone else enjoy what they enjoy without being so down on it. No one is "better" than anyone else for liking popular or underground music. We're all just people who like what we like.

[IdolKnights]

I dance therefore I am, I am therefore I dance!

Music is a collective of emotion and storyline. I don’t think today’s music is any different than the music crafted by artists thousands of years ago. You “could” pick it apart and apply measure, instrument and genera but at their core, the message is what you feel when you listen.

Some days I like one style and others I like another. I don’t typecast my music or suppress my emotions.

The style I grew up with was 40’s and 50’s soda pop. I was born in the 70’s. In itself, the soda pop style makes me think of a care free, get up and twist, have fun emotion.

I also love big band, standards, Jazz (modern, classic, acid), House, Break beat, Down tempo, jump up, tribal, Jungle, D&B, Electro (Modern and classic), Freestyle, Experimental (All forms) and so on…

If I was just into Rock, I wouldn’t look to the radio or MTV for “New” bands to follow. I would search out bands that pay homage to the style closest to what I like. Or I too whould think everything modern "sucks"

[XXXWriterDude]

Seriously, I listen to EVERYTHING. I love folk-rock and quiet acoustic stuff just as much as I love loud, rambunctous rock and roll. If it's got melody and I can sing to it--and it touches something in me that makes me wake up to it--then I'm down with whatever genre it calls itself.

I really pride myself on being someone who's embracing of many different types of music, movies, food, and men.

I love indie rock (let's hear it for Sebodah) just as much as I can enjoy a good top 40 song (thank you, Kelly Clarkson, for "Since U Been Gone"). I love indie movies (Mean Creek, Hard Candy) just as much as I do big budget action flicks (Mr. and Mrs. Smith). I love a well-prepared meal in a high-scale Beverly Hills restaurant just as much as a burger at Fat Burger. I love thin, edgy, dorky hairy guys just as much as I can totally lust after a hot muscly blond and smooth dude.

I don't have requirements on what I'm into, so long as it's good. I wish more people in the world were as open to embracing all that life has to offer, instead of trumping up all these categories and labels and limitations that only serve to box us into our own little corners of close-mindedness and self-induced superiority. I just want to be be open to as much as I can be.

That said, you probably won't find me buying a CD by Hoobastank... well, probably EVER!