‘There is something very, very wrong with today’s music. It just may not be very good.’

said it for years, but had no cred being an old fart that listens to too much Steely Dan - now those younguns r tellin us its better lol!
 
Toopy14 said:
“Older music is certainly having a moment this summer and much of this interest is not being driven by nostalgic oldsters but by the same kids playing Spikeball across the street.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/9001083/...VYAxPJhNnpwLqAY1-0ta0MHaCTyCzxKlaj9ZAnxQuE1DY
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Interesting read. I personally think a lot of todays music is garbage. But I’m biased since I grew up before all the digital stuff happened. Back when you needed actual musicians to play parts. There is hope. The other night at work I’m walking the rounds and I hear 2112! A young guy is playing 2112 on his Bluetooth speaker. I was flabbergasted. I asked him what a young guy was doing listening to that. And he goes off on all kinds of stuff, he’s schooling himself on progressive music. So I made some suggestions and now we talk music a bit. This when most of his peers listen to canned beats and maybe an actual bass with some guy rapping about who cares what. Not much musicality to that stuff. No guitars and or very little guitar. No guitars!? I probably won’t like it lol.
 
Ehhh. Look up the top 100 for any year and tell me most of it isn't garbage in retrospect. And tell me half the kids in any given grade haven't always been saying "I was born in the wrong generation, I don't listen to today's music". I don't think anything has really changed.
 
Some of this may also have to do with artists getting very little investment / buy-in early on during development. Was listening to early Deep Purple for the 60s music thread here and one can see (hear) how the record company was investing in that band's development in the early days, as opposed to looking for a quick buck - there's not much commercially viable material on those first 3 DP albums, but over the course of thier career DP were likely very commercially successful for their record labels due to the investment provided in the early years - it's a completely different game now that makes it tough for artists to develop in the way they did before.
 
Some of it may just be the extraordinarily long time (as in 6 decades?) that the overall 'rock' genre has persisted as 'popular music', which just means that there's a lot of great music rising from that massive amount of content... just an inevitability of the numbers.

As a weekend warrior I played a first gig in the early 70s, and still occasionally doing it now, covering a lot the same music I incrementally learned over 5 decades. And I see all ages singing along.

I was certain in the 70s that 'our music' would die in a decade or two as we matured, just like other old peoples' music. How nice that didn't happen!

(Delighted the other night when someone in their 30s requested some Talking Heads, and we happily complied... 1974's Psycho Killer, with which they sang along :))
 
I have had similar conversations with many musicians I have known over the last 5 decades or so.
I grew up musically listening to Jimi Hendrix, Ry Cooder and Cream.
imho, It really comes down to generations. My parents didn't think Hendrix or Cream was actually music. Old Italian folks, loved them, listened to Tony Bennet, Sinatra and Mario Lanza!

In closing,I am not into metal or Rap or hip hop. Sorry, just the way I feel. But meanwhile all 3 are among the most popular genres today-
So. who am I to judge? Nobody!
 
Caution - old fart story incoming >> In my mid teens in the mid 70s, no-one, even my parents, were into 50yo music from the 20s - even if it were good, it was unlistenable given the poor recording quality. Today, anyone can throw on 50yo+ music from the 60s/70s and get into it since the recording quality of 50yrs ago is often still good enough today (some may say better in some cases). Irrespective of musicianship and songwriting, recording technology started to improve drastically around the mid 60s such that there started to be diminishing returns after that, on how good the sound could be, so the music started to become more and more timeless from recording quality standpoint. Take a listen to the stuff being posted in the 60s thread - 64-65 or so and earlier, there's some great tunes but for the most part the recording quality is so far from what we know now, that it's hard to enjoy it at least for me - but - 65-66 or so, and later, the tech and studio techniques really get rolling in leaps and bounds such that many records done in the mid-later 60s still sound great even by today's recording standards.

Many of us who grew up in the 60s remember how, near the end of the decade, everything turned to color. The advent of color TV was so impactful that us boomers born in late 50s / early 60s tend to think of our childhood memories in black and white up to certain point, and then, boom - everything went to vibrant color! (tho in our home, a bit skewed as the color balance on our Electrohome made everything look like bright green and pink cartoon characters lol!). Music made a similar turn at roughly the same time: I remember my earlier childhood with a backdrop of mono scratchy sounds coming from a crappy speaker in the corner, then, boom!, clear stereo sounds that surrounded and grabbed the senses from two sides, not to mention, the discovery that distortion could be a sound one wanted to hear.
 
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Without taking sides or trying to be "hip" or "informed", I think there is a great divide among cultures today, both socio-economic and racial, that is part of what comprises modern music.

Most kids born after the grundge and emo era realized that urban dance music (hip-hop, rap, etc.) most everything with a heavy bass or drum beat was what they were feeling then. As metal incorporated thick bass and heavily distorted tones, this shifted kids' attention from ethnic music to metal.

The disparity still exist among youth today, though greater focus has been made to educate young people to be tolerant of cultures they are not yet familiar with. The question exists, with the melting pot of the world bringing cultures together as social and economic barriers are crossed, we may see a greater focus on acceptance of music (and food) as a way to bridge the cultural gap.

TBH, it is my sincere belief that both music and food is a significant step towards mitigating conflict in this world. When people are typically fed and can enjoy uplifting times, they tend to forget their troubles and what is wrong with the world. By contrast, when people dwell on the negative aspects of this world, they are more likely to act out and complain about their lot in life.

Whether music is worse than it was years ago meets with several generations of people who will offer varied opinions based on when they were young themselves, and what they listened to. As adults ourselves, it is very difficult to see things from a young person's perspective, except when parents try to teach their kids what they had learned when they were younger so their kids don't make the same mistakes that they did.

Sadly, most of what we view today reminds us of what we should not be doing, compared to simply remembering to obey the law typically prevents a world of trouble for people who make bad choices in life. Choosing to live by standards which doesn't infringe on my or your being able to live peaceably with one another may be simply by living a clean life. And being determined to maintain that clean life if at all possible.

Music has its benefits: it can make you feel and think in ways you've not felt before. It's how we respond to the music's message that makes the difference; whether we think it's awesome or not delineates how you live your life, and whether you accept the music or not.
 
bleujazz3 said:
Whether music is worse than it was years ago meets with several generations of people who will offer varied opinions based on when they were young themselves, and what they listened to. As adults ourselves, it is very difficult to see things from a young person's perspective, except when parents try to teach their kids what they had learned when they were younger so their kids don't make the same mistakes that they did.
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Though I agree this is part of it, I also very much agree with Rick Beato above that there has been a gradual reduction in popular music's complexity which is turning people away. Things like:
  • Beat set strictly to grid with reduced swing and lacking in the humanness that draws the brain's attention.
  • A reduction in the use of more interesting complex chords, scales,...
  • Less cross pollination of players due to less active live music scenes.
  • Less musicians with extensive chops due to a less active live music scenes.
  • Less use of innovative "devices" in music / songwriting to hook musical interest.
  • Less common for musicians to have an extensive background in harmony wrt songwriting - so less harmony in songwriting.
  • Less use of changing keys / time signatures within a song to grab the listners' ears.
  • More and more songs with no choruses, solos...
  • ...
These are all unrelated to generational differences, and despite the reasons for these changes, imo it's not a stretch to extrapolate the result of them (or see the result occurring irl as per the OP article): more boring popular music abounds (with exceptions of course), and a definite uptick in the numbers of listeners of all ages who go looking for something more interesting to listen to and find it in older music where these things still existed. Rick Beato's looked at this pretty extensively on his channel, delving deeply into what's currently poplular across pop, rock, metal ..., and how it's constructed, vs the construction of older music - worth a look if interested.
 
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I have noted in the cafeteria at my work, the canned music includes some modern day covers of old tunes. I’m your Venus, We can be Heroes, California Dreaming. I like the originals better of course but the youngsters get turned onto some old songs. So that’s a good thing.
 
Toopy14 said:
“Older music is certainly having a moment this summer and much of this interest is not being driven by nostalgic oldsters but by the same kids playing Spikeball across the street.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/9001083/...VYAxPJhNnpwLqAY1-0ta0MHaCTyCzxKlaj9ZAnxQuE1DY
Click to expand...
Well there certainly aren’t any milestone-setters coming out of the woodwork anymore.. I’m 63 (mainly rock oriented) and my kids are thankful that they have access to my music collection and they’re continuously discovering the new (old) stuff
 
Technological advancements have created a lack of needing others to collaborate with in order to create 'music'. There are so many apps, DAWs and sources for drum sounds, loops, beats and instruments, a lot with little or no cost. that forming a band really isn't a necessity. People today don't really need to interact in-person for much of anything anymore, they are able to work alone and entertain themselves for hours on end.

That said, there is some good music being created today. It may not be what we consider good ol' Rock and Roll but it is out there. I've been listening to Polyphia, Mark Lettieri and Clutch recently and have enjoyed a lot of what I hear. I still like and listen to what I grew up with (80's) but have decided not to lament the passing of certain styles, complaining that kids today just don't get it. I am learning to embrace newer takes on how this generation interprets Rock and Roll.

I've learned to embrace newer styles and artists as well. I have had the good fortune to meet, work with and play with Carmen Jane (Cami Bradley from AGT) in another environment and have found myself really enjoying her music. Knowing some of the members of her band I can tell you they are the real deal. Bottom line is good music is still being made by great musicians but it may require a paradigm shift of what we think good music is.
 
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