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Music is dead.

Pearljam5000

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Well almost...
I can't help but feel that older music is just is so much better than all the new stuff being released today in all music genres.
There isn't one modern rock band that even comes close to Radiohead, Nirvana, PJ etc..
No artist that comes close to MJ
No new Bob Dylan, no new Jeff Buckley etc...
Well you get my point.
All new music and artists are just mediocre at best, except in some rare cases (Joanna Newsom, Regina spektor)
Does anyone here feels the same way?
 

restorer-john

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Well almost...
I can't help but feel that older music is just is so much better than all the new stuff being released today in all music genres.
There isn't one modern rock band that even comes close to Radiohead, Nirvana, PJ etc..
No artist that comes close to MJ
No new Bob Dylan, no new Jeff Buckley etc...
Well you get my point.
All new music and artists are just mediocre at best, except in some rare cases (Joanna Newsom, Regina spektor)
Does anyone here feels the same way?

You're getting old.
 

restorer-john

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Seriously, I agree. Even my two teen boys can't be bothered with current music which is made for their generation. They reckon it's garbage. Miserable girl and guitar, pathetic waif-life 'singers' recording in basements and more autotune than you can possibly imagine.

But, like I said, we are getting older and although we like to think we are open to 'new' music, most of it just doesn't resonate much with us perhaps. Like some of the music Amir posts in his lists of tracks he uses would make me run out of the room. Don't know if he genuinely likes it, or just wants to appear cool with the kids. ;)

A bit like a grandpa at a nightclub. That's how I feel with pretty much everything I hear on the radio.
 

MakeMineVinyl

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Streaming has introduced me to a good deal of new music, some of which I think is quite good. On the classical side, there is a lot of contemporary music being written which reminds me of the Avant Garde of the late 60s.

But then, I never got into rock music when I was young - it was almost any genre but rock. My dad once yelled at me for listening to 'weirdo shit' - it was 'Kontakte' by Stockhausen. My dad was an idiot. :oops:
 

dmac6419

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Well almost...
I can't help but feel that older music is just is so much better than all the new stuff being released today in all music genres.
There isn't one modern rock band that even comes close to Radiohead, Nirvana, PJ etc..
No artist that comes close to MJ
No new Bob Dylan, no new Jeff Buckley etc...
Well you get my point.
All new music and artists are just mediocre at best, except in some rare cases (Joanna Newsom, Regina spektor)
Does anyone here feels the same way?
Nope,music is fine,you need to get out and enjoy it,if you're in the USA, when all this is over with take a trip to Austin Tx,Nashville Tn, you'll be amazed at all the gorgeous up and coming acts,sometimes you need to go to where the music or talent is at.
 

Blumlein 88

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Try this, go back and pick a few months in years past. Look at what the top 40 music was. Look at how much of it was considered dreck by you even then. Not that much different now. Maybe 15% will in the future be considered good with maybe 5% considered great for the genre and time period. And then some aging guy in 2061 will list a few of the greats from now and opine how music isn't good like it used to be.

Try this list for 1990 which includes songs from Donny Osmond, Vanilla Ice, and INSX. o_O

https://top40weekly.com/1990-all-charts/

Or this one from 1991 which does include one Nirvana song along with MC Hammer, Boyz II Men, Cher, Bryan Adams, and Michael Bolton.
https://top40weekly.com/1991-all-charts/:rolleyes:
 

Andysu

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Yes old music such as classical is way better than pop music.
 

Mart68

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Streaming has introduced me to a good deal of new music, some of which I think is quite good. On the classical side, there is a lot of contemporary music being written which reminds me of the Avant Garde of the late 60s.

But then, I never got into rock music when I was young - it was almost any genre but rock. My dad once yelled at me for listening to 'weirdo shit' - it was 'Kontakte' by Stockhausen. My dad was an idiot. :oops:

I was watching the '80s' music channel last night they were playing all the songs from the original 'Now That's What I Call Music' compilation LP.

The Human League came on doing 'Fascination.' Not seen that video since it was originally shown on 'Top Of The Pops' back in 1983. Had me laughing out loud as I can distinctly remember my father exclaiming 'What the bloody hell is this?! Is he wearing lipstick?!'

O/P is right, modern music is rubbish or derivative. Everything's been done before, and better. Yes I am getting old but I don't think that has anything to do with it. There's no proper bands anymore, no sex, drugs and rock n roll. They all have to behave like ' good role models for young people.'

The time has gone and it's not going to return. At least we still have all the good stuff to go back to although the way things are going I can see that all being banned or confiscated like in 'Joe's Garage.' I mean who has replaced Zappa? Nobody, that's who.
 

Soniclife

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Well almost...
I can't help but feel that older music is just is so much better than all the new stuff being released today in all music genres.
There isn't one modern rock band that even comes close to Radiohead, Nirvana, PJ etc..
No artist that comes close to MJ
No new Bob Dylan, no new Jeff Buckley etc...
Well you get my point.
All new music and artists are just mediocre at best, except in some rare cases (Joanna Newsom, Regina spektor)
Does anyone here feels the same way?
Change the record grandad, I've heard this one my whole life. Seriously this moan predates all the artists you list as examples of things we will never see again. I wonder if this thought actually predates language itself, see the following article for where I'm coming from with this.
https://www.theguardian.com/artandd...s-art-lockdown-obsession-30-000-years-lascaux

What @Blumlein 88 says above is very similar to my own observations on how great things used to be, the music business has always pushed a right load of crap into people's heads, with zero quality filter. It should be easier than ever with the internet, YouTube, streaming etc to find great new music, but there is so much information, so many bands, so many scenes that it's harder than ever to find great new stuff, but it's there, you just need to avoid the streetlight effect.
 

Iving

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It can stretch the mind a bit contemplating that the Earth's moon is just the right diameter - given its distance from the Earth - to "perfectly" eclipse the Sun. One can marvel at the constants in Physics which, but for their values, wouldn't permit our existence such that we may muse upon them. Of course there are different ways of looking at this. Perhaps we are in a universe among many. Evolution of species happens because it can etc.

Anyway - not to digress too much.

To me it's astonishingly providential that the most creative chapter of popular music coincides exactly with the vinyl era. Music "began" with the Rockabilly explosion of the mid-1950s (releases on both 78s and 45s) and "ended" with Punk / CDs. imho there were curious peaks within such as 1967/8 ['Love Is The Law', Fairport ascending, 'Dream Letter', a lot of Psych] and 1972/3 [DSOM, Strawbs, Ziggy].

I know pre-1950s we have had already Classical, Folk, Jazz. Everything (including ourselves) is an eruption of history.

And I know there have been exceptions since the 1980s. Travis is a great band. Sallie Ford (check 'Soul Sick') is a new generation guitarist/singer beyond whingeing waif.

I just wanted to chime in to support the OP. Basically I agree. [I am also just the right age to do so.]
 
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Booker

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Well almost...
I can't help but feel that older music is just is so much better than all the new stuff being released today in all music genres.
There isn't one modern rock band that even comes close to Radiohead, Nirvana, PJ etc..
No artist that comes close to MJ
No new Bob Dylan, no new Jeff Buckley etc...
Well you get my point.
All new music and artists are just mediocre at best, except in some rare cases (Joanna Newsom, Regina spektor)
Does anyone here feels the same way?

I believe the same feelings had some else when compared Radiohead, Nirvana, PJ to their favorites performers from the sixties, seventies.
 

Scgorg

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Like other posters have said, you're getting old. For me it's quite the contrary, I cannot for the life of me listen to most rock from the 70's to 90's, it just puts me to sleep. Pink Floyd? Sleep. King Crimson? Sleep. Radiohead? Sleep. I've remained unable to listen through an entire album of any of these bands. I usually get about halfways but then stop when I realize I'm not enjoying myself in the slightest. Maybe it'll click for me one day, just like classical did.
For more modern music I think there's some great stuff being made, a lot of movies, shows and games have fantastic soundtracks. Electronic music and metal is also, in my opinion, great these days (Tineidae, Morphology and BT for electronic, too many to list for metal). Modern pop music can be rather hit or miss, but I think there is some great stuff being made (Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift come to mind). For more "jazzy stuff" I think both Melody Gardot and GoGo penguin make some remarkable music. For rock I have to admit I am a fan of king gizzard and the lizard wizard, though they are far too genre fluid to say they're "just" a rock band.
 

Sukie

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There's loads of good new music, there's loads of crap new music.
There's loads of good music from the 2010s, there's loads of crap music from the 2010s.
There's loads of good music from the 2000s, there's loads of crap music from the 2000s.
There's loads of good music from the 1990s, there's loads of crap music from the 1990s.
There's loads of good music from the 1980s, there's loads of crap music from the 1980s.
There's loads of good music from the 1970s, there's loads of crap music from the 1970s.
There's loads of good music from the 1960s, there's loads of crap music from the 1960s.
ad infinitum!

Seriously, there's loads of great new stuff out there across a whole range of genres. New music Friday's always a day of excitement for me.

Released today and already added to my library:

Holly Macve - Not That Girl (country-ish music by an Irish singer, raised in Yorkshire!)
Old Sea Brigade - Motivational Speaking (sort of folky)
St Vincent - Daddy's Home (don't know where to begin when describing St Vincent)
Sara Bug - Sara Bug (another one with a country-tinge)
Johanna Samuels - Excelsior! (folk feel to this one)

Don't get me wrong, I love the classics of all eras. But the day I stop listening to new music is that day that you can put me in a coffin.
 

digitalfrost

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I haven't bothered with mainstream music in over a decade. Could be my age, but I would also say what is mainstream doesn't matter anymore. With the internet, there are a thousand niches to explore and everybody can find something they like. But it also means we live in fragmentation. I think the times of a single common narrative (and big mainstream artists) is not coming back.

Bowie predicted this in 1999(!).


(here's the full show for anyone interested)

As for artists. You just need to look in different places. https://bandcamp.com/ is great for example, once you found an artist you like it's easy to find more that are similar. On YouTube there are whole channels dedicated to a specific genre, so you can keep up with new releases. Example:

https://www.youtube.com/c/666MrDoom/videos
https://www.youtube.com/c/NewRetroWave/videos

This last link, Synthwave is a genre that I just love. It developed in the 2010s, and I think the most "mainstream" this ever was was the movie Drive (2011) that featured Kavinsky's OutRrun album:


Or take metal music. I am too young to remember when headbanger's ball was on MTV, but a friend of mine had an older brother and we inherited all his CDs when he went to college.
When grunge took over the mainstream in the early 1990s, metal never went away. Today, you can probably find more good metal music than at any time before - if you know where to look.

Today, are there even mainstream subcultures anymore? Subcultures that grow so big, that the normies adopt them and you actually see people in the street that you can immediately assign to a certain scene? The last I can remember was with all the emos in the late 2000s I think. And that was probably the first and last also driven by the internet (anyone remember MySpace?).

I just looked at the album charts and I'm quite surprised. 1st is a french metal band with growls? Then 2nd place is the grateful dead? Pink Floyd is in there, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Thriller by MJ etc. Whoever's still buying albums, they buy a lot of the old stuff.
 

restorer-john

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Modern pop music can be rather hit or miss, but I think there is some great stuff being made (Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift come to mind).

Honestly, Taylor Swift's productions and finger-on-the-pulse for what is commercially viable, is light years ahead of bands/promoters/record companies of the past.

That said, she and her music is not for my demographic (nor should it be), but I appreciate it. She's a modern incarnation of Madonna.
 

buz

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Like other posters have said, you're getting old. For me it's quite the contrary, I cannot for the life of me listen to most rock from the 70's to 90's, it just puts me to sleep. Pink Floyd? Sleep. King Crimson? Sleep. Radiohead? Sleep. I've remained unable to listen through an entire album of any of these bands. I usually get about halfways but then stop when I realize I'm not enjoying myself in the slightest.

This. Also for my live can't figure out how people can listen to the Beach Boys. I make an exception for 'The Wall' and some Queen stuff, though. With a few exceptions (chiefly, Metallica and a few seminal Iron Maiden & Black Sabbath tracks), I will even extend this to pre 90s metal even though metal is definitely my main fare.

Feel like every year I come across a few good metal albums produced anywhere from the 2000s on. Usually pays to go look at the band's catalog at that point (discoveries this year, so far: Einherjer & Judicator). And select one of the (new) favorites and let your favorite streaming service do a radio station based on it.

Edit: hits send and puts on Master of Puppets
 

teched58

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I believe the same feelings had some else when compared Radiohead, Nirvana, PJ to their favorites performers from the sixties, seventies.

When you guys refer to "PJ," do you mean PJ Harvey? If so, is that how Brits refer to her? I.e., is she big enough in England that everyone knows who you're talking about w.out mentioning last name?

Asking cause I'm in the USA. She is not universally known here; not a big star. Confirming this is fact that she I don't think she's toured in the US since 2017, although I vaguely recall she did a date in Brooklyn in Summer 2019. She can fill mid-sized venues in hipper cities, sorta like when Bryan Ferry tours here. Nevertheless, she does have a substantial and very passionate following, myself included, who not only like her work but view her as a important and serious artist.

Anyway, I hope I'm not revealing myself as an old guy and you're really referring to some autotune act of whom I'm unfamiliar. BTW, I'm a late Boomer, so one generational cohort older than her typical fan. Anyway, she is awesome and I am enjoying the release of demo versions of all her albums.
 

Robin L

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You're getting old.
I wonder if there's a neurological element to this. How us old folk feel is "filled up", we've got enough in the 5000 hours were heard and paid attention to, thanks, I've had enough. I feel that something new will sneak through, like when my granddaughter said "LCD Soundsystem must be the best people in the world" and who knows, maybe they are:


That said, learning songs, playing music---if you want to maintain a younger attitude about music, pick up a guitar and learn how to play. In a week or two, when you hit the charts the girls will tear you apart.
 
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