Music is dead.

[killdozzer]

Music evolves just like everything else, to think that something has reached some kind of "apex" is very human, but arbitrary and ultimately wrong in the grand scheme of things.
I dislike many new genres, but I know is about my personal taste. Even talking about "absolute quality" is delusional, for instance Nirvana were making songs with a couple of chords, eons away from the sophisticated Nine Inch Nails productions or the amazing skills of Nils Frahm, but in a way all of them are among the greatest, so… what is "quality" if not a pseudo-rationalized version of taste?

By the way, Kirby Ferguson has made a very interesting series about the topic, which I hope would contribute to the conversation:

Nirvana is a good example to point out all of this is the myth of the golden age. OP today puts Nirvana with Led Zeppelin. In 90' old rockers infatuated with, for example, Rolling Stones would probably tell the OP he's still wet behind the ears and he needs to learn something about music.

Most important thing, it obviously shifted. Crying about the myth of the golden age in 90' didn't include Nirvana and in fact ostracized Nirvana for the fact that one of their albums got released with an obvious mistake a member made while playing. Rockers were determined; sure we like rock, but this is bellow acceptable, you can't publish an album with an obvious mistake. (I don't care for that argument, but when thinking of the genious of the Zeppelin drummer, one might think these don't belong together).

So it shifted to include Nirvana and it will shift again. It will bring with Zeppelin, for sure, but The Band?? Come on. This used to be as obligatory as it gets in every record collector. Today kids couldn't give a flying for this:

 

[Newman]

You're getting old.

I don’t know how you can say that, when the OP had just finished referencing Radiohead and Nirvana as “older music”. To me they are positively New Wave! I cut my teeth on LZ RS KC PF CCR Bowie and Yes.

OTOH I don’t feel like I got stuck there. Even ten years later I felt that I had moved on and the above didn’t resonate so well with me, and I was more open to Police, DS, XTC, Laurie Anderson, Armatrading, Prince, Gabriel, Talking Heads… Another ten and Nirvana and RHCP rang my gong (“older music”, LOL), and they just keep coming: Beck, Radiohead, Daft Punk, Norman Cook, Flaming Lips, Mono, Massive Attack, Moby, Gnarls Barkley, Goldfrapp, Amy Winehouse, White Stripes, Sigur Ros, Raconteurs, Fontaines DC…. it’s quite the ride.

And that’s just rock and pop.

 

[Paolo]

I don’t know how you can say that, when the OP had just finished referencing Radiohead and Nirvana as “older music”. To me they are positively New Wave! I cut my teeth on LZ RS KC PF CCW Bowie and Yes.

I’m 42 and yes, I’m old when it comes to music tastes, 20–25 years older than the people who are forming their musical taste now with so many contemporary artists I don’t even know…
My musical taste is some 30 years old, so I can’t affirm with a straight face to be young, at least in that regard.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Nirvana is a good example to point out all of this is the myth of the golden age. OP today puts Nirvana with Led Zeppelin. In 90' old rockers infatuated with, for example, Rolling Stones would probably tell the OP he's still wet behind the ears and he needs to learn something about music.

Most important thing, it obviously shifted. Crying about the myth of the golden age in 90' didn't include Nirvana and in fact ostracized Nirvana for the fact that one of their albums got released with an obvious mistake a member made while playing. Rockers were determined; sure we like rock, but this is bellow acceptable, you can't publish an album with an obvious mistake. (I don't care for that argument, but when thinking of the genious of the Zeppelin drummer, one might think these don't belong together).

So it shifted to include Nirvana and it will shift again. It will bring with Zeppelin, for sure, but The Band?? Come on. This used to be as obligatory as it gets in every record collector. Today kids couldn't give a flying for this:

What mistake is that?

 

[ahender]

Americana genre is my preference. A wide range of music from Lillie Mae to Yo-Yo Ma. Recordings are excellent.

 

[rdenney]

...
Interesting, I also stopped paying attention to lyrics, but my sentiment is the lyrics are rarely good and less so as the time progress. I think Adele's lyrics are "soap opera" stupid. Luckily, I don't like her singing nor her music either, so it's an easy choice for me. What I hate is finding some good music with dumb lyrics, but as I said, I just don't listen to them. On the other hand, when lyrics in contemporary music are good, they are really good.
...

One of the reasons I like the group Yes of old is that Jon Anderson's lyrics are hopelessly obscure. I don't need to fight my fundamental disagreement with some amateur philosopher, or endure some naïve political commentary, or roll my eyes at some teenager love problem, or be disgusted by profane or misogynist messages. They are obscure enough to relieve me of any responsibility to know what the hell they mean.

Rick "it's the music, maaaan" Denney

 

[killdozzer]

One of the reasons I like the group Yes of old is that Jon Anderson's lyrics are hopelessly obscure. I don't need to fight my fundamental disagreement with some amateur philosopher, or endure some naïve political commentary, or roll my eyes at some teenager love problem, or be disgusted by profane or misogynist messages. They are obscure enough to relieve me of any responsibility to know what they hell they mean.

Rick "it's the music, maaaan" Denney

That's a funny reason, but I'll take it. Listening to foreign music might help with this. Interesting enough, I never bothered to check one single fado song what it's about. I just don't care. I think they're beautiful and don't need to go any further.

On rare occasions when a song I like has good lyrics... It's all the better. For me "Bloodless" by Andrew Bird is one such song or "Silver Timothy" by Damien Jurado and the one I mentioned earlier by the Band of Horses.

I was crazy about Yes when I was young. What I liked the best was the strange "windy" quality of Anderson's voice. Personally, I'm a huge admirer of Steven Wilson's remasters of Yes studio albums. You might give it a go, perhaps you'll like them. (Naturally, I expect you already know about them. If so, tell me what you think, I'm always curious how fans of the band accepted the remasters)

Of all the reasons you listed, I give some slack to teenage love problems. I want to have some patience for them.

 

[Ron Party]

I'm literally getting lost and overwhelmed with mountains of music that is superb. My waiting lists for albums to give a first listen to starting to depress me as I come to realize I'll die before I hear them all.

+ *,000, as in my agreement with you and the number on my waiting list. I'm purposefully not putting in the number where lies the asterisk as I'm embarrassed by it. I think I need psychological help.

 

[killdozzer]

+ *,000, as in my agreement with you and the number on my waiting list. I'm purposefully not putting in the number where lies the asterisk as I'm embarrassed by it. I think I need psychological help.

Well, since you admitted I may as well; when I was listing the albums I listened the other week, I skipped on all those from 2018 and 2019 for the same reason.

 

[Ron Party]

My #1 hated song is Wonderwall by Oasis. But I'm not the only one in that.

LOL. My most hated song: Paul Anka's (You're) Having My Baby:

Having my baby
What a lovely way of saying
How much you love me.
Having my baby
What a lovely way of saying
What you're thinking of me.

Could the lyrics be any more *&#!!? I won't even type the adjective as this is a public forum and I'm compelled to draw the line here.

 

[MattHooper]

One of the reasons I like the group Yes of old is that Jon Anderson's lyrics are hopelessly obscure. I don't need to fight my fundamental disagreement with some amateur philosopher, or endure some naïve political commentary, or roll my eyes at some teenager love problem, or be disgusted by profane or misogynist messages. They are obscure enough to relieve me of any responsibility to know what they hell they mean.

Rick "it's the music, maaaan" Denney

You list a lot of the reasons I care less about lyrics these days. I don't really need the amateur philosophy, nor do I much related to the teen angst of may pop songs, etc, etc. (That's not to say I don't like the lyrics of some songs).

 

[JaccoW]

By the way, Kirby Ferguson has made a very interesting series about the topic, which I hope would contribute to the conversation:

I'm still watching this but I enjoyed learning that Led Zeppelin was labeled a ripoff band at the time because some of their most popular songs are uncredited covers of artists from before... or even who lived at the same time. Which is especially galling since they often didn't even change the song enough to make it a completely different experience.

Like how Dazed and Confused is... Dazed and Confused by Jake Holmes. Or how the intro to Stairway to heaven comes straight from Taurus by Spirit. Even though the courts decided differently but didn't allow the jury to listen to it. Anyway, they have been sued (and lost) repeatedly.

 

[SKBubba]

Music is back...