Cynical Music Taste

MaxSteele

Is it just me or am I the only one who just can't hack any of the seemingly generic ****e trotted out as "music" anymore ?

Whether it be in the charts or this new electro/dubstep/rock collaberation genre.

Surfing through iTunes, radio station charts and Bilboards online, all I find is the same crap or overplayed classic hits you hear over and over like "don't stop believin" by Journey, The coronas, Florence and the Machine or Rihanna.

"Madness" by muse, which was released recently has been the only song I've thought was anyway decent this year so far. I'm finding myself just looking toward nostalgic older music from the 80's and 90's now. Even they're starting to become stale.

Am I just cynical or is music becoming less fresh ?

Sauve

Music is all about pushing buttons, and whatever it takes to push yours is all that matters.
Be that One Direction/Ella Fitzgerald/Marilyn Manson/Imelda May....

Listen to what you like, life is short

senorwipesalot

Tis a load of cobblers now.

Wheres "A Flock of Seagulls" when you need them?

Chris_Heilong

New music sucks, just listen to music you like and forget what record companies want you to listen to.

gammygils

Yeah. Is there any such thing as a band anymore?

Like guitarists - rythm & bass, a drummer, keyboard player,etc.

Instead of a backing track & 5 vocalists dancin around like tits

Like One Direction!!

say_who_now?

Internet Radio Stations OP, your ears will thank you for it! I've gotten really into it lately and the only drawback is the power drain on my mobile's battery, but worth it for a few hours of advert free music genres that I want to listen to!

Rothko

There's more to music than the charts. There's loads of great music still being made.

DEFTLEFTHAND

It's turned in this desperate digital age. The arts of musicianship and songwriting are no longer staples of popular chart music.

Part of the dumbing down of the masses, a horrible generation to be part of.

Saying that, some good stuff is still out there in 2012, you just got to delve a little deeper than commercial radio and TV to find it.

Da Shins Kelly

There is definitely great music still being made today. You may have to look further than the radio to find it, but this is the magic of the internet. You're merely seconds away from finding whatever it is you want to listen to. You're not confined to the radio or music channels on television any more. The availability of music is far greater and wider than it has ever been before. There is a wealth of great music out there and there really is something for everyone if you take the time to look.

And let's face it, we all look through rose-tinted glasses when assessing the music of the past. There was plenty of sh*te being made back then too, we just filter it out now and pretend it never happened.

Ghost Buster

MaxSteele wrote: »

Is it just me or am I the only one who just can't hack any of the seemingly generic ****e trotted out as "music" anymore ?

Whether it be in the charts or this new electro/dubstep/rock collaberation genre.

Surfing through iTunes, radio station charts and Bilboards online, all I find is the same crap or overplayed classic hits you hear over and over like "don't stop believin" by Journey, The coronas, Florence and the Machine or Rihanna.

"Madness" by muse, which was released recently has been the only song I've thought was anyway decent this year so far. I'm finding myself just looking toward nostalgic older music from the 80's and 90's now. Even they're starting to become stale.

Am I just cynical or is music becoming less fresh ?

Its simple really. You are looking in the wrong places. Plenty O good music out there, always was, is and will be.

Ghost Buster

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

New music sucks, just listen to music you like and forget what record companies want you to listen to.

New music that sucks sucks. But there is good new music.

Captain Danger

Ignore the radio. Stations have access to thousands of songs and seem content with playng the same 15 songs all day. I can only assume this is what their listeners want.

Real Life

the radio is not the place to find good music nowadays thats all. its still out there just not on the radio.

Dave!

I'm in agreement with the OP, and was only yesterday saying how I haven't heard a One Direction song, despite their apparent popularity. Similarly a lot of my mates are into generic hip hop crap, but I've managed to stay blissfully insulated from it all. If I'm discovering "new" music it'll usually be from the 70s or so! That said, I wouldn't say I'm a snob or anything, I just don't really know where to find decent new music! I did however discover Mick Flannery, and have bought (I know!) 3 of his albums, and been to 2 gigs (another coming up in November)

All that being said, I just got a new Samsung S3 yesterday with unlimited data, so someone who knows their internet radio stuff tell me what app to get and where I can find the stations

Pottler

"Ah sure de musics all rubbish these days Breege, dese youngsters wouldn't know good music if it bit them - where's the showbands when you really need them??". Every generation slags off the next generations music - the apes reckoned the music the neanderthals battered out on their hide drums was crap as well.

mud

There is amazing music being made every day. New, fresh and exciting.

BandCamp is a great place to discover new sounds.

Steve Davis has a brilliant radio show on Monday nights on Phoenix FM called the Interesting Alternative Show.

Check out new up and coming labels. Technology is now at the point where bands can produce and release their music without being signed. There is fantastic music out there.

I don't diss the 1D crowd, I don't diss anyone's musical tastes. I know what's for and not for me though. Man, I love music.

GLaDOS

Lots of great music about, I actually think this has been a particularly good year for music

yore

MaxSteele wrote: »

Is it just me or am I the only one who just can't hack any of the seemingly generic ****e trotted out as "music" anymore ?

Whether it be in the charts or this new electro/dubstep/rock collaberation genre.

Surfing through iTunes, radio station charts and Bilboards online, all I find is the same crap or overplayed classic hits you hear over and over like "don't stop believin" by Journey, The coronas, Florence and the Machine or Rihanna.

"Madness" by muse, which was released recently has been the only song I've thought was anyway decent this year so far. I'm finding myself just looking toward nostalgic older music from the 80's and 90's now. Even they're starting to become stale.

Am I just cynical or is music becoming less fresh ?

Translation:

"Young people nowadays with their new fangled bang bang hippity hoppity pop musics. And no respect for their elders either. It wasn't like that in my day I tell you."

Da Shins Kelly

Pottler wrote: »

"Ah sure de musics all rubbish these days Breege, dese youngsters wouldn't know good music if it bit them - where's the showbands when you really need them??". Every generation slags off the next generations music - the apes reckoned the music the neanderthals battered out on their hide drums was crap as well.

It's true. My mother's mother hated Elvis Presley and the Beatles. My father hated Eminem when he first appeared. I admit I am not a fan of Justin Bieber or One Direction, but there's more to music today than that. If you're going to judge the current generation's music on One Direction, then you're not really giving it a fair chance. There are loads of great artists in different genres of music if you scratch even a little below the surface.

I will agree that most chart music is not great. It is difficult enough to find good songwriting and unique individuals in a lot of popular chart music at the moment. Occasionally someone appears in the mainstream who has the talent and the songs to back it up, but they do seem to be few and far between. However, with all the technology and music sharing we have at our disposal these days, I don't think anyone really has any excuse to complain about the quality of music being made - if they took the time to look, I can pretty much guarantee that most people will be able to find a current artist(s) that they do really like.

Where To

I agree. Music has gone to the dogs since the demise of Atlantic 252.

Madam_X

Nah chart music is definitely more bland and generic - that's not "back in my day" stuff. In the 70s/80s/early 90s there was of course shyte chart stuff too but plenty of great and memorable pop tunes. You'd be hard pressed to find a memorable one now, it mostly blends into one dreary blob. Duran Duran and Adam & The Ants occupied the same space Westlife and One Direction and JLS occupy now, which says enough.

Anyway the charts starting getting especially shyte for me when I was 13 so the "it's just you getting old" stuff is moot.
Still the very odd catchy number now though in fairness.

Ghost Buster

Where To wrote: »

I agree. Music has gone to the dogs since the demise of Atlantic 252.

If Atlantic 252 was a band that post would make sense but.....

MaxSteele

yore wrote: »

Translation:

"Young people nowadays with their new fangled bang bang hippity hoppity pop musics. And no respect for their elders either. It wasn't like that in my day I tell you."

I'm only 20 FFS.:rolleyes:

Rothko

Madam_X wrote: »

Nah chart music is definitely more bland and generic - that's not "back in my day" stuff. In the 70s/80s/early 90s there was of course shyte chart stuff too but plenty of great and memorable pop tunes. You'd be hard pressed to find a memorable one now, it mostly blends into one dreary blob. Duran Duran and Adam & The Ants occupied the same space Westlife and One Direction and JLS occupy now, which says enough.

Anyway the charts starting getting especially shyte for me when I was 13 so the "it's just you getting old" stuff is moot.
Still the very odd catchy number now though in fairness.

Yeah, I'll agree that the charts are probably worse than they've ever been (although the early 60's stuff was pretty bad too). However, like I posted before, there is far more to music that the charts. The charts aren't even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to music. There is loads of fantastic music around these days. It's just that a lot of it isn't being played that much on radio or TV.

MaxSteele

I don't know where to start looking other than the charts or iTunes tbh.

Sure post some links to where you get your music and some of the internet radio channels you listen to or whatever.:)

Rothko

MaxSteele wrote: »

I don't know where to start looking other than the charts or iTunes tbh.

Sure post some links to where you get your music and some of the internet radio channels you listen to or whatever.:)

I've discovered some great music on LastFm. It recommends you stuff based on what you already listen to.

Edit: Lol, great minds think alike

GLaDOS

MaxSteele wrote: »

I don't know where to start looking other than the charts or iTunes tbh.

Sure post some links to where you get your music and some of the internet radio channels you listen to or whatever.:)

I'd recommend last.fm for finding new music. It tracks what you listen to then recommends bands of a similar type.

edit: lol beaten to it!

Da Shins Kelly

MaxSteele wrote: »

I don't know where to start looking other than the charts or iTunes tbh.

Sure post some links to where you get your music and some of the internet radio channels you listen to or whatever.:)

Last.fm is one I like. It builds a profile of your tastes and suggests music that you may like based on that.

Edit: Ha! Three in a row!

languagenerd

I haven't paid any attention to the charts/radio since I was about 14, and I've still seen loads of brilliant new/modern-day bands in the last few years.

Consider all the bands and singers that exist in the world - the twenty or so that get played on daytime radio don't even count for 1% of the music that's being put out these days! The digital era has destroyed some aspects of music, but it has made it far easier to find the sort of groups you want to listen to. 30 years ago, you would have found it a lot more difficult to discover/keep up with a small band from a town in Arkansas for example - but now, all you have to do is "like" them on Facebook or search them on Youtube, and you can buy their music from several websites (in both physical and virtual format).

A band doesn't have to be popular to be good (there are always groups that fall through the cracks and never get the big break they deserve, or groups that will be huge in years to come).

I think there are more musicians out there than ever, and it's never been easier to find them. Start with the bands you do like and look for others in the same genre. Get searching! All modern music is not crap - and not all old music is not great either: it's just that a lot of the crap stuff has been hidden by time!

Snake Pliisken

Music is fine, cuture is what's in trouble! Things are only gonna get better for people willing to look for good music, while thicks continue to listen to pantomime straight out of Idiocracy. An honest artist can remove all barriers between themselves and their audience now without compromising their music AT ALL while still making a decent living; that means actual art, instead of horseshite!

Without the record companies and broadcast media deciding what's good(which for them is any vacuous, fame addicted pillock willing to shill for Coke or Pepsi, who can keep people thinking about sex until the next ad break) the real, authentic music automatically rises to the top by community consensus. Any artist whose goal is to be a superstar is an ego maniac and should be quietly put in a wellness centre to learn what life is actually about. Buckets of people might be trapped listening to xfactor finalists, the jonas brothers and old, bloated Jay-z but more and more people are finding the good stuff. The internet is the best thing to ever happen to music, you'd have to be Richard Branson to get to choose from and own the amount of music anyone can get their hands on today!

Mainstream music is just another arm of profit driven media, nothing more than a way to get you to keep spending your money on empty, disposable culture. It's a feedback loop appealing to humanities basic character flaws(ignorance, egotism and greed) which is why it seems to be getting progressively worse. It's the reason clubs are warzones full of locked idiots, debt is so high, teenage pregnancies are through the roof, why eating disorders are so common and attention spans are so short.

In short: it's harmful and if you can't see that you're being taken for a ride or you're solely left-brained and don't care about creative things in general!

NegativeCreep

I think music is better now than it was 5 years ago but much, much worse than it was in the 90's, 80's and 70's. I've lowered my standards a whole lot. I think less about what I'm listening to and that has made all the difference.

latenia

The rock/pop era is over just like the jazz era before it but that doesn't really matter because there's enough great music from the last 60 years to last you several lifetimes.

telecaster

thesixtyone.com

The above station is full of new music, new bands, no ads, no djs, no news / weather / sport.

You can skip through any song that isnt floating your boat.

Earbits is also good in this regard.

Jango will mix up bands you like with new bands of a similar style

Beautiful, inspiring, fresh and unexpected music on all 3.

All are completely free too incidentally

Helix

MaxSteele wrote: »

"Madness" by muse, which was released recently has been the only song I've thought was anyway decent this year so far.

that ruined any point you may have had, given that it's the worst thing muse have ever done

Sky King

Suas11 wrote: »

There's more to music than the charts. There's loads of great music still being made.

Agreed and today it's never been easier to access it. Anyone who says 'today's music is ****e' is not looking hard enough (or at all) imo.

And if you're not happy why not make your own music?

ghostdancer

there's more great music around now than there ever has been.

people who think there isn't are probably just too lazy to actually bother finding it.

"wah wah there's no good music on the radio"...i'm sure my grandparents thought Led Zeppelin were sh1t. i'm sure my parents thought Radiohead were sh1t. (and yes, before someone says it, those 2 are sh1t too blah blah). when i was growing up in the 90s pretty much everything on the radio was some sh1tty pop act or boy/girl group.
music on the radio has nearly always been crap.

in this day and age it's so easy to find good music that it's pretty much overwhelming if you've anything other than an incredibly narrow taste in music.

Sorcha16

The problem with music is that everyone thinks their own personal taste is superior to everyone else's

Helix

Sorcha16 wrote: »

The problem with music is that everyone thinks their own personal taste is superior to everyone else's

that's because it is. there can't be too many people out there who claim to like music that they don't believe is the best out there. why else would they like it after all? there are loads of people who'd think the stuff i listen to is garbage, but to me it's not. to me it's better than the music that most other people listen to it. i like it so much because, in accordance with my taste, there's nothing better. everyone who likes something different likes something that's inferior as far as i'm concerned

that's a two way street. someone who i think likes inferior music believes that their taste is superior to mine, and for them it genuinely is. if it wasnt, for them, they'd listen to the music i listened to instead

Scanlas The 2nd

Da Shins Kelly wrote: »

There is definitely great music still being made today. You may have to look further than the radio to find it, but this is the magic of the internet. You're merely seconds away from finding whatever it is you want to listen to. You're not confined to the radio or music channels on television any more. The availability of music is far greater and wider than it has ever been before. There is a wealth of great music out there and there really is something for everyone if you take the time to look.

And let's face it, we all look through rose-tinted glasses when assessing the music of the past. There was plenty of sh*te being made back then too, we just filter it out now and pretend it never happened.

Yep, in the 2050's they'll be saying they don't make music like the 2010's anymore, it's too commercial these days etc etc

dhmusic

In the 60's - 90's more often than not the best stuff would rise to the top, Bowie or Mark Bolan would be still playing small venues if they appeared today.