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Is music today a bit shït?

Atari Jaguar

Not to go all "BACK IN MY DAAAAY!" but whenever I hear some of what's popular today I get a little sad.

It's all a bit shït, for one. I find it's rather repetitive, seemingly always about the same subject. And always one genre... fake voices and synth instruments. What gives?

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RobertKK

Sia is an excellent modern day talent. So is Taylor Swift, who is self made and these would be huge stars in any age of modern music.

I listen to a lot of music both old and new.

mzungu

I'm sure there are probably some great bands plugging away on the gig circuit that do not have mainstream acceptance and/or appeal because they have not been marketed properly. The trend now is more towards trying to get a few hit singles to tie a lacklustre album together and the rest can be supplemented by being photographed falling out of some London nightclub followed by selling the story about the stint in The Priory to some gossip mag.

Say what you will about Britpop, but it was the last exciting musical movement...even if a lot of the hype was manufactured by Melody Maker and The NME. There was still quality bands in there and the charts were full of them on a weekly basis. That indie movement in the early to mid noughties was all image with absolutely no substance behind it, and Melody Maker and The NME can be blamed for this too. The quality of mainstream has been in decline for quite some time.

mzungu

RobertKK wrote: »

Sia is an excellent modern day talent. So is Taylor Swift, who is self made and these would be huge stars in any age of modern music.

I listen to a lot of music both old and new.

Looks like somebody started the New Year celebrations a bit early :P

the evasion_kid

Problem is today we have fastfood music,with Simon Cowell and the likes being the McDonald's of music...

tomwaits48

Did someone mention Disturbed in the same vein as AC/DC?? Lol

conorhal

mzungu wrote: »

Say what you will about Britpop, but it was the last exciting musical movement...even if a lot of the hype was manufactured by Melody Maker and The NME. There was still quality bands in there and the charts were full of them on a weekly basis. That indie movement in the early to mid noughties was all image with absolutely no substance behind it, and Melody Maker and The NME can be blamed for this too. The quality of mainstream has been in decline for quite some time.

Britpop was the last great movement in music because the way we consume music has changed so much, back in the early 90's you were either Blur or Oasis, queue riot.
I can't imagine the public taking up a band like they were taking up call to arms any more. I can remember when people would actually queue up overnight outside HMV to be the first to get a major album release.
Technology has rendered that kind of collective experience obsolete, but it has also atomized the scene making it hard to gather an audience at the level that a band enters the public zeitgeist. The only way to do that now is post pictures of your arse and start a twitter spat that makes the gossip pages. That's why most of the big names in the business right now are also the most internet savvy when it comes to generating media about themselves, which is also why I know who Justin Beiber or Miley Cyrus are, but I couldn't name you a song associated with them.

joewicklow

I'll just leave this here,

[Deleted User]

tomwaits48 wrote: »

Did someone mention Disturbed in the same vein as AC/DC?? Lol

Exactly are Disturbed not a crappy nu metal act. Heavy metal for frat boys.

fryup

Pop music died the day S.A.W arrived on the scene

TerrorFirmer

To be fair I think music is perfectly fine these days and I enjoy a lot of it across different genres and find it pretty healthy. I think most people just don't seem to grasp the simple truth that simply not liking it does not magically and objectively make it shit. Simpsons summed it up pretty well with this, and this very conversation has been happening repeatedly over the past few decades - not just regarding music, but other mediums of entertainment too, particularly film.

Because the alternative, which is what seems to be the implication around here, is that the chart hits are just talent less drivel being mindlessly consumed by braindead, consumer driven zombies eager to lap up any old garbage. It's convenient.... but not really true. The same argument is often made about the modern film industry and the past 'golden era', which remarkably coincidentally, is almost always the 70's and 80's as well.

Times change. You can move with them or don't, the older stuff is there for you to forever more appreciate, but let others like what they like without acting like an ass.

Pawwed Rig

Music died on April 5th 1994.

Austria!

I think pop music is better than ever. There's a fantastic appreciation of subtle dynamic changes, a wonderful incorporation of rappish elements (Ed Sheeran's Nina, the newest one from 5th Harmony, Starboy), insanely good production values. Actually thinking about it, I believe MMLP and Eminem show influences a lot more than people realise. While there's prominent shared features like Autotune and lyrics about partying, I think there's as much or more diversity in music as there's ever been.

I think genuine rock is not as good, however. In terms of that Alt-rock and sort of indie stuff Alt-J and Daughter are quite good. But there's no smashing pumpkins or Nirvana or Oasis like there was 91-96.

Also, Drake and Lil Wayne remain popular for some reason.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Maybe Rock Music is just going out of fashion.It happened to Jazz where it was far more mainstream in the past but isn't anymore.

Surely eventually everything was going to sound like something else as there is only so much you can do with any art form so the lack of supposed originality was bound to occur at some stage.

Music doesn't seem to be anywhere near as important to people as it used to be.It seemed to define who people were in the past where it seems television and professional sports teams have taken that mantle away from music to a large extent.

Trekker09

Louis Walsh killed popular music

dd972

What I've noticed is that music seems to be an online thing now as opposed to when everyone knew what was in the top 10 or watched TOTP, for instance, I don't know any One Direction or Justin Bieber songs but know all the Take That ones and I don't even follow pop music.

mixery

rock music is passè defnitely, and majority of indie is crap. i don't see any significant sub-genres developing within them.
reggae declined in popularity.
rap music grew immensely(replacing jazz/funk to an extent).
everything electronic is huge.
and there's an abundance of anything alternative + millions of small musicians. instruments are super cheap, and with social media + platforms like soundcloud anyone can share their work/get noticed.
music is still very very good, but it's moved on from radios, and for the better.

you just have to look a bit - this Slovenian guy for example in my opinion has a magnificent feel for music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ZjzTKiG4M

[Deleted User]

Lots of whiney old people on here. Plenty of good music still out there.

Ulysses Gaze

Omackeral wrote: »

Lots of whiney old people on here. Plenty of good music still out there.

I'd agree...you just need to look around to find it is all.

Relying on the charts is a waste of time.

bnt

fryup wrote: »

Pop music died the day S.A.W arrived on the scene

Maybe, but most of the younglings here will have no idea who or what S.A.W. was! Me, I blame AutoTune.

Pete Moss

tomwaits48 wrote: »

Did someone mention Disturbed in the same vein as AC/DC?? Lol

Yep. Plus they threw Disturbed in there with Zeppelin as well :rolleyes:

Hollis Hurlbut

Just f*cking LOL at 'Hold Back the River' being a masterpiece! Hilarious! It's just shocking.

No music is not crap today. The stuff you're constantly exposed to is though. Lots of great bands about if you put a bit of effort into discovering new bands.

Heckler

Lots of great bands still out there but social media and x factor and their ilk have messed it up.

I'm an oldie, when I was a teenager in the early 90's it was all Jesus and Mary Chain, The Bunnymen, Dead Kennedys and all that.

And before anyone says yea but "chart music" I mean, The Cure regularly charted, The JAMC charted with April Skies (and everyone was a brief JAMC fan after Lost in Translation). Echo and the Bunnymen charted with Bring on the Dancing Horses and so on.

I think teens these days are influenced by what they think is popular. They might not even like the music but if its what their friends are listening to and popular culture says is the done thing then they'll go for it. And especially teen girls are influenced by looks. Hence all the boybands.

So yeah, its a bit ****. Some amazing bands out there but they'll never get the recognision they might deserve.

Billy86

This type of thread seems to pop up every few months, trying to say all music is crap in a time when we have ridiculously more available to us is frankly just lazy. What is in the charts is generally not great and sounds very generic (largely due to Swedish producers taking over with a very similar sound that's been built on a 'formula' for 'catchy), but some of what is available otherwise is brilliant, with artists like Chance the Rapper, Frank Ocean, David Bowie, A Tribe Called Quest, Radiohead, Kaytranda and a bunch of others bringing out really good stuff just this year.

It's really great to see Chance beginning to get the recognition he deserves lately, having turned down record deals in recent years so he could make music how he wanted to

Pretty sure everything below is from the last 12 months.

Heckler

Billy86 wrote: »

This type of thread seems to pop up every few months, trying to say all music is crap in a time when we have ridiculously more available to us is frankly just lazy. What is in the charts is generally not great and sounds very generic (largely due to Swedish producers taking over with a very similar sound that's been built on a 'formula' for 'catchy), but some of what is available otherwise is brilliant, with artists like Chance the Rapper, Frank Ocean, David Bowie, A Tribe Called Quest, Radiohead, Kaytranda and a bunch of others bringing out really good stuff just this year.

It's really great to see Chance beginning to get the recognition he deserves lately, having turned down record deals in recent years so he could make music how he wanted to

Again its all subjective. From your videos I love Bowie, love Radiohead but I don't like Chance the Rapper. I'm sure hes good at what he does but I couldn't listen to it.

Pretty sure everything below is from the last 12 months.

Again its all subjective. From your videos I love Bowie, love Radiohead but I don't like Chance the Rapper. I'm sure hes good at what he does but I couldn't listen to it.

GLaDOS

Depends what you're into I suppose. What seems to be popular is indeed rubbish, but radio (Certainly Irish radio) and TV have become irrelevant in terms of discovering new music as as I am concerned. The internet is a fantastic tool for both artists and listeners when utilised properly.

Rothko

joewicklow wrote: »

I'll just leave this here,

Why do people always post images similar to this. Do they think that producers only write lyrics or something?

ScumLord

Music is at a very different stage now than it would have been even 20 years ago. It's much more accessible, it's much more developed and understood, we've applied science to it so major labels know what noises tickle our primitive brain in just the right way and there's a lot more of it.

There's too much of it for any of it to be special anymore. The labels are producing engineered products, rather than latching onto whatever the kids are up to.

That all seeps out into every other part of the music industry. The people growing up learning music want to get fans and to do that they follow the same formulas as the big boys (because technology has made that possible) and end up formatting themselves for the music industry.

Part of the problem is we're also coming off a time when music was instrumental in social changes, the 50s to the 80s was a unique time that allowed for an explosion in music, but I don't think that can go on, it was a moment, but now it's over. Now music has become a product and it's even losing it's ties to culture and becoming more associated with lifestyle.

Music was better in the recent past because it meant something, it did something. Now it means nothing outside of personal appreciation and its been usurped by other vehicles when it comes to social change.

Saipanne

Arcade_Tryer wrote: »

I guess the early 00s golden era of indie rock music never happened. It was all an illusion. #FakeMusic

I thought it was great at the time, but I never listen to that era any more. Yet, I still listen to the classics. Plus, I think the late noughties were better than the early.

the purple tin

Pop started to go downhill with Stock Aitken and Waterman.

dublinman1990

The current chart music scene is a wasteland to look for good music now. I wouldn't waste my time with it as most of the current artists don't appeal to me.

Go out of the comfort zone & get a better feel of music for your enjoyment.