Was pop music always this bad?

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

All popular music eras have to be judged by what's popular.

That's not true at all. The Velvet Underground had no commercial success when they were together and now are known as one of the most influential bands of all time.

Firstly, yes, I think the bad has always outweighed the good in pop music, we just look at the past through rose tinted glasses.

Secondly, I'm not sure how a comparison between past and present is entirely fair. The way artists distribute their music and the way the listener receives it has changed. The internet has brought about a totally new experience for both listener and artist that wasn't available in the 80s/90s/etc. The radio and television are the absolute tip of the iceberg with regards to music now. With the advent of the internet it has become so much easier for even unsigned artists to share their music and for the public to find any kind of music they could possibly want to listen to. Charts and the radio and music channels are borderline irrelevant. More money is being made from touring now, which gives great opportunity at longevity to artists who have what it takes in a live setting. To me, that's improvement. Suddenly artists are being judged on their capabilities live more than anything.

Arcade Fire, for example, are a band for all genereations. They will be remembered well down the line and it's not because they dominate the charts and have a million number ones.

Arcade Fire is one example off the top of my head. There is a wealth of great music out there and artists who will be remembered, but they'll be remembered in a way that doesn't have much to do with charts.

SilverScreen wrote: »

Not necessarily. What's popular doesn't necessarily reflect the real musical climate of the time, the 80's is a perfect example.

But it mostly does. There are some exceptions, like the velvet underground, but to compare the charts - which is what the OP is really doing - is to compare what is popular in any era. I could list some very obscure bands in the early to mid nineties but they weren't really that seminal. Eras are judged by well known music, mostly.

bumper234 wrote: »

Lol

I complain about music today, i say it's ****e.....nothing but noise.

My parents said the same to me in the 80's

Their parents said the same to them in the 60's

The circle.continues, am sure there was a parent in the 1500's whinging about the ****e that the latest greatest lute player was playing at the banquet

People say that but I don't think it's quite apt. When you think of the music parents got annoyed by in the 60s: it was the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zeppelin. It was more to do with finding it strange than it actually being bad.
Whereas the stuff people give out about kids listening to now (and I'm only talking about chart music, there's lots of fantastic non chart music) is hardly on the same level as the above.
I'm into rock, alternative, whatever since my early teens, but I've always loved a good pop song, e.g. Can't Get You Out Of My Head, a number of tracks by Sugababes/Justin Timberlake, that girl group All Saints had a few fantastic tunes.
But now a quality pop song is much less of a frequent occurrence (even though there's still the odd one - Calvin Harris is great IMO). I'd say it's possibly X Factor type programmes, as there seems to be a timeline correlation.

Things were better in the past. Except Black Keys. They were and always will be awful.