Do you think Music these days sucks?

**Tricen** · 2009-05-01 21:53

Popular music has become extremely money thirsty and has pretty much lost all it's creativity. At least that's what it seems like to me. Generic bands produce in mass and the media glorifies it. I haven't listened to the radio in forever simply because I know I will never find a band worth listening to. Pandora.com has helped, as well as just friends showing me stuff they like. I can't say I like genres though, I like bands and what I hear. Popular music today is just way too watered down and generic, I find it extremely boring

**Beckwin** · 2009-05-01 23:17

Actually gonna agree with Thestalkmore for once... the original sentiment of this topic is a load of shit.

tons of good music has been made since 2000, and let's not forget the massive flaming shitpiles of the 80s and 90s known as nu-metal, hair metal, boy band pop, and the top 40 stuff that wasn't catchy enough to warrant a lasting camp appeal.

but seriously, let's take a look at who's been making music since 2000:
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
animal collective
Bright Eyes
Death Cab for Cutie
Pinback
La Quiete
The Strokes
White Stripes
The Hives
BORIS
number girl
tujiko noriko
Boards of Canada
crystal castles
Death From Above 1979
Modest Mouse
Japanther
No Age
Deerhunter
The Arcade Fire
Of Montreal
Cool Kids
Ryan Adams
cocorosie
deerhoof
Explosions in the Sky
DoMakeSayThink
Minus the Bear
Tera Melos
The Album Leaf
The Walkmen

and I could go on and on and on.

**Kuya** · 2009-05-01 23:33

Maybe it's not that music is shittier now (what a generalization!), maybe there's just more of it because it has lots of profitability. There may in fact be more good music than before, but what you subjectively consider to be good may not necessarily nor always be what's marketed, and it should obviously be remembered that what's being marketed is being marketed for the sake of making money and not because they're the best around, furthermore they often tend to be very "artificial" for the sake of propping up profitability.

I agree with Beckwin and TheStalkmore in that perhaps this idea of there being more shitty music today is comparable to the idea that the world is somehow more violent today just because of what you see repeated on tv, radio and the internet.

edit: by artificial i mean that they may probably be not some career musician that has been practicing music for decades and was found due to their talent, but perhaps a pretty face that had the right feel to their style and it was decided to market them as musicians. Image is everything in the postmodern world.

**Ivve** · 2009-05-02 00:30

Originally Posted by Beckwin

Actually gonna agree with Thestalkmore for once... the original sentiment of this topic is a load of shit.

Agree, and I think a good number of others in this thread do too. I skimmed and skipped a bunch of responses in the middle, but when is someone going to bring up Björk and kill the thread? I feel like I should be the one.

Unless you've got XM/Sirius/whatever it is now, radio is not the place to be looking for new music. You might pick up a couple of songs you don't absolutely hate every once in a while, but even when those rare gems crop up, you can be damn sure they're going to play the hell out of that song until you fucking hate it. Then again, if I randomly selected 40 songs from my iPod, put them in a playlist, and repeated that for 6 months to a year, I can't guarantee I'd come out of the experience liking any of those songs anymore either. Radio in general does terrible things to current music because of the narrow (and awful) selection and subsequently the repetitiveness caused by it.

There are a number of bands that have put out music within the last 5 years that I like. Some got radio play, like Muse and Beck. Some got exposure through other avenues, like Feist and Frou Frou/Imogen Heap. In fact, there are some groups that I've liked for a while that haven't made any music super recently but got exposure through HBO/Showtime series, like Broadcast and Goldfrapp. Some got none, like School of Seven Bells and Uh Huh Her. OP is ridiculous.

P.S. Everyone who has agreed with the OP needs to spend a day on pandora.com.

**Headspace** · 2009-05-02 01:58

Maybe Apple ruined it for me, but I can't fucking stand Feist.

Also, I hate the notion that if it's not underground, it sucks.

Enjoy music faggots and quit bitching.

**Soupbowl** · 2009-05-02 02:01

2k's music sucks.

**Sepukku** · 2009-05-02 02:30

Originally Posted by BrillCS

Dood Cobra Starship is in no way shape or form punk. They are emopop as far as I'm concerned and I actually know them. Long story short wife's best friend at work her husband is their roadie/sound man. So we've hung out with them multiple times in the past. They even got us in to meet Fallout Boy when they opened for them here in Pittsburgh.

Very late reply:

I know, I wasn't calling them punk. That why I was saying you gotta exclude them from the alternative umbrella along with all the other scene/hardcore bullshit that gets the oh-so-hot dumb scene sluts with pastel colored crazy hair at shows they know nothing about, like all the dumb bitches who came to Alk3/Saves the Day wednesday. If they weren't girls, they probably would've gotten their ass beat for saying fuck Alkaline Trio in a crowd like that. They don't know shit. They're just eye candy for me to look at in between bands.

And Fall Out Boy sucks too anymore, these days.

**EckoGecko** · 2009-05-02 02:59

Agreed.

Eminem's first two albums compared to his last two.

**Beckwin** · 2009-05-02 03:15

I also feel the need to point out that Pearl Jam, Judas Priest, and AC/DC are pretty awful and their touring ability is symptomatic of how commercialized music is and how easily people can be convinced to buy into it.

**Ivve** · 2009-05-02 07:26

Originally Posted by Headspace

Maybe Apple ruined it for me, but I can't fucking stand Feist.

Yeah, I dunno why they went with "1, 2, 3, 4" tbh. That was probably my least favorite song from that entire album, but it was probably just cute/quirky enough to be in a commercial without alienating people. Glad she got the exposure, too bad it was that song.

Originally Posted by Headspace

Also, I hate the notion that if it's not underground, it sucks.

Well hey, it's just truthiness that a majority of top 40 music in most genres is manufactured to make money make money make money. There's not a whole lot of workmanship that goes into any facet other than production, and that really shows through when you hear some shit on the radio that has brilliant lyrics like "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga or any song you can even think of by T-Pain. Those are two artists that get by on their antics and/or production value alone -- if I had sound right now I'd link you to some tone-deaf screaming Lady Gaga did in a live performance of Poker Face or one of her other shit songs.

Here is where I'd usually follow that up with some kind of comment about the state of the alternative genre, but I can't even comment. It all runs together for me and sounds exactly the same. I seriously cannot even distinguish the new guys on the scene from one another anymore, nor am I even interested. To me, everything sounds similar to Disturbed, Linkin Park, Nickelback, or some hybrid combination of any of those -- and I don't like any of those bands! Fuck it.

I don't think music needs to be "underground" to be good, but if the only place you learn about new artists is your local non-HQ radio stations, then there's no question you're missing out on a ton of interesting shit.

Radio is also an incredibly, painfully slow medium. In 3-4 months I'll start regularly hearing some songs I'm listening to right now through youtube or whatever. Sometimes I'll buy or download an entire album by some artist, listen to it until I'm pretty much done, and then just stick it in my iPod and put the whole thing on shuffle again. Then months later, if I turn on the radio in my car for someone else to listen to, the radio's still spinning the first or maybe second single from the album I've already worn out. I hear songs on now that I can't believe are still popular/requested considering how long they've been on heavy rotation. I don't know about you, but the average life span of a song that I like to listen to multiple times a day is about 2 weeks, tops. For radio, it's months upon months upon months.

On top of that, it seems like the taste I have in songs isn't reflected in what a majority of people are ordering up hot. Shit that I liked (MIA with "Paper Planes", Kid Cudi's "Day and Night") barely got any radio attention at all in this area. You might get thrown a bone once every week or two and catch one of those tracks in the middle of the day (during non-traffic hours) but for the most part just no. It's not happening, so sorry, please enjoy more Lady Gaga and Britney Spears and T-Pain and Flo Rida and LIL WAYNE OUR LORD AND SAVIOR or BEYONCE THE HOLY MOTHER. Gross.

Originally Posted by Beckwin

I also feel the need to point out that Pearl Jam, Judas Priest, and AC/DC are pretty awful and their touring ability is symptomatic of how commercialized music is and how easily people can be convinced to buy into nostalgia.

Fixed.

**Ramor** · 2009-05-02 09:48

nostalgia wouldn't apply to someone in their teens/early twenties

**brisk** · 2009-05-02 10:03

I like Lady Gaga fuck you all!

Only undergroud music I listen to is Eurobeat in english made by those crazy Italians. Thank god for Trance/House/Hardcore/Hyper Techno huh.

**StareDownTheBarrel** · 2009-05-02 12:31

Originally Posted by Ivve

On top of that, it seems like the taste I have in songs isn't reflected in what a majority of people are ordering up hot. Shit that I liked (MIA with "Paper Planes", Kid Cudi's "Day and Night") barely got any radio attention at all in this area. You might get thrown a bone once every week or two and catch one of those tracks in the middle of the day (during non-traffic hours) but for the most part just no. It's not happening, so sorry, please enjoy more Lady Gaga and Britney Spears and T-Pain and Flo Rida and LIL WAYNE OUR LORD AND SAVIOR or BEYONCE THE HOLY MOTHER. Gross.

Uh, I liked "Paper Planes" for a while, but over here they fucking SPAMMED that shit on the radio. Seriously. That and the stupid "Swagger Like Us" really killed the song for me. And "Day and Night" still gets spammed here. Seriously. As for the others, I bet if I flip the radio on right now, I'll hear "Pokerface".

EDIT: "Just Dance" was playing. I was close, at least.

Also: My wrists cut themselves everytime I hear someone say Lil Wayne is the best lyricist of all time. How can people even say that with a straight face?

**Kuya** · 2009-05-02 12:37

Oh god, Katy Perry live.

**Vandole** · 2009-05-02 12:43

popular music of today sucks fucking dogballs.

but the stuff i listen to is nice :>

**Reality** · 2009-05-02 15:06

Originally Posted by Dimmauk

Here is the list from last nights show. Fire up the downloads!!

Spoiler: show

The Pac-man fever song made me remember the other video game songs those guys made. And LOL @ Rappin Rodney! I agree with the #1 song too.

no OMD - If you leave
?

**Charismatic** · 2009-05-02 20:43

Originally Posted by Vandole

popular music of today sucks fucking dogballs.

but the stuff i listen to is nice :>

Everyone thinks the stuff they listen to is nice, duh... that's why they listen to it.
It's probably garbage though.

**drwaffles** · 2009-05-02 21:04

Any music that isn't well-grounded in classical compositional techniques is garbage, and that basically encompasses virtually all popular music. Doesn't mean I don't enjoy listening to a lot of popular music, but I'm well aware that, even though I "like" it, it's not "good music". In before people calling me a snob and preaching that "there's no such thing as bad music"!

**Beckwin** · 2009-05-02 21:06

Originally Posted by drwaffles

Any music that isn't well-grounded in classical compositional techniques is garbage, and that basically encompasses virtually all popular music. Doesn't mean I don't enjoy listening to a lot of popular music, but I'm well aware that, even though I "like" it, it's not "good music". In before people calling me a snob and preaching that "there's no such thing as bad music"!

you're one step away from the stereotypical basement dwelling metalhead, you know that, right?

**BRP** · 2009-05-02 21:08

Music hasn't been good since the 19th century

Thread: Do you think Music these days sucks?

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