Do you think Music these days sucks?

[ByeByeTasai]

I'd say 95% of the music you hear on the radio today is shit. There is an extreme lack of talent in the music world lately. The melodies are unoriginal and simple, and there is little feeling expressed in the vocals. People would rather listen to a whiny voiced reject singing about how unfair the world is, then a talented group that actually puts effort into writing music.

People are too concerned with the message in the music now days, and completely lose sight of whether or not the band deserves the money we pay them. Lyrics that make absolutely no sense while carried out beautifully over unique and talented melodies still take the cake over spot-on lyrics and average vocals on top of recycled talentless music.

[Skjie]

You can all be forgiven for not being Canadian and therefore not having access to CBC's Concerts on Demand and Radio 2/3.

New music on the radio is good, you just have to pick the right radio stations.

[Colenzo]

90s music ok?

[Teffy]

pretty good list up there, though the first name i saw was "deathcab for cutie" and thought you were making a list of why music is bad.

Music probably isn't any worse today, maybe there is more of it out there, so there's more worthless shit, but I still find enough new music each year to be happy with.

[Maguspk]

sorry I'm late

radio music sucks lol
my music is good lol
rap is dead lol


Almost nothing in this thread is true except variations on what Beckwin posted. If you honestly think "music sucks", even shit on the radio, then you aren't looking hard enough. You can't listen to a few songs, dislike them and suddenly conclude that all music sucks. That's like eating just 2 flavors of ice cream and concluding that all ice creams suck. In fact, the majority of you are getting a fairly small spectrum of music when you listen to the radio or even to your trendy, scene-y music that you think nobody else listens to because it isn't on the radio yet. I'd urge you all to look into avant-garde music like things composed by John Cage or George Crumb. Music is far from shitty.

Oh yeah, the reason 80's and 90's music is better to you is because it's the music you probably grew up around and were too lazy to explore away from, dumbasses.

[nednerb]

All it takes to be a major success these days is to have a good beat that you could play at clubs/pubs and people could dance to.

[Haiko]

sorry I'm late

radio music sucks lol
my music is good lol
rap is dead lol


Almost nothing in this thread is true except variations on what Beckwin posted. If you honestly think "music sucks", even shit on the radio, then you aren't looking hard enough. You can't listen to a few songs, dislike them and suddenly conclude that all music sucks. That's like eating just 2 flavors of ice cream and concluding that all ice creams suck. In fact, the majority of you are getting a fairly small spectrum of music when you listen to the radio or even to your trendy, scene-y music that you think nobody else listens to because it isn't on the radio yet. I'd urge you all to look into avant-garde music like things composed by John Cage or George Crumb. Music is far from shitty.

Oh yeah, the reason 80's and 90's music is better to you is because it's the music you probably grew up around and were too lazy to explore away from, dumbasses.

Detox when?

[Jakson]

This whole thread reminds me of that bit in The Bucket List on the plane where Nicholson and Freeman are talking about God and whatnot and Jack says we've had this same conversation in our lives a thousand times over and it always comes down to the same thing, that you either have faith or you don't. There's a lot of shit music out there (It's why I don't listen to the radio or watch TV), and you can be confident there is good music out there and find it, or just listen to the 20 or 30 albums you've already defined as good and just spam those for the rest of your life.

[Beckwin]

I kinda think the sentiment expressed in the OP (and subsequently echoed by others) is.... well, it's the easiest "opinion" to have basically. By simply jumping behind something pre-established, i.e. traditional, you can avoid putting effort into developing your own tastes and opinions on the subject and simply point to popular sentiments that have stood some minor test of time. It's a very safe thing to do, and I guess I understand the motivations.

To draw an analogy, let's say you'd like to have an opinion on visual art but don't really have much to go on. You've seen some, of course, and some kinds more than others- classics are something everyone is exposed to, probably more than any other "genre" as a layperson/casual fan. Viewing and understanding other visual art is more difficult and requires some effort (and hey, you really do like those Michaelangelo prints your folks have in the house, and that's ok)... so an easy reaction is to fortify yourself among the classics and deride anything new. It's basically the same thing with music: it's very easy to rely on what's popularly accepted as good, and stuff you grew up listening to: Dad's classic rock collection; the early 90's rap you listened to at middle school dances. And not all of that stuff is bad by any means; in fact a lot of it is rather good (and pretty easy to discuss/"defend" without having to reference time at all). But at the end of the day, you still can't discuss music all that well and you're gonna find yourself stuck with a very limited playlist.

But even so, hiding behind it with a statement of "new stuff sux" is just too easy, and the only one you're hurting is yourself. We're in an era where thanks to technology and communications, we have unparalled access to music for listening and the means to make it are varied, available, and cheap. You can rock a house with some old game boys and a PA system, and then upload the recording you made on your laptop the next day. record labels and physical media distribution are becoming less necessary, and smaller labels are still doing well because they form more intimate relationships with fans and bands. There's a lot of stuff being made, and a portion of it is quite good, which means you're closing yourself off from it just because it's easy to do. Like classic, hard rock such as Zep, Hendrix, Thin Lizzy, etc? You should check out Wolfmother or Crystal Antlers. Like singer/songwriter stuff like Simon & Garfunkel? Look at Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst. Have a thing for classics and compositions? You might enjoy Sigur Ros or something more instrumental, like EiTS. Leonard Cohen fan? You should try listening to The National. Fan of old-school hip-hop? Try Cool Kids. Metal fan? I kinda hate most metal, but as others have mentioned, there's good metal out there today.

I really do understand where it comes from though. I was on a similar boat for awhile in high school (omg classic rock = teh bestest evar). It's also the first and easiest rejection of the shit that dominated the radio and MTV a young person can make. But man, I'm fucking glad I jumped that ship; there's a ton of good music and shows I would've missed out on.

[Shinryuu]

You need to look harder for good music now. In the 70's, Pink Floyd came directly to you by radio. Now, not so much. The upside: there's more genres now. Electro/dance/hiphop/metal... you may not like it but digging deeper into those genres can yield quite some surprising artists. Keep in mind 'pop' music has always been bad. 70's had ABBA, come on.

I really fucking hate people doing old songs, though. Cut that crap out. Only possible exception is some electro remix of an old song.

[sephir]

I used to have almost no hope for music nowadays but then bands like Wolfmother started popping out of nowhere. Popular music sucks but I keep finding these B or C rated bands who have absolutely amazing stuff but yet they don't have that one track that really pushes them into the mainstream.

The band that was opening for AC/DC this last tour was called The Answer (sounds like a shitty emo band name). My friend gave me their CD and I was just floored, it sounds a lot like Zeppelin but mixed with a bit of 80's hard rock.
A few other bands I've really got turned onto recently:
Airbourne
Chickenfoot
Kings of Leon
Priestess
Flaming Lips

Some real good stuff, but yet they haven't really seemed to break into mainstream for whatever reason.

[Dimmauk]

I used to have almost no hope for music nowadays but then bands like Wolfmother started popping out of nowhere. Popular music sucks but I keep finding these B or C rated bands who have absolutely amazing stuff but yet they don't have that one track that really pushes them into the mainstream.

The band that was opening for AC/DC this last tour was called The Answer (sounds like a shitty emo band name). My friend gave me their CD and I was just floored, it sounds a lot like Zeppelin but mixed with a bit of 80's hard rock.
A few other bands I've really got turned onto recently:
Airbourne
Chickenfoot
Kings of Leon
Priestess
Flaming Lips

Some real good stuff, but yet they haven't really seemed to break into mainstream for whatever reason.

Sex on fire is a great song.

[Ruiner]

I kinda think the sentiment expressed in the OP (and subsequently echoed by others) is.... well, it's the easiest "opinion" to have basically. By simply jumping behind something pre-established, i.e. traditional, you can avoid putting effort into developing your own tastes and opinions on the subject and simply point to popular sentiments that have stood some minor test of time. It's a very safe thing to do, and I guess I understand the motivations.

To draw an analogy, let's say you'd like to have an opinion on visual art but don't really have much to go on. You've seen some, of course, and some kinds more than others- classics are something everyone is exposed to, probably more than any other "genre" as a layperson/casual fan. Viewing and understanding other visual art is more difficult and requires some effort (and hey, you really do like those Michaelangelo prints your folks have in the house, and that's ok)... so an easy reaction is to fortify yourself among the classics and deride anything new. It's basically the same thing with music: it's very easy to rely on what's popularly accepted as good, and stuff you grew up listening to: Dad's classic rock collection; the early 90's rap you listened to at middle school dances. And not all of that stuff is bad by any means; in fact a lot of it is rather good (and pretty easy to discuss/"defend" without having to reference time at all). But at the end of the day, you still can't discuss music all that well and you're gonna find yourself stuck with a very limited playlist.

But even so, hiding behind it with a statement of "new stuff sux" is just too easy, and the only one you're hurting is yourself. We're in an era where thanks to technology and communications, we have unparalled access to music for listening and the means to make it are varied, available, and cheap. You can rock a house with some old game boys and a PA system, and then upload the recording you made on your laptop the next day. record labels and physical media distribution are becoming less necessary, and smaller labels are still doing well because they form more intimate relationships with fans and bands. There's a lot of stuff being made, and a portion of it is quite good, which means you're closing yourself off from it just because it's easy to do. Like classic, hard rock such as Zep, Hendrix, Thin Lizzy, etc? You should check out Wolfmother or Crystal Antlers. Like singer/songwriter stuff like Simon & Garfunkel? Look at Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst. Have a thing for classics and compositions? You might enjoy Sigur Ros or something more instrumental, like EiTS. Leonard Cohen fan? You should try listening to The National. Fan of old-school hip-hop? Try Cool Kids. Metal fan? I kinda hate most metal, but as others have mentioned, there's good metal out there today.

I really do understand where it comes from though. I was on a similar boat for awhile in high school (omg classic rock = teh bestest evar). It's also the first and easiest rejection of the shit that dominated the radio and MTV a young person can make. But man, I'm fucking glad I jumped that ship; there's a ton of good music and shows I would've missed out on.

I was going to come in here and post my opinion on the topic, but I'd just be reiterating this in a less eloquent manner.