Am I getting too old or is it true that most of today's popular music sucks?

[MrScorpio]

The only current music I can listen to is Underground, non commercial stuff

I saw this commercial of a compilation of so called rock bands and every one of them had the same soulless, blaring sound. I couldn't tell one from the other.

What the hell has happened to rock?

And the rap that they play on the radio and TV, it sounds too simple and unmusical.

Where is jazz? Why is soul so unsoulful?

Is this why music tv channels don't play music videos anymore... lack of content?

Thanks God for the Underground music scene. Without them, I would have nothing to listen to and play on my radio show

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. You nailed it.

Most of the music I listen to was made before I was born.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

2. I am 28 years old and I think that music of today sucks.

Case in point, I just watched the MTV Video Music Awards this past Sunday night. I didn't like about 100% of the whole show. Its all style (what style that there is) and zero substance.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

32. My theory is this.

You and I are both in our late 20's so the music we hear out of the 60's and 70's is the cream of the crop. The kind that has endured the decades. We don't hear the garbage that was on pop radio back then (and believe me, there was plenty of garbage.) I think future generations will hear today's best music and think it's pretty good.

[Rob H.]

3. I'm with you

Commercial radio sucks, imo. If that makes me a grumpy old bastard, so be it!

[Dr. Strange]

4. Well, the two aren't mutually exclusive.

But I think a LOT of contemporary stuff is bland.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. The commerical music making industry found their perfect formula a while ago.

And hence, no variation in the music, at least within genres.

It's all bland garbage, because it's all perfectly engineered according to demographic.

Or, I should say, to the ignorant demographics that think that shit is music, which is about 95% of America.

[NJmaverick]

6. I blame American Idol for part of the decline

Music stardom is not a game show prize

[Swede]

7. The industry packages these clones to young people that have no reference points.

So this stuff sells.

[Droopy]

8. You might be getting a little grey there, MrScorpio

Have you heard what the older generations thought about Elvis when he first hit the scene? They basically thought he was Satan in the flesh, but the kids loved him. Same for the Beatles.

That being said, I think most pop music since Elvis has been marketed to young people. They are inexperienced music listeners and they are easily caught on a simple hook played repeatedly. I haven't been able to listen to most pop music since I was 15, but before that I was glued to the local Top 40 station in my free time. So basically I think pop mucis sucks, but young adults and teens may think that there is nothing finer. And who knows? Maybe you and I are missing something. A lot of mature adults sure missed out on Elvis and the Beatles.

[skooooo]

12. No, he's right.

Most music today is pre-programmed by music executives for "target audiences" ala Jonas Brothers.

There are few really great artists still around.

[Droopy]

20. Did you read the content of my post?

[skooooo]

22. yes..

And I disagreed with it mostly.

:shrug:

[HamdenRice]

9. A friend from Japan predicted this 20 years ago

Actually, he was American, but had lived there several years. He said that in Japan, the record company controls everything. It's not about a record company A&R guy going and "discovering" talent. The record company holds beauty contests based solely on looks, not musical talent, which is not necessary. The winner is then groomed to become a (sp? pronunciation?) "rockoru staru."

That is the model that we have imported. That's the model that describes Brittney Spears' existence.

I can't listen to any of it.

[skooooo]

13. Japan is the Bollywood of pop music today..

..there are some really cool bands in Japan. I like listening to Jpop.

[Initech]

10. POPULAR music sucks.

Hell it's becoming like Vegas was back in the early 90's - the corporations are taking over, moving the mob out and killing the industry's soul. Look at Disney and the way they've been able to successfully push the Jonas Brothers, Camp Rock, and High School Musical bullshit. Corporate takeover of music has been inevitable and it fucking sucks.

[MrScorpio]

11. You know, I listen to a lot of music

But I don't know wha the Jonas Brothers sound like


I'm going to check them out on YouTube right now

[skooooo]

14. NO! Don't to it...!!!

OH THE HUMANITY!!

:rofl:

[MrScorpio]

16. OMG, THEY SUCK!

Who listens to this crap?

This isn't music, it's torture. It's so... whiney!

Damn, I need some Led Zeppelin therapy after listening to this crap

[Initech]

23. Just for that I prescribe you to listen to 100 hours of Zep and The Who combined.

Except for Endless Wire. You can use that as a drink coaster.

[skooooo]

24. You might need to go to the emergency room!

The Jonas Brothers are for prepubescent girls. You don't strike me as one!

:rofl:

[MAGICBULLET]

43. try this

Scorpio...I'd be curious to see what you think of this. Doesn't he sound like a wanna-be Robert Plant?

I still really like it though

Wolfmother - Woman

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgSqPHIY60E>

[MrScorpio]

50. You are right on both accounts

Plantish and not bland at all

[Initech]

21. I agree with this post!

:rofl:

[Reverend_Smitty]

15. I'm 24 and I agree 100%

Good music is being made but not played on anything other than college/low end of the radio band stations. When I'm in the car, my dial is tuned to the classic rock stations...and even they overplay the same stuff over and over and over...

[RebelOne]

17. The only good rock was in the late '60s, the '70s and early '80s. n/t

[MrScorpio]

18. I hope that you enjoyed those videos I posted the other night

I whole heartedly agree

[skooooo]

25. I think a lot of good music..

...was made in the 90s, and there is still good music, but not from the major American record companies.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

29. Bullshit.

That just shows a complete lack of musical knowledge on your part. Husker DU, early REM, Mudhoney, Pixies, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Slayer, Tool, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Mastodon, NIN, Mars Volta, The Flaming Lips, the Decemberists, and many other great bands came to popularity after the early 80's.

[RebelOne]

34. I don't care for any of those groups. It's not my lack of

musical knowledge. It is my personal tastes.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

44. I'm not saying you have to like them.

I'm just saying there have been bands with talent that have come out in the last 30 years.

[bikebloke]

19. I started listening to French pop.

There's some freshness and creativity (sure, there's still the Princess Stephanie merde, too). Artists like Zazie, Adrienne Pauly, La Grand Sophie, Camille, Camille Bazbaz and even Johnny Hallyday's last disque had some good songs.

[skooooo]

26. Yep, going international is your best bet!

:thumbsup:

[MrScorpio]

28. I have to listen to the BBC to find good music made in Detroit

It's that bad

[stuntcat]

27. I was thinking the other day--

I heard some music on tv that sounded TOTALLY corny and lame and I wondered- in the 80's when I was a teenager did all the music I listened to sound that dumb to my parents? My Dad was a dj on a pop station so he had to get into it a little but I'm sure he didn't hold Men Without Hats up next to the Beatles and stuff that he liked when he was young.

But then I thought, there really IS some great stuff coming out these days, if you can find it.
I'm lucky my best friend works with some young people so he finds out about good music and tells me. And the internets help a lot. I have to remember to listen to your show sometime, I'm always looking out for something new.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

30. Commercial music has always sucked.

Listen to the shit on the radio in the 60's and 70's and tell me it was better then. The Monkees, Osmonds, David Cassidy,etc., suck just as much as the shit on radio nowadays.

I'm not up on the Jazz scene, but if you like rock I think you should give bands like Porcupine Tree and Mars Volta a try. They are very talented modern bands.

[kentauros]

31. I stopped listening to commercial radio in 1977

and haven't looked back since. I would say it's safe to say that commercial music has sucked for a very long time, likely even before I finally stopped trying to find the good stuff in top-40/top-100.

I don't know how much of the Internet you use in finding your music for your show, but there are some amazing sites out there for underground and pretty much everything that isn't commercial, or commercially played. I learned about most of it way back when the 365 Project got off the ground and quickly discovered sites like weirdomusic.com and U B U W E B. WFMU's Beware of the Blog is a great resource, too :D

[mitchum]

48. Yes! UBUWEB is the single greatest site on the internet (sorry DU)

music, film, text
incredible stuff

[Tikki]

33. To make a "new music" that is anywhere near....(Tikki's Rant)

important...you need a Music Scene....and that means it needs to start on the streets
and into the clubs, then, maybe, into the arenas...etc.

Much if not most of today's music starts on TV or the internets and then goes directly to arenas..
This is the old corporate 'feed 'em what we got' and there is no paradigm shift in this...just repackaged from
old radio days and up the corporate food chain.

A scene gets started when bands or musicians work the small clubs, gather an interest by word of mouth,
form or find some kind of culture or anti-culture surrounding themselves and find other bands to join in.
Most often, the cream of the crop of a scene will float to the top...

If you aren't out on the street checking out all that's going on, then the Corporations will spoon feed to you
their music pablum for the rest of your life.

Now...P.S. many underground radio stations are presenting important new music and sounds...I'm old....and many of you are young...
I get out as much as I can to see these new bands. If you want to start a Scene..do it in Public. :P


Tikki

[truedelphi]

45. I was poppin in and out of Chicago quite a few times

During the early nineties, and the city was allowing any musicians who wanted to to go ahead and play in the subways, play on the El trains, and the musicians could ask for money.

I heard some of the best music I have everheard. Original tunes, cover songs, a cappella groups on the El.

Then a short while later, the musicians were forced out. Apparently a few musical people were intimidateing the riders on the subway and scaring them into giving over the money.

SO the program was disbanded.

But when I was there - it seemed to be working right. I remember one soulful singer colleting about fifteen bucks just from one trainful of us happy listeners - he was so good. And I was pleased - thinking that all he had to do to make a living was ride the trains all day (His approach in passing the hat was a modest understated one, btw. Nothing intimidating abut him but his raw talent!)

[jmowreader]

35. Oh, you mean like Natasha Bedingfield and Leona Lewis?

I listen to a radio station out of Wilmington, NC, that mostly plays classic tunes, but also plays "some" newer stuff...most of which is "Pocket Full of Sunshine" by Ms. Bedingfield and "Bleeding Love" by Ms. Lewis.

Y'know, the first five thousand times they played the Leona Lewis song I thought she was portraying someone whose boyfriend beats her. As for the other...it's light and airy and you could probably dance to it, but there's no "there" there.

[supernova]

36. Too canned too predictable

and guaranteed not to say anything meaningful. That's the stuff that gets played on commercial radio. Not to mention, too many commercials to make listening to music enjoyable. There's just a little music to interrupt the commercials. :silly:

When driving in my car, I find myself straying to the college stations around here for Duke, Carolina, NCCU station has excellent jazz programming. I've learned a lot from them. We also have a world class classical station that I tune it too.

[Pierre.Suave]

37. Nope

most of todays popular music sucks.

personally, I never listen to a pop/top 40 station I always listen to internet radio/MPR/NPR/ and my own CD/record collections. Luckily I live in Minnesota where we have an extremely good MPR station set encompassing Classical, News, and The Current playing alternative and indie music.

[edbermac]

38. Music has gone downhill since the Beatles disbanded.

From Lennon/McCartney to Britney Spears :puke:

[old mark]

39. I like the Offspring, but not too many others right now.... nt

[ghostsofgiants]

40. Popular music has always sucked.

Signed,
Jaded indie music snob.

[BulletproofLandshark]

41. No, I think you're spot on.

IMO, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the megamergers of popular music labels were the worst things to ever happen to popular music. ClearChannel took over the nation's airwaves, and mainstream music went from being spread out on dozens of labels to being concentrated on just a few. Having fewer avenues of distribution is never a good thing.

[MrScorpio]

52. Thanks for pointing that out. It makes a lot of sense

Before I went to Europe in 1994, I used to listen to a lot of radio. The stations were pretty decent up to this point, especially in DC where I was stationed. A lot of great hip-hop, dance music, international Latin and African, soul and rock. The stations were teeming with a lot of great stuff.

I even taped a lot of my favorite shows, and this is what I listened to when I went to Germany. Germans, though I love them have horrible taste in radio programming.

When I got back to the states in 1998, I realized that things had changed and lot. Even in DC. Everything sucked and sucked hard.

I was left to listening to those tapes I had made years earlier and in comparing them to what was being played on the radio them was striking. Especially, on those "Clear Channel" stations.

It took me some time, but I discovered that I could find decent music on Internet only radio stations. One thing lead to another and I eventually found my current sources of Underground music.

Since then, I haven't looked back to radio of video channels.

[fed_up_mother]

42. I am older and I think the music sucks.

So does my young adult children.

[SoxFan]

46. These kids these days...

Come on, chill out.

In the 1980s, I heard the same thing from grumpy Boomers. They thought the world beegan with the Beatles and ended with Fleetwood Mac. In the meantime, a bunch of unknowns like U2 and REM were percolating under the radar. Besides the big names.

There are good bands out there. Arctic Monkeys offer a nifty update on The Jam, Snow Patrol recalls "the big music" of early U2, The Alarm, and The Call, and a lot of the much-maligned pop-punk bands are the descendants of The Ramones and The Undertones.

[supernova]

49. There is great music

but it's not on commercial radio. That's why I listen to college radio; they have the time and the inclination to experiment.

[nickgutierrez]

47. I honestly couldn't tell you.

I mean, I haven't listened to the radio in years. I get my music suggestions, for the most part, from the internet, I find what I like on sites like eMusic or on iTunes, and - even better - I don't hear a single damned commercial in the process. MP3 players are like magic. :)

[Blue_Tires]

51. i'm in the same boat

i get pissed off trying to find something decent on regular radio while in the car...i should just break down and get an ipod like everyone else on earth

[MichiganVote]

53. The biz has screwed musicians so all that's left are technicians.

[NC_Nurse]

54. I'm with you. Vapid shit.

You have to dig around for the good stuff.

[madrchsod]

55. there really is good music out there

but they do`t play it on the radio....the dukhs have a new album,nikka costa is coming to chicago, and angelique kujo is going to be in madison wi...to many choices and not enough money

[Danger Mouse]

56. Popular music sucks, aside from a couple acts.

Most of the good shit is underground.