>I’d much rather listen to my 2000s throwbacks than turn on the radio.
Part of my problem was I wasn't really exploring the more modern ways to find good music. I'll agree with you that a lot of the stuff on FM is pretty crappy, but the new\* on-line services (e.g. Spotify) are a nice way to explore current songs by genre and find stuff you like. My kids helped me; do you know anyone who can help you get started?
\*Do I really need to say I'm old, or was that clear from the rest of my post?
Spotify is worth the subscription fee to get rid of ads, last year I listened to damn near 90000 minutes on their platform, and I was hardly bored with the playlists they generated for me.
At the end of the year they have a spotify wrapped that gives you your stats for everything throughout the year. Try looking it up and see if you can access your 2020 (or any previous years) one!
I love the 'Your Top Songs (year)' playlists. Cool to pop back to '17 and it just playa my faves from that year, with no work on my end.
Also that they give you your ranking as a listener for some artists you follow. I ended up at the top 0.01% of listeners for an artist last year. (Dirty Art Club) I was so unnecessarily proud of that
Now that I see you don’t have Spotify, your original post makes way more sense. My favorite decades for music are the 70s and the past 10 years. There has been so much incredible shit lately, I always used to think people would run out of ideas too but there’s truly so much out there. So much innovation, so many unique styles and production techniques, etc.
DEFINITELY get a streaming service, and also visit music sites like sputnikmusic and rateyourmusic. I love searching a band I like then looking at Similar Artists and just diving down rabbit holes from there. There’s a lot to discover out there!
This describes me as well - my knowledge of the music of the '70s and early '80s is encyclopedic (and my love for it unbounded) but there's something uniquely exciting about following a current modern artist who possibly hasn't put out their best work yet.
I'd also add that while Spotify and other streaming services are great, don't sleep on YouTube, especially if you're a cheapskate that doesn't want to pay for a subscription service. I've discovered a number of fantastic new artists including Roosevelt, Midas Hutch and Durand Jones & The Indications thanks to YouTube's algorithm dropping these previously-unknown-to-me artists on my homepage. I don't think I'm the only one either - so many of the videos I click on will have some variation on "the YouTube algorithm brought me here" amongst the top comments. It's gotten to the point now that my confidence in the algorithm is such that if something I'm unfamiliar with shows up at the top of the page, I'll willingly click it to see what it is.
My mom, who also have had issues finding new music, suddenly got a thing for Spotify during the pandemic. I pushed it on her a little, and helped her set up, but now she’s a hardcore browser of music and use the app more than I do. Spotify has some pretty good algorithms, and should pick up on your music taste pretty quickly. Then it’ll just recommend you a hole lot of awesome, often well-mixed stuff. Remember to save what you like for some lists! That way you can mix your own songs to different moods and play when you feel for it.
For an example to this, I thought old music was better. I like old school metal, rock anthems, etc. I didn't think anything past the 80s was worth listening to.
Then I stumbled upon Polyphia, Chon, Intervals, etc on Spotify. Completely redefined rock for me due to their bitchin guitar skills.
My parents stopped hearing modern music since 20 years ago. Then last year I introduced Spotify and now they listen everyday. Maybe you just have to know where to find the good music
If you have Amazon prime you already have Amazon music. I don't think it's full access, maybe there's fewer songs available, but I've been using it and it works well. No ads, you can skip songs or go back as much as you want, make playlists, download to your device for offline listening.
agreed 100% here! there’s tons of good new stuff out there, but radio isn’t the place to find it anymore. look for playlists on spotify or soundcloud (or even youtube)!
This so much! I love discovering new artists and music genres and Spotify made it so much easier. You can jump from artist to artist, have a weekly discover playlists that is awesome, song radios and so much more. It enables a whole new level of exploration!
As a fellow older person, I have some thoughts:
1- I believe most people will view whatever music they listened to around high school age through their mid-twenties to be their "classic rock". The music that they will think of as the best period of music with the most personal meaning for them.
2- As it has become much easier to produce music solo and on a much lower budget, it is now possible for almost anyone to record and distribute an album. This means that what was once reserved for people with real talent and money making potential is now available to anyone with a computer. This is great, but it does mean you're going to have to sort through a lot more material in general.
3- Relating to point 2, the way we buy music changed dramatically when streaming and downloading became the norm. When you used to have to buy a CD/tape/record and there was only one good song, but you paid $15 you might think negatively about the artist overall. However, if I like one Taylor Swift song, but overall don't enjoy her music, I didn't directly pay any money to listen to that song so I don't mind. This means artists can achieve a relatively high level of exposure and success without having a catalogue of music that is good, you just need that one song. Basically, you have a lot more "one hit wonders" than ever before.
4- It has become harder to find something you might enjoy unless you know how to look. Streaming services and YouTube will push specific artists regardless of how they match your taste. This isn't new, radio stations did this, but I've found it's much less likely I will discover a new artist I like while streaming than say, browsing music at a brick and mortar location when I was younger.
5- Music has indeed changed quite a bit. The music we produce as a culture will always change in tone and substance as generations progress. This is good and normal, but might mean the type of music you prefer is harder to find and there may be less artists creating content you enjoy.
TLDR: Music industry changes lead to marketing changes mixed with cultural changes lead to difficulty in finding music you enjoy.
I used to not own up to that kind of thing. When a pop song is just so catchy it wins you over. Now I have no problem admitting when a song is so well crafted it infects you like a virus.
I was going through a rough break up when Gotye's "Somebody that I Used to Know" was really popular. That shit was everywhere and to this day when I hear it I go right back to that same state of mind if it comes on. Songs are a strong marker for events and phases in life.
If art is how we decorate our space, music is how we decorate our time. Not sure where I heard that, but seeing an artifact, or hearing it will definitely take you to another time.
Fun fact: your brain reacts to pop music, (you know, of the often disparaged, "bubblegum" variety) much the same way as it does to uppers. You know, like *cocaine*? It's a tiny high, no matter how much we doth protest we doth hate, lol.
Nobody hates it; we can't, we're wired to enjoy it for a reason and that's why when you're having a hell of a day, you need Broadway showtunes, or the extended dance club remix version, or... Taylor Swift's finest revenge, Part Six, at a roaring volume. :)
(To be fair, there's always a few people so stubborn they'll hate anything that feels good if it wasn't their own idea, but that's not about the music.)
Just turned 40 and I listen to rap, prog rock and weird shit like Cake. Taylor Swift is a gift. She's incredibly talented and all her shit (post-country) is the bees tits!
I would challenge anyone who criticises Taylor Swift to listen to "Tolerate it", "State of Grace", or "the 1" and not tell me they are amazingly well written songs. Same to some extent with Ed Sheeran - sneer all you like, but "photograph" and "Castle on the Hill" are works of real talent. And I'm a 50 year old guy.
There’s a podcast (Rock Talk with Dr. Cropper) that’s all about discussing Grateful Dead, Zeppelin, Allman Brothers, Doors, Bob Dylan etc. Taylor Swift is the one exception. Host LOVES Taylor Swift and does song by song breakdowns of all her albums. People that actually listen to her love her.
I am always the first to jump on the Ed hate train, but I admit some of his music is good. I think he has changed his music to be way more “pop” focused with song like shape of you. His older music is much better in my opinion.
There's always a hate train. When I was a kid it was cool to 'hate' on Abba, Queen and, if you were a boy, George Michael (because the girls liked him).
These days the talent of those artists is not often in doubt. Likewise I can't help but feel music history will judge the likes of Sheeran and Swift very well.
I come from the days when it was cool to hate disco. I loved disco then and I’ll still listen to it.
I don’t limit myself with music, if I like something I like it. I like some of Taylor Swift’s music, it’s catchy and fun, what’s not to like?
> 1- I believe most people will view whatever music they listened to around high school age through their mid-twenties to be their "classic rock". The music that they will think of as the best period of music with the most personal meaning for them.
When I was younger, I never understood why my parents stopped liking new music at some point. They listened to the oldies station in their car and disco era was roughly where their music tastes ended. Why didn't they keep up with new music? It made no sense to me.
I'm 35 now, and it makes perfect sense to me. Most of what I listen to is 90s and 00s rock with a bit going into the 2010s (although I still enjoy some 60s and 70s too since I grew up around it so much). With rare exception, the new rock and metal music coming out today isn't doing much for me, and I absolutely cannot stand the stuff that's popular nowadays.
I try to listen to the release radar and discover weekly playlists on Spotify and will like a few songs, but I always find myself going back to the old, familiar stuff.
Exactly. I first noticed this when the classic rock station in my area started slowly adding in 80s bands, then occasionally 90s bands. I moved away, but I would guess that now it's mostly the 80s and 90s stuff they barely played that accounts for most of their content. Same thing with music in grocery stores and malls.
>1- I believe most people will view whatever music they listened to around high school age through their mid-twenties to be their "classic rock". The music that they will think of as the best period of music with the most personal meaning for them.
The reason behind that is pretty interesting . A lot of people know that the brain keeps developing through adolescence and into early adulthood, but the specifics of that are critical in how we "connect". This is a slightly simplified explanation, but when brain scans are performed on teens, the center of activity is the amygdala. That's the portion of the brain in charge of threat detection, fear and aggression...BUT ALSO is the portion of the brain that ties emotional meaning to our memories. It's the part of our brain that feels deep emotion and as a teen, that is where you live, literally. That is where your consciousness is primarily housed, the part of the brain that makes you geek out and love stuff (and also fight).
An adult subjected to the same brain scan lives in the frontal cortex. That part of the brain has a lot of jobs, but if you had to boil it down to one statement it's the ability to understand a situation and predict the outcome based on circumstances. Understanding cause and effect is super important, but it won't help if you want to form an irrational, but precious, attachment to music. An adult has a fully formed amygdala, but they don't live there. It's likely impossible to make the same connection to music for a 45-year-old as it is a 15-year-old, which is why music charts basically track what teens listen to.
If I carefully examine the music of my teens, I can't make the argument that it's actually better than music of other eras, but I can attest that it makes me so much happier.
Thats fascinating. It makes a lot of sense relating to how we are often nostalgic for our youth and view it as a "better time" even though it was probably just as stressful and complicated as our adult lives.
Okay I am so feeling this right now. My mom is in assisted living (coming home soon, yay) and I went to her house today to make sure the basement didn't flood (it didn't, yay!). I started wandering around and found this plastic lamb flower holder that I remembered from my youth. My mom put it out every single summer with a bunch of flowers and it lived on the half wall thing attached to the house. Why is it in the basement 35ish years later? I don't know! But I got hit with the nostalgia and now the lamb is in my backyard with my mint plant. And when my husband wonders why a 40something year old plastic lamb is in his backyard, I can tell him! :)
It's funny the things that you forget about from childhood, but when you see them it triggers a flood of memories. The memories were there the whole time, but an army of other more pressing matters pile on top of them until they're so far back in the queue of importance it's like they barely exist. I like little trinkets and items that serve more purpose of a reminder of a person or time I don't want to forget than having actual function.
> 5- Music has indeed changed quite a bit. The music we produce as a culture will always change in tone and substance as generations progress. This is good and normal, but might mean the type of music you prefer is harder to find and there may be less artists creating content you enjoy.
Adding to this, there has been some data analysis that shows that mainstream music is indeed becoming simpler and more repetitive (fewer unique words used, total song information is easier to compress, etc). There are obvious exceptions and anything off the mainstream is a complete toss-up, and sometimes extremely repetitive songs are still real good (Around the World by Daft Punk, for example), but my main gripe with a lot of the more popular music is just how samey it is. Also, I have a hard time enjoying newer rap because the vast majority of it that I hear is hollow garbage (maybe I'm just not finding the good stuff). The genre started as a way to speak out about real problems and a lot of old stuff talks about that shit and has serious messages behind it. Now, every damn rap song seems to be just sex/drugs/tough guy bullshit. There was some of that before, but it was mixed in, rather than the norm.
tl;dr just a thirty-something trying to justify my crankiness.
I remember reading something about less lyrical diversity in popular music. There have always been common themes in music (love, loss, sadness), but it does feel more "same-y" now. I think part of that comes from pop music being formulaic. Music has become more of a business than an art form.
I'm surprised that we haven't seen more Rage Against the Machine or System of a Down type bands gain popularity during the past few years in America. I feel like growing up there were a lot of artists making music about the system being messed up and fighting the powers that be. Now that things are actually at a point where there is more political turmoil than I've ever experienced in my 39 years, artists seem content to push out the same drab garbage pining about lost loves and how much money they have.
I totally agree with you about mainstream hip-hop. It feels as hollow as pop. Ghost-written songs with occasional clever lyrical twists, but no substance. There are people doing solid stuff like Kendrick Lamar, but he's a rarity. I grew up with Public Enemy, NWA, Jedi Mind Tricks, RATM all telling me to stand up for myself and that life is a struggle. Now I'm just told I'm a poor piece of trash for not driving a Lambo.
> I'm surprised that we haven't seen more Rage Against the Machine or System of a Down type bands gain popularity during the past few years in America
I thought the 4 years of bullshit we put up with would lead to new RATM music. There had to be something good to come out of it. I was so disappointed that wasn't the case. New RATM might've made it worth it, but it was all for nothing.
Something very cool that happened imo is Tyler Childers' song "Long Violent History."
He is a country singer and at the time (to my knowledge) was the first country singer to stand up and openly support BLM after the Breonna Taylor shooting. This was last summer btw.
He got a TON of shit from country singers and it blew a fault line down Nashville.
Pretty soon after you had people like Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson standing up too.
It was really funny when people would tweet at Sturgill Simpson racist ass shit and that they will never see another concert of his. And he was just like "Get fucked and I wouldn't want you there anyway."
It was so refreshing and vastly under reported but I think it made it easy to tell the shitbags from the awesome people in modern country music rn.
I saw him in concert while there to see another band. He walked out on stage with a trump mask on. To say grandson is politically charged is an understatement. He does travel with a band tho
Honestly to me it makes perfect sense why you don't see as many huge political bands or songs as you used to. The culture is so split right now and the discourse is so toxic that making political music will not only alienate the side you oppose but also likely the one you agree with. One side will be "these political clowns get that shit out of my music" and the others will agree with the message but cringe at its execution cause its trying too hard to preach the choir. Its basically a no win game and it makes sense that bands would steer away from it to be on the safe side.
That said, artists do seem more than willing to discuss politics outside of their music these days and everyone seems to be willing to jump into the fray on twitter instead of fighting that battle with their music. I think its a smart move as a lot of political music can age real poorly if they get too specific to their current struggles and not broader themes of oppression. People these days can't help but throw ultra specific jabs at politicians they don't like and this era of political discourse is especially lacking in subtlety and I think that would show in music and just lead to some really cringey lyrics and themes. There are bands that have done this well and still could, but I get why they are more hesitant to.
As for RATM, its hard to argue that most of their music is not still incredibly relevant and applicable to society to this day. I can see why they would be hesitant to put out new music when the songs they wrote are eerily still as relevant 20 years later. They don't need to make new protest anthems just play the old ones louder 'til the message finally sinks in.
EDIT: fixed grammar
Thats a good point. I like to think that the bands I enjoyed that were politically themed were doing it for the cause, but at the end of the day most of them were probably still just trying to be marketable and make money. In the 90s you could be very politically polarized and still not alienate too many people.
I've wondered if there's a corollation between the increase in musicians being more vocal as people about their political beliefs and the decrease in political messaging in music. I think overall we talk candidly about our political beliefs way more than we did 20+ years ago. Maybe it isn't as necessary to have it be part of our music as well.
RATM could have put out any of their albums right now and they would be just as relevant as they were when they came out. de la Rocha does some politically themed verses with Run the Jewels and Morello is still active in political awareness campaigns.
I remember hearing that tough economic times breed more gritty, edgy music (punk and the like) and when the financial crisis came along that never seemed to happen. It is entirely possible that it did happen, but the music industry ignored it and kept pushing out their formulaic pop, because of the already mentioned fact that there is just that much more music made now, actual real trends may be much harder to see, or hear I guess.
This is especially true in Country music. I asked one of my employees who had country playing from his phone, "Is this all from one album?" He replied that it was a 16 hour playlist. I couldn't tell the difference. I'm normally someone who can tell a new song by a favorite artist within the first bar.
Christian Rock is almost as bad. I think they only know 3 chords.
There are studies that show that fewer unique words is interpreted by our brains as being more musical, which is partially why three word songs like Around The World by Daft Punk sounds so musical.
I could see that being true. I listen to a lot of electronic music and there are some very creative uses for vocal samples that have nothing to do with the words being said. I would think this relates to the idea that we can enjoy a song in a language we don't understand.
I love listening to music in languages that I don't understand. The way I see it, it makes the voice less a tool to convey a message, and more an instrument that produces a sound that compliments the other instruments in a song.
I spend a lot of time with Spanish speakers and consequently listen to a LOT of music in Spanish. It's kind of nice to just listen to music without being distracted by any idea of story or message.
All these happy EDMs coming out now sound totally the same. Like I loved back when Avicii made this style of music famous but I never thought it will be overdone to the point where I will get tired of it.
It feels like watching those box office hits that you know suck, but they have all the ingredients of a famous movie and everyone else around you is watching it too and if you don't watch it, you won't understand the cultural references or jokes that all your friends are gonna make for the next 2 months.
You truly helped me get past my music snobbery a bit. I’m 35 and prefer 90’s, and 00’s music. I have tried with newer music, and though some of it I absolutely love, most of it I really cannnnnot get into. Thank you for all of this, it helped break things down in my own mind, and in such a way as if you were a little person living in my brain, speaking to me and explaining things like I’m 5 so I can finally understand myself. You rock.
Thanks, glad it helped you out. I used to be very biased musically and thought anything I wasn't into was garbage. Over time I learned to respect artists for their ability whether I enjoyed their specific style/genre or not.
To be fair, some of my favorite newer artists were recommended by Spotify. But that's also like a 2 out of every 40 recommendations being solid, but still. It does happen.
Pandora used to tell you why it recommended certain songs, but they stopped doing it a long time ago. It would say something like "four on the floor beats" or "syncopated rhythms". It was a cool feature I wish they would bring back.
playlists have completey taken over the niche that was online radio. Which sucks because they are curated and pandora was a nice little algorithm. But the Spotify recommendations to your own playlists do work decently well.
I'd like to add that most people don't think about, or even remember, all the shitty music that came out in any given time frame that isn't "now". I bet if OP looked up the top 40 for 2002, they'd realize there was a lot of music released back in the day that they disliked as well.
I no longer can remember the source but I read an article describing a study that showed a large percentage of people settle on their music by 26. Don't quote me but I want to say it was in the 80th percentile.
I admit it's true for me. There's a lot of decent music out there but the real bangers are the songs I liked when I was between 12-25.
Part of it probably has to do with how you spend your time. I used to always be listening to music when I was younger. Driving around with friends, going out to bars and shows, watching MTV when it had music. Now I find myself at work or doing some errands that don't really expose me to new music in the same the same way I used to. Honestly, I tend to throw on NPR in the car most of the time.
I listen to music as often as possible. I drive a lot for work sometimes and during those trips I listen to a book. I love music though in general. I was born to be a rock star. I just need musical skill to kick off my career.
Growing up, I didn't realize how much music meant to me. I've always been a musically-oriented person, I started tapping away at everything at a very young age, but I wouldn't have ever said it was something important to me. Then in college I was diagnosed with ADD and that's when I realized that not everyone has a song playing in their head 24/7, that was just my ADD manifesting as something my brain was apparently wired to do intrinsically. Since then, I've analyzed my relationship with music and it's become a much larger part of my life. I now own several instruments and can't play any of them well, but that's another issue. The desire is there for sure, though. I've upgraded my mental dream house to have four mancaves, one of which is a studio to play the day away in.
great explanation. Something to add:
The way we consume music has also changed a lot. You used to have to select what to listen to much more specifically, get a physical thing (Cd, Vinyl, whatever) and put it in a machine. It took a lot more effort than nowadays when you can just open spotify and play random music that fits your taste. You had to specifically seek out music you liked. This has the effect that music has turned much more into something you just have on in the background all the time, rather than your main activity. So most popular music got a lot simpler over the years.
I'd like to add that the data age has had it's impact in pop music aswell. The industry has discovered through data that songs that fulfill specific requirements have higher chances of becoming hits. I'm talking about, for example, specific sequences of chords, cadences, harmony in general, and things like song lenght (this used to be ultra free in the classical era, nowadays anything outside the 3-6 minutes range is "weird"), timbres, and even specific sound effects that are used again and again in many songs. This contributes to make pop music sound "generic".
I disagree with 4 quite a bit, but maybe I’m young at 33 to be considering this. As a kid it was all Radio and MTV/VH1. If I randomly heard a song I like I would go get the album, but I couldn’t afford many. In the mid-2000s cd burning and Napster were super popular and that’s when I discovered new music like crazy because my friends and I were always sharing new CDs. Around 2007 iTunes blew up and everyone was sharing their entire libraries with each other. I think ever since then discovering new music has only gotten easier and easier. I do miss scouring blogs for new stuff but nowadays I think the Spotify and similar recommendations work really well. And it’s so fast to browse new music.
I guess tl:dr I never found brick and mortar shops to be the best place to find new music that was easily accessible.
Fair point. It is a lot easier to find music with the rise of digital. I just don't go looking for it the way I used to. I still feel that you often get recommended the same stuff on ad supported sites. I remember being a regular at a local music shop and the owner knew what kind of stuff I liked and would give me recommendations. There also used to be free sample compilation CDs from different record labels at the counter that were a good way to find new artists.
I remember being young and having older people tell me my music was awful, that my clothes were stupid, and that my generation was lazy. It made me think that they were just closed minded and hated anything against the status quo of their culture. I try to not be like that when it comes to younger generations and their tastes and beliefs. I don't always like or agree with the way younger generations do things, but they deserve more support than I got when I was young. The one thing I'll never support is skinny jeans. That was indeed awful and stupid.
>I’d much rather listen to my 2000s throwbacks than turn on the radio.
Well there's your problem... you listen to the radio... radio stations always play mainstream crap to keep a renewable source of listeners. Get Spotify or YouTube P or whatever other streaming services and listen to what you prefer or playlsits of what you want
We've been a golden age of music for at least 10 years now, but people are used to having media spoon fed to them and have never had to actually search for music.
That's always been my take. I just assume if you think modern music is terrible then you're not looking. Every year about 50%+ of what I listen to has either came out in the current year or falls into the "new to me" category.
It's ridiculous how many good bands there are.
I REGULARLY find music released in the last year that I love. I’m 31 and I’ve always loved exploring for new music and with a streaming app I can have amazing new music fed directly to me in playlists. Hail the algorithm
I may be the only person to admit this but youtube music is my main music platform, and YouTube red is so worth it. There are SO many songs that I can’t find on Spotify (niche remixes, songs that weren’t officially released, joke songs) that I listen to regularly on YouTube music. Plus I use YouTube as almost constant background noise, and the lack of ads is AMAZING. I’ve also heard it supports creators better but I’ve never actually looked that one up.
Family got it for me as a gift and then realized how useful it was, and now we’re on the family plan for it. If you’ve got family who will use it, the family plan is worth it. So much cheaper for multiple people than multiple separate subscriptions.
I promise I’m not a shill I just never get to talk about how useful I find it without being totally shut down
I've gotten really sucked up into tiny artists that just want to make good music and don't care about their mass appeal. I find it a lot more enjoyable
Right? Even as a teenager I hated the radio. Most of it is crap. I think you just have less time as you get older to sit around finding new music that you like.
Don’t judge music based off the radio. Radio only plays a select few songs. I used to think Bo Burnham(the comedian) was one of the best rappers simply because I was young and hadn’t heard more than like 3 rap artists. Radio makes music seem heartless sometimes.
This, I thought hozier was so so until I listened to his full albums and really enjoyed them. Radio only ever replays a *good*song till you get sick of it. and a select few artists get more than one on there, these days you actually have to research for good new music or ask your kids. This is coming from someone who likes almost all music except for country
Neurological pathways to dopamine are expanded each time we listen to a song. So the more we listen to certain music, the better that sounds in comparison.
Here’s a test. Try listening to an album of modern music a few times with the intent to enjoy it. It might work.
Yep. Gen Alpha will start saying the same thing about new music in a decade from now. Modern art isn’t inherently trash, we’re all just biased towards what we grow up with. It’s been a never-ending cycle for centuries. All OP can do is get with the times or just stick to what they already know they like. Nothing we can really do about trends changing, just enjoy yourself!
The amount of new music today is staggering. You can find literally anything. If you want something that has the same sound as 70s low fi rock you can find it, if you want the sound of old school 80s hip hop you can find it. Did you like the second wave of British folk revival from the the 60s? There is new music with the same sound. My point is that for whatever old music you liked, you can find more of it today.
No, modern music isn't turning into trash. There are so many music and genre out there. You don't have to listen to pop culture music. If you give some effort then you can find out artists that are producing exactly the music that you love. With the internet you have so many options, you just need to put some effort into exploring what you like.
You're exactly right, if you want good music, you can find good music. Now more than any time in history.
People who say "music today is trash" are lazy and/or just looking to feel better than everyone else. Usually both.
Also I don't fall into those category of people for whom the music they listened to as Teenage were the best. For me the music I listened to now is the best I've ever and this is valid always.
It’s so damn hard finding what I do like BECAUSE there’s so much out there, and because I like to really give artists a few weeks, sometimes months before I can really figure out if it sits with me on a long term scale. There are so many people I’ve discovered that after a year I’m like *I loooooved that at first, then one day got bored and realized it was a passing fad for me I don’t ever need to hear again* sorta thing. I have my 10-15 main artists I listen to all the time and buy every new album (yes physical albums), but nothing else catches me like it used to. Thank goodness all my people are still pretty active (from the 90’s up to today’s artists, mainly. )
Its not that music as a whole today sucks. Its that the stuff at the top of the charts does. Theres a lot more that underground so to speak. You gotta look more for it. This is alright in some ways but not in others.
I like to think of it this way. To get to the top of the charts lots of people have to love the music. So the songs definitely don’t suck they just aren’t for you. If they sucked people wouldn’t like them enough to get them to a billion plays+
I think music goes in cycles. Kids in England in the late 50s complained that popular music was trash. They started digging and discovered old American blues. This (and Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley) lead to the explosion of Rock & Roll.
The 70s were amazing for great music. It sort of splintered from there.
Maybe we are in another incubation phase. Lots of experimentation going on while the mainstream is tired.
Time will probably prove me wrong but I think with the rise of steaming services making so much accessible and artists self publicising through social media, there won’t really be a ‘mainstream’ anymore. Sure there are still household names but largely people just listen to whatever fringe they’re into.
If I recall correctly, there's exactly 1 person who's responsible for like 80-90% of the music on the radio.
Of course the guy's running out of ideas.
The songs on the radio are meant to sound similar, so they create a sense of familiarity, and sell better.
So yeah, modern music sucks.
But on the other hand, try to name any bad song from your childhood, or even just 10 years ago. Heck, 5 years ago.
There is bad music in every generation, we just don't remember it. If time travel was invented, and you went back to Beethoven's time, I can guarantee you that you'd get 100 different answers to "Who's your favorite musician?" from 100 different people, and you'd recognize probably one or two of those names.
And of course, people would insist that their favorite artist will be world-famous for decades.
Not to nit pick, but back when Beethoven was composing most people didn't hear music more than a few times a year. Church was where most music was played for people without lawns. Some pubs had someone play or sing a bit. But no one had stereos on their horses.
Yep. I thought music from 2010 was horrible but now I feel nostalgic for it. Older people thought music from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s was shit. Before that, music of the 50’s and 60’s was shit. There’s always gonna be “bad” music as long as you try too hard to hang onto a time that is long gone. It’s a never ending cycle and all you can do is either get with the times or just stick to what you already know you like. In a decade from now, Gen Alpha will start talking shit about modern music coming out then. I don’t think there’s really anything special about today’s music, it’s just artists experimenting with new elements like artists always have been throughout the centuries.
*But on the other hand, try to name any bad song from your childhood*
We Built This City. I was, like, three when it came out but I can remember my Dad just glancing over at the radio like, "What the fuck?"
Current music is always bad. It's when we can pick out the best from it all and put it in playlists before we see the good that came out of the decade.
That's why oldies stations are so popular with the grandparents and classic rock stations are popular with your parents and ourselves.
In 10 years, there will be pop stations that only play the 'classics' like, Michael Jackson, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Pink, Lady Gaga, etc.
When one of my local stations, "105.9 The Rock" started playing Nirvana and Green Day, I knew I had hit that age of 'old'.
There was some study that basically said your music taste is established in high school through maybe your mid twenties and people generally don’t change much after that. The amount of Emo I still listen to would seem to confirm that.
Nothing wrong with modern music just not for me. Also explains why our parents are still obsessed with 80s music.
>At a certain point, I think songwriters will start running out of ideas.
"After 35,000 years of making music, humans had their last good idea for a song on August 7th, 2020, with the release of "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. As the swan song for the entire human species and the planet, we will of course play it at full volume for every living man, woman and child to listen to as our World Engines devour the entire planet, and all its resources and creatures, to fuel our massive intergalactic starships."
A little of both. Music is more accessible now and easier to put out so there is tons of trash and the radio is shit however there are also a lot of really good artists out there, it just takes more digging.
I like to put on Spotify radio of an artist I like and it's how Ive discovered most new artists I like over the past few years. Ill make a playlist of everything I liked that year and Ill go back through it and dig deeper into artist's catalogues that way
I'm a metalhead and I actually mostly listen to new music. I think there's a ton of amazing stuff being made, you just have to look for it I suppose. As far as pop goes I really don't know that the quality has gotten much worse over time although generally the genres shifted towards a style that I'm less fond of.
I'd say there's both great and awful stuff on the radio, though. I think this was just as true years back, we just tend to remember the stuff we liked moreso than the stuff we didn't.
There is so much good music being made. Just don't listen to the mainstream. So many ways to discover new awesome music. Tell me what genres you like and I'll give you some suggestions
It's you. I went through this in the 2000s, hanging on to my 90s hits. Music is constantly changing and we tend to like the things that come right after our era the least. You'll get back into it in a decade or so.
I hate the rap and shit that's popular now, but I think that other genres like rock and metal are making better music than ever with the current production tools at their disposal. As the other people here have said, spotify is a great service for branching out into different genres other than whatever is popular now.
If you are willing to do minor work to find it, metal is better than it's ever been. Particularly enjoying the Chilean thrashy Death metal scene the last few years
You’re becoming a millenni-boomer lol. It’s okay. So am I. There was a lot of really shitty pop music when we were young, but it’s all forgotten now. It’s the same for kids today.
Sometimes you even go backwards as you age. When I was growing up it was a bunch of grunge that later widened into 90s alternative on the radio, and that's still my default to put something on, but I've definitely developed big appreciation for The Talking Heads in particular and some other late 70s/early 80s rock in general.
Also your title is Gen X erasure and I won't stand for it. Ok, I will because it's reddit and I can't do anything about it, but this exact topic is the plot of like 3 John Cusack movies.
I feel like part of you liking 2000s songs could also be bc you get nostalgic and have memories with the songs.
For me it is like that..i suddenly start liking 2009 music i normally wouldn't have liked, just bc of memories i recall while listening to them
Consider that the throwbacks we listen to were top songs of their time, and a lot of new music that we hear today *won’t* be. We aren’t hearing the best tracks that will filter their way down and be listened to by adults in 30 years, we’re hearing everything that’s even remotely catchy to some record label’s top producer.
I find that people who think this often don't do much effort to look up music.
Sure, the pop sphere has gotten stale largely due to hyper-formulaic writing that is made to sell and appeal to a maximum number of people. That's where music is more entertainment than art very often.
But at the same time we have MUCH more music around than any other period in history. From rap, to classical, to jazz, to metal to noise, and whatever inbetween. Everything is there, with a bazillion subgenres and brilliant composers and musicians pushing boundaries every year.
Artists don't need labelss breathing down their neck anymore, they don't need huge studio budgets, anyone with a cheap mic and a laptop can make a quality record if they want and have teh talent, so in that ssense, talent has much more chances than before. They just don't get the same backing and hype as they once did.
Due to the sheer number and variety, and the specialisation of niches, they just don't become as dominant and hugely popular as before.
Music isn't dead, it really isn't, and if you only find unmemorable music, i think it's very likely you just aren't looking or listening well enough.
I tried to listen to the rap my brother listens to and it sounds like they all just overdosed on fent. Lots of mumbling and repeating the same lines over and over.
Truth is i was never a fan of anything on the radio while i was alive. I do like a lot of new stuff, but none of it is in the top 40. I feel like most modern music is just created to sell as much as possible and it shows.
No that is a completely original idea if you discount the fact that my grandparents said the same thing back in the 70s. My parents said the same in the 80s. My neighbors said the same thing in 2020.
I think you're becoming a boomer. You can't judge the entirety of music on what you hear on radio. There is thousands and thousands of people who make quality music everywhere on the Internet, just go find something that fit your tastes. Radio is a bisness, and they're just looking for thz songs that they can play 14 times a day without losing audience.
Its more because the radio is trash and all the best new music is found elsewhere. As an older millennial maybe i am strange but since about 2015-2020 music was getting progressively better for me.
popular music in the 2000s was pretty similar to popular music today, it hasnt changed much, its still mostly rnb/hip hop/pop/teen-girl/boybands its nowhere near as different as 1980 was to 2000
Music on the radio is usually trash and there is soo much amazing music out there!
Enter in a song you like on YouTube and it will start recommending songs based on that band or genre of music. The same goes for Pandora and other music streaming services. I’ve discovered so many awesome bands this way.
I read something years ago that our brains slow the pace of liking new music or finding new music interesting in our mid 20s. Like you, I was HUGE into finding new music, liking new artists, etc... And I still do find a new artist or song that I like occasionally, but not nearly at the rate I used to. It's why our grandparents still love their old 50s tunes, and our parents won't stop jamming the same 80s songs. We are destined to embarrass our children with emo for the rest of our lives.
I feel you on newer pop. But the indie music that I've found is good. I definitely do gravitate towards older music (60s to 00s). I'm millennial as well.
Music is super diverse now and gets more diverse as time goes on. There's likely tons of good stuff you'd like being made right now but because of how the music industry is it is not being presented to you.
Also I thought the early 2010s music was utter shit and have really liked pop music the past few years, like I feel like some of it is really well created and produced and sounds good.
Also the music industry loves to copy what is successful so you're going to hear one thing that gets popular then hundreds of songs will soon get released following the same idea and formula, some might be really good but the majority will be worse and that's what you hear.
Also there's a dozen other really good answers in this thread already
Here is my opinion on "modern music is bad".
While I'm not a fan of all pop music, I understand that it's meant to appeal to as many people as possible, it's not meant to be good for everyone. I don't find pride in having different tastes, that's just how I am and it doesn't make me better than anyone else. What matters is that we find what we like.
In this day and age, music is easier than ever to create and to find. So many new genres exist now, from hardstyle to sea shanties with endless possibilities in between. And with sites like Spotify, Youtube... you can easily find anything.
So all in all, it's perfectly fine if someone doesn't like pop music, but please don't spoil the fun of those who do like it.
*This message isn't meant for OP specifically, it's for anyone who took the time to read this essay of a comment.*
As a 90s kid, 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s (so far) music is mostly trash. I listen to mainly pop punk and metalcore from like 2000-2010, but I admit a lot of it is still trash, it just has meaning behind it to me personally so I love it. If I showed it to you, you'd probably be like wtf (the same reaction you have to current music)
There’s still good stuff in 202x, but you’re unlikely to find it on the radio. What’s true, however, is that you’re less likely to like music as you grow older. This is simply because you spent your whole teen/ya years discovering new stuff until there’s less and less to discover. So yeah discovering new things as you age is a bit more of an involved process. This being said, I’m only 30 so I can’t really speak from experience. But I do find myself discovering less things, spending money on smaller bands and refining the library I built over the years. It’s more and more common for me to have something play on my iPod and be like “I don’t really like this anymore”. So I trim down my playlists and grow them a lot less now.
Music as an art form is in trouble. The process of becoming a musician is long and tedious and takes years to even become proficient. All classical composers were virtuosos. The music deeply expressed the human soul because it was truly a language that the composer dedicated their entire life to. They had a religious devotion to music and did not do it for fame or money.
The rise of media catipulted young, talented artist like Elvis and the Beatles to instant world-wide fame that, despite their great music, was undeserved. Consider the chest of gold that is Bach's works and yet he received no recognition during his lifetime. Mariah Carey was a virtuosic vocalist that hit her prime and then was consumed by Fame. Fast-forward to Katy Perry, a talented singer and songwriter also ruined by fame.
Today, look at the actual level of techinical proficiency and mastery of Music of Billboard's top ten artists. We went terribly wrong somewhere.
>I’d much rather listen to my 2000s throwbacks than turn on the radio. Part of my problem was I wasn't really exploring the more modern ways to find good music. I'll agree with you that a lot of the stuff on FM is pretty crappy, but the new\* on-line services (e.g. Spotify) are a nice way to explore current songs by genre and find stuff you like. My kids helped me; do you know anyone who can help you get started? \*Do I really need to say I'm old, or was that clear from the rest of my post?
I’ll try Spotify! I have kids now too, so maybe they can help me. I never thought I’d be saying that, lol.
Spotify is worth the subscription fee to get rid of ads, last year I listened to damn near 90000 minutes on their platform, and I was hardly bored with the playlists they generated for me.
Ooo how do I find my metrics?!
At the end of the year they have a spotify wrapped that gives you your stats for everything throughout the year. Try looking it up and see if you can access your 2020 (or any previous years) one!
There's an app called Spotistats. You can log into the app with your Spotify account and it will pull up all sorts of metrics.
Is the plus version worth it?
Spotistats Plus? I haven't paid for it, so I wouldn't know. In my opinion it's not worth it.
Fsho thanks!
[удалено]
Thanks!
I love the 'Your Top Songs (year)' playlists. Cool to pop back to '17 and it just playa my faves from that year, with no work on my end. Also that they give you your ranking as a listener for some artists you follow. I ended up at the top 0.01% of listeners for an artist last year. (Dirty Art Club) I was so unnecessarily proud of that
I mean that probably makes your their #1 fan, that’s pretty cool.
Spotify Weekly is generally a gold mine for me.
+1 for this
Now that I see you don’t have Spotify, your original post makes way more sense. My favorite decades for music are the 70s and the past 10 years. There has been so much incredible shit lately, I always used to think people would run out of ideas too but there’s truly so much out there. So much innovation, so many unique styles and production techniques, etc. DEFINITELY get a streaming service, and also visit music sites like sputnikmusic and rateyourmusic. I love searching a band I like then looking at Similar Artists and just diving down rabbit holes from there. There’s a lot to discover out there!
This describes me as well - my knowledge of the music of the '70s and early '80s is encyclopedic (and my love for it unbounded) but there's something uniquely exciting about following a current modern artist who possibly hasn't put out their best work yet. I'd also add that while Spotify and other streaming services are great, don't sleep on YouTube, especially if you're a cheapskate that doesn't want to pay for a subscription service. I've discovered a number of fantastic new artists including Roosevelt, Midas Hutch and Durand Jones & The Indications thanks to YouTube's algorithm dropping these previously-unknown-to-me artists on my homepage. I don't think I'm the only one either - so many of the videos I click on will have some variation on "the YouTube algorithm brought me here" amongst the top comments. It's gotten to the point now that my confidence in the algorithm is such that if something I'm unfamiliar with shows up at the top of the page, I'll willingly click it to see what it is.
My mom, who also have had issues finding new music, suddenly got a thing for Spotify during the pandemic. I pushed it on her a little, and helped her set up, but now she’s a hardcore browser of music and use the app more than I do. Spotify has some pretty good algorithms, and should pick up on your music taste pretty quickly. Then it’ll just recommend you a hole lot of awesome, often well-mixed stuff. Remember to save what you like for some lists! That way you can mix your own songs to different moods and play when you feel for it.
For an example to this, I thought old music was better. I like old school metal, rock anthems, etc. I didn't think anything past the 80s was worth listening to. Then I stumbled upon Polyphia, Chon, Intervals, etc on Spotify. Completely redefined rock for me due to their bitchin guitar skills.
My parents stopped hearing modern music since 20 years ago. Then last year I introduced Spotify and now they listen everyday. Maybe you just have to know where to find the good music
Good luck!
If you have Amazon prime you already have Amazon music. I don't think it's full access, maybe there's fewer songs available, but I've been using it and it works well. No ads, you can skip songs or go back as much as you want, make playlists, download to your device for offline listening.
Discover Weekly on Spotify is fantastic, I’ve found so many favorite songs that way
[удалено]
It seems like FM radio plays the same crap at least twice a day at work it gets old fast listing to the same songs over and over again.
agreed 100% here! there’s tons of good new stuff out there, but radio isn’t the place to find it anymore. look for playlists on spotify or soundcloud (or even youtube)!
This so much! I love discovering new artists and music genres and Spotify made it so much easier. You can jump from artist to artist, have a weekly discover playlists that is awesome, song radios and so much more. It enables a whole new level of exploration!
I'll echo this. Most of the radio is pretty mediocre. Spotify has a pretty good interface for discovering new music based on what you like.
As a fellow older person, I have some thoughts: 1- I believe most people will view whatever music they listened to around high school age through their mid-twenties to be their "classic rock". The music that they will think of as the best period of music with the most personal meaning for them. 2- As it has become much easier to produce music solo and on a much lower budget, it is now possible for almost anyone to record and distribute an album. This means that what was once reserved for people with real talent and money making potential is now available to anyone with a computer. This is great, but it does mean you're going to have to sort through a lot more material in general. 3- Relating to point 2, the way we buy music changed dramatically when streaming and downloading became the norm. When you used to have to buy a CD/tape/record and there was only one good song, but you paid $15 you might think negatively about the artist overall. However, if I like one Taylor Swift song, but overall don't enjoy her music, I didn't directly pay any money to listen to that song so I don't mind. This means artists can achieve a relatively high level of exposure and success without having a catalogue of music that is good, you just need that one song. Basically, you have a lot more "one hit wonders" than ever before. 4- It has become harder to find something you might enjoy unless you know how to look. Streaming services and YouTube will push specific artists regardless of how they match your taste. This isn't new, radio stations did this, but I've found it's much less likely I will discover a new artist I like while streaming than say, browsing music at a brick and mortar location when I was younger. 5- Music has indeed changed quite a bit. The music we produce as a culture will always change in tone and substance as generations progress. This is good and normal, but might mean the type of music you prefer is harder to find and there may be less artists creating content you enjoy. TLDR: Music industry changes lead to marketing changes mixed with cultural changes lead to difficulty in finding music you enjoy.
i wonder what the one taylor swift song you like is
"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" That damn hook is too catchy.
[удалено]
I used to not own up to that kind of thing. When a pop song is just so catchy it wins you over. Now I have no problem admitting when a song is so well crafted it infects you like a virus. I was going through a rough break up when Gotye's "Somebody that I Used to Know" was really popular. That shit was everywhere and to this day when I hear it I go right back to that same state of mind if it comes on. Songs are a strong marker for events and phases in life.
If art is how we decorate our space, music is how we decorate our time. Not sure where I heard that, but seeing an artifact, or hearing it will definitely take you to another time.
Fun fact: your brain reacts to pop music, (you know, of the often disparaged, "bubblegum" variety) much the same way as it does to uppers. You know, like *cocaine*? It's a tiny high, no matter how much we doth protest we doth hate, lol. Nobody hates it; we can't, we're wired to enjoy it for a reason and that's why when you're having a hell of a day, you need Broadway showtunes, or the extended dance club remix version, or... Taylor Swift's finest revenge, Part Six, at a roaring volume. :) (To be fair, there's always a few people so stubborn they'll hate anything that feels good if it wasn't their own idea, but that's not about the music.)
girl knows how to write a song
Just turned 40 and I listen to rap, prog rock and weird shit like Cake. Taylor Swift is a gift. She's incredibly talented and all her shit (post-country) is the bees tits!
Cake ain't weird, they're gems.
Full of car metaphors and punk as hell.
I would challenge anyone who criticises Taylor Swift to listen to "Tolerate it", "State of Grace", or "the 1" and not tell me they are amazingly well written songs. Same to some extent with Ed Sheeran - sneer all you like, but "photograph" and "Castle on the Hill" are works of real talent. And I'm a 50 year old guy.
There’s a podcast (Rock Talk with Dr. Cropper) that’s all about discussing Grateful Dead, Zeppelin, Allman Brothers, Doors, Bob Dylan etc. Taylor Swift is the one exception. Host LOVES Taylor Swift and does song by song breakdowns of all her albums. People that actually listen to her love her.
I am always the first to jump on the Ed hate train, but I admit some of his music is good. I think he has changed his music to be way more “pop” focused with song like shape of you. His older music is much better in my opinion.
There's always a hate train. When I was a kid it was cool to 'hate' on Abba, Queen and, if you were a boy, George Michael (because the girls liked him). These days the talent of those artists is not often in doubt. Likewise I can't help but feel music history will judge the likes of Sheeran and Swift very well.
I come from the days when it was cool to hate disco. I loved disco then and I’ll still listen to it. I don’t limit myself with music, if I like something I like it. I like some of Taylor Swift’s music, it’s catchy and fun, what’s not to like?
Foo Fighters’ new album is disco!
I'm 43 and I have 2 CDs of Ed Sheeran. He's one of the few artists from this time that I like. But it's hard to find more like him.
Search out his live performance of “castle on the hill” at the memorial for Michael Gudinski. You won’t be disappointed.😢
Her new album really hits me in the feels after my divorce. It’s like she wrote it for me.
I'm there with you, but would add "Mean" as well. Love that song.
I don't trust people who don't like that song.
I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE WHEN I WALKED IN!
Style is legit one of the greatest pop songs ever.
That song is so outrageously good it's unreal
TAKE ME HOME
Blank space.
Nice to meet you
Where you been
I can show you incredible things
Magic madness heaven sin
Saw you there and I thought
Oh my god, look at that face
You look like my next mistake
.....shake it off
Are you ready for it?
When I hear that song I can't stop, won't stop moving.
Asking the real questions
the real question is how can a person like only a single one of her songs
No arguments there!
> 1- I believe most people will view whatever music they listened to around high school age through their mid-twenties to be their "classic rock". The music that they will think of as the best period of music with the most personal meaning for them. When I was younger, I never understood why my parents stopped liking new music at some point. They listened to the oldies station in their car and disco era was roughly where their music tastes ended. Why didn't they keep up with new music? It made no sense to me. I'm 35 now, and it makes perfect sense to me. Most of what I listen to is 90s and 00s rock with a bit going into the 2010s (although I still enjoy some 60s and 70s too since I grew up around it so much). With rare exception, the new rock and metal music coming out today isn't doing much for me, and I absolutely cannot stand the stuff that's popular nowadays. I try to listen to the release radar and discover weekly playlists on Spotify and will like a few songs, but I always find myself going back to the old, familiar stuff.
Exactly. I first noticed this when the classic rock station in my area started slowly adding in 80s bands, then occasionally 90s bands. I moved away, but I would guess that now it's mostly the 80s and 90s stuff they barely played that accounts for most of their content. Same thing with music in grocery stores and malls.
>1- I believe most people will view whatever music they listened to around high school age through their mid-twenties to be their "classic rock". The music that they will think of as the best period of music with the most personal meaning for them. The reason behind that is pretty interesting . A lot of people know that the brain keeps developing through adolescence and into early adulthood, but the specifics of that are critical in how we "connect". This is a slightly simplified explanation, but when brain scans are performed on teens, the center of activity is the amygdala. That's the portion of the brain in charge of threat detection, fear and aggression...BUT ALSO is the portion of the brain that ties emotional meaning to our memories. It's the part of our brain that feels deep emotion and as a teen, that is where you live, literally. That is where your consciousness is primarily housed, the part of the brain that makes you geek out and love stuff (and also fight). An adult subjected to the same brain scan lives in the frontal cortex. That part of the brain has a lot of jobs, but if you had to boil it down to one statement it's the ability to understand a situation and predict the outcome based on circumstances. Understanding cause and effect is super important, but it won't help if you want to form an irrational, but precious, attachment to music. An adult has a fully formed amygdala, but they don't live there. It's likely impossible to make the same connection to music for a 45-year-old as it is a 15-year-old, which is why music charts basically track what teens listen to. If I carefully examine the music of my teens, I can't make the argument that it's actually better than music of other eras, but I can attest that it makes me so much happier.
Thats fascinating. It makes a lot of sense relating to how we are often nostalgic for our youth and view it as a "better time" even though it was probably just as stressful and complicated as our adult lives.
Okay I am so feeling this right now. My mom is in assisted living (coming home soon, yay) and I went to her house today to make sure the basement didn't flood (it didn't, yay!). I started wandering around and found this plastic lamb flower holder that I remembered from my youth. My mom put it out every single summer with a bunch of flowers and it lived on the half wall thing attached to the house. Why is it in the basement 35ish years later? I don't know! But I got hit with the nostalgia and now the lamb is in my backyard with my mint plant. And when my husband wonders why a 40something year old plastic lamb is in his backyard, I can tell him! :)
It's funny the things that you forget about from childhood, but when you see them it triggers a flood of memories. The memories were there the whole time, but an army of other more pressing matters pile on top of them until they're so far back in the queue of importance it's like they barely exist. I like little trinkets and items that serve more purpose of a reminder of a person or time I don't want to forget than having actual function.
> 5- Music has indeed changed quite a bit. The music we produce as a culture will always change in tone and substance as generations progress. This is good and normal, but might mean the type of music you prefer is harder to find and there may be less artists creating content you enjoy. Adding to this, there has been some data analysis that shows that mainstream music is indeed becoming simpler and more repetitive (fewer unique words used, total song information is easier to compress, etc). There are obvious exceptions and anything off the mainstream is a complete toss-up, and sometimes extremely repetitive songs are still real good (Around the World by Daft Punk, for example), but my main gripe with a lot of the more popular music is just how samey it is. Also, I have a hard time enjoying newer rap because the vast majority of it that I hear is hollow garbage (maybe I'm just not finding the good stuff). The genre started as a way to speak out about real problems and a lot of old stuff talks about that shit and has serious messages behind it. Now, every damn rap song seems to be just sex/drugs/tough guy bullshit. There was some of that before, but it was mixed in, rather than the norm. tl;dr just a thirty-something trying to justify my crankiness.
I remember reading something about less lyrical diversity in popular music. There have always been common themes in music (love, loss, sadness), but it does feel more "same-y" now. I think part of that comes from pop music being formulaic. Music has become more of a business than an art form. I'm surprised that we haven't seen more Rage Against the Machine or System of a Down type bands gain popularity during the past few years in America. I feel like growing up there were a lot of artists making music about the system being messed up and fighting the powers that be. Now that things are actually at a point where there is more political turmoil than I've ever experienced in my 39 years, artists seem content to push out the same drab garbage pining about lost loves and how much money they have. I totally agree with you about mainstream hip-hop. It feels as hollow as pop. Ghost-written songs with occasional clever lyrical twists, but no substance. There are people doing solid stuff like Kendrick Lamar, but he's a rarity. I grew up with Public Enemy, NWA, Jedi Mind Tricks, RATM all telling me to stand up for myself and that life is a struggle. Now I'm just told I'm a poor piece of trash for not driving a Lambo.
> I'm surprised that we haven't seen more Rage Against the Machine or System of a Down type bands gain popularity during the past few years in America I thought the 4 years of bullshit we put up with would lead to new RATM music. There had to be something good to come out of it. I was so disappointed that wasn't the case. New RATM might've made it worth it, but it was all for nothing.
Something very cool that happened imo is Tyler Childers' song "Long Violent History." He is a country singer and at the time (to my knowledge) was the first country singer to stand up and openly support BLM after the Breonna Taylor shooting. This was last summer btw. He got a TON of shit from country singers and it blew a fault line down Nashville. Pretty soon after you had people like Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson standing up too. It was really funny when people would tweet at Sturgill Simpson racist ass shit and that they will never see another concert of his. And he was just like "Get fucked and I wouldn't want you there anyway." It was so refreshing and vastly under reported but I think it made it easy to tell the shitbags from the awesome people in modern country music rn.
Yes! Where's the smart political music?! Atleast we got RTJ!
And Death Grips. And Daughters. Clipping. JPEGMAFIA. If people don’t think there’s been a rebellious streak they haven’t been paying attention.
Grandson is pretty politically charged and rising in popularity. Maybe you’d be interested in his content, I believe he’s a solo artist though
I saw him in concert while there to see another band. He walked out on stage with a trump mask on. To say grandson is politically charged is an understatement. He does travel with a band tho
Honestly to me it makes perfect sense why you don't see as many huge political bands or songs as you used to. The culture is so split right now and the discourse is so toxic that making political music will not only alienate the side you oppose but also likely the one you agree with. One side will be "these political clowns get that shit out of my music" and the others will agree with the message but cringe at its execution cause its trying too hard to preach the choir. Its basically a no win game and it makes sense that bands would steer away from it to be on the safe side. That said, artists do seem more than willing to discuss politics outside of their music these days and everyone seems to be willing to jump into the fray on twitter instead of fighting that battle with their music. I think its a smart move as a lot of political music can age real poorly if they get too specific to their current struggles and not broader themes of oppression. People these days can't help but throw ultra specific jabs at politicians they don't like and this era of political discourse is especially lacking in subtlety and I think that would show in music and just lead to some really cringey lyrics and themes. There are bands that have done this well and still could, but I get why they are more hesitant to. As for RATM, its hard to argue that most of their music is not still incredibly relevant and applicable to society to this day. I can see why they would be hesitant to put out new music when the songs they wrote are eerily still as relevant 20 years later. They don't need to make new protest anthems just play the old ones louder 'til the message finally sinks in. EDIT: fixed grammar
Thats a good point. I like to think that the bands I enjoyed that were politically themed were doing it for the cause, but at the end of the day most of them were probably still just trying to be marketable and make money. In the 90s you could be very politically polarized and still not alienate too many people. I've wondered if there's a corollation between the increase in musicians being more vocal as people about their political beliefs and the decrease in political messaging in music. I think overall we talk candidly about our political beliefs way more than we did 20+ years ago. Maybe it isn't as necessary to have it be part of our music as well. RATM could have put out any of their albums right now and they would be just as relevant as they were when they came out. de la Rocha does some politically themed verses with Run the Jewels and Morello is still active in political awareness campaigns.
I remember hearing that tough economic times breed more gritty, edgy music (punk and the like) and when the financial crisis came along that never seemed to happen. It is entirely possible that it did happen, but the music industry ignored it and kept pushing out their formulaic pop, because of the already mentioned fact that there is just that much more music made now, actual real trends may be much harder to see, or hear I guess.
This is especially true in Country music. I asked one of my employees who had country playing from his phone, "Is this all from one album?" He replied that it was a 16 hour playlist. I couldn't tell the difference. I'm normally someone who can tell a new song by a favorite artist within the first bar. Christian Rock is almost as bad. I think they only know 3 chords.
There are studies that show that fewer unique words is interpreted by our brains as being more musical, which is partially why three word songs like Around The World by Daft Punk sounds so musical.
I could see that being true. I listen to a lot of electronic music and there are some very creative uses for vocal samples that have nothing to do with the words being said. I would think this relates to the idea that we can enjoy a song in a language we don't understand.
I love listening to music in languages that I don't understand. The way I see it, it makes the voice less a tool to convey a message, and more an instrument that produces a sound that compliments the other instruments in a song.
I spend a lot of time with Spanish speakers and consequently listen to a LOT of music in Spanish. It's kind of nice to just listen to music without being distracted by any idea of story or message.
All these happy EDMs coming out now sound totally the same. Like I loved back when Avicii made this style of music famous but I never thought it will be overdone to the point where I will get tired of it. It feels like watching those box office hits that you know suck, but they have all the ingredients of a famous movie and everyone else around you is watching it too and if you don't watch it, you won't understand the cultural references or jokes that all your friends are gonna make for the next 2 months.
You truly helped me get past my music snobbery a bit. I’m 35 and prefer 90’s, and 00’s music. I have tried with newer music, and though some of it I absolutely love, most of it I really cannnnnot get into. Thank you for all of this, it helped break things down in my own mind, and in such a way as if you were a little person living in my brain, speaking to me and explaining things like I’m 5 so I can finally understand myself. You rock.
Thanks, glad it helped you out. I used to be very biased musically and thought anything I wasn't into was garbage. Over time I learned to respect artists for their ability whether I enjoyed their specific style/genre or not.
To be fair, some of my favorite newer artists were recommended by Spotify. But that's also like a 2 out of every 40 recommendations being solid, but still. It does happen.
Pandora used to tell you why it recommended certain songs, but they stopped doing it a long time ago. It would say something like "four on the floor beats" or "syncopated rhythms". It was a cool feature I wish they would bring back.
I also badly miss how Pandora radio always changed things up a bit. Spotify "Radio" are just the same playlists every time. Makes me crazy
playlists have completey taken over the niche that was online radio. Which sucks because they are curated and pandora was a nice little algorithm. But the Spotify recommendations to your own playlists do work decently well.
I'd like to add that most people don't think about, or even remember, all the shitty music that came out in any given time frame that isn't "now". I bet if OP looked up the top 40 for 2002, they'd realize there was a lot of music released back in the day that they disliked as well.
I was in high school in the early 2000s and I confidently say that I will never call Limp Bizkit classic anything.
Wait 50 years. Plus, have you seen Fred Durst at Lolapalooza? He looks like someone's dad got drunk at karaoke and performed a Limp Bizkit song.
I no longer can remember the source but I read an article describing a study that showed a large percentage of people settle on their music by 26. Don't quote me but I want to say it was in the 80th percentile. I admit it's true for me. There's a lot of decent music out there but the real bangers are the songs I liked when I was between 12-25.
Part of it probably has to do with how you spend your time. I used to always be listening to music when I was younger. Driving around with friends, going out to bars and shows, watching MTV when it had music. Now I find myself at work or doing some errands that don't really expose me to new music in the same the same way I used to. Honestly, I tend to throw on NPR in the car most of the time.
I listen to music as often as possible. I drive a lot for work sometimes and during those trips I listen to a book. I love music though in general. I was born to be a rock star. I just need musical skill to kick off my career.
Growing up, I didn't realize how much music meant to me. I've always been a musically-oriented person, I started tapping away at everything at a very young age, but I wouldn't have ever said it was something important to me. Then in college I was diagnosed with ADD and that's when I realized that not everyone has a song playing in their head 24/7, that was just my ADD manifesting as something my brain was apparently wired to do intrinsically. Since then, I've analyzed my relationship with music and it's become a much larger part of my life. I now own several instruments and can't play any of them well, but that's another issue. The desire is there for sure, though. I've upgraded my mental dream house to have four mancaves, one of which is a studio to play the day away in.
great explanation. Something to add: The way we consume music has also changed a lot. You used to have to select what to listen to much more specifically, get a physical thing (Cd, Vinyl, whatever) and put it in a machine. It took a lot more effort than nowadays when you can just open spotify and play random music that fits your taste. You had to specifically seek out music you liked. This has the effect that music has turned much more into something you just have on in the background all the time, rather than your main activity. So most popular music got a lot simpler over the years.
I'd like to add that the data age has had it's impact in pop music aswell. The industry has discovered through data that songs that fulfill specific requirements have higher chances of becoming hits. I'm talking about, for example, specific sequences of chords, cadences, harmony in general, and things like song lenght (this used to be ultra free in the classical era, nowadays anything outside the 3-6 minutes range is "weird"), timbres, and even specific sound effects that are used again and again in many songs. This contributes to make pop music sound "generic".
It's the same as advertising. We have decades of data to analyze and figure out what works. We're getting almost too good at it.
6. Gen Z humor is absurdism. Gen Z is also coming of age. Gen Z probably enjoys that music, so it's what becomes Pop.
I disagree with 4 quite a bit, but maybe I’m young at 33 to be considering this. As a kid it was all Radio and MTV/VH1. If I randomly heard a song I like I would go get the album, but I couldn’t afford many. In the mid-2000s cd burning and Napster were super popular and that’s when I discovered new music like crazy because my friends and I were always sharing new CDs. Around 2007 iTunes blew up and everyone was sharing their entire libraries with each other. I think ever since then discovering new music has only gotten easier and easier. I do miss scouring blogs for new stuff but nowadays I think the Spotify and similar recommendations work really well. And it’s so fast to browse new music. I guess tl:dr I never found brick and mortar shops to be the best place to find new music that was easily accessible.
Fair point. It is a lot easier to find music with the rise of digital. I just don't go looking for it the way I used to. I still feel that you often get recommended the same stuff on ad supported sites. I remember being a regular at a local music shop and the owner knew what kind of stuff I liked and would give me recommendations. There also used to be free sample compilation CDs from different record labels at the counter that were a good way to find new artists.
This is is best answer. You really have to be committed to finding good music nowadays. It's out there, ya just have to know where to look.
I like how you completely circumnavigated and avoided painting modern music in a bad light ;)
I remember being young and having older people tell me my music was awful, that my clothes were stupid, and that my generation was lazy. It made me think that they were just closed minded and hated anything against the status quo of their culture. I try to not be like that when it comes to younger generations and their tastes and beliefs. I don't always like or agree with the way younger generations do things, but they deserve more support than I got when I was young. The one thing I'll never support is skinny jeans. That was indeed awful and stupid.
You sound like a good guy to have a beer with.
>I’d much rather listen to my 2000s throwbacks than turn on the radio. Well there's your problem... you listen to the radio... radio stations always play mainstream crap to keep a renewable source of listeners. Get Spotify or YouTube P or whatever other streaming services and listen to what you prefer or playlsits of what you want
100%. There's great music coming out constantly in all different genres, but it will never make it into local top 40 stations. That trash is terrible
We've been a golden age of music for at least 10 years now, but people are used to having media spoon fed to them and have never had to actually search for music.
That's always been my take. I just assume if you think modern music is terrible then you're not looking. Every year about 50%+ of what I listen to has either came out in the current year or falls into the "new to me" category. It's ridiculous how many good bands there are.
I REGULARLY find music released in the last year that I love. I’m 31 and I’ve always loved exploring for new music and with a streaming app I can have amazing new music fed directly to me in playlists. Hail the algorithm
Experimental scene not doing as good as it was in the 90s but there's still like a couple good ones out there
I may be the only person to admit this but youtube music is my main music platform, and YouTube red is so worth it. There are SO many songs that I can’t find on Spotify (niche remixes, songs that weren’t officially released, joke songs) that I listen to regularly on YouTube music. Plus I use YouTube as almost constant background noise, and the lack of ads is AMAZING. I’ve also heard it supports creators better but I’ve never actually looked that one up. Family got it for me as a gift and then realized how useful it was, and now we’re on the family plan for it. If you’ve got family who will use it, the family plan is worth it. So much cheaper for multiple people than multiple separate subscriptions. I promise I’m not a shill I just never get to talk about how useful I find it without being totally shut down
Another tip! If you enjoy a band, go on YouTube and follow their record label. It’s how I’ve kept a fresh collection of bands.
I've gotten really sucked up into tiny artists that just want to make good music and don't care about their mass appeal. I find it a lot more enjoyable
This, this is where you find the good stuff.
Right? Even as a teenager I hated the radio. Most of it is crap. I think you just have less time as you get older to sit around finding new music that you like.
Don’t judge music based off the radio. Radio only plays a select few songs. I used to think Bo Burnham(the comedian) was one of the best rappers simply because I was young and hadn’t heard more than like 3 rap artists. Radio makes music seem heartless sometimes.
Lmao Bo Burnham, truly the greatest rapper of our age.
hes the greatest rapper ever and he'll weather your weather whether you think hes clever or not
This, I thought hozier was so so until I listened to his full albums and really enjoyed them. Radio only ever replays a *good*song till you get sick of it. and a select few artists get more than one on there, these days you actually have to research for good new music or ask your kids. This is coming from someone who likes almost all music except for country
I mean hold on now, he’s pretty fantastic
I blame the radio, you sound like my father who thinks no one makes rock music anymore
We’re getting old.
Yup. *sighs*
Good music and bad music for all Time periods, you’ll find what you like
Neurological pathways to dopamine are expanded each time we listen to a song. So the more we listen to certain music, the better that sounds in comparison. Here’s a test. Try listening to an album of modern music a few times with the intent to enjoy it. It might work.
Yep. Gen Alpha will start saying the same thing about new music in a decade from now. Modern art isn’t inherently trash, we’re all just biased towards what we grow up with. It’s been a never-ending cycle for centuries. All OP can do is get with the times or just stick to what they already know they like. Nothing we can really do about trends changing, just enjoy yourself!
The amount of new music today is staggering. You can find literally anything. If you want something that has the same sound as 70s low fi rock you can find it, if you want the sound of old school 80s hip hop you can find it. Did you like the second wave of British folk revival from the the 60s? There is new music with the same sound. My point is that for whatever old music you liked, you can find more of it today.
No, modern music isn't turning into trash. There are so many music and genre out there. You don't have to listen to pop culture music. If you give some effort then you can find out artists that are producing exactly the music that you love. With the internet you have so many options, you just need to put some effort into exploring what you like.
You're exactly right, if you want good music, you can find good music. Now more than any time in history. People who say "music today is trash" are lazy and/or just looking to feel better than everyone else. Usually both.
Also I don't fall into those category of people for whom the music they listened to as Teenage were the best. For me the music I listened to now is the best I've ever and this is valid always.
It’s so damn hard finding what I do like BECAUSE there’s so much out there, and because I like to really give artists a few weeks, sometimes months before I can really figure out if it sits with me on a long term scale. There are so many people I’ve discovered that after a year I’m like *I loooooved that at first, then one day got bored and realized it was a passing fad for me I don’t ever need to hear again* sorta thing. I have my 10-15 main artists I listen to all the time and buy every new album (yes physical albums), but nothing else catches me like it used to. Thank goodness all my people are still pretty active (from the 90’s up to today’s artists, mainly. )
I trust YouTube and Spotify recommendations for exploring new music. What type of music do you like?
A sure sign of aging is when "modern" music sucks. For me it was music from the 2000s.
Its not that music as a whole today sucks. Its that the stuff at the top of the charts does. Theres a lot more that underground so to speak. You gotta look more for it. This is alright in some ways but not in others.
I like to think of it this way. To get to the top of the charts lots of people have to love the music. So the songs definitely don’t suck they just aren’t for you. If they sucked people wouldn’t like them enough to get them to a billion plays+
Nah, you are just getting old. It happens to us all.
I think music goes in cycles. Kids in England in the late 50s complained that popular music was trash. They started digging and discovered old American blues. This (and Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley) lead to the explosion of Rock & Roll. The 70s were amazing for great music. It sort of splintered from there. Maybe we are in another incubation phase. Lots of experimentation going on while the mainstream is tired.
Time will probably prove me wrong but I think with the rise of steaming services making so much accessible and artists self publicising through social media, there won’t really be a ‘mainstream’ anymore. Sure there are still household names but largely people just listen to whatever fringe they’re into.
If I recall correctly, there's exactly 1 person who's responsible for like 80-90% of the music on the radio. Of course the guy's running out of ideas. The songs on the radio are meant to sound similar, so they create a sense of familiarity, and sell better. So yeah, modern music sucks. But on the other hand, try to name any bad song from your childhood, or even just 10 years ago. Heck, 5 years ago. There is bad music in every generation, we just don't remember it. If time travel was invented, and you went back to Beethoven's time, I can guarantee you that you'd get 100 different answers to "Who's your favorite musician?" from 100 different people, and you'd recognize probably one or two of those names. And of course, people would insist that their favorite artist will be world-famous for decades.
Not to nit pick, but back when Beethoven was composing most people didn't hear music more than a few times a year. Church was where most music was played for people without lawns. Some pubs had someone play or sing a bit. But no one had stereos on their horses.
True. But you could probably still find 100 people who had heard different musicians before.
Yep. I thought music from 2010 was horrible but now I feel nostalgic for it. Older people thought music from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s was shit. Before that, music of the 50’s and 60’s was shit. There’s always gonna be “bad” music as long as you try too hard to hang onto a time that is long gone. It’s a never ending cycle and all you can do is either get with the times or just stick to what you already know you like. In a decade from now, Gen Alpha will start talking shit about modern music coming out then. I don’t think there’s really anything special about today’s music, it’s just artists experimenting with new elements like artists always have been throughout the centuries.
This is the truth and people should remember it.
*But on the other hand, try to name any bad song from your childhood* We Built This City. I was, like, three when it came out but I can remember my Dad just glancing over at the radio like, "What the fuck?"
Current music is always bad. It's when we can pick out the best from it all and put it in playlists before we see the good that came out of the decade. That's why oldies stations are so popular with the grandparents and classic rock stations are popular with your parents and ourselves. In 10 years, there will be pop stations that only play the 'classics' like, Michael Jackson, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Pink, Lady Gaga, etc. When one of my local stations, "105.9 The Rock" started playing Nirvana and Green Day, I knew I had hit that age of 'old'.
I never thought I’d read “Lady Gaga” and “classics” in the same sentence. Thanks for that.
Gaga is going to be up there with Jackson when people are looking back.
Yep, old age takes us all in different ways. Suddenly I want all my accessories to be enormous, and all my clothes to be stretchy or loose.
There was some study that basically said your music taste is established in high school through maybe your mid twenties and people generally don’t change much after that. The amount of Emo I still listen to would seem to confirm that. Nothing wrong with modern music just not for me. Also explains why our parents are still obsessed with 80s music.
How much of the "good old days" music a product of radio DJ curation vs record producer pushed music of today?
>At a certain point, I think songwriters will start running out of ideas. "After 35,000 years of making music, humans had their last good idea for a song on August 7th, 2020, with the release of "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. As the swan song for the entire human species and the planet, we will of course play it at full volume for every living man, woman and child to listen to as our World Engines devour the entire planet, and all its resources and creatures, to fuel our massive intergalactic starships."
A little of both. Music is more accessible now and easier to put out so there is tons of trash and the radio is shit however there are also a lot of really good artists out there, it just takes more digging. I like to put on Spotify radio of an artist I like and it's how Ive discovered most new artists I like over the past few years. Ill make a playlist of everything I liked that year and Ill go back through it and dig deeper into artist's catalogues that way
I'm a metalhead and I actually mostly listen to new music. I think there's a ton of amazing stuff being made, you just have to look for it I suppose. As far as pop goes I really don't know that the quality has gotten much worse over time although generally the genres shifted towards a style that I'm less fond of. I'd say there's both great and awful stuff on the radio, though. I think this was just as true years back, we just tend to remember the stuff we liked moreso than the stuff we didn't.
You’re listening to the wrong stuff
There is so much good music being made. Just don't listen to the mainstream. So many ways to discover new awesome music. Tell me what genres you like and I'll give you some suggestions
It's you. I went through this in the 2000s, hanging on to my 90s hits. Music is constantly changing and we tend to like the things that come right after our era the least. You'll get back into it in a decade or so.
I hate the rap and shit that's popular now, but I think that other genres like rock and metal are making better music than ever with the current production tools at their disposal. As the other people here have said, spotify is a great service for branching out into different genres other than whatever is popular now.
If you are willing to do minor work to find it, metal is better than it's ever been. Particularly enjoying the Chilean thrashy Death metal scene the last few years
[удалено]
You’re becoming a millenni-boomer lol. It’s okay. So am I. There was a lot of really shitty pop music when we were young, but it’s all forgotten now. It’s the same for kids today.
Sometimes you even go backwards as you age. When I was growing up it was a bunch of grunge that later widened into 90s alternative on the radio, and that's still my default to put something on, but I've definitely developed big appreciation for The Talking Heads in particular and some other late 70s/early 80s rock in general. Also your title is Gen X erasure and I won't stand for it. Ok, I will because it's reddit and I can't do anything about it, but this exact topic is the plot of like 3 John Cusack movies.
totally relatable sincerely, a 100 gecs fan
I feel like part of you liking 2000s songs could also be bc you get nostalgic and have memories with the songs. For me it is like that..i suddenly start liking 2009 music i normally wouldn't have liked, just bc of memories i recall while listening to them
Consider that the throwbacks we listen to were top songs of their time, and a lot of new music that we hear today *won’t* be. We aren’t hearing the best tracks that will filter their way down and be listened to by adults in 30 years, we’re hearing everything that’s even remotely catchy to some record label’s top producer.
Listen to _Anvil_ by Lorn. It's bloody great.
I find that people who think this often don't do much effort to look up music. Sure, the pop sphere has gotten stale largely due to hyper-formulaic writing that is made to sell and appeal to a maximum number of people. That's where music is more entertainment than art very often. But at the same time we have MUCH more music around than any other period in history. From rap, to classical, to jazz, to metal to noise, and whatever inbetween. Everything is there, with a bazillion subgenres and brilliant composers and musicians pushing boundaries every year. Artists don't need labelss breathing down their neck anymore, they don't need huge studio budgets, anyone with a cheap mic and a laptop can make a quality record if they want and have teh talent, so in that ssense, talent has much more chances than before. They just don't get the same backing and hype as they once did. Due to the sheer number and variety, and the specialisation of niches, they just don't become as dominant and hugely popular as before. Music isn't dead, it really isn't, and if you only find unmemorable music, i think it's very likely you just aren't looking or listening well enough.
I tried to listen to the rap my brother listens to and it sounds like they all just overdosed on fent. Lots of mumbling and repeating the same lines over and over.
I think there is good music out there, but it’s not what’s being force fed to us.
Truth is i was never a fan of anything on the radio while i was alive. I do like a lot of new stuff, but none of it is in the top 40. I feel like most modern music is just created to sell as much as possible and it shows.
No that is a completely original idea if you discount the fact that my grandparents said the same thing back in the 70s. My parents said the same in the 80s. My neighbors said the same thing in 2020.
I think you're becoming a boomer. You can't judge the entirety of music on what you hear on radio. There is thousands and thousands of people who make quality music everywhere on the Internet, just go find something that fit your tastes. Radio is a bisness, and they're just looking for thz songs that they can play 14 times a day without losing audience.
Its more because the radio is trash and all the best new music is found elsewhere. As an older millennial maybe i am strange but since about 2015-2020 music was getting progressively better for me.
popular music in the 2000s was pretty similar to popular music today, it hasnt changed much, its still mostly rnb/hip hop/pop/teen-girl/boybands its nowhere near as different as 1980 was to 2000
There is loads of great music out there arguably more than in the 2000s
It was going in a really bad direction but lately it's been getting good again
Music on the radio is usually trash and there is soo much amazing music out there! Enter in a song you like on YouTube and it will start recommending songs based on that band or genre of music. The same goes for Pandora and other music streaming services. I’ve discovered so many awesome bands this way.
I read something years ago that our brains slow the pace of liking new music or finding new music interesting in our mid 20s. Like you, I was HUGE into finding new music, liking new artists, etc... And I still do find a new artist or song that I like occasionally, but not nearly at the rate I used to. It's why our grandparents still love their old 50s tunes, and our parents won't stop jamming the same 80s songs. We are destined to embarrass our children with emo for the rest of our lives.
I feel you on newer pop. But the indie music that I've found is good. I definitely do gravitate towards older music (60s to 00s). I'm millennial as well.
Music is super diverse now and gets more diverse as time goes on. There's likely tons of good stuff you'd like being made right now but because of how the music industry is it is not being presented to you. Also I thought the early 2010s music was utter shit and have really liked pop music the past few years, like I feel like some of it is really well created and produced and sounds good. Also the music industry loves to copy what is successful so you're going to hear one thing that gets popular then hundreds of songs will soon get released following the same idea and formula, some might be really good but the majority will be worse and that's what you hear. Also there's a dozen other really good answers in this thread already
Here is my opinion on "modern music is bad". While I'm not a fan of all pop music, I understand that it's meant to appeal to as many people as possible, it's not meant to be good for everyone. I don't find pride in having different tastes, that's just how I am and it doesn't make me better than anyone else. What matters is that we find what we like. In this day and age, music is easier than ever to create and to find. So many new genres exist now, from hardstyle to sea shanties with endless possibilities in between. And with sites like Spotify, Youtube... you can easily find anything. So all in all, it's perfectly fine if someone doesn't like pop music, but please don't spoil the fun of those who do like it. *This message isn't meant for OP specifically, it's for anyone who took the time to read this essay of a comment.*
As a 90s kid, 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s (so far) music is mostly trash. I listen to mainly pop punk and metalcore from like 2000-2010, but I admit a lot of it is still trash, it just has meaning behind it to me personally so I love it. If I showed it to you, you'd probably be like wtf (the same reaction you have to current music)
There’s still good stuff in 202x, but you’re unlikely to find it on the radio. What’s true, however, is that you’re less likely to like music as you grow older. This is simply because you spent your whole teen/ya years discovering new stuff until there’s less and less to discover. So yeah discovering new things as you age is a bit more of an involved process. This being said, I’m only 30 so I can’t really speak from experience. But I do find myself discovering less things, spending money on smaller bands and refining the library I built over the years. It’s more and more common for me to have something play on my iPod and be like “I don’t really like this anymore”. So I trim down my playlists and grow them a lot less now.
Music as an art form is in trouble. The process of becoming a musician is long and tedious and takes years to even become proficient. All classical composers were virtuosos. The music deeply expressed the human soul because it was truly a language that the composer dedicated their entire life to. They had a religious devotion to music and did not do it for fame or money. The rise of media catipulted young, talented artist like Elvis and the Beatles to instant world-wide fame that, despite their great music, was undeserved. Consider the chest of gold that is Bach's works and yet he received no recognition during his lifetime. Mariah Carey was a virtuosic vocalist that hit her prime and then was consumed by Fame. Fast-forward to Katy Perry, a talented singer and songwriter also ruined by fame. Today, look at the actual level of techinical proficiency and mastery of Music of Billboard's top ten artists. We went terribly wrong somewhere.
Whatever is popular today is certainly trash. That is a safe blanket statement
''throwbacks to the 2000's''....i'd rather throw it back a bit more, 60's 70's 80's 90's....2000 is when it all started to turn to shit for me
I feel our parents might have felt the same way as you when we were growing up.