Good God, what passes for music these days sucks

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BigWill

2,500+ Posts
the #1 song in the country is something called "Tic Tok" by someone called "Ke$ha".

I cannot remember hearing something so vile.

OK, that's a lie. The chants of "SEC SEC SEC" one week ago were worse, but only by a little bit.

The # 2 song is "Bad Romance" by "Lady GaGa".
It may be worse than #1, I'm not sure as I've never listened past the 2 second mark.

Here's the linkThe Link
You can actually listen to these "chart toppers" if you are in the mood for self-punishment.
Who's buying this ****? It's just awful.

Oh...and GET OFF OF MY LAWN!
 
When I was a kid, music was great. Even older people whose age I am now, loved the music of the late 60's and 70's...even some from the 80's. I simply cannot believe what passes as music these days. It's not that I'm just older and, "don't get it." That ain't it. It's just horrible.

And, don't get me started on what was once known simply as ripping off the music of a known song and giving it a rap-beat to "create," a new song. Now, it actually has a name....Sampling. Funny....I just call it lazy, uncreative, ********....my synonym for sampling I suppose.
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American Idol, Boy Bands- and their producer- Richard Pearlman sp? I think is his name have collectively done more to destroy one of the best things about this country. Music has become such a well studied industry that they essentially take models and teach them how to sing.

Yet- all of our best music clearly is from those who actually are musicians and understand the art and trade that they started when they were kids themselves. Bands like ColdPlay, The Killers, don't need slimeball producers to teach them how to dance and sing- if they suck- we just won't ever hear about them. Even Madonna and Shakira were made famous more organically- and they know how to compose and play music!

In short- I agree- half of the crap on radio today is corporate BS. As much of a capitalist as I am this is one area where record companies need to stay the fck out and let the musicians come to them.
 
When I hear someone in their 30s/40s talk about how music sucked in their teens and it's much better now, I'll give some credence to what you say. Alas, every generation thinks the music of their teens is awesome.

Also note, what is popular in sales may not be the best music of the generation. What you do is condense a decade’s worth of music into 20 songs or one group/person. Every decade will have 20 great songs and one extraordinary artist.

You mention the late 60s and early 70s. Let me roll out some of the top sellers: The Monkees, “Mary Poppins Soundtrack”, Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young, War, Peter Frampton... There are some greats, but just showing sales do not represent everyone’s taste as the best music of a generation. Some may even call some of that music crap...

edit - an error
 
Listen to Cana. Go to a club like did when you were young. This song Tik Tok may come on. You will dance... You will laugh... Sexy girl will give you "the eye" during song... You will then think song is ok.
 
Wait, wait wait. Did we honestly just have the Killers and ******* Coldplay put forth as the paragons of good current music?
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I'm so old I remember when people who wanted to play music would learn how to play an instrument, like a guitar or something. Now the required equipment is a boob job and booty implants.
And country music performers actually used to create...country music.
And every garage had a band in it, young and raw and powerful, and some of them became good enough to break out with a disc or two. Where have they all gone?
 
There are songs I like, and songs I don't like, in every genre, and in every era. I'm not a huge fan of "pop" now, but I wasn't a huge fan of "pop" twenty years ago either.

The Ke$ha and Lady Gaga of today are not very much different from the Tiffany and Debbie Gibson of twenty years ago. Some people like that music, and some don't.

I've always liked rock and older country and blues, the music I grew up on as an Austin local in the 70s and 80s. But there are pop and rap and hip hop songs that I've really liked, going back to childhood.

Right now, the song I am most surprised that I like, is the Black Eyed Peas "Ive Got A Feeling." It's not particularly complicated or impressive from a musical standpoint, but it has a nice hook and it makes me feel good when I hear it.

Go figure.
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I might get drilled for this but the techno version of the Tik Tok song is not bad at all.

I still haven't heard the original though.
 
PFD- I don't understand your post- do you think Killers/Coldplay is bad corporate music or do you like them?
 
Disclaimer: Long response, stream of thought.

This is a really interesting dynamic to me. Maybe never in the history of man has the so-called “Top 40” been so hollow and vain. At the same time, we have boundless access to music and media like no culture has ever seen. We can, with great ease, truly identify our musical interests.

When I was a kid (now 35), you were literally defined by the type of music you preferred (i.e., goth, kicker, metalhead, etc). It was very easy to access music close to the core of your preferred genre. For example, it would stand to reason that if you liked New Order, you were probably going to like Depeche Mode. However, it was much harder to find music near to, or derivative of your interests. I suppose it was available, but without vast amounts of time and an existing base of knowledge, there was no access to other music without some financial risk.

Now the lines have all but blurred to a distant memory and the entire catalog of musical history is woven together accessible via phones and computers. The degrees of separation between Radiohead and Mastodon are much easier to navigate. I now enjoy music from all over the world, of all types made only available in today's modern world.

Also, the time-honored tradition of “influence” has been amplified in modern music (for good and bad). When done well, a band like Vampire Weekend can take their obvious influence from The Police and afro-pop rhythms and come up with something that sounds fresh. It’s debatable (if not a personal opinion) how good Vampire Weekend is, but they did release something old…..done new. When done poorly, you get regurgitated top 40 drivel. Unfortunately for mainstream hip-hop, innovation has all but halted. Most artists are simply re-doing (different from re-inventing) what worked for previous artists. In many cases, they are copying ideas, songs and looks from artists that VERY recently experienced success on mainstream radio. Top 40 radio is dominated by hip-hop artists who from the mid 80s through 90s were the most innovative genre of the music industry. I think the watered down nature of today’s top 40 is the last dying breath of a stale and overdone genre of music.

Conversely, the word “indie” has been embraced (if not suffocated) to the point that we are constantly looking for the next best thing. Innovation thrives in the indie world allowing for an embarrassing array of options. However, I think we will look back on the 00’s with a few fond memories of bands that really carried any staying power. This does not mean that today’s music is not good; it’s just not as concentrated. It’s more a result of how music is being purchased. You do not have to buy an album to enjoy a band. In turn, bands are writing songs accordingly, and more importantly, they are releasing songs like never before. The era of the album is dead. Songs are leaked, made available for free, etc. Album art is an attached pdf or a concert poster. For all of these reasons, we get bits and pieces of musical brilliance in very early stages of its development. Never before have we been able to follow bands from the earliest stages of music writing. Bands are formed in garages, songs are available online the next week and they have a buzz going before they even get to SXSW. In the past, you would have never heard of such a band until they hit a major label (or you happened to live in their local market).

Like someone said more succinctly before me, the music is there…..you just have to find it. In that vain, I use these access points for music:

Rhapsody
SIRIUS
KEXP.org
WOXY
SONOS
Pitchfork
Metacritic
Pollstar
Pandora
Last.FM
SXSW

And in the time it took me to write this, I found 2 new artists:

James Yuill
Horse Feathers

Enjoy!
 
Last night my son was blasting through the walls of his room on his electric guitar Ozzie's "Crazy Train". Sounded just like the record, solo and all. Then he got on his bass and blasted a very good rendition of Rush's "YYZ". The little guy is already better than I was at any time (and he's only 13).

I hear these adults in bands who don't play well and/or can't sing in key. It seems that skill on an instrument is becoming more of a lost art.

Creativity, which I think is an even more rare talent, is what is really holding most of the modern music back.
 
Sad thing is that in 15-20 years, this will be considered "classic," and chicks will rush the dance floor at wedding receptions throughout the US whenever it they play.

I don't reminisce about much of the pop music from the '80's, when I was a teenager. Even back then I thought about 65% of it was crap.

Unfortunately, about 95% of popularly aired music is crap, these days.
 
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