Music Nowadays is Shit?

[Brainaddict]

I've often felt that music has gone shit but what it usually seems to mean is that the places where I hear about good music are now not providing me with any good music - when I do later think "actually music is getting better now" it always turns out that the good music was going on all the time, I just hadn't heard about it. It's an information problem not a music problem. There are so many people making music it would be really unlikely that you didn't like anything.

I agree. The music scene(s) in this country and the US now cover loads of different genres at any given time and have loads of bands in them, but there isn't room in the charts or on radio for even a fraction of it so you really have to seek out what you want.

So jugularvein's problem is that he's lazy He still wants TOTP to do the work of finding good music for him and it doesn't work like that any more - you have to get yer arse in gear and *look* for the good stuff

Besides, it's also down to taste. I think Vampire Weekend are great

 

[laptop]

if i ever get bored of music i just go and find something random

Which is why a week ago I was startled to see a very straight-looking twenties guy who I guess was of Bangladeshi extraction, blasting out White Rabbit on his car system...

There's less need for new recorded music these days. Discuss

 

[isitme]

Which is why a week ago I was startled to see a very straight-looking twenties guy who I guess was of Bangladeshi extraction, blasting out White Rabbit on his car system...

There's less need for new recorded music these days. Discuss

I once saw a young black guy who can't have been more that 25 playing the guitar, in the 60s

 

[cozmikbrew]

the charts for as long as i can remember are full of dross obviously there have been exceptions next gig im off to is to see holyfuck(www.holyfuckmusic.com)suck it an see

 

[El Jefe]

name me a tune that will go down in history from this decade sweetcheeks

You're fucking kidding, right?

Don't blame your inability to search out fantastic music on the music itself

 

[dodgepot]

And I would add - Shit!

american boy? i think that's pretty good, as is a lot of estelle's stuff.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

It seems like everything is on its last legs. The hip hop/r&b pop music stroke kylie / girls aloud / singer songwriter heartbreaker mainly american once again hip hop/r&b thing is surely on its knees.

Aside from the charts the indie situation is pretty dire, the dance scene well, is spread out.

Is it me or are there very few tunes that will be remembered from this decade, if any and why has musicianship gone out the window? Electronic is all good but....

People have been saying "xxx nowadays is shit" since the year dot.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

There is plenty of decent music. Just the methods of distribution has changed. Mainly because of one thing the internet.
The problem with tried and tested media outlets, TV RADIO etc is that they stick to the same bland formula and are unprepared to take risks. So you end up with the dross and shit being flung at you. But even in the days of "good" music it was still difficult to find good music on the telly or radio.
For every Joy Division or velvet underground record you reminise (sp?) on there has been a shit load of Black Lace and Mud or bay city rollers.

Personally I think there is some fantastic music about at present. You just need to know where to look.

Fucking word. Just to think of a few cracking bands from recent years off the top of my head, Low, Whisper in the Noise, Mastodon, Gravenhurst, Gutter Twins, Isis, Battle of Mice, Meshuggah, TV on the Radio, I'm from Barcelona, Roots Manuva, Super Chron Flight BRothers, Trail of Dead...

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Things are reasonably vibrant. Occasionally something grabs my attention. Don't think there'll ever be another Beatles or Stones, Sabbath or Led Zep though - things have got too refracted for that. There's just too much of the stuff about these days to see the trees for the wood.

No, but then I'd rather listen to Mastodon than any of those bands anyway.

 

[laptop]

The way people say "XXX nowdays is shit" is shit, nowadays.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

The charts have gone to shit. Everyone has MTV so why would they watch top of the pops

But music is not suffering because of that. It's just different

And pop music has always been 90% shit and always will be

Thing is, are the charts actually all that important today? The mediums have changed so much, I don't think the charts actually matter any more.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

The charts have always been shit, except by accident. I can't believe that anyone would say "the charts have gone shit" Every generation whines that the charts are shit.

 

[Meltingpot]

The charts have always been shit, except by accident. I can't believe that anyone would say "the charts have gone shit" Every generation whines that the charts are shit.

Not in the mid-60s they weren't. From about '64 to '67 there was a golden age of pop music which far eclipses what you see in the charts today.

OK I'm a bit biased because I was alive (if very young) then but the likes of Lennon and McCartney, Bacharach and David, Jagger / Richard, Steve Marriott, Ray Davies, Roger McGuinn, Brian Wilson, Pete Townshend, John Phillips, Simon and Garfunkel etc. were at the peak of their powers, all writing at the same time and competing with each other for a share of the radio airwaves of the time.

There are good bands now like the Kaiser Chiefs but as far as I can see nowhere near the depth and range of talent you saw back then, at least not in the pop charts.

 

[laptop]

Not in the mid-60s they weren't. From about '64 to '67 there was a golden age of pop music which far eclipses what you see in the charts today.

And yet they were full of dross all that time... 1964, first year of TotP...

 

[Meltingpot]

We're not on the same page here mate. OK, "World Without Love" is a favourite of mine which I don't expect others to share, but "House of the Rising Sun" dross? "I Feel Fine"? "Pretty Woman"? "Always Something There To Remind Me"? "Little Red Rooster"? "You Really Got Me"?

 

[david dissadent]

Radiohead released Kid A this decade. There is always a que of people waiting to knock them but that album really raised the bar for how experimental you could be and still be comercialy successful. Im not a hip hop fan but Im a huge fan of Herbaliser, not big selling but pretty awesome in my book. Maximo Parks first album was an excellent little indie gem, not gonna sell a million but great riffs and lyrics. In terms of electronic music, Squarepusher knocked out Hello Everything just a couple of years ago, tastes differ but I honestly think that album is pure class.

I could go on endlessly.....

 

[8ball]

I've put on some fucking fantastic new bands on at my club. There's tons of great music out there but don't expect it to be spoonfed to you.

This is true, but the market doesn't bring the decent stuff to you in the way it often did in the past. Guess it's an offshoot of the Wallmart phenomenon.

 

[El Jefe]

This is true, but the market doesn't bring the decent stuff to you in the way it often did in the past. Guess it's an offshoot of the Wallmart phenomenon.

bear in mind there's a lot MORE music. The music scene is more fragmented than it was in the sixties, there's more choice, more scenes, more genres. This affects how music is heard, how it's marketed.

That kind of Beatles / Stones consensus is over. In 1963 or whatever, kids didn't have a lot of options. Hence what the kids like making the charts big style. It's not like that now but it doesn't mean the quality isn't out there.

 

[8ball]

bear in mind there's a lot MORE music. The music scene is more fragmented than it was in the sixties, there's more choice, more scenes, more genres. This affects how music is heard, how it's marketed.

That kind of Beatles / Stones consensus is over. In 1963 or whatever, kids didn't have a lot of options. Hence what the kids like making the charts big style. It's not like that now but it doesn't mean the quality isn't out there.

I'm not disputing that the quality is out there, but it seems like a much smaller proportion of the really good stuff makes the mainstream media these days.

 

[El Jefe]

i know, which is what i was driving at. The final sentence was more general

 

[8ball]

i know, which is what i was driving at. The final sentence was more general

Plus we ain't getting any younger, I suppose. My tastes have wandered to the more obscure as I've gotten older - my mates tend to think I've broken one of my own cardinal rules when I mention a band they've heard of.

I might have liked a lot of the stuff about now if I was 14.

I wonder why the proportion of quality mainstream stuff seems to have dropped, but maybe it's always been thus.

 

[isitme]

Plus we ain't getting any younger, I suppose. My tastes have wandered to the more obscure as I've gotten older - my mates tend to think I've broken one of my own cardinal rules when I mention a band they've heard of.

I might have liked a lot of the stuff about now if I was 14.

I wonder why the proportion of quality mainstream stuff seems to have dropped, but maybe it's always been thus.

You don't remember the shite tunes, the pop charts have always been atrocious really

 

[isvicthere?]

It's easy to imagine a former time as a "golden" age that the present doesn't measure up to, coz when you remember the past you filter out the rubbish and focus on the good stuff.

Fact: despite the efforts of the Doors, the Kinks, the Who, the Rolling Stones and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the biggest selling record of 1967 in Britain was by Engelbert Humperdinck.

Fact: most music in every era is shit. You have to sift through the shit to pick out the diamonds.

 

[8ball]

You don't remember the shite tunes, the pop charts have always been atrocious really

I remember plenty of shite.

I also remember a lot of early 80s pop being extremely political and often very cerebral and can think of few recent examples of that.

 

[isvicthere?]

I also remember a lot of early 80s pop being extremely political and often very cerebral and can think of few recent examples of that.

Check out Skinnyman's "Council estate of mind".

 

[8ball]

Check out Skinnyman's "Council estate of mind".

Got 2 mins in and had to switch it off . .

 

[trevhagl]

You have to look harder for good bands.

Gimp Fist
Barse
Loudmouth
Loaded 44

and thats just in the North east!

 

[matt m]

I'm liking a lot of noise/experimental stuff: Fossils, Goslings, aPaTT, Chora, Claps, Toshi Nakamura, Sachiko M, Mattin
I'm liking some of the more fringe indie stuff: Wet Dog, Mathew Sawyer & the Ghosts, Smokey Angle Shades, Garden City Project
I'm liking a lot of grime and dancehall: Trim, Ward 21, the Bug and innumerable individual tunes
i'm liking a lot of folky stuff: Flake Brown, Michael Rossiter, Boycott Coca Cola Experience, Serious Sam Barrett, Bob Meyer
I'm even liking some club stuff: well, the stuff coming out of Paris like Ed Banger records, Justice, Feadz, Uffie (even though she is a talentless Paris Hilton/Peaches Geldof clotheshorse)

 

[isvicthere?]

Got 2 mins in and had to switch it off . .

Why, did your mum call you down for your tea?

 

[8ball]

Why, did your mum call you down for your tea?

'Fraid so. And the 'proper grown up' music was making me scared.