why is today's popular music so rubbish?

[libre]

It's not like it used to be

Today I listened to BBC Radio1 that plays all the latest popular music, it is aimed at the 16-25 demographic and I used to listen to it when I was that old

Back then they played good stuff

Everything they played when I listened in today was dull crap

I think there's a lot that explains it.

Graduation goggles, survivor-ship bias, commercialization.

We only really remember the stuff that survives the test of time or was really bad

 

[Twilight Hue]

I'm an exception to that. I hated the music of my era but loved the music my parents played. And still do.

It's really weird. I listen to all kinds of music but absolutely hated my parents music.

Now that I'm old myself , I'm actually starting to like my parents music and actually enjoying it.

How messed up is that?

 

[Sand Dancer]

It's not like it used to be

Today I listened to BBC Radio1 that plays all the latest popular music, it is aimed at the 16-25 demographic and I used to listen to it when I was that old

Back then they played good stuff

Everything they played when I listened in today was dull crap

No one plays instruments, what instrumentation there is, the voices are digitized, it has no meaning and soul. It's not about love so much, but sex.

 

[F1fan]

I wonder if what is popular today is being driven by young people who aren’t exposed to music outside of their decade. I can’t listen to new popular music. Of Monsters and Men is a rare exception that was successful. And there are a few gems that are not popular and I hear of it through an algorithm.

The stuff I write is more in line with 90s shoegazing. We will see in time.

 

[ChristineM]

Never heard of them!

I take it they're French?

Faun is German, they play pagan, darkwave, and medieval music.

Damien Saez is an extremely controversial French singer.

And Saxon is a heavy metal band from Barnsley ;-)

May not be to your taste but it's good music to me

 

[Eddi]

Faun is German, they play pagan, darkwave, and medieval music.

Damien Saez is an extremely controversial French singer.

And Saxon is a heavy metal band from Barnsley ;-)

May not be to your taste but it's good music to me

Had a very quick listen to each of those

I think they're all good

I think they all have artistic merit

 

[Stevicus]

Over 100 years, they thought jazz was "Devil's music."

Does Jazz Put the 'Sin' in Syncopation?

arcadiasystems.org

Therefore, it is somewhat of a rude awakening for many of these parents to find that America is facing a most serious situation regarding its popular music. Welfare workers tell us that never in the history of our land have there been such immoral conditions among our young people, and in the surveys made by many organizations regarding these conditions, the blame is laid on jazz music and its evil influence on the young people of to-day. Never before have such outrageous dances been permitted in private as well as public ballrooms, and never has there been used for the accompaniment of the dance such a strange combination of tone and rhythm as that produced by the dance orchestras of to-day.

And this was written in 1921. Imagine what they would have thought of the music of the 60s, 70s, and beyond.

Jazz originally was the accompaniment of the voodoo dancer, stimulating the half-crazed barbarian to the vilest deeds. The weird chant, accompanied by the syncopated rhythm of the voodoo invokers, has also been employed by other barbaric people to stimulate brutality and sensuality. That it has a demoralizing effect upon the human brain has been demonstrated by many scientists.

There is always a revolutionary period of the breaking down of old conventions and customs which follows after every great war; and this rebellion against existing conditions is to be noticed in all life to-day. Unrest, the desire to break the shackles of old ideas and forms are abroad. So it is no wonder that young people should have become so imbued with this spirit that they should express it in every phase of their daily lives. The question is whether this tendency should be demonstrated in jazz--that expression of protest against law and order, that bolshevik element of license striving for expression in music.

So, if you enjoy jazz, it means you're a Bolshevik.

 

[Twilight Hue]

No one plays instruments, what instrumentation there is, the voices are digitized, it has no meaning and soul. It's not about love so much, but sex.

A lot of it is so incredibly high pitched, nasaly and whiny noise , it's like fingernails on a chalkboard.

It's like the singers put kleenex up their noses, let loose rodents in the room and pitched it up to screeching things to eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! And then digitizing it before placing it all on a repetitive repeating loop.

 

[Secret Chief]

I'm an exception to that. I hated the music of my era but loved the music my parents played. And still do.

You were a young fart!

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

It is objectively worse. It really has nothing to do with getting old. I love all different types of music and keep up with new stuff and new artists. The corporate stuff is really garbage, and is written by teams of producers who use certain formulas (hence why much modern pop music sounds the same). It's a product and not art. I think it's because the music industry basically imploded in the streaming era and they were forced to change, and that change was for the worse in terms of musical diversity and artistic creativity.

 

[Secret Chief]

I take it they're French?

Saxon? Not sure what part of France Barnsley is in.

(saw them once as support to Motorhead)

 

[ChristineM]

You were a young fart!

I was.

 

[ChristineM]

Saxon? Not sure what part of France Barnsley is in.

(saw them once as support to Motorhead)

Yorkshire, northern France, about 475 miles north west of Paris

 

[☆Dreamwind☆]

*Shrugs* There's good and bad in every era of music.

 

[Twilight Hue]

It is objectively worse. It really has nothing to do with getting old. I love all different types of music and keep up with new stuff and new artists. The corporate stuff is really garbage, and is written by teams of producers who use certain formulas (hence why much modern pop music sounds the same). It's a product and not art. I think it's because the music industry basically imploded in the streaming era and they were forced to change, and that change was for the worse in terms of musical diversity and artistic creativity.

I remember an interview by Wolfman Jack who essentially said that music is actually being made by corporations using formulas based on likes and dislikes where the music is built around those formulas with the intention of creating revenue for both the artists, if you want to call such people artists, and the organizations wanting the profit in the music industry.

Like gaming, people don't take chances with music anymore and goes with whatever is proven and everybody falls suit which is why all music everywhere sounds the same and essentially soulless.

 

[HonestJoe]

It's not like it used to be

It's the same as it used to be, it's us who change.

Every generation tends to think the music (and general culture) of their youth was the best, and especially compared to that of the following ones. I think a lot of that is to do with selective memory. You only recall the best of the kind of music you enjoyed when you were younger and not all the mediocre and rubbish that was around too. If you're listening to general pop music today, you're getting the good and bad together.

Fashion plays a major role too. Loads of people will subconsciously follow the crowd (even the hipsters who like to think they don't) and the music industry have long recognised that so put out a lot of the same style of music to try to get on the current bandwagons. Again, we only remember the best examples from the past and not all of the second-rate copies, but hear all of it with current music.

Today I listened to BBC Radio1 that plays all the latest popular music, it is aimed at the 16-25 demographic and I used to listen to it when I was that old

Well you're not 16-25 any more so why would you expect it to still appeal to you? Your life will be different, your emotions will be different, your brain will be different. I'm sure that if you could hear the music of your youth, but without the associated memories and emotions, you wouldn't think much of it today.

It's also worth noting that you didn't say how old you now are or which generation of music you're comparing to, but I'm confident my point will apply regardless.

 

[Eddi]

It's also worth noting that you didn't say how old you now are or which generation of music you're comparing to, but I'm confident my point will apply regardless.

I'm 41

The music of my youth came out from around 1990 to about 2005 - a true golden age!

 

[Secret Chief]

I'm 41

The music of my youth came out from around 1990 to about 2005 - a true golden age!

Rubbish! The golden age was the 70s.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

It's not like it used to be

Today I listened to BBC Radio1 that plays all the latest popular music, it is aimed at the 16-25 demographic and I used to listen to it when I was that old

Back then they played good stuff

Everything they played when I listened in today was dull crap

It's always been mostly rubbish. It's just that the rubbish from 20, 30, 40+ years ago gets left in the past. We're experiencing modern music in real time before this filtering has taken place.

I remember the music of the 80s and 90s growing up. The reason that the good music was called "alternative" was because it was a literal alternative to the sea of mindless, awful crap that filled the airwaves the vast majority of the time.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I'm 41

The music of my youth came out from around 1990 to about 2005 - a true golden age!

I'm 46.

I remember the music of the 90s being mostly stuff like Celine Dion, Billy Ray Cyrus and Right Said Fred. There was definitely good music as well, but most of it was awful.