Music nowadays is shit: Discuss. (1 Viewer)

[7 - No tomorrow]

One of the many running gags in Smash Hits in the 80s was a Paul Weller quote "It's like punk never 'appened" which was a handle for the way a certain group of people complained about the pop music of the day.
However you feel about 80s pop (I think it was one of the most refreshing and organic times in music) it does make the case that people have always complained in this manner about the music of the day.

 

[Anthony]

There's no then. There's no now. There's just sounds.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Why ask your head? It's your hips that are swinging.

 

[Diumraid]

There's no then. There's no now. There's just sounds.

Not so. Everything is constantly changing. A feast is a feast and a famine is a famine - this 'same shit different day' argument is an apology for the status quo. Things are good when people are being led by ideas (bearing in mind that some of the worst things that happen are also idea-led). I'm not sure a lot of people really know what an idea is which is why they don't know what's missing.

With regard to the technology issue - the walkman was a bigger revolution than the MP3 - that's where the idea of a personal soundtrack to your daily life really came into its own: ambient music in the worst possible sense. This is how we are programmed and owned by technology. It's hard to argue against the utility and convenience of the modren gadgetry (sic).

 

[nlgbbbblth]

One of the many running gags in Smash Hits in the 80s was a Paul Weller quote "It's like punk never 'appened" which was a handle for the way a certain group of people complained about the pop music of the day.
However you feel about 80s pop (I think it was one of the most refreshing and organic times in music) it does make the case that people have always complained in this manner about the music of the day.

I love 80s pop but I did grow up with it [shaped my early collection and I always kept in touch with it as the years went on]. It's gonna be the same for a lot of people who grew up in any decade.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Look at TOTP 1978 or 79. Amazing stuff in every genre, selling by the boatload.

 

[Diumraid]

I love 80s pop but I did grow up with it [shaped my early collection and I always kept in touch with it as the years went on]. It's gonna be the same for a lot of people who grew up in any decade.

It can't boil down to happenstance any more than it can boil down to personal taste. These are factors for sure but ideas are bigger than taste and bigger than contingencies like having your first slow dance to 'Careless Whisper'. No?

 

[Lili Marlene]

What is an idea Diumraid?


or more specifically I guess, how are people wrong about what an 'idea' is? What are they saying is an idea that is not an idea?

 

[rettucs]

I'm gonna like every post in this thread.

 

[rettucs]

well apart from @Diumraid who managed to get 'happenstance' into a sentence.

Anyway, music should have stopped in 1989, apart from Prince

 

[Los Davos]

Show me one song released in the last three years that was as good as even the dross from a few years previously. Explain your work. My hypothesis is that music is now shit and we all need to just cop on.

Adorno fan?

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

It's also very hard for the quality of music to really show,until it's stood the test of time.

 

[Diumraid]

What is an idea Diumraid?


or more specifically I guess, how are people wrong about what an 'idea' is? What are they saying is an idea that is not an idea?

When someone, like a music reviewer tries to positively sum up a record by saying that it sounds like another record they are demonstrating their own lack of idea and equally suggesting that the record has no ideas in it. Creativity is seeing things in terms of other, different things. Music in terms of itself is not creative. Music in terms of fashion or gardening, cooking, fucking, knitting, silence, history, the future, being, non-being, healing, murder etc. etc. etc. Sparks fly and things can proceed into possibility.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

There was a black lad on the Late Late last night who was deadly. His tune sounded like a Prince ballad.

I bought Uncut yesterday in a bid to find out about new music and see if any of it is any good.

 

[Diumraid]

There was a black lad on the Late Late last night who was deadly. His tune sounded like a Prince ballad.

I bought Uncut yesterday in a bid to find out about new music and see if any of it is any good.

What about Mojo? They know their orthodox rock history.

The other thing (one of them) that bugs me about the current climate is the state of session and pickup players - looking at all the live appearances of name artists, old and new i never see a musician that makes me want to pick up an instrument. The drummers are actually sucking my soul out, little by little. I can't watch Jools for that reason. I'm sure it's all connected somehow.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

What about Mojo? They know their orthodox rock history.

The other thing (one of them) that bugs me about the current climate is the state of session and pickup players - looking at all the live appearances of name artists, old and new i never see a musician that makes me want to pick up an instrument. The drummers are actually sucking my soul out, little by little. I can't watch Jools for that reason. I'm sure it's all connected somehow.

I'd usually get Mojo when I used to be buying music mags but they had someone I didn't like on the cover. As much as it seems like a classic rock mag, it's amazing for finding new music.

Jools is shit and his Hootenanny a couple of weeks ago was the nadir of his dire, self-indulgent boogie woogie shit orchestra.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

I never buy music mags anymore,but when I did

Classic Rock>>>>Mojo>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Uncut

From glancing in the newsagents I'd probably still put them in that order. Don't think I ever got introduced to new music from any of them.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

I never buy music mags anymore,but when I did

Classic Rock>>>>Mojo>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Uncut

From glancing in the newsagents I'd probably still put them in that order. Don't think I ever got introduced to new music from any of them.

I used to get The Wire regularly. The first two years of reading it was a non-stop voyage of discovery, so many new genres let alone new artists. Some I loved, some I hated, most at least broadened my horizons beyond the usual suspects found in the other music magazines.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

The Wire rarely covered music I was into.

I suppose having spent so much time in/working in record shops and having older mates meant that magazines were somewhat redundant for the sake of discovery.

 

[washingcattle]

When someone, like a music reviewer tries to positively sum up a record by saying that it sounds like another record they are demonstrating their own lack of idea and equally suggesting that the record has no ideas in it. Creativity is seeing things in terms of other, different things. Music in terms of itself is not creative. Music in terms of fashion or gardening, cooking, fucking, knitting, silence, history, the future, being, non-being, healing, murder etc. etc. etc. Sparks fly and things can proceed into possibility.

So wrong.

It's definitely not as simple as all music now is shit. Listening to music many years on from formative years can only be a different experience,coupled with the way music is listened to (mp3/streaming etc),and how much of it is so easy to access. I don't believe music has the same opportunity to sink in as it once did.

Is the music I grew up with better than music kids grow up with now? To me,yes. To them-not a chance.

Do I care? no.


Anyway,what do I know,half the music I love was recorded before 1980.

Should I insert another google rock rant here ?