About good music

GLaDOS

losthorizon wrote: »

For instance the period 1968 to about 1974 was incredible and then dross for about five years. It took punk and new wave to kick start it again.

Late 70's saw Pink Floyd release Wish You Were here, Animals and The Wall, considered some of the best albums ever. Then There's the likes of Rush - 2112/Farewell to Kings, Camel - The Snow Goose/Moonmadness, Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak/Black Rose.

Great time for music.

Donald_ducked

Music and the scene has changed so much over the years. Very few 'Great Bands' have been created since the 90's imo

The 50's had Elvis and Chuck Berry

The 60's had The Beatles, Hendrix and Dylan

The 70's had Zeppelin,Queen, Rolling Stones, ac/dc and The who

The 80's had U2, Micheal Jackson,Guns N Roses and Bowie

The 90's had Oasis, Radiohead, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Metallica

The difference between those eras and now is that all the artists listed above were mainstream and accessible to everybody. Now you have to look a lot harded to find decent music

pragmatic1

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Ever since R&B became the hip new thing to be into all music has taken a dive. Personally I blame MTV.

Eh. RnB goes back decades and some of the finest music ever created has come from that genre.

Logical Fallacy

Donald_ducked wrote: »

The 90's had Oasis, Radiohead, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Metallica

I'd put MetallicA in the 80's considering they formed in 81 and released "Kill Em All", "Ride the Lightning", "Master of Puppets" and "...Justice For All" before 1990.

Dotrel

Donald_ducked wrote: »

Music and the scene has changed so much over the years. Very few 'Great Bands' have been created since the 90's imo

The 50's had Elvis and Chuck Berry

The 60's had The Beatles, Hendrix and Dylan

The 70's had Zeppelin,Queen, Rolling Stones, ac/dc and The who

The 80's had U2, Micheal Jackson,Guns N Roses and Bowie

The 90's had Oasis, Radiohead, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Metallica

The difference between those eras and now is that all the artists listed above were mainstream and accessible to everybody. Now you have to look a lot harded to find decent music

The difference is the internet imho. It's made life more distracting, music acts less important and simultaneously made the music itself easier to acquire but harder to find.

These days I don't even know who the hot acts are (let alone what their music sounds like). I wouldn't even know where to look. I've been out of touch since John Peel died. The whole pool is too deep now and without focus. As a result I don't even care enough to look anymore.

WinstonOno

there is still great music out there, you just wont hear it on radio or tv anymore. pop music just aint what it used to be. pop music by its present day definition is dead. it used to the early beatles, abba, bee gees, kinks, aha, undertones, etc. its now more about appearances, fashion, etc. in this day and age, the ability to write a good pop song wont guarantee you any success, if you dont look the part, you wont make it. just look at the charts, everyone in it is beautiful. are beautiful people the only ones who can sing??? no. are they only ones who can write a song??? no. but they are the only ones who can make it nowadays. some of them cant even sing eg. rihanna. x-factor is the lowest of all. guys like simon cowell make a **** load of money by doin virtually nothing. all they do is set up a stage and let these idiots that 'love music so much, its all i ever wanted to do' but never bothered to learn an instrument or spend years gigging and learning their craft. whats most worrying is that record companies are now targeting other genres outside of the pop mainstream. acts like lana del ray, ellie goulding, christina perri, are pretty much the same as katie perry and lady gaga, but are slipped in under the radar with supposed credible backgrounds, but are also just wannabes backed by teams of stylists, songwriters, producers, etc. I fear, as the years progress more and more will appear, and indie, rock, alternative, etc will begin to die also. there is still great real music out there, with a bit of digging on the internet, at live gigs, etc, forget chart music, dont be a targeted consumer.

Irish Guitarist

Manufactured music is worse than it used to be.

In the sixties there was The Monkees. The likes of Neil Diamond used to write songs for them and Glen Campbell and James Burton played guitar for them. Even though the results were great The Monkees weren't happy with not having a lot of input on their records so they started to write their own songs and play their own instruments. They did a pretty good job of it too.

Now singers that appear on X Factor are happy to stay manufactured and don't seem to display any ambition to ever do anything but sing whatever their record company tells them to.

Cover versions stick too closely to the original now. Elvis gets a lot of stick for not writing his own songs, but when he covered a song he performed it completely differently to the original. Listen to his version of Hound Dog and the original by Big Mama Thornton or his version of That's All Right Mama and the original by Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup. Now when someone covers a song they do it the same as the original, except not as good.

Then there's Autotune. It makes it virtually impossible to tell the difference between one singer and another. If I heard a female singer without seeing her I wouldn't be able to tell if it was Alexandra Burke or Cheryl Cole. I'd rather hear someone singing less than perfectly but with some character than to have everyone in the charts sounding exactly the same.

There is still good music around but most of it doesn't make it to the charts.

Dudess

When you compare top 10s of e.g. the early 80s: The Jam, Blondie, Dexys, The Specials, Madness to the top 10s of today... well, there's no comparison. Sure, there was rubbish around then too, but the quality overall was pretty amazing for chart pop. And it's not a nostalgia thing for me as I was only aged two or three when the above acts were at their commercial peak - and I would have been more into The Birdy Song.

bodhrandude

Donald_ducked wrote: »

Music and the scene has changed so much over the years. Very few 'Great Bands' have been created since the 90's imo

The 50's had Elvis and Chuck Berry

The 60's had The Beatles, Hendrix and Dylan

The 70's had Zeppelin,Queen, Rolling Stones, ac/dc and The who

The 80's had U2, Micheal Jackson,Guns N Roses and Bowie

The 90's had Oasis, Radiohead, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Metallica

The Noughties has or had LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, lets call it the new Scandinavian Electronic New Wave with Fever Ray / The Knife, Royksopp, Lykke Li, Robyn etc

The difference between those eras and now is that all the artists listed above were mainstream and accessible to everybody. Now you have to look a lot harded to find decent music

There is still good stuff out there just not as much in the mainstream as it should be.

Mindkiller

I find that most people who say crap like 'music is shoite these days' don't actually have a clue how to look for good modern music. You can't find it by sitting by the radio or watching the music channels.

I definitely agree though that pop music has reached a whole new level of insipidness. It's sad when uninspired duff like The Coronas get a larger following than hugely inventive Irish bands like Adebisi Shank (sp?)

Da Shins Kelly

It's not getting worse, it's just that people see the past with rose-tinted glasses. There's was plenty of sh*te in the 60s/70s/80s/90s, it just got filtered out and people only remember the good stuff or the stuff that made a real impact. There's loads of great music today, and there are plenty of artists that will be remembered for years to come.

orourkeda

There has always been good music produced.

There will always be good music made.

You just have to know where to look.

parrai

I think the wholesale destruction started to happen with Stock, Aiken and Waterman. They, at one stage took over the chart, with really crap poppy tunes in the late 80s, early 90s and since then it has gone downhill. It wasn't uncommon for them to have 10 singles in the top 40 at one stage. This was the stage when looks and packaging took over from real talent. The prequel, really, to what x factor and all that crap that comes with it. As Winston suggested earlier, the good stuff is still there, but with radio stations being playlisted, DJs are not in a position, like say, John Peel, who listened to hundreds of records a week, and played his favourites, to do their job. Many of these bands went on to become serious bands, and inspirations to todays and past successful bands.

I think, if the radio got away from playlists, and the DJ was allowed to do their job, they would be able to bring the good stuff to the front, then we would have better music...

So the argument for 'music is crap today' is made redundant with the internet, in my opinion, cause if you want good music, just go search for it...

Colm!

parrai wrote: »

I think, if the radio got away from playlists, and the DJ was allowed to do their job, they would be able to bring the good stuff to the front, then we would have better music...

That. the college radio stations play some great stuff. This one from America has been a favourite of mine (very few ads on there too). The Irish ones in UCC, UL etc. have some good DJs and some bad ones.

Spunge

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

I'm 20, the latest release I have is Whitesnakes last release, Forevermore. I have an absolute sh!t load of music on my PC, all 70s, 80s and early 90s metal and rock. I can't stand chart music, sh!te like Rhianna, Lady Gaga and all that bollocks.

IMO the music from that time period, 70s 80s and 90s, is far superior to todays sh!te, or maybe its just that the type of music I like was much more popular then.

hipster

Dudess

OP, are you referring to just chart/pop/mainstream/commercial/whateverit's called, or music in general?

There's absolutely no question that the former has gotten worse - anyone who says chart music is no worse than it ever was is being disingenuous.

Chips Ahoy

I find the charts hilarious these days every song follows the same formula and usually has a token rapper for a verse like pitbull (oh how i hate him!)

And why does every song have someone else featuring in it, drives me crazy the featuring artist usually has zero input in the song , another money making ploy.

Yakult

RichieC wrote: »

music isn't getting crapper,

I'm pretty sure it is.

One mans crap is another mans gold I suppose.

IcedOut

I like Eminem, all the other music peoples can go f*ck off :P

DEFTLEFTHAND

My whole problem with popular music today is that the art's of song writing and musicianship are being discouraged. Singing a song some record producer wrote over a backing track doesn't constitute as music imo.
My views on the subject however are very influenced from being exposed to my Dad's 60s and 70s collections from an early age, a time when band's in the charts for the most part wrote and recorded their own music.

losthorizon

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Late 70's saw Pink Floyd release Wish You Were here, Animals and The Wall, considered some of the best albums ever. Then There's the likes of Rush - 2112/Farewell to Kings, Camel - The Snow Goose/Moonmadness, Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak/Black Rose.

Great time for music.

Im not disputing that there is great music to be had all the time and indeed I love some of the bands you mention but some periods are better than others and I think that goes for other fields as well like Movies.

If you consider Classical music there were probably hundreds of composers around the time of Beethoven. Yet he and one or two others are remembered - the rest sank into obscurity.

Who will remember Westlife in 30 years time? :pac: (thats a command)

losthorizon

Sorry for posting twice in a row. In an earlier post I mentioned Top of the Pops and 1976and said the music was dross. Well it was but the only song I liked was this but look at the first comment. Very interesting.

The guy was very young when he died

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfFQ7d3GqEE

jaffacakesyum

The Killers
MGMT
Sigur Ros
Coldplay
Snow Patrol
LCD Soundsystem
Hot Chip
Regina Spektor
Arcade Fire
The Shins
MIA
The White Stripes
Arctic Monkeys


I think they're pretty good and they all came from the noughties

Logical Fallacy

It is kind of funny, the subjectivity of music.

For example -

The Killers - ****
MGMT - a couple of good tunes
Sigur Ros - love these guys
Coldplay - ****
Snow Patrol - one good tune that rapidly got old.
LCD Soundsystem - hipster ****
Hot Chip - two good tunes
Regina Spektor - ****
Arcade Fire - over hyped ****
The Shins - I like these guys
MIA - Ramadanman's refix kills anything her actual producers did for her.
The White Stripes - ****
Arctic Monkeys - love the first album, honestly haven't heard anything since.

I guarantee i could list 10 acts and you'd think they were all ****. I'm sure there is some wanker out there with a detailed theory about why we like what we like but that kills for the fun for me.

Emiko

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

It is kind of funny, the subjectivity of music.

For example -

The Killers - ****
MGMT - a couple of good tunes
Sigur Ros - love these guys
Coldplay - ****
Snow Patrol - one good tune that rapidly got old.
LCD Soundsystem - hipster ****
Hot Chip - two good tunes
Regina Spektor - ****
Arcade Fire - over hyped ****
The Shins - I like these guys
MIA - Ramadanman's refix kills anything her actual producers did for her.
The White Stripes - ****
Arctic Monkeys - love the first album, honestly haven't heard anything since.

Agreed.

I'd give 4 stars to most of those acts also.

Logical Fallacy

Emiko wrote: »

Agreed.

I'd give 4 stars to most of those acts also.

I was gonna put a little disclaimer that **** means poo, but it would have killed the joke.

Glad i didn't.:pac:

Freddie59

dilbert2 wrote: »

This is something I've been hearing a lot throughout the years, stuff along the lines of "music isn't what it used to be", or "music just gets worse with every decade" etc etc. But is it really getting any worse, or do we just get a bit grumpy with age and like a good winge now and then?

For instance, stuff that you would listen to from the 90s, or have in your record/ cd/ computer music collection is most likely a fraction of what actually went on back in the 90s. Most likely, there was as much crap been released back in the 90s, or any other decade (including the 60s etc), its just that you don't hear them anymore, whereas todays crap music we are forced to listen to.

I know what constitutes crap music is subjective, but you get the idea of the argument.

I'm 52 - I've been listening to music since the early 70s. My own personal opinion? Don't restrict your choice of music. I'll listen to ANY kind of music. The only types I'm not partial to are Jazz and Rap (and I even like some of that).

There is ALWAYS good music. But there will always be music that some of us don't like. It's life. And the world would be a much sadder place without music. I listen to everything from ABBA to Deep Purple to Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, etc, etc.

I LOVE rhianna's latest single, and would also like a lot of modern dance/club music.

The lyrics of this song say it all really. A wonderful moment - the coming together of pop and classical. Doesn't get much better in my book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtyQY018x3o

losthorizon

Freddie59 wrote: »

I'm 52 - I've been listening to music since the early 70s. My own personal opinion? Don't restrict your choice of music. I'll listen to ANY kind of music. The only types I'm not partial to are Jazz and Rap (and I even like some of that).

There is ALWAYS good music. But there will always be music that some of us don't like. It's life. And the world would be a much sadder place without music. I listen to everything from ABBA to Deep Purple to Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, etc, etc.

I LOVE rhianna's latest single, and would also like a lot of modern dance/club music.

The lyrics of this song say it all really. A wonderful moment - the coming together of pop and classical. Doesn't get much better in my book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtyQY018x3o

One of the best posts Ive read on boards.

kincsem

There is always bad music. Time takes care of the bad stuff, and the good stuff endures.

St.Spodo

Chart music is much worse today than in decades past. If we take '85 for example, who had no. 1 albums? Springsteen, The Smiths, The Style Council. In 2010, The Script, Paoli Nutini and Plan B were the pick of a sorry bunch. That's not to say there wasn't some truly rubbish stuff in the 80's, more to say there is very little quality music in the chart these day. I still maintain that good music can be found in any generation, all the same.