Does the fall of music ever depress you? It does me.

Dude, with rare exceptions, mainstream music has always been pretty bad. Swing-era clarinet star Artie Shaw was issuing the same type of complaints in the 1930s. Just seek out the stuff you can get with, though I know that as a result of the diffuse nature of the current digital music-biz, that's not always as easy as it once was.

Since moving out of the city, I've started listening to FM radio again in my car during my daily driving commute to work. However, I listen pretty-much exclusively to the lower end of the FM dial. Mostly listener-supported, and/or college radio stations. Recently, WFUV (90.7), an NPR affilliate out of Fordham University, upgraded their broadcasting power, and I now receive them up in CT!

Great music, old & new. Plus I can stream their programming to my Smartphone!

It's out there. Like most things of quality, you just have to look a bit harder.

There has always been complaints about music since way back when. Some people considered Beethoven's compositions to be vulgar and lack refinement. As tru blu pointed out, Artie Shaw was well known for complaining about other music. Thus, complaints about certain genres or even certain eras of music don't really bother me.

What bothers me and really depresses me is the lack of love for the music that is out there. Take rap for instance. Compare the sound of Usher's song to say...Nothin' but a G thang" by Dre way back when. The love that went into crafting the sound of those songs has gone the way of the dodo. It's all about hyper-compressing and no-noising everything today.

Also, there is no appreciation today for the music of ages past. It really saddens me when I play Chopin and nobody knows it's Chopin. It really saddens me when I play Ella Fitzgerald and somebody doesn't recognize her voice! Granted, it might be a specialty genre but ELLA!!! This only saddens me more because other great artists and composers are less known. What about Mel Thorme? Beverly Kenney? Kelly Smith? What about composers like Scarlatti, Durante, Pergolesi and Porpora? When was the last time you walked into Boarders and saw a classical issue highlighted. Hell...my Boarders doesn't even carry music anymore! That's sad.

I feel music maybe in a dormant phase and I hope to heavens that someday music will see a complete renaissance. People seem to be focused so much on the economy, deadlines and other issues that they rarely have a chance to stop and really listen to music. I don't know about you guys but for the brief hour or so that I listen to music at night, with the lights out, lying in my bed....those minutes melt away the worries of the day and for those brief minutes, I am richer than any man could possibly be. In those brief minutes as the notes trickle through my ears, I am at peace and I feel a sense of being that is hard to describe.

I always remember a quote about Nelson Riddle that brings a smile to my face. It is said his wife was angry with him and she reprimanded him say that all he cared about was sex and music. His response "What else is there?". Bravo to Mr. Riddle. Bravo.

Does it depress me? Not especially, considering how little I care about mainstream music or about what anyone else listens to

Music now is better than it has ever been.
It's just not mainstream.

It would depress me if I was forced to listen to most mainstream, talentless, mind numbing, emotionless drival that is called music today.
Fortunately I don't have too

I blame technology. It's the same with everything, music, photography, etc... everything is so accessible nowadays that everyone tries their hand and can get away with it due to the technology allowing them to manipulate everything. I've recently been listening to a lot of 30's - 50's music and it's refreshing to actually hear how "tight" the musicians work together, has a lot more raw energy.. that's when musicians were musicians.

It doesn't depress me that the UK charts have been utter rubbish for the last 10 years or so because I have absolutely no interest. I laugh at silly music like that but try not to laugh at the suckers who listen to it, after all, if they enjoy it then they enjoy it.

The charts have been terrible for the last 30 years

bingo. the good stuff's still there.
nowadays you just have to dig, man!

But I'm not that old

Neither am I, but my dad and mom always used to argue about disco/80's pop and I was exposed to the pop from those days. Some was good, most was terrible, like today.

90's are just unspeakably bad, though.

you mean to tell me you didn't enjoy vanilla ice? no?

Well I member some Radiohead/Manic Street Preachers/Paul Weller being in the charts in the 90's although I could be wrong.. the 90's were a haze.

Sometimes there is good music to be found in the 'mainstream channel of sound.' How often depends on your preferences. But I prefer to ignore the 'mainstream channel of sound' for discovering music in my own way is much more interesting and adventurous.

Especially the House(/Dance) genre deteriorated. The 80'ties and 90'ties were good, early 2000 still good but it has gotten much worse. There are exceptions thankfully.