"My Era of Music Was The Best" - Page 4

Please note that artists like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Adele etc. do have some talent. They're just using it to make ****ty music. That's not their fault, pop music is an almost scientific industry only concerned with what the majority of US inhabitants want. In the 70's they wanted psychedelic rock, guess what you got. Nowadays, people want music to be about bitches and clubs, so that's what the majors supply. Not liking the output of major record labels does not show a lack of talent nor a lack of good music. It just shows that you've got to dig a bit deeper than the billboard charts in order to find modern music that you actually like.

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Originally Posted by Ynoskire 

Please note that artists like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Adele etc. do have some talent. They're just using it to make ****ty music. That's not their fault, pop music is an almost scientific industry only concerned with what the majority of US inhabitants want. In the 70's they wanted psychedelic rock, guess what you got. Nowadays, people want music to be about bitches and clubs, so that's what the majors supply. Not liking the output of major record labels does not show a lack of talent nor a lack of good music. It just shows that you've got to dig a bit deeper than the billboard charts in order to find modern music that you actually like.

Actually, a lot of mainstream artists nowadays don't actually write their own songs. For example, the song "Grenade" by Bruno Mars was not written entirely by himself 

—Bruno Mars on writing and the meaning of "Grenade"

Another example would be "Party in the USA", which was actually the work of Jessie J. The thing with most mainstream artists nowadays is that a highschool student can make the typical bitches and clubs music at the level they do. In fact, I have a friend that randomly wrote some mainstream lyrics when we were saying how talentless this mainstream artists are.

Do you really think that the phenomenon of songwriters is something new? It's been around since the beginning of popular music.

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Originally Posted by logwed 

Do you really think that the phenomenon of songwriters is something new? It's been around since the beginning of popular music.

Are you talking to me ? I was simply saying that a lot of mainstream artists don't actually do much work themselves.

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Originally Posted by Parall3l 

Are you talking to me ? I was simply saying that a lot of mainstream artists don't actually do much work themselves.

I just want to clear up that this...

has been true for a very very long time.

There is another factor...

Music videos ruined popular music.

Look at who is popular today and they are all attractive (other than Susan Boyle) or at least unusual or interesting to look at (Lady Blah Blah).

Before videos, I had not idea what my favorite band looked like unless I had the album and they happened to have their photo on it.

They had to rely on talent and good music alone to sell themselves!

Now it's about who can put out the best video or do something outrageous (like wear a meat suit) to get your attention, and the music is secondary. 

A part of Liszt's popularity was because of his looks, and that's almost 200 years ago.

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Originally Posted by Ynoskire 

A part of Liszt's popularity was because of his looks, and that's almost 200 years ago.

I know I'm old, but that was a little before my era.

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Originally Posted by logwed 

 

I wouldn't say that the '60s, '70s,and '80s created talented artists at a rate higher than what you would find today. You think that these decades produced more talented musicians on the whole, because you have only been exposed to the talented musicians of that era. The poor musicians have been largely forgotten, allowing you to focus on the successful and/or talented ones. When you look at today's music, you see pretty much everything there is, crap and talent alike, so therefore you see today's musical talent as being watered down. Rather, the truth is the that talent of decades past is concentrated.

I probably worded that wrong. I'm not trying to say that talent just no longer exists in the music industry, nor am I trying to say that there was no terrible music back then; I'm just saying that these days, the popular music is 99% garbage, whereas back then the popular music was the great music that is still widely appreciated today.. In the previous generations of music, GOOD music was actually appreciated as GOOD music, therefore it became popular and more of it was made. These days, most people don't really care about whether their music has anything to do with musical talent, so the good music doesn't get as much support and is much more difficult to come by. Of course there are still a few great bands out there actively producing music, but if there is any truth to what has been said of the life and culture of the 60's-80's, it is nothing like it used to be.

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Originally Posted by drgnfrc13 

 

I probably worded that wrong. I'm not trying to say that talent just no longer exists in the music industry, nor am I trying to say that there was no terrible music back then; I'm just saying that these days, the popular music is 99% garbage, whereas back then the popular music was the great music that is still widely appreciated today.. In the previous generations of music, GOOD music was actually appreciated as GOOD music, therefore it became popular and more of it was made. These days, most people don't really care about whether their music has anything to do with musical talent, so the good music doesn't get as much support and is much more difficult to come by. Of course there are still a few great bands out there actively producing music, but if there is any truth to what has been said of the life and culture of the 60's-80's, it is nothing like it used to be.

Not necessarily true, check out this list of the top 100 singles of the '70s  (organized by # of weeks at top slot, apparently). Really, there's an awful lot of garbage on this list, and not much in the way of the iconic hits that most people would agree define the '70s. Popular music is not defined by music lovers, those folks who are ready and willing to dig deeper, and this has been true for every era since the dawn of popular music. From your first post, it sounds like you haven't made too much of an effort to learn about music that's going on today. Listening to classic rock is easy, it's all been condensed down for you already, sifting through to find what's really going on in the current music scene is more difficult.

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Originally Posted by logwed 

 

Not necessarily true, check out this list of the top 100 singles of the '70s  (organized by # of weeks at top slot, apparently). Really, there's an awful lot of garbage on this list, and not much in the way of the iconic hits that most people would agree define the '70s. Popular music is not defined by music lovers, those folks who are ready and willing to dig deeper, and this has been true for every era since the dawn of popular music. From your first post, it sounds like you haven't made too much of an effort to learn about music that's going on today. Listening to classic rock is easy, it's all been condensed down for you already, sifting through to find what's really going on in the current music scene is more difficult.

There are a few duds on that list, but that list definitely defines the pop music of the 70's (I know, I was there). 

1970s for me. Great era, great bands, great albums.

Although there has been nearly 5 decades since, I still buy albums from 70s artists every time. Only about 10% is later.

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Originally Posted by Todd R 

There are a few duds on that list, but that list definitely defines the pop music of the 70's (I know, I was there). 

I guess my point is that the pop music of the '70s is not what is played 400x a day on classic rock stations.

I'm 21 and I very very much dislike a vast majority of music made in the 70's.  I would say the greatest decades of music might be in the 80's and 90's; I also enjoy a lot of stuff past 2000.  The 80's was the heyday of bands like Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth, etc - real metal.  The 80's was also the beginning of legendary Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung's career (IMO, the best male vocalist to walk this earth).  There was just so much exploration during for 80's music!

The 90's just bring a whole bunch of nostalgia from boy bands to Pantera.  Some of these things extended to the early 2000s.

I absolutely hate all the mainstream music that is out today.  All of it is meaningless, musically and lyrically.  Also a lot of poor musicianship during live concerts.

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Originally Posted by Spyro 

Why is it that we (blindly?) believe our era of music growing up (usually H.S. and thru college) was the best music of our time?

 

Is it because of the deep rooted life experiences and relationships during those years?  Is it this simple?

 

 

I'm going to strongly disagree with that statement. I'm 23 and much of what I listen to consists of bands from the late 60s onward. Rush, Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Kansas (pre Monolith) and many more are all classics. It probably also helps that I'm a huge fan of classic prog, especially Rush. On top of that, I grew up listening to what my dad did so I think that helped. The 80s and 90s had their notable mentions too but not as much as the 70s. However, I'm going just say this generation has the worst music in my opinion as much of it lacks substance. I personally can't stand screamo, modern pop and rap and it feels like those are the dominating genres. At least around here they are. 

But ultimately, to each their own. As I said above, this is my opinion but I strongly feel that this generation is lacking.