[roebeet]

My 2 cents on the matter, being a 40 something.   In the 1980's, I listened to mainly college radio and alternative and thought the drivel that was Top 40 was just god-awful.   Just looking back ten years earlier to the 1960s/70's, I had wondered what had happened to "real" popular music like the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Doors etc. 
 
Fast forward to today. Bands like the Smiths, Replacements, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure are "classics" and some new bands even emulate the 80's sound.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the alternative music I loved would become so popular, after-the-fact.  And we have the same complaints about Top 40 being just awful trash, just like I did 25 years earlier.
 
My guess is that young people who really enjoy music will continue to flock to Indie / Alternative just like I had done all those years ago, and those same bands will be the "classics" of the future.  Examples off the top of my head of artists that might eventually carry that torch:
 
The New Pornographers
Bon Iver
Midlake
Fleet Foxes
Shearwater
St Vincent
MGMT (listen to the new album - interesting avenue they are exploring)
Young Love
Ladyhawke
The Flaming Lips
The Shins
Rogue Wave
Vampire Weekend
Spoon
British Sea Power
 
But, only time will tell.
 
 
 
 

 

[fuseboxx]

@DavidMahler: I just realized that we're the same age after seeing your post on the Birth Year Album thread. From your initial post, I had the impression that you were maybe 40 or 50 (no offense meant). FWIW, I'm not exactly depressed by the "fall of music" because mainstream music is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more music to listen to and explore outside of the mainstream. And even within the mainstream, there are still a few good artists. I for one, enjoy music by Lady Gaga and Fall Out Boy... not because I feel it's high art, innovative or creative... but simply because they're fun to listen to. Most other mainstream stuff though are pretty bad.

 

[tru blu]

Quote:

From your initial post, I had the impression that you were maybe 40 or 50 (no offense meant).

Yeah, in case it's still not obvious, DMahler's kinda what we used to call an "old soul"…bless his heart.

 

[krmathis]

No, in fact I find lots of great music these days.

 

[Luckyleo]

David,
 
I'm 55.  I still love the good ole Grateful Dead, always will.  However, there is so much great music out there, I'm amazed!  You have to hunt around to find it.  If you listen one of your top 3 rated radio stations in your town you'll be disappointed.  But there are truly great radio stations out there that are accessible from anywhere in the world via the web.  2 that come to mind are KCRW (Santa Monica CA) as well as WXPN (Philadelphia).  Right now, WXPN is the one I listen to more.  Here's their playlist from 5PM this afternoon.  Very typical:
 
Fruit Bats - The Ruminant Band
The Afghan Whigs - Gentleman 
Sade - Soldier Of Love
She & Him - In The Sun 
Al Green - Look What You've Done For Me 
Local Natives - Sun Hands 
Jakob Dylan - Nothing But The Whole Wide World
Bob Dylan - Ballad Of A Thin Man 
Lisa Cerbone - Manic Depressive Jubilation
The Who - The Real Me 
The Count Five - Psychotic Reaction
Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized 
The Dickies - Paranoid 
 
Also, a GREAT jazz station is WBGO out of Newark New Jersey.  There are many more great stations and I'm always on the prowl.  There are great performers out there, you just have to be open to them, and hunt around.  Melody Gardot, Trombone Shorty Andrews, Spoon, Avett Brothers, Time For Three (if you want "funky classical"....HMMMM), Willie Nelson is still putting out great stuff.  Any record produced by T Boone Burnet is worth a try in my book.  
 
I can't wait till tomorrow 'cause there's more great music everyday!
 
Leo

 

[racer_x124]

Quote:

As for rap or hiphop, artists like Scroobius Pip and YouTube - Sage Francis - Climb Trees]Sage Francis are still doing good stuff.

 Genius.
 
Good music has always been hard to find. Pop music has never been all that special, it fits everyone just a little, instead of fitting few people well.

 

[sgrossklass]

This thread was a great read, much appreciated.
 
Yours truly is worried less about good music going away - as discussed, enough of that is still coming out - but rather about how it's recorded these days. It has become much easier and cheaper to record something, and with computer-based systems it is possible to do almost anything - but that doesn't mean that the technology is actually being mastered. With some records from the last decade I can't help but feel that technology was controlling humans rather than vice-versa (as in thoughtlessly slapping compression on everything), and that's something that I as a tech-head can't agree with. Maybe budget / time constraints play in here? Sometimes I'm also under the impression that some folks don't even have a feel for dynamics or distance / depth any more (which I guess is OK for electronic dance music but can be really weird in other genres).
 
The matter of brickwall limiting and compression in general is an interesting one. Now a pest, compression used to be a luxury 25 years ago, and it took all kinds of tricks to get a "punchy" sound without ending up with a big screechy mess. Should be a reason to question its use occasionally, you think? Well, currently the CD output in what a broader definition of "pop" music might cover is still dominated by more or less "hot" mastering AFAICS. I guess people are lemmings after all.
 
In any case, I'm tired of wanting to buy CDs in spite of their audio quality and having to examine this point thoroughly beforehand. I'm not talking bedroom studio level here (small-studio recordings have rarely been too exciting), but productions with a certain budget. If it's good music, most of the time it ought to be a no-brainer in terms of recording quality in this day and age.

 

[falis]

 
 
Quote:

my point was that it's impossible to argue the point because you can't guage how "important" an act is until well after the fact. If I listed a current band that has roughly the same level of sales as the allman brothers did in the 70s, you'd just laugh and say "them? Nobody listens to them."

 
Your problem is that you're confusing commercial success with influence.  Frankly, I was insulted when you told me you doubted my comment about hearing Dylan on AM radio on my way to high school in the morning. I wasn't hallucinating it - I more or less confined my drug use to other times of day.
 
I was there; you, on the other hand, are projecting your ideologically based conclusions on history and trying to rewrite it based on what you want to believe about it.
 
Many of these bands that are now justly famous are that way because they were influential, even if it was only on a minority of people living through the period - and we were a minority if memory serves.  A lot of it in those days was about transcending money and the system.  So you can't use the commercial success measure to gauge influence.
 
The Allmans mattered.
 
- Ed

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

 
Good music has always been hard to find. Pop music has never been all that special, it fits everyone just a little, instead of fitting few people well.

The only way that someone could possibly say that is if their frame of reference didn't stretch back more than a couple of decades.
 
Popular music was the classical music of the first half of the 20th century. Not only was it revolutionary and remarkably well performed, it was the music of the entire American public, not just a niche.
 
For more info, see this book, which is available in its entirety online...
 
http://www.donaldclarkemusicbox.com/rise-and-fall/index.php

 

[racer_x124]

 
Quote:

The only way that someone could possibly say that is if their frame of reference didn't stretch back more than a couple of decades.
 
Popular music was the classical music of the first half of the 20th century. Not only was it revolutionary and remarkably well performed, it was the music of the entire American public, not just a niche.
 
For more info, see this book, which is available in its entirety online...
 
http://www.donaldclarkemusicbox.com/rise-and-fall/index.php

Thanks for the link. I always think of music as being within the last 50-60 years (I forget how old music really is). And you've got me pinned on the reference frame, the only music I have that was made before 1990 is Frank Sinatra and Dead Kennedy's.
 
I'm going to look into this book, "never too old to learn"

 

[leeperry]

Beyonce has quite an amazing voice, but her "B-Day" album is plagued w/ that autotune bs....and it's quite clear that there's been zillions takes and some obsessive cut/paste in protools until the end of days..
 
She made a live BD I think, I'll have to check out if she's got out any real skills w/o the Antares/ProTools gods watching her back

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

"never too old to learn"

I'm learning all the time. The more I learn about, the more I realize how little I know. Music is a flower that doesn't unfold from a bud until you start to dig deeper into it.
 
If you want some breadcrumbs to follow, let me know where you'd like to start.

 

[Skylab]

As several people have said, a lot of mainstream pop has been pretty awful in just about any era.  But there is plenty of great music still being written, and performed.  This was very much in evidence for me when I saw Porcupine Tree at the Riviera Theater in Chicago last week - the show (which was 50% their new record) was absolutely fantastic.  
 
Lots of great new stuff out there - you just have to poke around

 

[leeperry]

currently listening to "Beyonce - I Am Yours" live concert, she sounds like a sub-par Tina Turner...take off the "studio magic" and everything falls flat, d'oh!

 
and did I mention the "telephone" song w/ Lady Gaga...hahah

 

[mibutenma]

Quote:

TV shows are... well, I think my point is made.
 

Nope because there are some really great TV shows.
But the really popular ones are pretty MEH or terrible