Yeah but the older generation are supposed to be shouting at the youngsters to "turn that bloody racket down!" not rolling their eyes at them because modern music's so bloody tame.
Yeah but the older generation are supposed to be shouting at the youngsters to "turn that bloody racket down!" not rolling their eyes at them because modern music's so bloody tame.
Well I don't know if music is worse now but I can certainly say that it is in my own opinion. Take a side by side comparison of that chart from 1982 to this week's chart and the 1982 chart contains quite a few records I like (chart no.s 1,3,6,7,9,12,15,16,18,20,21,24,25,28,34,37 - i.e. not far off half the chart).
Now this week's chart...it's all utter shit, every single track and that includes the Arctic Monkeys who I don't usually mind too much. It's all synthetic, meaningless nightclub music. There's hardly any variety and it all plods along in a perfunctory workmanlike manner. I don't want to bang on about "real" music but it's depressing to hear hardly any proper instrumentation at all in any of the tracks, not simply because synthetic sounds are inferior to my ears but mainly because it demonstrates such a lack of variety in the way the songs are put together. It just sounds like they were all concocted on a music-making machine, like something out of Brave New World. There's no individuality, no spark, no real sense of fun, no edginess, it's all numbly conservative.
Granted, the 1982 chart also plays safe to a large extent (quite a few covers as others have already pointed out) but at least it sounds as if the artists were having fun making their records and putting some effort into it. I don't hear that at all in this week's chart. It sounds like most of them just turned up like any 9-5 day job, did their shift and went home again.
Ur not old. Im young 20s and music has gone down the tubes. The sixties with the beatles, stones, who, pink floyd just to name a few, the seventies with zeppelin, lennon, bowie. The eighties with jacko, queen, u2. Nineties with the britpop. The noughties with umm. And now this decade with the best to offer one direction and justin beiber.........yes music has certainly gone down the tubes.
And when people are saying that one direction are the new beatles, thats when you know they are desperate for anything in todays music world.
One Direction and Justin Bieber are not the best this decade has to offer though, they are just teenage/boyband type stuff. Every decade has it's fair share of those. They are very popular at their peak, due to all the screaming teenage girls who get obsessed with them , but that doesn't make them the highlight of their decade.
Personally I think music is on great form at the moment. Tom Odell, Miles Kane, The Courteeners, Of Monsters and Men, The Lumineers, Noel Gallagher, Jake Bugg, Vampire Weekend, Editors, Mumford and Sons, Ben Howard, Kasabian, Band of Skulls, Stornoway, Sterephonics, The View. All of these have released albums in this decade that I think are fantastic and have listened to again and again. Then there are new albums on the way from Travis and Franz Ferdinand, looking forward to those, and also can't wait to hear The Strypes debut.
I think perhaps people will always say that "music is not as good as it used to be", but 20 years later will look back on that same era with a much more favourable view. It's just the rose-tinted spectacles of nostalgia at work! There's good and bad in all eras. I think the 60s and 70s were a very inspirational and exciting time for music, and we will probably never see another era like that again, because many things were being tried for the first time, and probably nothing can be quite as new and exciting as it must have seemed then, but I still think we have great music being made today.
One Direction and Justin Bieber are not the best this decade has to offer though, they are just teenage/boyband type stuff. Every decade has it's fair share of those. They are very popular at their peak, due to all the screaming teenage girls who get obsessed with them , but that doesn't make them the highlight of their decade.
Personally I think music is on great form at the moment. Tom Odell, Miles Kane, The Courteeners, Of Monsters and Men, The Lumineers, Noel Gallagher, Jake Bugg, Vampire Weekend, Editors, Mumford and Sons, Ben Howard, Kasabian, Band of Skulls, Stornoway, Sterephonics, The View. All of these have released albums in this decade that I think are fantastic and have listened to again and again. Then there are new albums on the way from Travis and Franz Ferdinand, looking forward to those, and also can't wait to hear The Strypes debut.
I would be keen to hear The Strypes debut but I've seen the real thing Dr Feelgood and they'll have some work to do to rival them. It's interesting that Co. Cavan and Canvey Island should have RnB in common though.
I would be keen to hear The Strypes debut but I've seen the real thing Dr Feelgood and they'll have some work to do to rival them. It's interesting that Co. Cavan and Canvey Island should have RnB in common though.
I'd be very impressed if their guitarist could match Wilco Johnson. Not just a great player but a hell of a stage presence too.
The idea of the concept album is long gone, that's clearly diminished.
The amount of utter crap I see posted on this music forum is scary, this comment above takes the biscuit. If your only capable of ignorant posts like this (and daring to claim them as fact) take your account and never post in a music discussion forum again. You bring no value to the forum.
Personally I think music is on great form at the moment. Tom Odell, Miles Kane, The Courteeners, Of Monsters and Men, The Lumineers, Noel Gallagher, Jake Bugg, Vampire Weekend, Editors, Mumford and Sons, Ben Howard, Kasabian, Band of Skulls, Stornoway, Sterephonics, The View. All of these have released albums in this decade that I think are fantastic and have listened to again and again. Then there are new albums on the way from Travis and Franz Ferdinand, looking forward to those, and also can't wait to hear The Strypes debut.
To be honest that was the type of music I was talking about in my opening post but each to their own.
From the point of view of an 18 year old here.. I'm deeply disillusioned with so much of today's music. And the problem is not as simple as 'crap chart music'.. the indie charts are weaker than I've ever known as well.
There's not an ounce of originality or talent in so much of todays mainstream hits. Time and time again I hear the same recycled beats, songs that sound identical, artists with no identity, artists that are famous only because of their rich parents or attention seeking publicity stunts... it's quite telling that the best popular songs are those recycling ideas from 30 years ago (new wave and disco).
The fact is that it shouldn't have become like this.. technology should have been used to enhance songs.. that's what was so great about so much of the late 70s and some early 80s for me. It was enhanced but retaining its soul and identity.. and it produced so many great songs. Just look at the diversity of hits we had in the 80s, for example.
Technology instead has only succeeded in killing the art of sincere songwriting and serving to make almost everything over-polished and soulless. It's good when used to enhance a good track, but 99% of the time it is now used as a substitute for both songwriting and melody.
There's still hope of course. I still hear the odd song here and there that I enjoy, but it's all too rare. I'm just thankful that music from the past or the underground is so easily accessible nowadays, or so much of what I enjoy today would have been lost to me.
The amount of utter crap I see posted on this music forum is scary, this comment above takes the biscuit. If your only capable of ignorant posts like this (and daring to claim them as fact) take your account and never post in a music discussion forum again. You bring no value to the forum.
It should have read 'The era [not idea] of the concept album is long gone' which is actually an opinion not a fact. The point being that there seem to be less of them around. Also for me a concept album isn't just a thematic album but should have at least a loose narrative structure. But I'm a little particular on that.
And that will be my last post on this thread as I bring no value to it.
One Direction and Justin Bieber are not the best this decade has to offer though, they are just teenage/boyband type stuff. Every decade has it's fair share of those. They are very popular at their peak, due to all the screaming teenage girls who get obsessed with them , but that doesn't make them the highlight of their decade.
Personally I think music is on great form at the moment. Tom Odell, Miles Kane, The Courteeners, Of Monsters and Men, The Lumineers, Noel Gallagher, Jake Bugg, Vampire Weekend, Editors, Mumford and Sons, Ben Howard, Kasabian, Band of Skulls, Stornoway, Sterephonics, The View. All of these have released albums in this decade that I think are fantastic and have listened to again and again. Then there are new albums on the way from Travis and Franz Ferdinand, looking forward to those, and also can't wait to hear The Strypes debut.
I think perhaps people will always say that "music is not as good as it used to be", but 20 years later will look back on that same era with a much more favourable view. It's just the rose-tinted spectacles of nostalgia at work! There's good and bad in all eras. I think the 60s and 70s were a very inspirational and exciting time for music, and we will probably never see another era like that again, because many things were being tried for the first time, and probably nothing can be quite as new and exciting as it must have seemed then, but I still think we have great music being made today.
Some of those artists you named I can agree with, but others are either
A) uninteresting and unmemorable overly derivative
C) far weaker than anything you could find in the same area in the past
D) all three
I honestly don't think it's a matter of nostalgia anymore.. there's a genuine decline in both quality and depth of mainstream music.
I'm not all about the charts by any means, but compare the number 1s from this and the last decade with the 60s, 70s and 80s. There's a massive fall in sincerity and diversity of the chart hits. Seldom is there a number 1 without either inane rapping or club beats.
To be honest that was the type of music I was talking about in my opening post but each to their own.
What sort of music do you like? Are there any current (i.e. newish) artists you like? If not, let's make it our mission to find you a current artist you like the sound of . You know, because this is a music forum after all.....
I really rate Mumford and sons. I'm just listening to The Killers at T in the park, they're amazing. Brandon Flowers reminds me of the great Lou Reed.
The Killers are a bastard hybrid of Coldplay and Duran Duran.. Mumford and Sons is a scarily average folk band .. I don't mean to be obnoxious here but is this really the best we have to offer in 2013? I'd genuinely rather listen to One Direction. At least they wilfully admit their poppiness and make sure it doesn't take itself too seriously.
Sea Wolf was the last new artist I listened to, pretty good but didn't blow me away.
and you haven't found anyone in them genres who you like? you must be hard to please, I have discovered bands who I had never heard of but had been going years, one is Clutch, give them a listen saw them fortnight ago, superb
Sea Wolf was the last new artist I listened to, pretty good but didn't blow me away.
Right, this is a long shot but I'm talking from the pov of being an old punk. Have you checked out any Folk Metal? Bands such as Turisas, Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, Eluveitie, Equilibrium. There might be something there for you. I love them all
that's what was so great about so much of the late 70s and some early 80s for me. It was enhanced but retaining its soul and identity.. and it produced so many great songs.
(That list is just an example, and I didn't bother with songs that were famously covers, like Billy Idol covering The Doors with L.A. Woman, or GnR covering Bob Dylan with Knockin' on Heaven's Door)
Not to mention Black Mountain Side, which was virtually a note-for-note rip-off of Bert Jansch's version of the traditional song, Down by Blackwaterside.
If your only capable of ignorant posts like this (and daring to claim them as fact) take your account and never post in a music discussion forum again. You bring no value to the forum.
It should have read 'The era [not idea] of the concept album is long gone' which is actually an opinion not a fact. The point being that there seem to be less of them around. Also for me a concept album isn't just a thematic album but should have at least a loose narrative structure. But I'm a little particular on that.
And that will be my last post on this thread as I bring no value to it.
It wasn't aimed at me but......
Even sticking to the idea a concept album has to be narrative based not just a collectio of songs themed around an idea - there has still been a lot of them released in the past 10 years...
Hadestown, Black Sheep Boy, The Hazards of Love, America Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown, Metropolis, Archandroid, Separation Sunday, New Roman Times, The Monitor, The Getty Address, Tallahassee, Hospice.....
And that's sticking to narrative, if you open up to theme based then you can easily add a ton more. Also that's simply a selection of albums I know - and I'm very sure there have been several narrative based albums released in the Metal and Hip Hop genres that I not fully aware off.
Comments
Yeah, times do change.:)
Now this week's chart...it's all utter shit, every single track and that includes the Arctic Monkeys who I don't usually mind too much. It's all synthetic, meaningless nightclub music. There's hardly any variety and it all plods along in a perfunctory workmanlike manner. I don't want to bang on about "real" music but it's depressing to hear hardly any proper instrumentation at all in any of the tracks, not simply because synthetic sounds are inferior to my ears but mainly because it demonstrates such a lack of variety in the way the songs are put together. It just sounds like they were all concocted on a music-making machine, like something out of Brave New World. There's no individuality, no spark, no real sense of fun, no edginess, it's all numbly conservative.
Granted, the 1982 chart also plays safe to a large extent (quite a few covers as others have already pointed out) but at least it sounds as if the artists were having fun making their records and putting some effort into it. I don't hear that at all in this week's chart. It sounds like most of them just turned up like any 9-5 day job, did their shift and went home again.
One Direction and Justin Bieber are not the best this decade has to offer though, they are just teenage/boyband type stuff. Every decade has it's fair share of those. They are very popular at their peak, due to all the screaming teenage girls who get obsessed with them , but that doesn't make them the highlight of their decade.
Personally I think music is on great form at the moment. Tom Odell, Miles Kane, The Courteeners, Of Monsters and Men, The Lumineers, Noel Gallagher, Jake Bugg, Vampire Weekend, Editors, Mumford and Sons, Ben Howard, Kasabian, Band of Skulls, Stornoway, Sterephonics, The View. All of these have released albums in this decade that I think are fantastic and have listened to again and again. Then there are new albums on the way from Travis and Franz Ferdinand, looking forward to those, and also can't wait to hear The Strypes debut.
I think perhaps people will always say that "music is not as good as it used to be", but 20 years later will look back on that same era with a much more favourable view. It's just the rose-tinted spectacles of nostalgia at work! There's good and bad in all eras. I think the 60s and 70s were a very inspirational and exciting time for music, and we will probably never see another era like that again, because many things were being tried for the first time, and probably nothing can be quite as new and exciting as it must have seemed then, but I still think we have great music being made today.
I would be keen to hear The Strypes debut but I've seen the real thing Dr Feelgood and they'll have some work to do to rival them. It's interesting that Co. Cavan and Canvey Island should have RnB in common though.
I'd be very impressed if their guitarist could match Wilco Johnson. Not just a great player but a hell of a stage presence too.
The amount of utter crap I see posted on this music forum is scary, this comment above takes the biscuit. If your only capable of ignorant posts like this (and daring to claim them as fact) take your account and never post in a music discussion forum again. You bring no value to the forum.
To be honest that was the type of music I was talking about in my opening post but each to their own.
There's not an ounce of originality or talent in so much of todays mainstream hits. Time and time again I hear the same recycled beats, songs that sound identical, artists with no identity, artists that are famous only because of their rich parents or attention seeking publicity stunts... it's quite telling that the best popular songs are those recycling ideas from 30 years ago (new wave and disco).
The fact is that it shouldn't have become like this.. technology should have been used to enhance songs.. that's what was so great about so much of the late 70s and some early 80s for me. It was enhanced but retaining its soul and identity.. and it produced so many great songs. Just look at the diversity of hits we had in the 80s, for example.
Technology instead has only succeeded in killing the art of sincere songwriting and serving to make almost everything over-polished and soulless. It's good when used to enhance a good track, but 99% of the time it is now used as a substitute for both songwriting and melody.
There's still hope of course. I still hear the odd song here and there that I enjoy, but it's all too rare. I'm just thankful that music from the past or the underground is so easily accessible nowadays, or so much of what I enjoy today would have been lost to me.
It should have read 'The era [not idea] of the concept album is long gone' which is actually an opinion not a fact. The point being that there seem to be less of them around. Also for me a concept album isn't just a thematic album but should have at least a loose narrative structure. But I'm a little particular on that.
And that will be my last post on this thread as I bring no value to it.
Some of those artists you named I can agree with, but others are either
A) uninteresting and unmemorable
C) far weaker than anything you could find in the same area in the past
D) all three
I honestly don't think it's a matter of nostalgia anymore.. there's a genuine decline in both quality and depth of mainstream music.
I'm not all about the charts by any means, but compare the number 1s from this and the last decade with the 60s, 70s and 80s. There's a massive fall in sincerity and diversity of the chart hits. Seldom is there a number 1 without either inane rapping or club beats.
The Killers are a bastard hybrid of Coldplay and Duran Duran.. Mumford and Sons is a scarily average folk band .. I don't mean to be obnoxious here but is this really the best we have to offer in 2013? I'd genuinely rather listen to One Direction. At least they wilfully admit their poppiness and make sure it doesn't take itself too seriously.
As Smudged said, tell us something you like and we will get our collective brains together to find at least one new band
I like indie, country, folk, rock, punk.
Sea Wolf was the last new artist I listened to, pretty good but didn't blow me away.
and you haven't found anyone in them genres who you like? you must be hard to please, I have discovered bands who I had never heard of but had been going years, one is Clutch, give them a listen saw them fortnight ago, superb
A number of 80s hits were covers.
Tainted Love - Soft Cell - Originally by Gloria Jones.
Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys - Originally by Elvis.
Always Something There To Remind Me - Naked Eyes - Originally by Sandie Shaw.
Got my Mind Set On You - George Harrison - Originally by James Ray.
I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany - Originally by Tommy James.
Mickey - Toni Basil - Originally by Racey (and called Kitty, not Mickey).
Money (That's What I want) - Flying Lizards - Originally by Barrett Strong.
Tide is High - Blondie - Originally by The Paragons.
Video Killed the Radio Star - Buggles - Originally by Bruce Woolley.
(That list is just an example, and I didn't bother with songs that were famously covers, like Billy Idol covering The Doors with L.A. Woman, or GnR covering Bob Dylan with Knockin' on Heaven's Door)
The 70s were not much better. Led Zeppelin covered a ton of songs (often without attribution, which led to a lot of lawsuits). Here are some examples:
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, originally by Anne Bredon, recorded by Joan Baez.
Dazed and Confused, originally by Jake Holmes.
The Lemon Song, originally by Howlin' Wolf.
Nobody's Fault But Mine, originally by Blind Willie Johnson.
... instead of telling people to leave the forum!
It wasn't aimed at me but......
Even sticking to the idea a concept album has to be narrative based not just a collectio of songs themed around an idea - there has still been a lot of them released in the past 10 years...
Hadestown, Black Sheep Boy, The Hazards of Love, America Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown, Metropolis, Archandroid, Separation Sunday, New Roman Times, The Monitor, The Getty Address, Tallahassee, Hospice.....
And that's sticking to narrative, if you open up to theme based then you can easily add a ton more. Also that's simply a selection of albums I know - and I'm very sure there have been several narrative based albums released in the Metal and Hip Hop genres that I not fully aware off.