It's weird that some people still seem to think that once you hit a certain age, you're meant to stop liking certain types of music and start liking "real" music.

well to a large degree pop music, especially mainstream chart music was aimed at the 15 - 25 year old age group.

im nearly 60 and like a handful of chart hits every year, but lament the passing of a time where id like a handful a week!

Haha. I said exactly the same thing about a while back. Couldn't care less about the charts now because I find the "music" a chore to listen to. It's just boring crap imo and I don't find any joy it it at all. My son played the recent #1 by Drake and I told him to switch it off. Horrible.

That's the thing though, I don't look at music in genres or to see whether or not it's aimed at anyone - I just look at it as music and ask myself "do I like it?"

doesn't matter to me who's singing it or when it was out as long as I like it

It's quite often to see threads like this bumped that were made years ago. I recall ones from 2008 and 2004 with similar responses.

Yes I can totally relate to this. I'm 26 and what made me realise that I had 'gone off' chart music was when I noticed the presets I had set in my car radio were Heart, Smooth, Magic, Radio 2 (yes really ) and Absolute 80s.

What's odd is that being born in 1990, late 90s music always had a soft spot in my heart but over the past few years, I've found myself gaining a real interest in 80s music. Occasionally yes, Heart might play a chart song that I can tolerate and there are a few artists/bands that I enjoy listening to from the present day but other than that, I wouldn't choose to listen to these UK Top 40 radio stations such as Capital & Radio 1.

That being said, I do have quite an interest in music from other parts of the world and I am guilty of paying some attention to their current chart music - Sweden, Italy, Turkey & South Korea especially.

I just don't connect with the chart itself anymore. I think from the 60's through to the 90's especially the singles chart was kind of stamped into a much larger range of peoples awareness simply by the existence of TOTP on the populist BBC1. I mean I hadn't actually heard One Dance until the last few weeks and only the vaguest idea of Drake-and yet its irritatingly(to me) spending 15 weeks at number 1.

I guess I'm old, then - I couldn't tell you who's in the chart. Also, everybody assumes that, because I'm 26, I'd be having Radio 1 on at work, rather than Absolute 90s (which is what I do have).

I was recently watching orchestral covers of pop songs on youtube and I found a playlist of a hundred videos, which pleased me immensely. That was until I saw the songs on it, which were by people like Taylor Swift, Adele, Katy Perry and so forth, and I realised I didn't know a single one, which was somewhat depressing.

Well, since I haven't seen or heard a top forty chart since before the demise of TOTP and wouldn't even know where it's found (mainly due to chronic disinterest) I thought Id actually listen to it because there were sound clips. It was pretty much as bad as I anticipated.

1. Autotune abuse. Ugh. It's so damned prevalent. I'm supposed to know about things like this because I like Hip Hop but it's faaaaaaaaar from the music I love.

2. Sounds like a Rihanna wannabe (can't think what the sample is but it was a previous hit).

3. Autotune again. Therefore sh*te.

4. Sounds like something that could appeal to an older audience too.

5. A shock when I realised what was going on! More later...

6. Bland, bland, bland.

7. Not really my thing but no wonder he's popular when you consider the rest here...

8. Not really my thing either but listenable.

9. Slightly funky. Singing on the verse is horrible though.

10. A great example of why I hate *most* modern R&B.

11. Not what I was expecting. I liked it less than I anticipated.

12. Another Rihanna soundalike with a bit of a Caribbean-lite vibe going on.

13. More generic sounding Pop.

14. More spoken singing.

15. Hate the vocal. Why can no one making Pop sing properly anymore?

16. Generic. Song might be okay if it was covered by someone like Chanté Moore and given a decent arrangement.

17. Sounds like an autotuned primary school kid. Worse than death.

18. A plinky, chipmunky, crap Salt'n'Pepa cover.

19. Generic

20. More light keys and crap vocal like most everything else.

21. What passes for Hip Hop now. Sad.

22. I'm aware of Popcaan because I listen to Jamaican music but I don't like him and there is a special place in hell for autotune.

23. Maybe slightly better than average?

24. One of the best so far, perhaps.

25. Also slightly better than average despite the anti-vocals?

26. More Rihannaness. Awful. Inconsequential.

27. Plinking keys and someone talking. Atonal misery.

28. More digital farting and horrid vocals.

29. It's got that Eurodance anthem style going on but I hate Eurodance.

30. Inoffensive which I usually find quite an offensive characteristic in music. Better than average. At least it's not a Cliff cover.

31. Another post-Rihanna non-singer. Vile.

32. With a different vocalist this could be okay. A bit Chic-esque. Why must all these pillocks sing like they've got a clothes peg on their schnozzle?

33. Better than average.

34. Unlistenable.

35. Yet another half-baked song with the same line repeated over.

36. More irritating non-vocals.

37. Bloody autotune and that commercial Caribbeaneque vibe. Rancid.

38. Jesus wept. People have been disembowelled for less!

39. Trap like. Afwul shouty vocals - shouty but bland - quite an achievement.

40. Might need to hear more of the track than the clip provides. Possibly better than average.


I think I'd need Prozac or a litre of Scotch to attempt to listen to the whole lot in their entirety.

Number 5 was a great record and really didn't need that Kungs guys anywhere near it. Sung by Australia's talented Kylie... Ms. Auldist.

The miles better original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RXplPikeXA

An antidote to the tripe I've just subjected myself too.


I can see that some people really enjoy this music but if you don't, instead of complaining, simply ignore the top forty and listen to something else. Better for the soul.

I always liked ''real'' music as a kid, though. Or, more accurately *some* of it i.e there was plenty of music I was developing a taste for when I was 18 that I wouldn't have related to much at 9 or 10 when I started buying singles.

I tend to be the opposite - I check out by genre because there are genres I like and ones I've little interest in. If I love a genre I really want to dig into it deeply whilst ignoring a lot of other things.

i kinda agree.... but kinda dont too!

if it hits 'that' spot, ill like it regardless of genre because theres good and bad examples in every genre - its just that im predisposed to like some styles over other.

i knew a guy once whos choice in music i thought was political - he likes a track or artist because it was 'cool' and not so much that he liked it, and disliked other tracks because they werent seen as 'cool'.

but yes, thats what i used to like about the singles chart - you heard a style you liked by a new artist then you searched deeper into them/the style.

Scrilla you actually picked out the best 3 tracks for me as well DNCE, Bastille and Christine & The Queens although I like Coldplay as well . Also 15 Dua Lipa terrible track but her last single was great until she was made to sound like everybody else.

She probably has a point as I, mostly, still listen to the same prog rock tracks I listened to back in the 70's.

'dancifying' normal tracks has been going on for many years though, possibly the first was 'dub be good to me' (just be good to me) back in '90.

whether they are good or not is subjective, in the case of 'just be good to me' i like both versions.

in this case both to me sound good, but cater for differing moods. imho kungs version is a wonderfully summertime chilled track, and puts my mind in a different place to the original. so both work for me.

Thing is, what is "real" music though ?. Personally, i think the definition is as subjective as the overall notion of whatever your taste in music might be. Of course you can take it absolutely literally and say it's music played on instruments, but then I imagine someone like, say, David Guetta would argue he puts just as much effort in to creating a song as a "real" band might do, so, to him, his music is as "real" as anyone else's.

40. Might need to hear more of the track than the clip provides. Possibly better than average.


I think I'd need Prozac or a litre of Scotch to attempt to listen to the whole lot in their entirety.

Number 5 was a great record and really didn't need that Kungs guys anywhere near it. Sung by Australia's talented Kylie... Ms. Auldist.

The miles better original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RXplPikeXA

An antidote to the tripe I've just subjected myself too.


I can see that some people really enjoy this music but if you don't, instead of complaining, simply ignore the top forty and listen to something else. Better for the soul.[/quote]

40) Christine & The Queens . Usually when I see a singer surrounded by dancers on TV is when I turn over , dance tracks & music hold no interest for me . But was watching Graham Norton & Christine & The Queens were the musical guests , never heard of her before , thought this is going to the usual Euro summer dance dross . But was blown away , something original & different .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2VKaH2sKtU

I don't think it's JUST that you're getting old and it's natural to feel out of the loop.

The sort of records that are making it big these days do tend to be the sort of records that are big with the youth rather than a widespread demographic. Most of the top 40 is dance and R&B at the moment. Up to about 10 years ago there was a good mix of everything.

I'm 45, just looked at that chart and the only song I know is the Justin Timberlake one, which is one of his weakest songs imo

I still follow and love new music but most of what I like I discover through word of mouth, recommendation, being played at events I go to and listening to the genre specific radio stations like Solar, Stomp, Zero and Mi Soul.

So being older doesn't mean stuck in an era as I think much of the 80's tunes I grew up with are pretty naff. I just think I know what I like really and don't have any interest in the fluff and filler that I would get if I listened to mainstream radio on the off chance I might hear the odd song I like

I think there can be certain sounds we've developed an affinity for - instrumentation, arrangement, production styles and often we'll relate to this sort of combination of characteristics when we hear it. Yes, music is never poor because it's the 'wrong' genre, it's just that we can't concentrate on everything. People who actively go out of their way to be eclectic will often only scratch the surface due to the quantity of artists out there. I dragged myself up on a mixture of Punk and New Wave as well as Disco, Funk and a hint of Reggae but I've hardly bought any Rock-based music for 20 years + and not because I don't like it but because I don't often reach to play it and because there is so much within the genres I concentrate on in my wants list.


I've no problem with political or protest music but I have to enjoy the music itself to want to own it e.g. I'll buy Curtis Mayfield but not Billy Bragg.

When we're younger I think we latch on to 'image' far too hard, over content (and well do the major labels know this!): we're drawn to artists who are seen as rebellious, cool, socking it to 'the man' or whatever and it's usually artists that at least some of our peers might be interested in. It can steer us away from so much worthy music that we probably *will* enjoy a bit further down the line when we can see through thinks like presentation and the hype. When our taste matures and we're no longer influenced by gloss over content.

I see Beyoncé, Rihanna et al selling to young girls on their taboo-ness (i.e. sex) in a similar way to how the Sex Pistols would have sold to me (anarchy, shock, anti-authority). Kids like grown up stuff they don't really have a proper grasp of.

Don't because you like Coldplay. My scant 'assessments' were based on one hearing of short sound clips and of music I don't really have much liking for. (As I was listening I though I may as well respond to what I'm hearing - I haven't a clue about the current top forty really).

I've never heard of Dua Lipa before but the idea of her being "made to sound like everybody else" sounds bloody appalling... that an artist would change their singing style during their career to fit market trends.

Yep - it's just down to personal tastes - I like the Retro-Soul style of the original, just as I enjoy Sharon Jones 7 the Dap-Kings, Nicole Willis & the Soul Investigators etc. so a pitched-up re-fix doesn't do it for me. I remember being particularly annoyed when someone added (a then contemporary) House-style drum pattern to Chaka Khan's 'I'm Every Woman'.

A music snob's term? For me real music is probably that made by real artists: people who have some area of expertise, or even better: an innate talent. It's created because it *would be* anyway, without a major-label backing, without a cynical eye on creating chart hits.

This doesn't describe some of the people who have been raised to legendary status amongst pop fans. You just know that if you locked them in a recording studio on their own they could come up with virtually nothing. The sort of people whose music is made by committee and if you removed them from the ingredients list and swapped in someone else the end product would remain the same.

I suppose when we are 30, 40, 50+ we should have found our own thing and not really be concerned with being out of the loop... I know it's of little concern to me that I don't like or listen to music that most people I meet tend to. I actually *expect* this. I will say though that it is great to find someone who shares some similar preferences and have a good old natter.