Yeah girl, I've been listening to Solar since I got up today. I heard some great new music from William Bell (of 'I Forgot to Be A Lover' fame) and Aaron Neville.

Aaron's 75 and William is 77. I love these guys. They make the world a better place. I don't rely on the young to make great new music.

I maybe relate to what you meant about the 80's too. We had Rene & Angela, One Way, NY Skyy, Rick James, Fatback but switch on daytime radio and I'd be livid - Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, Wham!, Nick Kershaw, Europe, Starship. Grrr!

Talking about retro soul , real instruments no need for computers & auto-tune , vocals you can hear.

Leon Bridges - Better Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgS_xob1x4A


,

Streaming has made the top 40 chart more niche. As mentioned, there is less variety in the chart. No indie-type guitar pop, no rock, no novelty songs, very few bands in the chart. With a few exceptions, most of the chart is made up of singers rather than bands. Coldplay is one of the few bands that existed pre-streaming/pre digital downloads to still have an impact on the singles/streaming chart! But so many other groups struggle to have top 40 success.

Streaming has completely altered the chart.

People have different years that they like, and different acts or kinds of music within those years. It just depends what's popular at the time. Tracks like Lean On and the Justin Bieber reinvention last year are right up my street; there hasn't been much that sounds like those this year so you could say I haven't enjoyed the charts as much this year. (or music this year). But I wouldn't go on to say that that means I won't like any other new music in the future at all, just not much has caught my eye this year so far.

I think the issue with the 80s is that there was some absolutely fantastic music but all that seems to be remembered is the cheese.
I went to an open air concert on Friday and watched Brand New Heavies and Soul II Soul. Both bands were brilliant but then the after party played Wham, Culture Club, Somebody Elses Guy etc. So many good tunes they could have played and kept with the vibe of the night but they went for the lazy option of Now Thats What I Call The 80's

* wrong thread oops *

Thanks for that. I'll check some more by him. Some more contemporary artists...


Snarky Puppy feat. Malika Tirolien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUWsAL92feU

Lizz Wright: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzdXixDX4Sc

Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBvp4fbTlok

Saun & Starr: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAHEsNYveik

Leela James featuring Anthony Hamilton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SweagQ9sAAk

Charles Bradley (covering Black Sabbath): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi49yirJiEA

D'Angelo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVsQwJfWzoI

Snarky Puppy featuring Lalah Hathaway : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SJIgTLe0hc

Probably because far more people here in the UK liked the stuff we don't and if you're younger and discovering it now through 'oldies' stations or those eighties compilations that's what they concentrate on. The NTWICM series was held held in contempt by most of us at school, whether we were into Metal, New Wave or Funk. Even with a couple of good tracks on each the very idea of having the rest in the house was unconscionable. Teenagers with attitude.

I found amazing records like these often just by chance. No one was playing things like this where I live:

RJ's Latest Arrival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN3NvnTNfMU

Kreamcicle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeDHhqb-XTQ

Debby Blackwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUDFb-D8LFM

If it was a soul event and not an 80's thing anyone playing Wham! or Culture Club should have been laughed off stage. There's no shortage of DJ's who know their tunes, to have to put up with that. Funnily enough I like the Jocelyn Brown track more now than at the time but then I haven't heard it a million times. A singer she certainly is.

It wasn't a soul event, it was a festival so I suppose they played to the wider audience.

I do attend quite a few soul events where the live acts are the likes of Incognito, Omar etc so so anyone playing cheeese would be thrown off stage - though I do remember Chris Hill playing Return Of The Mack at Caister a few years ago

Mind you, Caister has been considered a bit naff compared to the likes of Southport and Bournemouth as far as weekenders go but the fact Dave Lee aka Joey Negro is headlining this year has upped the credibility factor

It would seem a lot of people within the music industry agree and don't think it is necessarily a good thing...

Has streaming broken the UK singles chart?

David Guetta would probably qualify as someone with expertise and talent in his chosen field. I'd wager that if you locked him in a studio, he'd have little trouble producing music, and music that would sell as well, but he would probably not be considered "real" due to the fact that he very likely can't play a single instrument.

(I'm not a massive fan of Guetta, for the record, but I do think he's a good example of someone who is clearly exceptionally talented in his own field).

bib... i reckon thats part of what made music fun. the tribalism that grew up around different genres. that helped consolidate music/fashion/date to each generation which is now fondly loved by the ex members of that style. it was life defining fashion and music for each young generation and id suggest thats whats lacking now.

I'm 24 and couldn't tell you most of what's in the charts. I just listen to the music that I like. Most of which would never see commercial radio "success" but is wonderful.

Listening to "Hero" by Maren Morris at the moment.

Yes, I should have elaborated more in what I meant re: expertise. Engineers, remixers, DJ's - anyone who who has some legitimate reason to be there doing what they are doing - beyond say 'looking right', being marketable to the kids - there needs to be some musical substance.

The thing is, the market gets saturated after a certain song is released with music labels jumping on a bandwagon and making a song similar to that certain song. Then all you hear are soundalikes and it just bogs everything down. . It's getting harder and harder to sort the wheat from the chaff. .. Do you think songs made today will be as much classics in 20 years time as those from the 80s and 90s? For me, it's a no, as I am not the youth of today... but the youth of today will be our age and they will be sentimental about their youth and certain songs will trigger many happy memories for them..

Some songs today are quite good, but get ruined by over marketing and constant airplay. Uptown Funk was great at the time. now, it has lost it's appeal for me due to being everywhere at the time.

Oh my God, Lalah Hathaway. She should have been huge!

Question for you and Blondie - were you into the StreetSounds compilations? I always used to see them advertised in Smash Hits and No 1 and it all seemed impossibly soulful, funky and exotic. And I loved the stuff that crossed over like Shannon, Donna Allen, Alyson Williams etc.

You should've gotten sick of chart music when you stopped being a tween. So it's both normal and not normal.

I'm not so sure that will be the case, probably because chart music is so anonymous and bland now.

We went to a friends' daughters wedding a year or so ago. After the reception they had the traditional evening party with a disco and the music was all straight from the 1970s and '80s. We were talking to the bride and groom later in the evening, they were in their mid- 20s and they said that they and their friends had little interest in modern chart music and they all preferred the old stuff.

Is the target age for chart music really so low, now?

That happened well before streaming was included. There have been very few indie and rock acts making the singles chart since about 2009/10.

if i did that id have missed the sex pistols, jam, madness, clash, smiths, xtc, buzzcocks, talk talk, human league etc etc etc....

I'm about the same age so me too.

Music by bands of my generation.

Yes, I picked up quite a few of those. Also many of the Electro / Hip Hop series and some of theJazz Juice from the Streetsounds label. Also other similar series such as 'Upfront'.

Usually I only bought them if they were £1.99 or 99p as I tried to buy the records I wanted one the original 12" singles. It was easy picking this stuff up locally for low prices because not many were listening to this type of music.

You can see the Streetsounds releases here:
https://www.discogs.com/label/906-Street-Sounds

This was a competing series from another label:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Upfr...release/112689


Oh, Lalah's still out there and successful enough in her field, winning Grammy's etc. I follow her on Facebook. Her latest is a live album.

Yep, Shannon's albums were never far from my turntable. 'Let The Music Play', 'Give Me Tonight', 'Sweet Somebody', My Heart's Divided' etc. Of course Donna Allen also covered 'Sweet Somebody' as well as Maze's 'Joy and Pain'. 'Serious' was awesome. I remember buying her debut album on import in the big HMV which opened near Oxford Circus. (I could never get imports at home). I have all those on vinyl. I think my Alyson Williams pieces are on CD. Great times.

I kept watching TOTP right through my thirties despite hating most of it. I'd watch it in case there was 'something good' on. Most of the contents I just bitched about but I was doing that since I was pre-teen anyway. It's like there was nothing worse to worry about than music you hated. I like to think I've mellowed. A bit.