I am watching a documentary on Top of the Pops in 1979, and can not believe how diverse that year was. Rock, punk, ska, reggae plus adding lots of pop songs and ballads as well.

36 years later, we seem to be lacking variety. You've got the identikit club acts like David Guetta, Clean Bandit. Balladeers like Sam Smith. Teen pop like Ariana Grande and Miley Cyprus oh and the obligatory rap credit like Pitbull.

Why have we become so less diverse musically?

If you live within the Top 40, then yeah, possibly..

Funny but the top 40 is the subject matter of Top of the Pops!

And yes, it was more diverse 36 years ago. There are many reasons not least the dominance of the biz in pop music.

In the upper reaches of the chart, it was more diverse back then. But the metal scene is thriving, there's plenty of underground urban music, you get festivals for just folk or jazz music, and live rock gigs are as big as ever if not bigger... there's plenty out there!

i think there are too many collaborations in music in order for artists to self publicise and as result music genres end up fusing.

There is plenty of variety of music out there, but unless you are a talentless band made up of boys that are made to look pretty for their hormone raging brainless teenage girl fans, you are not likely to get promoted in the likes of HMV.

Thanks to the likes of You Tube / Spotify / Last FM etc etc, more bands / artists are getting the promotion they deserve and do get increased sales from this promotion.

no, it's far more diverse now, and in addition to todays diversity you have a few more decades of back catalogue diversity to listen to

the top 40 may appear less diverse now as there is so much diversity that with so many splinters the sales aren't going to accumulate enough to enter the charts. there are so many different ways to find and listen to music today that never existed in the 70s or 80s, such as online services where diversity and originality flourishes, whilst in the 70s to hear something new you typically had to have someone at a radio station choose to play it or a record store choose to stock it. these days someone can make music and put it online without anyone else being involved

we lack variety in the singles charts....

whether that reflects the whole music scene is open for debate.

Good points but how many are prepared to seek it out and how easy is it to discover the pearls from all the muck. Music used to come from underground but how easy is that when hey're so many competing popular artists on platforms like youtube? At least when you went to Tower Records you usually could be assured of coming out with something different.

I agree with others. If you look at the chart now compared to when I was a kid, it's as bland and vanilla is it's possible to get. But there is more brilliant music out there then there has ever been if you seek it out.

I think the OP was talking about the Charts, mentioning TOTP from 1979 and listing a number of modern chart artists. This idea that there is much more music available outside the charts is true enough but does an increased quantity of music actually mean it is more diverse? There is considerable evidence ( e.g. Million Song database) that popular music is more homogeneous than it was in the past. One reason being that modern pop music has been around since the 1950s at least and most of the possible musical combinations have been covered.

It is also worth remembering that a lot of bands don't even bother to release singles any more as there's no point if mainstream radio won't play them.

I think diversity in the singles chart has become a vicious circle. Radio 1 now has a very narrow playlist, certainly in terms of genres, so to get airplay the major record labels target the music styles likely to get airplay.

The problem is that the one BBC Radio station that did have the most diverse playlist, 6 Music, has to some extent followed Radio 1 and its new music playlist is almost entirely "Indie" based.

As for the music scene itself I can only really talk from a Rock/Metal perspective and for me that scene has never been more vibrant or diverse. There's a new generation of bands starting to break through in to tomorrow's festival headliners, the likes of Black Stone Cherry, Halestorm, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Alter Bridge, etc, as well as a multitude of up-and-coming bands.

The sad part is that unless you're in to Rock/Metal you will never hear of these bands in the mainstream.

Is the idea that music is more diverse if you look beyond the charts a new thing?

In the 70s the likes of Gong, Henry Cow, Faust, Slapp Happy, Hatfield & The North and even the alternative rock legends of the time like Soft Machine and Can barely troubled the charts. There was a lot of diversity outside the mainstream then just as there is now.

Looking at this forum, the spiritual descendants of those bands rarely get a mention here whereas we were still able to find out about weird and wonderful music in the 70s without YouTube, Digital Spy, Spotify etc to help us.

I do admit it is diverse outside the mainstream and one mystery here is how are Within Temptation not massive in the UK when they are everywhere else?

Narrow playlists does have a part to play and the singles chart has been ruined by streaming which is just a byword for corruption. Yes we have the internet, but it just seem to be two to three record labels calling the shots.

It is a vicious cycle and fans of some genres are now pushed onto the background. Its now all about image in the mainstream and appealing to the masses and teenagers. If any regular woman in the street behaved like Miley Cyprus they'd be call a whore!

Agree with this.



It strikes me that this forum is largely dominated by discussion of chart pop and attracts an older audience. If you were to head to the Drowned in Sound forum or suchlike, you'd find it's probably dominated by discussion of 'the spiritual descendants' of bands like Can.

Also it's just much easier/cheaper to release a youtube video or soundcloud link to promote your song.

I think the internet has made it possible for more niche styles of music, let's say some form of ambient music, to blossom. Google around for a bit and you're likely to find a forum/blog/website that's dedicated to that form of music. Also, bands that would have existed in obscurity have been able to gain and maintain a fairly decent audience, even if they're not in the limelight as such.

Obviously the charts are less diverse these days, but, as was said by a number of people in the 'old people have ruined music' thread, the net has drawn people's attention away from one central source. People who would have been into Roxy Music or Kraftwerk back in the day are likely to head to Stereogum, Pitchfork or listen via Bandcamp for their new music, rather than sat in front of the tv hoping Graham Norton books Animal Collective to perform

Just looking at the Top 100 album chart, there seems to be lots of diversity out there. Don't expect to be satisfied by just listening to the radio, there is no "me" station out there, you will have to pay for your music just like thereat of us.

There is a snobbery in this country when it comes to metal. There seems to be an attitude of "metal shouldn't have keyboards" and other such nonsense.

Here are some thoughts on the matter

http://www.femetalism.co.uk/2014/06/...ingdom-of.html

On which subject... I put a few artists' names into the forum search and, for example, Panda Bear was last mentioned here over five years ago, despite having released an excellent album not long ago.

Meanwhile on the TV chat show front, there's a great video of Father John Misty on Letterman so weird beardy music can work on mainstream TV. I Love You Honeybear is already being touted as album of the year yet FJM hasn't ever been discussed here (according to the forum search, anyway).

His new one is one of my favourites of the year, so far.


Yeah, the late night US tv talk shows are really good for showcasing young bands. Possibly has something to do with the fact most of them are on five nights a week and there's so many of them. There's plenty of opportunities for bands to perform. Also seems to be a preference given to bands who can perform live and play instruments, rather than boy bands and suchlike.

There's far more diversity in music now.
You won't find much on the radio or TV. But you will on YouTube.

That is true, however in the '70s there was also the likes of The Old Grey Whilstle Test and alan Freeman's Saturday Rock Show that would play such bands. Today there is no such equivalent on mainstream TV or radio. Probably the closest is Stuart Marconie's Freak zone on BBC 6 Music on a Sunday evening.

Whilst I find such an idea nonsense, metal bands have included keyboards from the early days, I agree there is a lot of snobbery amongst Metal fans these days, sadly.

I added a reply to that link. The author undermined his argument about Symphonic Metal bads and fans supporting each other to grow the genre in the UK when he slated Nightwish twice, hardly a unified stand....

One thing I don't get is, why isn't metal played a lot? Bands like Within Temptation are popular and these festival sell like hot cakes. Surely the message should be spread?

Another thing - music in 1979 had a social conscience. There was acts singing about the political issues at the time. Considering we have had the worst government ever in the UK, where are the songs asking to save the NHS or to cuts to youth services? I think Sandie Shaw summed it up, there is too many posh nobs around. The only way to stop this would be Scrap private schools and cap incomes or higher taxes for high earners e.g 75% like France.

How many 20/21 year olds can relate to lyrics about wealth, in the club and having a string of girls?

I think it's partly to do with young people having a wider variety of mediums (relative to what was available in the past) with which to express their political views. It's also a case of the prevalence of manufactured and 'safe' music in the mainstream. If you're a young person wanting to express political views, music is perhaps no longer the primary way of getting your message out.

Having said that, I think there are still albums that tackle weighty political issues. Kendrick Lamar's (sure to be very popular) album out this week, for example. Run the Jewels album from last year is another good example.