as the question above asks, is music what it once was?

i think most rap is appalling, whats called r n b isnt. and has everything that can be done in music already been done but better?

No, it's the same. Music's full of good and bad, it's just that people invariably remember the good stuff. Whatever you think was a golden age of music; I guarantee there was the same amount of garbage.

Is the pope polish?

Music from the 1960s, to the mid 1970s was the golden age. Music today hasn't got the depth. Most bands around today are not terrible, but they are too reliant on one song usually. They don't have a catalogue of great songs like the older bands had. Albums were better back then as a result.

I'll agree, that there is the same amount of rubbish, but the rubbish today IS worse, and the good stuff from the golden age WAS better. But yeh, the ratio of tripe to great was about the same.

Music is still pretty much as good as it was whenever, it's just that all the good stuff has been pushed underground while all the shite dominates the media..

Yea, its a possibility.

Shows like X-factor and Pop Idol have further pushed talented musicians into the background.

X-Factor looks for pub/karaoke/boyband material of singers, which is why Shayne won. They aren't looking for someone who is distinctive, can play instruments and write music and is actually truly talented.

Think thats a bit unfair, just because they don't play an instrument they are not "truly" talented. Anyway the act that came third could play guitar.

Just because they only sing doesn't mean they are untalented or less talented than those who can play instruments.

Here we go again.

Hahaha, the act that came third could play guitar! I bet that lost them a whole heap of votes and favour with the judges!

X-Factor is after manufactured pop acts. People who can sing covers well, but not have a distinctive voice.

If you define "talent" as someone who can sound like every single cabaret act, then good for you.

Why would you want it to be what it once was?

If you expect it to sound like it used to then you're ruling out all the ways it can surprise you - new ways of playing old styles, old ways of playing new styles, new stuff you've never imagined could exist. And if you make the effort to track down some really good new music you'll enjoy the older stuff even more, because it'll just be timeless good music, not some part of mythical Golden Age of Rock or whatever.

because it definetly seemed a lot better then. though there is some good stuff around

No its just different, I love the stuff from the 80s because I grew up with it and when I hear it so many lovely memories come flooding back

Im sure that in 20years my kids will think the music of today is the best ever..

I thought he was German, actually. But he's from a long gone era so I suspect you will think him the best Pope that ever lived....

Thats the point though, many many young people are digging the music of the 60s/70s and turning their back on modern stuff. In terms of creativity, the 60s/70s was the absolute golden age. Now every record sounds much of a muchness. Plus a lot of it is now X Factor trash!

He is German, which is why i said "is the pope polish", as the answer i was looking for was "NO"! Do try to keep up......

As for who was the best pope ever, the polish john paul was during the 1980s, a bad era! So i doubt he would be!

Most music today I consider bad. But is that my age?
I don't like all this Reality Show fame, and Cover Version bands such as Westlife.

Though as groups go today I do respect The Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferniand, and The Killers. I think that these sort of bands have gone back to good old raw (CAN SING LIVE) material.

Having just watched TOTP2 and had my mind refreshed as to 'Disco Duck' I think I can safely say there was tripe about in the 1970's!

its great that we have so many great bands about at the moment which we didnt have 5 years ago thanks to radio stations like xfm for getting these bands heard

AFAICT music's golden ere is from the age of about 13 to the age of about 23.

it matters less when we're talking about, and more about the age of the people talking. there was both good andbad music in the past, and there's good and bad music today.

Iain

the popes german!

youve fallen into that trap.. no , not all old music was good... there were dire artists from the 60's and 70's.

ok, music was new then, so the good acts were groundbreaking, but dont be fooled... tracks like 'morningtown ride', 'sleepy joe', 'ragamuffin man' were just as banal as the most trite crap there is today.

You missed that as well!! I know the bloody pope is german!! (oops, that's got me a one way ticket south!)

Music was better back then, think of all the bands that came out of that era, compared to the ones of this era. Plus no matter how bad stuff like the above songs are....it can't be as bad as Bob the Builder, Shayne Ward, James Blunt or Mr Blobby! Heck, even Cliff Richard was better back then than he is now!!

guitar based pop has always been the most popular genre, so everytime 'beat' 'mod' 'punk' 'new wave' 'goth' 'grunge' 'indie' 'britpop' 'rock'.... raises its profile then we enter another round of 'great eras'..

Puff The Magic Dragon. Far out. Like Peter Paul and Mary were singing about getting stoned and like the straights didn't realise it man. You wouldn't get subversive shit like that happening today...

Reliant on 1 song? The good bands of today have vast back catalouges which are mind blowing, we have some genius songwriters around at the moment.

Oasis, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, James Blunt, Pete Doherty, even Robbie Williams.

Amazing tunes, the list could go on and on. There are good bands/artists from each and every era and there are obviously bad ones. It seems that whenever this debate rages people seem to find all the crap from this era and forget the good stuff.

doooh...lol...

what about pinky and perky.. ? rolf harris?.... orville?.. disco duck?...

there were plenty of crap acts around in the old days...

so there wasnt a westlife, but there was other balladeers like englebert, jim reeves, tom jones, malcombe roberts, donald peers,...

by 68 pop groups were all being controled by the record companies.... manfred mann detested 'ragamuffin man' etc but were contractualy obliged to produce cheap crap pop to make money. is it realy that different from today?...

true in the mid 60's there were some great groundbreaking groups... yardbirds, kinks, animals, who, beach boys, small faces, cream.......... but they had a blank canvas to work on.. it aint like that now so its a case of filling in the gaps left by previous explorations into certain areas.

dont forget groups like the seekers, tremoloes, hermans hermits, dddbmt, etc all made some very unimaginitive music at a time where there was loads of sounds to try out...

.... and dont start me on the glam era of the early 70's.... all of which were 60's failures! stardust, glitter, bowie!!! slade, quo, trex,...... then there was the overlooked 50's revivalists... wizzard, rubettes, mud, shoddywaddy lol.. original teds hated that glamming up and cabereting of their earlier original style..