Deep Thoughts About Music

[ER]

I been mostly using this thread for blindfolded stabs at satire, but for once I will offer legit thoughts on music.

I often harp about how much bad music has taken over the charts in this century, and do believe that. I try to filter it through the lens of me being in a different generation, different values, but the problem with that is I love a lot of music written well before I was born, and recognize quality output from musicians born long after me, so I don't think that's it.

I truly do think we are going through a decades-long desert wherein bad music prevails, and bear with me, I bring new evidence.

I know the Rev suggested a counterpoint some months back by posting the top songs from past years and showing how much vanilla existed at any given point, but to that I'd offer this....

Pick a year, any year in the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s, even across the 1990s, and amid the bubblegum on the charts you'll find great bands. There'd be Elvis, The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, Dire Straits, Genesis, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Journey, The Ramones, Bruce Springsteen, there'd be The Cure, The Cars, The Police, Van Halen, Nirvana, Eminem. Even in the second tier you'd have talented people cranking out great songs. The Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, R.E.M., The Cars, Weezer, RHCP, Green Day, Pixies, Sublime. And even the one-hit wonders gave us many great songs.

Where are the great bands today to balance out the embracing of mediocrity?

Think as long as you like, except for great old bands hanging around, there aren't any. Who has come out in the last twenty years that is equal to the great bands of the twenty years that came before that, let alone the fifty years?

We are living in, hopefully passing through, a wasteland in which the talentless prevail, and I think the case is made.

[Rev. Powell]

As I was living through the 80s, I wondered what had happened to the great bands of the 60s. There are periods in history that randomly have a greater concentration of great musicians than others. I still think the 80s were a musical desert. Tom Waits, a lot of meaningless but catchy bubblegum pop, and that's it. I don't like a lot of the "great" bands ER named at all.

I favor jazz over rock, so I mourn the loss of the Miles Davises, John Coltranes, Thelonious Monks, and Charles Minguses of the world. Overall, I think music got worse with the dominance of rock. If you prefer rock, you probably see music as slipping, since it's currently losing ground to hip-hop and R&B.

I've made a concerted effort to listen to new music this year. I don't love most of it, but I don't love most music of any era.

Current popular musicians I like: PJ Harvey, Sigur Ros, Drive-by Truckers, Arctic Monkeys. Bjork, Allison Krauss and Neko Case still going strong. Wilco and Animal Collective have new albums out this week. Don't like Foo Fighters, but they're still producing music. There are promising new discoveries like Lankum and Kelela. Even Lana del Rey isn't bad.

Taylor Swift is no worse than Madonna. The Weeknd is no worse than Michael Jackson. (I'll concede that Kanye West is probably worse than any popular musician who ever existed.)

I'm pretty sure the problem is we're old, and we sound like our parents did when we were growing up and discovering music.

[lester1/2jr]

Music and technology go hand in hand. A lot of music is being created for modern car stereos with tons of low end and ear pods.