Modern Music - Good or Bad?

[CDoherty95]

Hey y'all

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found themselves flicking through the tv or radio channels, and hearing the latest song being played. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who's questioned how the song made it to number one.

Most of my friends agree with me on this. I'm convinced that music has gone into a downward spiral. In fact the only person who's firmly against me is my fourteen year old sister, who's obsessed with every boyband that comes out of those useless reality song competition shows.

I'm into country, rock and blues. It may not be everybody's favorite type of music, but each song has it's own little story in it. Today's music, however, is empty and purely money driven. How on earth did Willow Smith get anywhere?? She wrote, sorry she had someone write her, a song about whipping her hair back and forth. What happened to the good ol' days of Aerosmith, Johnny Cash, and The Beatles.

Modern musicians also feel the need to play with their voices with computer editing software, wave their arms about as if they're having muscle spasms, and generally make an idiot of themselves.

I really feel that music has gone into a downward spiral. I maintain that since the mid nineties, only a handful of good music tracks have been released. The majority are useless, talentless "singers" who say the lyrics and then use computer software to "make it sound better".

Anyway that's my rant over. What are y'all's opinions on modern music?

[RogerDuke]

I'm blissfully lost in the world of country music from the 1970s and early 80s and have no desire to leave. Don't get me wrong I can see the appeal for other kinds of music and I don't blame anybody for being a fan of them but....try as I might....I just can't really get into other stuff. Some folks call that close-minded but I call it dedicated.

Here's my favorites....

Charlie Daniels Band

Hank Jr

Hank Sr

Loretta Lynn

Waylon Jennings

I do like a variety of other stuff too like Elvis, Sade, Carl Orff, bluegrass, the music from Top Gun, etc....but I only like it, not love it.

[HossC]

Sorry I've taken so long to reply - I wanted to give a considered response to your question, rather than a knee-jerk reaction.

If you believe Don McLean's 1971 hit 'American Pie', then February 3, 1959 was "the day the music died". He was referring to the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and "The Big Bopper", and could have easily taken the life of Waylon Jennings if he hadn't given up his seat to Buddy Holly.

Although it was a sad day, I do not believe music died that day or any day since. It's very easy to look back over previous decades with rose-tinted glasses (especially the late '60s ) and assume that music was better in the past. I can assure you that every age and every genre has its high and low points. I have a nostalgic fondness for '80s music, but I'm not going to try to convince you it was all great (I'll bet you don't like every country, rock or blues song). Anyone who's listened to the songs I've posted in 'Musical Chairs' or 'One Word Song Titles' will know that I listen to a wide range of music from the 1930s to the present day. I enjoy that variety, and love discovering new things to listen to. When I say "new" I mean new to me, so it could be something off a brand new album or a track from the '50s, '60s or '70s that I've never heard before. I can't remember when I stopped knowing or caring what was #1 in the charts (it was a while ago now!), but it hasn't stopped me listening to recent releases. The problem with the charts these days is that they get skewed by teenage "stars", boy/girl bands and talent show winners; the talent show phenomenon finally seems to be waning in popularity if you look at this year's viewing figures (in 2009 there was a backlash against the talent shows in the UK when a Facebook campaign got Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the Name' to the Christmas #1 spot ahead of the X Factor winner!).

I'd be interested to see how your musical tastes change over time; mine certainly have. I've only come to country music in the past 10 years and also listen to a lot more soul and blues music than I used to. Maybe, in 20 years' time, you'll look back at 2012 and wonder why you ignored dubstep, grime and K-pop .

To sum up: I believe that great music has been around for years, and it's still being made today - you just have to look beyond the charts to find it.

[MaryAnne]

Take heart, CD. I don't even know who the heck Willow Smith is. LOL

Good music will always endure. Music produced today, only time will tell whether it's truly good or not. LOL

Believe me, there's a lot of modern music that I just cannot stand to listen to. And with listening to it on the radio at work where they play the SAME songs over and over, day in and day out - makes me even less affable to most of it.

There is modern stuff I like but I find most of it is the stuff that isn't played on the 'adult contemporary' format, or is currently burning up the charts. Like Hoss, I listen to a lot of different styles, genres and eras of music (which is why I enjoy taking part in the musical chairs thread LOL). From the 30s through today. Country, rock, blues, disco, swing.... the beat goes on.

I could listen to 70's country music all day with Roger. And the Beatles? You bet. You're lookin' at the original weirdo girl who wore a Beatles t-shirt in jr. high when it wasn't cool to like the Beatles. (At the risk of dating myself, New Kids on the Block were the big screaming deal at the time. I hated them. LOL)

So, I sympathize with you about modern music, CD. The good news is, there's lots of great music out there from now and yesteryear that finds its audience, folks like you and me and Hoss and Roger...and if your sister would rather listen to the latest boy band, well that's her loss. LOL.

In fact, when I first saw this thread, I thought of this great ol' tune by Rush that I thought seemed fitting...

Spirit of Radio - Rush

All this machinery making modern music

Can still be open hearted

Not so coldly charted

It's really just a question of your honesty, yeah

Your honesty

One likes to believe in the freedom of music

But glittering prizes and endless compromises

Shatter the illusion of integrity

And speaking of skewed charts, it was recently noted that rapper Lil' Wayne has now had 109 songs in the Billboard Hot 100, beating out Elvis Presley. There's a great big huge astrisk on this tho' - most of the songs were not Lil' Wayne solo, he was a featured artist on somebody else's record.

Therefore, I declare here and now that Elvis's record of 108 singles on the Hot 100 chart still stands. Lil' Wayne, please sit back down.