Is most of today's music just plain bad? (1 Viewer)

Put this simply;
Nightly I listen to the radio. 7 hours a day 5 days a week, and I find most of the new stuff just plain garbage.
Has pop/rock/country gotten that bad?? Are we in pop hell.
Destinys Child, J Lo, Nsync, Backseat boys, Britney. Are they all made by the record companies?
Do we have any hope??
Are groups like The Matthew good Band, Creed, and Indian Ant Farm( ) going to save us??
Generally I am very unhappy listening to most of the bland crap I hear on the radio daily ARE YOU??
LL cool B

Modern commercial radio sucks.......thank god for internet radio and college radio.

Simple. Don't listen to mainstream radio.
A lot of what I listen to anymore doesn't get played on the radio, or if it does, it's on an NPR or college station.
Plenty of good music exists out there, but you have to look for it.
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The so-called "bland, empty pop" is a result of the 90's corporate thinking of the record company execs. Each one wants to have a "million seller" under their belts and quickly. No one wants to cultivate an aspiring artist. If artists like Simon and Garfunkel, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, and Bruce Springsteen were here today, they would probably be touring the rest of their lives or waiting on tables or accountants (no dis-respect intended to any of those professions).
So instead, they look for the flash in the pan that will roll in the quick bucks. Not artists, but people who look good on MTV, can do a few dance numbers and sing in key. Essentially appealing to the teen audiences on the most basic level at the moment. All the artists mentioned in the top thread will have their careers end when their looks start to fade and their market starts to mature. Or they can try moving to a film career, like Whitney and Mariah.
I used to listen to top 40 all the time, starting in 1979 when new wave bumped disco off the charts. Then I stopped around 1990 for no apparent reason. Looking back, pop music was essentially dying and all good music went to genres. We have alternative, modern folk, and of course the ten years and still running strong, rap.
The strange thing is although I applaud the rap artists for keeping the music industry afloat, I think no one will remember rap songs. Is there anyone here that likes rap can remember the lyrics to at least 100 rap songs by memory?
Although I think alot of good music comes from music genres, I tend not to stick with them because they have little variation among their music. You can always count on blues, jazz, folk and rap to sound exactly a certain way, but that's not pop. Pop always tries to be different, innovative, cross over. Genres rarely do any of that. And now pop does not do any of that. Innovation and experimentation is left to alternative and is usually too avante garde or extreme to get wide appeal.
It would be nice to have at least one pop group or artist out there that everyone likes and is actually good. Yes it's rare these days to find the acts that are both the best and the most popular.

The music industry seems to exist in cycles. Artistic innovation that captures the mainstream usually catches record company execs off balance. That is when they sign artists who are capable of defining that innovation to the public. Once the corporation absorbs the essence of the sound, they dilute and homogenize it. That's when you get NSync.
50's: Rock n' Roll defeated bland pop ("How Much is That Doggie in the Window)
60's: British Invasion clobbers Teen Idols (Fabian, Frankie Avalon).
70's: Punk/New Wave routs disco.
90's: Alternative kills hair bands.
00's: Well... it better happen soon.
[Edited last by Alex Shk on October 01, 2001 at 01:03 PM]

I few have been saying this recently-I was saying it 6 years ago.
With very few exceptions,heavier music has been in the dumps for the past 10 years. In the old days when you heard a band you knew immediately who it was-everyone had a unique sound.
I cant tell Spaind from Spineshank,from Godsmack from whatever Ant Farm from this from that from shit-which it all is in my opinion.
Every single one sounds the same.
There were some good bands in the past 10 years, but they all seem to have destroyed themselves.
I NEVER listen to the radio(except for the classical stations)-I stopped bothering with that around 86 or so-I prefer to listen to CD's.
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"....With that in mind,I humbly add my own prophecy of
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one thousand more years of the same old crap" Jose Chung

I've gotten so used to listening to AM radio (mainly talk radio), and I'm very much out of touch with the music scene these days, but every now and then I sample the current flavor of the month, and I switch back to AM radio without much reservations. But if I do find a band whose sound I like, I do like hunting down their albums and hoping to find something purchase-worthy.
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Most of the stuff you hear on radio and TV is utter tripe. Boy bands, girl bands. They are anything but bands. Nursery-rhyme lyrics written to everything-sound-the-same muzak, all aimed at 13 year old girls.
Damn, I'm cynical.

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Rob, What you just described is basically what Josie and the Pussycats is all about!
Being into music a lot myself (I bring 25 CDs to work everyday and work with headphones on all the time) And as far as the boy bands, anorexic dumb blondes and stuff, yes I hate it too, and my [Rather unsual] criterias for music are made to exclude them. They are in order:
1. Must be female(s). (BSB/NSync are out)
2. Must write their songs. (Britney and Chritina are out)
3. Must not rely on looks for popularity. Although most of the time, artists who rely on looks for popularity don't write their songs, there are cases where I just don't want people to think that appearence is important to me. A good exception for that rule are artists totally unknown in this country, since no one's heard of them nor am I exposed to bad publicity about them, I can like them (If my other criterias are met)
4. Must not be to extreme musically. I find classical and opera to be generally too boring, and Heavy Metal to be generally too loud/annoying. But everything in between is usually fine.
5. Must be current and still making music. To me, following news about an artist, awaiting a new album or having a chance to see them live is part of my interest in music.
Of course there are a few exceptions to these rules, but one thing is for sure, if an artist/band fails in all criteria I will most likely not like her/them.

I think it's correct to say the vast majority of today's music that get's played on large radio stations is just plain horrible. Like Isobel said, check the college stations for music that actually has feeling to it. If there's somebody in particular you liked in the past, check on the internet to find some of the people they've worked with and try some of their music. You may be surprised at some of the really good music you'll find that way, and most of it will never be in the local CD store.
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Tempus Fugit

To answer your question Greg "will we look back at the late 90s and the early 00s the way people look back at the 80s now?"
YES!
Its all a 20 year cycle. The next big sitcom will be called "that 80s show". Everyone grows up to "their" music of the times. My Live Aid will be todays Tragic Events Concert. Then you slowly grow out of the music you loved so much and then, one day many years down the road, you get nostalgic and start listening to that era all over again! Of course, theres another format out so you can spend hundreds, if not thousands listening to all your favs over again. They have it down to a science(and a dollar)
I'm 27 and have been buying 80s up like its going out of style. Old hip Hop(spending the real big bucks and ordering discs) Top 40 radio, compilation albums... it reminds me of such an innocent time. Most of the music is half cheesy but I just love that old school.
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you lose it here and your in a world of hurt...

As someone suggested above... CHANGE CHANNELS.
Yes, most of todays "popular" music is bad.
Its success is engineered, like a terrorist plot. Britney Spears and the boy bands are on top because they're 18 and exploited like prostitues.

My answer to the question is NO.
To qualify: There is a lot of crappy music out there, which gets tons of radio and video play. There is also a ton of great music that you will never ever hear on the radio, you just have to look for it.
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Didn't we just have this exact same thread recently?
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Nothing In Particular

yes music does suck today for the most part...WHEN, OH WHEN will this hip-hop rap crap FINALLY go away??? i think it has MORE than run it's course and it's time to bury it once and for all!!!
here's a novel idea A&R record people and radio programmers --- try signing and playing songs by real bands that play real instruments and have real melodies that you will remember when the song is over!! i can't remember the last time a real melody stuck in my head after listening to a song!

Absolutely, unequivocally no. However, if your music exposure is mainstream radio and MTV/VH1 and awards shows, then yes.
HT Joe sixpack analogy: if you are listening to high-dollar advertised mass market product, it's the same as Best Buy being your exposure to high-end gear.
I can barely keep up with all the great bands in the last ten years... Now the eighties, that was another story
Apologies to those who like todays Top 40 radio
I feel like listing the artists I listened to today while driving, happily ambivilant to whatever was being repeated on big dollar radio... But I wont.
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Mainstream = "just plain bad."
I've been a musician for 10 years and I feel that local music can be better music. Plus, underground (i.e. not touched by the "industry") is a lot more interesting and substantive than most crap out there.
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