ok this discussion came up here at work yesterday, and I'd like to hear some voices on the matter.

Rodrick, lets call him, says: The music today compared to the music I had when I was growing up is utter crap.

imo, there always has been and remains nowadays excellent music out there, sometimes one just needs to know where to look.

There's crap music always. Yesterday and today. Roderick needs to clean the shit out of his ears and try listening to some other than Grand Funk.

This kind of attitude is the first sign of getting old, IMO.

I don't know when Rodrick grew up but I think we live in an era where the good bands and music have the least amount of access to the public.

Also good music is gonna probably alienate much of Rodrick's age group.

Nostalgia plays a big part.

Cowboy Troy

He is known in these parts as simply "The Spade."

I'd like to think so.



I dunno. Pretty much anything can be accessed pretty much instantly now if someone really wants to hear it. Finding it can be a problem, and I would agree that the good stuff is becoming increasingly buried under some ubelievable crap being pushed by radio and MTV.

I think that I'm trying to say . It's out there if you look, but most people think new music comes from the radio or MTV. I don't know if they realize it's out there.

That Big Spade, actually.
and I think oldbullee is pointing out that you have to TRY to like music these days, whereas in times past it may have found you.

Fastnbulbous in 3... 2... 1....

But I don't know if Tony'll take the pro or con on that position.

An artist on the label said yesterday "I only listen to music that is at least 25 years old". "That's retarded," I thought.

damn you monty, maggie is a babe and all but I got accused of looking at a dating site at work cause of your sig...

FYI, a little background info on Rodrick.

Like me, he's an older fart. To compound the issue he also was a DJ. So he knows music... up to a point. But, like many of us, his tastes in music matured and his adventurous side skidded to a halt. This is also the dilema I am facing. I went to college in the early to mid 80's and stopped actively searching for new music. That's why I had posted the earlier thread asking for five discs.

OK, the discussion we had was re: the quality of music today vs. "yesterday". I called him to task and told him that there was plenty of crap being produced back then as well.

My point is that there has always been, and always will be, crap that occupies the mainstream. It's up to us to go and search for the gems in the nooks and crannies. That there is probably just as much good music now as there was then but, like everything else, things have changed, grown, experimented with etc. in other words music is not and should NOT be STATIC. If it was, it would suck even more than it does now.

"Waaay back when I was a youngin', we knew music! Yessiree! that stuff nowadays is just noise!"

I can hear my dad saying that and if I don't check myself I can say it myself. So I try to see, hear and try new things.

The styles I like most peaked in the 60's and 70's so I tend to personally feel that there isn't as much new music today that I like as their was in the past.

But perhaps more importantly, its so easy to self record and get an album out that there's a lot more CRAP out there to weed through looking for the good releases, which probably makes it feel like there is less qual out there.

agree with some of the above - it is much easier to get music "out there" and much of it is really horrible.

I would say that the music getting played on the radio is more crappy than yesteryear. As corporate radio stations become more generic so does what most people hear. Tell them they have to look outside of the box for great music. Show them The Obner!

True dat. Ruprick needs to stop living in the past. For myself, I loooooove the 80's and all but I'm constantly looking for new stuff that challenges me as a listener. More people should be like that and be willing to dig for quality music rather than listening to what's dictated to them on the radio or MTV and then simply assuming that, "All music today sucks". It's a narrow, unconsidered viewpoint.

Yeah, I agree. The corps aren't going to play stuff that may only appeal to a fringe group. McMusic!

Noice. I like it.

Yup. And I've been hearing the same shit from back when my Dolls and Iggy and Alice Cooper reckids were getting shat on by friends' older brothers who considered Cream, Yes, and Led Zep the apex of modern music.

Thing is, whatever music first hits you between the eyes as a teenager will always hold an exaggerated and romanticized value (ie: me and them Dolls), but some folks just (understandably) stop caring as much about bands as they grow older - and they make the mistake of thinking that means the music isn't as good.



And btw, radio has always sucked and will always suck.

So...give us a decade -- when was he growing up? 70's?

Richie Family
Air Supply
"If You Leave Me Now"
The Beach Boys
Christopher Cross

Happy bippy shit. I realize most of that was from the late 70's, but don't make me try and remember earlier crap.

Top 40 radio was always crap. I used to listen to AM1600 WINX. Then I discovered FM and instantly had my first aurgasm.

I do think we lean more towards stuff we grew up with. But I like a lot of new music, so...who knows?

I think music from our youth seems to grasp us so firmly because, basically, when else have you had so much time to screw around listening to records all day than when you were a teen? Plus I don't know about the rest of you, but I always associate older songs with pivotal moments in my life, and again, having been the typical angsty teenager, when were you NOT having a pivotal moment?

After graduating from college, I essentially fell off the wagon. Not out of laziness, but by the mere fact that we moved to Winston-fucking-Salem, NC where there wasn't a decent college radio station for miles. Those were the dark years.

I definitely think I still have to look for qual music (mostly thanks to everyone's recommendations here, but by reading CMJ initially) because I can't expect even my local college station to play decent stuff anymore. Thank the gods for online stations like KCRW and 3wk.

So I think your friend needs to get off his lazy ass and go look, or start listening to you. If not, go ahead and fill out his AARP registration form for him now.

Accused on the level of razzing by your co-workers, or a technology-use-violation form issued by your supervisor?

I hope that it's the former.

Reference: graduated high school in the Midwest/Wisconsin circa early 1980's.