I know it’s been a source of mockery to say that ‘music was so much better in the past’ but it’s fucking true. It’s definitely declined, try listening to top 40 radio these days, it’s gotten measurably dumber and monotonous since the 60s and 70s, which we knew a decade ago, and it’s become even worse since tiktok.
A common argument that is made against this fact is ‘if you dig hard enough, you’ll find some good music most people have never heard of that you’ll enjoy’, but not that long ago, you wouldn’t have been able to find music as shitty as what most normal people listen to these days. I dare you to point to me any genuinely shit music on par with modern pop that was popular before 1980 (so this excludes obscure punk and no wave songs)
>I dare you to point to me any genuinely shit music on par with modern pop that was popular before 1980
Pink floyd
Die
I think the 90s was the last decade with genuinely good mainstream music. I think it had a lot to do with the sentimentalities and ideals of the time in regards to music. Not to say it wasn't a thing back then, but it seems like more that ever the music itself isn't anywhere near as important as the artist themselves. Groups and artists now are trying to sell a look or aesthetic but not an actual song or album. I also think a lot of artist are just more willing to do anything for a quick check and are fine with being sellouts. Everyone wants to be "iconic" now, we don't have artists anymore, they're just outright celebrities. They care more about their fame and follower count than any type of music they can possibly make. Poptism also has a lot to do with it as well. Pop artist are given too much leeway to be mediocre at their "craft".
Actually decent mainstream music died out in the 90s yeah. I know the "there's still good music" argument but that's all indie and underground stuff, and that's been the case. In terms of mainstream music things have been on a notable decline starting in 1996, and it feels like we hit a bottom a few years ago that we're still stuck at.
I mean, I'd argue that among post 90s music, the 2000s post-punk revival movement centered in New York City and the UK (The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys etc) was a really great and enjoyable moment in music history, unfortunately, it was largely ignored by the mainstream in the US and even that had disappeared by 2009.
I'd say the same thing too thinking about it now. I've been listening a lot of those groups recently now since I watched that documentary from Vice about that scene. I think it has more to do with the groups dumbing down their sound in order to gain more mainstream press than the movement just going ignored
It's not just indie and underground stuff though. Good artists on major labels are deliberately downplayed, not promoted, and kept off of radio even when they are playing accessible music. Daughter for example have half a billion listens on Spotify. I have a good independent local radio station that plays current rock artists and they don't even show up there. This is true of a large number of quality acts that should be mainstream but they appear to be systematically sidelined.
there is clearly someone or something that's intentionally conspiring to only put the absolute worst possible non-music on the charts
I read on here awhile ago that it has something to do w record labels getting tax breaks for not signing new artists. If someone knows the name of that act lay it on me cuz I plum forgot
no that wasn't it. they sign "new" acts like Olivia Rodrigo unfortunately they all suck and talented people don't get signed. i think it's more that they get incentivies to sign woke-approved acts.
They signed her because she was an already famous child actress
This is part of the problem, this band exists in a special fuck-you zone of
>too popular to get play on NPR
>not trendy enough to get play on conventional radio
Honestly I understand why. Few people like leaving a concert/listening to the radio and feeling sad, but plenty of people listen to sad music alone on Spotify.
It is because of black people and their degenerate influence
Before the late 70s, a lot of the most intelligent blacks were actually creating a lot of good music by utilising the way white people approached music, that's why you had Duke Ellington, the entire post-Charlie Parker jazz movement and even a lot of Funk groups like the Meters, Funkadelic and James Brown. They were intelligent enough to understand the techniques behind more complex music and they knew what they were doing. But after the civil rights movement and the rise of racial consciousness, this started to go downhill.
All that happened is that the formula for catchy pop music has been mastered down to a T, in the same way that addictive fast food has been perfected. Doesn’t mean that there isn’t good, creative music been produced elsewhere.
Zoomers don't listen to catchy pop though, they listen to god-awful amelodic rapshit. Modern music would be vastly more tolerable if it were just cheap formulaic bubblegum pop.
Well somehow it’s clicking with people. They figured what “clicks” with a large demographic and are milking it for all it’s worth.
>Zoomers don't listen to catchy pop though, they listen to god-awful amelodic rapshit
lol no actual people listens to that, just Chinese bot farms on Spotify
Why would the chinese do that?
as a zoomer I can guarantee you that trap is the only thing most of us listen to, it's stupid
I like hip-hop and trap but it gets so boring and monotonous after only like half an hour, makes it difficult to hang out with people my age
this isn't 2018, trap had its "moment" that ended in the pandemic
BRING BACK REAL POP
So, this is why the british invasion, the punk rock explosion and britpop happened?
Maybe that could be true in the UK where you had a load of working class indie bands that largely sounded the same (with a couple of exceptions) on the radio until the 2008 recession when record labels dropped them all, but in the United States, mainstream exposure of the american bands is limited to The White Stripes and maybe The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs among indie heads, few everyday people have ever heard of The Rapture, Liars, Radio 4 or Moving Units.
are you aware that in order to go find pre-90s music online, someone would have needed to have a desire to go through the effort to port the analog recordings to a digital format, and then upload it somewhere you could find it
if you want to find garbage, go to your local record store and pick up anything from the $1 vinyl crates
>music
>Top 40
Every time... Music is still great but you can't rely on the industry to shill you good music anymore. Because good music isn't cost efficient. It's much easier to market shit instead talentscouting and having artists with something "annoying" like intelectual property. But if you think music is worse now you are just too lazy to look for it.
you’re never going to release music, sperg
I quit
There is literally so much shitty music that was popular back in the days, there is a term for it.
>Yacht Rock
You're just looking at what is left after time takes it's toll. The bad music is forgotten and the good remains. Same will happen with Top 40 of today, your grandchildren will say
>Wtf I was born in LE WRONG GENERATION music was SO much better in 2020
Some of the shittiest music in history is released today but also tbh some of the best so there’s just more of everything
>but also tbh some of the best
Care to share some of the BEST MUSIC IN HISTORY that's being released in 2023?
Do 100 Gecs, Model/Actriz, Yves Tumor, JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown constitute the BEST MUSIC IN HISTORY?
Grim.
I just looked up a random week on the Billboard charts of 1978. Most of these songs are shit and have been forgotten overtime.
You’re comparing the best music of the 70s to the modern equivalent of this
these songs honestly aren't that bad especially when compared against XXXTentaction or Phoebe Bridgers
I agree with your statement, but you've got to be stupid is you think Miss You is shit.
Are you retarded? These are all fucking classics and great. Grease is a banger, Miss You is great, Hot Blooded is a solid hard rocker, and Hopelessly Devoted is a good song.
>three times a lady
I loved the test dream bros
I immediately got Hot Blooded stuck in my head as soon as I read it
These are all great songs, there was actual thought and effort put into them
>it’s gotten measurably dumber and monotonous since the 60s and 70s, which we knew a decade ago, and it’s become even worse since tiktok.
You just described culture as a whole.....any medium of art and entertainment, ANY
You know what else is a cliche people mock, when people say "idiocracy is real!", but it actually is, the only difference is it's not the chud centric dystopia of idiocracy where rednecks rule, it's a liberal idiocracy, but it's the same thing taking place
The top 40 does look pretty shit right now, I think we're just waiting for the next musical movement. I've been out of the look for a while but there was still some good mainstream rock in the charts in the late 2010s. Also the weeknd and kanye put out some solid hits in the past few years
Young people listen to new music. Adults don't. Most music has always been of terribly poor quality with no lasting themes, melody or message. Most music is entertainment, not art.
this is true with regards to popular music certainly.
It really feels good to be a metalhead ; good music then, good music now, probably even better than before.