Where has all the music gone?

Now, before anyone gets all excited, I have no problem with youth-oriented music. I am a child of the 60s. There was a great deal of talent and creativity in the music industry.

Now, all I see is pretty much more of the same. Very little talent. I cn't tell one from another. Britney Spears cannot sing and has very little talent.
Where are all the musicians? It seems everyone "sings" to taped music.

I have heard people in the music industry say that the music industry only allows what it wants. That people like Dylan, David Bowie and the Beatles would not "make it" today, if they were first starting out.
I wonder why we are being spoon-fed this "music"? Is it economics? A deeper mind-control theory?

I would be most interested in hearing folks here let me know what they think. I can't believe creative genius in dead in the music field!!!!

Sad to say, I do not think the music today will ever be as great as great bands of the past. When I listen to bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, CCR, and CSN&Y, only to name a FEW, I realize that I will probably never hear music the way they made it. Now I am sure some will think differently, and that is fine, being entitled to your own opinion. But at the same time, if you tell me The Offspring is as good as band as Zeppelin, I will have to laugh at you. Music now is more geared towards "image". It is all about a groups marketability. When people say bands like The Beatles and Bob Dylan wouldnt make it today, well of course they wouldnt, this is a different time with different standards. Is the music better today than it was? I would say definitely not. Today it is more about image than it is about music, which for me, is a sad thing.
MHO

I recently heard a 'dance' version of Stairway to heaven... I was going to vomit!

The reasons mentioned in this post are the reasons I gave up on my music career, as well as stop listening to 'today's music'. It's #e.

It's not based on talent, only an image. Remember 'The Presidents of the United States of America'? They had that one song, lump, where the guitar player only had 3 strings on his guitar, and played 3 notes on it.

Is that talent?

I think the big problem with music today is not the musicians, its the promoters, its no longer about the catchy feeling you get when you listen to a song, its about images of scantilly clad 15 year olds dancing in unison to a cheesey catch line like like "oops i did it again" ...i mean cmon thats not even a catchy line, its pure poo. Being a musician myself, I Never listen to the radio. I know that if i do, im going to hear the same crap that i heard the last time i tuned in. Sure there are some great bands out there to be heard on the radio, but its much easier today to 'Create a band'(american idol etc.) than to bother checking out venues and signing a fresh band to a label.

So i guess i completely agree with you, but my suggestion would be to use the net and see what other talent is out there. Maybe search for Genres of music and see what band pages appear(ie Rock and Roll, or "sounds like dylan") Or even stick with the local scene in your area, i bet if you look beneath all of the local cover bands at the bars, you will find a few talented groups of performers who make music on their own that is just as good (probably better) than what you would hear on your local radio station. People need to start choosing what they want to hear rather than simply clinging on to a band that has been force-fed to them by a large corporate sponsor.

I have heard it mentioned that there still is real talent out there, garage band-type stuff. So local bars would be the place to go. It's too bad all that talent is being stalled there
Alas, my bar days are over. Thanks for the idea.

But, you can't blame only the promoters.
It is also the fault of the record labels, or lack thereof. Too few companies controlling too much music.
It's almost like there is intent to crush any creativity. Which smacks of mind control, IMO.

You know what? I'm 19 and I grew up hardly listening to any music at all because I thought it was all crap and all those "idols" where cheesy idots and anyone who listened to their music was dumb. It was very rare and exeptional when a new song sounded good to me.

About three years ago I checked out my parent's old record colection and found music that sounded a hundred times better than the manufactured music of today. I discovered great bands such as Rush, CCR and Pink Floyd to name a few. Rush is now my favorite band and I listen to it with my parents. Hehe..... My mom actualy turn the volume up sometimes when I play it in the car.

Now you would say "they don't make musiclike they used to" Well you have to look for it. Rush introduced me to the Progressive Rock genre and since then I found several bands who have the great talent needed to play prog rock such as Rush, still here after 30 years, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Symphony X and other verry talented bands.

To find good music you have to get away form "popular music" from sell-outs sissy pop bands and look at different genres. I only started to like music three years ago, I found a liking for prog rock, classic rock and jazz. There are still good bands todaywho haven't sold out, you just have to find them.

Like in every business situation, the big players get all the business RCA ELECTRA etc.... Still, there are tons and tons of labels out there, each supporting several different Genres of music.

Heres the first page that showed up in Google when i did a search for Record label list,

recordlabels.nu...

Check out some different labels, download some samples. Or if you are into some heavier stuff(shameless plug...) Check out this band www.nexttored.com...
..I'm the guy doin the screamin. Booya!

Dude, look underground for your music, there's more talent out there than there has ever been before.

Being a youth in todays world, its weird that i find myself listening to older and older stuff.
This new stuff is alright but older stuff is better.

The thing is that it is all the same old rehash and until someone invents a new instrament, it is going to be. I stopped listening to the radio about a decade ago and all of the bands that use to be good are really showing their age.

And the underground is often underground for a reason and it is not because the public just can't handle it. I say this with confidence because I have been in the underground NYC club scene longer then some of the members here have been alive. For every one truely orignal and interesting band you get 20 that pop up attempting to copy them. This actually ends up taking momentum away from the original decent band. It happened with industrial...then goth...and now it is beginning with EBM; which I still love, but to be honest it is just not what it use to be.

Most times underground music isn't even underground; everything is popular somewhere. The stuff that I listen to is almost common knowledge in parts of Europe, but most wouldn't have a clue about it in the US. Underground music is just a tern that people think is cool to use when they are trying to be different.

[/rant]

I think one of the reasons why old music is better is that back then people played music for the heck of it not necesarily to get fame and good for them if they got it so they would actualy play songs they enjoyed playing and that people ejoyed listening.

Nowadays a lot of artists are in it for the money and fame and don't even write their own songs and in some cases don't sing for real at their concerts and their music sucks.

Edit: One more thing

older music: an art for entertainment.

today's popular music: a marketable product for profit.

[Edited on 23-2-2004 by Ranger]

It all comes down to the record companies who charge outragous amounts of money too produce an artisit and for that artist to be able to clear their debts they must resort to other mode of money making such as commercials, product placment and apearences at differnt events. When an artist is forced to resort ot these they usaly lose thier time to commite to their music, which casues the main crap output of todays artists. That is my theory anyway...

I live in Europe.

I like underground music.

And it's not the same old stuff rehashed, there's some really original stuff out there.

Look harder.

Such as?

music has sort of died. i think it has to do with the rocord compainies basically only playing what they want(what will make them the most money). i listen to mostly independant or underground hip hop, whatever you want to call it. hip hop along with rock and everything else has turned to complete trash. thats why i respect the artists from the 60 and 70s way more than i respect anybody today. i guess people just dont care anymore that the music they listen to is just packaged to sell and has no real value to the music world.

ok...perhaps not ALL the music we listen to is great, i choke on pop culture, but i used to like rap as a kid..are you implying it's wrong?? people's tastes change.

i mainly listen to RATM(rage against the machine), SOAD(system of a down), prodigy, Korn and switchfoot?
this matter is solely opinion-based, my taste corresponds to the way i was brought up cross-referenced with possibly a hint of anger, that's probably why i listen to this stuff.
rap ist crap.
Cyrus.

I agree with most of what you're all saying here. And intrigued w/Ranger's observations - though I've a little older perspective.

Personally, I noticed the beginning of a 'dropoff' in quality at the start of the '90's - until the present. If there wasn't such an obvious problem and deficit in today's popular music - the music scene would be DRAMATICALLY different. How?

You wouldn't have to search so hard for good popular music (eg. 'underground'), we never had to look before. At least from the 60's thru the 80's, it was there - on the radio, in movies, at the stores. Certain styles popular today - like Rap & Hip Hop - would be low level "fringe music". Now, Rap & Hip Hop are just filling the vacuum of good Pop music. Any of the dozens of "One Hit Wonders" from the '80's back to the 60's are more classic and durable than anything created today.

Beginning in the 90's there was a big surge in the world and folk music scene, and I think it was mostly due to the big vacuum in good new popular music. Who the heck listened to Irish, Peruvian, and Bulgarian folk music until then? Check out the Putayama rack of world music at so many stores now.

Want more proof? What was Janet Jackson singing at this year's Super Bowl? Music from the mid-'80's I could hardly believe it! Of course, the recording industry is clueless. LP's and cassettes were under $10 15 years ago when it cost more $$$ to physically mass produce that product. Today they charge more to buy something that's produced even cheaper (never mind the music value). That's because of greed, and I'm no sucker.

Refused (split up)
Neurosis (They're American too).
S.M.I.L.E. (Split up last Friday)
earthtone9 (rencently split up unfortunately)
Cubic Space Division
New Model Army (Although they've been around ages)
My Dying bride
Goldfrapp
Pop Will Eat Itself (split up a while ago though)
Wumpscut
Twin Zero
Anæmic (my band)
Killing Joke (been around ages too though)
Racebannon


That's just the tiniest tip of the iceberg, the guitarist in my band has around 3,300 songs on his computer and around 3,000 of those will be songs I've never heard, and I DO listen to underground stuff.

It's just about looking.

See, a lot of that suff is common to me and most of the heavy music buffs that I know. We don't see it as underground. Wumpscut!?! Aren't they on DAC (Deutsche Alternative Charts ) from time to time? Wouldn't that make them not underground?

Note: I consider alternative and underground two different things.

Music is just a matter of opinion, so here's mine........

On one side of the spectrum, I love Tori Amos and Jane Siberry, on the other, Slipknot and Marilyn Manson. Two totally different styles of music, but the same gushing forth of emotions. Some days, I wanna hear about ' i'll reach in, and take a bite out of that shyte you call a heart!'(Slipknot), others, ' it won't rain all the time( Jane Siberry).

In my opinion, Led Zepplin bites. They are the most overrated band in history.

Pink Floyd (Roger Waters in particular) is a musical genius. Trent Reznor's(Nine Inch Nails) album The Downward Spiral was heavily influenced by Pink Floyd's The Wall. Pure Genius.

The music of the 50's/60's gets no play in my house. Boring, boring, boring. Life was so happy back then. No-one had any problems. All they could sing about was Rock Around the Clock, or She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. (sarcasm)

Just my opinion