There is still music out there you just need to look away from the "pop-culture" music and get deep into a music scene. Really when you get into music really hard core like those great rockers in the 60's (yeah) you can find good music. I happened to listen to punk, then I started moving to harder stuff.

I do have a lot of respect for the older music because I am learning to play the guitar and my friend is teaching me. He happens to be into 60's music right now so I am learning a lot of the older stuff.

just depositing my two pennies

Music is still alive and well -- there are a select few bands in the mainstream of any quality, and they will be the bands remembered. The past generations of music are the same way -- the bands that couldn't hit a note aren't remembered.

A short listing of bands summarizing "good" (music I like that's outside of the mainstream) music seems appropriate, so here goes:

Dream Theater - Progressive rock/metal; intelligent lyrics. _Extremely_ talented musicians, a breath of fresh air. Check out
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. Great album.

Of Montreal - Light hearted, happy music. Story telling lyrics that captivate are their primary feature.

Brian Eno - Not new. Amazing innovator, especially in the areas of ambient music.

Belle and Sebastian - Excellent indie pop, story telling lyrics, great music.

The Postal Service - Good electronic indie, heartfelt lyrics and soothing instrumental backing.

would like to chime in...last few days I have been downloading the songs for the led zeppelin 4-cd box set...best album I have ever heard. And yes, I know I should buy the music, which is why I plan to purchase the "complete studio recordings" when I save up the money..

Wow..such a big thread ! I wanted to read every single one of the replies but I spent nearly a half hour just on the first 4 pages that I pretty much only skimmed the rest.

Everyone makes good points. I think the most important lesson learned here though is that music taste will always be subjective and highly personal as well. I don't know a single person for whom music doesn't speak to emotionally and spiritually and because of that, I believe we all choose the music that "does it" for us. Serious music lovers will know what I mean by that.

A lot of people would gag because I love the Spice Girls and thought they had some of the most uplifting music that I have ever heard. I don't give a frogs fat ass if they were a "manufactured" band or not, I just liked THEM and their music. They were also very colorful and fun to watch.

But I also loved bands like Guns and Roses. They made some truly beautiful music, plus they were beautiful to watch.

I came of age in the 80s when MTV still played videos, anybody remember that ? LOL So for me, a big part of the music was seeing it too. Therefore I not only considered music as good in itself, I also considered whether the band was capable of making a great video.

The best ones are just like hearing the best songs...you can listen/watch them over and over again.

I don't decry music going downhill per se as much as I decry the fact that video all but seems to be gone.

Gone are the visually gorgeous arty type videos from the eighties and what we have remaining are as someone else said, 15 year olds gyrating around in midriff revealing mini-tees.

I want my 80s stuff back.

If there was a band that lyrically matched the topics
one would find in ATS.. that would imho would be a
close call between KMFDM and Bad Religeon.

I mention that Megadeth kinda went that direction
with Rust in Peace now that I think about it.

In an abstract kind of way the same could be said
of Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.

As far as vocal talent and lyrical poetry that would be
a three way tie between Jim Morreson(Doors),Roger Waters[sp?](Pink Floyd), and Todd Rungren(Utopia)

Just my drop in the bucket folks..

I don't know if its been said before but maybe the prices of gas and every thing else (+taxs) going up has backed ppl into the corner of accepting a slow degrade in quality for every thing else.

But its safe to say industrial/goth will probably not sell out that easy. Most ppl in Canada think its just KMFDM and Ram. DM was good while it lasted. Some 80's rap was good, its the only rap I have ever liked.
The Spice girls movie, the kidnapping and constant playing of thier stuff ruined them, they may have been pulled because too many ppl like the music its self.

WWW.shoutcast.com

Originally posted by GanjaGoddess
...
Corporations dont like change. That's why crappy remakes of songs like "They paved paradise" get airtime while...
...
[Edited on 10-3-2004 by GanjaGoddess]

I'm hearing you. Like WTF is up with that. In Canada they played "they paved paradise" like a million times on the radio. It sucked before and the repetition isn't make it sound any better.

Anyways descent bands worth listening to:
Scorpions -- "Edge of Time", "We'll burn the sky", "Through My Eyes"
Kamelot -- "Lost and Damned", "Don't you cry"
Iced Earth -- "Watching over me", "I died for you", "A question of heaven"
Helloween -- "Mission motherland", "Savage", "Why", "Perfect Gentleman"
Metallica -- the days they were playing "the memory remains", "Turn the page", "unforgiven 2", "fade to black", etc.
Primal Fear -- "tears of rage"
Lacuna Coil -- "To Myself I turned", "Stately Lover", "Stars"
Timo Tolkki -- "soldier", "Greensleeves", "Are you the one"
System of a down -- "chop suey","Aerials", "Toxicity"

Yup quite a long thread, not as long as we crazy maniacs have back in the weps forum where arguements are interlaced with information, ..but long nonetheless...

I wanted to read every thread but only got as far as the 7th page, but this is a good thread to look for good music sites..thats one thing I've learnt!

To add my opinion...

Music will change as long as it exists, can't stop that, and we witness a faster change than most eras because we are in an accelerated phase of social and technological development...
Music was good in the 60s, its just as good now, Britney Spears has good songs and so does Iron Maiden...I've listened to all types bit by bit through the years..

Rock,Rap,hip-hop,pop,country,classical(western,african,Indian) etc. etc.. and there are many more I haven't even heard of thats for sure..

But I liked all to a certain extent, the funny thing is almost equally actually (esp. in the case of rock,pop,country)..
which has always left me kind of in the middle, stranded in terms of 'choice' or 'taste'...
so rather than having the easier task of looking/searching for new music in 1 particular 'genre' or following a particular name/group, I have took rummage through loads and loads of music of all kinds to make my playlists..
I used to get really bugged at this..tried in vain to force myself to listen to only one kind of music, but to no avail, until it dawned on me..

Music is just what one likes to listen to, no more, no less..
It is "a point of view" depending on character, mood etc..

so its futile to try and segregate 'good' & bad music,music
then/i] and now... its all based on indivisual perspective..
lets just enjoy our kind of music w/o dissecting the word 'music' as it were, because to me humanity is descirbed completely by 2 traits:

1. Logic/reasoning exhibited in mathematics and science
2. Emotion/creativity exhibited in art(music)

P.S.: The logic part I had to add because im an engg.

Well, I was just looking through some older topics, ya know and came across this cuz it's one of my pet peeves.

Sure, there may be internet mucis and garage bands and local music, but geez, who can listen to the radio anymore.
Music has become waaay too homogenized. Country don't sound country. Rock doesn't sound like rock. Jazzz...what happened. It's all blended together and boring.

Mainstream music seems to be in the control of big business. They want stars to make money and not rock the boat much, it seems to me.

I have lost of CDs, but most of them are music from the late 60s through 80s. Anty newer releases are from musicians who've been around awhile.
My favorite CD right now is Bob Dylan's unplegged. I never appreciated his real genius until now.

But, I'm open for usggestions here.

Everytime I listen to Mr. Bungle I hear something different in the music - something I havent noticed before. There first album, largely written when the guys were in highschool skips from avant garde ro jazz to polka to rock all in a song. Some of the best muscians of today admit they cant even begin to try to play the bassline to 'Dead Goon' - a song written by a band member just out of highschool!

They are all extremely talented musicians - just look at Mike Patton - lead singer for Faith No More, Bungle, Tomahawk, Fantomas (etc etc!), he raps, he circuit bends, he owns his own label (www.ipecac.com) , heck, hes even tried his hand in acting (FIRECRACKER ...not in cinemas yet but showing at film festivals. Won a few awards.) Hes worked with practically everyone and sung on over 4000 songs. He has been called the one that started the rap metal movement ( something hes very sorry for lol)

Definitely something to check out...

Also try :

www.webofmimicry.com - Trey Spruances (Bungle guitarist) label
www.trevordunn.net - Trevor Dunns ( Bungle bassist) site

theres plenty of great music still out there...just get away from the mainstream as obviously it would be filled with garbage like that

Well I listen to anything good, which sadly mean if it is newer then 1987 I have to go out of country. Japan, Carribean, German, Russian, a lot of it is great, alot better then those blonde plastic barbie dolls and gay guys who pretend to be straight even though all their fans are underage, or the "(*profanity removed) ."

Although there are rare catchy tunes, like CHumbawamba, I kid you not, that is pretty good. Sure the main song was annoying as hell, but some like Good Ship Lifestyle and Mary Mary are good.

(mod edit to remove censor circumventing part of post.)



[edit on 2-10-2005 by pantha]

While my favorite musical period would be 70s/early 80s, there is good music still that I like being released these days.

Mojave 3 / Neil Halstead
Red House Painters / Sun Kil Moon/ Mark Kozelek
Belle & Sebastian
Neutral Milk Hotel
Winston and the Telescreen
Damien Rice
The Dresden Dolls
Over The Rhine
Michael Miller
Iron & Wine
Kings of Convenience
The Cardigans / Nina Persson have a few really awesome songs

And Roger Waters is still actively working. His opera album is coming out this month and a new rock album will come out next year or sometime fairly soon. The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking and Amused to Death were absolutely fantastic solo albums by him that are as good or better than the Pink Floyd albums he wrote.

Wow, this thread is still going on...cool.

But what I want to ask the newer posters is this:

What happened?
YOu used to be able to listen to music on FM radio. There used to be plenty of concerts to go to, not just The Stones and other groups who have been touring for the last 40 years.
What happened to contemporary rock?
From what I heard on the radio some people don't want to go to concerts where there is not band and the singers/rappers are performing to tapes. Shows like American Idol has such an amazing array or NON talent, it is embarrassing.

I'm sure there is talent out there. Talent doesn't disapperar just because recording contracts do disappear. Why do you think this real talent is being neglected by the mainstream?

I think napster made sense cause most new music sucks and isn't worth paying for . I play play guitar and sin and so I feel like I can be a critic. There's no more oringinality, no more soul. Covers are everywhere. I could say that about the motion picture industry as well. Very few movies worth seeing as well. I find myself and my first dates(whom I wouldn't know too well) sticking it out only to find out later that we both wanted to leave, but didn't say anything, CAUSE YOUR NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK! But seriously I think that the Will Ferrall, and Ben Stiller, and Vince Voughn movies are usually the only ones worth seeing

Originally posted by invisibleplane
theres plenty of great music still out there...just get away from the mainstream as obviously it would be filled with garbage like that

Just because something is popular does not mean it is garbage.

Cobain was mainstream in his time..... just as Gershwin and Strayhorn were popular in their time.......

~Face

Facefirst, I don't think anyone will deny there is some quality music that is also mainstream.
What is troubling is the amount of non-quality music being sprewed from the mainstream record producers. It is absurd to think mainstram record producers cannot find talented musicians.

The real point, and the possible conspiracy, is why aren't they recording talented musicians?
Thye don't need an American Idol program to find talent.
I have to assume talent is either being ignored or talent has given up trying to catch the eye of an uninterested recording industry.

A friend of mine who was a session player for groups like the Searchers in the 60's has asked the same question. He has taught me how to play the guitar.

You don't see many performers that aren't miming, or being dubbed over. I miss real musicians and singers with real talent.

I don't mind tribal, or cultural music, but most of the music today retains the same beat, or rthymn, and they seem to not know how to write a string of music. There are no carry overs, or crescendos ect that make music exciting to listen to. It has been a while since I had to sing to a piece of music, but you have to know the octaves and such like to make a good piece of music.

Just using one beat over and over again til it drops isn't music that will withstand the test of time on the charts.

The first song I liked in the cradle was 'Telstar'-the musicians played thier instruments and then it was tied togethor to create a syth sound. Again, there were real people playing real instruments making a real sound that has stood the test of time and many of the sounds from the 60's were able to hold your attention for the whole length of the song. Not give you a monstrous migraine after 2 seconds.

Didn't mean to offend. I grew up reading music and singing in the choir and now play the guitar (difficult to change chords when left arm and hand go into spasm and weaken, but I still have a go)