was music better when you were growing up or now

denkster06

denkster06

Regular Poster
MBTI
ENTP
well umm...
i was just talking with a friend about how we think music has changed for the worst, like words, music, everything, and it was better back in the day when we were youngsters.... someone about twice my age hears me and says the same thing about his childhood music, then someone says that its better now than it has ever been...
what do you think?
was it better back in the day, or do you think that the quality of music is exploding with unmatched awesomeness as we speak?
 
well i think most mainstream has gone to crap including rock, country, rap its all just telling people what they want to hear for the most part imo. i enjoyed mainstream in the 90's but not so much anymore, now i find most of my new bands from friends or suggestions.
 
I can't really say, as all together everything conflicts. I am very selective with the styles of music I listen to, and much of it is on the obscure side and or from europe. Most of the music I have is from the 00's and the rest mostly from the 90's. I would be inclined to say I feel like music is getting better as I get older, because the newer bands seem to be more innovative. Unfortonately and interestingly, my most favorite and loved bands are all broken up or inactive as of a few years ago. Recently though I discovered a few new bands that are actually new, as in they just formed within this year (The Golden Filter, and iamamiwhoami). I went to my first concert ever the other day to see The Golden Filter interestingly, and was blown away at how great it was. It shows me that there will always be good music out there. It just takes effort to find it. I gave up on the radio in 8th grade, and haven't gone back since. If you are passionate about listening to music, then I would reccomend to that person that they go out of their way to find their music that they like and enjoy, and then make the most of it. In the end, I think music being good or bad, across the board, is independent of the time period. I would think music will actually be on the slight upswing though, simply because of improving technology.
 
Every generation has its good and bad music, you just have to know where to look, and what pleases you. I really don't think music was ever "better" or "worse" in a certain time period. Some acts that are currently popular are terrible in my opinion, but what I think is good is terrible to someone else. It's all a personal opinion.
 
To my ears mainstream music especially has gone downhill in a big way over the last couple of decades. There's still good music out there though, but it seems like I have to search a lot harder to find it. =/
 
mf said:
Every generation has its good and bad music, you just have to know where to look, and what pleases you. I really don't think music was ever "better" or "worse" in a certain time period. Some acts that are currently popular are terrible in my opinion, but what I think is good is terrible to someone else. It's all a personal opinion.
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I was going to say the exact same thing pretty much.
 
back street boys, Nsync, Aaron carter, and a young Brittney Spears. Well I'm gonna say from that list music is moving forward since I was young.

I do prefer alot of 90's country though but there has still been good stuff in the last then years.
 
Seriously, I think music was better when my parents were growing up.... maybe even before then. But I enjoy any music for the most part so it doesn't really make a difference.
 
I agree reckless, now it's just really treated as a hardcore business, the musicians have barely any consideration, just tossed aside when they become an annoyance or stop making a certain amount of profit.

Heart and love for what they do is kinda nothing now, it's seems more about the need or want of fame or social recognition
 
nononon, it's all relative you know - if anything this observation proves there's NO good music - ever - don't look for it (:
what if you and me were born today - what, we would think good music doesn't exist, no, our perceptions are not our own, they are what we've learned growing up .. if we were in the jungle with some parrots we would parrot the parrots, instead of them us... nvm
so
what, i'm sure my grand-grand-parents would say the same, those newer generations, they never got the taste of REALLY good music .... and so on
this is absurd. ;]
 
I think music is better today when I was a kid. Back in my day, in the mid 1980s, you had radio and tapes. Tapes hissed. Radio was dying. Variety was miniscule and the personalities on the radio did not like where music was going. You'd get one or two true artists on the radio per year, the rest was crud. R&B, rap, and so-called "heavy metal" were on the rise, driving me away from the mainstream.

In order to find music I liked, I had to dig through obscure musty record collections in back alleys. Today, music is proliferating in multiple directions. There is budding and flowering everywhere you look. For those of us who aren't really interested in the center, and find EVERYTHING else interesting, this new diaspora is muy excelente!
 
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Though the routes of distribution have changed, I think for the most part, things are the same as they ever were. One has to do some real work to search out quality. What one deems to be quality, that is.

That said, the democratization of recording resulting from the transition to digital as well as the ever-lowering price of gear has meant more music is being recorded and released than ever.

Also, the demise of the previous distribution model means there is less audition and filtering than there was before. Piracy and direct-connect mean that most everything that gets recorded, gets released. This means there is a lot more to sift through.

In my experience, music is getting better - and I don't mean new material, but music in general, even recordings I have listened to for years and years - because as I get older I have a greater ability to listen and hear, appreciate, and understand things I was not able to before.

"Better" has everything to do with the listener, and nothing to do with the music itself.

One can talk about the ebb and flow of a certain style, or scene, such as Bossa Nova, Power Pop, IDM, or the like, but whether those changes are judged as "better" or not is informed by a lot of things other than the music itself.


cheers,
Ian
 
mf said:
Every generation has its good and bad music, you just have to know where to look, and what pleases you. I really don't think music was ever "better" or "worse" in a certain time period. Some acts that are currently popular are terrible in my opinion, but what I think is good is terrible to someone else. It's all a personal opinion.
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I have to agree. I've come to realize that every generation has that sound that is kind present in every style and ever style has its sound mainstream sound. If you don't like that sound or message your not going to like that era. But music is like its always been. It will always have that mainstream sound your love or hate and the music thats different and better than mainstream.
 
If you say yes it means you're getting old.

grumpy-muppets.jpg
 
The '50s were boring, the '60s rocked, and the '70s-- Oh, my god, they obviously suck. Come on. Maybe the '80s will be radical. You know?
 
I see trends in music as being very reactive; everything is always a response to what came before it, and it continues to cycle and evolve. I really don't really think much, therefore, about when a particular song was actually released or when a band was around. There is good and bad to any era in music I can think of, and I listen to music new and old. I'm always looking for stuff I've never heard before, regardless of when it came out originally.

I think there may be more novelty to listening to contemporary music as a young child because you're being exposed to it for the first time. The first concert I ever went to was a Backstreet Boys concert, and I thought it was the most amazing experience. I've seen other artists live who are admittedly much more talented than the Backstreet Boys, but I haven't enjoyed a concert as much as that first one.
 
Barnabas said:
back street boys, Nsync, Aaron carter, and a young Brittney Spears. Well I'm gonna say from that list music is moving forward since I was young.

I do prefer alot of 90's country though but there has still been good stuff in the last then years.
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Justin Bieber is a move forward???
 
I actually see the current trend in music business to be promising, but I'm probably biased from my work in the "underground/DIY" scene. I don't like pirating because I feel that artists should be compensated for their work, and I don't condone the act of stealing. I think the way they go about selling mainstream music is absurd these days, but I don't steal. I think paying for things like water is absurd, but I don't steal it. I don't see pirating as any different.

However, the increase in piracy (and the ability to do so in the first place) means that the consumer is somehow dissatisfied with the music business. Granted, a lot of people just like getting thing for free regardless of what they are (OMG I have 4000gb of music and movies!) but people are also getting fed up with paying $17 for 12 songs, and $200 to see an artist. Hell, tickets to Broadway don't cost that much. Instead, what you see is the current trend in underground music. The musicians are dirt poor, the record labels barely break even year after year, but for some reason they keep doing it. It's because they love what they are doing.

Donation based music sites are on the rise, as are all-age shows that cost less than 10 dollars. Sure, no one gets rich, but most everyone seems to love what they are doing. It's exhausting, it's tiring, but it's also exhilarating. It's not about the money, it's about the music.

Sure, the music industry will keep signing new acts that fizzle out after a number of years, sure consumers will continue spending hundreds of dollars to see Snoop-Dog, but more and more kids are becoming introduced to the DIY culture of music, and see a scene where passion still exists.
 
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