"There's no good music anymore!"

[catmandu2]

And simply, folks must understand the mechanisms through which we process stimuli. Music you heard when you were young and formed strong emotional attachment with will seem 'better' to you than new music outside of your cultural and emotional frame of reference.

[DHopkins]

As I was clicking on the Mandolin Café icon this evening, I was thinking that no one has really started anything lately. I mean, sure, there's stuff on cases and strings and stuff. There's even some stuff about mandolins. Anyway, no one cares about that. I need to get something started that'll get everyone involved.

Well, Chris Bowsman took are of it for me. There'll be 300 entries and 400 opinions and it'll probably branch out to Coors vs. Budweiser, A vs. F, boxers vs. briefs and no tellin' what. Thanks, Chris.

[Kevin Stueve]

As I was clicking on the Mandolin Café icon this evening, I was thinking that no one has really started anything lately. I mean, sure, there's stuff on cases and strings and stuff. There's even some stuff about mandolins. Anyway, no one cares about that. I need to get something started that'll get everyone involved.

Well, Chris Bowsman took are of it for me. There'll be 300 entries and 400 opinions and it'll probably branch out to Coors vs. Budweiser, A vs. F, boxers vs. briefs and no tellin' what. Thanks, Chris.

So quickly coors vs budweiser -- meh how about a real beer? or better yet Bourbon.
Boxers vs briefs, -- I can honestly say neither of my dogs (boxers) have attacked my underwear (yet) :D

[Mark Miller]

Another great source for music old and new is the New Orleans radio station WWOZ. I stream it sometimes while I'm doing whatever and often hear things I never knew about and it's often great.

[JH Murray]

In the days of vinyl, a record collection of a hundred discs was a major investment. With cassettes and sharing you could have a few hundred albums on tape. Now my itunes library has over 1200 albums, and that is not a large collection. I do have more access to new artists in so many genres there isn't enough time to take it all in. The challenge as Catmandu says, is to make an emotional attachment.

Recorded music has become, like many things in our culture today, a disposable commodity, like a disposable razor. We don't expect anything profound or important from our popular music any more. Do you remember the last song that inspired you to want to change the world? Perhaps this is the reason that so many of our musical genres have stopped evolving. They are focussing on being popular and making money rather than on being relevant or innovative or having something to say.

[Mark Miller]

The oversaturation point is a good one. It cheapens everything. But it's still possible to zero in on something and listen to it with real care over and over for a long time. That hasn't changed. But what has changed is that there isn't a large public who responds to the same great stuff. The internet makes it easier to find people who love the same stuff, but that's not the same thing.

[CES]

If you're like me in that you don't listen to sports or Howard Stern, check out the Sirius ala carte package. 50 channels of your choice for $8 a month. There are only a couple receivers that support it, so be mindful when you buy.

I do listen to sports, but, 50 channels is plenty to get in my usuals...thanks, will certainly look into it!!

[Bertram Henze]

If you want good music, why don't you just play it?

[Ivan Kelsall]

We all have 'musics' that we like more than others,often because they make us remember good times in the past. I have a very,wide taste in music,so much so that i'd need another couple of lifetimes to get around to listening to 'everything' i'd like to,so,mostly i limit my listening to what i want to play,unless it's purely for listening pleasure.Music all the way from Medieval / Baroque / Classical
/ Opera / Dixieland Jazz / 'Pop' / Bluegrass / Trad. & Contemporary Folk music ............... ! If you search for it,you'll find good music all around you,
Ivan

[Charlieshafer]

Recorded music has become, like many things in our culture today, a disposable commodity, like a disposable razor. We don't expect anything profound or important from our popular music any more. Do you remember the last song that inspired you to want to change the world? Perhaps this is the reason that so many of our musical genres have stopped evolving. They are focussing on being popular and making money rather than on being relevant or innovative or having something to say.

I'll disagree here, in that the sheer volume of music may now make it take longer to find what you like, but in doing so, you'll have the opportunity to discover things you never would have known in the days of vinyl. And when was pop music ever supposed to be profound? You may say "The Beatles" but I'll just say the 1910 Fruitgum Company, or The Archies, or Herman's Hermits or just about everyone else. You might say the rock of the '60's was socially conscious, and that's fine, but i's also a very narrow time frame. Go back to all the vocal bands of the 20's through the 50's, and you get a huge amount of groups like The Smoothies, doing "3 Little Fishes"

And, I'll say right out that all of our musical genres have evolved. Why else would there be the Bluegrass Police, or the I.T.M. police, or the old-time police? Would anyone have dreamed that Chris Thile would be spreading his style of music over the Prairie Home Companion airwaves 10 years ago?

The guys who have churned out music-for-money have always been there. There's always a Kenny G out there somewhere. But a quick look at a lot of the newer music from any genre will show you innovation, and the opportunity to get inspired by new forms, is at an all-time high.

[Steve Ostrander]

Throughout history - old school has given rise to Little Richard, and on and on. Yesterday's pop is a synthesis of Bob Dylan, Jimi, Michael Jackson and Sun Ra.

Ain't nothin' new under the sun. We all build on the work of others. And that includes innovators like John Coltrane and Jimmy Hendrix. They took what they heard and morphed it into a new sound, technique or presentation.

Paul Simon sang "Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts." Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles, Madonna, all were aided by technological advances in media such as radio, TV, stereo, LPs, digital, CD, ITunes, YouTube, etc.

[Steve Ostrander]

There's MORE good music being made today than ever before.

And there's more very mediocre music being made every day as well.

[catmandu2]

And there's more very mediocre music being made every day as well.

There's MORE good music being made today than ever before...more iterations (variety, expertise, creativity, etc) than ever before.. yes there's more tripe too - avoid that

In a world characterized by ever-increasing variety, one must be always vigilant in order to avoid the pernicious. (Apply Sturgeon's axiom liberally)

[Chuck Leyda]

I was a teenager in the 80's during the other British invasion where, instead of the Beatles and the Stones, they gave us bands with perfect hair, puffy shirts, and the ability to play the synth with one finger.

The dark ages of music imo. Didn't like it then or now.

I like today's music better but that may be due to the internet. Would I have ever heard of Tuba Skinny, Mandolin Orange, or the Trans-Atlantic sessions without Youtube?

[JeffD]

I'm encouraged to see everyone one here seems to feel the same way, that there's plenty of amazing music to be had.

I don't see a whole lot of prejudice against new music, really. And I am certain not more prejudice than in the past. There have always been some. Or - every kind of music was probably hated to some extent when it was new, because it was new.

I would guess it is much more common amongst casual listeners than folks involved in music.

[Denny Gies]

I'll weigh in and suggest that the reviewer cited in the first post should take a listen to Jason Isbell.

[catmandu2]

I don't see a whole lot of prejudice against new music, really...

Here's an example: generally I find near-universal revulsion toward hip-hop, and electronica - the new paradigms - among posters here (over, say, age 40). It seems such a foreign mode for folks that they seem unable to come to grips to regard it even as 'music' (the standard reaction to new forms throughout history).

[Mark Gunter]

toward hip-hop, and electronica

This discussion is degrading now into an ugly place! I thought we were talking about music










JK

[JH Murray]

Music has always been a social medium. Music binds us together. We danced together. Praised our God together. Stirred our patriotism together. Today's music is private and personal. We listen on our personal computer. On our headphones. In our car as we drive alone. We have lost the social power of music to unite us.

[catmandu2]

Sociology of music is a great discussion (but I was trained as a sociologist so I'm biased ).

I like to play music for adolescent and elderly populations - before they're indoctrinated as commercial consumers, or have since forgotten the rules of society - where music still has this meaning.

[roberto]

I don't agree at all with this article, but a lot of people do:
https://skynetandebert.com/2015/04/2...popular-music/

[Frogstar]

In a world characterized by ever-increasing variety, one must be always vigilant in order to avoid the pernicious. (Apply Sturgeon's axiom liberally)

Hear hear!

[catmandu2]

I just skimmed it - on my phone. Seems there would be some internal biases right off the bat, but it seems an interesting effort to examine trends specific to spotify. I'll have to read the methodology - I don't know spotify..

A linked article - http://www.avclub.com/article/why-do...new-musi-55805 - is interesting in light of this thread. Seems to me that this writer (and possibly everything else on spotify) is dealing with only 'pop' (established recording acts) and ignores a significant segment of available art music/sound - (which happens to be where you find 'good stuff,' if you ask me..); there's some discussion of 'how' people listen to music - something I'm always interested in (the various functions of music, etc).

[JeffD]

Tastes, like many ideas, often don't change with convincing argumentation. They more likely change as the adherents of the new take the stage and adherents of the old leave the stage.

Or, as has been explained to me, change takes place one funeral at a time.


Or, the quality of the new stuff you discover now you will defend long after it goes out of style, and likely until your death.

[Charlieshafer]

Music has always been a social medium. Music binds us together. We danced together. Praised our God together. Stirred our patriotism together. Today's music is private and personal. We listen on our personal computer. On our headphones. In our car as we drive alone. We have lost the social power of music to unite us.

Think I have to disagree with this, too. Just look at the huge growth in the number of festivals. Live music is more available then ever at house concerts all the way up to the performing arts centers, and you really see the sense of community at all of these. Teenagers, at least in my town, are always comparing what each other has on their phone, giggling away as they listen to each other's recent discoveries. I see more music everywhere, now that it's portable, and more sharing than ever. Our church choir is bigger than ever. There are contra dances all over the place. It may be different from what you're experience has been, but I see and hear more music around than ever, and more people sharing that music on all sorts of platforms.