What happened since the great old days?

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rick57

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Joined 2002
#1
I saw a graph today of Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Albums”, by year of relaese.

The trend shown was expected, but the magnitude was not:
These sample years illustrate the trend -

Year # in top 500

1951-60 nil
1961 3
1967 15
1969-72 25 the golden era
1982 7
2003 3

Possible reasons for the trend:
Rolling Stone lives in the hippy past and/ or wouldn’t have a clue
Too little risk taking by labels
Smart potential musos becoming console game designers instead
Why play new music, when you can play the great tunes from the 70s
TV is now much better

Where are today’s Dylan, Lennon, Bowie, Page, Byrne, Joplin?

Now we have Eminem, Outkast, Usher, Shania Twain & Diane Krall. :bawling:


Why did it all go so horribly wrong?
 
#5
rick57 said:
1969-72 25 the golden era
Click to expand...

I would stretch this 'golden era' up a couple of years, to 1974.
It would cover all the Genesis albums with Peter Gabriel, and the best albums from bands like YES, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, etc.
An do not forget, a german band that started making electronic music with computers and influenced POP music as we know it today: Kraftwerk.

These days there are still very good music, but it's harder and harder to make something very original.
 
#6
i hear this same arguement all over the web on multiple forums...

"where has all the good music gone?"

well, its still out there. there are still great artists producing great music. its just not marketed so its easier to get to. MTV and others are putting the stuff out there that they want to, but its not necessarily good. you have to go to a local record store, check out the new music and listen to a lot of different things.

i buy on average 5+ cds a month of all new contemporary music that is fantastic. there is a lot of new stuff out there that is good, you just cant walk into your local cd megastore and grab the newest release from the hottest MTV star.
 
#11
MTV – Video (began to) kill the radio stars

the Cambrian Explosion – aka the British invasion

Only so many times you can bring it all back home.

Ah the Punctuated Equilibrium theory - may the Punctures be given catalysts

Duration - ok how about 64 (early Sones were the best – anyone read “2Stoned” by Andrew Loog Oldham – vibrant fresh & funny) – 74?

As time goes by . . . its harder for a musician to be original

As time goes by . . a consumer has to look more outside the main market to find the good stuff.

Beck's 'Guero'? I never forgave him for Midnight Vultures. Maybe time to forgive ~


A couple of good related articles ~

the decline of music recording quality:

http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_quality_age_good/

And from the UK via the Age – the decline in originality ~ almost funny

http://www.theage.com.au/news/music/a-clone-again-naturally/2005/09/29/1127804596701.html

Cheers
 
#12
Sadly that article is so true it hurts. Its sad that i have to go back before my time to find stuff that turns my crank. I have even developed a taste for old school Raggae just because i havent heard it before. My current crop of multi play....

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Grady

Older Modest Mouse and current as well

Esthero

Gorillaz

Stevie Wonder Greatest Hits (the latest one )

Beck

Cold Play

Weezer

Arcade Fire

Lamb

Bloc Party

BeP

it goes on a bit into obscure bands but basically ...if it doesnt have a sample from an 80's song in it ... i'll give it a listen. ANYTHING touched by Puff Idiot (daddy) doesnt get played in hearing distance of me. And all those manufactured POP girls thankfully are done so we will see what becomes of the only two with actual talent Cristina Agulera and Natasha Beddingfeild.

Britney .... gone

Pink .... gone

mandy moore ... gone back to the movies along with ....

J'Lo

i am going to stop since they are slipping from my memory as i type this.

I am waiting for the next wave. Great 70's ....Different in the 80's .... nada in the 90's and rehash of the 80's for 00's. Someone has to do something quick before its all elevator music and Celine Dion.




:hot:
 
#13
MM2

Your current multi play is ok. One or two comments if I may

Stevie Wonder Greatest Hits? Maybe the latest is better - I can’t listen to mine

Arcade Fire – early Split Enz revamped(?), but done *very well


> I am waiting for the next wave.

Viva la next new wave!
 
#14
Madmike2 said:
it goes on a bit into obscure bands but basically ...if it doesnt have a sample from an 80's song in it ...
Click to expand...

Well, there was very good music in the 80's, at least for me.
From around 1978~9 to the end of the 80's I listened compulsively to bands like Joy Division, New Order, Bauhaus, Happy Mondays and many, many more.
Not exactly POP music, but I was never a 'POP' and 'chart' (or commercial music) kind of guy. If you ask me, 99% is junk, and the 80's were no exception.

IMHO.

PS: There was an 'obscure' american band (very few knew them) called 'The Three Johns'. They were fantastic, hillarious.
Anybody remember this band?

😀
 
#16
Aha! Time for a rant!
It's interesting of course that rock music almost invariably stands the test of time, while 'pop' (shudder), being rooted in contemporary popular fashion, as a rule, does not. OK, so there are a few notable exceptions like the Beatles (who I don't actually like, Norwegian Wood honourably excepted, though I acknowledge their monumental influence), but they are few and very far between.
Punk didn't do the record industry any favours in my view as it crippled much of the existing rock industry, and yanked it away from the public eye. Fine, it sold lots of records at the time, but has punk in itself lasted? Nope, except as another minority interest.
Worse, the advent of computers meant that any monkey with no talent of any description could record something, and, if the producer was good enough and the advertising strong enough, it would sell through the roof, because unfortunatly, a lot of people are not too bright and believe whatever they are told to believe. There aren't many contemporary artists whose albums I buy, and this bothers me not a little. Why not: because frankly, it's boring. I cannot, for example, see the appeal for Coldplay and other groups of the ilk -rock bands who don't seem an odd concept to me.
Which recent artists do I still buy? Anything by Polly Harvey or Loreena McKennitt. Anthony & the Johnsons and Porcupine Tree I admire, but the majority of newly released albums I buy are by people who have been around at least fifteen years (and that's a minimum generally), and fequently around 30. There is good new music out there. But it's increasingly difficult to find or hear about. Am I just getting old? Depends if you call 27 (just turned last week) old.
Sigh.

Best
Scott
 
#18
OMW Carlos I listenen to the exact same stuff... lol, who would have known Carlos is a closset goth.

As for what happened to music...
Well it became more complex... Listen to even a simple balad these days, and your mouth hangs open with the number of little special effects and such gets mixed into the track... almost not a moment of "silence".

Also with so many people owning plain rubbish stereos, big and small, people started showing a natural selection for music that sounded best on these, and hides their shortcommings like staying away from well known sounds like acoustic instruments etc.... lol natural evolution.
If the current low cost chipamps perform the way they do, I think in time we might move back to real hifi.
 
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