Instead of saying "All new music SUCKS"...

Cafe Society
21

The thing is, I certainly don’t spend the time researching new music like I did in my 20s. (Granted, I’m only in my 30s now). However, it is soooooo easy for me to find music I like that I haven’t heard before. The internet is simply the greatest radio station out there. I used to use Pandora as my radio station, until I found its playlist very limiting. Then I discovered last.fm, another one of these “give us your favorite bands/songs and we’ll figure out what you might like” websites. The basic services are free, and that’s what provides 90% of my background music during my day.
And I’m constantly discovering old and new bands through this.

Otherwise, internet radio stations WOXY.com and KEXP.org are there for me when I want the deejays to take control of my musical choices. If I want to get even more experimental, most college radio stations stream these days, and there’s plenty of great foreign radio stations to tune into.

It doesn’t even take effort these days to find new music, if that’s something that’s important to you. If not, then there’s nothing wrong with sticking with your old records, just don’t complain that there’s no good new music.

22

Well, to put it bluntly, Bob Dylan is wrong.

Then again, Bob Dylan is also one of those artists I’ve never “gotten.” He obviously has a different idea of good music than I do.

23

When you say that the “really good music is always popular music,” what do you mean by popular? There are varying degrees of popularity. I just want to make sure we’re on the same wavelength here. If you’re saying that a band isn’t really good until it gets on MTV or Top 40, then I’m going to have to take issue with that argument - but I’m sure that’s not what you’re saying because you seem to have a very good understanding of music.

24

Can’t. Not. Post.

Even though I know it is pointless.

I am in my early 40’s. I listen to and like lots of new music. I come across it when my network of music friends share recommendations in random fashion - I hear about some music, tell folks about it, they reply in kind and I learn.

I also completely understand that some folks don’t want to invest the time to find good new music - or don’t have easy access to an efficient way to identify music right in their zone.

I agree with the OP, however, when it concerns inappropriate dismissive statements. If someone says “there’s no good new music out there” that’s their problem, not music’s.

As for Dylan - he specifically said

NOTE - he is referring to music PRODUCTION and PACKAGING, not the actual songs. In other words, there may be good songs out there, but they are produced and packaged poorly. I suspect he is referring to poor production due to things like: 1) mixing them to be louder - this is a phenomenon of the past 10 years or so; 2) mixing them to be played as mp3’s and in a variety of small, digital sound systems; and 3) digital recording, period - in some ways it is amazing and revolutionary, but in some ways it sounds much more cold and harsh than older analog recordings. Bottom line, times have changed and Dylan prefers older production techniques.

But production is not music - the music being made today is all over the map, like it is with every era - and some of it is great.

25

I think Exapno is talking about fans of cult bands who insist that “<my pet band> would be broadly popular if only The Man wasn’t keeping them down.” Not that cult bands are worse than broadly popular bands, but if a band has true potential to appeal to a wide audience, it’s only a matter of time before they do.

26

That post was in response to Argent Towers (by the way, how do you feel about Blunstone? :wink: ).

27

This is kind of a dumb topic, but at its heart there’s a good point; if you’re complaining that “all X sucks these days” about anything, it merely reveals that you’re a casual or fairweather “fan” and not a true aficionado. This goes for anything - music, film, beer, food, television, clothing, etc. etc. etc.

There will always be “fans” - those that have a mere casual interest in the topic at hand - and then there will always be “aficionados” or “nerds,” those who live and breathe the topic at hand and understand that part of this love involves spending their free time researching the topic. This is especially true of universal or populist things like “music,” “movies,” “food,” etc. - you just have to accept that the majority of people out there just feel like, “music - yeah, it’s cool.” To them, music is a neat diversion, something to put on while they clean the house or work out, but it’s not their life; they value it on about the same level that they value sitcoms or fast food.

For the nerds (and I wholly admit to being one when it comes to music!), the hobby doesn’t just involve flipping on the radio and listening to whatever’s on - it’s an entire lifestyle involving constantly reading magazines and books about music, searching out new music, going to see live music, shopping for records, reading music review websites and mp3 blogs, checking out the new releases on subgenre-specialty websites, listening to esoteric radio, and often playing music yourself. It’s an entire lifestyle, and it’s ok that others don’t share in it, just as you don’t share in the lifestyles that accompany their hobbies (golf? beer? baseball?).

But the problem occurs when someone ill-equipped to make pronouncements about a subject starts to make them, like when someone who merely listens to the radio or whatever starts to say “All music these days sucks!” Just as I wouldn’t begin to make pronouncements about wine, golf, or horseback riding - subjects I know very little about - they shouldn’t make such prounouncements about music, which they know little about.

28

One of the greatest and most underrated voices in popular music’s last century.

29

The notions of cream rising to the top and music that is good will become popular doesn’t really work for me. There are many musicians out there who make incredible music that isn’t accessible to the pop listner. And they aren’t trying to get Grammy’s or airplay. They are artists. They make music because that’s what they are driven to do. Music, like other art, has what is accessible to many and what is challenging. I won’t even go into good versus bad (too subjective). Take a Norman Rockwell painting, easy, accessible, straightforward. One needs no background in art to appreciate it, the viewer doesn’t even need to have ever seen any other art to understand it. Then take a Nam June Paik, Anselm Kiefer or Jenny Holzer. There is no pretty picture, most viewers look in bewilderment. Many say it’s awful, or that it’s not art at all. Yet, they have made some of the most important art in the last 40 years. There were no Jenny Holzer calendars of Paik shower curtains, but Rockwell is all over the place and incredibly more popular. They are not cult, fringe or niche artists and neither are many musicans whose work is not popular nor on mainstream radio. So to say that if they’re any good they will be popular (or played on the radio as I believe it’s implied) is skewed at best.

I agree though with what has been said about priorities changing and thereby not having enough time/will to dedicate to searching for new music. I get tired of my collection every so often and that’s when I go searching, to the point where I end up with so much new music that I can barely find time to listen to it. Then I’ll spend time listening to all my new stuff and gradulally start listening to my other music as well. I think being able to put your collection on a hard drive and have it play randomly also adds, over time, to the over-played situation. You would think it would be just the opposite, but even with tens of thousands of songs, you do hear artists repeatedly. The convenience of having your entire collection available at the press of a button lends itself to over-familiarity in the long run. Which is why I am glad I still have a good sized record collection that I have not replaced and can still take the time to clean and listen to one side at a time.

If music is central to your life, it doesn’t take much effort to hear new music, or new-to-you music. You don’t have to be part of a scene or hang out in record stores (what few are left) or go to live shows, although those are all great ways to hear new things.

30

VC03, I’m sorry if you think this is a dumb topic. I realize that not everyone is going to be as absorbed in music as I am. But for me, music is my life. When I am not playing it or listening to it, I’m thinking about it.

I just got fed up with all the people writing of new music and dismissing it thoughtlessly. As a musician, and someone who is passionately into playing, listening to, and learning about all kinds of music, I just can’t sit still when I hear someone basically tell me that all my music is nothing. Maybe I’m taking it too personally, but when someone is saying that all new music is shit, they’re saying that all the songs that I listen to, and that influence me in my own playing, are shit - and I can’t just sit still for it knowing that they’re making this generalization probably without ever having heard any of the music they’re writing off. But I made a conscious decision to put this in CS and not in the Pit because it’s not my intention to make a personal attack on anyone or to make this discussion about anger and frustration. As far as I’m concerned, it’s about fighting ignorance, which is our overall mission here.

31

I also feel it’s neccessary to add that I also listen to just as much old music as new, and I encounter some of the same ignorance and dismissive attitudes about that from people who only listen to new music, It frustrates me just as much when people I know dismiss Chicago, Steely Dan or Todd Rundgren as being cheesy adult-contemporary acts when they’re totally oblivious of the musical pioneering of these groups and the depth of their repertoire. So it goes both ways.

32

I’ve turned to Japan for good new music. While obviously inspired by Western rock and pop, it has a different feel and attitude that I find extremely appealing. I stumbled onto J-Pop and J-Rock quite accidentally. While Googling for photos of a Japanese actress/model named Aiko Sato, I found a link to a singer who goes simply by aiko (lowercase intentional). Out of curiosity, I followed the link and found that somebody had posted a few MP3s of her music. I was instantly hooked!

I started looking for aiko’s music, and the more I heard, the more I fell in love with her stuff. While a large majority of Japanese pop artists are “manufactured”, just like American pop artists, aiko is different. She started out in high school, singing in a garage tribute band that covered tunes by the famous all-girl group Shonen Knife. After high school she went on to attend Osaka College of Music, where she studied popular music vocals. She got her recording contract after winning a televised talent contest, and released her first record in 1998. Aside from her debut single, “Ashita”, she has written and composed all of her own songs.

It’s especially apparent to me when I watch her videos that aiko is an artist, not a performer. While most female pop singers depend on sex appeal and fancy dance moves, aiko depends on good songs. Even in her videos, she herself does not seem like the focal point. The song is the focus of the video. She really seems, to me, to express pure joy in what she’s doing. Some samples:

Kabutomushi, one of her early songs, is still the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.
Boyfriend is some kind of fun Motown-hoedown fusion. Being from Washington, I was amused by her Washington Huskies T-shirt :slight_smile:
Smooch! is cute.
And I really like Kirakira, from her latest album.

ZONE started out as a song & dance act, comprised of junior high school girls assembled by a studio. The group was pared from eight members to six, then to four. They were given instruments that they then pretended to play in their videos and on stage. At some point they decided to learn how to play their instruments for real, and ended up being quite good. They disbanded around the time three of them graduated from high school, when Mizuho, the drummer, decided to leave the group to attend college.

Akashi really rocks.
From their final live performance, Salariman is a nice blues-rock number.

Since disbanding, lead singer Miyu Nagase has launched a solo career, while bassist Maiko Sakae is now fronting another all-girl group called Maria. Maria is interesting in that they are actually fronted by two bassists/lead singers. The group has only released two singles so far. I really like Tsubomi. heh I like the drummer’s “I (heart) Sugar” shirt.

Finally, for the headbangers, there’s High and Mighty Color:

Pride
Ichirin no hana

33

My girlfriend introduced me to Love Psychedelico, another J pop band. I’ve only heard relatively few of their songs but they have a very unique sound. There are also a lot of nonsensical English lyrics that pop up amongst the Japanese, which gives it sort of a humorous twist.

34

I’ve said all that I need to say on the subject so I hadn’t intended to add any comments to this thread. But then I read this:

As Holmes said to Watson, you look but you do not see. There is no popular art in America today. None. There are no contemporary artists that the general run of the public is familiar with. All art today is cult, fringe, or niche. I say this unreservedly, and as someone who likes art.

Comparing the state of art in modern America with the state of pop-rock is an absurdity. It’s apples and fish.

35

I find it difficult to believe that you can’t find music to listen to if you really want to. Unfortunately, as many people pointed out, there’s SO much music to listen to it’s difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Basically, I just try to get whatever mp3s I can get my hands on. Napster, iTunes store, shared collections with my coworkers at work. You can even find an occasional good song on the radio.

36

Aw, dude, I’m right there with you. I just mean that there’s kind of no point in trying to call those morons out; they’re going to keep shooting their mouths off, just as people will always say “Rap - more like CRAP!” because they’ve never even listened to real rap music.

37

Now, there seems to be an attitude that there is an inverse correlation between the quality of a band and the amount of airplay it on the radio.

Imagine if the attitude you encountered today existed in the 1970s …

“Led Zeppelin? The Rolling Stones? The Who? They all suck. If you want to hear really great rock, check out my buddy’s band, The Overland Park Express. It’s playing at Joe’s Bar down the street tonight.”

Back in the 1970s, 1980s and early to mid-1990s, if a band was good, it got airplay. If it sucked, it didn’t. Now, according to day’s music fans, the exact opposite is true.

38

I’m a music nut/music geek of the highest order, and am always seeking out new music. It’s not my fault that all of the new music that is blowing my mind happens to have been made at least thirty years ago - I wasn’t listening to the New York Dolls when they were around (hey - they split up more or less the year I was born), but now they’re rocking my little world daily, as is Albert Ayler (sixties and earlier), Miles Davis (sixties to seventies), Porter Wagoner (Sixties/seventies), Jacques Brel (sixties), Leadbelly (forties), Von Lmo (late seventies), and so on.

Like someone else said, when there’s around eighty years of fantastic music that is yet to be heard by most of us, why bother just listening to things that are brand new? I got burnt out on new bands being the ‘flavour of the week’, and then being forgotten about by the hipsters when the next new shiny thing came along. I don’t care if it makes me an old fogey at thirty-odd when I won’t really give a group too much attention until they’ve stuck around and worked at it for at least ten years (or their records are at least ten years old, and outside of the realm of ‘FOTM’ territory). Looking back at the past decade, I don’t feel there’s too much I’ve missed out on, considering the number of today’s hipster ‘hypes’ that are tomorrow’s hipster ‘joke’.