Is today's music crap?

[ZebraShaSha]

@Bricker

Are you seriously suggesting that you can OBJECTIVELY make the statement that today’s great music is not today’s mainstream music?

I want to bring numbers into this because they are, at least at first blush, an objective measure of SOMETHING.
…

I’m saying there is no way to really objectively determine what is and isn’t great music. As with jazz, I know it when I hear it. Sure, you could bring in numbers, but those numbers all exist because of the paradigm shift we’ve discussed this entire time. Besides, you still haven’t really addressed the issue. There are less Hot 100 songs then there were before. But isn’t that because people now have choices? No matter how hard they try, mainstream music will never herd people around with major media outlets like when they were the only floodgate to talent. That era is over, the internet pretty much destroyed any tricks the industry might have left. Therefore, even if you were to make the ridiculous assumption that people vote on great music with the dollar, people are throwing their money to thousands of different artists now and you’ll never again see such a force behind popular music.

Also, if you say “Today’s Music”, as in music from this year, I’m fairly sure I’m as close to a talking head as you will find on this board. I’ve listened to hundreds of albums this year and know just what the hell I’m talking about. Even then, if someone comes up with an artist I’m completely indifferent to (VC3O’s Club 8, in the Top 50 albums thread), I still consider their views valid. I might disagree, but I can’t say that my opinion trumps his for no particular reason. The only thing I know for certain is that today’s music is not crap and is in fact fan fucking tastic.

[Bricker]

@ZebraShaSha

The only thing I know for certain is that today’s music is not crap and is in fact fan fucking tastic.

Is today’s music better than the music from the mid 1970s? From the mid 1960s?

Or is it all good, equally?

[Gary_Robson]

@featherlou

I hadn’t noticed this until it happened again and again and again - a Boomer saying very clearly and dismissively that all of today’s music is crap, and being interested in nothing but music from the 60’s, 70’s, and (grudgingly) the 80’s.

Ah, yes. I remember when I was growing up (I’m 49) hearing my father say that all of that 60’s and 70’s music I listened to was crap. But then the previous generation thought the stuff he listened to was crap. And the previous generation thought what my grandparents listened to was crap (these damned kids and their barbershop quartet music)…

@ZebraShaSha

Look, I understand why you want to bring numbers into this, but you can’t here. Also, what is the Hot 100? The Hot 100 could have changed and nothing else, with the same numbers being reported. It doesn’t really tell us anything.

I think the thing that struck me most about the numbers Bricker posted is that far fewer songs make it to #1 these days (using the Billboard chart as a guide). What does that really mean? That there are fewer songs “good enough” to be #1 (which supports the OP)? Or that being #1 drives the sales, which makes it #1, which keeps it at #1 longer (which has nothing to do with the OP)? Or that we’re seeing some incredibly awesome music these days, and it’s so good it holds the charts (which refutes the OP)?

[Beware_of_Doug]

I just wanna put in a good word for the overlooked musical mud puddle in between the advents of Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker (roughly the mid 20s-early 40s). I’ve been splashing contentedly around there for many years.

Its critical profile is low and its relevance to present-day life is virtually nil, but what I like about it is that even the crap is fairly bearable. The best of it, meanwhile, is sublime.