Today's music sucks.

The BBQ Pit
21

I feel like a music old fart because the top 40 stuff is just crap to me.

I’ve started watching CMT (which we just got added to basic cable) and am weirdly developing a yen for country music. Last weekend, while channel surfing, I came upon the country station doing their version of top 40. By the time I arrived, it was in the top 5. Because I’d been watching country videos a lot, I realized that I knew all top 5 songs. I probably know more about popular country than I do about popular rock/rap/etc.

Not to say that what I hear on popular country radio is the best of that genre, but at least there’s a better chance that it won’t be songs about riches, bitches and nekkidness. Or if it is, it’s a little more discreet or humorous.

At any rate, I think the reason I’m liking country more now is because I’m fed up with the other stuff that’s getting major airplay.

22

Guess what, pal?

You’re old.

23

That’s exactly what’s kept me from yelling what been welling inside me like an incipient volcano: “What in the hell is all this noise?! You think you can sing because you can drag a syllable out to 12 wavering notes? OK, if you can’t sing, at least have some kick-ass lyrics. And if you can’t sing and don’t have lyrics, at least have a catchy melody. Or something.”

And then I think, “Now they’ve won. They’ve pissed me off with their music. What comes around, goes around. You win. I’m officially a geezer.”

But before I wax nostalgic about music from 1968 - 1975 (when I actually cared about music), I need to remember some of the Top 10 songs of yesteryear:

– “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I Got Love in my Tummy”
– “My Baby Can Do the Hanky Panky”
– “Sugar Sugar” (By the Archies, aka the AntiChrist)

. . . and others too gruesome to mention.

24

That sounds like a concert not to see again and again.

25

It’s hardly suprising to see musical snobs turn up their noses at the production work of Timbaland (Timberlake and Missy), an artist making music that’s both extremely popular and extremely good(And it’s not just me, either).

It’s also not surprising to see said musical snobs attempt to paint their particular tastes as superior to the different tastes of others.

The only real suprise is the statement that “today’s” pop sucks. As PoorYorick pointed out, the hits of the 60s and 70s are hardly any better, by the metric of musical snobbery.

26

You’re right, most of the hits of the Golden Age of Rock (1965 - 1973 to me) pretty much sucked, but the too-subtle-to-be-seen point I was trying to make is that, nothwithstanding the early Beatles, musical cycles shouldn’t be measured by the hits, which in my early youth was often determined by the tastes of prepubescent teeny boppers (which is why you get “Sugar Sugar”).
By the way, it should have been “My Baby Does the Hanky Panky.”

27

A few years ago I discovered the northern European metal scene, and now I usually hate whatever is on the radio. Don’t get me wrong, there is still some great stuff out there on the radio, it just gets played againandagainandagainandagain ad nauseum until I learn to loathe it just because I’ve heard it so many times.

If anyone’s looking for something a little heavier but without the growling lyrics that most people can’t stand (I love 'em), I would suggest Iced Earth, Nevermore, newer Amorphis, Dream Theatre and Lacuna Coil.

28

Someone made a sweeping generalization about music appreciation and which I now kinda agree with :

Americans pay importance to lyrics, Europeans don’t.

Europeans (and I) listen to music as a whole, where the lyrics are just a way to add the vocals as another melodic/harmonic instrument. The fact that lyrics are words and can convey tangible communication is extranous.

You admit to humming Timberlake which means you find it catchy whether you admit it or not. But then you become suddenly aware of the “intelligent” lyrics and decide that his music is not where its at.

29

Bourbon

30

Hehe, I love rants about music! They get so heated and fun sometimes.

I love telling people that my musical taste is superior to theirs just to watch them blow a gasket. The fact that they blow a gasket at such a ludicrous statement is absolutely hilarious.

One of my friends LOVES Modest Mouse and the rest of us make fun of him mercilessly for it. ;p

Erek

31

I grow old, I grow old . . . but there’s still tons of great new music out there! Some people I like: Magic Slim, Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials, Junior Brown, Neko Case (the greatest!), Josie Kreuzer, Lavay Smith, Rev. Horton Heat, Sean Costello . . . These folks are all playing in older styles (blues, country, jazz, rockabilly), but, through my daughter, I hear some new stuff that also strikes me as good: Sleater-Kinney, Weezer, Radiohead–not to mention my daughter’s band, The Accidents! (Well, no one will know who they are . . . yet!)

There is a lot of great stuff, with many very talented people playing in all sorts of styles. But commercial radio? Thankfully, I don’t have to deal with it!

One thing that you can do if you have a speedy enough connection is to find a good radio station with streaming netcasting. There’s a wide range of stuff out there.

And as for old pop music: I’ll agree with everyone who said that we’ve had plenty of bad pop over the years: “Wildfire.” “Delta Dawn.” Anything by Tony Orlando and Dawn. Bobby Goldsboro. Yup, lots of trash through the years!

32

This explains why the European Techno version of “Country Roads” (a Bob Denver song) features someone screaming “Are you ready to party?”

'Cause nothing says “party” more than a man waxing nostalgic over his cabin in West Virginia…

33

Heh, I know lot’s of europeans that care about lyrics.

Erek

34

Here is one European who does not subscribe to this view. (And while this may be a valid generalization, I really don’t see how. I know very few fellow Europeans who follow the school of thought you assign to us.)

Leonard Cohen. I love Leonard Cohen. Amazing lyrics. Great voice most of the time. And whoever produced most of his records should be shot. Every single one of them. Repeatedly. I’m almost tempted to throw away my “I’m your man” CD and just keep the little booklet with the lyrics. Still, the lyrics are good…and I love the man.

That said, back to today’s music. I’m 22. I dislike most of the music that I hear on the radio/MTV/etc. Some of it is catchy and very smoothly produced, at least on the pop and hip-hop side of things. Some of it, of course, is annoying, but quite a few top 40 songs are finely crafted musical products. Most of them are absolutely meaningless drivel, but I can admire the craftsmanship and hum mindlessly along. Still, I can’t say I like this music. I don’t necessarily mind hearing it now and then, though repetitiveness can get on my nerves, but I would never go out and buy one of these CDs. It’s just not the sort of thing I’m into.

I like bubble-gum as much as the next guy, but I can understand how many people might not like this. Some people are used to rock (ie, that stuff that tends to play on oldies and classic rock stations), and there isn’t a lot of good rock in the mainstream ATM. Hip-hop, and hip-hop influenced pop, are different languages. Of course there has been a lot of bad pop ever since there was such a thing, but people have selective memories. They’ll pick the stuff they still like now from way back when, and compare it to the most annoying stuff on the radio today. It’s not going to be an even match, especially if you favour classic songwriting over slick production values and meaningless catchiness.

I’m the same way, and I’m pretty young. 80s/early 90s music is often a guilty pleasure for me, even the worst pop crap sends me into a regressive childlike state, basking in the warm fuzziness of simpler times.

And now, for a little rant. Nu-Metal (or whatever you call that) is the most awful waste of airwave space since…hell if I know. These bands have maybe one or two catchy songs among the whole lot of them, but the rest seems to be an atonal wall of dull guitar noise and drums backing-up a whiny vocalist. I mean, Rage Against the Machine did the hip-hop/metal thing with some class, cute communists that they were. They were actually inventive. Besides, didn’t whining go out of fashion when Kurt Cobain died? Even the Smashing Pumpkins are done these days. Hey, I like Nirvana, Kurt Cobain was good at whining, and their noise was edgier, driven. This is pop Nirvana. This is even more suburban teenage angst. Spare me. At least Kurt Cobain was a decent songwriter when he didn’t resort to jerking off all over the guitar and shrieking on the microphone. These guys? Pffft.

I had a point. Once. So…yeah. I’m not sure it’s any worst than it used to be. There is a lot of manufactured pop today, all catchiness and smooth production work, but there was a lot of manufactured pop back then, too. Is there more? Maybe, maybe not. I think they’re more refined in their manufactured approach, and the huge marketing hype is definitely more aggressive today. If you don’t like hip-hop, R&B and/or soul, you’re out of luck, since these are all big influences in a lot of today’s mainstream pop.

Or something. YMMV. IANAMC.

35

That’s John Denver. Bob Denver was (is, and will always be) Gilligan.

36

D’oh! I knew that. Really. My dad would never forgive that mistake. When John Denver died, my dad spent his lunch hour sitting in his truck listening to one of his Denver tapes.

I’m tempted to go visit him and play the Hermes House Band version, but he’d probably instantly fall over dead.

37

Okay, I know this may be in poor taste, and I haven’t quite worked out how the joke should be stated, but the absolutely worst album by Mr. Cohen was Death of a Ladies’ Man (which I still love anyway), because of the really odd production ideas. It was produced by Phil Spector, and I just thought that today the idea of somebody shooting him for his production values is kinda funny. My friend who somehow knows a lot of stuff about Leonard Cohen said that the two argued a lot about the mixing of the album and eventually Spector locked Cohen out of the studio.

And Deathstatic, where are you in Missouri? Anywhere near Columbia? The Mizzou campus station used to be great, 88.1 KCOU. If you are near St. Louis, 88.1 KDHX is incredibly diverse, you’ll definitely find some shows you like.

38

i agree with the spirit of the OP. I think most music on the radio and Mtv is total shit. I have 5 words for all of the modern boy bands. Thoes words are New Kids On the Block!! Nsuck,98degrees,Justin Timberlack and the rest of them are all carbon copies of NKOTB. Look at Marky Mark and see the dead end that lies before you. Before anyone brings up the beatles as a boy band let me just tell you that they arent. The beatles were a little innovative and original. I also have 1 word for Christina Agilerra and Briteny Spears. That word is MADONNA!! Learn it bitches because she will still be makeing money long after you are poseing in nudie books like that other has been from the 80’s Tiffany. All of the “Nu metal” bands, like system of a down and limp cock…er i mean biskit, irritate the shit out of me as well. They arent innovative or original. Aerosmith and run DMC did it first and Anthrax and Public Enemy did it better, so knock off the rap/rock fusion bit. It is old news and has aready been done to death. I also hear that Ben and Jerrys made a special flavor in honor of the Dave mathews band. I always wonderd what bland, mindless , shit tasted like. I guess this is my chance to find out. I have only 2 words for Mtv and M2. Thoes words are Fuck You!!Wait, I just thought of another 2 words for them, You Suck!! I dont want to see road rules,the real world ,TRL or music news. I want to fucking see videos!! It looks like the M has been repaced so that it now means “Marketing”!!

O.K. enough about the stuff I hate. I do like 3 kinds of music. I like Henry Rollins , Industrial music and Techno. Unfortunately Clearchannel and most other radio stations are so dead set on giving the listeners the same mediocre shit 10 times a day that i never get to hear my favorite bands on the radio.

39

Ok. I’m gonna go way out on a limb here and ask why the hell anybody even bothers listening to the radio anymore. Seriously, what an anachronistic medium! “Yes, you can listen to music, but only the music we’ve already decided, based on nothing but financial factors, you should be allowed to listen to.” Um, what?

Even when I was a starving poor student, I didn’t listen to the radio; I bought cassettes and records (note for those born in the 1980’s or earlier: look it up), and my friends and I traded music. We listened to what we wanted to listen to, and we didn’t let some radio marketing executive decide what we should be allowed to hear.

And now, there’s even less reason to listen to the radio. Buy a few CD’s, download some MP3’s, get an iPod. What the hell is the matter with you? Why are you still listening to the radio? Listen to what you want to listen to! This isn’t a difficult concept!

The same goes for MTV, by the way. On the rare occasions when they actually play music, as opposed to showing a rerun of “The Real World vs. Road Rules XXXVIII”. Feh.

40

Oops. Crap, nothing spoils a good rant faster than a fundamental error.

“the 1980’s and later”, of course.

How embarrassing.