Music was so great in 70s and 80s that deep tracks from then are > crap today

We all know modern pop music sucks.

We all forget that 70's and 80's pop music also sucks.

We all know that there were tons of deep tracks from the 70's and 80's that were pure greatness.

There are lots of good deep tracks today.

The big difference between then and now was how people listened to music. Today, most people listen to music via Spotify or a similar streaming service. People stream singles.

In the 70's and 80's, people listened to AM/FM radio and purchased records.

As such, back in the 70's, radio stations had enough listeners that they could support themselves with ad revenue playing to more "alternative" listeners. You could, thus, in a decent sized market find a decent alternative radio station playing what you liked.

Today, FM advertising isn't that valuable. There's not that many listeners overall, so radio stations have to cater to the few demographics that actually listen to FM radio still. Throw in the fact that upwards of 90% of all terrestrial radio stations are owned by literally 3 companies, and there you go.

Finally, there is the issue of how we consume music. Today, music is aimed at releasing singles and really aimed at tiny snippets of songs that can be used for advertising and short-form video (tik tok). Back in the good ol' days, the format was albums. On an album, you might expect there to be a couple "single" style songs, but people listened to music, largely, by playing an entire album (or 8 track) start to finish. As such, the emphasis was on telling a story through the album. Today, even if one records an album that way, it's released as a series of singles, meaning all continuity is lost.

Very few listeners still listen to albums all the way through, if those albums are even made that way to begin with. Because people used to pay for the full album to hear the singles, bands could use the success of those singles to pay for making more abstract music in the deep cuts. They could experiment and let their creativity shine. Today, people just listen to songs out of context. What songs they hear tends to be influenced by algorithms and playlisters. As such, those deep and experimental tracks often never get heard if they even get made at all. No one is "buying" the music, so the only returns come from live performances or miniscule streaming royalties. So, there aren't "deep tracks"...just single after single after single.

It's a completely different world now. How people listen to music is different. How people "buy" music is different. How music is recorded, performed, and promoted is different. With that said, there is no shortage of quality music being made. It's just WAY harder to find buried in an avalanche of content.

So much of the 60’s and 70’s lyrics were just as superficial and meaningless as today’s music. The difference is that the music was less overtly sexual, relying more on inference and double-entendres rather than just straight up talking about how they’re the best person ever at f$&king.

Agree. Old farts keep bitching because what they hear on the radio or t.v. is crap. It was crap back in the 70's and 80's too. There was no Sirius/XM w/ its Classic Vinyl etc stations. If you didn't live in a major city, all the radio was the same. How many Pink Floyd songs got played in the 70's? Money and that was it.

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How many Pink Floyd songs got played in the 70's? Money and that was it.

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umm, there's this little 1979 #1 hit called "another brick in the wall"...

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Not much in the modern day is memorable an any artistic medium.

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yup

The lead role in the down turn in music belongs to MTV and music videos. Suddenly, how you looked was just important as how you sounded.

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It was crap back in the 70's and 80's too.

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80s had Mtv and New Wave music. Rap/Hip Hop was new and more tolerable when it seemed like a fad that might last 5-10, at the most.

As far as deep tracks goes, pretty much every single track that Steely Dan put on an album was solid.

you act like LZ and PF were all over the radio in the 70's and 80's.

let's review:

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1970

1. Layla - Derek and the Dominos
2. Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel
3. Let It Be - The Beatles
4. Your Song - Elton John
5. Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine - James Brown
6. Lola - The Kinks
7. Who'll Stop the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
8. Fire and Rain - James Taylor
9. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
10. All Right Now – Free

1971

1. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
2. Imagine - John Lennon
3. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
4. Let's Stay Together - Al Green
5. Maggie May - Rod Stewart
6. American Pie - Don McLean
7. Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
8. Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones
9. Just My Imagination - The Temptations
10. Family Affair - Sly and the Family Stone

1972

1. Superstition - Stevie Wonder
2. Papa Was a Rollin' Stone - The Temptations
3. Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
4. Lean on Me - Bill Withers
5. Heart of Gold - Neil Young
6. Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed
7. You Are the Sunshine of My Life - Stevie Wonder
8. If You Don't Know Me by Now - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
9. I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers
10. Tumbling Dice - The Rolling Stones


1973

1. Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd
2. Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
3. Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight and the Pips
4. Dream On - Aerosmith
5. Living for the City - Stevie Wonder
6. Money - Pink Floyd
7. Piano Man - Billy Joel
8. Killing Me Softly with His Song - Roberta Flack
9. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
10. That Lady - Isley Brothers

1974

1. No Woman, No Cry - Bob Marley and the Wailers
2. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
3. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
4. Rock Your Baby - George McCrae
5. Lady Marmalade - LaBelle
6. Autobahn - Kraftwerk
7. Help Me - Joni Mitchell
8. Waterloo - Abba
9. Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe - Barry White
10. Tell Me Something Good – Rufus

1975

1. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
2. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
3. Walk This Way - Aerosmith
4. Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
5. Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan
6. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
7. Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
8. One of These Nights - Eagles
9. Low Rider - War
10. I'm Not in Love - 10cc

1976

1. Hotel California - The Eagles
2. Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
3. More Than a Feeling - Boston
4. Anarchy in the UK - The Sex Pistols
5. Dancing Queen - Abba
6. (Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
7. Night Moves - Bob Seger
8. Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
9. The Boys Are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy
10. Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry

1977

1. Stayin' Alive - The Bee Gees
2. We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions - Queen
3. Heroes - David Bowie
4. Best of My Love - The Emotions
5. God Save the Queen - The Sex Pistols
6. Brick House - The Commodores
7. Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
8. Paradise by the Dashboard Light - Meat Loaf
9. I Feel Love - Donna Summer
10. Jamming - Bob Marley and the Wailers

1978

1. I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
2. Roxanne - The Police
3. Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
4. Heart of Glass - Blondie
5. One Nation Under a Groove - Funkadelic
6. I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones
7. Miss You - The Rolling Stones
8. Le Freak - Chic
9. Old Time Rock and Roll - Bob Seger
10. Rock Lobster - The B-52's

1979

1. Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 - Pink Floyd
2. London Calling - The Clash
3. Rapper's Delight - The Sugarhill Gang
4. Good Times - Chic
5. Dont Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
6. We Are Family - Sister Sledge
7. Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
8. Hot Stuff - Donna Summer
9. Brass in Pocket - The Pretenders
10. Message in a Bottle - The Police

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LZ had one hit song in the decade (no deep tracks were played)
I think you are misremembering the facts here.

Pink floyd had a few top 10 songs in the decade that were singles (again, no deep tracks)

List of Billboard Year-End number-one singles and albums

The Billboard Year-End chart is a chart published by Billboard which denotes the top song of each year as determined by the publication's charts. Since 1946, Year-End charts have existed for the top songs in pop, R&B, and country, with additional album charts for each genre debuting in 1956, 1966, and 1965, respectively.