re: The sad state of music today

I feel this boils down to the age of the listener.

For example, when I was a teenager in the 90s with no job or bills or responsibilities to be concerned with, music felt like one of the most important things in my world. Metallica were gods. I emulated them however I could and didn't so much listen to their music as I studied it. Nothing mattered more.

Now, as an adult with a wife and children and career and a world of activities and things to look after, I've yet to listen to a third of the album Metallica released five days ago. I haven't even bought a copy, yet.

By this stage in life, music is simply something played in the car to add color to my commute.

I won't say all music made today stinks. My circumstances just dictate that I won't have time to care much about it or make some grand emotional connection to it.

You're much more likely to romanticize songs you lost your virginity or drank your first beer to than tunes that were playing while you drove your kids to soccer practice.

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MCR

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Completely agree with your assessment of the guitarist for this band. I don't even know his name, but damn he's a tasteful player. And IDGAF what anyone says, Black Parade is a GREAT album.

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y’all need some billy strings in your lives

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I have no interest in listening to anyone with that many tattoos

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It's fascinating to me listening to him talk of growing up in the 60's and 70's where the radio was playing AMAZING music.

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a lot of this is revisionist history tbh. the most radio played songs of the 60's and 70's would surprise you.

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I wonder how many generations have said this?

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My World War 2 Veteran father used to tell me that the music I listened to (70's era Rock) was garbage. He'd roll his eyes and groan. I had Zeppelin, Grand Funk, Bad Company, Foghat, Kiss, Black Sabbath posters all over my room. He hated coming in my room for having to see all my guitar heroes on the walls! LOL.

Yeah, it's a timeless statement.

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It's fascinating to me listening to him talk of growing up in the 60's and 70's where the radio was playing AMAZING music.

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a lot of this is revisionist history tbh. the most radio played songs of the 60's and 70's would surprise you

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Here's a sample top 40 chart for a radio station in Dallas



There are a lot of great records here (just among the ones I'm familiar with; I haven't heard them all). But what's most interesting about this chart is its diversity. You have:

British Invasion (The Beatles are so popular they have their own chart!)
Soul
Motown (Marvi Gaye, Mary Wells)
Straight pop
Country-pop w/Ray Price & Brenda Lee
Chuck Berry coming back
Beach Boys

Even one of my fave garage rockers, "Dance Franny Dance" by Dallas' own Floyd Dakil -- which shows even local acts could get airplay in those days

Do today's teens even have favorite artists or bands like we did back in the day?

I've not heard the ones in my life discuss any band in the way we'd talk about Metallica, Nirvana, or whomever...

I feel streaming has made music into interchangeable background noise, for some.

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Do today's teens even have favorite artists or bands like we did back in the day?

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Mine does

If you teach your children about quality music early on and give them hell when they listen to crap they tend to grow up knowing the difference. My daughter has most of the time made great music choices. She might have listened to the nonsense her friends were listening to and knew all the words but she always knew it was terrible no talent music. Growing up her favorite bands were Twenty One Pilots and The 1975. Which IMO are very talented BANDS that write and produce all their own songs.
She’s in college now and we pretty much have same taste in music. We share new songs almost daily.
There is so much new amazing music out there and talented musicians.
It’s definitely not on fm radio.

It’s really not that far off from today, right now the hot 100 has a strong amount of pop and rap, but there’s some country and a bit of rock. Point is pop has always dominated the industry whether it’s the pop rock of the 50’s and 60’s or the pop of today. As far as rock goes, it’s not as popular as it used to be but that’s because there hasn’t been a true breakout band for some time now.

The last few bands/artists to crack the top 10 are Paramore who beat out Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny, Linkin Park, and despite the amount of hate MGK who topped the charts twice with his past two pop punk albums

I hope music dies out where people can’t get rich off of it and hopefully acting too


This country would be a lot better off if we all dug coal by day and played banjo by night