Capo2002

I truly believe that right now is the worst time for music in general in years. Everything you hear now adays is a ripoff of something else no matter what genre of music you're listening to. Boy bands, don't even get me started on that one. Also you listen to a rap song and they use a beat from another song that was put out maybe a few months ago with some recycled rhymes. Rock music for the most part is lame and boring now, so many bands sound the same its hard to distinguish one from the other anymore. Creed sounds like a bad version of Pearl Jam, and bands like Linkin Park and Staind which are unfortunately two of the biggest bands right now lack some serious substance. I just wish there was some new innovative band that came around and kicked our asses the way nirvana did back in the early nineties. Anyways just a thought, what do you guys think?

lostatmidnight

I have never found myself adhering to 'pop' music standards. I've been listening to the same bands I was five, six years ago: Pearl Jam, Counting Crows, Mazzy Star, The Verve, Tindersticks, Afghan Whigs, REM....Music is lousy these days, look at MTV as it promotes disposable pop and rock and that goofy hybrid of rap/rock....Even rap is transparent and generic with is constant recycling of beats and noises...Hell, is it just me or is there so many Erykah Badu wannabies? Yeah, Creed has always been a Pearl Jam coverband, Staind? who cares, its just the music industry trying to crank out more and more mass consumption of one hit wonders, because that's all America really is....Though there has been some great bands/musicians that I have caught my attention---and wallet---of late: Pete Yorn, Ryan Adams, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Strokes...I don't think any of them---regardless of what the media says---will save 'rock and roll, because none of them have a catchy, hook-line-and-sinker style....

Either way, listen to what you love and turn the radio off...

palebluedot

There is always a dichotomy of good and bad music in each generation but this generation it seems the bad definitely out-weighs the good. Music these days has become extremely commercial and it has created a dense fog over the entire industry and the hopeful few trying to be a beacon of muscial enlightenment are getting lost in it.

Record companies have always been about making money and they always will be, but there has definitely been a paradigm shift to overload us with copy-cat music. It seems that once something catches on then all of a sudden we are inundated with it. Artists that may be doing something new and different, get overlooked by the big record companies. They are forced to go to Indie labels that are sometimes run out of someones house and have to tour exhaustively in hopes that they will one day be recognized so that their music gets heard by the great masses.

The commercialism of music has allowed "artists" with little or no talent to be super stars and the music is just absolute garbage. I love all music myself and I have been a musician for a long time both professionaly and privately and I try not to put people down for their tastes but I just don't see how people can listen to groups like Limp Bizkit, Staind, Linkin Park, Creed, Britney Spears...the list is HUGE. Their music is just complete talentless garbage and nothing original but yet it is appealing to people, I just don't get it.

Again there is bad music in every generation, I mean disco in the 70s nearly killed me, it was some of the worst crap ever put down. Thankfully I had 60s and 70s Rock and Roll, R&B, Motown, etc...to get me through it. Some of the best music ever made came out of Motown and the Rock genre in the 70s. I still see myself 20 years from now listening to music from the 60s and 70s.

It also seems like I'm picking on the Rock genre but it's not just limited to that.
Look at contemporary Country music there is more garbage in there than a landfill. And contemporary Jazz...we don't even want to go there. Another fine example of horrible, horrible music is pretty much the entire R&B and Rap genres...holy crap that is some bad stuff. Look at when the "Swing" craze came into vogue, all these Swing bands came out of the wood-work...and the SUCKED! It was an insult to me personally, as someone who has listened to Jazz(swing or not) all my life...I wanted to find a cave and hide...luckily it died out as quickly as it appeared and I could become uncool again for listening to "Swing" music.

If I buy something made these days it's from artists that have been around for a while, that have established themselves and can do what they want to musically that is both pleasing to them as well as me. They don't compromise themselves for the rabid commercialism surounding them, which a lot of artists do.

Also I have to say a big thankyouallmighty for the advent of MP3 and music sharing because it saves me time and money to weed out the utter crap being produced down at the cookie-cutter-music-factory.

Of course there are always standouts in each music genre, but they just seem so few these days.

So yes IMO these are dark days of music. The real question is what is next? Has everything been done? What will come out that we can look back and say "Limp who?"

lostatmidnight put it perfectly..."listen to what you love" and one day soon this fog will lift.

Alyoshka

eh...

I sort of disagree. There is great music out there that just might not be as popular. Bands off the top of my head that are spectacular: Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Devil Doll, Dream Theater, Death Cab For A Cutie, Belle and Sebastian, Starflyer 59, Caedmon's Call, Old 97s, Jess Klein, Ani Difranco, etc. Then there are plenty that are just good. It all depends on where you look

JTH182

I think it's trendy to rip on new music.

Giles

I find it hard to make a general accusation about the music industry when there are so many genres and personal tastes of the masses. I can say, that Top 40 pop this year has been okay. I dont care for rap that much, since most of the time it never really has anything positive to say about life and can be way too preachy (exceptions: The Roots, Roots Manuva, Busta). I prefer alt-country to country. Alternate radio is by far the most bland it has been in years, suffering from AWM - angry white man syndrome. One hit wonder bands that all sound the same and that will be forgotten in a year or two. College radio in the District of Columbia is practically non-existent. All talk no vibes and in that respect, when the only real outlet to hearing music are radio stations and MTV/VH-1 that shovel the music they want you to hear, over and over again, it becomes to sound stale. The music industry's standards and playlists (radio and TV) need to become less strict and stop getting driven by the commercialism of the major record labels - that will never happen. Thank god for internet radio and stations like London's XFM www.xfm.co.uk and public radio's www.kcrw.org for playing the music that deserves to get heard

Precious

I agree with Giles, the music industry is feeding the massess and the majority of reader/writers in this forum do not fall into the massess category. I recently have been listening to a lot of techno and I think there are some very gifted small oufits making some good sounds but it just doesn't appeal to everyone so theres not much point banging on about it. My neice would much rather listed to Steps or A1 than Lab 4 but that's ok when I was her age I was a Donny Osmond fan. My tastes change but as long as I'm open to new experiences in music I'm not bothered what the mainstream is churning out.

Giles

Thanks (my) Precious, I do like Steps by the way. But in all seriousness. I find that in my persuit to hear new music I am turning to magazines that hear the latest. I know this is a complete plug to UK magazines, but the free CD on the monthly Uncut magazine is always a treat to listen to (superior to CMJ in my mind). The cd's that accompany Muzik, Breaking Point and Mixmag are also worth the extra money.

Pikul

The only thing that strikes me as more nauseating than watching an hour of MTV is listening to people complain about the current state of music -- especially when the points of complaint are MTV and the radio. And extra especially when two or three artists are cited as evidence for some era completely sucking. "The '60s were nothing but hippie bands and hippie band copycats; the '70s were nothing but the Village People and Village People copycats; the '80s were nothing but the Culture Club and Culture Club copycats; the '90s were nothing but Pearl Jam and Pearl Jam copycats -- and all the pop groups of the '90s were New Kids on the Block copycats." Yawn.

I don't know if I've said this here before or not, but I'll say it again if I have: Complaining about the current state of music and using MTV, the radio, and whatever else is thrown at you as your ammo is similar to walking down to the end of your street and complaining that there are no good places to eat. It's very near-sighted. Finding good places to eat often requires some driving around, some word-of-mouth, and a little bit of research. Finding good music requires the equivalent of each of these.

Just think -- if you're unhappy with the way popular music has gone in the last couple of years and you spend a good deal of time talking about it, imagine how things might be different for you if you spent that same amount of time looking for something that suits you that isn't presented directly at you through your television or radio.

We have these objects staring back at us called computers. Utilize them to their full potential. You might have a record store nearby with a knowledgeable staff that isn't called Best Buy. Pick a clerk's brain; if their taste doesn't coincide with yours, they can at least tell you what's been doing well or what people think highly of that suits your own ears.

Precious

Another vote for xfm - great to listen to while at the PC. (nice choice Giles)

Yancey

You are absolutely correct, Pikul. Art and commerce don't mix (nor should they), so don't go looking for anything inventive on the mainstream formats.

It is a dark period for the music biz in another aspect -- sales. CD prices have continued to increase, more and more chain stores are jacking up prices and the labels wonder why profits are down. Indies are having a hard time too. In the early 90s the indies were faring well, the independent record store circuit was going strong and the bands were getting a lot of attention. But more and more mom & pop stores are getting run out of business by Best Buy undercutting on new releases.

The even bigger problem, in my opinion, are ticket prices. It is ridiculously expensive to see a live show, the best way to experience music anyway. Bands need to step up, tour more and charge less to make it. That's what Fugazi did, that's what At the Drive-In did, that's what the Grateful Dead did. It's the way to get a following. Making a video is nothing but a waste of money.

The price of media and tickets are the only new problems I see facing the industry. Sure, file sharing has cost some sales, but it is also pushing labels to make a better product. If you like some single by an artist, why not check out the rest of the album? But it is your duty as a fan to go out and buy that disc if you like it. That should be the only rule.

SAShepherd

I suspect that this is not an entirely new complaint. That is, I'm sure there were people in 1991 and 1981 and 1971 making the same statement. Comparing current art with past artistic achievements is difficult because we tend to forget (or repress) the bad stuff and just remember the good stuff from the past. Meanwhile, both the good and the bad stands out in the present. In such a comparison, the present will inevitably pale in comparison to the past. I'm sure there was music that I (and you) hated in the early '90s when Nirvana burst onto the national scene, but we (or at least I) have forgotten that stuff completely.

As for my personal musical tastes, I was about to say that I've never had more distaste for the singles chart, but upon reflection I'm not sure I've ever had great affinity for the singles chart. I seem to be buying more CDs that don't get anywhere near the top of the album charts, though.

While I miss the alterna-radio heyday (circa 1989-1995), when it seemed like I enjoyed everything on the "alternative" stations (see, I'm doing exactly what I warned of above), I think the Internet allows even more exploration. It's just that unlike the early '90s, the listener now has to discover the artists and make their connections rather than have it handed to us. It's more work for us. But ultimately more rewarding.

svisscher

I totally disagree, Linkin Park is an incredible band! I recently saw their live show and could not believe the level that the crowd was into it. Everybody knew all the words to all the songs.

I can't wait for their followup album.

redhenry

There are reasons why 'popular' music is sounding crap these days to many opfus and it's because as we get older, our tastes generally do not change. Music is fluid but our tastes are generally not fluid. The current craze is all about boy bands, young gilrls in cut off tops and dirty rock. I think we tend to relate to the music we grew up on. I was about 17 when the new romantic thing hit (Duran Duran, Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, Wham) so they are the bands that I remember most fondly and that style of music is pretty much not out there now or if it is, I have to really look for it.

Acts like Brittney, Backsteet Boys, Christina Aguleira (?) and even Linkin Park have nothing to say to me as I approach 40 (how can they?), but I am not their target audience. I am sure that if I was about 17 - 20 now, then they are the acts that I would listen to. It is not so much a complaint as my inability to care what these acts have to say - I can no longer relate to their message.

Terry, 37 going on 60.

Mafia81RCV

I agree with those that said we just need a new movement- like the Nirvana/Soundgarden/Alice in Chains era of 1991/92. 90% of the new music I hear in all genres is rehashed, whether it be Coldplay imitating the Foo Fighters and DMB, Creed imitating PJ, R&B imitating the Temptations, Train imitating The Beatles, Rap ripping off beats... We just need something totally new to come and refresh us, so it can be rehashed for the next 10 years as well. In 2001, I heard almost nothing new in any genre. Nelly Furtado brought some freshness to pop, Toby Keith did the same for country, but these are minor exceptions.

We need the Nirvana of 1991, the Beatles of 1964, the Chuck Berry of the 50's, the Jelly Roll Morton of the 20's, the Berry Gordy of c.1960, the Sly Stone of c.1970, etc. (somebody with totally new ideas) to come and deliver us from this blandness.

POWERBOMB

palebluedot , I have no little or no talent and I want to be a rich superstar. Don't think for one minute that if I had the chance to make a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ I wouldn't jump on it. My stuff might be cookie cutter music, but financial security is high on my list right now. For whatever it's worth, I would jump at the chance to be in a boy band.

As for music in general: My young co-workers make me laugh quite often. I enjoy listening to "pop" and 80's music. One station I was listening to recently started to introduce Linkin Park and System of a Down into their playlist. When they heard that, they literally started bad-mouthing those artist and saying how much they suck.

If musicians are in it solely for the music, that's fine with me. But if you think I go to work because I enjoy what I'm doing, you're wrong. I work because I enjoy having money. I'd be shaking my arse with the boy bands if I could get paid. I'd sell-out in a New York minute, and take it all the way to the bank.

fmian

There is something wrong with the music industry these days but it's not the saturation of the same music over and over wherever we go. Every generation will have a hated genre of music, that's fine by me.

What really gets me worked up though, is that most of the hip-hop r&b acts out right now don't actually have any talent. Firstly they produce a huge amount of remakes on old songs that sound EXACTLY like the old song. And when a good song does come along, it gets overplayed so much that you get sick of it. Yes, I'm thinking about Smooth Criminal.

Second they can't actually sing. Did anyone see Destinys Child on the Michael Jackson tribute thing? They had terrible voices. I can understand one of them having a sore throat, but all of them? It's really apparent that their voices are majorly done over in post production. And they're supposed to be one of the biggest hip hop acts right now.

There are the few who stand out with real talent (Craig David, Usher) but everything else in pop/hip-hop/r&b is just a product. Someone else writes their music, tells them how to sing it, tells them how to dance, and makes the video clip for them. Only a handful of singers have creative freedom these days, and that's probably just because they don't have the talent in the first place.

The other day I walked into the same music store I used to go to when I was a kid. The same place I bought my Faith No More, Pearl Jam, RHCP and Jeff Buckley cd's. They still have the same owner, but 90% of the store is filled with r&b hip hop music. The top 40 cd's on the wall are all the same crap only with a slightly different smell. It really is dissapointing.

A friend of mine summed it up just right a couple years back when he commented on The Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang.

'It's got only two tunes that are repetitive throughout the song and was ripped off another song. The lyrics probably took them all of five minutes to write, and the song was probably all made on a computer. But they'll a million bucks from it.'

RandyC

Not really. I have been avidly listening to popular music (and not so popular music) since the 60s. There have always been trends of course. But even if one disliked pop, disco, rap, or hair bands, there was enough other quality so one could just ignore the stuff you did not like.

I don't think there was as much general dislike of the what is considered mainstream music.

There is great stuff out there, but a lot of it is not what is marketed to the masses. The way the industry works (radio play, cd sales, contracts, etc) probably contributed a lot to this. I have heard it is harder than ever for a non-well-known band to break into the scene.

There is also a continued trend for perception over musical ability. Boy (and girl) bands are an example of this, as is a lot of rap. I am not saying rap is not music, but there is a large part of it that is based on dance, gestures....and not as much on music. Much of the music is just ripped off and sampled.

When you can have a hugely succesful "band" out there selling out stadiums, and nobody in the "band" plays an instrument, that is not a good thing.

Myster X

WOW. Bunch of music intellectuals debating without flaming? Remarkable

Ask EMI and they'll tell you what's wrong. They blindly sign an $80 million 4 albums contract with Mariah Carey and her latest album Glitters sold like maybe less than a million copy.

KnightLerxst

I very rarely listen to any of todays music. I like that old time rock and roll...the kinda music that soothes the soul.

Anyway I think what we are defining as popular music is the stuff that gets tons of airplay. So first let me rip on radio. The way things are going in the industry, you are going to have 3 people deciding what every station across the nation is playing. DJs can't give a new song from an actual good new artist a spin because they are not allowed to, all the stations are branded the same way. That means they are boring.

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.

It is getting to the point where every station, in each genre, is playing the same music, over, and over, and over.

I have tried to give newer music a chance, hell I liked Creeds first album a lot...then Human Clay came along...their watered down album that appealed to the masses and got played on top 40 stations instead of rock station.

I actually like some of the stuff from Sum 41, and some of the newer "punk" bands, but if I want good stuff I will listen to the Ramones.

For some reason classic rock seems to have more depth to it. Hell even if the songs are not as meaningful, at least the musicianship is heads above the popular stuff played on the radio today. I mean compare something by Boston to some of the popular crap on the radio today. Sure, Boston is very polished like todays music, but at least Tom Sholtz played the guitar, and Brad Delp didn't have the assistance of auto tune.

Good god I heard some live Three Doors Down on a local station the other night....THE LEAD SINGER IS TONE DEAF!!!! The man sang every damn song totally flat...once again thank you autotune.

Here is another thing though...if people were not buying this crap then it would not get so much airplay and vice versa.

Something is going to come along, something has to. If not, we are going to be hearing the same 10 songs for the rest of our lives on the radio.

Leatherballs

My simple solution.....ignore it. I don't listen to the radio at all anymore. I stay away from both MTV and VH-1. I spend all of my time researching bands online and downloading their songs. If I like them, I go out and get their albums. I've discovered a ton of bands that blow me away that I wouldn't have ever heard of if I had stuck to the radio or MTV. God bless the internet...even if 95% of it is spam and pop up ads.

Jason

It seems to me the biggest problem with the music industry in general is that they seem to be incapable of generating any excitement about anything anymore. But does a lack of excitement on the part of music fans breed lackluster music, or does lackluster music cause a lack of excitement?

One of the reasons that the best music can be found on independent labels is that it's so much easier for an independant band to be financially successful these days. The Internet has opened so many doors for these bands. Not only through file sharing, but through endless discussions on chat forums and usenet, and the fact that their CDs are readily available to anyone, not just people who live near a college campus or a major city.

As for me, I've given up completely on new music. I've discovered a european metal scene that still thinks it's 1983, and I couldn't be happier

mllefoo

No way. I've been ripping on new music since 1983

There's some great new music out there. But like every decade, you just have to wade through the popular radio fluff to find the good stuff outside the mainstream.

My current favorite new(ish) bands are
The Gorillaz
Juliana Theory
Remy Zero
Belle and Sebastian
Magnetic Fields
Waxwings

Funny, some of the bands and artists I ripped on in the 80s are some of my favorites now such as Madonna, Prince, and Billy Idol. I suppose I'm due to start liking Nirvana now.

Mazinger

originality and creative wise? yes.
money / profit wise? probably not.

So I don't really see it changing soon.

Gdrlv

These are dark times for popular music to be sure, but I find plenty to like if you go off the beaten path.

Some great bands/artists that continue to make excellent, challenging music...Old 97's, Wilco, the Avalanches, Quannum, Del the Funky Homosapien, the Gourds, String Cheese Incident, the Disco Biscuits, Jurassic 5, the Actual Tigers, Stephen Malkmus, Widespread Panic, moe., Galactic, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, De La Soul, Dan Bern, the Chemical Brothers, the Pernice Brothers. The list goes on and on.

There's tons of great music out there; you've just gotta know where to look.