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Am I simply getting older or does a lot of new pop music suck?


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2013 Jun 14, 1:46am   21,259 views  51 comments

by edvard2   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

I work out in the gym every morning. As such with many gyms they play "pick me up" techno-dance-pop music over the PA system. Usually I don't hear it over the machines. But when I'm in the changing room I can. I find myself thinking as I hear most of it:
" God this is stupid!"

It seems that every other song is a carbon copy of the other. The exact same sound effects, style of singing, and of course with most of the techno music, that sort of wind-up sound used so often with a brief pause before the music goes into a sort of trance pattern.

When I was a kid I promised myself to always listen to new music and never turn into some crabby old person who hates the stuff. Now- granted I still listen to a lot of new music. I like music of all kinds: Country, Americana, Techno, Pop, Symphony, and so on. But a lot of the top-40 pop music pieces I find hardly bearable.

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1   marco   2013 Jun 14, 2:01am  

I think both. You are getting older. And this "music" is corporate crap.

2   Tenpoundbass   2013 Jun 14, 2:02am  

In the last 20 years I've gone through every obscure Grateful dead song ever played or recorded. I can't stand what ever they call them selves now, with guest guitarists and singers though. I know local Dead cover bands that enjoy a hell of a lot more than them. Garcia was the mojo for that band.

Now I'm into Jazz, but not the pesky scatt crap, or the easy listening Kenny G. bullshit. But some old school bebop, swing, organ jazz trios, most standards from the fake books.

What's Odd is long before I like the Dead or Jazz I was hardcore Heavy Metal fan. Until LA got their hands on the genre and put lipstick and spandex on it, and made it a joke. I grew up with Jimmy Stiff, the original lead guitarist from Jackyl, I used to hang out with those cats and drink beer at their rehearsals. This was back in '85. I moved down here to south florida, long before the internet. Since there wasn't a metal scene, I really didn't have any idea what was going on with the genre. And since the only indication I had about it, was by the crap that made it to mainstream radio, Rat, Poison, Doken, Motley Crue and crap like that. I wasn't very interested in exploring it on my own.
South Florida in the 80's was pretty much isolated from Metal as well as most good music that was going on around the country.

It was either "everybody dance now! dunt, dunt dunt dunt" Or what every Top 40 rock was playing on WSHE, there was no in between music. Unless you consider Kiss FM country station your bag.

Music was pretty flat, so by the time I was turned on to the Dead when they rolled through in Miami in '87 I was starved for something different.

And now still today, I find it in old Jazz tunes, that were from another era and are as relevant as ever. Some of America Idol's best performances this year were Jazz fakebook standards.

American pop music died when British New Wave replaced Corporate Rock bands, and we never recovered. It's been one long procession of crap after another.

3   varmint   2013 Jun 14, 2:11am  

It's modern disco. I dunno is it that much worse?

4   edvard2   2013 Jun 14, 2:20am  

Don't get me wrong. I like some disco. A lot of the French stuff is pretty good and in my opinion more original than a lot of the American varieties. I've always liked old music as well. It seems a lot of the rock and roll, rockabilly, lounge music, and big band music of the past was "happier" music. I can listen to that stuff all day.

I used to listen to a LOT of Frank Zappa. Then I got tired of jam bands. Today I can't stand the Dead. Sounds like a band warming up for 20 minutes ( Sorry Capn')

I hate Pop country too. Most of it is sort of stupid in my opinion. Sort of self-deprecating. Sample: " Oh, I live in a trailer on cinder blocks, my car is on blocks too, and I am broke and ( More negative crap) But its ok, cuz' that's the way it goes..... blah blah blah"

Give me Hank Snow, Hank Williams and Cash anyday as they told it like it was.

5   Bigsby   2013 Jun 14, 2:41am  

The vast majority of pop music has always been crap. You are simply getting older and forgetting that.

6   MisdemeanorRebel   2013 Jun 14, 2:55am  

edvard2 says

I work out in the gym every morning. As such with many gyms they play "pick me up" techno-dance-pop music over the PA system. Usually I don't hear it over the machines. But when I'm in the changing room I can. I find myself thinking as I hear most of it:

" God this is stupid!"

You're not crazy. Old Techno was wild, but it still wasn't that great without Drugs.

New Pop music is ultra repetitive. The worse "genre" has to be Punk-Pop, it is topically vapid like generic Pop, with the repetitive riffs of Punk without any of the edginess.

If you think about it, there hasn't been a true new genre in a long ass time.

There's no truly crazy nutjobs like Ministry, Thrill Kill Cult, etc. Even the rock/pop stars are boring. No drug or alcohol problems, no suffering = dull ass music. Suffer, artists! Otherwise you get the Bob Ross of Music.

Kids need to do more drugs, that's the problem. And not just weed.

7   casandra   2013 Jun 14, 3:02am  

sooner or later the amount of possible melodies has to run out, i mean, doesn't it.

oh, and when did so many females monopolize the top 20. i don't here that many guys voices anymore, mostly females, unless it is rap...

8   casandra   2013 Jun 14, 3:03am  

and i think justin briber is the only guy in the top 10 singers, the rest all females, and when i look closely at just.... no, wont go there.

9   edvard2   2013 Jun 14, 3:17am  

To play devil's advocate though, I DO think there are actually more music alternatives than there has been, perhaps ever. It used to be that the music we listened to was music produced by huge record companies with signed artists played on the top-40 radio stations. At least that was what it was like when I was in high school in the early 90's.

Now, an awful lot of up and coming artists simply record something in their apartment, upload it somewhere and if they're lucky they will become popular.

I was perhaps a very early adopter of online music. I began listening to simulcasts of a few independent radio stations from my home state when I was in college in the late 90's. As of today its probably been at least 5 years since I have bought a CD, and what's more, I don't buy Mp3's either. Most of what I listen to is on about 50 online streaming radio stations, Pandora, Songza, and whatnot. The bulk of the artists are not those signed with major record labels.

Ironically I also listen to old-fashioned records on a number of vintage record players at home.

But with more choices, new sounds, and some really different ways to record and make music, some of the pop and top 40 music out there sounds overly produced, canned, and in many cases, simply cheesy.

10   Bigsby   2013 Jun 14, 3:18am  

Alternative rock is now Maroon 5 or Kid Rock? Complete guff. As with all times, there is some brilliant music and there is plenty of shite. Young people are just luckier now in that they have easy access to a vast range of music that none of us oldies had.

11   Automan Empire   2013 Jun 14, 3:25am  

Are any songs released without auto-tune today?

I enjoy jazz, especially the Hammond Organ types.

Speaking of organ music, I can never tire of E. Power Biggs playing baroque era classical.

I bought a player piano on a lark several years ago, and have acquired a taste for foxtrot and stride piano.

'Scuse me, gotta run some kids off my lawn, with their noise...

12   Tenpoundbass   2013 Jun 14, 3:29am  

edvard2 says

Today I can't stand the Dead.

I said I don't care for the Dead today either.
As for old dead recordings, I've done already heard it ten different ways to Sunday.

13   HydroCabron   2013 Jun 14, 3:33am  

You're simply getting older.

Adults wondering at how the whole world is going to hell are a staple of society since the Pleistocene. It's the same reason every message forum on the Internet is full of horror stories about kids these days, or authorities doing something stupid to schoolchildren, or Sweden having to ban bestiality: we're conflating the collapse of our bodies with the state of the world at large.

The world's just the same; we're not.

If you really feel pop is getting worse, I can only say: "Funky Town," "Whip It," "Everybody Wants to Rule The World," "You're Much Too Young," "Tom Sawyer," and the deep lyrics of Billy Joel: "You may be wrong but you may be right" - can't argue with that! And there's always the "travel the world and the seven seas," being the most cliched line I can think of in music. Special shout-out to Pat Benatar.

BTW, my beef with "Tom Sawyer" is the line "Love and life are deep" - wow.

14   zzyzzx   2013 Jun 14, 3:34am  

I also think almost all music made after sometime in the late 80's sucks.

15   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2013 Jun 14, 3:37am  

You have to dig for new music. Most doesn't get played on the radio.

Some of the recent stuff I like is The Killers, Shinedown, and Fun.

Blackberry smoke is pretty good as a retro sounding blues/southern rock band.

Tom Keifers(lead singer of Cinderella) new solo album is great if you like mainsteam American rock. First newly released music by him in nearly two decades.

You tube is a great free source of listening to new music . Then I download whatever I really like on iTunes.

Top 40's pop music has largely been crap since the mid 60's I beleive(dunno for sure as I was born in early 70's). You'll never go broke appealing to the masses but you might go braindead.

16   edvard2   2013 Jun 14, 3:39am  

I don't necessarily hate all new pop music. I'll even admit I will on occasion listen to some of the hooky stuff from Lady Gaga. I feel she is at least pretty original. I still to this day really don't like it when older people will ONLY listen to the music of their youth. Its like their interests in music shut down as soon as they graduated from college. That's sort of sad. Many people seem to equate music with a time period. Any good music can always be played in any number of different styles and would be just as good today as it was however long ago.

17   Dan8267   2013 Jun 14, 3:41am  

edvard2 says

Am I simply getting older or does a lot of new pop music suck?

I hate to break this to you, but it's probably mostly just you getting older. People tend to like the music that was popular when they were adolescents and in their early 20s.

Granted, royalty free music sucks, which is why it's royalty free. So anything you hear in bar or nightclub is probably going to suck for that reason.

But as far as mainstream music goes, I guarantee you that high school and college students think today's music is great and that most of the stuff people on this thread have mentioned as "good music" sucks. And in twenty years, those people will be saying the exact same thing you are.

18   david1   2013 Jun 14, 3:47am  

My gym plays the local Jesus station 24/7. Would you prefer that?

Working out at the YMCA in South Carolina...I guess I should expect it. The f'in gym doesn't open until 1 on Sunday.

Talk about unbearable to listen to.

19   Tenpoundbass   2013 Jun 14, 3:49am  

Automan Empire says

Speaking of organ music, I can never tire of E. Power Biggs playing baroque era classical.

I bought a player piano on a lark several years ago, and have acquired a taste for foxtrot and stride piano.

I am guitarist learned at an early age. Never learned the keyboard.
I play with a classically trained Organist. Though he has every classic rock keyboard that were featured on any classic tune from the 60's to the early 80's. Which he keeps in storage, he rents a small room. All he ever played in our group was a digital Motif or Triton. Being an analogue diehard, I could hear what he was trying to do and it frustrated me. That he has this whole storage locker full of keyboards like a Prophet 5, and Moog Tarsus pedals, Arp Odesy, Hammond B3 and a C3, Leslie 31H and 145, (I've helped him move his crap twice. To cheaper storage lockers)but refused to break any out. So I finally in 2006 saw a B3 on Craigslist with Leslie 22H for $1200, I couldn't afford NOT to buy them at that price. I would have kicked my self for years saying... "and it was only $1200 but I didn't buy it".

He makes that sing, but playing mostly either long hair music(the old timer term for Classic Music not Hippie) or 70's rock that feature long hair music on those instruments listed above. He doesn't know any Jazz.

In the 7 or so Years I've had it, I've learned some and enjoy playing it. It's a mechanical oiled machine, there aren't any chips in the thing, making chirps and burps. Those are cog wheels spinning around with electromagnetic pickups to frequency of the sine wave the tines on the wheels create as they spin.

Also picked up a few other analog keyboards my self. But I over did it last year and gave my self tennis elbow, by trying to play trills like play on the guitar. No matter how hard I try, I'm just not as accomplished on the keys.

But it's still fun fire them up and hear them roar.

20   HydroCabron   2013 Jun 14, 3:50am  

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

I heard SD performance Mahler's (very rarely performed) 6th a few years ago. Sublime, spirited performance that should have been sold out and provoked street riots and orgies but was maybe half filled.

I would have enthusiastically joined a riot one night at Cosi Fan Tutte in 1990. The crowd was just one or two more jolts from going off - as in, "Let's burn this motherfucker down" - around "Per Pieta" in the second act.

A friend once said "If you don't occasionally wonder if you're going to have a hear attack at a concert, you shouldn't bother going to the symphony."

21   zzyzzx   2013 Jun 14, 3:51am  

dodgerfanjohn says

You tube is a great free source of listening to new music . Then I download whatever I really like on iTunes.

You can download music from YouTube as well. Look for a FireFox plug in.

22   thomaswong.1986   2013 Jun 14, 3:51am  

zzyzzx says

I also think almost all music made after sometime in the late 80's sucks.

There is always some hope left... not far from home we have a great music store.

back about 6 years ago.. met this 15 year old who was belting out some old schools rock and roll on a Les Paul.. he was belting riffs everything from Stones to Zep.. and doing it fairly well for his age.

and sometimes you catch others who also have some talents which might do well..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTEFpwYubGc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz2fWwdvhOY

the real problem is that the night clubs are dead..

23   edvard2   2013 Jun 14, 4:10am  

I'm a musician too, but I play the accordion, which is difficult to play anywhere that people are around as it is VERY loud even without a mic or an amp. As far as younger people, well what's interesting is that at least when I was in college, me and most of my friends didn't listen to much of the mainstream music to start with. Most of what we played was pretty obscure, non-commercial type stuff.

The thing is we're still the same way. We still listen to mostly under-the-radar type music. Its just that its gotten easier to find these sorts of artists than it used to be. Even back then most of us felt that the top-40 music was sort of like the equivalent of goods bought at a Big Box store. In that regard it makes sense: Most of the radio stations are owned by just a few huge media companies whom format a set amount of genre stations to play the same songs nationally. Don't believe me? Drive across the country. They even have the same damned names. You won't hear a difference. The DJ does nothing put push a button and play whatever it is has already been arranged by the corporations they work for.

24   Rin   2013 Jun 14, 4:34am  

edvard2 says

Give me Hank Snow, Hank Williams and Cash anyday as they told it like it was.

You know how it goes, 10 years ago, we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope, and Johnny Cash.

Now, we have no jobs, no hope, and no cash.

25   Philistine   2013 Jun 14, 4:58am  

HydroCabron says

If you really feel pop is getting worse, I can only say: "Funky Town," "Whip
It," "Everybody Wants to Rule The World," "You're Much Too Young," "Tom Sawyer,"
and the deep lyrics of Billy Joel: "You may be wrong but you may be right" -
can't argue with that! And there's always the "travel the world and the seven
seas," being the most cliched line I can think of in music. Special shout-out to
Pat Benatar.


BTW, my beef with "Tom Sawyer" is the line "Love and life are deep" -
wow.

This shit is delicious! Wow, pop really *was* better back then!

Difference being, the music in these songs is still pretty ripping good, but the music in current pop songs sucks ass.

26   Philistine   2013 Jun 14, 5:02am  

edvard2 says

We still listen to mostly under-the-radar type music. Its just that its gotten
easier to find these sorts of artists than it used to be. Even back then most of
us felt that the top-40 music was sort of like the equivalent of goods bought at
a Big Box sto

Top 40 has always been a mugs game, although the likes of Fleetwood Mac or Prince and the New Power Generation were churning out pretty lasting Top 40 back then.

The 'under the radar' stuff is certainly much better, but it suffers from that 2-album maximum that all these indie bands are prone to. I guess that's always been around, too, though.

27   FortWayne   2013 Jun 14, 5:04am  

Young people today listen to very whiny music today. I don't understand how any self respecting man can drive around blasting "Same Love".

Generation of whiners.

28   thomaswong.1986   2013 Jun 14, 5:16am  

FortWayne says

Generation of whiners.

whining and rather flat sounding !

29   dublin hillz   2013 Jun 14, 5:19am  

Music has changed from the standpoint that it is much harder to find music that questions society in the mainstream. 90s had nirvana, rage against machine, marilyn manson, etc. Nowadays music like this is nowhere to be found. That being said, music today does have nice beatz for club scene and "new age" music such as Zen channel on directv is more accessible and music like that is still original in our culture.

30   EBGuy   2013 Jun 14, 5:27am  

DJ says: New Pop Sucks.
Music died when Matchbox 20 and Candlebox took the torch from Pearl Jam and Nirvana.

Well, my frame of reference the 80's, so I was feeling a bit old and crotchety lamenting that this generation doesn't seem to have a U2 or REM... then I started listening to Arcade Fire and Mumford and Sons. From what I can tell, they've built up quite an audience based on the strength of their live shows. I consider the torch passed and enjoy listening to their live sets on youtube.

31   edvard2   2013 Jun 14, 5:30am  

FortWayne says

Young people today listen to very whiny music today. I don't understand how any self respecting man can drive around blasting "Same Love".

Generation of whiners.

That's a bit of a gross generalization...dublin hillz says

Music has changed from the standpoint that it is much harder to find music that questions society in the mainstream.

Give me about 30 seconds and I could probably find you any number of new and upcoming bands or musical groups whom do exactly that. IMHO, there's way, way more options and different sorts of music, including many songs that totally questiom the status-quo

32   JodyChunder   2013 Jun 14, 7:12am  

Nah -- you're getting younger and music is getting better and better.

Whaddya think??

All the really good stuff has been written -- books, films, music.

Then again, anything after the 16th century humanist composers like Janequin is overly flourid dogshit to my ears.

33   edvard2   2013 Jun 14, 7:22am  

JodyChunder says

Then again, anything after the 16th century humanist composers like Janequin is overly flourid dogshit to my ears.

I like me some Harp-si-cord music.

34   JodyChunder   2013 Jun 14, 9:37am  

edvard2 says

I like me some Harp-si-cord music.

You'd be surprised how feel people know what the hell a harpsichord is! Me, I prefer the virginal.

35   JodyChunder   2013 Jun 14, 9:38am  

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

It's been downhill since 1974.

I'd say more like 1971.

36   EBGuy   2013 Jun 14, 10:09am  

CiT said: Polkas must be on your favorites list....
Welcome to the 21st century. Any hipster band worth its salt will have either:
1. An accordion
or
2. A Banjo

37   JodyChunder   2013 Jun 14, 2:02pm  

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

the Blue Oyster Cult

Seems a smidge tepid for your tastes, Shostakovich...try some vintage from '71.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/odSl-7BNmTA

Them squareheads got some stuff right, complete with a jacket fit for the hood of your '69 Chevelle SS.

Makes me wanna break shit.

38   JodyChunder   2013 Jun 14, 5:24pm  

Music is more like wallpaper these days. People don't listen to music so much as put something on to mitigate silence, which they find awkward, as it's a midwife to things like quietude and introspection.* And it has to match their lifestyles. That is to say, people don't stumble on music and have their lives shaped by it so much as they buy music like they would buy a utensil for the kitchen. I think fewer and fewer listeners really connect with and fixate on a composer or group, let alone a genre.

*If you're going to engage in those things, you need to call it something trendy like meditation.

39   Tenpoundbass   2013 Jun 14, 11:09pm  

Don't listen to music, he'll say anything to cover his ass.

40   thomaswong.1986   2013 Jun 15, 11:55am  

edvard2 says

At least that was what it was like when I was in high school in the early 90's.

Poor child, you have no idea what it was like...

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