Does Contemporary Music Suck?

General music discussion.
Dr. Medulla
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

revbob
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by revbob »

I thought this line was interesting ...
Keeping up with new music can feel like an equally exhausting task bordering on the futile
Again Im not sure what is meant by the term "new" here. New as in the latest fad or top charting music or the infinite amount of artists that create new music every day much of which will never chart or even get played on any commercial radio or even streaming service?

Find what you like and enjoy it, no need to give up.

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

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revbob wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 10:39am
I thought this lime was interesting ...
Keeping up with new music can feel like an equally exhausting task bordering on the futile
Again Im not sure what is meant by the term "new" here. New as in the latest fad or top charting music or the infinite amount of artists that create new music every day much of which will never chart or even get played on any commercial radio or even streaming service?

Find what you like and enjoy it, no need to give up.
Yeah, "new" is a difficult word here. What the piece suggests to me is that most people are into music in their youth as part of a social ritual, and as they age that ritual is less relevant and fades away. They pick up new social rituals, like their kids' sports or golf or whatever. Nothing wrong with that at all. Some people, tho, are into music for less social reasons—some of us for anti-social reasons! As is, it's a general rule that once we hit our 30s, it gets harder and harder to take in new ideas, new forms of expression. We're sponges when we're younger and then we start to consolidate. The stuff that seemed vital at 20 doesn't matter at 50. Accept it and live your life accordingly. Don't be a Boomer and demand popular culture revolve around you the way it did when your were 20. It's fine to let it revolve around young people.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

matedog
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by matedog »

Good article and very relatable since I feel the lack of enthusiasm creeping in. I'm 39 now, so I think that's a pretty good run, but I'll continue to fight it.

I feel like I was stifled in my 20s for new music exposure. I even did a radio show in college to try to get access to more music (and try to get an ex back). Honestly, the two things that have greatly expanded my music listening in my life were Napster in 2000 and Spotify/streaming in 2012. After the death of Napster, going from Kazaa to Limewire and whatever other sharing site was good, but not great. So from 2002-2012, my music intake wasn't nearly as good as what I craved. My new music listening exploded in 2012 when I was 29, finding all sorts of new music, probably later in life than I would have had I had better access to music earlier in life.

Somewhat interesting, I have been tracking my tracks listened to since 2005 via last.fm. I'm pretty sure I didn't have my accounts linked from 2013-2015 because my listening went way down, only to roar back in 2016. The last couple years are slightly skewed as there has been more kids music playing that I'm not necessarily into.
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Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by matedog »

I think this is related:
Image
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Low Down Low »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 11:00am
revbob wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 10:39am
I thought this lime was interesting ...
Keeping up with new music can feel like an equally exhausting task bordering on the futile
Again Im not sure what is meant by the term "new" here. New as in the latest fad or top charting music or the infinite amount of artists that create new music every day much of which will never chart or even get played on any commercial radio or even streaming service?

Find what you like and enjoy it, no need to give up.
Yeah, "new" is a difficult word here. What the piece suggests to me is that most people are into music in their youth as part of a social ritual, and as they age that ritual is less relevant and fades away. They pick up new social rituals, like their kids' sports or golf or whatever. Nothing wrong with that at all. Some people, tho, are into music for less social reasons—some of us for anti-social reasons! As is, it's a general rule that once we hit our 30s, it gets harder and harder to take in new ideas, new forms of expression. We're sponges when we're younger and then we start to consolidate. The stuff that seemed vital at 20 doesn't matter at 50. Accept it and live your life accordingly. Don't be a Boomer and demand popular culture revolve around you the way it did when your were 20. It's fine to let it revolve around young people.
The sense i get from this is not that we spend less time listening to music or somehow derive less pleasure from it - certainly not in my case at least - but that it starts to become less vital or less significant as a potential driver of social change. In our case, i guess it could be the journey of being convinced the Clash were really going to change the world to the ultimate realisation we were never really going to understand those flies anyway!

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

matedog wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 12:03pm
I think this is related:
Image
It is so easy to dislike Ben Affleck. Very low-effort work. I hate that he's a Red Sox fan.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Low Down Low wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 12:35pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 11:00am
revbob wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 10:39am
I thought this lime was interesting ...
Keeping up with new music can feel like an equally exhausting task bordering on the futile
Again Im not sure what is meant by the term "new" here. New as in the latest fad or top charting music or the infinite amount of artists that create new music every day much of which will never chart or even get played on any commercial radio or even streaming service?

Find what you like and enjoy it, no need to give up.
Yeah, "new" is a difficult word here. What the piece suggests to me is that most people are into music in their youth as part of a social ritual, and as they age that ritual is less relevant and fades away. They pick up new social rituals, like their kids' sports or golf or whatever. Nothing wrong with that at all. Some people, tho, are into music for less social reasons—some of us for anti-social reasons! As is, it's a general rule that once we hit our 30s, it gets harder and harder to take in new ideas, new forms of expression. We're sponges when we're younger and then we start to consolidate. The stuff that seemed vital at 20 doesn't matter at 50. Accept it and live your life accordingly. Don't be a Boomer and demand popular culture revolve around you the way it did when your were 20. It's fine to let it revolve around young people.
The sense i get from this is not that we spend less time listening to music or somehow derive less pleasure from it - certainly not in my case at least - but that it starts to become less vital or less significant as a potential driver of social change. In our case, i guess it could be the journey of being convinced the Clash were really going to change the world to the ultimate realisation we were never really going to understand those flies anyway!
Yeah, getting older usually means that romantic belief in your power to change the world, just by willing it into existence via a cool band, experience reveals that ain't how it works. Better to go thru that romantic hope than not, but the world is harder than all that.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Kory
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Kory »

Low Down Low wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 12:35pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 11:00am
revbob wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 10:39am
I thought this lime was interesting ...
Keeping up with new music can feel like an equally exhausting task bordering on the futile
Again Im not sure what is meant by the term "new" here. New as in the latest fad or top charting music or the infinite amount of artists that create new music every day much of which will never chart or even get played on any commercial radio or even streaming service?

Find what you like and enjoy it, no need to give up.
Yeah, "new" is a difficult word here. What the piece suggests to me is that most people are into music in their youth as part of a social ritual, and as they age that ritual is less relevant and fades away. They pick up new social rituals, like their kids' sports or golf or whatever. Nothing wrong with that at all. Some people, tho, are into music for less social reasons—some of us for anti-social reasons! As is, it's a general rule that once we hit our 30s, it gets harder and harder to take in new ideas, new forms of expression. We're sponges when we're younger and then we start to consolidate. The stuff that seemed vital at 20 doesn't matter at 50. Accept it and live your life accordingly. Don't be a Boomer and demand popular culture revolve around you the way it did when your were 20. It's fine to let it revolve around young people.
The sense i get from this is not that we spend less time listening to music or somehow derive less pleasure from it - certainly not in my case at least - but that it starts to become less vital or less significant as a potential driver of social change. In our case, i guess it could be the journey of being convinced the Clash were really going to change the world to the ultimate realisation we were never really going to understand those flies anyway!
This is likely much different for musicians, especially if they don't have kids. I never thought about changing the world but I did think about basslines—music means as much to me now as it did when I was younger, to the point that I'm drowning in CDs and need to start figuring out what to keep digitally and what to keep physically. This includes contemporary stuff as well as new discoveries from the past.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Mark^Bastard
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Mark^Bastard »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 11:00am
Yeah, "new" is a difficult word here. What the piece suggests to me is that most people are into music in their youth as part of a social ritual, and as they age that ritual is less relevant and fades away. They pick up new social rituals, like their kids' sports or golf or whatever. Nothing wrong with that at all. Some people, tho, are into music for less social reasons—some of us for anti-social reasons! As is, it's a general rule that once we hit our 30s, it gets harder and harder to take in new ideas, new forms of expression. We're sponges when we're younger and then we start to consolidate. The stuff that seemed vital at 20 doesn't matter at 50. Accept it and live your life accordingly. Don't be a Boomer and demand popular culture revolve around you the way it did when your were 20. It's fine to let it revolve around young people.
Yeah I agree with this. I started off as a 'social' music listener when I was young. I listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam when I was 14, oh and Rage Against the Machine as that was edgy and cool at the time. At around 15 I discovered punk (like 1993/1994) and my surfie friends liked it too, but they liked Millencolin and Pennwise and stuff but I got over that really quick and started liking Rancid and from there just completely disconnected from 'pop' music, discovered so many bands. Basically it was a liberating thing. I haven't listened to the radio (on purpose) in 25 years. I explore the history of music organically. I go back and forth in time and jump around genres. It probably is somewhat anti-social but it can be social too, if you find a kindred spirit.

I could never tire of music. The back catalogue of recorded artists means you'll never run out. It seems like every week I discover a new band and every month a new band that I really want to listen to. It could be a 40 year old band (most recently Zounds) or a 'contemporary' one. It makes no difference at all to me.

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Mark^Bastard wrote:
17 Aug 2022, 9:04pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
16 Aug 2022, 11:00am
Yeah, "new" is a difficult word here. What the piece suggests to me is that most people are into music in their youth as part of a social ritual, and as they age that ritual is less relevant and fades away. They pick up new social rituals, like their kids' sports or golf or whatever. Nothing wrong with that at all. Some people, tho, are into music for less social reasons—some of us for anti-social reasons! As is, it's a general rule that once we hit our 30s, it gets harder and harder to take in new ideas, new forms of expression. We're sponges when we're younger and then we start to consolidate. The stuff that seemed vital at 20 doesn't matter at 50. Accept it and live your life accordingly. Don't be a Boomer and demand popular culture revolve around you the way it did when your were 20. It's fine to let it revolve around young people.
Yeah I agree with this. I started off as a 'social' music listener when I was young. I listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam when I was 14, oh and Rage Against the Machine as that was edgy and cool at the time. At around 15 I discovered punk (like 1993/1994) and my surfie friends liked it too, but they liked Millencolin and Pennwise and stuff but I got over that really quick and started liking Rancid and from there just completely disconnected from 'pop' music, discovered so many bands. Basically it was a liberating thing. I haven't listened to the radio (on purpose) in 25 years. I explore the history of music organically. I go back and forth in time and jump around genres. It probably is somewhat anti-social but it can be social too, if you find a kindred spirit.

I could never tire of music. The back catalogue of recorded artists means you'll never run out. It seems like every week I discover a new band and every month a new band that I really want to listen to. It could be a 40 year old band (most recently Zounds) or a 'contemporary' one. It makes no difference at all to me.
One thing that I'm more conscious of is that when I do discover a new band (properly new or just new to me), I think I appreciate it more than when I was 20. I'm more aware that it's harder to get excited about these things. So, for example, when I discovered Russian shoegaze, I really dove in, knowing that that kind of "wow" isn't as easy to come by when you're an old fart. It's not that I'm more purposeful in it (I don't think so, anyway), but that I don't take that thrill quite for granted.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Mark^Bastard
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Mark^Bastard »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 Aug 2022, 8:33am
One thing that I'm more conscious of is that when I do discover a new band (properly new or just new to me), I think I appreciate it more than when I was 20. I'm more aware that it's harder to get excited about these things. So, for example, when I discovered Russian shoegaze, I really dove in, knowing that that kind of "wow" isn't as easy to come by when you're an old fart. It's not that I'm more purposeful in it (I don't think so, anyway), but that I don't take that thrill quite for granted.
Oh yeah I get that feeling too. It's like the thrill of the hunt almost. When you're younger you can be more picky too, because listening to just 5% of the backlog is still overwhelming. Now it's like finding some hidden gems so you get a little rush.

For example with Zounds I felt like I was hearing something close to 3rd wave skacore on some level but recorded in 1981. I also really liked the way it was recorded, it's exactly to my tastes.

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Related piece about why it tends to be more difficult to get into new music: https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-s ... der-200080
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by motorsmell »

Yes it does suck


Marky Dread
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Re: Does Contemporary Music Suck?

Post by Marky Dread »

There are lots of non mainstream bands out there struggling to get heard. That's really where it's at.
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