When people say today's music sucks

[NuclearInfected]

They do realize they're only talking about what's on the radio right? I mean, the only thing that really has gotten worse is the top 40 pop. It was once mediocre, sometimes catchy music that became downright terrible. Not a big deal for anyone who knows how to discover music. And those people don't dismiss all new music as bad.

[tox]

When people say this it's a fairly uneducated thing to say or think...
There are thousands of new bands coming out every season who sing about anything from decapitated corpses to the joys of tax evasion to how snuggles and wiggles will enjoy the tree house today... Music is endless

"It can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable"

But in such we also have a very basic ear system and our brains are programed to enjoy a very select range of tone, and speed (along with a few other factors) but for the most part we only like go listen to very select music... And as the media likes to try to show us, we should only listen to the very center of this spectrum because it has to be something that we as a general population will have to love because science...

Most of the music on the radio is selected from the vast array of talent in the world who will turn around and sell products on air, and then off air

For instance when was the last time you herd anything from britney spears or the ealgles or justin bieber in the news... And then equally... On the radio...

Its been a while, as such it shows that the sales of these artists have fallen and the media only wants to sell us on stuff that can get the biggest bang for the buck... That means localized pop music that sounds similar to each other so we can get into conversations about how it sounds similar and the histories of the current artist, of which, will sell merchandise for the artist.

..

Supply and forced demand

[larrynachos]

Today's music doesn't suck.

The music popular in today's pop culture is what sucks.

[NGPulp]

I hate it so much when people think they're generation's just the worst.
Self-important pricks.

Every generation has had its ups and downs.

There's music that sucks today, there has been music that sucked way back, there will be music that will suck in the future.

[Sense-Offender]

I WAZ BORN IN DA RONG GENERASHUN.

Yeah, they just don't know how to find music.

[123mine123]

When people say that, it's usually probably because of pop music mostly played in the radio.
I kinda agree with them most of the time.

My taste in music is usually like almost any kind of electronic music (like weird ones like break core) and jazz (electroswing and overall 1920-1940 music), so I'm really one of the minorities here with weird taste in music.

[NewgroundsMike]

At 8/23/14 08:31 AM, larrynachos wrote: Today's music doesn't suck.

The music popular in today's pop culture is what sucks.

The music popular in any time's pop culture sucked. This phenomenon is ancient.

[AbsurdRandomness]

At 8/23/14 07:40 AM, NuclearInfected wrote:

Because what people are really complaining is the radio shit.

[KatMaestro]

Because generalization is BS.

[Ericho]

No, they don't mean on the radio. Don't you go to YouTube, dude? Remember all the Justin Bieber videos that appear and how "Baby" became the most disliked video ever made? Percentage wise, it doesn't rank above Rick Perry's Strong, and to be fair, that is worse.

[fieldertiger]

At 8/23/14 07:40 AM, NuclearInfected wrote: They do realize they're only talking about what's on the radio right? I mean, the only thing that really has gotten worse is the top 40 pop. It was once mediocre, sometimes catchy music that became downright terrible. Not a big deal for anyone who knows how to discover music. And those people don't dismiss all new music as bad.

You know, I did listen to crappy and repetitive music on the radio. I just wish that there was a different song that I would like to listen on the radio.

[Mumbo]

I prefer my tape collection of 80's rock.

Am I cool yet?

[fieldertiger]

At 8/23/14 12:06 PM, Mumbo wrote: I prefer my tape collection of 80's rock.

Am I cool yet?

Yeah, you're cool.

[Mumbo]

At 8/23/14 12:17 PM, fieldertiger wrote:

At 8/23/14 12:06 PM, Mumbo wrote: I prefer my tape collection of 80's rock.

Am I cool yet?

Yeah, you're cool.

thx bb

[Sensationalism]

POPULAR music often does suck. Always.

[Magical-Zorse]

They're just mad that their music sucks now.

[Jester]

"I hate music these days and I belong in the 50s when people had class"

-every 13 year-old who's listened to Ain't That A Kick In The Head by Dean Martin

"also, I hate all rap"

[KevinButtchin]

yep

[NeonSpider]

Heavily-marketed stuff tends to suck, and not just music.

It's a good rule of thumb that the more something is advertised and shoved down everyone's throats the more it probably sucks. Not always true but it'll do you right more often than it'll do you wrong. Of course there are a good amount of highly suggestible people out there who, if something is repeated enough to them, start to believe it, so they "like" whatever is heavily-marketed and so on and so forth. They're idiots IMO but there are a lot of them.

One of the best things you can do is stop watching TV. Seriously. Just stop it. Go watch shows you like on DVD or Netflix or whatever but TV these days is really pretty pointless other than as a marketing tool.

Unfortunately that won't keep all the suck at bay but should help with a lot of it.

[Xenomit]

Saying that any music sucks automatically makes you retarded as shit. The music can suck in your opinion, but there's no such thing as objectively shitty art, and insisting that there is just makes you an insufferable little piece of shit.

[Canas]

Honestly Newgrounders I was expecting to come into this thread and ream out a bunch of people who think that today's music is shit. But I was pleasantly surprised to find the majority of you share my opinion.

I'm a music journalist in real life, which basically means I get paid to run around North America and write about new music, attend festivals etc. Music, in my opinion, has never been better. With the time/space compression that is modern society, music can come from anywhere in the world and be instantaneously heard by anyone. This has never happened before in human history. Basically, the internet has opened up an entire new medium to hear music, and for those willing to dig a little, you can find a limitless universe of songs and artists that you would never be exposed to otherwise.

Sadly, corporate radio is another scene. Although cracks are starting to show in the dam, and people are supporting record labels and their outlets less and less. Music preference is becoming a democracy, bands that would normally be shunned to the outermost niches of fandom are now reaching star status. Mumford and Sons, Lorde, Chromeo, HAIM, Vampire Weekend etc. These are massive acts that draw huge crowds, and surprisingly, their music has all remained relatively close to its indie roots. Not that any of them are my cup of tea, per se, but it's great to see the general public truly dictating what becomes popular, even if it's still just the minority of Top 40 artists.

So hats off to you gents and gentettes for being masters of your own musical libraries.

[Nickisabi]

People also don't realize that it's always been that way. Terrible music is not restricted to recent times.

There has always been terrible music even from the best eras of entertainment.

[HeavenDuff]

At 8/23/14 09:47 AM, Sense-Offender wrote: I WAZ BORN IN DA RONG GENERASHUN.

Yeah, they just don't know how to find music.

So they listen to what passed the test of time from the previous generation and believe that today's pop is far worst then what it was before, and also just all-around ignore anything that isn't commercial. Simply said, they're people without any proper musical knowledge who can't keep their mouth shut on subjects they obviously know nothing about.

[Wardsmith]

TL;DR explanation = the most promoted music plays on the radio and sucks but there are plenty of lesser-known good bands out there.

[Mumbo]

At 8/23/14 05:41 PM, Xenomit wrote: Saying that any music sucks automatically makes you retarded as shit. The music can suck in your opinion, but there's no such thing as objectively shitty art, and insisting that there is just makes you an insufferable little piece of shit.

You suck

[Bmwd]

Bart Baker is better than the original people who made the music because his music makes more sense. It's sound cool from the beginning but then it just plays on the radio over 9000 times, it gets really annoying. This guy is funny.
Bart 1

Also i watch GMA Weekend and i laughed the part where 1 news reporter said Iggy Azalea fell off on stage. proof.
Hi.
More parodies
IGGY IS NICKI MINAJ!
DERP
JB

[orangebomb]

It's easy for us to say that music played on the radio is crap, it's been that way for many years, there is no one reason why it's like that, and to try to simply point to a singular reason is simply missing the forest from the trees. Yes, major record companies have a huge part in that, along with the usual generation gap and pigeon-holed stereotypes that go along with it, but the thing about music in general is that it's a democracy (I believe Canas already mentioned this before) and there are literately thousands of artists that are out there, so there is no viable excuse for people not to get good music.

In fact, musical democracy has been around long before the Internet, with the advent of records, mix-tapes, uncensored CDs and so on. Of course, you'll naturally going to have those who'll enjoy whatever is on the Top 40, edited for content, but that doesn't mean that it's the only reliable source of music, and hasn't been for decades. I could go on and on, but I'm sure that most everyone understood what I'm talking about.

[HollowedPumkinz]

The true enemy is pop music, the kind of music that almost always fall through the cracks of time and those who heard it at its peak, thank god that it did.

People hate contemporary popular music, ask your parents, your grandparents and then tell your kids the shit you had to hear these days. Pop music simply consists of beats and rhythms designed to get stuck in your head, they're money making cash grabs that just play off of whatever is proving popular at the time so they can get as huge as possible before falling off. After the hype dies, the beats get played out, you realize how shitty it all was.

Only truly quality music stands the test of time, note I said quality, not whatever appeals to you personally, as I don't care for many genres of music but can still see the quality in the tracks. Throw a dart at a board full of popular bands and singers that are still heard by the millions today and there will always be a reason to their success, and none of those reason will ever be the same as why certain songs are popular for a short time. No one will remember the crap playing on your radio right now in 10 years, except the sad washed up singers that played those songs.

The Beatles, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, AC/DC, Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin, The Doors, Queen. The frontrunners of generations in their genre will always be able to find a way to stand the test of time and it won't be a catchy tune that does it, its heart felt music that resonates from any other place than their wallets.

[Tremulos]

I ucking hate it when people say that shit. First, 2014 has had some great pop music on the radio; obviously we're not talking anything too deep or emotionally moving, but there have been some solid beats that get you moving, which is important for pop music today. Second, the people who say this are always intending this ignorant statement to somehow prove that they're actually passionate about music, which isn't true at all of course because someone passionate about music would be aware that good music is always coming out from artists who care, if you care enough to find them.

Fucking people man

[NeonSpider]

What I always tell people too is go watch some local artists. No, not some big-name artists whose concert tickets cost more than a new video game. Some local artists who are either free to watch or have a nominal cover fee (pay no more than $10 and usually less).

Go watch some artists you haven't heard of and have no idea about. If it's music genres you're interested in, the worst that can happen is, well, you wasted your time. Oh well. But it might be awesome and you might meet people there and the musicians might even talk with you, high-five you, and you might even get free promotional stuff -- something that'd pretty much never happen with huge name artists.

"Oh I haven't heard of them. They might suck." Who cares? Go to a show once and a while especially if you have no idea about the artist (other than a generic what kind of genre they play) and enjoy it. And even if they do suck, do you really regret it? Take my advice and you're out no more than $10 (and sometimes only $5 or even $0) and you got to see a band you've never seen before. All-in-all not a bad time out I say.

That said, if they're of a genre you don't particularly enjoy, then obviously don't bother. For example I don't bother with country or rap because I know the chances I'm going to enjoy a random country or rap artist are very small. It's just not my thing and that's fine. Because if it is your thing, then those are exactly the ones you should go to, and so forth.

If it's almost any other genre I'm up for watching some random band perform. Sure. Why not?