I was born in 1993, and it has often been said that I was born a few decades too late. I love the music of the sixties, and quite a lot from the fifties and seventies. The whole music scene seemed to be more relaxed, and about the talent and the music as opposed to todays approach i.e sell as much as you can as quickly as you can. It just seems to me that these days generally artists play music that will sell (although God knows why it does) as opposed to what they are passionate about. There really was just so much talent back then.

Don't get me wrong, there are modern artists that I do quite like, and will say i am a fan of - but I don't feel as passionate about them as say the Gods of yesteryear. They play good music, but it's not passionate or intimate music. theres much less soul in it. Also I feel that the guitar is a dying art form in mainstream music (with a few exceptions), it just isn't as prominent as it once was.

And I don't like hip hop, dubstep, "beats" and Squeeky voice dance music.
And it doesn't really help that most of my friends disagree totally and hate music from before 1990 at the earliest.

Am I the only one who feels like this? Please share your opinions.

Yeah, Whats the deal with that electroguitar thing that guy in Muse plays?? I hate that guitar, It looks like the back of a headrest in somebody's minivan with that dvd player in it.

Ahhh digital downloads. A fair point. I much prefer having CD's to just downloading an album. Records were quite a bit before my time, but i do like the whole atmosphere of a record. They're just cool.

I can't stand the vast majority of the bland,generic,mass produced pablum that's being passed off as music these days.You're so right in saying that today's"music"has no soul,for it also has no musical merit in most cases. In the 50s-70s musicians toiled mainly for their love of their craft whereas today everything and everyone is concentrated on making as much money with as little input as possible.It seems that people are becoming more and more obtuse about what good music is with each passing generation,the beat or rythym of the "music"has taken precedence over melody and/or lyrics.I don't know how to reverse this process but whenever I can I try to get young people to listen to music that came from an era when musicians had soul and took pride in their craft and suggest artists they would likely be interested in.Both my daughters were raised with a wide range of great music around the home and the younger of the two knows the lyrics to almost as many 60s and 70s song as I do.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

This may be a case of selective nostalgia. I think every generation assumes the previous generation had better music. I grew up in the 70s, and I always believed that 60s music was better. Now people adore the music of the 70s and even the 80s. So I imagine that some songs from the present day will pass the test of time, and we'll forget those that don't.


We've had threads before on the subject of vinyl albums, and here's a distillation of my previous comments:

Sound quality aside, I miss the ritual of the vinyl album. Cleaning the record and the stylus, setting the stylus down without a *thunk*, turning over the album halfway through... It was almost a religious experience.

And I miss the big, beautiful covers of the 12-inch albums. We had a thread some time ago on the topic of album covers, and I nominated ELO's Out of the Blue as my favorite cover. With its huge gatefold cover and the fascinating paintings on both the inner and outer cover, I could study that thing for hours.

Like a lot of people, I've replaced a bunch of my old LPs with CDs. I was listening to Queen's Sheer Heart Attack album on CD a while back, and the song "Flick of the Wrist" just doesn't sound right without the big *POP* that my old LP had in the middle of the chorus.



*Edited for grammar*

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

The early days of Rock and Roll music influenced the young people then because it was different than what was 'acceptable' or mainstream at the time. Those early days were an example that if you put in the effort to become proficient at your instrument; Guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboards, brass, woodwinds, voice you would be rewarded, and if you could write songs all the better. It is politically incorrect to be proficient at anything anymore it seems. Starting in the schools and continuing in the workplace it is much easier to control people when they are shy of what they need to be independent. Educate yourself, seek out people that are intelligent and that don't follow the crowd. There are bastions of independent musicians and intelligent people who still believe that knowledge is a good thing, you will meet them and then have friends to share time with, just try not to disagree openly with the masses, stupid people can be very very mean and (if you have been watching the homicide numbers growing in our major cities) dangerous.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Growing up in the shadows of the Empire of the Musical City,I've seen lots of "packaged artists"....who are in it for the money,and not the music.
Then again I've seen the real deal,the outlaw country guys,like Waylon, the Allman boys when they were unknown and many many others,who lived and breathed the music.
One of the biggest blows to real musicians who are not beautiful,and can not act and dance,is the music video...little bits of over produced hoaky,B movies that showcase the beautiful people....not the gritty ugly guys who play their hearts out and look like crap....yeah some of those still make it but very few.
Good music is alive,just not much in the mainstream.

I don't totally agree, but I don't totally disagree, either. The great music is there if you know where to look, and I've found that place is NOT the pop charts (with a few exceptions here and there), of ANY ERA you can name. We all have nostalgia for the music of our youth, but we tend to forget most of the popular music of that time was "meh". No one era has it over any other as far as either really great or really bad music goes. It's all there.

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'08 Fender Am. Std. Jazz bass, maple fretboard, charcoal frost metallic finish
'10 Squier VM Jazz bass, maple fretboard, natural finish
Ampeg BA115
'09 MIM standard Strat, maple fretboard, sunburst finish
Fender Super Champ XD

Intersesting topic and discussion. I have been pondering this also for the past few years. Since rock music started (1954?) there have been slumps. We're in one now for the past 15 or so years in my opinion. It's cliche and been said many times, but about every 12-20 years someone comes along and shakes things up like Elvis, The Beatles, and Nirvana did. You don't have to like those artists, but you must admit the music industry changed dramatically after they hit the scene.

I'm just patiently waiting for the next big thing to come along to kick rock music in the butt and impale anyone who uses that stupid robotic Autotune. I would do it, but I'm too old. I graduated high school in 1993. martynrss2, you and your generation are our only hope.

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

+1

RRH, I have an original vinyl of "Sheer Heart Attack", and I LOVE the whole experience of listening to it and my other Queen vinyls.
And you're SO right that the whole vinyl-listening experience is like a religious one. I especially enjoy setting the stylus down as far on the edge of the record as possible as gently as I can, haha.



Anyway, today's music is pretty crappy in my opinion.
I mean, I do like some artists and bands of this era, but most of them are just crap, I think. They all sound the same, with their whiny "singing" and processed voices, and the pounding "beat". And, if you're lucky, bad instrumentation that makes your ears bleed.

I just don't understand how my generation can listen to all of this. And all of the songs nowadays are just so blatantly OBVIOUS about the explicit content that they're about. And the young kids are just eating it up, and in result, they're being exposed to too much knowledge too soon, in my opinion.

Anyway, that's just my two cents on the subject.

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"If it's planned, it's boring." - Freddie Mercury

Good and interesting comments, many of which I agree with. A problem with rock and roll has always been the people who are in it to make money and money only. Yes rock and roll musicians want to make money but the better musicians know that true passion is the key ingredient of rock and roll, jazz, blues, country, gospel, classical etc. etc. The problem with people that are only in it to for the money has gotten worse over the last 15 to 20 years with the consolidation of the record industry, radio and tv in the hands of mega corporations that only care about the bottom line...profit.

With that said there is still a lot of great music being made you just have to seek it out.

Believe me, I'm working on it.
Also, there is good music out there, you just have to find it.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

So are you saying that music is getting progressively worse?

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AmDlx HSS
62 Hot Rod
Luke w/Piezo
Carvin Belair

This video explains it nicely: Frank Zappa Explains the Decline of the Music Business

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

+1

The common wisdom among those of us in the "geezer" category is that we often equate the older music with significant (and often pleasant) moments in our lives -- our first kiss, our "first time", our first joint, our first rock concert, our first new car, graduating from college, etc etc......our lives were "scored" for us by composers as equally old, using these same criterion that we regard as important. Thus as we age, the frequency with which memorable events occur in our lives is perceived to decrease while at the same time, our favorite composers have either passed from the scene or passed altogether. Their "replacements" are usually younger than us, with different perspectives on life that we often cannot relate to. Regrettably, this is in fact prejudice and it's hard to overcome. And it's also the reason why "classic rock" radio stations and "classic rock" cover bands proliferate and why Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix consistently remain on Billboard's "Top 100" list decades after their deaths.

Personally, I do listen to "new music". But it's often "new country" instead of rock.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY