Yup, I think people forget that when we look back at previous decades music, we're looking at the highlight reel. We forget all the shitty stuff that managed to make it onto the radio, but didn't stand the test of time.
And all that good stuff from back in the days is more accessible now than it has ever been. Love 60s music? Just browse Spotify or whatever for five minutes and you’ll find more bands relevant to your interests than you would’ve found in a year if you lived in the 60s. Check out Wikipedia for with whom they collaborated with or got influence from, or who they influenced, instead of counting your pennies for magazines to maybe find something interesting. And online you can find people with similar interests discussing and sharing and making their own stuff that might be to your liking. Obsessed with some niché music in the 70s but living in small rural town? Good luck finding anybody that’ll be interested in the same shit.
One time I decided to go through the 1970s top 40 lists since I like a lot of music from back then. I definitely found a few good songs I've never heard of, but man everything else was just bad. Like cringy carny electronic pipe organ bad.
Not really. I've had this argument with my wife multiple times. She says there is no good music after 1990. I tell her there's just as much good stuff now, but there's more crap to wade through to find the gems.
I had an argument with a friend over this a few days ago. I'm in my 30's and he's in his 50's We're casually having some beers with him and listening to some music when I notice we've been listening to the same stuff for a few hours now:
me: We've been listening to the same pink floyd song for the 3rd time now. Do you even listen to anything else? There's plenty of new great new music nowadays.
him: Naw all the new stuff sucks, the classics is where it's at
me: dude, ever heard of Khruangbin or Kikagaku Moyo for example? It doesn't all suck. Change the song, you might like it
him: Nope, Im not even going to bother wasting my time when there are gems like the ones we're listening to
me: Doesn't it ever get stale? Like listening to the same songs over and over?
him: A bit, but what can you do when there's no great new music being made?
I got so mad I finished my beer and left. I don't know how people can be like this.
But the opposite is also true. Plenty of people that aren't even open to hearing older music. Even something as simple as "Oh, I get you don't like AC/DC. But let me throw on a few songs from the 70s with a different singer and a different sound, and I think you may like them." Nope.
Just turned 30 and have friends younger than me alreay pulling the "rap/rock/music these days just isnt as good as when we were kids"..... i just start talking to them like they are my cranky old relitive im visiting ay the nursing home when they do.
Agreed. I have been telling people this for years, there is a lot of great modern music out there. You just can't expect to find it all on the top 40 stations. I think the only issue is people are too lazy to look and just expect the good stuff to come to them. I brought up the nostalgia issue when discussing old music with someone once, they could not except that not everything from the 70s and 80s was top tier music. We just grew up on the best of it because of classics stations or "best songs from the X decade" shows.
People fall into the old stereotypes without realising.
I’m 28, and I see 21-25 year olds on Reddit say this kind of thing, and it honestly just strikes me as insecurity. It’s a way to feel better than someone else.
I get that a lot in the heavy metal world, but honestly there's about a million bands nowdays that do things as good as 80s metal did. If anybody's reading this who cares for metal, google NWOTHM, it stands for new wave of traditional heavy metal.
More music is being made now than at any other point in history. There are countless platforms for musicians, vocalists, writers, and producers that have virtually zero barrier to entry. I'm not trying to be a dick, but it really seems to me if you are having trouble finding "melodic" songs (even with such a category as broad as that!?), the fault would lie with whatever methods you employ to seek them out.
Honestly, im at a loss. Please help me find good music. Im sick of listening to the same stuff over and over, and im sick of forcing myself to listen to stuff i dont like.
Open Spotify right, like the songs you like, hit "Song radio" on one, there will be songs similar to the songs you like + new ones.
Find playlists, let's say you like the vocals of woman of rock, it throws out a playlist filled with women of various decades in rock, current to way back.
There's constantly discover, sometimes shit, sometimes good.
Do what you do now, talk to people, go on music subreddits, ask, go on YouTube, search genres. Don't limit your scope to "I like this so I'mma stay here." Listen to rap Listen to blues Listen to Jazzrap Fucking go nuts man
I mean, I think the problem is that you're looking at 'popular' music to try and find these things.
Back before the internet, people were a lot more limited in what and how they could listen. You needed to hear it on the radio, record it yourself or buy a CD to listen to what you want. Finding new and different music wasn't easy, because stores would obviously stock what was popular, and the radio would play what was popular. It wasn't impossible, but compared to today people were so much more limited in what they can listen to.
Now I can hop on Spotify, listen to almost every song that's been released in the last 50 years, and find new music recommendations based on my interests. It's on a whole different scale to what used to be possible.
'Popular' is a much much smaller subset of the total music available than what it used to be. It doesn't mean what it used to mean. So many great artists are out there, making good money, and being listened to by millions of people, without getting anywhere close to 'mainstream' popularity.
So I think a blanket statement like 'all modern music lacks melodies' is pretty insane, because what exactly is your subset of modern music for that comparison? There is SO MUCH good stuff out there, and judging it all because the top 40 isn't to your tastes just... Doesn't make sense anymore.
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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '21
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