There Is Something Very Very Wrong With Todays New Music Releases…..

[pmcuk]

Thats a matter of taste and opinion, none of that does anything for me, whats so good about it?

All music is a matter of taste and opinion - that's nothing new. Rock and folk music mostly does nothing for me, for instance.

St Vincent is a very good songwriter and an original voice. Sza and H.E.R. are good singer-songwriters in their genre. This may well be a genre that does nothing for you, but that's how taste varies. The arrangements in all three are well written and full of nice details - I studied composition/arranging in the Royal Academy of Music in my time there and I always pick up on arrangements. That's something you don't get much of in rock bands, which is one reason why I don't find rock particularly interesting.

 

[Le Baron]

That's something you don't get much of in rock bands, which is one reason why I don't find rock particularly interesting.

I agree with this. It's why things like Soul/R&B appeal to me more because they have an influx line direct from jazz. You hear more sophisticated construction as the songwriters are used to a larger repertoire of harmony. Just like Stevie Wonder had it fed to him from the same sources.

 

[Warszawa]

Even during the most lauded periods for music, there was plenty of disposable dross dominating the charts.

 

[Le Baron]

Prog-rock mostly.

 

[Le Baron]

More modern and good...

 

[JANDL100]

Lots of good new music around for most / all tastes imo.
You've just got to find it.

90% of everything is crap. Always has been.

 

[Sir_Franc]

Daytime music on pop radio stations (sadly now also including radio 2) is dreadful. "Songs" by people like George Ezra are the laziest form of release I've ever heard. Each song consist of two sentences that are repeated over and over again until three minutes is over. Lots of people now follow this formula. There's also another dreadful song that is a rip off of a Stevie Wonder song "I just called to say I love you". However, the cunning twist in the female singers lyrics are "I just called to say I hate you". Not only is this incredibly lazy and unimaginative, it must set an awful example to young girls who look up to these people for guidance. No wonder the music industry is dying, they push crap to stations who happily play it so kids know no better and never hear the real music that is available if people are willing to look, or the stations are brave enough to break out of the easy crap cycle.

 

[oldius]

My dad told me that the music I listened to when I was a kid was shite and his dad said the same to him. I wish old farts would let it go because it was never, ever the case.

 

[JANDL100]

My dad told me that the music I listened to when I was a kid was shite and his dad said the same to him. I wish old farts would let it go because it was never, ever the case.

Yes, it's a weird thing about music.
Many folks never outgrow the music of their youth.
Anything new and different is automatically shite.
(Well, OK, 90% of it probably is, as per Sir Franc's example. But that's always been true.)

 

[TIU]

Bring back Hot Gossip and Sarah Brightman.

If I accidentally switch to Radio One, I find most of it very self-posturing, vain and aggressive. It seems to provoke anti-social feelings and behaviour.

 

[pmcuk]

Many folks never outgrow the music of their youth.
Anything new and different is automatically shite.

Hey - the music of my youth was Bob Dylan and Sgt. Pepper....... and I love Garage music and Techno! In fact here's a track

 

[Le Baron]

Hey - the music of my youth was Bob Dylan and Sgt. Pepper....... and I love Garage music and Techno! In fact here's a track

It's not that far away from mid-70s Kool & The Gang.

 

[JANDL100]

@pmcuk What's the problem?
Perhaps you are not a member of that particular subset of 'many folk'.

I hope that I am not, either.

I've come across many examples of wonderful modern music over the last year or so.
If some people here insist on focusing on the shite 90% I regard that as their problem, not mine.

 

[Le Baron]

Lots of good new music around for most / all tastes imo.
You've just got to find it.

90% of everything is crap. Always has been.

This seems correct to me. I don't know if it's 90% or what, but all the good stuff (and some not so good stuff) is curated for posterity and presented as the sum total of music from an era. Sometimes, most times, the curators even miss out good, less well-known stuff when recycling opinions over and over. When I was young I'd never heard of John Martyn, it was the internet that brought his music to me and I was pointed to it by someone younger than me!

I find there are young people listening to both new and old music since the access to music exploded. And it's not easy to produce new and exciting popular music decades after it got going and where a lot has already been done. I'm also willing to entertain the idea that music is at least 50%, if not more, about experiences. So you always associate music from when you felt young and hopeful and possibly in love etc. So it means more. My grandad told my father the Beatles were rubbish, Then 25 years later said Yesterday and The Long And Winding Road were ' good songs'...even though he was listening to the James Last interpretations...

One of the reasons I watched Later with Jools Holland was to see new/less well-known artists. Back in Blighty I used to sit in my old piano tutor's parlour and his dad (gypsy violinist and ex-gas meter reader for the gas board) had the telly on and his feet on the fireplace and at 88 years-old he would sit there and say things like: 'she has a good voice' and 'there are lot of young-uns who know what they're doing'. There's no excuse for not having an open mind to it.

 

[StingRay]

@pmcuk What's the problem?
Perhaps you are not a member of that particular subset of 'many folk'.

I hope that I am not, either.

I've come across many examples of wonderful modern music over the last year or so.
If some people here insist on focusing on the shite 90% I regard that as their problem, not mine.

Lets us know what this wonderful music is, I will give it go.

I go through on a friday all new release, most dont appeal to me, but do find the odd good one although the last 18 months has been a real struggle, 2020 was a good year but not found much since then.

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

If I accidentally switch to Radio One, I find most of it very self-posturing, vain and aggressive. It seems to provoke anti-social feelings and behaviour.

For my sins, I once had a job in a company with a big workshop, in which the wallahs kept a radio, tuned to Vibe FM. You could hear it everywhere. I could turn up for work in a calm and professional state of mind, but after hearing 20 minutes of that through the wall, I was ready to Kill People.

 

[pmcuk]

Am I alone here in not listening to rock bands? I grew up with the golden era of British rock bands but I never listened to them outside of the Beatles once in a while. I was earning a living playing jazz and that was where all the interest was. Jazz and classical/opera from my conservatoire days, though I grew up with classical music from the start. I do like soul, blues, gospel, singer-songwriters like Randy Newman and bands like Steely Dan, though, plus a lot of electronic music.

Am I alone in not listening to rock music?

 

[JANDL100]

Lets us know what this wonderful music is, I will give it go.

If you like metal and orchestral, or just want to try something new, the Finnish band Nightwish is amazing imo.

Their 2021 album Human:Nature is a masterpiece, once again imo. Watch the music vids available on YouTube. Truly inspired.
It takes the band in new directions, but their previous music is also great.

Also, Ronnie Radke and his band Falling in Reverse. Their remakes of their 10 year previous pop songs The Drug in Me is You (reborn as The Drug in Me Is Reimagined) and I'm Not a Vampire (Revamped) are drawdroppers imo. It's also interesting to compare with the originals. Once again on YouTube. Also their recent music vid Zombified.

(I'm deliberately avoiding contemporary classical music, much of which is fabulous, realising that it's a minority interest).

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

Am I alone in not listening to rock music?

If by that you mean "never", you may be right. I used to listen to rock most of the time but these days I guess it's not much, but I wouldn't say it's "never". As you suggest, there's a lot of other good stuff to listen to

 

[pmcuk]

If you like metal and orchestral, or just want to try something new, the Finnish band Nightwish is amazing imo.

Also, Ronnie Radke and his band Falling in Reverse.

(I'm deliberately avoiding contemporary classical music, much of which is fabulous, realising that it's a minority interest).

Not a fan of metal - I listened to both, but not my thing. Orchestral can do a lot for folk music though, or just various acoustic instruments in good arrangements