What popular songs/bands that are heard on the top 40 today will be listened to and cherished 40-50 years down the road? Who here listens to today's mainstream music and really gets into it and studies it and becomes passionate about it to the point where you could almost or actually cry because of how beautiful it is? Just like I thought...none and nobody...because it's 99% trash.

Have Lil' Wayne, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift produced timeless music that will be listened to, played, and cherished by future generations much like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and Lynard Skynard? Will kids in 50 years have Justin Beiber or Bruno Mars or Maroon 5 posters hanging in their bedrooms? The answer to both of these questions in my opinion is no. I would also venture to say that kids in future generations will still be putting up Pink Floyd posters in their rooms and wearing t-shirts. Why? Because music has gone way down hill. I'm not saying that all music in previous generations is timeless, but there was certainly a lot more. Like way more.

Also, I was going over the top 40 just now. It looks like every single band is actually not even an actual band, but rather some person who is the "face" of the band that does the singing and gets all the credit for everything as well as the picture on the cover. Who plays the drums and bass guitar for these artists? Who plays the keyboard? Where are the actual MUSICIANS (you know, the people that actually make these songs work) and why aren't they getting the credit they deserve? I'm willing to bet that most of the artists listed on the top 40 didn't even write their own songs. Sure, maybe they wrote the lyrics (big deal this is music not poetry, words aren't even required) and maybe came up with the melody or so, but did they write eve ry single note for every single instrument to be played? Did they write the transitions and organize it? Highly doubtful. Today's music is much easier to perform, so I'd think that we would be more inclined to give credit to the actual writers for doing the hard part.So why aren't we hearing about the musicians and only seeing the face of the singer? This leads me to my next point.

Why are so many of these "artists" physically attractive? Back in the day, most artists were not your typical hot guy/girl, but now they are today. That seems suspicious to me, because I doubt that somehow over the past 20 years or so that attractive people inherited all the musical talent. Seems like the music industry has figured out that the average listener cares a little more about physical looks than musical talent, which is sad. Ella Fitzgerald is ugly as sin, but she could out sing any of the current female artists today WITHOUT any studio/electronic enhancements to her voice. I doubt she would become famous this day and age.

I realize that there are a lot of indy bands and stuff that we will never hear on the top 40 that are actually pretty good. But it's sad that we have to really dig and search for this stuff on our own. Also, it's annoying cause I can't get away from the mainstream no matter how I try...go to a restaurant/store and there it is. Get in my friends car, there it is. Turn on the TV, there it is. I'm tired of it. It's garbage. End Rant.

Music sucks nowadays. It gets harder and harder to find music with any emotion or meaning. I've been digging a lot of British soul lately, though.

Your grandparents said the same thing about those silly groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Carry on.

Dadgum kids with their dadgum music.

Oh, and you can get away from mainstream music pretty damn easily. Turn off your TV. Turn off your mainstream radio. Of the 6 examples of "today's mainstream" music you mentioned, I've only ever heard a song from one of them (Maroon 5, and I'm pretty sure that was about 10 years ago or so).

_________________


Okay, so maybe that pass rush is still an issue. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Can't disagree with you fenderbender. Would Janice Joplin make it big today? I doubt it, you have to look like Katy Perry or Rhianna to make it big now.

There was a thread in this forum awhile back, with everyone putting links to new music, good bands maybe you hadn't heard of yet, that kind of stuff. (I'll try to find it)

There was some really good stuff in there, the great music is out there, its just really hard to find now. Its not going to be on the radio a lot, or TV, or top 40 crap.

_________________
You're the new Oakland Raiders; class-less and dirty (with trash-talking players, and an unapologetic head coach), no respect for the game, with a stadium filled with obnoxious/rude fans dressed up in corny Halloween costumes/flare. -49er fan

having been in bands for the last 25 years, the music today for the most part saddens me.. i just don't see the passion and the fire that goes into writing a stairway to heaven, or freebird..

having grown up on R&B, Blues, and of course classic rock, i just don't see the talent in song writing, musicianship, and just great bands like Queen, Rush, Earth wind and Fire, Commodores, just to name a very few...

i've also noticed it's harder for us local musicians to get good gigs. because of Dj's and the clubs audience is now a much younger generation, our music just doesn't fit in certain places.. We do everything from Sabbath to Godsmack, and sure we have our faithful, but i don't see us pulling in many new young fans, maybe they are just not familiar with the old stuff and can't connect.. they love the new stuff though.. times are a changing for sure.. i watch Conan from time to time and i am constantly wondering how in the world did some of the bands on his show make it there..

i'm sure there's great music and great bands still out there.. i guess it's just harder to find.. JMO

_________________
On to the Next Episode

Get off my damn lawn, you hooligans!




...OTOH, I agree.

The biggest difference IMO is how easy it is to mainstream artists like Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. Are they talented? More or less. Do they put a lot of effort into their career? I'd say so. But pop culture has become so easy to be a part of that it has all these 'big name artists' pump out generic music much faster than it should be. Hell, look at Soulja Boy. He started by just making youtube videos for himself and he is now buying multi million dollar planes as personal birthday presents, and his 'music' is absolute garbage. Repetitive slang, no rhyme or rhythm, and just doesn't sound good. It has become so easy to market yourself with all the social media we have now a days that it makes more sense to constantly churn out half-assed catchy music for big profits than to take the time putting yourself into the music. Monkey see monkey do....it's a copycat league.

*Edit- There is a possibility people still have Bieber posters 40-50 years from now lol the dude is about as big as it gets in the music industry as much as I dislike his music.

Those silly groups had albums that you listened to every song and they had more hits on a single album than the current ones have in a career.

_________________
That's weak sauce!

who are the song writers of today like the Beattles, Stones, Elton john, Freddy Mercury's, stevie wonders, Getty Lee's, David Gilmores., Aerosmith's and soooooo many other great writers of old... what songs could be considered the Stairway to heaven or Back in Black or Tom Sawyer of the modern era?

_________________
On to the Next Episode

Oh, so one-hit wonders are only a thing of the modern era? I see. I stand corrected.

Well, Gangnam Style, for sure. At least until next week. Or is it already unpopular for being stuffed down our throats?



Don't think they thought they wouldn't have the staying power, not after the British Invasion. Your grandparents may have said they were loud, obnoxious, and irritating, but I don't guess they'd have called them short-lived.

_________________
I blog, I tweet. When I'm not writing or goofing around on Seahawks.NET.

Don't get in the way of me casting general aspersions and making fun of people, Sailor!

Roger that. Carry on smartly.

_________________
I blog, I tweet. When I'm not writing or goofing around on Seahawks.NET.

What popular songs/bands that are heard on the top 40 today will be listened to and cherished 40-50 years down the road?


Not exactly, but my parents asked me that exact question in the 80's.

(Then again, I'm old enough to be a lot of NETTER's parent, so your point remains completely intact.)

_________________

I don't dig a lot of modern music, but its silly to think that pop has ever been anything different. That's what we are talking about right? Pop music? Did The Supremes right their own music? No. Phil Spektor and the wall of sound did most of the work for most of MoTown. Your comparing Led Zeppelin(Thief of the blues artist) to Justin Bieber, why not compare Biebs to a pop artist from back then, not a rock band of insanely talented musicians.

There were catchy pop songs back then, and there are still today. As far as long lasting music...there's a hell of a market for nostalgia, and some of these tunes people will still rock years from now. Adele and Alicia Keys can actually sing and I think Adele is proof that an exceptional voice matters more than a pretty face if that voice is packaged into heart wrenching woeful 4 minute songs. Lady Gaga writes and composes the majority of her music too. Did you ever think that 80's music would recirculate itself into a vital part of the college bar scene across America? The idea of nostalgia is powerful.

The issue, and coincidentally enough, they had a thing on Grantland about this yesterday, is that rock and pop are totally fractured apart. "Mainstream rock" is mostly stripped down acoustic shit like Mumford and Sons and The Black Keys. Thanks to the "nu metal" phase of rock music, actual rock, you know, electric guards, sick riffs, solos, all of that, is written off as music of anger. And really, it still kind of is, rock radio is filled with bands that were influenced by Korn, not Zeppelin or Floyd.

We're a nation of short attention spans, we want songs that last 4 1/2 minutes and sound good. Sadly, because of this preference, we lose out on the music that really lasts and matters.

One last thing, look at influences and how removed current bands are in their influences from bands like Zeppelin, Sabbath, Stones, and Floyd.

Mumford and Sons, probably influenced by 90's alternative English bands like the verve and Oasis, who were influenced by the Beatles.
Generic angry modern rock band(Five Finger Death Punch), influenced by Bizkit and Korn, who were influenced by Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, who were influenced by Sabbath.

I think what's most troubling is that these bands lack the curiousity and true love of music to really delve into musics history. But I find that a common refrain across all of our society.

Meandering rant over.

I'm kind of surprised that nobody has brought up the fact that in the 50s/60s/70s, a lot of the music being made at that time was with new equipment, (namely, the electric guitar, which brought a unique sound that didn't really exist before it in music) which opened up a whole new world as far as music goes. That's a lot of freedom for skilled songwriters. A lot of these "amazing idols" you guys are referring to had freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted without having to be supremely concerned about copying someone else's stuff. Nowadays, bands in pretty much all major genres get crucified by their fans and much of the media if it even resembles anything that has been done before.

I'm not trying to take anything away from great bands like The Beatles/Rolling Stones/etc., but you have to be fair about how you look at it. The world was their oyster, in a manner of speaking. Hell, some of the most popular songs of that entire era were experiments or accidents, and more than a few bands resented what turned out to be their most popular song because they wrote it as a gimmick or something along those lines. Cobain wrote "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as a joke, and Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel the Noize" was also just a joke in the recording studio, and their production engineer only recorded it for the hell of it. Slash & Izzy Stradlin wrote "Sweet Child O'Mine" in literally 5 minutes for a string skipping exercise for Slash.

Basically, my point is that looking back at that era of music and thinking "Man, so much great stuff was done then, why don't we have any great artists now?" is unfair and just not really accurate. In today's world, everybody demands originality when it comes to music, and people are elitist about their movies more and more, too. *Cough, all the hypocrites that cite Avatar as being a rip-off of something before it, when those things were rip-offs, too*

I'll probably get flayed for what I just typed, but whatever.

Well sure, Roland. Every generation has their new music equipment. Mine had the electric guitar. This generation has Auto-tune.

_________________
I blog, I tweet. When I'm not writing or goofing around on Seahawks.NET.

Good rant seahawk2k!

_________________
You're the new Oakland Raiders; class-less and dirty (with trash-talking players, and an unapologetic head coach), no respect for the game, with a stadium filled with obnoxious/rude fans dressed up in corny Halloween costumes/flare. -49er fan

...For people that can't sing. Or write a song that anyone would remember.

Seriously, the crap put out today is utter garbage, and that is coming from someone that can listen to Disturbed, then switch to Enya.

People need to put down beats and electronic bullshit and pick up a guitar and learn to play. Bunch of lazy people on this planet now. They don't want to spend the time to get good chops and actually gain the knowledge to write good songs.