Part of the problem is the FCC relaxing all the rules on radio ownership. Radio is so homogenized today because there are just a few companies that own the vast majority of stations. And those stations set what is in the top 40.

Generation X was spoiled with bands like Sublime, Nirvana, NOFX, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Metallica. It's just to damn hard to compete with music like that, so Generation Y got into text messaging and facebook. Next major music scene should hopefully begin in 2020. So, we have a little time left to tease the kiddies about Justin Bieber.

Green Day has been going strong for 2 decades +... I'd say they are in the timeless group... Sublime, although their time was short, will live on... Some Metal groups like Avenged Sevenfold will last...

It's hard to say if Lady Gaga is a Madonna, or a Cindy Lauper, but you can't say she doesn't rock the charts...

In this day and age, it's too easy to distribute music, so every band has a chance to shine... Back in the day, if you were good enough to release an album, chances were some record company was going to ram you down the consumer's throat. It's all in availability. Now, you can choose from thousands and thousands of bands, styles, genres, and find a never ending list to fill your playlist. Thank technology.

IMO, good music is a lot harder to find these days but it is out there. As mentioned above, Queens of the Stone Age are a good example (and Nickleback are not LOL). The difference between the 60s and 70s and to a lesser extent, the 80s and 90s and nowdays is the sheer volume of great music then vs. now. The 60s and 70s were swimming in killer shit that people will listen to many decades from now and I don't see that mass of great stuff anymore. I don't know, maybe it was a function of the baby boom and the sheer amount of people in my generation meaning a higher probability of large quantities of great stuff.

The other problem to me is that it's all pretty much been done now. For example, the first time I saw Marilyn Manson back in the 90s I was like "Yawn, Alice Cooper. Been there, saw that".

Tool is about the only band relevant in this generation that has released music which I feel will endure the test of time. Can't think of anyone else, though.

Thats true, a lot of the music that comes out these days is like fast food, cool for the moment but nothing that sticks to you where you feel fufilled.

And its not just in Hip hop, its in almost every genre it feels like to me.

SmokinHawk wrote:Tool is about the only band relevant in this generation that has released music which I feel will endure the test of time. Can't think of anyone else, though.

Good call on Tool. Really great band.

To me, the same complaint holds true for black artists too. I admittedly have somewhat novice ears when it comes to Hip Hop but to me it simply does not compare to Motown, "Philly Soul" (Spinners, Stylistics, Dramatics et.al.), Stevie, James Brown, Curtyis Mayfield, War, etc.







Side note: Speaking of War: to the guy in present day War that's an original member.....Lonnie Jordan IIRC.......and the guys in The Lowrider Band that are original members of War, please bury the hatchet and do a proper tour. You guys were the absolute shit.

Galen96 wrote:Some Metal groups like Avenged Sevenfold will last...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA



What other metal bands do you think will last? Fiver Finger Death Punch? Creed? Nickelback?

Groups like the White Stripes, Black Keys, Jet, the Strokes etc. were the voices of rock n roll for gen Y. They will live on.

As I have said before there is so much incredible music being made today, but the radio is not the place to find it. it does not matter what genre it is you like its there, its just not as easy to find. Find musicans you trust then find out what they are listening to and the circle starts to get larger, maybe they run a label, find out what new stuff they are releasing otherwise you are stuck in the vortex of shizzle we call todays top 100.

m0ng0 wrote:As I have said before there is so much incredible music being made today, but the radio is not the place to find it. it does not matter what genre it is you like its there, its just not as easy to find. Find musicans you trust then find out what they are listening to and the circle starts to get larger, maybe they run a label, find out what new stuff they are releasing otherwise you are stuck in the vortex of shizzle we call todays top 100.

I occasionally get on the interwebz and just start searching, one band leads to the next, to the next, blog posts about this band, or that band, the great thing is its all on Youtube or Myspace, or parts of the song on iTunes. It's all out there to sample. Which is amazing.

Sometimes I find nothing, sometimes I find a new band(new to me), those are great times!! Love finding new stuff.

But I agree with mongo, takes time and some searching.

I have to admit, I haven't found any metal in a long long time I like. Some rock, or 'alternative' sure, but metal is hard to find imho. Maybe we need a Metal thread in here, to share some good new metal. Been awhile.

yep that is the difference, you dont have to drop 10-20 bucks on something at the record store (i am dating myself) on something that "may" be good because you heard something good from Kerry King or whomever it is, all you have to do is pull up you tube or spotify or whatever it is and check it out.....if that is too much work for you then you should die a lonely death listening to your local radio station.

You have to understand there is no money in making music unless you are jay z, lady gaga or metallica (even they are losing their shorts on the Orion tour) the major labels are losing money hand over fist and I think that is GREAT, labels work closely with local radio in every town getting their artists "heard" but that gravy train is dying fast, maybe things will turn around but like everything else in the country I have my doubts.

We should start a METAL thread !

Mainstream music is pretty much 99% controlled by record labels. It's not that there is no great/good music today, it's just not getting promoted. At the end of the day it's all about business. If consumer keeps buying certain records then why not sell them more of it.

Dubstep anyone?

DHawk wrote:Dubstep anyone?

Translation: anyone here 13?

Throwdown wrote:

DHawk wrote:Dubstep anyone?

Translation: anyone here 13?

LOL I'm 26 and and fed up with most of the music out today. I've just started listening to it but so far it's hit and miss for me. I grew up with my parents listening to ACDC, Metallica, Great White, ZZ, Guns N Roses, Poison, Motley Crue, Def Leppard and the list goes on. I love all of those bands, but sometimes ya just try new stuff just because ya can. The radio is pretty much lame nowadays. I use mine to listen to KUPD's Morning Sickness, an awesome group of guys here in Phoenix and that's about it.

word, i grew up with my mom listening to country, and my dad into heavy rock n all that stuff, no idea how i got into hip hop.

Fuck music, it's all incoherent noise and rubble rabble anyway!

Music is cyclical. The OP named three bands. How quickly we forget the large amount of terrible music that existed in the 60's and 70's as well. There are a handful of current artists making unbelievable music right now, just as there was then, while most are making crap.

Tical21 wrote:Music is cyclical. The OP named three bands. How quickly we forget the large amount of terrible music that existed in the 60's and 70's as well. There are a handful of current artists making unbelievable music right now, just as there was then, while most are making crap.

I also pointed out that there is a lot of good music today...it just seems like you have to dig for the good stuff anymore. Very few popular songs, if any, are good in my opinion. A big difference from yesteryear. Yes there were terrible popular songs from the old times...it ain't black and white...but just not as many as today.

As another poster pointed out, the music we hear today isn't as timeless as it used to be. In fact it's been going in the wrong direction for hundreds of years. Here we are...250 years (or whatever) later and we still play Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Rossini, etc...yet I don't think in 250 years anybody is going to be re-hashing any Lady Gaga or Justin Timberlake.

fenderbender123 wrote:

Tical21 wrote:Music is cyclical. The OP named three bands. How quickly we forget the large amount of terrible music that existed in the 60's and 70's as well. There are a handful of current artists making unbelievable music right now, just as there was then, while most are making crap.

I also pointed out that there is a lot of good music today...it just seems like you have to dig for the good stuff anymore. Very few popular songs, if any, are good in my opinion. A big difference from yesteryear. Yes there were terrible popular songs from the old times...it ain't black and white...but just not as many as today.

As another poster pointed out, the music we hear today isn't as timeless as it used to be. In fact it's been going in the wrong direction for hundreds of years. Here we are...250 years (or whatever) later and we still play Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Rossini, etc...yet I don't think in 250 years anybody is going to be re-hashing any Lady Gaga or Justin Timberlake.

With so many choices and genres anymore, I don't know that popular music is still a viable term. In the 70's, when you really only had a choice of 3 or 4 genres, if somebody made a popular song or album, everybody in the country was familiar with it. Nowadays out of the five songs up for song of the year, you may have only heard one or two of them in your life, depending on what genre you prefer and how you get your music.

Lady Gaga's won't last, but Alicia Keys' will, Ryan Adams will, and maybe a couple of the talented country acts (Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney). There is some classic, classic hip-hop out there from the past decade, but I'm assuming this crowd doesn't have a huge taste for it. What is classified now as pop is bad, bad music, but a lot of it always has been.

I'm sure I'll go on a board a decade or two from now saying the same thing, and some young punk is going to defend their music. Maybe what is timeless to future generations differs from what we think of as timeless. There is music from this era I'll always listen to, but you're right, it is quite a bit harder to find than it was even 15 years ago.

Tical21 wrote:
Lady Gaga's won't last, but Alicia Keys' will, Ryan Adams will...

I've never been a Neil Young fan--good songwriter for sure but not that great of a musician and I really dislike his voice--so I consider him a "medium" level act in the Rock pantheon. Medium level was good enough to be a household name 40 years ago. Not anymore.

I think Ryan Adams' career is about the most a true Rock band or artist can hope for nowadays. Limited label support, build a fanbase organically enough through good music to get your albums consistently in the top 10. But no huge payday/respect/admiration from the population at large.

Tical21 wrote:Music is cyclical. The OP named three bands. How quickly we forget the large amount of terrible music that existed in the 60's and 70's as well. There are a handful of current artists making unbelievable music right now, just as there was then, while most are making crap.

I hear ya bro. Dad spent a lot of money having his Bay City Rollers tattoo burned off...

Fascinating thread. I probably don't have too much to add that hasn't been said by half a dozen people more musically versed than me, but some miscelanious musings.....

Music is kind of like milk straight from the cow. When it's fresh, it's all sort of mixed together in a homogonized liquid. It's only after you take the time to let it settle out that the cream rises to the top.

Look at 90's music (my generation). We all wax poetic about Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, STP, Tool, Wu Tang, The Fugees, Biggie, Nas, The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, etc... but I remember actually being in the 90's and while all that great music was there, you couldn't turn around without hearing the Spin Doctors, Nelly, Ace of Bass, Hansen, Tevin Campbell, Sugar Ray, Limp Bizkit, Creed, the Venga Boys (remember THAT crap?) and a myriad of other shit music. No different than the 80's; U2, Def Leppard, Skid Row, Gn'R, Maiden, Priest vs. Rick Astley, Wham, Winger, Mr. Big, Kenny Loggins, That guy who sang "Mickey". No different than the 50's, 60's and 70's too. Hopefully this generation (WTF do you even call it? the zero's? the teens? dafuq?) has some good music that will rise up and stand the test of time.

Look at the movie Dazed and Confused; every song on that soundtrack is a classic. that's because they had the bennefit of hindsight. Look at the soundtrack for Fast Times; more than half of those songs are total ASS. That's because they were living in it and couldn't tell the difference...

I think record labels are an endangered species . Look at Macklemore. He had the #1 song on Billboard for how long, and his current single is heading for #1 right now (if it isn't there already). What label did he sign with? He signed with "Mackelmore". He said F-you to the "establishment" and sold his wares direct to the consumer over the internet with zero support from a label. Now he's probably one of the biggest stars in music right now and he did it all from his fricken laptop.

I think that's going to be the future. I suppose Disney and the like will always push their brand of sugary soda pop nonsense at us (more likely our kids) through their TV and movies, but those that know better will learn where to find the real shit. Trouble with that is, everything will be out there for consumption and I can easily see people get lost in that sea of choice. I think that's going to lead to a new kind of music tour guide rising to prominence; like the radio DJ was up until the late 80's (before the radio stations $old them all out), I can see music bloggers helping people find new shit. People are going to find "a guy" who they identify with (or might even become that guy for someone else) and follow their links to new good shit. Then from there, trade shit back and forth with your friends like you did in the old days with TDK mix tapes. It's a whole new market, we just need to figure out how it's all going to work. iTunes (yes, i hate hate Apple too iRo, I use 7digital) is going to be the new Polygram

I actually think that when we look back 20 years from now, we're going to see that this was actually a very pivotal time for music. With things like iTunes & YouTube allowing artists access to the world and things like DatPiff & Music Genome (pissed off I can't get that up here anymore) to allow people a means to discover new music independent of big marketing machines, the kid in his basement is almost on equal footing with the biggest names in the game. All he needs to do is email an MP3 to a few different people and the whole world can buy it from any number of different sources. Because of that, I HOPE we reach a point where it once again becomes only about the music and not all this other superfulous crap. Hopefully the Justin Biebers and crap we're seeing now are just the swan song of that shitty time and real music starts to take the lead again (or it at least finds some kind of balance).

All in all, I think that while the internet has certainly allowed for a lot of shit music to reach the mainstream, it will also be a pretty huge game changer (it already is, but it'll only get bigger). "record labels" are going to be like King Cnut trying to stop the tides before that wave of change. The "music mogal" is likely going to be a thing of the past as a result. Good acts will probably be able to make a really good living (probably even make it "rich") and fewer people will get screwed over by "The Man", but we probably won't see people get "HOVA rich" anymore. If people do make giant money, they'll make it the way the Stones did; big tours and giant stadium shows.

hmmm.... turns out I did have something to add.

Trenchbroom wrote:

Tical21 wrote:
Lady Gaga's won't last, but Alicia Keys' will, Ryan Adams will...

I've never been a Neil Young fan--good songwriter for sure but not that great of a musician and I really dislike his voice--so I consider him a "medium" level act in the Rock pantheon. Medium level was good enough to be a household name 40 years ago. Not anymore.

I think Ryan Adams' career is about the most a true Rock band or artist can hope for nowadays. Limited label support, build a fanbase organically enough through good music to get your albums consistently in the top 10. But no huge payday/respect/admiration from the population at large.

Neil Young is not medium grade. He is top shelf. He has just always done things his own way, is reclusive, and has given the middle finger to the music industry enough times where he isn't at where his peers are at.

12evanf wrote:

Trenchbroom wrote:

Tical21 wrote:
Lady Gaga's won't last, but Alicia Keys' will, Ryan Adams will...

I've never been a Neil Young fan--good songwriter for sure but not that great of a musician and I really dislike his voice--so I consider him a "medium" level act in the Rock pantheon. Medium level was good enough to be a household name 40 years ago. Not anymore.

I think Ryan Adams' career is about the most a true Rock band or artist can hope for nowadays. Limited label support, build a fanbase organically enough through good music to get your albums consistently in the top 10. But no huge payday/respect/admiration from the population at large.

Neil Young is not medium grade. He is top shelf. He has just always done things his own way, is reclusive, and has given the middle finger to the music industry enough times where he isn't at where his peers are at.

There's a lot of Neil's stuff I don't care for, but I love the fact he makes what he wants to make the way he wants to make it. He ain't singing for Pepsi and he ain't singing for Coke. Neil isn't all about the money because he's a true artist and that's awesome.

DHawk wrote:Dubstep anyone?

OK then, lets ruin already decent songs with this crap that sounds like a Honda Civic with a 55 gallon barrel for a muffler.

Niel Youngs stuff is a love/hate relationship.

His voice sometimes reminds me of some of the garbage disposals I replace in my remodel business. At other times I sing along like a pre pubecent CANhawk.

Neil Young is one weird looking dude. Not a fan of his voice.

I don't find today's music any less compared to any other generation. There are still plenty of great musicians. However, you do not hear as many solos and jamming time spent on songs -- live may be a bit different.

Was just listening to Down By The River by Neil Young which has one of the worst guitar solos of all time.

If Beethoven existed today his dubstep would be incredible.

SonicHawk wrote:Neil Young is one weird looking dude. Not a fan of his voice.

I don't find today's music any less compared to any other generation. There are still plenty of great musicians. However, you do not hear as many solos and jamming time spent on songs -- live may be a bit different.

Was just listening to Down By The River by Neil Young which has one of the worst guitar solos of all time.

If Beethoven existed today his dubstep would be incredible.

He picked Crazy Horse as his band due to their loose, sloppy feel. That's why Neil is known as the godfather of grunge.

Helpless, Cortez the Killer, Needle and the Damage Done, Old Man... I could go on, those are all A+ songs, and no one today is recording music like that. Even some of his newer stuff like Hitchhiker and the song Love and War, I think was one of the best of that year (had to look it up, but it was 2010).

Largent80 wrote:Niel Youngs stuff is a love/hate relationship.

His voice sometimes reminds me of some of the garbage disposals I replace in my remodel business. At other times I sing along like a pre pubecent CANhawk.

So yous sings likes an angel then...

SonicHawk wrote:Neil Young is one weird looking dude. Not a fan of his voice.

I don't find today's music any less compared to any other generation. There are still plenty of great musicians. However, you do not hear as many solos and jamming time spent on songs -- live may be a bit different.

Was just listening to Down By The River by Neil Young which has one of the worst guitar solos of all time.

If Beethoven existed today his dubstep would be incredible.

YES! Today's music is definitely lacking in the instrumental department. Buckethead can't do it all.

twisted_steel2 wrote:

fenderbender123 wrote:
Why is it that people don't like instrumentals anymore?

Some people still do, Pelican is one of my favorite bands. But then again I have exceptional taste in music.

I think I'm gonna look Pelican up... I'm usually on the hunt for new music! Thanks for that!

LyndseyG wrote:

twisted_steel2 wrote:

fenderbender123 wrote:
Why is it that people don't like instrumentals anymore?

Some people still do, Pelican is one of my favorite bands. But then again I have exceptional taste in music.

I think I'm gonna look Pelican up... I'm usually on the hunt for new music! Thanks for that!

Dude, Pelican rocks. It's not ADD type music though, you need to give the songs time, they're in the 7-10 minute department, they slowly build, but great stuff. Check out:

I like Pelican, but they really need to get a new drummer.

Explosions in the Sky are a great instrumental band

oh and the Secret Chiefs3

SouthSoundHawk wrote:I like Pelican, but they really need to get a new drummer.

Completely agreed.

I got to see Pelican at an in-store show in Denver a few years back. Music was wonderful, but not a very dynamic show.