tl;dr - does music today suck, or what? What are some good bands/musicians/songs?
We've been in California going on nine years, first residing in a liberal urban county with seemingly more diversity than Hawaii than on to a more rural conservative county.
In those nine years I have attended more gymnastics, wrestling, track and field, and cross country events than I can remember, throughout southern, central, and coastal California middle schools and high schools. The latest activity I'm now beginning to attend is my daughter's cheer.
And at all these events throughout diverse areas of California, 90% of all music being played are tunes from when I was in high school - 80's and early 90s music.
Not only that, but I started playing bass a year ago and all of the instructors, that are half my age, listen to music I grew up listening to. In fact, two of them shared they like the music their Gen X fathers listened to.
So, I tried giving the Spotify Top 50 - USA a listen on several occasions and none of the songs I sampled seemed memorable.
I don't believe this is an issue of age, musical preference, or any sort of confirmation bias (the music played at athletic events is music from my era). Also, I was a drummer/percussionist long ago and I would say of most music - if it has a good beat I'll probably like it.
And here's one more bit of information. When we first arrived in California I worked at a juvenile prison and amongst the black and hispanic youth, several of them said they preferred older music and found today's rap, something to the effect of, boring, redundant, and uninteresting.
Rick Beato has put out some interesting videos on the changing industry, the disappearance of bands and even a video titled "The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse," where he expounds on two ideas: 1) Music is too easy to make, and 2) music is too easy to consume.
One more thought while I'm at it, and this, along with everything else, especially technological advancement, suggests a decline in creativity. YouTube has allowed for a greater discovery of musical prodigies. Yet as they age into their teens and early 20's they are not creating anything new, just continuing to cover other musicians work.
So, is today's music not as good a previous generations?
We've been in California going on nine years, first residing in a liberal urban county with seemingly more diversity than Hawaii than on to a more rural conservative county.
In those nine years I have attended more gymnastics, wrestling, track and field, and cross country events than I can remember, throughout southern, central, and coastal California middle schools and high schools. The latest activity I'm now beginning to attend is my daughter's cheer.
And at all these events throughout diverse areas of California, 90% of all music being played are tunes from when I was in high school - 80's and early 90s music.
Not only that, but I started playing bass a year ago and all of the instructors, that are half my age, listen to music I grew up listening to. In fact, two of them shared they like the music their Gen X fathers listened to.
So, I tried giving the Spotify Top 50 - USA a listen on several occasions and none of the songs I sampled seemed memorable.
I don't believe this is an issue of age, musical preference, or any sort of confirmation bias (the music played at athletic events is music from my era). Also, I was a drummer/percussionist long ago and I would say of most music - if it has a good beat I'll probably like it.
And here's one more bit of information. When we first arrived in California I worked at a juvenile prison and amongst the black and hispanic youth, several of them said they preferred older music and found today's rap, something to the effect of, boring, redundant, and uninteresting.
Rick Beato has put out some interesting videos on the changing industry, the disappearance of bands and even a video titled "The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse," where he expounds on two ideas: 1) Music is too easy to make, and 2) music is too easy to consume.
One more thought while I'm at it, and this, along with everything else, especially technological advancement, suggests a decline in creativity. YouTube has allowed for a greater discovery of musical prodigies. Yet as they age into their teens and early 20's they are not creating anything new, just continuing to cover other musicians work.
So, is today's music not as good a previous generations?
