When did new music stop being entertaining..?

[Haselsh1]

Or has it actually stopped being entertaining..? Given the trend in purchased music, something has clearly lost its shine. Does the blame lie with the bands and the musicians..? Or does the blame lie with the media moguls who make all of the money..? I first became interested in music in the very late sixties around maybe nine years old so I had the pleasure of all of those great seventies bands but by the eighties I had all but lost interest in what those bands had become. For me nothing really took over until the Ozrics entered my life around 1990.

What's your personal view on this subject..? Do you feel strongly enough about it..?

[Tim]

I'm scratching my head trying to understand the question, music has never been more popular. Just because people aren't buying as much physical music, doesn't mean they aren't listening?

I'm listening to more, discovering/exploring more genres, seeing more live and enjoying music more than ever. I'm lost and certainly don't share your gloomy appraisal, seeing it totally differently. More live venues, festivals, streaming services, internet Radio, YouTube, talent shows on TV (X-Factor has about 20 million viewers) - I really don't know what you're on about :scratch:

It may have become less entertaining for you, but not for me - maybe a wee dram with make it better ;)

[Haselsh1]

It could well be my geographical location that makes live music difficult to experience but my question was based largely on stats and sales of recorded music rather than any other form and given that this forum is largely dedicated to Hi-Fi, live music doesn't really have much of a place. My overall perception is largely that it is the quality of the music that has dropped but that is a huge genralisation.

[Haselsh1]

I'm scratching my head trying to understand the question,

There are actually five questions

;)

[Stratmangler]

Who is it that you once found so entertaining, and when is it that their music lost its shine?

[Haselsh1]

Who is it that you once found so entertaining, and when is it that their music lost its shine?

Chris, it's more of a generalisation than anything, its not really any one artist or band. I just find the whole music scene has lost it's edge. Of course it could very well be that I no longer find anything related to music stirs me the way it used to. It used to be refreshing and exciting but now it is just bland and uninspiring for me. Even my fave rave Ozric Tentacles have gone the road of everything being digitised and quantised and it sounds so bloody boring and lifeless when compared to their early stuff. I have though recently discovered 'Signify' by Porcupine Tree and that is really good after a few listens. I think regarding timings that Ozrics lost their shine about twenty years ago. The turning point for me was around the album 'Curious Corn'.

[Macca]

Aside from the very rare exception new music stopped being entertaining around the mid-'Nineties.

Last time music was really good was on the back of the big late 1980s recession. Loads of youngsters on the dole with nothing better to do than form bands and plenty of time to practice and write songs. Plus it was a way out of poverty, like football and boxing. Now they are all working for the man: so no time and no incentive.

[struth]

think we have a lot of very good stuff coming out at moment. might not be my taste but its pretty well done. there has always been stuff i regard as crap, even 60/70's

[Macca]

think we have a lot of very good stuff coming out at moment. might not be my taste but its pretty well done. there has always been stuff i regard as crap, even 60/70's

I don't mind there being a lot of crap, as you say there always was, as long as there is also a decent amount of good stuff. And there isn't. I occasionally go on you-tube to check out modern music that people are enthusing about on here. I'm almost always disappointed.

[Haselsh1]

so no time and no incentive.

That is a very choice selection of words.

[Haselsh1]

Yeah, skipping college with no money and nothing to do so let's form a band. Next thing we have the likes of Cabaret Voltare or John Foxx.

OK so only examples that mean things to me but this is what I am getting at. Why does everything now sound so corporatised...?

Where is the free spirit..? Where is the sodding energy..? Where is the life in the music..?

[Haselsh1]

Hmm... Sue and I have just been discussing this very thing and she thinks that the rot started to set in with Stock, Aitken and Waterman which is slightly odd as I think it was with the onset of Cubase and would therefore be at around the same time. I just get the impression that maybe what I am pissed off about in music is recording and digitisation within music. Even the more recent albums by Acoustic Alchemy appear to be extremely 'robotized' and extremely false sounding. Everything is losing it's vitality and life.

OK, regarding pop music, take a look at this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnwZKTZr1Tc

Is there anything so vibrant around anymore..?

If there is, I am truly missing out.

[Pete The Cat]

I'm tempted to say that it ain't as good as it used to be, but I'm still buying plenty of recent releases and so I think that new music is probably just as entertaining today as it always was.

I think our perceptions are clouded since there are fewer long-running music programmes on TV and the music press has declined, plus so many other forms of entertainment compete for our attention nowadays. Those shared reference points for taste, breakthroughs and emerging trends aren't so obvious now, at least to me. In offering so much greater access to music the internet can also drown you in junk.

In addition, per recent comments on other threads, the "singles chart" as a sort of proxy shop window for new music has become more homogenised and less adventurous than it ever was.

So I think it's still out there, you just have to do a heck of a lot of filtering.

That said, aside from the various forms of urban music, we do seem to have lacked a major new scene / wave for longer than usual. The last couple of generations haven't seen anything as seismic as punk, rave or Britpop.

Pete

[Macca]

And Britpop was pretty much manufactured.

[struth]

Btitpop must have passed me by. Must have been in nam lol

[Macca]

Btitpop must have passed me by. Must have been in nam lol

It sort of existed in London and in the magazines but it was never real, unlike punk, rave and, to a lesser extent, grunge.

[struth]

It sort of existed in London and in the magazines but it was never real, unlike punk, rave and, to a lesser extent, grunge.

grunge? we still on music here :eek:

[Haselsh1]

I think our perceptions are clouded

I think that you have a very valid point and that clouded could be exchanged with jaded.

[Audio Al]

i'm not a lover of the current generations music :( the odd track is good but far from my musical enjoyment

[Haselsh1]

I cannot help but think that a lot of mainstream for the last eighteen years or so has relied so heavily on the bloody sweeping sawtooth wave thing that was idolised in Ibiza. Everything seems to be programmed and devoid of any skill or musical emotion. There's always opera I guess. Only joking.

[Haselsh1]

I am everso slightly getting attracted to the music of Porcupine Tree.

[Pete The Cat]

I am everso slightly getting attracted to the music of Porcupine Tree.

They passed me by until about 8 years ago when someone recommended "Deadwing". Never looked back after that, as well as PT it opened up Blackfield (Tears For Fears meets Pink Floyd) and Steve Wilson's solo stuff. ' bloke's a genius.

Pete

[Gazjam]

Shaun,
get out and see more live music mate.

I’m not meaning big corporate stadium gigs run by committee, but smaller more “word of mouth” bands pounding the live scene to get a break.
The musics out there, just takes a bit of work to find sometimes.

I lime Porcupine Tree too, pretty awesome.
Fear of a Blank Planet is the one thats doing it for me at the monent.

Our very own Progmeister Steve has a regular podcast, its pretty great for all things Prog, classic and upcoming.

Check it out.

[Tim]

I'm with Gaz, if you are feeling jaded with the music scene it's (IMHO) because you aren't seeking it out. There's so much out there, but you need to find it - you clearly have an interest to be here ;)

I got a bit jaded maybe 9/10 years ago thinking there's nothing good that's new any-more, I just kept playing what I had, didn't buy a lot of new music and pop and mainstream was not for me, as it pretty much never has been. BUT, I liken music to an iceberg, everyone knows about the top 10/15% and that top tier gets all the exposure and all the money. A lot of that top tier isn't that talented either, but it's heavily marketed and it's the flavour of the month and in two years time it's all on the shelves in charity shops. The real talent is below the water line, unseen, not on the radio and not many of your friends (unless they are muso's) will know who they are either.

I go to 50+ gigs a year, small venues, really talented musicians nobody has heard of, with an average ticket price of £15. Get on mailing lists, actively seek what's available locally and all sorts of doors open, it's like a snowball. There's never been so much out there as lesser known artists have to play live a lot more now to earn a living, great for me, not so good for them.

Buy some magazines, I get Country Music, Mojo, Uncut, Maverick all the time - I look at the top reviewed album releases and check them out, most are from below the waterline. 5/6 years ago if you had told me I would have been listening to the genres I enjoy now, especially Country I would have called you a lunatic! Spotify is essential if you don't have it.

If you want it to, it gathers it's own steam and I literally can't keep up now, just so much amazing music out there and the more doors you open, the more the interest grows.

Porcupine Tree are great, sadly gone, but living on in Steven Wilson, who really was/is Porcupine Tree anyway. Check out Backfield, especially the first two, No-Man, Strom Corrosion and Steven's solo work, particularly The Raven That Refused to Sing . . . Drive Home, ooo that guitar solo gives me goose bumps, cranked on headphones it's dizzying. Deadwing is a really great PT album too.

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It's all out there, but how much do you want to find it? So much music, so little time.

PS I understand your first post a bit more now ;)

[Haselsh1]

Very interesting comment about getting out there and seeking out the music. The fact is that back in the seventies you didn't have to, it was everywhere. The music media was all over the bloody place full of new bands and exciting music that no one had ever heard before. For me that all centred around the synthesiser which had of course only just been invented and therefore never heard before. Could it actually be that music has run it's course..? Could it be that there is never again going to be any originality..? I bloody hope not.

It sort of reminds me of the guys I grew up with back in the late seventies/early eighties who were inevitably in local bands because they could 'play' guitar. They always used to announce that they had been heavily influenced by such and such an artist or musician but when asked what style their music was, would reply "We are pretty much original"...??? How the hell can that be..?

I think that originality is now restricted to a few people who are genuinely 'original' like the guys already mentioned here, Wilson being a fine example. I shall seek out more of his work if it is available on vinyl and take time to get involved in it.

[Haselsh1]

"PS I understand your first post a bit more now"

Yeah, I think it took a bit more input from others to become clear. My fault, not yours.

[Tim]

I shall seek out more of his work if it is available on vinyl and take time to get involved in it.
Steven is a prolific artist, always having something on the go, be that re-mastering classics or his own work. He releases on vinyl all the time and re-releases stuff too, he's old school and new-school! Grew up with a Dad who loved Pink Floyd and his Mum was an Abba fan, so it makes him rather interesting style wise sometimes.

https://burningshed.com/store/stevenwilson

http://stevenwilsonhq.com/sw/

Get on the Burning Shed and his mailing lists, as he has limited vinyl editions out all the time, which are sought after so you could call them an investment maybe.

He's touring the UK imminently, not sure what tickets are available - he's a perfectionist, so his live shows are always a bit special.

Hope you find something you like ;)