The Best Era Ever for New Music is... Right Now.

Who is stopping them?

 

Best era? Got to be the 60's. particularly 60 to 65. Lots of wonderful music created and many advances in recording I suspect.
Contrary to the song, rock music did not die when Buddy died but rather on the day that Incense and Peppermints was released

 

I don't know if the OP is intending to now come across as arrogant, but he does by declaring his choices must "click on the very first listen" or the person does not "truly appreciate and recognize" the best music. I expect most if not all of us can agree that McDonald's does not make the best burger ever simply because it might be the most popular. Applying this to the music world, the popularity of Iggy Azelea and a whole host of other recent "artists" strains the link between popularity and quality.

But in the case of the examples the OP mentions, it appears they are mostly unknown to the vast majority of this forum, which frommy reading includes a huge number of members with deep knowledge of music, old and new. And they are passionate about music. It is thus entirely possible (if not likely) that the OP's unknown favorites simply are not quite as good overall as he thinks -- but they just "click" with him. So we're back to subjective opinions.

 

No, you did not! You said "new recorded music" which puts you onto a much safer ground to stand on.

 

This means that IF they click with you, they will click on the first listen, or not at all. The artists I mention are all known, have dedicated followings and have achieved critical-acclaim in their genre. As Louis Armstrong said, "There are two kinds of music; the good kind and the bad kind. I play the good kind." The same is true of all of the artists I mention, regardless of your taste or what clicks with you. Again, why anyone who loves music would take my word for it, is beyond me. It's easy to hear any of these acts.

I think one of the problems with many Baby Boomers is that they're used to be spoon-fed and told what is good, and have put their faith in the major record labels to (filter out the bad and) deliver them the best music. While this may have made good sense at one time, it is totally an incompatible worldview with today's music scene. As I've said many times already, you get out of today's music exactly what you put in. It's a now niche market, made up of many independent labels, many of them catering to just a single genre or market.

If you're not constantly discovering new (and new-to-you) acts, music is not as important to you as it is to us who are constantly seeking out new music. Common sense. There is nothing wrong with that; it's seems that there are a fair amount of people in the forum who care a lot more about shiny things than music, and that's cool too.... if that's what yer into.

 

You're basing popularity on how "overall good" something is?

 

Haha, that's exactly what I thought when I read that.

 

The OP makes some valid points about the state of music in this day and age. From a musician's standpoint, it's easier than ever to record your music and put it out on the street. And as a listener, when it comes to discovering and enjoying music from literally all over the earth, the possibilities are almost unlimited. I find myself owning a huge collection of music, including obvious rarities, that I could not even have dreamt of some 20 years ago.

I still think there's a lot of great new music to discover. However, what often puts me off from actually purchasing it is the fact the the sound quality of newly recorded music (and a lot of so-called remastered music as well) is often severely compromised. I simply can't stand brickwalled music. To quote Joe Jackson, if I risk the chance of being 'brutalized by bass and terrorized by treble' it simply makes me less willing to discover and purchase new music.

Every time I've come to like a new album and think of purchasing it, I'm worried that it might be squashed beyond belief. To put it mildly - there's at least a 60 to 70 percent chance that I really don't like the sound of a new pop or rock recording, no matter how much I like the music itself. This puts me off and really has slowed down my purchases over the last 10 years or so. While I enjoy all that's possible and available, in this regard it's a sad state of affairs.

 

In an age where everybody has the technology to make music and a platform to have it heard, it only stands to reason that much of it, if not most of it, is garbage. It takes effort to wade through the dreck but there's just as much good stuff out there now as there's always been. In the old days, record companies filtered out most of the crap for you. Now it's mostly up to you and that creates the illusion that things are worse. I still believe, though, that the '60s and '70s were much more exciting musically. Rock and pop were in its infancy and young adulthood then. Now they're drawing a pension.

 

Yeah, I agree. Just because you can have a recording studio on your iPad, does not equate to great music.
In fact, IMO the PC hasn't done all that much good for the music industry. Why take the time to actually learn an instrument when the computer can just whip up a song for you...perfectly quantized to the 1/32nd note in all its midi glory. And don't worry too much about singing in tune....we've got just the plug in for you. And yes, your new track will be louder than everyone else's because we just updated our Sonic Decimator plug in.

P.S . I hope you're ok with 1/1000th of a penny for each stream....that's the going rate for this kinda stuff.

 

So to truly appreciate and recognize beautifully composed and produced, innovative music I have to listen to it listen to it repeatedly first? I don't think so.

As for not being as passionate about music...I listen to music every day. And not on my phone, I mean on my stereo and actually listen to it. So I'm pretty sure I'm passionate about it, bud. Just because I don't like what you like is pretty irrelevant and more of a strawman argument if anything.

 

Awwww...don't feel sorry for me, bud. Believe it or not, I enjoy my musical life. Very much so, in fact. Why you newers don't seem to believe it is beyond me but thanks for the love anyway. That was real sweet.

 

Well, you can't stop them. But that isn't stopping you from judging people.

 

You said it. Life is too short, especially once one hits 50.

 

Not convinced we are in the best era for new music.

The album -- as an artistic statement -- is dying.
Fidelity is being sacrificed to convenience (or the price for fidelity is rising prohibitively).
The shelf-life of most bands is getting shorter and shorter.

Good stuff is out there...plenty of it. But this is not a golden age...

 

I see it as a blessing rather than a fault.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't use the word "fault" either. Is it on me? Sure, I suppose so...I'm not into boom boom bomm uh huh yeah boom boom. To me that's not music at all. If the kids like it, or the newers here, hey well that's on you but if you're happy then go nuts I suppose.

But a fault? I don't think so. Love my music and enjoy my albums every day. How that makes me a music hater / not passionate about music / ignorant / narrow-minded / whatever else is thrown at me by these newers I guess I'll never figure out. Maybe it's a personality fault on their end.

 

Yes. I think too many people feel that -- if you are not particularly interested in ALL music -- then "you are not a music fan".

 

As someone that really enjoys new music, I don't know why this thread keeps popping up. Especially on this board that's clearly classic-rock centric.

You're not going to change anyone's mind and because of the subjective nature of music it's kind of pointless to try.

Uh - there's a lot more than just that out there. For instance, I'm really into krautrock/psych rock/noisy indie rock/garage rock/space rock/etc. There's a lot of really good stuff being created that is inspired by/references/expands on those genres, so I'm really into a lot of new music.

If you're only really into the classic rock /AOR thing there's probably little being created that appeals to you, which I get.

To each his own.

 

For God's sake avoid John Lee Hooker.

 

Of course you don't. You're not the audience.

 

Let's not forget that music is subjective. If I say Journey sucks (which I thnk they do) are you gonna cry about it and call me names. No you should act like an adult and accept my opinion. Same thing if you say a music I like sucks.

When I was younger my parent told me what I was listening to wasn't music and the beatles/who/kinks/etc. was music. When the beatles/who/kinks/etc came out there were people that thought that rock wasn't real music and swing or big band or jazz was real music. When I have kids, I'll probably think that their music sucks too.

On that note, I'm not a huge fan of new music these days, I've dug a lot and found things I like but I have found most of it boring or sounding like lots of other stuff. Just my opinion, if you like this or that band all the more power to you.

But the OP, brings up some good points. I think it is an interesting time in music. People/groups can put out music without ever being rejected by a record company for not being marketable enough, good enough musicians, etc. I see that as a good thing. It seems like these days the major record companies are content with just releasing bland pop music or repackaging certain artists cd's or lp's for the umpteenth time.

I can find almost any music I want these days. If I wanna find some Kenyan funk group made by some teenagers (if such a thing exists), I can find it. Or even if you like music just from the 60's or 50's or whatever, you can listen to some songs by unknown obscure psych bands or whatever floats your boat before tracking down their rare 45. I blew a lot of money on bad music when I was younger trying to find new stuff, now I can listen before I buy.

I do agree that many of the modern recording quality can leave something to be desired, but then again so a lot of recordings by 80's indie bands or obscure 60's bands. And as technology advances hopefully the quality will too.

Just my two cents

 

oh GOD no! i listened to horrible music in my teens. hell, i just discovered t-rex 2 years ago! i'm constantly evolving. it is possible. in my opinion, setting a cut off date for your musical evolution is just a cop out. it's absolutely fine if a person wants to stop pursuing new music or new ideas, but there's no science behind it.

 

Right, the music scene dominated by Pitchfork?

Don't pretend you're not spoon-fed these genius new indie artists/music revolutionaries by some taste-maker or another.