Music Banter - View Single Post

**Frownland** · 08-21-2015, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I agree and I think a lot of it has to do with the eternal "That's too loud/That's not loud enough" argument that goes on between the generations. As each new generation comes up, their music is, it seems, more aggressive and louder than that of their parents. Jazz gave way to rock, rock to metal and punk, metal and punk to hip-hop to a degree, and so on. Now, those of us that are considered (ahem) older think much of today's music is too loud, formless and ideally at this time soulless, while those who are younger think that what we listen to is boring, old and irrelevant. And so, I expect, it will always be.

Old music is so formless and loud. Not like that new Ed Sheeran nonsense.

Quote:

There's also the, as you put it, tribal aspect, where it's considered "uncool" to listen to "old" music, and as everyone wants to be accepted, you get the herd mentality often in music appreciation, where I swear a large percentage of those who listen to today's music (sorry) do so more because it's the thing to do, the thing that makes you acceptable, rather than something they actively enjoy.

I was interested to see, when Ed Sheeran played here recently, of the four or so people stopped and interviewed and asked why they liked him, almost every response was "Uh, it's just great. The lyrics. The .... I just really like his music." Showing us that really (although in fairness these people were put on the spot, but still, if someone stopped me in the street and asked me why I liked my favourite band, I could talk their ear off with reasons) nobody KNOWS why they like Ed Sheeran, ergo, nobody really probably does actually like him, it's just a case of going with the crowd.

I think that's always been the mindset of many a casual music fan. They're not that concerned about being picky and just go with whatever everyone else liked. I mean, Frank Sinatra's music isn't particularly great (imo, especially when compared to his contemporaries in the jazz field), but a lot of his popularity came from his image. You see pretty much the same type of thing today.