Really anything written prior to 1964 doesn't deserve the title of modern-day music. Anything before the mid-late 1980s just sounds dull. I know a lot of passion went into stuff in the 70s, but it just doesn't interest me. A lot of the musicians of these "dull" bands come over as very talented, but the melodies they come up with are just meh. That said, I like Joy Division, who released their first album in 1979. Post-punk (not new wave) is the exception.
I find that music got better in the late 1980s with the rise in popularity of bands such as Pixies, Husker Du, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, REM and Dinosaur Jr. This trend continued through the 90s with groups such as Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, the early Radiohead (Pablo Honey) and Green Day. I also like a lot of early 2000s music such as Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs, Idlewild, Ash, and the first three Coldplay albums. I feel things started to go downhill in 2006. The existing bands either became poppier (Coldplay), less melodic (Kaiser Cheifs and Idlewild) or thrashier/emo-like. Ditto for new bands. The definition of rock and alternative has changed, much to my disliking. Culturally I define myself as being stuck in the year I was born, not my teenage years.
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