No, you just have to listen to new music. And to the person who said that new music isn't that good, i'd like to know which new albums you've been listening to, because a lot of the music that's been released in the last couple years has blown me away.

Music will always evolve. It may have once been more noticeable than it is now, as the creation of new genres can only become more difficult over time. Thats not to say that there can't be a natural evolution within established genres of music.

"Evolving" doesn't mean something changes for the better. It's just means something changes over time.

Well if it was regressing to paths already tread I wouldn't call it "evolving" even if it's changing, but that's not what's happening to music so... :yeah:

Maybe it's cause I've come of age around this time, but there does seem to be less genre invention/innovation than there has been in the past. Not necessarily a negative, and not indicative of the quality of music as a whole, just something I've observed firsthand.

I totally disagree with this. There's plenty of innovation going on currently. The problem is that the present is murky and hard to define because you're living in it. Some time needs to elapse before you're able to look back and discern what was innovation and what was just novelty.

Innovation, potentially. But invention? I think thats a valid statement. it isn't a negative or a criticism, but it has to be much more difficult to help create or invent a new genre of music now than it ever has been.

Well I acknowledged that I lacked the perspective of witnessing a decade firsthand, and then seeing it's influence bloom in the future. But even looking back at the early 2000's, I saw a lot less genres being developed than decades of previous.

Out of curiosity, do you honestly think all decades were made equal? It just seems kind of counter-intuitive to me to look at every decade as being just as much the 'golden age' as the last. I can still appreciate releases at all times, but I also recognize slumps.

I disagree. Genres are usually defined after the fact. Just check out what was considered "new wave" in 1980:

Wouldnt it be safe to say that it would probably be more difficult to create something unique or 'new' now than it was in the 60s, 70s, 80s etc?

That's because the early 2000s still weren't very long ago.

I guess it depends what you mean by equal. I mean, for example, there was material rationing in the 1940s that limited the production of records for a while. So that's a decade that you could point to and say that music was hampered by war, but at the same time it was the decade that gave us bebop, which in my opinion is one of the most interesting forms of music of the 20th century. So I'm not so sure I'd be comfortable labeling the decade a slump. Honestly I can't say I'd describe any decade of the mass media era as a musical slump and I feel that the kind of thinking that leads people to label them as such is the same of thinking that leads one to become a grumpy old person who thinks nobody makes real music anymore.