Freebase Dali

I think what's important to remember is the fact that as newer generations are exposed to the stuff they're mainly exposed to by all your typical mass media outlets, they'll generally find normalcy and merit in that stuff in ways that those of us who've grown up to earlier stuff can't. I'm not saying that kids today can't find more merit in music other than what's fed to them currently, but it should be obvious that enough people are giving comparatively bad music a reason to be prolific, and the fact that it works out this way really can't be blamed any more than we could blame our own musical upbringing, when compared to our elders who think our taste is crap.

Is there some kind of objective guideline that deems a particular piece of music "good"? Maybe, in some scientific observation statistic, but it still boils down to preference, regardless. The fact of the matter is we're all subject to our own time and place in music, and it most certainly influences our notions of anything outside it because we're always comparing new music to our own expectation of what music should sound like, which is most likely based, in some fundamental way, on the way we are exposed to it growing up.
If we can accept that, then we also have to accept the same position for those who are growing up in this current situation. We don't have to like it, but there really isn't much hope of changing it apart from simply doing what you can to provide alternatives and hoping people are willing to consider them.

Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

That's not true at all. It's a proxy generational war that forces the masses from being subject to their own time, and place.

I'd like to point out the Internet as a personal source of mine. I could list my top 20 bands/acts right now, and honestly literaly 0 of them come from the mainstream outlets, and are scattered over centuries, all over the world.

Shame though so many fall for the trap of some sort of illusion of freshness from things due to the time period in which they start, and how they are marketed. However, the internet, and the weakening grasp of the controlled music media brings new hope.

With that said, it doesn't stop the fact that the controlled music media is deteriorating yet still going nowhere.

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Al Pacino = God

Freebase Dali

The internet definitely changes things up from previous generations. I didn't grow up with the internet, and finding new music meant going to record shops with or without recommendations from actual real-life friends. But now all that is different, but it is obviously not changing the outcome much when it comes to pop music... if anything, it's contributing. Not because we have so much more freedom to explore, but because there is now a far larger medium in which to "spread" it, for lack of a better term. The music industry itself has changed the way it works because of this fact. To think for one second that your average dumbed-down teen isn't being manipulated in some form or another in regards to his or her exposure to mainstream music over the internet would be insane.

I think that if you find this ridiculous, you're just one of the folks to which this doesn't apply.

Howard the Duck

some good stuff seep through now and then:-

iyaz's Replay
Rihanna's Love the Way You Lie
Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA
JB's Baby

Janszoon

Right. In other words not much of a parallel to contemporary pop music there.

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Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

starrynight

Maybe it started late 80s. There is alot of good music out there now though it's just that it doesn't get hype.

Yes, creativity. Something which just sounds like a poor copy of something else isn't really that creative for example

Herocon

Yeah, but I'm talking about, for example, iTunes' top 100 songs. Almost all of the songs on there are computer-generated, and lacking in talent. I believe that artists who actually possess talent should be getting rewarded for their hard efforts...not Katy Perry and Kanye West. *Wink wink*

Janszoon

I'm not a fan of Katy Perry or Kanye West but they both play traditional instruments so they're probably not the best examples to use if you're going to trot out the worn out old "live instruments = talent" argument.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Guybrush

You have people who are personally interested in music and spend a lot of time with it, such as most people on MB. Then you have the vast amount of music consumers who spend most of their listening time on hit/mainstream stuff. Popular music largely caters to that last group. Will there always be a minority leering at what the majority spend their time and money on? Of course

I don't think mainstream music will ever become the kind of stuff I enjoy the most because the stuff I like is generally not as instant and takes a little more time to get into. I like a lot of music which challenges or expands on the typical rock/pop song formats and that generally doesn't sell well with the vast majority of casual consumers. F.ex off the top of my head, I can only think of one single that sold well that was in an untraditional time signature and that was Pink Floyd's Money. I assume that trend will continue into the future.

So for me personally, I don't have high hopes for pop in the future .. But it's not like I feel I need pop anyways!

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Howard the Duck

I usually have high hopes for something mainstream that is hyped like Janelle Monae's The Archandroid but then it pisses all over me