The sad thruth: Music just isn't what it used to be anymore
disco_che
1,115 Posts
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disco_che
1,115 Posts
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nostalgia is terrible thing.
When people horn about how much music has changed and how far it's fallen, they're usually--whether they realize it or not--nostalgic for some past version of themselves or some past version of the world. It's been my experience that the more content a person is with their current self and current circumstances, the less likely they are to have a problem with current music.
Music was better back when your heart was newer.
well. said.
"same as it ever was..... same as it.. ever was.. SAME AS IT EVER WASSSSSSSSS!"
Well said
People who are serious about their music tend to use their musical taste to represent what they want to project as their personality. Whether it's the Garage dude that won't listen to anything past July of '67 or the dreadlocked dude who thinks it all begins and ends with Marley. From my viewpoint only listening to music of one genre/time period makes that projected personality look pretty shallow.
My heart may be old but I try to keep my ears new...and it's not an easy thing to do.
How stupid has it got be for people finally ignoring it?
Whether you meant it seriously or you were just throwing it out there, why do it if you're going to get upset when people respond?
Truth is a lot of people do feel that way.....and have every decade that I've listened to music..... and unfortunately for me, that would be six.
I don't even segment my tastes by time. It's all about whether it sounds good and appeals to me. If it's trendy right now, it's not my concern.
Back in my record-store days, the hip-hop/dance music fans used to get on my case for liking so much old music. My response is: there's too much good shit to choose from, then and now. I can't just limit myself to "tomorrow's sound today."
(BTW, I have found that hip-hop/dance music fans get really preachy about keeping up with the trends. Without fail. I don't see fans of other kinds of music acting all uppity about being current. Even the most shallow indie-rock fan you know probably has a few CDs made before their birthday.)
I'm not really upset, only my mind is boggled. I just can't believe how someone can throw out something unreflected and arbitrary like "Electronic music bores me to death" which deserves nothing but the chirp and then there's serious discussion about the merits of electronic music. Everybody should be beyond that. So I just typed in something even more unreflected and crude.
I know a lot of people feel that way, but they are mostly in youtube comments and not in here.
BTW, soft ice used to be way softer before 1995.
This thread was worth every penny, for this.
Yeah, I'd agree with this. Generally, dance music has always been about the new thing, whether that happens to be the dance crazes of yore or whatever new collection of noises people want to hear over a 4/4 kick when they've got a headful of drugs of a Saturday night. Likewise the way the average hip-hop fan has alway pursued that next shit with at least as much enthusiasm as for what's happening now. Conversely with hip-hop, there's a widespread disregard amongst the music's core constituency for the people who built it, which is something you don't really see amongst fans of other genres. I mean, picture Jack White proudly declaring that he didn't give a fuck about the blues.
poe's law
Yeah, the whole "new music that works incredibly hard at trying to sound old" thing has definitely been one of pop music's consistent growth areas over the last decade or so.
I think the real value in a thread like the Electronic one is for those who disagree to make their case by posting examples that might sway the original posters opinion......and if they don't it's simply a case of the poster not having their ear tuned to that particular sound...no amount of insults/argument/asshurtness is going to change his ear.
If you tell me Psych or Rockabilly bores the hell out of you I'll play you what I think are the best examples of each and if you still think it sucks...so be it.....we can't all have the same tastes.
Interesting point......do you attribute this to the jealousy of not having any "ownership" of the OG and wanting to have an independent sound that they can call their own or a purposeful disconnect on a "you're old" tip?
Rock, what Doc is saying isn't entirely true. Young rap fans do revere who they consider the pioneers of rap. They just don't agree with older folks on who those pioneers are. To the kids, it's 2Pac and Biggie and whatever regional hero (DJ Screw, Mac Dre, etc.) they are most closely aligned with. Just because they don't give it up for Melle Mel and Run DMC and Rakim and such doesn't mean they aren't looking to the roots. They just see the roots from a different view is all.
Gotcha.....like Jack White might idolize Howlin' Wolf but not give a rats ass about Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Not true. Jack White would probably like the Wolf and Blind Lemon about equally.
There really is no equivalent. The hip-hop/dance/contemporary R&B community is the ONLY music that refuses to look back. Fans of other styles don't eat their old like the modern R&B set does.
Nearly twenty years later...
What are you talking even talking about? How does a "community" that has made sampling their forte not manage to "look back"? I know all sorts of young folks in that "community" and they are not only digging up sampling fodder, but studying the masters as much as anybody.
Yeah, I did wonder whether I should have qualified that part a little more. I had in mind that ridiculous episode a few years where Lupe Fiasco made a public show about never having heard Midnight Marauders, seemingly because he didn't want to be seen as the backpacker's new poster boy, which is what he's ended up becoming anyway. What you're saying is certainly true of the South, where they've never bought into the "NYC = undisputed centre of the universe" view of the music that's predominant elsewhere. I remember reading a Gang Starr interview years ago - in Rap Pages, I think - where Primo, who's a Southerner himself, talked about visiting Texas back when he was living in Boston and being surprised at how different the hip-hop of choice sounded compared to what was happening on the East Coast.
As for Rock's question, I think it's perhaps just a matter of distance rather than anything more considered. I might be old enough to remember LL Cool J and Ice T when they were new jacks, but to some kid less than half my age they're probably just guys on some TV show who used to be rappers. To that kid, 2Pac is old-school, and Melle Mel might as well be Louis Jordan. Kids will always want their own shit and, to some extent, be dismissive of what went before. I think the absence of an established "canon" for hip-hop has contributed to that, and I think that's actually a positive thing. You're exactly right when you say regionalism is still a big part of the music. There are those performers who everyone knows, but as a general rule you probably aren't going to find too many New Yorkers who grew up listening to Spice 1 or Ant Banks, any more than you'd find a whole load of twentysomething rap fans who knew about Lil' Keke, yet had never lived in Texas.
If there weren't already better examples, the whole ASAP Rocky phenomenon, with NYC kids openly worshipping Texas rap, has pretty much shattered that conception.
Really, guys, the paradigm has changed...and I'm not sure y'all are (yet) equipped to discuss it.
Well, I'll tell you what I'm "talking even talking about." Has anybody in the hip-hop field tried to bring back a Joe Quarterman the same way Jack White worked with Wanda Jackson?
If so, I stand corrected. School me.
...but I'll give Questlove his propers for not being fixated on the current hype.
If there's anymore like him, they're being obscured from where I'm standing...but I'm sure there are others. Here & there.