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Sin Agog S
Sin Agog Oct 29, 2010 06:25:15
Replying to The Sea Cat

I'm not sure I'm gonna just sit back and nod along to comments about how current music is getting worse and worse.


Today's kids have better taste than ever. I bet children are weirding their muso parents out the world over with their internet-schooling. Everytime I'm playing something like Caetano Veloso at the shop I work at, some kid comes up to the counter knowing exactly what it is. No way in hell would that have happened ten years ago. And most of the crowd at gigs I've seen recently like Throbbing Gristle and Daniel Johnston have been around sixteen/seventeen.

I remember reading Caesar's commentaries and seeing a passage where he bemoans the younger generation and how the world will go to seed when they're put in charge etc. It's a total empty (and natural) gesture to comfort yourself in your redundancy.

Even the chart music isn't all that bad if you sit back, relax- stop squirming!- and just listen with open ears.

Of course, the fact that the scene is so splintered makes it a little harder to find new acts that stand out, but it also means that there are dozens of bands out there who cater to exactly your sensibilities- it just requires a little bit of effort on your part to scout them out.

Thanks to illegal downstealing, the lines between genres are being knocked down. New musicians are absorbing everything at once and incorporating it into their new sounds. Personally, I think this is one of the most exciting periods of music in a long time, but I guess it's easier to have a whinge than actually listen to it. ;)

T The Sea Cat
The Sea Cat Oct 29, 2010 08:12:43
Replying to Sin Agog

Sin Agog wrote:
Even the chart music isn't all that bad if you sit back, relax- stop squirming!- and just listen with open ears.
I don't squirm, Sin! I merely thrash about like a freshly caught Sea Bass on a car bonnet in Dubai.

;-)

I IanB
IanB Oct 29, 2010 09:29:47
Replying to Sin Agog

Sin Agog wrote:
I'm not sure I'm gonna just sit back and nod along to comments about how current music is getting worse and worse.


Today's kids have better taste than ever. I bet children are weirding their muso parents out the world over with their internet-schooling. Everytime I'm playing something like Caetano Veloso at the shop I work at, some kid comes up to the counter knowing exactly what it is. No way in hell would that have happened ten years ago. And most of the crowd at gigs I've seen recently like Throbbing Gristle and Daniel Johnston have been around sixteen/seventeen.

A lot of this is true. The clued in kids are more clued in than ever. They also have the attention spans of gnats. They have one week enthusiasms. You know the kind of thing - download 20 Sun Ra albums listen to nothing else for a few days and then move on Fela or Hendrix or something. And I think you are observing the make-up of minority audiences at minority shows. Meanwhile 30 Seconds To Mars and suchlike are selling out the O2.

Pop is not in bad shape but for me the mainstream of Rock is worse than it has ever been in my active listening lifetime (essentially 71 to date) and a lot of new UK acts that get the second-coming treatment from NME and Kerrang are not much edgier than McFly when they are doing their charming Cheap Trick / Rubinoos Power Pop thing. It's that whole tuneful, sunnyside-up variation on EMO. And I thought Linkin Park were bad! No wonder the smarter kids are looking to the fringes of old school outsider rock for their thrills but they are a minority. The days when my now 19 year old daughter was obsessed with Placebo seem like a golden era now and her kid sister has to wade through some serious crap to get to anything good. The likes of Muse are so bland it just makes me chortle that they are considered to have edge.