New music doesn't all suck, does it?

[Late Boomer]

Jonathan Bree - Say You Love Me Too (2018)

 

[Late Boomer]

Here are a few modern acts I enjoy:

Los Angeles League of Musicians (or LA LOM):

Along similar lines, Hermanos Gutierrez:

Eilen Jewell:

Toni Price:

(sadly, she passed away a year or two ago)

Ural Thomas & The Heat:

There's tons of great new music out there. If you can't find it, you ain't lookin'!!

Too old-bluesy for my taste. LA LOM is probably the closest to my liking.

 

[twiiii]

It doesn't matter if its Pop, Classical, Rock or CW to me any more. They are all intolerably bad. I guess being 80 does that.

 

[Deafyet]

Idles, "Colussus" and most of the rest of their output. Gave me the same catharsis as the first time i heard the Pixies. I will rise to defend every decade, if you cant find the music, look harder!

 

[BmWr75]

Sleep Token is a great new to me band. They are not metal, don't know how that label got hung on them.

 

[cwall99]

Too old-bluesy for my taste. LA LOM is probably the closest to my liking.

Give a listen to the album Ry Cooder (definitely NOT a new artist) and Manuel Galban (an even older artist who was brand new to me) and the album they recorded together 20 years ago (I guess it's not very new now, but it's definitely not something you'll hear on any radio station except excellent ones like WDET/101.9 in Detroit!!).

The album is Mambo Sinuendo. I think it sounds like the soundtrack to one of Paul Gaugin's dreams.

 

[cwall99]

Ural Thomas is from my neck of the woods, Portland, Oregon and is great in my book, but I'd hardly call him new. He's an older guy that started in music in the 60s and though he was inactive for decades, even his comeback effort has to have been going on for more than 10 years at this point.

As much as I dig his music, it sounds very much rooted in the time he started playing music (not that there's anything wrong with that) which leads me to think about what the great music of today might be that actually sounds like it's made in this monument, rather than something with a more obviously retro feel, which much of the music posted here seems to be..?

He does hail from the time when Berry Gordy ruled the airwaves. aka, he even makes me seem young!!

I like that he found a bunch of whippersnappers to play behind him.

So, technically, he's not new, but he has enough decade+ gaps in his discography that he's been able, IMHO, to reclaim the status of a new artist.

And him with The Pain is new!!

 

[RunOutGroove]

He does hail from the time when Berry Gordy ruled the airwaves. aka, he even makes me seem young!!

I like that he found a bunch of whippersnappers to play behind him.

So, technically, he's not new, but he has enough decade+ gaps in his discography that he's been able, IMHO, to reclaim the status of a new artist.

And him with The Pain is new!!

I get all that, but even if I were to grant the band "new" status, there's nothing really new about what they're doing (and I say that as a fan - I saw them live and they were great!). This pick and others on this thread seem to be reviving very old styles though and my point is to question what's not only new, but actually sounds like it's of this moment that's worth listening to. I wonder if other than this kind of "new millennium pop" that seems to be the big thing these days if what music that actually sounds contemporary and isn't this kind of super slick, syrupy, generic, ultra-produced, auto-tuned, made-to-appeal-to-the-masses type stuff is being produced these days?

 

[doctor fuse]

Those bemoaning the great spendicity of old timer music compared to the reality of today’s kickassedly eclectic youth music - this video is about you!

 

[intro6]

I get all that, but even if I were to grant the band "new" status, there's nothing really new about what they're doing (and I say that as a fan - I saw them live and they were great!). This pick and others on this thread seem to be reviving very old styles though and my point is to question what's not only new, but actually sounds like it's of this moment that's worth listening to. I wonder if other than this kind of "new millennium pop" that seems to be the big thing these days if what music that actually sounds contemporary and isn't this kind of super slick, syrupy, generic, ultra-produced, auto-tuned, made-to-appeal-to-the-masses type stuff is being produced these days?

Perhaps we have finally arrived at the point where there's "nothing new under the sun" in music. I think that practically every musician has been influenced by others that came before them, even if they don't admit it. I think there's a reason that the great majority of music artists stay well within established genres and subgenres. Of course it's the commerciality, but that's a byproduct and the real reason is that these are styles that have been proven to appeal to some significant audience. Now I do find that many of the minority of artists who successfully blend certain genres or styles with their own twist on things to often be quite interesting, but smaller variations of style within a genre or subgenre can be great too, because so often the artist's personal touch gives the music a unique imprint. But with AI upon us, maybe all of these concerns are moot now.

Now, we may very well keep hearing every now and then about some new artist who is said to have "revolutionized" music yet again, but at this point, with all of the huge variety of music that has already been recorded, have they really? Or is it just a minor variation on stuff that's been done before, or perhaps a blend of earlier styles which hadn't been done quite like that? And then there is that tiny minority who create noise "music" and probably claim that they are the future of music. No, I'm not talking about punk, metal, rap etc. This is literally just noise being presented as aural art. It's certainly not something that I or the vast majority of people would want to listen to, but for that tiny group that likes it, go ahead and have at it!

 

[RunOutGroove]

Perhaps we have finally arrived at the point where there's "nothing new under the sun" in music. I think that practically every musician has been influenced by others that came before them, even if they don't admit it. I think there's a reason that the great majority of music artists stay well within established genres and subgenres. Of course it's the commerciality, but that's a byproduct and the real reason is that these are styles that have been proven to appeal to some significant audience. Now I do find that many of the minority of artists who successfully blend certain genres or styles with their own twist on things to often be quite interesting, but smaller variations of style within a genre or subgenre can be great too, because so often the artist's personal touch gives the music a unique imprint. But with AI upon us, maybe all of these concerns are moot now.

Now, we may very well keep hearing every now and then about some new artist who is said to have "revolutionized" music yet again, but at this point, with all of the huge variety of music that has already been recorded, have they really? Or is it just a minor variation on stuff that's been done before, or perhaps a blend of earlier styles which hadn't been done quite like that? And then there is that tiny minority who create noise "music" and probably claim that they are the future of music. No, I'm not talking about punk, metal, rap etc. This is literally just noise being presented as aural art. It's certainly not something that I or the vast majority of people would want to listen to, but for that tiny group that likes it, go ahead and have at it!

I get that.... but I only buy it to an extent. I do think that as time goes on it becomes more and more difficult to carve out a really unique niche, since so many other things have been tried before. Still, I think that it's possible to do and that putting your own unique stamp on the music doesn't have to mean a radical reinvention, but can simply be a process of combining some disparate influences and having one's own unique personality to add to the mix. I find though that so much newer music doesn't seem to get beyond it's influences. It's like saying that the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Motown, etc are no longer around so why not have artists that seem to pull exclusively from each one of those respective influences? If that's all I'm getting from a particular artist, then I'll always choose to listen to the original. Plenty of stuff that I listen to is very obviously influenced by certain other artists, but I always feel that they put enough of themselves into their music to make it unique. I don't feel, for example, that this is what's happening with a band like Greta Van Fleet, who to me sound like a "single influence" Led Zep inspired band, but with far less memorable material. Too many of the contemporary artists that I end up hearing have this quality for me, and though I might be a fan of whatever they're influenced by, there's nothing compelling me to listen to them, rather than going back to the far more memorable original thing... I will say that I feel that there certainly are artists out there with some vision that are doing original work, but it just seems that in this day and age, that kind of thing is unfortunately much rarer.

 

[cwall99]

I get all that, but even if I were to grant the band "new" status, there's nothing really new about what they're doing (and I say that as a fan - I saw them live and they were great!). This pick and others on this thread seem to be reviving very old styles though and my point is to question what's not only new, but actually sounds like it's of this moment that's worth listening to. I wonder if other than this kind of "new millennium pop" that seems to be the big thing these days if what music that actually sounds contemporary and isn't this kind of super slick, syrupy, generic, ultra-produced, auto-tuned, made-to-appeal-to-the-masses type stuff is being produced these days?

I'm always on the hunt for new (to me) sounds.

I'm not necessarily hunting for new genres.

I believe I'm with @RunOutGroove when he says, "as time goes on it becomes more and more difficult to carve out a really unique niche, since so many other things have been tried before."

To which I'd add, that's probably why all the greats of the 50s and 60s are seen as being so innovative: when there's nothing there before you, every step you take is innovative.

Or, we can use the raindrops in a pond metaphor: when it just starts raining, every drop in the pond can be see, but when the rain really gets going...

There are lots of new artists out there. There are lots of new genres. But when it comes to the explosion of genres, I think that's more a symptom of the very human need to put a label on everything.

 

[Copanel]

It doesn't matter if its Pop, Classical, Rock or CW to me any more. They are all intolerably bad. I guess being 80 does that.

Age doesn't matter, but when you've listened to music produced until the late 80s, you definitely can't listen to much production from the 90s to the present. At least after listening to Ella Fitzgerald, I can't listen to any of the music produced in the last 30-35 years.

 

[allmanbros]

Age doesn't matter, but when you've listened to music produced until the late 80s, you definitely can't listen to much production from the 90s to the present. At least after listening to Ella Fitzgerald, I can't listen to any of the music produced in the last 30-35 years.

Amen brother, my sentiments exactly...

 

[Late Boomer]

when you've listened to music produced until the mid 2000s, you definitely can't listen to much production from the late 2000s to the present.

FTFY. I don't care about most music produced earlier than mid-70s. I never listen to Ella Fitzgerald voluntarily, this is ancient stuff. I do like some classic rock-n-roll and some Motown. I've never been a Beatles fan. My music is played on syntesizers and electric guitars, but the voices are real. The 90s was a great diverse decade with tons of new music and new genres. Early 2000s was ok too. I abhor what is presently considered mainstream music, whether it is simplistic pop tunes or autotuned rap. Lots of good music is produced now, but if ear-piercing rap is a new style, I'd rather stick with oldies from the 90s. Indie music has consistently delivered, though it has stagnated somewhat since the 90s methinks.

 

[Copanel]

FTFY. I don't care about most music produced earlier than mid-70s. I never listen to Ella Fitzgerald voluntarily, this is ancient stuff. I do like some classic rock-n-roll and some Motown. I've never been a Beatles fan. My music is played on syntesizers and electric guitars, but the voices are real. The 90s was a great diverse decade with tons of new music and new genres. Early 2000s was ok too. I abhor what is presently considered mainstream music, whether it is simplistic pop tunes or autotuned rap. Lots of good music is produced now, but if ear-piercing rap is a new style, I'd rather stick with oldies from the 90s. Indie music has consistently delivered, though it has stagnated somewhat since the 90s methinks.

It's not antique, it's old. And that doesn't exclude quality, on the contrary. Everyone is free to listen to or hate what they want. For me, music has to attract me, to be amazed by what those people have produced, not be background noise.

 

[Late Boomer]

For me, music has to attract me, to be amazed by what those people have produced, not be background noise.

Same here.

Check out how the drum beat has been designed for three NIN songs:

See how the instrumentals are arranged for a popular 80s Eurodance song:

Learn how the Terminator 2 music was made:

This thread is for music no older than 10 years, right? So all of the above are relics of a bygone era.

 

[Late Boomer]

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[Late Boomer]

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[intro6]

FTFY. I don't care about most music produced earlier than mid-70s. I never listen to Ella Fitzgerald voluntarily, this is ancient stuff. I do like some classic rock-n-roll and some Motown. I've never been a Beatles fan. My music is played on syntesizers and electric guitars, but the voices are real. The 90s was a great diverse decade with tons of new music and new genres. Early 2000s was ok too. I abhor what is presently considered mainstream music, whether it is simplistic pop tunes or autotuned rap. Lots of good music is produced now, but if ear-piercing rap is a new style, I'd rather stick with oldies from the 90s. Indie music has consistently delivered, though it has stagnated somewhat since the 90s methinks.

I agree with you about the more recent popular stuff in this new millennium, and it's kind of sad, because there are popular vocalists with excellent voices but they are brought down by inferior songs and bad production, and often seem to be competing with each other with a sort of overwrought vocal gymnastics rather than bringing out real emotions and feelings. And I don't even want to get into the widespread use of the dreadful autotune. Yes, last century did seem to be better than the current one overall with regards to popular music.

That being said, there's still a lot of great music being made, but these days it's more obscure and "below the radar". I'm not quite sure why at least some of this great stuff doesn't rise to the top anymore, but perhaps it's because the music industry doesn't use talent scouts anymore. The gatekeepers are gone and everybody's on their own! Platforms like TikTok set the agenda and the music industry simply follows. Like you mentioned though, indie remains one of the best areas of music for good music that's largely unaffected by these bigger negative music trends but it does take a little more effort to explore and find what you like.

Now I do disagree with you about the earlier decades, but that's just me personally. Everybody has their own tastes. I personally love the 1960s and that includes unsurprisingly the Beatles, even though it was kind of before my time. It's funny though. I tend to prefer to listen to 1960s music separately from other decades' music, except for maybe the tail ends of that decade. I don't know. Maybe the zeitgeist, so to speak, of that period's music and culture doesn't seem to mix well to me with other periods, especially times afterward. Then again, I'm kind of the same way about 1950s music too, but the feeling's not as strong as with the 1960s.