“Who needs new music? We all know rock music attained perfection in 1974. It’s a scientific fact.”
-Homer Simpson
“My Music Is Better Than Yours!”
It seems that every generation becomes attached to the music that they grew up with. I dare you to find a group of people more sentimental than 50-something adults and their early 70’s rock, or the 30ish population, recently deprived of their youth, clinging to the simpler times of big hair and high hopes of the 80’s.
Even the MTV generation is starting to go all “grandpappy” on the young-ins, remembering a time when the stars of the 90’s made their living with songs about complete and total apathy, as opposed to the emotional ranting of today. I imagine that in a decade’s time, we’ll have a new generation that will long for the times when every young minority, either rich or poor, could make a healthy living by being a rapper, and when emo music was still considered “cool”.
“They Don’t Make Music Like They Used To…”
I doubt that there’s a lot of people who would take a stand and definitively say that “yes, music HAS gotten better”. After all, where is the caliber of musicians nowadays to compare with the likes of Elvis, The Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, The Beatles, etc.? Well, I take a different stand. I say proudly that music has not only gotten better as time has progressed, but it’s gotten exponentially better. What I mean is that music is as good as it’s ever been, and it’s only going to get better.
Gone are the days when a consumer’s choice of music is limited to whatever bands that a few greasy-headed, white collar executives happened to be giving favors to. And gone are the days when artists refuse to make music for less than a lucrative contract. There is an overabundance of music out there nowadays, made by artists who receive little more than the rush of performing It. Make no mistake; there are plenty of quality musicians out there with zero desire to “make it big”. And there are countless musicians who want nothing more than to make a living off of what they love to do, make music! These are the musicians who grew up listening to the likes of Elvis, The Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and The Beatles, and others.
A Vehicle For The Advancement Of Indie Music
One of my favorite sites for up and coming music is www.amiestreet.com. Here is a site that is completely dedicated to helping break up and coming artists. All music on Amie Street starts out free, and goes up in price as it becomes higher in demand. And not only is it good for independent musicians, but it’s good for fans of independent music! Amie Street users buy credits, which can be used for any music on the entire site, instead of having to purchase individual downloads. And users are encouraged to seek out and expose the cream of the crop by recommending high quality songs. The sooner you recommend a song, the better, because recommending an unknown song that blows up equals more credits for you to spend as you wish! Please note that I don’t benefit at all from you visiting that link. I’m not an affiliate of theirs.
As the era of the record label comes to an end, we will see more and more sites like Amie Street. We are coming into a new age when the people are directly responsible for an artist’s growth and earnings. The corporations are learning that, contrary to what they have long believed, the common person IS smart enough to know what he or she wants, and now they want in to reap the benefits of the indie scene’s hard work. I just hope that we’ve learned enough in the last few decades to not let the big corporations pull the wool over our eyes. We know that they’re not looking out for our best interests. They want, above all other things, to profit, and they get by with providing as little value to the listener as they can. So forget them, and start trying to support the up and coming artists.
What Niche Do You Fit Into?
Ultimately, the outcome of having so many types of music to choose from in this day and age means that there have become many niche markets, to appeal to every possible type of listener. This is a good thing, not a bad thing. There will be some types of music and musicians that you won’t care for, and some that you absolutely despise. However, as we become more comfortable and self confident of ourselves as a society, I believe we will learn to be more tolerant of each other. And I believe that we will learn to be more tolerant of the music of the new generations, regardless of whether it’s getting better or worse.
Music is surely getting better i would say. It depends whih genre of music you are listening to.
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Thanks for sharing your favorite music sites http://www.amiestreet.com. I am going to have to check it out
Thanks,
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
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I suppose I could be called one of those “70′s” lovers. It is the nostalgia in me. Those were fun times. You have to admit Blind Faith is hard to beat. Some of those greats are still pumping it out: Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend, Mark Knopler, Steve Windwood.
But to say we listened to only what was hung out there by the big record companies is a little unfair. We had to dig a little harder to find it, but it was there. Some of my favorites come from those vinyls we dug up. Karla Bonoff, Elvin Bishop, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Rodney Crowell, Savoy Brown, J. Giels, Alvin Crow, Wet Willie, Jeff Beck, Nicolette Larson, Zephyr,to name a few.
Yes, today musicians have learned from the greats of “my time”, who learned from the likes of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker, BB King.
Better? Better equipment, better media, better resources, Yes! Better music, No!
There has been great music all down the line.
The internet has now changed how we go about finding what we want to hear. We can listen music by musicians from all over the world.
Thanks for the link. Looks like lots of fun. I’ll be giving it a try.
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@ Make Money Online Tips
You’re right. It does depend on which genre you’re into. However, I believe that as the era of the record label comes to an end, we’ll see more people exploring each niche and making good music for everyone. Thanks for commenting!
@ Giovanna
I truly hope that you do check out Amie Street. It takes a little bit of effort to find some of the breakout starts on there, but there’s no shortage of awesome music on there. Thanks for your comment!
@ Sheila
I’ve met plenty of people who strongly believe that music achieved perfection in the 70′s. That’s why I used the Homer Simpson quote up above… it’s something a lot of people believe.
But I do appreciate that you acknowledge that a lot of it is nostalgia. The past has a tendency to be remembered for its good times, instead of the sum of all it’s parts.
It was not easy in the past to get vinyl pressed up. It was a rather expensive endeavor, and one that indie musicians could rarely afford. Now, there’s very little money required for an artist to get his or her music out there, so there’s one less obstacle there… Having to get a record label behind you. It is this reason that I believe music is getting better, because the musicians are taking it back from the industry.
Not to mention that the music that was made back in the day is being covered by musicians of the day. With all of this in mind, I don’t see how anyone can say that music has gotten worse, but to each their own.
Thanks for commenting!
Hi Trey,
I have never heard of Amie Street so thank you for that. Music has its ups and downs just like everything else. I do believe Johnny and Willie are amazing influencers on everything from bluegrass to rock. I love what Sheila said above about Rodney Crowell, because I love him.
It’s difficult because there isn’t anything new under the sun, just music from B in the D being covered by new artists, as you said. I think music continues to get better and better and that people will explore other opps as the world seems to be going entirely digital.
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Hi Trey,
Thanks for the good word! We put a lot of hard work into the site, and we really appreciate when people take the time to share the love.
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@ Audra
Thanks for your comment! There’s plenty of new music being made. However, due to people’s complaints about how old music is so much better, the music industry is under the impression that people want cover songs instead of new material, so that’s what they market. In order to find the new stuff, you have to go and look for it.
I think that with the advancement in digital distribution, as you mentioned, the artists will be able to directly interface with their fanbase better, and provide what they want more effectively.
@ Nels
No problem! I truly believe that Amie Street is helping to revolutionize the music industry, and I want people to know about it. Thanks for stopping by!
amiestreet is cool brother. I’ve been in music my whole life, and several of my childhood friends are working their butts off to make it happen professionally. It is a tough road, but when your driving your passion, no problem. Check out http://www.davecarducci.com I went to HS with him, his music is solid!
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I like music that my ears like.
It ranges from Art Of Noise to AC/DC, Beastie Boys to Led Zeppelin, James Brown to Prodigy, Chillout and many more
I do not divide it to their music and our music. When I hear good tune in the restaurant I always approach the bartender to ask who’s the artist.
I LOVE jamendo.com where the artists share their music under CC license.
Trey
It’s very easy to get nostalgic about the music we listened to when we were younger … I don’t think quality has got worse it’s just the tunes from our youth have certain memories attached. For me it was the late 70′s / early 80′s and I still have a soft spot for it, even though I do cringe at some of the music I listened to then.
I guess commercialisation of the music industry has made it harder to innovate and ‘dumbed down’ a lot of mainstream music. But you don’t have to look far to find great music being made these days. Better? I would say it’s different rather than better or worse.
I don’t know too much about the industry but to me it looks like it is the same clowns in the spotlight, and really I think this is on purpose to drive out other quality artists from making it big.
Thats like the idea of not introducing the cure for cancer to the public, but instead selling useless drugs.
Unless we’re talking classical music (Beethoven, Mozart, Bach), it’s really a matter of taste and generation. We all tend to think our generation had the best music. I think the ’60s and the 70′s have earned a bit more in the music world because of the connection with real life issues. They addresses the transformative issues of their time. That’s not easy to do while being entertaining.
The only era I didn’t really like was 80′s pop, but I’ll admit that it strike me differently today.
@ Almost Millionaire
That’s the thing about music. It can inspire us to do great things. And when you create music, it’s almost like a child. You feel such responsibility for its success. Thanks for commenting, and I’ll check out your link.
@ Alik
I can get into all of those examples you cited. I think that Art of Noise is highly underrated, and that’s tragic. I love your approach to music, in that you don’t divide it up. I feel the same way, but we’re in the minority there, bro. Thanks for commenting!
@ Ian
I completely agree about what you said regarding memories. It’s like I said, the past tends to be remembered for the positive parts, and music is the soundtrack of our lives. Thus, we remember the music from the positive parts of our lives.
The commercialization has definitely dumbed down the industry… one of the things that I’m going to get very vocal about in the upcoming year. When I say that music has gotten better, I mean that as a sum of all its parts. It’s really easy to pick and choose your favorite vintage album, and put it next to the worst of 2008, and say that music has gotten worse, but when you look at all of the choices we have today, that argument sort of loses merit. Thanks for commenting!
@ tom
Not introducing the cure for cancer? I’m assuming that you’re referring to the documentary “Run From The Cure, The Rick Simpson Story”. If you are, then I completely agree.
I don’t think that it’s so much that the industry is trying to hold people down, more so that it costs money and effort to break new artists. They focus on money above all other things, which is why they spend little time breaking new bands. If people would voice their opinion about wanting to be exposed to new music, for example, MTV would start airing more music videos again. Thanks for commenting!
@ Gennaro
I’m referring to all music, past, present, and future. Music in the “classical” period, (And I use that term cautiously) was a reflection of the time period in which it came. A lot of those musicians would have to step up their game in this day and age, because of the pace of the music industry. Mozart would probably do the best in 2009 out of all of them, because he truly was an enlightened young man, and a genius.
I would be curious to hear from more people about the “real life issues” that you speak of about 60′s and 70′s. I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard anyone put it that way before. I had assumed that one of the main reasons people got nostalgic about that time frame was because that was back when they actually still went to concerts, and now they work a boring nine-to-five job, and wish that they had more fun like back in the day.
Thanks for commenting!
First I would like to say Trey you are awesome. Reading your articles it seems that even though you are really into what you write about, you write unbiased truth. Like you are on the outside looking in.
What i do with my musical love is to find an artist that really draws me in and stick with them. Supporting them as much as I can, and if the talent is truly there, they will only impress you more and more with each effort. Other than their own persistence, support from fans is the ONLY thing that will make an artist succesful. For without fans a musician will not go far.
And thank God for independent artists!!!
MCL,
Brandon
Almost forgot to comment on the true matter at hand. When I was a kid, I loved music, yet I was force-fed whatever was on the radio. Nowadays, if you don’t like FM, you can get XM. If you don’t like XM, you can buy an MP3 player and listen to whatever you want. So I think overall, music AND the way we enjoy it is only getting better with time.
@ Brandon Parris
Thanks for your kind words. You got the point of this article completely. Music has gotten better, because the choices we have and the format that we receive it have improved so much. The people who say that it’s gone downhill are only remembering a select few songs, and aren’t looking at the big picture. Thanks for your insight!