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Posted by: MusicGeek15 Jul 15 2015, 08:47 PM

I remember there was a time that I got so excited about an artist coming back out...or dropping an album. I feel like nowadays the integrity of what real music is to ppl is just.... **exits stage left** gone

Posted by: MusicGeek15 Jul 15 2015, 08:49 PM

Anything Janet Jackson...forever in my headphones

Posted by: SevenSees Jul 15 2015, 09:05 PM

It's an interesting way that our minds operate- where we see the present is merely a fraction of our past. It is human tendency to get caught up, and wrapped up in that bubble known as 'nostalgia'. We then look down upon those present days, acting as if they are at fault. But what if it turned out, that it was *our* fault all along? What if we are being fooled by our very own preconceived notions? As I said, an interesting way that our minds operate, one of those many ways is the bending and manipulation of the truth, to the point where we are blinded to the actual truth.

Sometimes I believe we should take a different perspective, welcoming those brand new ideas and embracing them with open arms. Maybe this is the only route forward for us, as well as our sanity. And I firmly believe that the key word to opening a better life is ACCEPTANCE.

Discuss.

Posted by: Doctor Blind Jul 15 2015, 09:12 PM

The mere mention of Janet Jackson and integrity in the same topic.

After the supposed 'wardrobe malfunction' of 2004 to revive her flagging career.

Posted by: popchartfreak Jul 15 2015, 09:21 PM

nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

everybody looks back on their childhood or teen years with some degree of rose-tinted nostalgia, but the fact is what you experience when you are young IS special because the young brain is so vital and alive, and everything is so much brighter, bigger, and has a lasting impact that stays for life. As you get older things change, and you get real-world problems as you age, not least dealing with death, living, relationships, jobs, and life is more complex, and your brain cells start dying and music things arent quite so vivid and they don't loom quite so large in your life as they did when you were young.

I'm not as excited by big name new releases as I was when I was in my 20's, nor the charts, but I've never lost my love for new music, I have always been more interested in what's new than what was new, unless it's old music that's new to me too. Usually though people go out have a good time, love music till they hit 30 (or even earlier) then start to comment about modern music not being as good as it was when they were at school, have busy lives lose touch, and come back to it again through their kids. That's the norm

Every year has great music. It doesn't necessarily make the singles charts, but there is great music about

(more of a Lounge topic though?)

Posted by: Zárate Jul 15 2015, 10:59 PM

I think music is being re-born at the moment, and streaming opens up great perspective in accessing music for us and getting bigger revenues for artists and record companies.

Basically streaming has the biggest chance to shrink the illegal downloading/getting music proportion.
- in physical era people needed to wait for a single/album release so they could record a single to a tape listening to the radio - or eventually buy an illegal copy of it.
- in digital era it got worse, as people are able to download a song without any problems. All the held-back releases don't help the cause - just look at all those fake versions heading up in iTunes. Imagine how many people download illegally those popular-but-not-available songs.
- streaming era can provide an access to a huge catalogue of songs in high quality, and it's legal. There are even free legal streaming services like free part of Spotify or Youtube. In my opinion, streaming is the most comfortable way of consuming music.

Fighting with piracy record labels will always lose.
But providing not an expensive service to access a huge music library is a win-win, I think potentially a lot of people can switch to streaming from illegal downloading. That means a bigger market and bigger revenues.

With streaming I am able to listen to a song whenever I want and just pay a fix amount of money per month. In Russia it's only $3 per month with almost every streaming service, and here streaming is winning too. You guys have much higher prices but your incomes are marginally higher too.

Record labels need to get used to it and handle the releases in a smart way. It will be much harder to be noticed via charts which are still arguably the best way to acknowledge new popular releases, so naturally other ways of mass promoting will benefit. I think there will be more and more trendy playlists and advertising new releases and upcoming artists through them.

And yes, the albums market could convert to something else. It will be either really long plays (see all those deluxe editions) or switching to EPs. The thing is every artist will have their killer and their filler. You won't be able to live only selling the killer, you need to take the filler with them. So I'm sure music industry will make something to shake up albums market.

Posted by: ThePensmith Jul 16 2015, 10:08 AM

Basically this. The day I decided, about three years ago, to make the full time switch from Radio 1 to Radio 2 was a joyous one. Better DJs, better mix of music both new and old, and if I occasionally get interested in a new band - Years & Years being a recent case in point, as Chris Evans has supported them a lot - that's an added bonus. With the exception of Olly Murs (I intend to still be a fan of his when I have a catheter and a zimmer frame), I think my days of loyally supporting and throwing my weight behind so many artists as I did in my teens and early 20s are behind me. And I've embraced it now.

If anything my taste has broadened out even more in the last three years. I actually buy a lot more of older music now. In the last 6 months alone, I've bought best ofs and/or studio albums from Paul Simon, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel and Paul Weller. OK, it may not strictly be 'brand new' in the sense of being an entirely new artist, but it's a new discovery for me and it's opening up my horizons. And surely that's even better if not just as good?

Posted by: SKOB Jul 16 2015, 05:40 PM

I thought that I could never be a hardcore fan of an artist any more but then Lady Gaga came.

I believe that an artist can still hit very hard even if one's over 30.

But regarding the opening question, I don't think music has become worse... it's just very different to what it was in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Listen to let's say The Weeknd or Arcade Fire and tell me that they don't create interesting music.

Posted by: James Silkstone Jul 17 2015, 05:15 PM

There's nothing that bugs me more than when I venture into YouTube comment sections of old songs, and it says how shit music is now compared to, say, 2003 for example. Whilst the fact that 2003 has become a nostalgia trip for some people is kinda trippy to me anyway, as someone who remembers that year distinctly, I can safely say there was a lot of crap (a lot of good too, as with every year) and that people back then were saying exactly the same about music as we are now in 2015. That it's shit now, and was better then or that music has 'died' because of individual artists like Justin Bieber, Ke$ha or Iggy Azalea. They 'killed' music apparently.

It's swing and roundabouts. In five years time, people will look back on 2015 and say 'hey, music was better then'. We hate the now because it's not the past. If there's one thing nostalgia does it's that it rids us not of trauma but of mundaity. When we listen to a song we liked during the summer of 2002, it brings back memories of every pleasent thing we did in the summer of 2002 but doesn't remind us of August 17th where we just stayed inside and didn't do anything, if that makes sense? When music becomes attached to our memories, be they pleasent or unpleasent, they are latching onto an event worth remembering. The reason that we, today, complain about the music that is out now is because it hasn't yet fed into our memories of events a, b and c. At the moment, they're the songs that play on the radio in our hot stuffy car stuck in a traffic jam on our way back from work exct.

So, is music thriving? No. Despite what I've just said, I won't lie and say they're haven't been times where music has been better than it is now because they're have but we also must remember our music tastes are entirely subjective. What I hate, someone else likes. But at the same time, music's not dying. The only way music will ever die is because we stop listening to it. It ceases to become a part of our lives. Which will never happen.