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Posted by: BillyH 12th October 2014, 10:26 PM

I read this quote on a music blog almost four years ago, when I was 22. At the time there was very little in the charts I didn't like and tried to imagine what music would sound like by late 2014 when I turned the age mentioned - with the (brilliant) commercial dubstep explosion just starting at the time, I wondered if, perhaps, things would get even more intense to the point that the #1s when I'm 26 would be impossible to comprehend, mad speedcore/dubstep/D&B combinations that the teenagers love but sound alien to my ears.

Instead, almost four years on, everything seems very much the same but blander. What I adored in 2011 - that David Guetta (& now Calvin Harris) urban dance-pop sound - is still around with no obvious evolution, there's been no massive rock or indie breakthroughs (although it's a bit more than it was at the start of the decade), dubstep fizzled out into something Taylor Swift does to get a hit, and so-called "deep house" - bar the occasional one I'll admit to being brilliant (Jubel, you rock) - to the most part is immensely underwhelming and nowhere near as good as the actual deep house of the late 80s/early 90s I've been listening to since my mid noughties teens. Then you've got dull manufactured pop and The X Factor seemingly unstoppable and all the wrong songs selling over a million, seemingly those as boring and commercial as possible - I really, really dislike any of the Pharrell Williams crap over the last eighteen months, and this is someone who did like the stuff he did a decade ago, both solo and as part of N.E.R.D..

So yeah, the quote was right and something wrong has happened although I'd put it more as a slow fizzle-out since 2011 rather than a sudden change - there were less songs I liked in 2012 then '11, less in '13 than '12, and less this year than in '13. I asked my parents, they both turned 26 in 1993 and while loving everything the 80s had to offer were really put off by all the Eurodance that was around by then and agree wholeheartedly with the quote, while going further back to my Grandma, she was a huge rock & roll fan but by the time she turned 26 - in 1966 - the likes of the Beatles and Stones she couldn't stand and never got their appeal.

So if you're over 26, when did you turn that age and did music make a turn for the worse when you did? And if you're lucky enough to be under, what can you see happening to music by the time you are and will it put you off - or, alternatively, did the age (or will the age) make no difference whatsoever?

Posted by: popchartfreak 13th October 2014, 06:46 AM

pretty much happens to all generations, cos life takes over, jobs, family, relationships and nostalgia for the good old days sets in. By the time you're 26 you can recall 20 years ago which seems a long time ago. It's fairly normal for most people to lose interest in pop until their kids get to the teenage stage and they come back to pop through them.

Pop runs in cycles, I just happened to keep going through all of them but the songs you'll know all the words to will be those from age 12 to 20-something and they stay with you for life, even if you don't hear them for decades, cos the brain is young and firing on all cylinders.

Posted by: *Ben* 13th October 2014, 08:20 AM

Haha, interestingly I thought this is crap (don't take it personal), why would I feel that when I'm 26 music got crap suddenly. But then I can recall, when I was 26, that was the year 2005, and 2005 was for me a really really bad year for music and always thought 2005 was very weak. I can't even remember 1 good song of that year (I'm sure there were some though), so yeah it looks like this theory is true

Posted by: Severin 13th October 2014, 04:41 PM

Yep. Everythings been crap since 1998. Joking aside I do agree somewhat with the reasoning put forward by others above. After a while it all seems too deriviative and lacking in originality since around 1999 for me.

Posted by: fiesta 14th October 2014, 12:17 PM

The music from my teens will always mean more to me than anything else, but I don't tend to think of music as being 'my era' or ' my time', for me theres just good music and bad music. Whether it be from the 60's or from now
.

Posted by: T Boy 14th October 2014, 05:18 PM

I turned 26 2 weeks ago but music started sucking at least 2 years before then.

Posted by: #IMPACT!! 14th October 2014, 08:55 PM

Music has gotten awful, worse and worse, for me over the years. I am now more adult contemporary than pop would ya believe

Anywhooo, the Pink Screech/ Whinealake Whine and Adele wannabe Wannabe Your Adele for me was THE trashcan of music, the worst it has ever got.

Posted by: Severin 14th October 2014, 10:57 PM

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about

Posted by: #IMPACT!! 15th October 2014, 04:59 PM

WHAT??!!

How can you not KNOW what SCREECH! is??

Have I not Buffy/Charmed of the site around you??

Posted by: T Boy 15th October 2014, 05:13 PM

Is it normal to have this strong a reaction to a song from nearly 2 years ago that no One talks about anymore?

Posted by: ►▲N 15th October 2014, 05:19 PM

If that's true then I don't wanna turn 26 love music!

Posted by: Severin 15th October 2014, 05:20 PM

Well, I understood the first 2 sentences this time even if I'm still none the wiser as to what SCREECH is. The 3rd sentence appears to be in English but either with the words in the wrong order or out of context.
So, to be clear - I don't know what SCREECH is and I don't understand what 'Buffy/Charmed of the site' means. I'm guessing it refers to the two tv shows about teenage girls but I can't for the life of me penetrate the grammar/context/metaphor.


Of course if you are actually Edward Lear then I get it.

Posted by: T Boy 15th October 2014, 05:21 PM

It's more the music in the charts starts to lose it's appeal. I can still find music I love. But this is the age you just get too busy to pay a lot of attention.

Posted by: #IMPACT!! 15th October 2014, 05:23 PM

Whaat? And WHO??

And it refers to protecting the place against bad musak!

Yeah, the older you get, the busier you get, and the more pop music just sounds same ol', same ol'.

Posted by: Severin 15th October 2014, 05:30 PM

Now I approve of that, fully. Is Screech a specific song or is it a nebulous entity?

Posted by: Doctor Blind 15th October 2014, 05:41 PM

I think it is a metaphor for a group of singers, predominantly female vocalists, who seem to screech a lot in their records such as Jessie J, P!nk etc.

Posted by: Severin 15th October 2014, 07:54 PM

Thank you. Finally a straight answer!

Posted by: AntoineTTe 16th October 2014, 06:09 AM

Is this a Saved by the Bell reference? I have no idea what Screech is either.

Posted by: *Ben* 16th October 2014, 01:55 PM

Ah don't react to that guys posts, he just came out of the mental asylum

Posted by: house.martin 17th October 2014, 01:47 PM

For me I still hear good new music, but as I've grown older, it's shifted away from being top 40 hits to being chill out and world music, etc.

I'm of the opinion that way back when, in a time long long ago, before videos, lol, a hit principally become one by having a good tune. I think these days, some other factors can influence what becomes a hit.

Posted by: Kärenfanghoney 17th October 2014, 01:57 PM

For me the change pretty much happened when I was 22. I've been near permanently disappointed with music for the last two years, with only a few exceptions, and it's rarely something I obsess over anymore - something that would've been unimaginable for me about five/six years ago.

Posted by: ϑЃεβϘ 13th November 2014, 09:31 PM

I think chart music has been in the doldrums for at least 8 or 9 years but then I've never been much of a fan of mainstream music anyway.
That doesn't mean I don't get a kick out of listening to new music whether it's been Marina or Deerhoof or Electric Wizard.
Maybe those acts are derivative but I still get a thrill out of hearing them.

I was 26 in 1995 right in the middle of Britpop. Absolutely loved so many records that year just like any other year before or since, just had to dig a little deeper sometimes.
I still find records from the 60s, 70s and 80s and 90s that I have never heard before and absolutely adore (Bratmobile or some obscure late 60s psych record go here.)

If you truly love music it will never go away especially now when it's all become so easy to access.

Posted by: Outcast 14th November 2014, 07:45 AM

I was 26 in 2009, it was the last year, when I followed to UK charts. In my situation UK charts music started to be bad in 2004 with awful urban and dance invasion.
Today I dig in retro music / charts (From late 40s to early 80s) and almost don't listen modern songs. Mainstream music mostly (90 %) is shit, but alternative even miles worse.

It's very hard to find something new (even from retro), which I will like but didn't heard before.

Posted by: Lukuzz 14th November 2014, 11:40 AM

Well I'm 26 next year but I already find myself playing older music rather than new music ATM as opposed to the last few years were I would seek out new music above all else. I tend to be swaying a lot to music of my childhood or discovering older music from before I was born and listening for the first time instead..

Posted by: ϑЃεβϘ 16th November 2014, 12:07 AM

You are not looking hard enough.