This is one of the most bizare opinions people have, and it's shockingly prevalent. I used to think so too, when I was 13 and exclusively listened to Metallica and Nirvana and before the Internet made it big. But now everyone says this, from young kids way into Pink Floyd to 50-somethings who only listens to jazz "because everything else sounds the same". Yes, there is a point to the statement seeing how pop (and lots of music really) today generally is simpler than music from yesteryear. But this is only true if you stay in the mainstream stream (lol?), but the things is
you don't have to do that. People cry over how Justin Beiber is everywhere, and people comment on Youtube on how awful Artist X is ... but whay in the seven hecks are they listening to it in the first place? Now we have infinite freedom to listen to whatever we want to, but for some reason people who hates Justin Bieber are seemingly incapable of not having him in their faces. I think Justinello (if that is his nick name) is a good singer, based on a four minute video of him a friend showed me. He was really good, he has talent. And that is the extent of my experience with Justin Bieber, apart from some sightings in newspaper headlines. If people hate him so much they don't have to listen, or care, but for some reason they do. They share videos on Facebook explaning why he sucks, they share news items about how he has boned his mother or whatever and they are enjoying themselves so much, and they are filled with righeous fury over his successes. And it's all their own doing.
And this is true for all modern music people love to hate. The best moment to be a fan of good music is
right now. In the olden days we had a few radio stations and you had some cassettes/8-tracks/CD's/vinyls/whatever and that was it. If you were big into metal you had to buy special magazines and order expensive stuff from far away lands, and if you happened to live out in the sticks (like I did) you had access to a local radio station mostly playing bad folk music. Bad accordion based folk music. There was like one TV show (we had three channels) with popular music, and sometimes when we visited big music we drooled in the disc shops, but we couldn't really afford to spend €15 on a CD. You get lots of potatoes for that kind of money. And then the Internet arrived, and suddenly I could listen to anything I wanted. And it's the same for everyone. Now we can listen to all the good stuff from ages past, and incidentally here's a
Youtube video with two hours of classical chinese music. Did you have that when you were a lad? I don't think so. And
here's an awesome album (the last album I ever bought btw, and I imported it from Australia) with zeuhl-punk. I couldn't get that in 1995, and definitely not in 1965 (also because I wasn't born then). What's zeuhl, you ask? Progressive rock invented in the 70's by a guy who made up his own language. "AHA!" someone says, "See, the 70's is where all the good stuff happened, man! IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER!" And well yeah, sure, but the thing is I can still listen to that, and I can listen to Zoo. And James Brown. And Caro Emerald. And Dyers Eve by Metallica. And Robyn (because god help me, I really like her 2010 Body Talk). And even
Kreyashawn. And Pink Floyd, and
that thing John Paul John of Led Zeppelin fame did with Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and Alain Johannes. And this thing from
1935 (
Now your nuts hang down like a damn bell sapper; And your dick stands up like a steeple;Your goddamn asshole stands open like a church door;And the crabs walks in like people) if I so choose (but I really don't because man).
I have that freedom now. I don't have to listen to whatever music some guy on TV with bad hair deems worthy of broadcasting. I don't have to listen to whatever the DJ at the local radio station thinks is groovy. I don't have to trudge through endless racks of best selling whathaveyous in a record shop to find something worth the money. Go to any youtube video with a classic rock song and pretty high up in the comments there will be comments along the lines of "they don't make music like this anymore", or "so much better than the radio crap", and "thank god it's not Justinello". And it's fine to dislike music. I'm not a huge fan of jazz, and I dislike the people claiming jazz is the superior music. And 80's synth symphonies are horrible. Celine Dion ... probably a good singer but man she can just hide somewhere (but she can't find a hiding place for her 15 foot neck). Disliking music is fine. It's subjective. Right. I've said this before, but you don't have to listen to any music you don't like. Don't like the music on the radio? Don't listen to the music on the radio then. And remember that no matter what music you're listening to people will dislike that music as well. Are your opinions worth more than others? Obviously yes, that's a stupid question. But still.
It is also a display of ignorance, often willfull. No matter what you're into there's a community for it. Saying that "all music sounds the same now" is actually true, provided you listen to a playlist with nothing but house. It's just not true. If you think all modern music sound the same, and suffer from it, you have clearly never been on the internet before. These two songs are from roughly the same period.
tl;dr - You can listen to anything you want. Don't limit yourself to just listen to what you thought was good fifteen years ago. Don't get upset about how crappy Justin B-BOYAH is, you don't have to listen to him. Unless you want to.
As a closing argument, here is one of the best songs ever made. I seriously think that. I dance to it, and that is coming from someone who slept to ...And Justice For All when he grew up. It's ok if you disagree, you can listen to whatever you like. Whatever you like.
Man
here's another one I can't stop dancing to.
