Can we say the quality of "music" has decreased over the past 20 years?

[YngiweRhoads]

the big money nowadays at least for the major superstars isn't record/dvd sales, it's all about concerts and tours.

every generation has good music and crap music, i just hate now that the standard "pop" music on radio stations is either loud screaming and not even singing ( what happened to just standing there and singing and telling a story?) or it's "so called catchy hooks/beat" where it all sounds the same and you can't make out the words!

Turn off the radio. Get yourself satellite radio at the very least.

[ManBearPig...]

Bullshit. You're on the money about touring to make a living but the rest of your post implies you don't attend many live shows and have no idea of the great music that's out there these days.

Now we have to work like everyone else, instead of sitting back and selling a bunch of records we have to play live to make a living. Wah wah wah.

The era of the mega band is over. The era of the working musician is here.

Yes, thanks for phrasing what i meant to say.  The days of Kirk Hammett being picked up by a jet so he can go play off key for 2 hours for $100,000 are over, but it's not necessarily a bad thing.

The working musician can still make a very handsome living and live in a mansion and have whores do coke off his penis, he'll just have to work harder for it and put out better product.

I mean jesus, look at some of that 80's glam rock bullshit that was put out.  I was just reading at another forum that there were a handful of studio musicians that recorded so many of those glam rock tracks, either due to lack of talent or "stars" being too fucked up to show up to the studio, but never got credit for it.

At least now when i see someone live, i know it's them playing it.

yes gh15, like most others on here, get panic attacks at the mere thought of comingling with normal society at concert venues, so they'll just convince themselves the music sucks and it's not worth going out there and listening to it.

[Palpatine Q]

The problem with music nowadays is that it has no value to the big corporations...people steal it more then they buy it.

so if there is no money to be made developing new artists, the major labels don't dump any money into young bands any more, and the industry suffers...and that's why you have to look to Indie labels for the good stuff these days. Major labels used to have hundreds of a+r guys out there looking for the next big thing, those budgets have been slashed, if not eliminated altogether.

[ManBearPig...]

The problem with music nowadays is that it has no value to the big corporations...people steal it more then they buy it.

so if there is no money to be made developing new artists, the major labels don't dump any money into young bands any more, and the industry suffers...and that's why you have to look to Indie labels for the good stuff these days. Major labels used to have hundreds of a+r guys out there looking for the next big thing, those budgets have been slashed, if not eliminated altogether.

exactly, which is great for us (the consumer / music fan) and mostly shitty for the stars / managers.

[jedibrat]

[FREAKgeek]

This can mean so many things I know but lets say American music in general including all popular genres.  

I guess one could say the major reason is today's music industry equates a good song as being a good beat and a catchy hook.

Oh yeah....in before GH15.

Definitely. It's very hard to be good and original.

[Van_Bilderass]

the major labels don't dump any money into young bands any more, and the industry suffers...and that's why you have to look to Indie labels for the good stuff these days.

There is a lot of great music made still and most of it is in the so-called indie scene.

The lust for money ruins everything artistic eventually. Instead of the artist focusing on his art he is pressured, either by himself or by the labels, to MAKE MONEY as first priority.  The goal is not the art itself but making money. What sells best and easiest to a wide audience? "Fast food". Easily palatable crap.

Examples everyone knows: Metallica. Young hungry guys making good metal. Now let's sell this shit to an even wider audience to make big bucks and the result is... well, complete garbage.
Michael Jackson during the Thriller days was magnificent. But huge success like this is still not enough and he releases a huge amont of garbage. Listen to "Black or white". LOL, with the shitty rap in the middle. Dirty Diana, Beat It, etc was fantastic pop music.
There are so many artists who should have quit decades ago.

Jennifer Lopez and her "macarena" song? My god. The Whip my hair song  by Will Smith kid, don't think I ever heard worse shit. 

Money = root of all evil 

[The True Adonis]

Pure Garbage.  What is it with you people that like this horrible, discordant nonsense?

[jaejonna]

[Captain Equipoise]

Yes, thanks for phrasing what i meant to say.  The days of Kirk Hammett being picked up by a jet so he can go play off key for 2 hours for $100,000 are over, but it's not necessarily a bad thing.

The working musician can still make a very handsome living and live in a mansion and have whores do coke off his penis, he'll just have to work harder for it and put out better product.

I mean jesus, look at some of that 80's glam rock bullshit that was put out.  I was just reading at another forum that there were a handful of studio musicians that recorded so many of those glam rock tracks, either due to lack of talent or "stars" being too fucked up to show up to the studio, but never got credit for it.

At least now when i see someone live, i know it's them playing it.

yes gh15, like most others on here, get panic attacks at the mere thought of comingling with normal society at concert venues, so they'll just convince themselves the music sucks and it's not worth going out there and listening to it.

Can you believe that atonal fucker won every  major guitarist poll since 1988 , lol somehow hamster always got no.1 even though guys like Friedman, Skolnick , Petrucci and Romeo ran circles around him, it's funny hearing him talk about his inspirations for his solo's he's never ventured out of pentatonic E minor, add a wah and you have a hammet-esque solo full of cheese.

[The True Adonis]

I don't know i kind of like this, released not too long ago

Music for dunderheads.  You can get the same effect and enjoyment by listening to a construction crew fixing potholes on the roadside.

[The True Adonis]

[The True Adonis]

[Palpatine Q]

Can you believe that atonal fucker won every  major guitarist poll since 1988 , lol somehow hamster always got no.1 even though guys like Friedman, Skolnick , Petrucci and Romeo ran circles around him, it's funny hearing him talk about his inspirations for his solo's he's never ventured out of pentatonic E minor, add a wah and you have a hammet-esque solo full of cheese.

I'm not a guitarist but i have a pretty good ear.

Kirk Hammet is a hack....I never got what the big deal about Metallica was in general.  stiff, boring, unimaginative garbage

[The True Adonis]

[The True Adonis]

[The True Adonis]

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[The True Adonis]

Some of you were talking about being "working musicians" and about how today you have to "work" for your money in the music industry. HA HA HA

Since when has any musician worked as hard as this in a Live performance:

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[The True Adonis]

[Doug_Steele]

[jedibrat]

Pure Garbage.  What is it with you people that like this horrible, discordant nonsense?

Everything else has been done. This is the only place left to go.

[calfzilla]

I couple songs that makes me realize how shit today's music is.

[calfzilla]

..and

[HTexan]

This can mean so many things I know but lets say American music in general including all popular genres.  

I guess one could say the major reason is today's music industry equates a good song as being a good beat and a catchy hook.

Oh yeah....in before GH15.

You can chart the birth and use of auto tune and the decline of music on the same graph.

[Core]

Music has greatly evolved in the last twenty or so years. Pop music is laughable these day bs untalented to say the least. It is that and it is also degenerate in nature encouraging all kinds of loathsome behaviour. Look to underground artists to find the real talent in today's musical world. I've been listening to a ton of 'film trailer' type artists and the production is fantastic on all of these tracks. Check out Ivan Torrent' album Reverie to see what I mean. Fucking amazing soaring ascendant music that will hit you hard. This is just one example. There are a ton of great electronic artists out there that convey feelings and thoughts with mere sound itself. The talent never went away in music, it just changed where it was being applied I say