Is popular music today better than it was 10 years ago?

[Axl Van Sixx]

Party Rock is one of the worse songs I'v ever heard and I never truly bash popular music.

You mean "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO? I just listened to that again and I think it's a great song. Of course, maybe I'm just more open to other kinds of music these days. In 2001 I was 15 years old and constantly telling my classmates to turn off their Limp Bizkit/Bloodhound Gang/Blink-182 CDs so I could put on some "real music" like Guns N' Roses (funnily, I came to like Blink and that one Bloodhound Gang hit, but Limp Bizkit is one of those bands that has only gotten more embarrassing my time, vindicating my initial hatred for them).

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

60's and 70's >>> 80's and 90's >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 00's

as bad as the 80's and 90's were they seem like a renaissance period compared to today.

 

[terry78]

Whoomp! There it is!

There are songs that came out in the 90s that people still play to this day due to their pop culture status. Can't say the same for this era.

 

[Manic]

Sometimes I do feel like I'd rather listen to anything from the 90's. Well, anything except Keith Sweat. I thought he was the most godawful R&B singer then, and I still think it now.

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

Im not a fan of anything past 1960. Also 80's music sucks to me. So im a 90's guy.

 

[BattleCat]

I stay stuck in the 90's. I rarely like a song from the get-go, they usually have to grow on me these days.

 

[BlackLantern]

Pop music is an ever evolving animal

 

[nimrodson]

Let's look up the top 10 singles today, and compare them to the top 10 in mid-August in 2001...

Today...
"Party Rock Anthem" - LMFAO
"Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" - Katy Perry
"Super Bass" - Nicki Minaj
"Give Me Everything" - Pitbull
"How To Love" - Lil Wayne
"Rolling In The Deep" - Adele
"Lighters" - Bad Meets Evil
"Tonight Tonight" - Hot Chelle Rae
"Run The World (Girls)" - Beyonce Knowles
"I Wanna Go" - Britney Spears

10 Years Ago...
"Bootylicious" - Destiny's Child
"Loverboy" - Mariah Carey
"Let Me Blow Ya Mind" - Eve & Gwen Stefani
"Hit 'em Up Style (oops!)" - Blu Cantrell
"U Remind Me" - Usher
"All Or Nothing" - O-Town
"Fallin'" - Alicia Keys
"Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)" - Train
"I'm Real" - Jennifer Lopez
"Where The Party At" - Jagged Edge & Nelly

This is proof that sometimes, just sometimes, a great song sneaks in there. :wink:

Also: Songs about parties are popular. t:

 

[BlackLantern]

ha...Blu Cantrell....I thought she was hot, but vanished after that song...seriously...is she even still alive?

 

[terry78]

Yeah, Rolling in the Deep is one of those crossovers that happens every so often. The R&B stations, the pop stations, and the jazzy soft pop stations all have played that one.

 

[nimrodson]

ha...Blu Cantrell....I thought she was hot, but vanished after that song...seriously...is she even still alive?

Haha. Who knows? That song was really catchy as hell though.

Yeah, Rolling in the Deep is one of those crossovers that happens every so often. The R&B stations, the pop stations, and the jazzy soft pop stations all have played that one.

It's really cool to see that it can happen today, too, and still be a GOOD song. I mean, "Hey Ya" was the same too and that song is still on top lists for the 2000s. Just goes to show that Pop music can still be great.

 

[RockSP]

Today is basically like the 70s were. Everything is like a pop/disco thing with pockets of "deeper" stuff occasionally found.

*bodyslams terry*

Most of today's music couldn't touch the 70's with a ten foot autotuned pole.

 

[terry78]

The 70s had a lot of similar stuff, man. I know all the gems we got out that era, but you know it was a lot of goofy **** from both white and black groups during that time.

 

[Manic]

People tend to forget the 70's had crap like "Disco Duck," "Muskrat Love," and "Float On." It was also filled to the brim with mindless dance songs; I like "Don't Leave Me This Way" as much as the next person, but let's not pretend "Don't leave me this way / I can't survive / I can't stay alive" are deep or clever lyrics.

 

[WildcatNC]

60's and 70's >>> 80's and 90's >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 00's

 

[UltimateJustin]

I probably enjoy the radio more now than 10 years ago, though I wouldn't actually buy music from the majority of the artists that get played, and pop radio has way too much of a penchant for non-stop dance synth.

I agree with OP though, the death of nu-metal has improved corporate rock a decent amount.

But music that doesn't get played on mainstream radio is what I would say has improved. Maybe because anyone can record their music now and everyone can find new music so easily, there is never enough time to listen to it all.

 

[Kurosawa]

There's always good music around, but you really have to search for it now. The last really interesting new sound in mainstream music was grunge. Music overall has declined steadily since then.

IMO: 60's>70's=80's>90's>2000's.

 

[Heffer Wolf]

Popular music now is just as bad as it was 10 years ago. Except now their is more obvious auto tune. It is all literally the same exact crap.

 

[TLH]

Popular music today = fail, but that's almost always been the case. There is still great music today, you just need to know where to look/how to find it.

 

[BlackLantern]

Pop music isn't supposed to redefine the genre or be "great" music....its made to appeal to the masses...always has been

on occasion a shift is music will put on focus on something of a higher quality, but those times are few and far between

 

[BatJakz]

You young people are in an envious position. If you haven't explored past music, you have a treasure trove to experience. As a total, their is an extraordinary amount of high quality music. Me personally, I have listened to a lot of past great music but the current musicians are not offering new great music to listen to. I have to explore older music to find quality. Musicians just have a different goal than they did before.

 

[SWAT]

I think the biggest difference for me is the changed influence of metal. The 90s was obviously a horrible time for metal, and even though the nu-metal seemed to bring elements of it back, it was all baggy pants, cornrows, and boring, depressing lyrics about about how mommy and daddy didn't love you enough (one of the most unfortunate side effects of grunge). But the worst part was the utter lack of guitar solos! For your average guitarist or metalhead, that's the climax of the song - a burst of instrumental virtuosity in the middle of an otherwise standard song.

Wow. That was rarely ever, what the songs were about. Shows how much you actually listening to it.

 

[terry78]

They were more about how life sucks in general, but they just managed to do it in a very roundabout way.

 

[kickass]

I find a lot of the pop music today has both kids and their parents feelin' alright. Why do ppl look down on that so much?

 

[BlackLantern]

because people forget what pop music is supposed to do and like to get all elitist about music

for all the talk about music being this uniting thing and all about love I have found it to be one of the most divisive things....ive seen people throw hands over music