Do You Hate New Music?

By on January 7, 2012 in News 52
Chuck Berry. Photo: Roland Godefroy (CC)

Chuck Berry. Photo: Roland Godefroy (CC)

You do? Well in that case you must be a Gee-Bee. Jim Fusilli explains for the Wall Street Journal:

It’s 1955 and you’re in a record shop. The proprietor puts on “Maybellene” by a newcomer named Chuck Berry. You’re enjoying it, but a fellow customer saunters over: “That’s nothing more than Roy Acuff’s ‘Ida Red’ with different words,” he says, pointing out that Acuff cut his track in 1939. “I wouldn’t call that original.”

Or it’s 1963 and you’re listening to “Girl From the North Country” from “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.” Someone says, “Dylan didn’t write that. That’s ‘Scarborough Fair.’ It’s on Shirley Collins’s ‘False True Lovers,’” he adds, referring to the 1959 recording. “Dylan put new words to Martin Carthy’s arrangement, that’s all.”

Or it’s 2012 and there is a multitude of young singers, songwriters and musicians trying to develop their own sound. They’re not quite there yet, so the music they make is still familiar to veteran pop and rock fans, some of whom dismiss them, often without reflection or musical expertise.

These naysayers among us demonstrate a kind of generational bias that can blunt a promising musician’s career. It can be summarized thus: “The only valid music is what I liked when I was in my teens.” They tend to be vocal about their disapproval and aren’t likely to exploit new methods of dissemination, such as downloading or using Spotify, to hear new sounds. When they come across new music, it’s usually pushed toward them by a critic or a friend, or they hear a snippet on television. Had they been around in 1955, or 1963, they might have dismissed Messrs. Berry and Dylan too.

Often aggressive and belligerent, the generationally biased—let’s call them Gee-Bees—rarely attribute their affection for the music of their youth to tender memories. They present their argument as perceived wisdom: Popular music was better then. For you to disagree is to reveal a deficiency on your part. Cite examples of excellence among today’s musicians and you too are dismissed…

[continues in the Wall Street Journal]

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  • http://twitter.com/D351 D351

    Pop music is bad in every generation… The good music of any generation usually becomes popular years later. It’s a very small percentage of new (good) musicians that hit the mainstream while they’re still new.

  • Heath

    All I could think of while reading this was “Spirit of Radio”

  • 334DRD

    “The Ultimate Rule ought to be: ‘If it sounds GOOD to you, it’s bitchin’; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it’s shitty. The more your musical experience, the easier it is to define for yourself what you like and what you don’t like. American radio listeners, raised on a diet of _____ (fill in the blank), have experienced a musical universe so small they cannot begin to know what they like.” -Frank Zappa

    The only “Gee-Bees” I’ve run into are biased towards a decade of music they weren’t alive to hear. Probably one of the many undesirable symptoms of being raised by aging hippy parents.

  • poster

    It’s unfortunate that many of the new talented or mindful musicians these days are all considered “Indie” thus adding a label and stereotype that would offend any bee gees and non-hipsters. If it is new and not played on the radio its called indie. So fucking annoying, I hate all these labels placed where they don’t belong.

  • Jbmf69

    “new music” is under more industry control at present, and thus very bland indeed. When a parent (or even grandparent) asks their teenager, “where’s the rebelion in this?”, it’s a sad state of affairs.

  • Jbmf69

    “new music” is under more industry control at present, and thus very bland indeed. When a parent (or even grandparent) asks their teenager, “where’s the rebelion in this?”, it’s a sad state of affairs.

  • Anarchy Pony

    There’s plenty of great modern music, you just have to look for it, the popular stuff today is bland and lowest common denominator because that is how record companies make money. But there are plenty of bands and musicians out there with integrity and a focus on the music itself, they are just not in the spotlight, because today, the spotlight is expensive. Not that there’s anything wrong with the classics, Hendrix still fucking rocks. 

  • Snowpiper

    Newto (Sir Issac, not Huey) said that he stood on the shoulders of giants. Each generation of artists, thinkers, scientists, stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before them. What’s the big deal? And to D351 I would quote (Ted) Sturgeon’s Law, “90% of everything is dreck!” 

  • Honu

    The music that’s pushed out by ‘industry’ does seem under more control but I think there’s alot of new music now that’s under the radar.  Much more so than most people think.  The industry has imploded from online distribution and illegal downloading so musicians and performers are left to grassroot their way into the mainstream.  Lots of performing and writing.  Going out to see local music more gives a better indication of what’s happening music wise than listening to the radio….if you’re fortunate enough to be in an area with a good local music scene.

  • Honu

    or Dennis Miller (before he became a right wing paranoid):  99% of art is shit but that 1% makes you proud to be a human being.

  • Honu

    Totally agree.  I live in San Diego and the level of talent and song writing, musical style, etc blows my mind.  Much better than what passes for what’s popular.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JR6QMHI5D3L6Z4JJBSAKO4KJBE brock

    I think it’s just a filtering mechanism that’s probably been in play as long as there’s been popular music. New music is crap because, as others have pointed out, 90%-99% of what’s being produced is crap and it’s always been that way. When we reflect on the successes of the past and try to hold new music to that standard we’re not taking into account all the crap from that past that got filtered out. If music is truly good it will weather the criticism become the standard that future music is held up to.

  • Anonymous

    I am constantly finding good new music, it just isn’t on the radio.

  • Jin (仁)

    i hate new music in so much as the bland commercial empty ‘new’ music. but i happen to have particular affection for new artists who are indeed artists and produce ‘sick’ beats.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OUKNXAYL5L3QAC5EULUTXDCBFA Nathan

    “The only valid music is what I liked when I was in my teens.”
    Lol, that’s petty retarded, I’m sure a lot of people look back on music they used to listen to in their teens and are like “damn, I actually liked that?” Especially considering teenagers are going through a lot of shit in their minds, and they want to listen to something they can relate to, relative to whatever may be on their mind at that point in their life

  • RonWhitehelm

    Real arts are not appreciated.  To defend shitty art in modern times: ” If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” Unfortunately the really good artists have something on them called a spine.  Good art whether it be music, painting, sculpture, etc.  takes real time to accomplish. Good Music does not require ‘studio’ enhancement and real art  is not a blue 2 x 4 nailed up on a wall splattered with paint that is sold for 20k.  These days in order to find anything good you must seek it out.  It is
    never anything in mainstream.  As a good friend of mine put it when the arts decline,  so does society. Stifling creativity and enforcing conformity is the pathway to oblivion. 

  • Andrew

    I like some new music, some old music, and some really old music.  I even like some of that weird avant garde stuff.

  • Frogboy

    Ever since I signed up for Zune Pass a couple years ago, I’ve been in heaven [musically].  Lots of great stuff out there.  Strangely, I find most of it in bands or genres that I would never listen to if I had to buy the music up front as opposed to renting it.

  • Jin (仁)

    how about a disinfo playlist? what is everyone listening to right now?

  • freakster

    There is an objective fact here: There is no such thing as a shit record. For it to be made, someone had to like it. Everything else on top of that is just merely subjective opinion; you say tomato, i say potato. In otherwords this is a pointless article, merely putting forward the view that somehow the music in the 60′s was the most ‘revolutionary’. For each generation music provides the soundtrack to their own revolution. If I had a mind to, I would argue that underground rave music was easily as powerful as the music from the 60′s was, but then again how did I start this comment? Oh yes, musical taste is subjective and not objective.

  • freakster

    There is an objective fact here: There is no such thing as a shit record. For it to be made, someone had to like it. Everything else on top of that is just merely subjective opinion; you say tomato, i say potato. In otherwords this is a pointless article, merely putting forward the view that somehow the music in the 60′s was the most ‘revolutionary’. For each generation music provides the soundtrack to their own revolution. If I had a mind to, I would argue that underground rave music was easily as powerful as the music from the 60′s was, but then again how did I start this comment? Oh yes, musical taste is subjective and not objective.

  • Anti_Secret_Squirrel

    I don’t listen to the radio anymore because there are way too many commercials (even if they did play good music on there).  I prefer to listen to Pandora (or something similar) where I can put in what I like, rate it, and that’s how I get introduced to new music.  NPR radio is a really good way if you want to listen to new and old “awesome” music.  I used to listen to it in my car and now I listen to it online.

  • Anti_Secret_Squirrel

    I don’t listen to the radio anymore because there are way too many commercials (even if they did play good music on there).  I prefer to listen to Pandora (or something similar) where I can put in what I like, rate it, and that’s how I get introduced to new music.  NPR radio is a really good way if you want to listen to new and old “awesome” music.  I used to listen to it in my car and now I listen to it online.

  • Anti_Secret_Squirrel

    There are alot of bands that are new (or newer) that come out of Asheville, NC or similar area.  Most of them don’t have large record labels nor do they really wanna be part of that because of what many have said above (or be a sell out lol).

  • J Daniels

    Damn kids and their rock n roll… In my day we didn’t have music. If you wanted entertainment you just found a sheep!

  • Andrew

    That’s an intriguing thought.

  • Monkey See Monkey Do

    I’ve always wondered what people consider commercial music. Maybe its just music that musicians have decided to make money off. if so that sucks because that means i like a lot of commercial musicians (ie: Musicians who sell their records for money). I guess you could take it further and say that commercial musicians are only the ones who endorse products in adverstisements. But there’s been a couple of musicians i really like that have sold their songs to advertisements lately. Would that make them commercial? That makes me sad.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PTGSJ7KFRMYMRXAO2KZIPMZJ3A Edward R.

    Why not title this “Why Old People Are Jerks?”  It has little to do with music.

  • http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

    Random Fact of the Day:

    Southpark’s Tweenwave is just a codeword for Dubstep
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B7Bo_OVR9c

    And The first random dubstep song i found on youtube
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFu2DfPDGeU 

    Shit…. in…. the…. ears….

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ben-Branham/100001107927082 Ben Branham

    There are only a certain amount of scales, musical notes and
    progressions to work with and everyone is going to copy someone else along
    the way.  There is no problem with that because it happens everyday. 

     It isn’t new music that is the problem or new artists either.

    The problem is mainstream industry pop, cookie cutter, show me some pretty faces and dancing, two and half minute ditties with horribly written trite  lyrics, half way thought out hooks and poorly composed musical progressions.

    And one other problem is that fashion and style outweigh and overshadow, hard work, musical ability and well practiced/preformed talent.

    New music and musicians are fine, when they understand that their musical talent should be the focus and not some gimmick that only out of touch industry professionals and trendy  fly by night buffoons say is good.

  • Jin (仁)

    well it’s out there if some intrepid soul wants to devote a post to it.

  • Anonymous

    My own Afro-Appalachiastanian qawalli caterwauling galactic voodoo banshee yodeling banjo trance blues. 

  • Far Bank

    It isn’t a constant either, though. Some eras really are more full of shit music than others. This is one of them. Be angry at pop all you want, but pop is pop. It’s all about trying to be the lowest common denominator. What we should be worrying about is the state of the rock genre, which is burying itself behind inaccessibility and drive to be “authentic” at the expense of being authentically good. Case in point: Anything Radiohead has done for the last ten years and all the wimpy hipster music that it has inspired.

  • Monkey See Monkey Do

    I love what radiohead has done in the last ten years as much as the ten years before. ‘Ok computer’ was pretty special though. But radiohead epitimizes a band that has enough artistic courage to change genres throughout their careers, especially after a couple of financially successful albums. They chose not to follow the money trail like so money other bands and just produce more of what sold to people in the past. Instead they transcended genres and and chose to remain loyal to their art over their fans, which i think is honourable in todays world where the audience is constantly being treated as a commodity to be entertained instead people being challenged and inspired by art. Imagine how boring it would be if the greatest painters throughout history never changed their style

  • EyeoftheAxis

    boards of canada – dayvan cowboy
    http://youtu.be/lrBZeWjGjl8

  • EyeoftheAxis

    Good or bad , new or old, play it 9000 times & I’m not going to pay 99 cents to download it. I wouldn’t even download it for free. ( Led Zeppelin or LMFAO ) But if it’s like say Justin Bieber I’ll pay 99 cents NOT to hear it.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    I notice he’s happy to frame the debate in terms of it being people who just hate ALL new music…worshiping the past as better than the present. I also note that he’s a rock AND pop critic. I think I can see where he might have gotten tired of people telling him that 99% of what he’s obligated to review sucks the sweat off a dead mans balls.

    The bad news is…its not just generational…those folks are just right. He mentions the classics and greats that emerged from the decades. I’d contend that they were the exceptions of quality that lasted the decades because of their strength. The legends and classics and others weren’t instant ‘pop’ successes in their day…they became legendary as decades rolled on. They were the percent or so that stood apart after there was enough time to sort the TONS of dross out. Most of us happily forget the shit-ton of really really bad music that came alongside the masters of the 50′s, 60′s…and the 70s…and the 80′s….and every decade. My own favorites were and are a hodgepodge that runs the gamut from classical to punk and everywhere in between. But its been harder and harder to find new material offline…ever since the big players stopped backing smaller acts and focused on mega-hits and glitzpop.

    So I’d make the opposite point. There’s very little new music that has lasting merit. It’s out there…but its buried under a mountain of airbrushed starlets and screaming failbags whose only advantage is the backing of a company that will pay whatever is necessary to keep their garbage in heavy rotation. You have to work and sift and drudge to pan for that gold nugget in a river of crap…and thanks to the internet and social media…its actually easier than it used to be.

    Pop music…like a bitter fat guy opening the pizza box first and taking a giant dump on it to ruin it for everyone else out of sheer hate…doesn’t need excuses made for it…it doesn’t need the blame redirected to someone else…it needs a baseball bat to the face. Pop sucked in years gone by…and it still sucks…and its even begun to distill its suckiest qualities and make them their selling points. Vapidity and infantilism are actually GOALS…not just an incidental byproduct of lack of talent. It doesn’t take ‘GeeBees’ to refuse most of the new…because new isn’t a virtue in and of itself…its just that now…like then…a person has to go the extra mile for that discovery that will stay with you and enrich your life. I’m one of those people who has searched and hunted and gone that extra mile…and I’ve been rewarded for that diligence decade after decade with new music that is all the more precious for its rare beauty…and I will never apologize for calling the slop I had to sift thru just what it is. Slop. 

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    The Black Keys

  • Jin (仁)

    lol in fact a great band- and i think hung (the theme song is BK) is a great show 2.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    Amen dude. I ain’t so proud that I can’t admit the less than admirable moments of being 14 in the 80s. I liked some some stuff 25-30 years ago that makes my skin crawl now. (Yeah…I own the A-Ha album with “Take On Me” on it. Granted…its a dusty cassette that hasn’t seen daylight since before I needed to shave…but still…I have it. No escaping that. I like to tell myself that having the entire Pixies discography more or less compensates for it.)

  • m1kesa1m0ns

     Japandroids just ended, David Bowie coming on now.

  • Jin (仁)

    actually sounds kinda siick (yes, with two i’s) ;)

  • Jin (仁)

    double post.

  • Jin (仁)

    nothing wrong with an artist making a living off of their product (whether performance or song writing).

    the product endorsement game is a grey area, depending on the product being sold. i really liked the knife original of the jose gonzalez cover that made it into a sony bravia commericial, unfortuntely the original song lost it’s appeal after hearing it a dozen times on tv….

  • Nixtab

    It’s not a generational thing and it’s not a matter of critical or hipster perspective. Most of the music coming out from this generation is not very good. They’re all trying really hard, and I’m sure their hearts are all in the right places but as a younger person trying to just find something good to jam out to it’s well… it’s really hard. I’m going to have to disagree that it’s simply not being open minded or easily dismissing things because it’s not what you heard in the past.

  • Joy_isolated

    Pop music lyrics are literally dumber than they ever have been before. I dare you compare the complexity of current pop to, say, 80′s hair metal.

    You will be shocked.

  • Far Bank

    I have no issue with a band vcanging their style. What I have a problem with is that I find everything from Kid A on to be boring. Not “bad” music, just flat out boring. This is why I’ve come to detest the current “indie rock” scene. The music sucks not because it’s bad in the same way that Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock were bad ten years ago. It sucks because so much of it if painfully boring soft rock masquerading as sophisticated music for people with “taste.” I’m a music snob. I’ve always been the pretentious one among my circle of friends. I’m the target audience for that sound and I find it snoozing inducing. I want rock that rocks and there just hasn’t been any lately.

  • Monkey See Monkey Do

    10,000 days by Tool, that rocks. So does Lateralus.

  • Dfsa

    I am young and don’t have any generational bias.  Music today sucks and all anyone cares about is if you can dance (grind) to it or not.  I would say a good 90% of new music is complete recycled garbage.   The very little good music that gets any mainstream attention does so by the sole fact that diversification is a key business tool to make a buck off all types of consumers while bankrupting smaller record companies in the process, leading to even less good music being put out.  As a musician I find the music today to be talentless puke.  I hardly see any instruments being used in mainstream music (and dont give me that computerized crap) when you do see actual musicians playing actual instruments they rarely can be heard playing anything intricate, more than likely they will be playing the same 3 chords as everyone else.  Though I will agree there is more good music in the underground seen, that underground is nothing compared to the underground of yesteryear. 

  • Dfsa

    I am young and don’t have any generational bias.  Music today sucks and all anyone cares about is if you can dance (grind) to it or not.  I would say a good 90% of new music is complete recycled garbage.   The very little good music that gets any mainstream attention does so by the sole fact that diversification is a key business tool to make a buck off all types of consumers while bankrupting smaller record companies in the process, leading to even less good music being put out.  As a musician I find the music today to be talentless puke.  I hardly see any instruments being used in mainstream music (and dont give me that computerized crap) when you do see actual musicians playing actual instruments they rarely can be heard playing anything intricate, more than likely they will be playing the same 3 chords as everyone else.  Though I will agree there is more good music in the underground seen, that underground is nothing compared to the underground of yesteryear. 

  • Goodtinefolkrockshow

    i don’t hate ‘new ‘ music i hate Shitty music

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/SDGHYKRODBXAIPWTZPPUUMCOAI Ray

    I think that now – more than in any other time in modern history – we are caught in a nostalgia loop.  Psychedelic music for example, must be on it’s forth revival in my lifetime.  Let’s move on.  Everything sounds like a slicker, blander version of something older.  I don’t believe that anything is totally original, but we’re witnessing revival after revival of music that was second-hand to begin with.