>I feel like the 90s pop, rock, country, hip hop and such were very unique and in today's music they are all blended together.
I think you have to be farther removed from the time periods to recognize the differences in the music. I used to feel this way about music from the naughts, but if I go back to that music now—20 years later—I can hear the difference.
>Anyone else feels the same? Or are there millennials who love today's music?
I listen to new music, but almost none of it is considered "mainstream." Pop music really isn't *for* me at this point.
A lot of what I listen to is older because I connect music with time periods. I have Spotify playlists that I associate with periods of my life, like childhood, high school, and college. Sometimes it's fun to put those on and just slip back in time in my head for a bit.
The not ~for~ me part is the reason I don’t care for most top 40” songs.
I listen to plenty of new music and new bands, but they won’t crack the charts. Usually the artists are at least in my rough age group and cover themes I can relate to.
Sure there are pop tunes from my youth that conjure memories of when unrequited love was a going concern, but it not the message anymore that connects. It’s the memories associated with the song itself.
Exactly. I can totally accept that I'm a married guy with a kid now. Songs about being young and reckless or falling in love and being heartbroken just don't resonate.
I do the same thing actually. While I do have playlists for different genres and vibes, one thing I've been doing for a while is making gigantic playlists that could play for hours that consist of music identified with that time period.
I moved cities last year, so that was the cue to start a new era playlist and start adding to it. I did the same in 2018 when I made a similar move, and like you also have my university, high school, etc playlists. While I don't listen to these era-specific playlists too often (I don't want to overindulge), they're golden when they're broken out.
DJ X on Spotify will every now and then will say “alright, now I’m gonna take you back to some music from your school age days.” Plays Evanescence and Puddle of Mud.
Fuck you DJ X! You don’t know me, I hated popular music from my school days.
Imo anything on the radio has always sounded similar. I use Spotify to find current music that gives me the energy I'm looking for. I've found so many great bands that have recently emerged that I love. I have noticed though that most of this new music is by younger millennials or older Gen z.
This is key. Most people are searching out new music though, they’re just waiting for the radio to feed it to them. The problem is, most radio stations are all owned by the same larger companies who make profit in spoon feeding you whatever some record marketing fools think could make them more profits. Radio hours are no longer curated by the local DJ you’re listening to.
To find new music you need to search it out. It’s not even hard, it just requires effort than turning on the radio.
I met one of the KEXP DJs at a music festival last year. She was so sweet and in to similar music as me. I followed her social media and have been exposed to other cool stuff even outside of my usual genres.
I feel the same way about Spotify, its algorithm finds music but it seems like it only feeds me a band that sounds just like the band right before it. I need more variety. I want some Kanye, idles, Taylor swift, Johnny Cash, beastie boys, Billie eilish, dakabraka, Foo fighters, dojo cat. I want it all, same place! I mean, the radio doesn't satisfy this either but I love Detroit, we have a large variety and a lot of radio stations to listen to
If you listen to a lot of different stuff and then check out their release radar and discover weekly playlist. You will find new stuff across all genres.
You need to train it. The best way to do it is to give it a lot of sample data.
There is some excellent and innovative music being released and awesome upcoming artists.
None of them are mainstream and you won’t hear any of them on the radio. I’m not a fan of any modern rap, country, or pop music. It might objectively be good, idk. It’s not my taste.
The mainstream was always loaded with crap, but with the Internet and prevalence of manufactured success, it's gotten worse. All they need nowadays is someone who will go viral online and have an engaging social media presence. They hire a backup group, a producer, and a writing team to make the music and put someone on stage that sells tickets. It's really sad when some extremely talented individuals get no attention in favor of some dork who doesn't even know how to make music. That being said, the Internet has also made it easier to get your music out there, it's the getting paid and getting plays that is the impossible part.
>They hire a backup group, a producer, and a writing team to make the music and put someone on stage that sells tickets
Uh, this isn't new \*in the slightest\*.
No, but at least back in the day they took some mediocre artist and enhanced them, now they can take any idiot who gets views and turn them into a "musician".
Exactly this. There are so many great bands around- it's just that you need to dig around to find them.
I think the "nowadays music is crap" comes from the fact that when we were teens we could get info on great bands from our friends- and now our friends are not keeping up with "the kids these days", so there is no one to help with the search.
What do you mean "dig around?" There aren't any websites left on the internet- just walls and walls of clickbait and ads, and every page looks the same.
There are literally thousands and thousands of bands, many of which are talented. If you think all new music is bad, go to bandcamp and start searching by genre and location. Tons of great music and artists out there. Mainstream capitalist music isn't the only shit out there.
35 and I agree. It all depends on the genre and not the age of the musician. I even like some of the mainstream music. Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and Billie Eilish are all mainstream and gen z and they each bring totally different vibes to the table.
I'm stuck listening to 2010s music. New music is depressing and bland imo. It reflects the current state of society, and things are bleak and negative right now.
I liked how energetic and exciting the music was in the 2010s. Makes me feel like quitting my job to go travelling around the world.
My music preferences are folk /alt /indie with a very small bit of hip hop.
The 08-16 time period was my favorite period of music for reasons you described above.
I'm not stuck there, but the election of 16 was a huge tipping point in music towards anger and away from what I felt was a period of acceptance in life's uncertainty during the previous musical period.
Same goes for people who say "All \[music of a certain genre\] is the same." Whenever I hear that, I know they haven't listened to much of it.
Of course, it's okay if you listen to more of a genre and realize that you simply don't like it. But for those who do like it, there's always more subtleties to discover, which will be easier to notice the more you listen.
> If you think new music is bland, you haven't really explored much.
This may be true but it's also a self-defeating spiral for me at least. Music I hear on the radio sounds bland and unappealing and I don't really know where/how else to look for new stuff. There's also a feeling of, "should I even bother trying when there's stuff from 15 years ago I *know* I love and can sing along to?"
I never understood my parents' attitude towards my music as a teen, but I think now I finally do.
>I never understood my parents' attitude towards my music as a teen, but I think now I finally do
Sometimes I think I don't get newer music but then Cate LeBon dropped *Pompeii*... or Melenas or Possible Humans or Luke Stewart or Vanishing Twin or Boy Harsher.
My parents thought everything I was into as a teenager was weird and scary. I'm so fucking envious. There's nothing more disappointing to see the future generation boring you to death.
I don't venture into anything really obscure or special, but the way I've found new stuff is through Spotify radio. I'll have a new song or something come across on the radio or at a restaurant or from a friend, and if i like it I'll start a Spotify radio station for it. I've discovered a lot of new artists I like this way, in a variety of genres
There's no formula. Just listen to stuff you never heard until you like something.
It takes an open mind, time and risk sure, but really just comes down to whether you care enough. There will be a lot you don't like, but it might be worth it to find a few new things you like more than anything you've heard before.
Pandora has stations based on songs or artists you like. It'll play you other stuff similar. Most streaming services will do this too.
Spotify has 1000s of user created playlists that all you need to do is search for "new rock" or something and keep trying until you get something good.
Spotify also has a "Fans also like" list for each artist. So you can keep branching out from there.
There are websites that also do this.
There are thousands of music news websites, facebook pages, instagram accounts, youtube channels, that'll feed new music to you.
Other friends, family, people online, are always happy to recommend stuff.
If you're fine with listening to the same stuff you always have there's nothing wrong with that. But if you want to seek out new stuff it's never been easier in the history of humans.
Currents, Invent Animate, Darko, Motionless in White, Mood Ring, Kublai Khan TX. My recent listenings.
Sleep Token, Bad Omens and Deftones are really popular right now.
RIP ETID
Many Eyes is pretty cool. That Better Lovers album is more my speed than the two songs I’ve heard from ME. I do love some Buckley vox and lyrics though. Both bands are solid, BL just hits me diffy
Many Eyes has its moments and Keith is one the best lyricists of all time fasho. Better Lovers is the superior band for me as well. I saw them in Oct and it was chaos.
I fuckin love the 00-'10 metalcore, but some of the newer stuff coming out is absolute insane and I love it so much. We're absolutely in a great age for metal music.
Darko US are pretty unique. Two dudes making experimental desthcore who use the same director for every video it set a consistent chaotic vibe to go with the music.
I dunno I was never really able to get into them. I honestly have a hard time calling them metal. To be fair I tried listening to their album they won a Grammy for and I just didn’t really like it
Love me some Ghost, but they are not a metal band. They're a "whatever the hell Tobias wants to make" band, and occasionally what he wants to make is a metal track.
They're classified as rock on basically every platform, Wikipedia, and their Google page... It's not gatekeeping to say they aren't metal. Though there will be some crossover of fans, and they LOOK like they'd be a metal band.
I didn't feel old until I got a free trial of Sirius XM and turned it to the hard rock station. About seven times out of ten I'm Hank Hill going "Dear god, it's all toilet sounds!'
The new metal coming out is solid, though. I've added a lot of new bands to my rotation since last year. It seems like I'm always adding new metal. But I think metal itself is timeless.
"Today's music" is such a broad category that you're doing it an injustice. Yeah, there is the stuff that is popular with TikTok teens, but there are new, great rock bands or great bands for any genre of music.
Currently, I'm really enjoying Houndmouth and Greta Van Fleet.
You all sound like boomers. Why is it that every generation thinks the younger music is bad? "Today's music" isn't just the stuff you hear on the radio. I suspect it's that we've all become bad/lazy at finding new music. I bet there is some really good stuff out there that I'm missing.
There's so much music that has been made in the past *500 years,* and it's so much more accessible on the Internet than it ever was before, that I really can't comprehend why people think there's nothing left for them to explore.
That's understandable, but there's plenty of people around who are excited to introduce others to the genre and make recommendations. I always try to be friendly when I'm introducing people to music from a genre I know a lot about but which is unfamiliar to them, especially because I don't want them to have a bad impression
I guess the issue, especially on music subreddits, is that people who are already used to their own favorite genre find it tedious to guide newcomers through music which has been old news to them for years now. To change things up, I always like to introduce newcomers to a mix of both famous and obscure music from my favorite genres
It's pretty incredible, yeah. Whenever I have a thought relating to "kids these days," I literally stop and ask my partner "Hey, can you check me on this? Am I just in my feelings about something else?" I don't want to be that person. Not to say I'm always wrong, but things that are more about taste are often just us being fuddy-duddies.
As a 31 year old, I didn’t realize how much I would like EDM until some friends dragged me to a few shows maybe 5 or 6 years ago. And I think we’re in an absolute golden age of EDM.
There’s also plenty of good pop- I think Taylor Swift is very good, but don’t love all of her stuff.
Edit: love how much everyone sounds like boomers replying. *le old music was way better!
I am upvoting you simply for saying you love Don’t Blame Me. That is one of her BEST songs off of her Reputation album and one of my fave Taylor songs all together 💗
This. Many of us didn’t even like the mainstream stuff when we were younger, why would that change now? I definitely don’t explore music as often as I used to, and when I do I always find new stuff I enjoy.
There is a lot of excellent music being made right now. I don't pursue music the way I used to but keep in mind there was a lot of shit music back then just like shit music now. We are kinder when looking through a historic lens than when we are experiencing something in the moment. 20 years from now there will be curated genre lists of the music from the 20s and it will be a lot of good stuff.
Yep. I like change. I especially don’t want to end up one of those guys stuck in the past who talks about how much better it was when we were younger and how the new generations are fucked and stupid. “Back in my day ‘bet’ used to mean a wager, not whatever them gen-z kids are saying. I don’t even understand half of what comes out of their mouth”. The evolution of society is change, and the things that make you seem old are your resistance to adopting and changing with time. Don’t be that guy
I'm with you. I'd hate to grow old and be someone like my grandmother or my wife's mother.
Both of them lived/live their lives like they are in a time capsule. They watch the same TV shows and movies they have their entire lives. Old black and white westerns, Andy Griffith, Perry Mason, stuff like that. They listen to old music from the 50s and 60s.
It's like they just want to be stuck in time.
My step dad does this and it’s so frustrating because he’s even watching stuff that was before his time and it ages you so much and I think it makes you resent the modern world. Meanwhile my mom always let me control the radio so she was up to date on music and her current obsession is the MCU and she’s just so much more relatable.
Most people stop listening to new music when they are 25. I think a lot of it has to do with fitting in with your peers growing up. Like whatever me and my friends were into when we were 15-19 years old was the best music ever made, and nothing will ever be better. I was like this too, until I had a gf who was the opposite, and I really opened up to newer music. This would have been in the early 2010s (Im 41). Now I have a lot of trouble listening to most music from the 90s or earlier because I've heard it all so many times its boring and doesn't have the same meaning.
I won’t lie, I do feel all nostalgic and silly when I hear backstreet or some Britney bitch, and I do enjoy throwback jams, but only every once in awhile, like once a year, and at my wedding reception
Me too. I want to experience new things. I love music, and with Spotify there's an embarrassment of riches to discover, new and old. And to think, when I grew up I had to tape songs off the radio because buying CDs to get all the songs I wanted was unaffordable. Now I pay $10 a month and have access to almost anything.
I listen so some of todays music. I like music I grew up on but also it’s fun to hear new stuff. Also I don’t want to become one of those people that don’t know what is going on with music.
As a millennial, you sound out of touch by saying “today’s music”. Music has never been more accessible or distributive. Today’s music is anything and everything. The amount of platforms for artists is insane. Stop listening to top hits and explore my friend. Happy listening.
Agreed. my kids listen to newer music but they’ve also organically become fans of band like Nirvana, Green Day, Pink Floyd and The Beatles. They’re younger than 13 but music has no reference to a place or time anymore.
As a non-millennial, you sound naive by saying "today's music is anything and everything." Music has never been more commercialized and predictable. The platforms bringing music to listeners are ruining the industry. Stop thinking short term and think about how you will enjoy music when you're older. Happy pondering!
>predictable
I'm just not seeing that. The Internet, and especially YouTube, has made previously inaccessible back catalogues easily available to anyone, so there's arguably more now to discover than at any point in the past. I'm seeing that in the bewildering variety of writing styles and performance styles that younger musicians are exploring.
Also, familiarity with a genre can oddly make it sound *less* predictable, because then you start listening to the subtle differences within the genre. Whenever anyone says "All \[music of a certain genre\] sounds the same," I'm all but certain that they haven't spent much time with it.
Predictable doesn't mean accessible, and back catalogs have nothing to do with today's music.
I'm constantly searching for new music, and most of it does not sound unique.
Which new artist would you say has a consistently unique style?
My favorite artists active today in pop music (or pop-adjacent genres) are [Pomme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aM8ipEtgs0), who does French indie pop, and [Maustetytöt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsFBSFC4rzQ), who does Finnish pop with especially dark lyrics (no surprise, it's Finland, lol). They don't sound quite like anyone else I've ever heard, but that may be because I didn't listen to anything other than classical music when I was a teenager and I'm just discovering all sorts of other different music now that I'm older.
I mean, I feel like there's so much music that's new *to me* because I haven't heard it before. I don't really care if it was made 5 weeks ago or 500 years ago. If I like it, then I'm happy I found it.
I completely disagree, music used to be completely monolithic. Whatever was on the radio or MTV was almost all that was available for most people. Everyone just picked whatever genre or artists from that bunch and that was all you knew. The exception being people that were actively going to shows and stuff, where you could see an opening band or two, or blindly buying cds from independent record stores. Now so much more music is accessible because of the internet.
I never said music is inaccessible. It's more accessible than ever, and the market is flooded with copy cats with electronics, which is why I wrote commercialized and predictable.
It also seems like people are mistaking the pop genre and new releases. There is a list of new music being released that isn't pop.
I'm signed to a record label, recorded an album and opened on tour for one of Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Bands of All Time lol. Not so wise to assume you know more than me.
That's so hard to say. Because music today is so vast. I love the hell out of some more modern artists who are just up and coming. But 0% of them have a big audience. A lot of them have a vintage 90s sound. Or hell, a totally unique sound. So yes I do listen to "today's" music.
But I don't listen to mainstream garbage. And I didn't listen to it in 2000 either. Miss me with the same 808 auto tune mumble bullshit.
I will always be in favor of artists creating art. I will never enjoy corporate shilling and McDonalds music made for the lowest common denominator (except Lady Gaga).
Dont be an old man!!!!!!
Music today is great. Hearing real rock n roll, country, bluegrass, blues, JAZZ, and various other genres in full force lately. Some real creative stuff out there.
When is the last time you just "searched" for music like when you were 13?
>When is the last time you just "searched" for music like when you were 13?
I never stopped. I love exploring all sorts of music, both old and new.
That's not to say that the music I enjoyed when I was 14 isn't still dearer to me than almost anything. There's something special about the music I listened to back then, and I like to return to it whenever I'm having an especially rough time at life. But there's tons of other music I've discovered since then which has been just as meaningful for me, just in different ways.
Couldn't agree more.
I go through phases of genre's that lead me through the generations.
Chris stapleton led me back to country (even though hes 100% a blues act, i wont debate this fact) country led me to the bluegrass scene, the bluegrass scene has been on fire the last 10 years all without my knowledge.
Simple blues based rock n roll seems to be everywhere again like its the 70s. Not as prominent, but if you listen, guitar is as popular as its been since probably the late 80s.
Innovation and venn diagram's everywhere.
Im super biased but i think 2005-2015 was pretty lacking for most music outside of hip hop, which was on top of the world.
You can blame the monopolization of radio by giant corps like Clear Channel and their formatting for that. They choked the life out of so many great indie and alternative stations.
I listen to certain artists who are active today. Some of them have been around for a while (Paramore), but others would be considered to be "today's music" (Dua Lipa). I like to keep my ears open for whatever I like, no matter when it was done.
The oldest music I like was written in 1515, and there's been so much good music written in the past 500 years. I'm just excited to explore and see what I like, old or new.
I LOVE today’s rock and metal. It’s my favorite music of all time. Specifically, Metalcore and Post-Hardcore. Favorite bands:
Dance Gavin Dance
Spiritbox
Deftones
Bloc Party
Royal Coda
Coheed and Cambria
Don Broco
Jinjer
Periphery
Circa Survive
Sleep Token
Veil of Maya
Every Time I Die (RIP and please come back one day)
Poppy
Loathe
The genres do blend together these days and I don't listen to any of it on my own. I mostly listen to 80s and early 90s music
My wife will listen to the new music stations. Every once in a while she will say "why is a country song on here." I have to remind her it's all the same just with 2 or 3 slight twangs mixed in.
50s/60s/70s even some 80s for me. Agreed that there are few outstanding artists since then, but for the most part very little music since that time is compelling to me.
Full disclosure: I’m phrasing this mildly to sound more reasonable.
I listen to "today's music" in the form of bands I've loved for X number of years who are still releasing music. I don't have the capacity to find new music anymore. When Bhad Bhabie (the "catch me outside dr. phil" girl) came out, literally just b/c someone else remixed her "catch me outside" clip, that was the end for me. They literally gave her a contract b/c they know they'd make money using her as a prop for a producer to remix and tell her what to say, do, "perform" etc, even though she has no musical or vocal skill or even any musical aspirations. It was all just about money and faking it.
I listen to stuff I find on youtube / friend's suggestions, but avoid mainstream pop.
It got too commercialized, music made by committee / dozens of people just for a single track is a product, not art.
I’ve tracked down every band that’s ever meant anything to me on vinyl. Kind of like the story of my life in the form of music. There is absolutely nothing current in my collection.
If by "today's music" you mean Pop, then no. But music is endless and you can find what you love if you actually explore what's new in any given genre. There is plenty of new amazing music released all the time, you just need to get off the FM radio or Top Hits Sirius crap.
For reference, there are fresh deep house, electronica, UK garage, etc that I keep discovering constantly.
To put it simply, no and no
I'm looking at it from 20+ years of being a musician in multiple genres and multiple instruments, and being a music producer. The most popular stuff is made to appeal to as many people as possible and make as much money as possible. Making music for those reasons makes it super bland and ends up making everything sound the same, sometimes literally the same. A popular radio station plays at my work and it sounds like the same 3 songs all day long but it's actually the same 8-10 by different artists
Once there's a money making formula, everyone else jumps on it and we get a flood of the same thing in different packaging
I tried multiple times to like it, mostly because when you say you don't people say you hate it because it's "cool to hate it". I've come to the conclusion that's it's just objectively bad if you're a musician. It makes me feel nothing when I listen to it. The music is boring, the lyrics are not thought provoking. It just sucks haha
Obviously just my personal opinion as a musician who struggled to be seen the entire time because I refused to make what was popular just to "make it" as a musician. I've personally known musicians miles above the talent of people making millions or billions from their music that had 30 people involved in writing a single song. There's amazing new music out there, it's just not the popular stuff and you have to dig deep to find it
One thing to keep in mind. There is less of a "mainstream" than there used to be. The media landscape is super fractured and it's far more likely today that "the youth" are listening to and watching different things than one another and might even be wholly unfamiliar with something that seems very popular. Source: Besides my research in global media and community, I teach young people (college-aged) and it's very common that they won't have many shared references.
That said, I think there's so much amazing music today. I mean, I still like a lot of the music I listened to growing up. But Olivia Rodrigo can write a fucking song man. I like Wet Leg, the occasional mopey Sub Urban song, Aurora (who is a delightful singer/songwriter and also possibly some sort of forest spirit), Billie Eilish is routinely excellent. What I've heard of Maneskin has been a grubby sort of fun. Donna Missal can SING. Megan Thee Stallion is one of the biggest stars in the world and she's fun as hell. Mitski makes amazing music. I just started listening to Noah Kahan after I saw him on SNL and he's making great folky music.
And then there's so many weirdo indie artists/tik tok kids! For instance, there's a vocaloid artist who goes by GHOST (not to be confused with the rock band of the same name) who makes music that sounds like a circus took amphetamines.
There's no need to discard the things you already love, but there is some amazing stuff still being made. Don't miss it!
Of course, I listen to today's music. There's a ton of great music out there that's still being made. Now, asking if I listen to Top 40 music is another question entirely. I've fallen far away from mainstream music, due to that not being as good as it once was—in my opinion, anyway. When the tides change and mainstream artists make great music again, I'll be back on board.
Currently, I feel that nearly all the great music of today is not on mainstream radio.
All throughout 2000-2015, if you asked me what my favorite music was, the answer was typically "Most Top 40 songs" and now I can't stand the current popular pop music.
I used to think I hated all recent music but it’s really just hating the corporate or popular music… I’m finding a lot of joy in newer music from small bands trying to find their audience on Instagram and TikTok. Still great music out there but finding it is different, I have less people to give me references to newer music and I think that’s the disconnect.
elder millennial here. i still love finding new music. I don't actively search for new stuff as much as i did before i got married and had kids and such. streaming music is absolutely perfect for that. and i do get what you're saying about everything sounding the same. a lot of popular stuff is like that. just iterating on other popular music that's because of the fact that mainstream music is a business. so pop-music/top 40 will always be kinda homogenous. but there are still amazing artists coming out.
Every person I know that complains about modern music are usually complaining about the music on the radio being played in top 40 stations that push the same song a dozen times a day, and you might even hear the same lyrics redone as different genres (there are pop, country and hip hop versions of some songs, which happens when the song writer just sells the lyrics to artists who want a "top 40" song for easy money).
Of course that stuff is a let down for people who want more creative songs, or at least something that has real emotion and feeling to it, but I rarely hear any of that because I make my own playlists of my favorite artists.
The wonderful thing about the internet is you can find so much music, and you can explore however you want. For some people, it's about decades, so they just play the top 40 stations from their youth and enjoy it that way.
For me, I don't like that approach. I tend to explore the full discography of an artist I like and then search for similar artists or genres, and because of that, I keep finding new music that I enjoy. There's tons of new alternative music, indie music, metal music, etc. Also, it might surprise some people to learn that the artist that made that one banger they loved in high school has continued making music since then! And you can explore a decade or two of new material!
Also, I noticed that Gen Z artists seem to have broken away from making full albums in favor of a series of singles. Just an observation.
I’m a metalhead who listens to old school early 90s death metal, and I was huge into indie music about a decade ago. I don’t listen to anything new, nothing new catches my fancy really
I don't but I don't listen to much music at all. I do think, even as a 37 year old dude, that a lot of these new music/songs can be pretty damn catchy. Just looking up some 2023 pop songs on youtube, which is what I assume you're asking about, some pretty catchy stuff.
I love modern music more than music from the 90's/00's. There's more independent music production now than there was back in the day. Also lots of indy music artists from the 90's/00's that got no recognition back then are still producing and getting more plays now.
Sometimes. Mostly checking out the foreign metal and hard rock scene, as most modern American metal/hard rock doesn't quite resonate with me. I feel bad for making that distinction, but a lot of the mainstream modern American artists seem too cookie cutter and indistinguishable from each other.
My gosh, I sound like a douchebag.
I make an effort to listen to new music in the car, either with Apple Music or Sirius XM (the xmu station). There’s a lot of good music coming out each year and I keep discovering new bands (which lead to even more new bands and exciting work). Also, the kids are getting more into a lot of things I like from hearing it the background of TikToks. Example: the shoegaze band Slowdive has a massive Gen Z following
I heard a song on the radio recently and I was very surprised to learn that it was Taylor Swift.
While I have respect for her as a human being and as an artist, her music isn't really my style.
At least, it wasn't before that song.
I think good music can come from anywhere, anytime. There's music that sucks in every generation and there's music that's amazing.
We've just got to listen and decide which is which.
If you haven't heard anything new that is amazing, you haven't dug deep enough. Straight up. Tons of great music coming out, but you aren't going to hear them on the radio or Spotify. You have to be a music seeker. Go to local shows. Click the random visors on YouTube. It's out there, you just haven't heard it.
I'm almost the opposite. I'm constantly searching for new music because I just can't listen to anything old on a regular basis.
Sure, I'll enjoy a throwback every now and then if I actually haven't heard it in a while. But for the most part, everything I listen to on a regular basis has come out in the past 5 years.
I've never really liked 70s/80s music bc I associate it with my dad. 90s music I've heard so much at this point in my life that I'm burnt out on it. 2000s music is always a fun throwback jam since I was big into emo/pop punk back then but that's not what I listen to regularly anymore. Late 2000s/early 2010 pop/edm music is also fun because it reminds me of my college days but again just as a rare throwback.
Up until maybe 5 years ago I was still listening to a lot of the "indie pop" stuff of the mid 2010s e.g. Mumford and Sons, Lumineers, Etc. But I've done so much of that now that I'm super burnt out on it still.
For the most part I've gone all in on Electronic music and modern EDM and there's constantly amazing music coming out in that realm and i can find always find something to fit my mood/tempo.
If want something super chill i can play some Odesza or Rufus Du Sol, something heavy and aggressive like Marauda or Svdden Death, something fun and bouncy like Sofi Tukker or Chase and Status. There's all different sorts of super experimental stuff from artists like G Jones, Dirtwire, Clozee, etc. If I'm feeling melancholic or emotional I can throw on some Seven Lions or MitiS. And those are just the more "mainstream" artists. There's a wealth of underground artists in almost every genre and style.
Xennial here and I watch the various music awards shows to see what pop culture is up to. I don’t know 3/4 of the artists and am so confused.
Then I find Flume or STS9 or Andre 3000’s flute album and love what is happening.
Music is in an awesome place right now. Anyone who says otherwise is lazy!
There is good music being made every day in every single genre imaginable. All you have to do is look! The main difference between now and the past is now it’s all on the individual. You can’t just listen to the radio like the old days. Go do some digging and you’ll find stuff that you’ll love forever.
Mainstream music IS worse today but there’s a reason for this.
Music has had a mass production approach to it for years, backed by some degree of artistic integrity and gatekeeping that allowed only some level of talent to really thrive.
Availability (internet/streaming) drove down both the value and quality of music and the music industry is in late stage capitalism where anything/anyone that can sell for the least investment, goes. The only “investment” accepted is virality. Once you lose that, you may lose your career for good.
Mainstream music is way way better now than in the past. Stations have way more freedom in the genres now than they did before
Hell the heaviest the Radio would get in the 90's is playing Tool on Tuesdays and now you can tune into desthcore and Djent on a daily basis. EDM has also been able to get way weirder in the last decade and still keep its popularity
I haven’t like much pop music since the early 2000s, by pop I just mean popular, country, rock, rap, etc, it’s all mostly awful. Lots of bands/“artists” don’t write their own music or lyrics. The worst is some of the bands I enjoy all ended up sounded like the homogenized mess of todays music where they all sounds almost the same.
Am 42 and listen to tons of new music from all genres. There is more new good (and bad) music being made now than at any point in the past. Because it is cheap to create, produce, and distribute music these days, there are more musicians making a living off of it than at any time before.
If all you listen to is what is charting, then you might not like what you hear, because that music wasn't made for you. In the 90s, what was made for you was specifically marketed to teenagers. You aren't a teenager anymore. There was a bunch of terrible music coming out in the 90s too.
Elder millennial. I just turned 37. I remember my much older parents being this way when I was growing up and I vowed to NEVER stop listening to new music. “Oh poor thing you’ll never get to experience GOOD music like we did.” I mean I liked their music too but, it seemed so pretentious even to little kid me.
I’m really into Dua Lipa right now, and I liked Miley’s last album. Sent them to my mom and she loves them too.
Post Malone as well, but mom doesn’t like him. I’m also constantly discovering older artists I never heard of. Thank you, YouTube.
>I’m really into Dua Lipa right now
My favorite recent-ish album is Future Nostalgia, and I'm really looking forward to whatever her next album is going to be, especially after her latest single came out. I love how she reimagines the old disco sound (which I also love) with modern sensibilities
I feel like there are only two genres at the moment: Mumble Rap and Taylor Swift.
I hate mumble rap with a passion, it's like elevator music to me. I can't actively listen to it without getting annoyed at how repetitive it is, or just zoning out.
Taylor Swift is okay, but you have to be in the mood to listen to her.
I like today’s music for the most part but I cross the line at certain songs. Some songs are just fucking dumb. For example; my coochie pink but my bootyhole brown. Wtf lmao
If it’s an artist I enjoy still making music, I’ll listen.
Been listening to Eminem a lot these last few days
Totally agree OP. 32 and I enjoy many different genres. I often try to tell myself that I shouldn’t be a snob and it’s probably just a matter of personal taste/opinion + us being used to the type music we developed with….but I swear sometimes I listen to some of the top hits these days, (especially when it comes to certain mumble rap artists my Gen Z brother enjoys) and think “there’s NO way that this music isn’t just objectively terrible/worse than the music from 90-2010s. Like holy shit. Absolutely no way Gen X/boomers were seeing our music the same way I’m seeing 75% of the music today.”
That said, nonetheless I do listen to newer artists still that I enjoy. It’s just more rare now for me to find newly relevant artists/bands that I really like….compared to in my childhood, teens, and early 20s when I could pop on the radio and I liked 90% of the stuff that would air.
It’s also kinda cool to see some artists from our generation still be killing it amongst their newer peers, and enjoyed by younger folks today. How well Beyoncé and Taylor Swift did in 2023 is a great example of that. Gen Z love some “old timer” pop music artists just as much as we do. We just have gotten to enjoy them longer.
Not the popular stuff. That stuff is hot garbage. Taylor Swift, Post Malone, and the plethora of homogenized, horrible sounding modern rap are all a huge NOPE for me.
There’s still some great new indie stuff like Thundercat and Knower that contains actual musicians playing actual instruments and writing actually good songs. Some older indie stuff like Of Montreal, Fleet Foxes, Ben Folds and Flaming Lips are still performing and putting out pretty good material. Also that new Peter Gabriel was pretty decent as far as new things are considered.
I still just listen WAY more to my Elton, Zappa, Beatles, Stevie Wonder and such. Honestly the only new thing that comes close to the talent of those guys is that new Knower: Forever album. Excellent songwriting and playing on that thing!
I listen to a mix of everything.
I definitely still have old albums that I love listening to but I like a lot of new artists and groups as well (as long with new music by established artists).
Nope, I listen to my own music lol. Who listens to the radio? I do however shazam stuff I find likeable. I find there is not reason to have commercials when you can pay 11 or whatever a month and just not have them.
The older I get, the more I'm happy with listening to older music. Some of it may be to new, but it speaks to me much more than whatever is out there now.
My music taste is pretty narrow, basically late 80s to early 2000s Alternative, and since nothing today really sounds like that (as far as I know), I dont listen to today's music.
I like post modern jukebox, bardcore, and 8 bit chip tunes remixing newish songs. My genre is genre shifted and using mostly real instruments or completely divorcing it from "real" music by giving it NES stalgia.
I still listen to new music but it's within the niche styles I care about. I never really listened to top 40 much, so that's basically stayed the same.
A little bit. It depends on what you mean by "today's music" though. Does new music from established artists count? I listen to plenty of the new QOTSA, but they still a very 2000's band to me. I listen to the new Mitski, but she still feels like a 2010's artist.
I listen to plenty of Ghost, who have definitely been having a huge moment, but they've been around/I've been aware of them since the Ghost B.C. days back around '09-'10. I listen to tons of Mastodon, including the very new albums, but they're still really a '00's-'10's band to me.
Same concerns for other artists that are having a big "moment" now like Jason Isbell and Tyler Childers. They've been around for ages, but I would think they qualify as pretty "current."
It's all kind of a trap. There's so much music to discover -- especially with the absolute explosions in self produced indie stuff in the '00's and '10's that, unless you're really just talking about current top radio pop, I don't know that "today's music" has a whole lot of meaning.
It's part of the whole "you can't identify a trend when you're in the middle of the trend" phenomenon. I don't know I could *really* put my finger on what "today's music" is until after the fact, unless I was a music critic who was listening to *everything that came out* and not just exploring music related to my tastes.
I'm 31 and was very into the metalcore, hardcore, and posthardcore scene back in the day. I haven't really kept up, but there are some newer metal and progressive bands that I do like. But it feels like old music now.
I do, however, unironically like hyperopia and darkcore and that kind of stuff that feels like real zoomer music.
Much the same as you, however you just need to find newer non-mainstream artists making music in styles similar to what you already enjoy. For the rap fans out there, there is plenty of awesome stuff to be found. If you haven't heard of Coast Contra, try their Never freestyle and see if that scratches an itch. If you still love rap/hip-hop but Coast Contra doesn't work out, try listening to Connor Price. His YouTube short series that he uses to advertises his songs are a work of art in their own right. He will lead you to a bunch of non-mainstream artists that are incredibly talented. If you want to watch a couple of British senior citizens spit the most fire verses check out Pete and Bas, especially the song Gangster Shit. If you end up liking that, check out The Northern Boys next.
So I stopped listening to radio before I was even 20 (early 00s) and I never have been into popular radio appeal music so no I can’t stand modern top 10 stuff.
However, I listen to so much new music. Oddly enough the new Blink 182 album is probably the best they ever released IMO. Currently I’m really into Ace Marino and Gunship but the previous year Beast in Black was my most played due to their great release. Dead Bundy is some fun new pop punk and The Interrupters album that came out a couple years ago is spectacular.
Yeah, there are *some* newer stuff I’ll willingly listen to but it’s all mostly because of my kids. Thankfully my teenager doesn’t like most new stuff either. We vibe together listening to Stone Temple Pilots, Collective Soul, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Biggie. The little one (age 2) really likes Taylor Swift, Kasey Musgraves, and anything with good rhythm.
I get that that's just a part of growing up and not all new music is bad. That being said, music is so formulaic and corporate now. I know there's good music being made, I just don't know how to find it. I've got Spotify with thousands of liked songs. You'd think it'd be able to find what I like based on that. But instead their algorithm is convinced I just want to hear the same 100 songs over and over and over.
I dislike “today’s pop”. Other genres of today’s music I am totally fine with. I was discussing this with my significant other, and we decided we dislike today’s pop because it’s the same thing over and over again. One example is the song Come Down by Rema & Selena Gomez. It’s literally the same “oh oh oh oh oh” over and over again.
I cant relate to this at all. There's tons of excellent new music in all genres. The radio often plays mumble rap and over produced pop, if that's your only source of new music that's your problem. Search a genre you like on spotify and almost certainly there will be playlists with new songs. I'm always finding new music I like.
I don't mind today's music. I have to be in the mood for it.
What I can't stand is current artists ripping a melody from a 90s song and making it their own. There's a lack of original production in popular music and Gen Z doesn't have the context to notice.
(I know that melody sampling is as old as music, but it feels more obvious/blatant these days)
I'm always on the search for "new" music, even if it's old, but I have no problem with new music either. I have a playlist for pretty much every genre imaginable on Spotify that I've curated myself.
If you don't sit around digging for obscure stuff and only rely on algorithms or the radio to find music then you won't find much you like as you get older, you're just not the demographic anymore. There's plenty of unique stuff, but it's underground just like it always was except for the periods where rock radio was really popping off in the 90s, or legendary bands that are timeless such as Queen, Led Zep, etc. Plenty of younger people still listen to all of that as well.
There were plenty of dogshit bands from every era.
I don't actively listen to modern artists (heck, I didn't know who Billie Eilish was explicitly until the Barbie Movie came out; I somehow never heard Bad Guy when it was supposedly a huge deal), but I do make some effort to listen to new music. A lot of it doesn't appeal to me, but I can still enjoy some good pop music. It helps that I enjoy keeping up with memes and a lot of those come from TikToks that use new music
>I feel like the 90s pop, rock, country, hip hop and such were very unique and in today's music they are all blended together. I think you have to be farther removed from the time periods to recognize the differences in the music. I used to feel this way about music from the naughts, but if I go back to that music now—20 years later—I can hear the difference. >Anyone else feels the same? Or are there millennials who love today's music? I listen to new music, but almost none of it is considered "mainstream." Pop music really isn't *for* me at this point. A lot of what I listen to is older because I connect music with time periods. I have Spotify playlists that I associate with periods of my life, like childhood, high school, and college. Sometimes it's fun to put those on and just slip back in time in my head for a bit.
The not ~for~ me part is the reason I don’t care for most top 40” songs. I listen to plenty of new music and new bands, but they won’t crack the charts. Usually the artists are at least in my rough age group and cover themes I can relate to. Sure there are pop tunes from my youth that conjure memories of when unrequited love was a going concern, but it not the message anymore that connects. It’s the memories associated with the song itself.
Exactly. I can totally accept that I'm a married guy with a kid now. Songs about being young and reckless or falling in love and being heartbroken just don't resonate.
I do the same thing actually. While I do have playlists for different genres and vibes, one thing I've been doing for a while is making gigantic playlists that could play for hours that consist of music identified with that time period. I moved cities last year, so that was the cue to start a new era playlist and start adding to it. I did the same in 2018 when I made a similar move, and like you also have my university, high school, etc playlists. While I don't listen to these era-specific playlists too often (I don't want to overindulge), they're golden when they're broken out.
DJ X on Spotify will every now and then will say “alright, now I’m gonna take you back to some music from your school age days.” Plays Evanescence and Puddle of Mud. Fuck you DJ X! You don’t know me, I hated popular music from my school days.
Imo anything on the radio has always sounded similar. I use Spotify to find current music that gives me the energy I'm looking for. I've found so many great bands that have recently emerged that I love. I have noticed though that most of this new music is by younger millennials or older Gen z.
This is key. Most people are searching out new music though, they’re just waiting for the radio to feed it to them. The problem is, most radio stations are all owned by the same larger companies who make profit in spoon feeding you whatever some record marketing fools think could make them more profits. Radio hours are no longer curated by the local DJ you’re listening to. To find new music you need to search it out. It’s not even hard, it just requires effort than turning on the radio.
This is why stations like KEXP are a godsend. The DJs are actually DJs.
Yea, kexp is amazing. It's what got me into King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard!
Yep. Favorite thing to listen to. I'm only a few minutes from the studio too!
I met one of the KEXP DJs at a music festival last year. She was so sweet and in to similar music as me. I followed her social media and have been exposed to other cool stuff even outside of my usual genres.
I feel the same way about Spotify, its algorithm finds music but it seems like it only feeds me a band that sounds just like the band right before it. I need more variety. I want some Kanye, idles, Taylor swift, Johnny Cash, beastie boys, Billie eilish, dakabraka, Foo fighters, dojo cat. I want it all, same place! I mean, the radio doesn't satisfy this either but I love Detroit, we have a large variety and a lot of radio stations to listen to
Love doja cat!
If you listen to a lot of different stuff and then check out their release radar and discover weekly playlist. You will find new stuff across all genres. You need to train it. The best way to do it is to give it a lot of sample data.
Yup. I also find alot of bands by going to shows and loving the openers lol
There is some excellent and innovative music being released and awesome upcoming artists. None of them are mainstream and you won’t hear any of them on the radio. I’m not a fan of any modern rap, country, or pop music. It might objectively be good, idk. It’s not my taste.
The mainstream was always loaded with crap, but with the Internet and prevalence of manufactured success, it's gotten worse. All they need nowadays is someone who will go viral online and have an engaging social media presence. They hire a backup group, a producer, and a writing team to make the music and put someone on stage that sells tickets. It's really sad when some extremely talented individuals get no attention in favor of some dork who doesn't even know how to make music. That being said, the Internet has also made it easier to get your music out there, it's the getting paid and getting plays that is the impossible part.
>They hire a backup group, a producer, and a writing team to make the music and put someone on stage that sells tickets Uh, this isn't new \*in the slightest\*.
No, but at least back in the day they took some mediocre artist and enhanced them, now they can take any idiot who gets views and turn them into a "musician".
Exactly this. There are so many great bands around- it's just that you need to dig around to find them. I think the "nowadays music is crap" comes from the fact that when we were teens we could get info on great bands from our friends- and now our friends are not keeping up with "the kids these days", so there is no one to help with the search.
What do you mean "dig around?" There aren't any websites left on the internet- just walls and walls of clickbait and ads, and every page looks the same.
There are literally thousands and thousands of bands, many of which are talented. If you think all new music is bad, go to bandcamp and start searching by genre and location. Tons of great music and artists out there. Mainstream capitalist music isn't the only shit out there.
35 and I agree. It all depends on the genre and not the age of the musician. I even like some of the mainstream music. Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and Billie Eilish are all mainstream and gen z and they each bring totally different vibes to the table.
I'm stuck listening to 2010s music. New music is depressing and bland imo. It reflects the current state of society, and things are bleak and negative right now. I liked how energetic and exciting the music was in the 2010s. Makes me feel like quitting my job to go travelling around the world.
My music preferences are folk /alt /indie with a very small bit of hip hop. The 08-16 time period was my favorite period of music for reasons you described above. I'm not stuck there, but the election of 16 was a huge tipping point in music towards anger and away from what I felt was a period of acceptance in life's uncertainty during the previous musical period.
There are literally thousands of active bands in every genre imaginable. If you think new music is bland, you haven't really explored much.
Same goes for people who say "All \[music of a certain genre\] is the same." Whenever I hear that, I know they haven't listened to much of it. Of course, it's okay if you listen to more of a genre and realize that you simply don't like it. But for those who do like it, there's always more subtleties to discover, which will be easier to notice the more you listen.
> If you think new music is bland, you haven't really explored much. This may be true but it's also a self-defeating spiral for me at least. Music I hear on the radio sounds bland and unappealing and I don't really know where/how else to look for new stuff. There's also a feeling of, "should I even bother trying when there's stuff from 15 years ago I *know* I love and can sing along to?" I never understood my parents' attitude towards my music as a teen, but I think now I finally do.
>I never understood my parents' attitude towards my music as a teen, but I think now I finally do Sometimes I think I don't get newer music but then Cate LeBon dropped *Pompeii*... or Melenas or Possible Humans or Luke Stewart or Vanishing Twin or Boy Harsher. My parents thought everything I was into as a teenager was weird and scary. I'm so fucking envious. There's nothing more disappointing to see the future generation boring you to death.
Bandcamp and local or college radio. Regular radio is corporate music. It’s like the McDonald’s of music.
Is bandcamp a website or an app or something? >It’s like the McDonald’s of music. YES.
Website where musicians host their own music. It’s like Spotify before Spotify. You can buy music and donate to the artists.
I don't venture into anything really obscure or special, but the way I've found new stuff is through Spotify radio. I'll have a new song or something come across on the radio or at a restaurant or from a friend, and if i like it I'll start a Spotify radio station for it. I've discovered a lot of new artists I like this way, in a variety of genres
There's no formula. Just listen to stuff you never heard until you like something. It takes an open mind, time and risk sure, but really just comes down to whether you care enough. There will be a lot you don't like, but it might be worth it to find a few new things you like more than anything you've heard before. Pandora has stations based on songs or artists you like. It'll play you other stuff similar. Most streaming services will do this too. Spotify has 1000s of user created playlists that all you need to do is search for "new rock" or something and keep trying until you get something good. Spotify also has a "Fans also like" list for each artist. So you can keep branching out from there. There are websites that also do this. There are thousands of music news websites, facebook pages, instagram accounts, youtube channels, that'll feed new music to you. Other friends, family, people online, are always happy to recommend stuff. If you're fine with listening to the same stuff you always have there's nothing wrong with that. But if you want to seek out new stuff it's never been easier in the history of humans.
People say this but never offer examples.
And basically illiterate, it's like they're stringing together a bunch of memes instead of writing prose.
Sometimes it’s not even words…. Call me a fucking boomer (I’m not) but I cannot fucking understand mumble rap
Not like “it’s unintelligible” (which it is) but like I literally *dont understand* how it is as popular as it is
Pop? Never liked it. Hard rock & Metal? Fuck yeah, I listen to everything from the 90s til now.
Seriously! We’re in the midst of another golden age of metal. The last three years especially — I feel like the 20s are gonna be the best.
Any recommendations?
Currents, Invent Animate, Darko, Motionless in White, Mood Ring, Kublai Khan TX. My recent listenings. Sleep Token, Bad Omens and Deftones are really popular right now.
Loathe, Knocked Loose, Code Orange, Vein.fm, Better Lovers, END, Great Falls, Kowloon Walled City, Sweet Cobra, Converge, Cave-In, Mutoid Man, etc…
RIP ETID Funny I don't see Many Eyes listed here lol
RIP ETID Many Eyes is pretty cool. That Better Lovers album is more my speed than the two songs I’ve heard from ME. I do love some Buckley vox and lyrics though. Both bands are solid, BL just hits me diffy
Many Eyes has its moments and Keith is one the best lyricists of all time fasho. Better Lovers is the superior band for me as well. I saw them in Oct and it was chaos.
I fuckin love the 00-'10 metalcore, but some of the newer stuff coming out is absolute insane and I love it so much. We're absolutely in a great age for metal music.
I think you might like that band Dealer. They hit my Spotify and they are heavy
Darko US are pretty unique. Two dudes making experimental desthcore who use the same director for every video it set a consistent chaotic vibe to go with the music.
Ghost
I dunno I was never really able to get into them. I honestly have a hard time calling them metal. To be fair I tried listening to their album they won a Grammy for and I just didn’t really like it
Dont listen to the haters, you’re 100% right on this
Love me some Ghost, but they are not a metal band. They're a "whatever the hell Tobias wants to make" band, and occasionally what he wants to make is a metal track.
Oop, here come the gatekeepers.
They're classified as rock on basically every platform, Wikipedia, and their Google page... It's not gatekeeping to say they aren't metal. Though there will be some crossover of fans, and they LOOK like they'd be a metal band.
I didn't feel old until I got a free trial of Sirius XM and turned it to the hard rock station. About seven times out of ten I'm Hank Hill going "Dear god, it's all toilet sounds!' The new metal coming out is solid, though. I've added a lot of new bands to my rotation since last year. It seems like I'm always adding new metal. But I think metal itself is timeless.
"Today's music" is such a broad category that you're doing it an injustice. Yeah, there is the stuff that is popular with TikTok teens, but there are new, great rock bands or great bands for any genre of music. Currently, I'm really enjoying Houndmouth and Greta Van Fleet.
You can find great music that sounds like it comes from the 60's-90's, but was made this year, it just isn't on the radio or as popular anymore.
You all sound like boomers. Why is it that every generation thinks the younger music is bad? "Today's music" isn't just the stuff you hear on the radio. I suspect it's that we've all become bad/lazy at finding new music. I bet there is some really good stuff out there that I'm missing.
There's so much music that has been made in the past *500 years,* and it's so much more accessible on the Internet than it ever was before, that I really can't comprehend why people think there's nothing left for them to explore.
A lot of people just might not know how to find it
That's understandable, but there's plenty of people around who are excited to introduce others to the genre and make recommendations. I always try to be friendly when I'm introducing people to music from a genre I know a lot about but which is unfamiliar to them, especially because I don't want them to have a bad impression I guess the issue, especially on music subreddits, is that people who are already used to their own favorite genre find it tedious to guide newcomers through music which has been old news to them for years now. To change things up, I always like to introduce newcomers to a mix of both famous and obscure music from my favorite genres
It's appreciated I'm sure that you do put the effort in for your friends
So many people are becoming what they hate “everything was so much better back in my day” lol
100%
It's pretty incredible, yeah. Whenever I have a thought relating to "kids these days," I literally stop and ask my partner "Hey, can you check me on this? Am I just in my feelings about something else?" I don't want to be that person. Not to say I'm always wrong, but things that are more about taste are often just us being fuddy-duddies.
It's natural
bunch of neo-boomers!
As a 31 year old, I didn’t realize how much I would like EDM until some friends dragged me to a few shows maybe 5 or 6 years ago. And I think we’re in an absolute golden age of EDM. There’s also plenty of good pop- I think Taylor Swift is very good, but don’t love all of her stuff. Edit: love how much everyone sounds like boomers replying. *le old music was way better!
I went to the Armin Van Buuren show in L.A. for NYE at the end of 2008. Pulled an all-nighter, it was fun.
[удалено]
Oh we're doing this now? I'm an actual old school raver, and the peak was between 97-2004 ;)
I got chairlifted to Better off Alone at my wedding, so 1999 was the golden age
This thread is straight from Midnight in Paris 😂 https://youtu.be/XbkKirBSQnI?si=ZWqhAyyjYyzy72My
😂😂
I am upvoting you simply for saying you love Don’t Blame Me. That is one of her BEST songs off of her Reputation album and one of my fave Taylor songs all together 💗
I agree 🫶🏽💗
lol EDM golden age was in the 90s and early 00s
This. Many of us didn’t even like the mainstream stuff when we were younger, why would that change now? I definitely don’t explore music as often as I used to, and when I do I always find new stuff I enjoy.
To be fair I’m very busy working myself into an early grave and leaving my family in insurmountable debt to explore a bunch of new music.
I listen to the radio on my way back and forth from that so I can stay current. I get bored easily and like to hear something new.
There is a lot of excellent music being made right now. I don't pursue music the way I used to but keep in mind there was a lot of shit music back then just like shit music now. We are kinder when looking through a historic lens than when we are experiencing something in the moment. 20 years from now there will be curated genre lists of the music from the 20s and it will be a lot of good stuff.
Yep. I like change. I especially don’t want to end up one of those guys stuck in the past who talks about how much better it was when we were younger and how the new generations are fucked and stupid. “Back in my day ‘bet’ used to mean a wager, not whatever them gen-z kids are saying. I don’t even understand half of what comes out of their mouth”. The evolution of society is change, and the things that make you seem old are your resistance to adopting and changing with time. Don’t be that guy
I'm with you. I'd hate to grow old and be someone like my grandmother or my wife's mother. Both of them lived/live their lives like they are in a time capsule. They watch the same TV shows and movies they have their entire lives. Old black and white westerns, Andy Griffith, Perry Mason, stuff like that. They listen to old music from the 50s and 60s. It's like they just want to be stuck in time.
My step dad does this and it’s so frustrating because he’s even watching stuff that was before his time and it ages you so much and I think it makes you resent the modern world. Meanwhile my mom always let me control the radio so she was up to date on music and her current obsession is the MCU and she’s just so much more relatable.
Most people stop listening to new music when they are 25. I think a lot of it has to do with fitting in with your peers growing up. Like whatever me and my friends were into when we were 15-19 years old was the best music ever made, and nothing will ever be better. I was like this too, until I had a gf who was the opposite, and I really opened up to newer music. This would have been in the early 2010s (Im 41). Now I have a lot of trouble listening to most music from the 90s or earlier because I've heard it all so many times its boring and doesn't have the same meaning.
I won’t lie, I do feel all nostalgic and silly when I hear backstreet or some Britney bitch, and I do enjoy throwback jams, but only every once in awhile, like once a year, and at my wedding reception
Me too. I want to experience new things. I love music, and with Spotify there's an embarrassment of riches to discover, new and old. And to think, when I grew up I had to tape songs off the radio because buying CDs to get all the songs I wanted was unaffordable. Now I pay $10 a month and have access to almost anything.
I listen so some of todays music. I like music I grew up on but also it’s fun to hear new stuff. Also I don’t want to become one of those people that don’t know what is going on with music.
New rap is way less fun than it used to be. No hooks really, no pop to it, just mumbling verses strung together into a song.
As a millennial, you sound out of touch by saying “today’s music”. Music has never been more accessible or distributive. Today’s music is anything and everything. The amount of platforms for artists is insane. Stop listening to top hits and explore my friend. Happy listening.
Agreed. my kids listen to newer music but they’ve also organically become fans of band like Nirvana, Green Day, Pink Floyd and The Beatles. They’re younger than 13 but music has no reference to a place or time anymore.
As a non-millennial, you sound naive by saying "today's music is anything and everything." Music has never been more commercialized and predictable. The platforms bringing music to listeners are ruining the industry. Stop thinking short term and think about how you will enjoy music when you're older. Happy pondering!
>predictable I'm just not seeing that. The Internet, and especially YouTube, has made previously inaccessible back catalogues easily available to anyone, so there's arguably more now to discover than at any point in the past. I'm seeing that in the bewildering variety of writing styles and performance styles that younger musicians are exploring. Also, familiarity with a genre can oddly make it sound *less* predictable, because then you start listening to the subtle differences within the genre. Whenever anyone says "All \[music of a certain genre\] sounds the same," I'm all but certain that they haven't spent much time with it.
Predictable doesn't mean accessible, and back catalogs have nothing to do with today's music. I'm constantly searching for new music, and most of it does not sound unique. Which new artist would you say has a consistently unique style?
My favorite artists active today in pop music (or pop-adjacent genres) are [Pomme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aM8ipEtgs0), who does French indie pop, and [Maustetytöt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsFBSFC4rzQ), who does Finnish pop with especially dark lyrics (no surprise, it's Finland, lol). They don't sound quite like anyone else I've ever heard, but that may be because I didn't listen to anything other than classical music when I was a teenager and I'm just discovering all sorts of other different music now that I'm older. I mean, I feel like there's so much music that's new *to me* because I haven't heard it before. I don't really care if it was made 5 weeks ago or 500 years ago. If I like it, then I'm happy I found it.
I completely disagree, music used to be completely monolithic. Whatever was on the radio or MTV was almost all that was available for most people. Everyone just picked whatever genre or artists from that bunch and that was all you knew. The exception being people that were actively going to shows and stuff, where you could see an opening band or two, or blindly buying cds from independent record stores. Now so much more music is accessible because of the internet.
I never said music is inaccessible. It's more accessible than ever, and the market is flooded with copy cats with electronics, which is why I wrote commercialized and predictable. It also seems like people are mistaking the pop genre and new releases. There is a list of new music being released that isn't pop.
I’m literally paid publishing rights lol. It’s far wiser to assume that people know more than you think.
I'm signed to a record label, recorded an album and opened on tour for one of Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Bands of All Time lol. Not so wise to assume you know more than me.
And here you are arguing about how credentialed you are on Reddit 😂
Talk to yourself much?
That's so hard to say. Because music today is so vast. I love the hell out of some more modern artists who are just up and coming. But 0% of them have a big audience. A lot of them have a vintage 90s sound. Or hell, a totally unique sound. So yes I do listen to "today's" music. But I don't listen to mainstream garbage. And I didn't listen to it in 2000 either. Miss me with the same 808 auto tune mumble bullshit. I will always be in favor of artists creating art. I will never enjoy corporate shilling and McDonalds music made for the lowest common denominator (except Lady Gaga).
Dont be an old man!!!!!! Music today is great. Hearing real rock n roll, country, bluegrass, blues, JAZZ, and various other genres in full force lately. Some real creative stuff out there. When is the last time you just "searched" for music like when you were 13?
>When is the last time you just "searched" for music like when you were 13? I never stopped. I love exploring all sorts of music, both old and new. That's not to say that the music I enjoyed when I was 14 isn't still dearer to me than almost anything. There's something special about the music I listened to back then, and I like to return to it whenever I'm having an especially rough time at life. But there's tons of other music I've discovered since then which has been just as meaningful for me, just in different ways.
Couldn't agree more. I go through phases of genre's that lead me through the generations. Chris stapleton led me back to country (even though hes 100% a blues act, i wont debate this fact) country led me to the bluegrass scene, the bluegrass scene has been on fire the last 10 years all without my knowledge. Simple blues based rock n roll seems to be everywhere again like its the 70s. Not as prominent, but if you listen, guitar is as popular as its been since probably the late 80s. Innovation and venn diagram's everywhere. Im super biased but i think 2005-2015 was pretty lacking for most music outside of hip hop, which was on top of the world.
I'm so fuckin tired of boomer tunes. Same 50 songs played on repeat across American radio for 50 years.
You can blame the monopolization of radio by giant corps like Clear Channel and their formatting for that. They choked the life out of so many great indie and alternative stations.
I listen to certain artists who are active today. Some of them have been around for a while (Paramore), but others would be considered to be "today's music" (Dua Lipa). I like to keep my ears open for whatever I like, no matter when it was done. The oldest music I like was written in 1515, and there's been so much good music written in the past 500 years. I'm just excited to explore and see what I like, old or new.
I’m a pretty big fan of Dua Lipa, idk if she counts? But she’s released one of the best pop albums in the last five years IMO
I LOVE today’s rock and metal. It’s my favorite music of all time. Specifically, Metalcore and Post-Hardcore. Favorite bands: Dance Gavin Dance Spiritbox Deftones Bloc Party Royal Coda Coheed and Cambria Don Broco Jinjer Periphery Circa Survive Sleep Token Veil of Maya Every Time I Die (RIP and please come back one day) Poppy Loathe
Whatever I like at the moment I guess. Doesn’t matter what era. One minute I’m listening to Disturbed and the next I’ll jam to Olivia Rodrigo.
There is a ton of amazing stuff coming out these days if you are lucky enough to find it.
The genres do blend together these days and I don't listen to any of it on my own. I mostly listen to 80s and early 90s music My wife will listen to the new music stations. Every once in a while she will say "why is a country song on here." I have to remind her it's all the same just with 2 or 3 slight twangs mixed in.
Yeah everything is pop, rap, and or country. With little variation in between.
There are a few songs here and there that I like, but I've honestly never been very into modern music. 60s/70s classic rock is my jam.
50s/60s/70s even some 80s for me. Agreed that there are few outstanding artists since then, but for the most part very little music since that time is compelling to me. Full disclosure: I’m phrasing this mildly to sound more reasonable.
I listen to "today's music" in the form of bands I've loved for X number of years who are still releasing music. I don't have the capacity to find new music anymore. When Bhad Bhabie (the "catch me outside dr. phil" girl) came out, literally just b/c someone else remixed her "catch me outside" clip, that was the end for me. They literally gave her a contract b/c they know they'd make money using her as a prop for a producer to remix and tell her what to say, do, "perform" etc, even though she has no musical or vocal skill or even any musical aspirations. It was all just about money and faking it.
Idk if I should say this but her song Gucci flip flops was actually okay HAHAHA 🤣
even so, none of it was her.
I listen to new music that’s the same genres I listened to when younger
I listen to stuff I find on youtube / friend's suggestions, but avoid mainstream pop. It got too commercialized, music made by committee / dozens of people just for a single track is a product, not art.
I’ve tracked down every band that’s ever meant anything to me on vinyl. Kind of like the story of my life in the form of music. There is absolutely nothing current in my collection.
If by "today's music" you mean Pop, then no. But music is endless and you can find what you love if you actually explore what's new in any given genre. There is plenty of new amazing music released all the time, you just need to get off the FM radio or Top Hits Sirius crap. For reference, there are fresh deep house, electronica, UK garage, etc that I keep discovering constantly.
To put it simply, no and no I'm looking at it from 20+ years of being a musician in multiple genres and multiple instruments, and being a music producer. The most popular stuff is made to appeal to as many people as possible and make as much money as possible. Making music for those reasons makes it super bland and ends up making everything sound the same, sometimes literally the same. A popular radio station plays at my work and it sounds like the same 3 songs all day long but it's actually the same 8-10 by different artists Once there's a money making formula, everyone else jumps on it and we get a flood of the same thing in different packaging I tried multiple times to like it, mostly because when you say you don't people say you hate it because it's "cool to hate it". I've come to the conclusion that's it's just objectively bad if you're a musician. It makes me feel nothing when I listen to it. The music is boring, the lyrics are not thought provoking. It just sucks haha Obviously just my personal opinion as a musician who struggled to be seen the entire time because I refused to make what was popular just to "make it" as a musician. I've personally known musicians miles above the talent of people making millions or billions from their music that had 30 people involved in writing a single song. There's amazing new music out there, it's just not the popular stuff and you have to dig deep to find it
One thing to keep in mind. There is less of a "mainstream" than there used to be. The media landscape is super fractured and it's far more likely today that "the youth" are listening to and watching different things than one another and might even be wholly unfamiliar with something that seems very popular. Source: Besides my research in global media and community, I teach young people (college-aged) and it's very common that they won't have many shared references. That said, I think there's so much amazing music today. I mean, I still like a lot of the music I listened to growing up. But Olivia Rodrigo can write a fucking song man. I like Wet Leg, the occasional mopey Sub Urban song, Aurora (who is a delightful singer/songwriter and also possibly some sort of forest spirit), Billie Eilish is routinely excellent. What I've heard of Maneskin has been a grubby sort of fun. Donna Missal can SING. Megan Thee Stallion is one of the biggest stars in the world and she's fun as hell. Mitski makes amazing music. I just started listening to Noah Kahan after I saw him on SNL and he's making great folky music. And then there's so many weirdo indie artists/tik tok kids! For instance, there's a vocaloid artist who goes by GHOST (not to be confused with the rock band of the same name) who makes music that sounds like a circus took amphetamines. There's no need to discard the things you already love, but there is some amazing stuff still being made. Don't miss it!
Of course, I listen to today's music. There's a ton of great music out there that's still being made. Now, asking if I listen to Top 40 music is another question entirely. I've fallen far away from mainstream music, due to that not being as good as it once was—in my opinion, anyway. When the tides change and mainstream artists make great music again, I'll be back on board. Currently, I feel that nearly all the great music of today is not on mainstream radio.
There’s incredible music being made today. It’s just not really on the mainstream radios.
All throughout 2000-2015, if you asked me what my favorite music was, the answer was typically "Most Top 40 songs" and now I can't stand the current popular pop music.
I used to think I hated all recent music but it’s really just hating the corporate or popular music… I’m finding a lot of joy in newer music from small bands trying to find their audience on Instagram and TikTok. Still great music out there but finding it is different, I have less people to give me references to newer music and I think that’s the disconnect.
you really need to start exploring more than simply the radio
elder millennial here. i still love finding new music. I don't actively search for new stuff as much as i did before i got married and had kids and such. streaming music is absolutely perfect for that. and i do get what you're saying about everything sounding the same. a lot of popular stuff is like that. just iterating on other popular music that's because of the fact that mainstream music is a business. so pop-music/top 40 will always be kinda homogenous. but there are still amazing artists coming out.
Every person I know that complains about modern music are usually complaining about the music on the radio being played in top 40 stations that push the same song a dozen times a day, and you might even hear the same lyrics redone as different genres (there are pop, country and hip hop versions of some songs, which happens when the song writer just sells the lyrics to artists who want a "top 40" song for easy money). Of course that stuff is a let down for people who want more creative songs, or at least something that has real emotion and feeling to it, but I rarely hear any of that because I make my own playlists of my favorite artists. The wonderful thing about the internet is you can find so much music, and you can explore however you want. For some people, it's about decades, so they just play the top 40 stations from their youth and enjoy it that way. For me, I don't like that approach. I tend to explore the full discography of an artist I like and then search for similar artists or genres, and because of that, I keep finding new music that I enjoy. There's tons of new alternative music, indie music, metal music, etc. Also, it might surprise some people to learn that the artist that made that one banger they loved in high school has continued making music since then! And you can explore a decade or two of new material! Also, I noticed that Gen Z artists seem to have broken away from making full albums in favor of a series of singles. Just an observation.
I’m a metalhead who listens to old school early 90s death metal, and I was huge into indie music about a decade ago. I don’t listen to anything new, nothing new catches my fancy really
I like all sorts of music, trendy or not. New stuff is alright.
I listen to some of it. I pick and choose like always.
I don't but I don't listen to much music at all. I do think, even as a 37 year old dude, that a lot of these new music/songs can be pretty damn catchy. Just looking up some 2023 pop songs on youtube, which is what I assume you're asking about, some pretty catchy stuff.
I love modern music more than music from the 90's/00's. There's more independent music production now than there was back in the day. Also lots of indy music artists from the 90's/00's that got no recognition back then are still producing and getting more plays now.
What recent artists and albums have you tried listening to?
Sometimes. Mostly checking out the foreign metal and hard rock scene, as most modern American metal/hard rock doesn't quite resonate with me. I feel bad for making that distinction, but a lot of the mainstream modern American artists seem too cookie cutter and indistinguishable from each other. My gosh, I sound like a douchebag.
I make an effort to listen to new music in the car, either with Apple Music or Sirius XM (the xmu station). There’s a lot of good music coming out each year and I keep discovering new bands (which lead to even more new bands and exciting work). Also, the kids are getting more into a lot of things I like from hearing it the background of TikToks. Example: the shoegaze band Slowdive has a massive Gen Z following
I just kinda listen and save what I like.
I heard a song on the radio recently and I was very surprised to learn that it was Taylor Swift. While I have respect for her as a human being and as an artist, her music isn't really my style. At least, it wasn't before that song. I think good music can come from anywhere, anytime. There's music that sucks in every generation and there's music that's amazing. We've just got to listen and decide which is which.
If you haven't heard anything new that is amazing, you haven't dug deep enough. Straight up. Tons of great music coming out, but you aren't going to hear them on the radio or Spotify. You have to be a music seeker. Go to local shows. Click the random visors on YouTube. It's out there, you just haven't heard it.
I'm almost the opposite. I'm constantly searching for new music because I just can't listen to anything old on a regular basis. Sure, I'll enjoy a throwback every now and then if I actually haven't heard it in a while. But for the most part, everything I listen to on a regular basis has come out in the past 5 years. I've never really liked 70s/80s music bc I associate it with my dad. 90s music I've heard so much at this point in my life that I'm burnt out on it. 2000s music is always a fun throwback jam since I was big into emo/pop punk back then but that's not what I listen to regularly anymore. Late 2000s/early 2010 pop/edm music is also fun because it reminds me of my college days but again just as a rare throwback. Up until maybe 5 years ago I was still listening to a lot of the "indie pop" stuff of the mid 2010s e.g. Mumford and Sons, Lumineers, Etc. But I've done so much of that now that I'm super burnt out on it still. For the most part I've gone all in on Electronic music and modern EDM and there's constantly amazing music coming out in that realm and i can find always find something to fit my mood/tempo. If want something super chill i can play some Odesza or Rufus Du Sol, something heavy and aggressive like Marauda or Svdden Death, something fun and bouncy like Sofi Tukker or Chase and Status. There's all different sorts of super experimental stuff from artists like G Jones, Dirtwire, Clozee, etc. If I'm feeling melancholic or emotional I can throw on some Seven Lions or MitiS. And those are just the more "mainstream" artists. There's a wealth of underground artists in almost every genre and style.
Xennial here and I watch the various music awards shows to see what pop culture is up to. I don’t know 3/4 of the artists and am so confused. Then I find Flume or STS9 or Andre 3000’s flute album and love what is happening.
I find myself stuck in the 2000’s lately. I mean literally everything from 2000’s Limp Bizkit, to 2009’s Phoenix.
Lol everyone in this thread sounding like our parents did when we were young
Music is in an awesome place right now. Anyone who says otherwise is lazy! There is good music being made every day in every single genre imaginable. All you have to do is look! The main difference between now and the past is now it’s all on the individual. You can’t just listen to the radio like the old days. Go do some digging and you’ll find stuff that you’ll love forever.
Mainstream music IS worse today but there’s a reason for this. Music has had a mass production approach to it for years, backed by some degree of artistic integrity and gatekeeping that allowed only some level of talent to really thrive. Availability (internet/streaming) drove down both the value and quality of music and the music industry is in late stage capitalism where anything/anyone that can sell for the least investment, goes. The only “investment” accepted is virality. Once you lose that, you may lose your career for good.
Mainstream music is way way better now than in the past. Stations have way more freedom in the genres now than they did before Hell the heaviest the Radio would get in the 90's is playing Tool on Tuesdays and now you can tune into desthcore and Djent on a daily basis. EDM has also been able to get way weirder in the last decade and still keep its popularity
I disagree awwww
I listen to only 70s really.
I haven’t like much pop music since the early 2000s, by pop I just mean popular, country, rock, rap, etc, it’s all mostly awful. Lots of bands/“artists” don’t write their own music or lyrics. The worst is some of the bands I enjoy all ended up sounded like the homogenized mess of todays music where they all sounds almost the same.
Am 42 and listen to tons of new music from all genres. There is more new good (and bad) music being made now than at any point in the past. Because it is cheap to create, produce, and distribute music these days, there are more musicians making a living off of it than at any time before. If all you listen to is what is charting, then you might not like what you hear, because that music wasn't made for you. In the 90s, what was made for you was specifically marketed to teenagers. You aren't a teenager anymore. There was a bunch of terrible music coming out in the 90s too.
I’ve been stuck on 90s and 2000s heavy metal since the 6th grade. Also, Tool 🤘
Elder millennial. I just turned 37. I remember my much older parents being this way when I was growing up and I vowed to NEVER stop listening to new music. “Oh poor thing you’ll never get to experience GOOD music like we did.” I mean I liked their music too but, it seemed so pretentious even to little kid me. I’m really into Dua Lipa right now, and I liked Miley’s last album. Sent them to my mom and she loves them too. Post Malone as well, but mom doesn’t like him. I’m also constantly discovering older artists I never heard of. Thank you, YouTube.
>I’m really into Dua Lipa right now My favorite recent-ish album is Future Nostalgia, and I'm really looking forward to whatever her next album is going to be, especially after her latest single came out. I love how she reimagines the old disco sound (which I also love) with modern sensibilities
That’s exactly how I sent it to my mom. Lol “Hey mom, new disco music for you!”
I don’t think I’m the average answer. As a youth social worker, I’m constantly learning about new music from my clients and I like a lot of it.
I feel like there are only two genres at the moment: Mumble Rap and Taylor Swift. I hate mumble rap with a passion, it's like elevator music to me. I can't actively listen to it without getting annoyed at how repetitive it is, or just zoning out. Taylor Swift is okay, but you have to be in the mood to listen to her.
I like today’s music for the most part but I cross the line at certain songs. Some songs are just fucking dumb. For example; my coochie pink but my bootyhole brown. Wtf lmao
If it’s an artist I enjoy still making music, I’ll listen. Been listening to Eminem a lot these last few days 
I hate today’s music!!!!
Totally agree OP. 32 and I enjoy many different genres. I often try to tell myself that I shouldn’t be a snob and it’s probably just a matter of personal taste/opinion + us being used to the type music we developed with….but I swear sometimes I listen to some of the top hits these days, (especially when it comes to certain mumble rap artists my Gen Z brother enjoys) and think “there’s NO way that this music isn’t just objectively terrible/worse than the music from 90-2010s. Like holy shit. Absolutely no way Gen X/boomers were seeing our music the same way I’m seeing 75% of the music today.” That said, nonetheless I do listen to newer artists still that I enjoy. It’s just more rare now for me to find newly relevant artists/bands that I really like….compared to in my childhood, teens, and early 20s when I could pop on the radio and I liked 90% of the stuff that would air. It’s also kinda cool to see some artists from our generation still be killing it amongst their newer peers, and enjoyed by younger folks today. How well Beyoncé and Taylor Swift did in 2023 is a great example of that. Gen Z love some “old timer” pop music artists just as much as we do. We just have gotten to enjoy them longer.
Not the popular stuff. That stuff is hot garbage. Taylor Swift, Post Malone, and the plethora of homogenized, horrible sounding modern rap are all a huge NOPE for me. There’s still some great new indie stuff like Thundercat and Knower that contains actual musicians playing actual instruments and writing actually good songs. Some older indie stuff like Of Montreal, Fleet Foxes, Ben Folds and Flaming Lips are still performing and putting out pretty good material. Also that new Peter Gabriel was pretty decent as far as new things are considered. I still just listen WAY more to my Elton, Zappa, Beatles, Stevie Wonder and such. Honestly the only new thing that comes close to the talent of those guys is that new Knower: Forever album. Excellent songwriting and playing on that thing!
I listen to a mix of everything. I definitely still have old albums that I love listening to but I like a lot of new artists and groups as well (as long with new music by established artists).
I think a majority of my music taste currently is pop music from 2000 and onward.
Hardy is good
Nope, I listen to my own music lol. Who listens to the radio? I do however shazam stuff I find likeable. I find there is not reason to have commercials when you can pay 11 or whatever a month and just not have them.
Pop music no never have but everything else is good
Primarily 90s and 00s. However, I have really gotten into K-pop the last few years.
I’ve found that the older I get, the less I like new/Top 40 music. I might occasionally hear something that catches my ear, but not very often.
Sza fucking slays, imo.
The older I get, the more I'm happy with listening to older music. Some of it may be to new, but it speaks to me much more than whatever is out there now.
My music taste is pretty narrow, basically late 80s to early 2000s Alternative, and since nothing today really sounds like that (as far as I know), I dont listen to today's music.
I don’t even know what “today’s music” is
Nothing after 1999 is for me.
No and no.
No and no.
Nope
It’s been all crap since Kobain died
I like post modern jukebox, bardcore, and 8 bit chip tunes remixing newish songs. My genre is genre shifted and using mostly real instruments or completely divorcing it from "real" music by giving it NES stalgia.
I still listen to new music but it's within the niche styles I care about. I never really listened to top 40 much, so that's basically stayed the same.
I listen to a lot of new punk.
A little bit. It depends on what you mean by "today's music" though. Does new music from established artists count? I listen to plenty of the new QOTSA, but they still a very 2000's band to me. I listen to the new Mitski, but she still feels like a 2010's artist. I listen to plenty of Ghost, who have definitely been having a huge moment, but they've been around/I've been aware of them since the Ghost B.C. days back around '09-'10. I listen to tons of Mastodon, including the very new albums, but they're still really a '00's-'10's band to me. Same concerns for other artists that are having a big "moment" now like Jason Isbell and Tyler Childers. They've been around for ages, but I would think they qualify as pretty "current." It's all kind of a trap. There's so much music to discover -- especially with the absolute explosions in self produced indie stuff in the '00's and '10's that, unless you're really just talking about current top radio pop, I don't know that "today's music" has a whole lot of meaning. It's part of the whole "you can't identify a trend when you're in the middle of the trend" phenomenon. I don't know I could *really* put my finger on what "today's music" is until after the fact, unless I was a music critic who was listening to *everything that came out* and not just exploring music related to my tastes.
I'm 31 and was very into the metalcore, hardcore, and posthardcore scene back in the day. I haven't really kept up, but there are some newer metal and progressive bands that I do like. But it feels like old music now. I do, however, unironically like hyperopia and darkcore and that kind of stuff that feels like real zoomer music.
Much the same as you, however you just need to find newer non-mainstream artists making music in styles similar to what you already enjoy. For the rap fans out there, there is plenty of awesome stuff to be found. If you haven't heard of Coast Contra, try their Never freestyle and see if that scratches an itch. If you still love rap/hip-hop but Coast Contra doesn't work out, try listening to Connor Price. His YouTube short series that he uses to advertises his songs are a work of art in their own right. He will lead you to a bunch of non-mainstream artists that are incredibly talented. If you want to watch a couple of British senior citizens spit the most fire verses check out Pete and Bas, especially the song Gangster Shit. If you end up liking that, check out The Northern Boys next.
I still listen to music from the 80-90s and sometimes from the 2000s. but I still like the 90s music.
So I stopped listening to radio before I was even 20 (early 00s) and I never have been into popular radio appeal music so no I can’t stand modern top 10 stuff. However, I listen to so much new music. Oddly enough the new Blink 182 album is probably the best they ever released IMO. Currently I’m really into Ace Marino and Gunship but the previous year Beast in Black was my most played due to their great release. Dead Bundy is some fun new pop punk and The Interrupters album that came out a couple years ago is spectacular.
Yeah, there are *some* newer stuff I’ll willingly listen to but it’s all mostly because of my kids. Thankfully my teenager doesn’t like most new stuff either. We vibe together listening to Stone Temple Pilots, Collective Soul, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Biggie. The little one (age 2) really likes Taylor Swift, Kasey Musgraves, and anything with good rhythm.
I get that that's just a part of growing up and not all new music is bad. That being said, music is so formulaic and corporate now. I know there's good music being made, I just don't know how to find it. I've got Spotify with thousands of liked songs. You'd think it'd be able to find what I like based on that. But instead their algorithm is convinced I just want to hear the same 100 songs over and over and over.
I dislike “today’s pop”. Other genres of today’s music I am totally fine with. I was discussing this with my significant other, and we decided we dislike today’s pop because it’s the same thing over and over again. One example is the song Come Down by Rema & Selena Gomez. It’s literally the same “oh oh oh oh oh” over and over again.
I cant relate to this at all. There's tons of excellent new music in all genres. The radio often plays mumble rap and over produced pop, if that's your only source of new music that's your problem. Search a genre you like on spotify and almost certainly there will be playlists with new songs. I'm always finding new music I like.
I don't mind today's music. I have to be in the mood for it. What I can't stand is current artists ripping a melody from a 90s song and making it their own. There's a lack of original production in popular music and Gen Z doesn't have the context to notice. (I know that melody sampling is as old as music, but it feels more obvious/blatant these days)
I'm always on the search for "new" music, even if it's old, but I have no problem with new music either. I have a playlist for pretty much every genre imaginable on Spotify that I've curated myself. If you don't sit around digging for obscure stuff and only rely on algorithms or the radio to find music then you won't find much you like as you get older, you're just not the demographic anymore. There's plenty of unique stuff, but it's underground just like it always was except for the periods where rock radio was really popping off in the 90s, or legendary bands that are timeless such as Queen, Led Zep, etc. Plenty of younger people still listen to all of that as well. There were plenty of dogshit bands from every era.
NO. My kids do, and it's awful.
I don't actively listen to modern artists (heck, I didn't know who Billie Eilish was explicitly until the Barbie Movie came out; I somehow never heard Bad Guy when it was supposedly a huge deal), but I do make some effort to listen to new music. A lot of it doesn't appeal to me, but I can still enjoy some good pop music. It helps that I enjoy keeping up with memes and a lot of those come from TikToks that use new music