mr dave

Uhhh... yeah we totally got AT40 here in Canada - and I grew up on the edge of nowhere on the Atlantic. The CRTC laws are somewhat restrictive on content but it depends on the scale of the station, I don't think it's ever gone over 50% and that would be special cases. Unless the only station you had was CBC I can't see how you wouldn't have heard Journey a bunch. Hated it then, hated it even more when idiots decided to like it 'ironically' a few years ago which just gave it more life and then Glee

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i am the universe

Anteater

Well, if there's on thing I enjoy about the 80's in general, it's the atmospheric aesthetic to a lot of production back then. Sure everyone was using keyboards to the point of overdose, whether it was pop or New Age or AOR, but there's something oddly immersive about an era in music dominated by cocaine synthetics.

Today, the mainstream really has no idea what it wants to be, and while party-oriented, Top-40 stuff have gotten 10x more annoying than anything cut before 1999, music on the whole isn't any better or worse from year-to-year than it was in the past.

I think most people who really get into music though, regardless of genre, eventually find something from twenty or thirty years ago to get attached to. For me its always been progressive rock, certain breeds of metal, AOR and a lot of jazz or ambient leaning material. For someone else its Husker Du or Ultravox. For another person it might be The Church or the endlessly winding discography of Frank Zappa.

Point is, while this generation certainly doesn't necessarily appreciate or take the time to really soak in stuff like past generations might have, its not a lost cause.

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Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette

Neapolitan

I love The Church, I never heard of them at the time when I bought my first album of theirs. I found out about them through a guitar magazine. I wasn't disapointed at all. I found out later they were influenced by The Bealtes, the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. I guess the more you learn about music the more you can see it is interconnected and how bands are influence by older bands or one another.


That is ironic because the past is only a click away on the internet. Anyone can find almost anything they want on youtube.

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eddym101

As has been said before, you need to look past the Top 40 "artists" played on Commercial Radio and go exploring. If you live in a big enough city you should be lucky enough to have a thriving underground music scene right on your doorstep. Even when I lived in Inverness, a diddy little city away up North, there were some cracking bands available, all trying their best to perform and bring their music to people!

And now I've moved to Glasgow there is a ridiculous amount of local, underground music to take advantage of. The scene here is so supportive, with artists and promoters all working hard to create the best live shows possible.

Here's an idea, if you're sick of what's played on the radio or the TV, get up from your chair and go down to your local venue, be that a purpose built facility or the grungy little pub down the road, and see what's being created there.
Over the last year I have discovered some phenomenal musicians, and had the good luck to share a stage with them

Look up bands such as "Twisted Rainbow", "The Found Outs", "Shutter", "Picnic Basket Nosedive" and "Hopeless Heroic" for just a sample of great underground music!

littlemouse

Liking The Found Outs and Shutter, thanks.

In agreement with most everyone here, some genres are just more difficult to find at certain time periods.

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Rjinn

Yep I got involved with the Australian "underground scene". Even worked at the venue holding their shows. And guess what? It still sucked. Besides from one nameless band who were ok. There were only a few people I met liking bands but from older generations or cross country.

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last.fm

Norg

looking back the 00's were not that bad some of my fav albums came from that time period

moserw

Love the 80s myself. Loved the music of Johnny Hates Jazz, Genesis, Mike and The Mechanics, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Bon Jovi, Hall & Oates, and a lot many artists. Plus who can forget Michael Jackson?

Everyone seems to think that every generation had both the bad and the good but IMHO the good of today is nowhere near the good of the 60s, 70s, or 80s (unless I have missed some hidden gems and if that's so then that's the point the OP is making... how will the present generation discover good/awesome music when they are fed Justin Bieber).

I do remember reading somewhere that Bob Dylan would not have been the Bob Dylan if he was born in this generation. His "looks" would rule him out or something to that effect.

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Last.FM

For me, the backdrop of half the experiences of life includes music - Amy Grant

shadowtear

Black Light Burns, Martin Grech, Android Lust, Dr. Steel, Micah Buzan, ohGr, System of a Down/Serj Tankian, Muse, Pure Reason Revolution, Kasabain, Aesthetic Perfection, all fantastic bands/solo artists of the 00's.

joy_circumcision

If your emphasis if popular music (by which I seek to include all of rock music, "indie," "experimental rock," rap/hip hop, metal, country music, etc.) then you'll probably be disappointed by any era of music you're in, especially now in the digital age of immediate digestion of a wide array of materials. Even great years for rock music like 1977 only had maybe a few dozen albums that had a big lasting impact, but in '77, that was just fine, since you had to, you know, pay for it, and then there was the ritualistic and community sense around it. All that sort of thing faded as popular music became more and more splintered and physical media died (this isn't me basking in sentimentality - just making an objective statement).

The best thing I can recommend to people who dislike contemporary music isn't to explore the genres they like from the past that are being done well now (though this sometimes yields favorable results - Liars were a big highlight of my sophomore year of high school). What I would recommend to most is to seek those new genres and styles that can't be found in other decades - without a broader, unfortunately canonized context to compare most things to, personal exploration is freed up and the process becomes a lot more fun again.

For example, EAI/Onkyo, some new strains of jazz (though very few) and a lot of drone/ambient/free [genre] things are at the peak of their powers right this second. And there's always (post-)modern classical!

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My Music Journal
My RYM (My Pride and Joy)