Necromancer

if you can name 4 or 5 artist that were popular I can name another 4 or 5 artist that were not as popular and more talented.

Black Francis

Ive been back and forth on this subject asking myself "Did things really used to be better? or am i just nostalgic?" and the answer in my case is im just nostalgic lol

i was born on 83 so the first music movement i came in contact with was the 90's grunge movement and i luv that era of music but much of why i miss that era is because of how young i was and the mindset i used to have so even if bands today still played grunge i would still be like "Nah old grunge used to be better" not because the bands are worse it's simply because it doesn't mean as much to me as it did back then

i also think about bands from this era like Of Montreal which i love an how back then bands like that didn't exist and couldn't have existed because music hasn't lead to that yet

that's Rock though, Pop wise i would have to agree old pop is better i prefer Madonna over Ke$ha anyday an MJ over Chris brown but again i think it's cause i was raised in that era and grew accustomed to that kinda music rather than what pop is today

__________________
"Hey Kids you got to meet the MIGHTY PIXIES!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbRbCtIgW3A

Necromancer

What actually horrifies me is the fact I recognize most all of those songs on Urbans list.

There is a certain sense of tranquility I get by listening to 70's pop that I don't get with todays pop. I'm sure youth is one of the biggest reasons why.

Soulflower

Okay, I think I will go by decades because some of the artists actually were popular repetitively yearly

I guess I will start with the 1950's. We can go to other past decades but I just wanted to start with this one.

These were the top 200 songs of the 1950's decade
Acclaimed Music - The Top 200 Songs from the 1950s

Based on this list these are Top 5 popular artists from this decade

Elvis Presley- He has the most hits out of all of them
Chuck Berry
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Ray Charles

The last four do not have the same number of hits from this decade as Elvis but they have more in comparison to the others listed

Soulflower

That is why I think I love alot of the oldies myself.

That is the only type of music I have ever known because my parents exposed me to it at an early age. Youth today will probably never get expose to that type of music unless their parents expose it to them. I was fortunate to have that. I have always been into music in decades past because it is more authentic and I feel overall better quality

Necromancer

Pop music seemed more clean sounding and vibrant in the 70s. Karen Carpenter is one of the first names that comes to mind whenever discussing pop. And bring the Hollies in on a close second as personal favorites.

Pop music splinterd off in different directions as well, the bands Three Dog Night and the Raspberries were two of the more popular bands that started to use fuzz and distortion to their sound

Soulflower

The 70's are actually my favorite decade of music and I love Karen Carpenter. I think you made a good point with pointing out how popular music has went in different directions. The popular music from the 70's does not sound like the popular music in the 80's and so forth and so forth. That is why when people say "I don't like popular music" I don't think its fair to generalize the medium when they are really referring to a specific era or era's of popular music.

For instance, I love Pop music I just do not like the popular music of this current era.

Necromancer

I guess you could state that the 70's pop music evolved all the way through the decade itself, I mean you had bands like America, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Neil Young that best fit in the folk orientated pop section of the spectrum.

I will go out on a limb and suggest that Elton John was one of the first artist to bring pop the closest to the rock threshold. From there on it was all blues rock and progressive.

Necromancer

My input on the subject is just a drop in the bucket (And quite subjective at the same time I will admit) when considering all the different varieties of 70's pop and going on in to the pop culture explosion of the 80's.

dwill123

Pop music of yesterday (60s\70s) was still more based on having a degree of talent vs today's "pop" music which is all based on the formula devised by the suits in the back room.