Why does most new music suck?

Rja, mediocrity is the norm for everything, not just music. Interesting enough we always generalize on the 5% exception and compare to the norm of the here and now as we perceive it. A normal tendency I suppose. And when you add in the context of the discussion, mostly middle age gentleman speaking of the current state of the music art that they don't, for the most part explore, the opinions are generally predictable. I'm no critic of the here and now music and my bet is that many of the critics on this thread don't explore it in enough quantity or detail to really offer anything more than an anecdotal opinion based on their general taste than serious listining and critique, lets be honest here. Where are "All the Young Dudes"? come on Dudes, stand up and be counted!

I did check out Ben Howard, now there you go as an example of something that I would deem above mediocrity. Seems like there are plenty of others that listen to this guy as well.

Great tune, wasn't it? I loved it when it came out. No wonder our young folks want to follow suit.

"*But it's always been the simplest of melodies that are the most pleasing"

"Rja, mediocrity is the norm for everything, not just music."

Taken together, it seems that the simplest of melodies are most pleasing, and the norm is mediocrity.

So the dilemma is that the most pleasing music also happens to be mediocre.

I'll buy that.

Goose, does this answer you original question?

Who wants to be mediocre? It probably does "suck" relative to things that are "really good".

Nothing new here these days though. Most things are average, pretty much by definition. Average is well, average, it kinda "sucks" I suppose.

But the devils in the details regarding good/average/sucks. Ten people will give ten different answers, so back to the drawing board.

Damn, I though I finally had this one nailed....

You're kidding, right? You've melded two peoples' opinions on different issues into a collaborative position of your own. And you're talking about narcissism? What are you on?

Any way, I'd like to bring up Bowie for a moment. He declined 'All The Young Dudes'. But wasn't he awesome? Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. Took what was left and made the best of it. And you can bet it needed the production it got.