Why Lots of Current Music Sounds Miserable...

Ben-

To name a few:

70's - Santana -self titled
Aerosmith-Get your wings
Led Zepplin - self titled

80's -Beastie Boys- Liscensed to Ill
Ozzy Osborne-Speak of the devil

90's Aerosmith-Pump (technically 1989 but fits the bill)

00's- Avril Lavigne & Brittany Spears (courtesy of my teenage daughter)

All heard on different iterations of my system through the last 5 years. Do I have your permission to have an opinion now?

There are two self titled Santana albums and both are actually quite well engineered. It's possible that you've listened to a poorly mastered edition or there could be problems with the iterations of your system.

I think these posts where a bunch of old farts bemoan the state of current music trends are the height of hypocrisy. Way back in 1955 your parents (grandparents?) were pointing to rock as the downfall of western civ. The early Beatles/Kinks/Who recordings were all criticized for being overly compressed. You've become your parents!

Onhwy61, you raise a point that I has amused me too: are we becoming our parents as we piss & moan about current music being crap? Mark Twain (I believe it was) said 90% of all art is crap. It was true in the early days of rock & it's true now. I work with a guy who's in an alternative hip-hop band who plays me alot of what he thinks is cool. While I can't say I'm a convert, some of is interesting and witty. The one thing that gives me pause in some cases is the overt promotion of crass materialism, violence, & Neantherthal sexual outlooks. Yeah I know, the same things were bemoaned by authority figures when Punk was around. Bad attitudes seem to keep getting ratcheted up though, where does it end? How low a common cultural denominator do we need to promote? I don't presume to know the answer, I'm just aware of the cultural tension. I know Rap/Hip Hop just reflects the world of those making the music and that world can really be miserable. An honest reflection doesn't bother me, art can be ugly and frightening. At what point does cultural reporting become agrandising promotion of negativity?

Different points about different things.

Entrope you are totally entitled to an opinon on anything that's a basic human right.
However despite making a very valid point about examples across the decades (which surely is at odds with the original point)-my main point was a general one and not aimed at you.

I stand firm on my examples above and I think some of the other replies speak for themself.

Chadnliz that is some statement.
POP music stinks well POP could include The Beatles,The Beach Boys,Mowtown,Stevie Wonder etc etc and dare I say people like The Police who are usually liked by audophiles and artists who are POP and don't appeal like George Michael and Maddona but who actually clearly take time to make sure their recordings sound good.
Generalisations are mostly pointless and I am yet to be even remotely convinced that any Audiogoner can give me copious examples of badly recorded new music.

Nobody truly expects people to investigate a musical genre that does nothing for them, that is truly acceptable but to deride whole genres just because you don't like the suface is silly.

To completely misquote Dylan "Don't criticise what you ain't even heard"

I should have been more specific, but it would take too long to list, but you are right, I painted pop music with too broad of a brush