Why is modern pop music today so terrible?

Gentlemen, gentlemen....time and tide changes all...

Tastes change, as does the medium by which one gets to play it on.  The industry (and it is) responses by modifying how and what gets 'tweaked' in the process of recording for the means of playback.  Twas always thus....

I hark back to a movie, "The Phantom of the Paradise" with Paul Williams playing the Devil (or his stand-in...and a diminutive one at that *L*).  He's in a studio, recording a man whose had all his teeth removed singing a song in a voice that's barely better than a frog croaking.

After running him through the parametric EQ's and various other 'devices' (most of which have been superseded, as it IS an old movie...), his original voice is restored to it's glory....

When I read discussions like this, I *L*, and move on to the next forum...;)

The way to find good music that flies under the radar is to listen to college radio. Can now be found steaming on internet and still on FM.

I've spent many years as part of the "unpopular" music business (a phrase coined by my friend Harvey Reid) as both a musician and concert producer/sound mixer. The brilliant singer/songwriters who work the small coffeehouse or club gigs can put out some astonishing art. A perfect example of this is when I recently saw Anais Mitchell (look her up) in a 3/4 full show at a nice venue near where I live in MA…she's a more interesting singer and a better songwriter than pretty much anybody you'll hear in "popular" (commercial? promoted?) music…and I bet almost nobody here knows who she is. And she's more well known than most (NY Times had a rave review of her off Broadway musical "Hadestown"). Pop is pop, and is anybody really worried about how lame it generally is? If you are, get out and see somebody less well known and great…follow 'em…buy their stuff…get into jazz…get off yer couch.

I know a guy my age (67), a bass player (if you consider a Rickenbacker a bass---I don’t ;-), who does nothing but p*ss and moan about how "good" music isn’t popular anymore, like it was when we were young. It has never occurred to him that he sounds exactly like the WWII generation did when Rock ’n’ Roll replaced Big Bands as the Pop music that sold. I have tried to tell him that we had our time, that the present now belongs to younger people, but he just doesn’t get it. All he talks about is the British Invasion (especially the da*n Beatles. Enough with The Beatles, already!) and new music derived from it. Your living in the past, maaan.

With the big record labels now obsolete, and small-time recording so affordable, there is maybe more new music being created than ever before. Everybody I know has recorded themselves and pressed up CD’s, which they sell at their live shows and on their websites. Just because you don’t like what’s on mass-market radio and television doesn’t mean "good" stuff isn’t around. It’s all over the place!

The unpopular music business---love it, Wolf! Popularity is relative, and as long as an artist is able to sell enough tickets to travel the country (or world), they still are doing it. Joan Osborne has been to Portland (Oregon) twice in the past 18 months, and she filled the medium-sized theater she played. Dobroist Jerry Douglas (from Alison Krauss’ band) did the same awhile back. Nobody at that level is getting airplay or screen time, but so what? Neither did NRBQ, Rockpile, or Captain Beefheart!

 The music I have liked most has long been on the cult level. Jazz is a marginal music (in terms of visibility), as is Classical, Blues, Bluegrass, and many other forms. Let the kids have their fun, who cares? That doesn't stop me from having mine!

When I was five years old I watched Elvis perform on the Sunday night Ed Sullivan Show. This was 1957 and TV was only black and white (but tube technology!). My parents watched along with me. My mom commented disapprovingly of Elvis's on-screen writhing. My father watched in silence, nonplussed! Are there ANY male singers today of Elvis's stature? I don't think so! Same for guitarists. Where is the next Jimi Hendrix? The new Beatles? We oldsters were blessed to live during a time of great musical change (and performed by young people!).