Why does most new music suck?

Marty, I believe the simplest melodies are in fact the best but all it has to be is good. I consider all the older stuff to be in that category even though some of it may be more involving. It's when you get into the 'complicated territory' that things seem to fall apart. As I mentioned before, Bowie pretty well scraped the bottom of the barrel imo.

I congratulate the posters who find the present times replete with "great" pop/rock music. Sadly, I myself cannot.

I'm not a statistician or mathematician, but I believe there is something to the contention that great melodies have been exhausted and we are in the era of repetition, imitation, and influence that eliminates originality. As much as I enjoy some of the contemporary rock bands such as The White Stripes, The Black Keys, Wolfmother, or Alabama Shakes (and countless others), they are all a far cry from the classic rock experience. Pop, well, is just hopeless.

Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Cream records are sought year after year at my local record store, just to mention a tiny few. Those acts stopped recording over forty (40!) years ago. Name one band that records today that you honestly think will be sought after forty (40) years from now. Any candidate linked or mentioned in this thread is a pathetic wishful thinking.

I enjoy certain modern acts, admittedly. I then put on Led Zeppelin, Jimi, Beatles, Doors, Cream, Black Sabbath, Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd, early Foreigner, Todd Rundgren, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Santana, Supertramp, and many, many more from that era, and I get the visceral reaction to the first few chords that no modern pop/rock act can possibly evoke. Please tell me what rock/pop songs in the past decade evokes the same reaction in you that "Stairway to Heaven," "All Along the Watchtower," "Light My Fire", "No Quarter," "The Long and Winding Road," or "Wish You Were Here," just to mention a tiny few, does in you. Fucking seriously, name one song from the year 2000 and later that gets you going as much as "All Along the Watchtower."

I am limiting the list abhorrently as there are dozens upon dozens bands and songs from the '60s and '70s that simply rock and put you in a different state of mind that no modern song or band could possibly put you in. Yes, most of new music sucks!!!

Please indulge me and go along with this analogy with me. My father was a truck driver in the communist Poland in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. The guy never missed a day of work his entire life. He would get up at 4:45 AM to make 6 AM at work (yes it was local). He would wet-shave every morning smoking a cigarette with nobody watching him. He would never shave without smoking a cigarette. To this day I still do not understand how and why he did it, but I look back at it and it epitomizes the notion of "cool" for me. Now, when I look at what's considered "cool" today, all I see is imitation, influence, pretending, and wanna-be cool. It is impossible to declare someone original or cool today as they are all in some way influenced by what already created the concept.

It is no different for rock (and pop) music. Metaphorically, show me a musician who shaves with a cigarette when nobody is watching. Nobody does. It is all imitation, repetition, and influence. Jimmy Page might have stolen or been influenced by the grass-roots blues, but what he did with it till today shapes peoples' musical tastes and defines what rock music is. With the best acts of the current era what is served is a very diluted attempt to emulate what was created a few decades ago with a few very, very rare exceptions.

Is it all hopeless for me? No, I do have a few "modern" acts that stand up to the originality and uniqueness of the classic rock/pop era. Kate Bush, Portishead and Jeff Buckley are my personal picks of acts that offered something so unique as to call them classic that bridged musical eras. U2 through "Achtung Baby" was another act that to me continued the originality of rock'n'roll music at its best. This is all gone today. It's all a regurgitation of all that was original and good a few decades ago. Not of all it sucks, but even the best acts today are a far cry from the originality of the classic era.

Oh, btw, I am 40-years-old.

Act,

How many songs prior to 2000 match up to Watchtower?

OTOH, Long and Winding Road? There's a very long list of those. You taste is your taste, and my takeaway is that todays innovative music is barking up a Different tree. If you limit yourself to first degree blues derivatives, I agree that the songs will, by definition, begin to mine familiar ground.....however that was also true in the 60s and 70s.

That said, there's plenty of great post 2000 stuff already listed above that should move you. From your own list, I'd start with Todd Rundgren's cover album of Robert Johnson songs. Tho these are very old songs, they were already old songs when you loved them back in the day. Newer songs from older artists would include "Come" from Say You Will by Fleetwood Mac, "Guns are the Tongues" from Sweet Warrior by Richard Thompson, and "Spoonful" from I Feel Like Playing from Ron Wood, among many, many others. To varying degrees these will sound familiar, but as near as I can tell, this is what might work for you

On the new artist side, I'd have started with White Stripes, and we know that didnt move you much, so I'll skip that part.

Marty

Remakes and originals are two different animals.

Actusreus, the operative here is not that it sucks, but the 'why' it sucks. I think the answer does require getting out your calculator.

The "classic rock" era was a great time for white guys singing the blues and hippies singing bout peace and love.

Also a time when electronic instruments, guitars and keyboards mainly, came on board and broadened the horizons immensely from prior music.

Other than that, nothing special compared to any other period really IMHO.

Musics been mostly evolutionary rather than revolutionary since. Maybe that's part of why it does not seem as special these days.

Think about today's pop/rock music compared to 40 years ago then pop/rock music of 40 years ago compared to what was around 40 years before that. Which period saw more change?

The thing that's out there now that has potential for as big a revolution musically for average white guys down the road as classic rock/pop had back in the day is the "world music" trend. That is where things can still be shaken up in a big way for the typical US pop/rock groupie. But it will require a willingness to explore beyond the fairly easy to relate to vibe of the blues.