The Current State of Music

The Current State of Music

Just watched 'All the young dudes - pop and fashion' on BBC4, (try catch it on iPlayer) basically a documentary about Music person Paul Morley's life in music, from the 70's thru new romance, brit pop to where we are today and he brought up a few good points but the current state of music and current fashion

Basically it's shit at the moment and we need something to happen - culturally there's links between music and fashon - both drive each other but what do we have at the moment? fuck all. where's the punk clothing and music? the sound and look of new romance, the inclusive dance culture of the late 80s/90's and even the mid 90's brit pop scene that sparked the look and the sound that were still feeling today. look at the bands around at the moment - are they doing anything new? are they pushing the boundaries of music and fashion? or are there just carbon copies of each other. there's nothing exciting around at all. nothing for people to be part of - too many people trying to keep up and buy the fashion and music, go to the festivals that are all the same as the rest...

maybe it's about time something happen? is it going to happen? we've been stale too long - maybe somethings bubbling under the surface.

what do people think?

it's massively due for a change - to shake everything up and clear away the old...

Re: The Current State of Music

dont think you can push the boundaries of fashion without looking like a twat, cant see anything interesting happening in pop music anytime soon either..

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i'm sure thats what the punks thought - then along came the new romatic mincers with makeup on men and huge fringes.

i must admit, i'm not aware of anything - but you gotta admit - it's about due!

Every time I go out clubbing I have a good night. Back in the day when I bought Mixmag/Muzik/M8 I maybe was concerned about the bigger picture, now I just don't care.

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think someone might have to invent a new drug or something

If you are open minded about music and have no prejudices, you will always find new music.

And BTW, I find it amusing that anytime I speak to some old fart from the 70's or some Indie kid, they always regurgitate the same old bands who are always from the UK and Ireland, America, possibly Canada, and if you are lucky, a couple from western Europe and Australia/New Zealand. There are shitloads of other countries with other interesting scenes out there.

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they just have to bring back the original cowies and things would change in an instant

of course, everybody would complain tha fuckin tits off at the price of them though

ive been thinking for ages now that theres nothing scene wise to grab on to or 'to be part of'. it takes me so much persuasion to go out now due to the blandness of it all

the recession might help, usually when times are hard thats when all the creativity floods out - due to having no money to do owt but mess around with stuff

roll on the happy accidents, or join the l.a hipster scene before it reaches top of the pops

oh wait, crookers are being played on radio 1 daytime. next!

the libertines and the strokes were pushing new music from 2000, and to be honest i'd say they're the closest we've had to a musical revolution this century, but then that's gone a bit stale over the last few years due to the huge amount of shit new bands that there have been (kaiser chiefs, pigeon detectives, all the wanky ones like scouting for girls, etc.).

dance music, at least in my opinion, is in a pretty poor state too, however if you like that sort of thing, the indie-dance crossover stuff like simian mobile disco is pretty forward-thinking, as is a lot of dubstep. house-wise, sonar kollektiv are pretty much the only ones pushing boundaries, but they're doing it pretty well!
the 'balearic' scene is getting massive now too, wasn't it mentioned of the of the 'things of the moment' in something like vogue magazine? this is probably, at least in part, due to the fact that most new music is shit, so people are delving into crates for decent older stuff...

i believe its there in the undergrowth waiting to happen - just when its happens again to yourself is another question

perhaps it has happend , but to charvas n shit , you know , clubland , its all the rage now hew , acid house n rave wasnt every1's cup of tea , perhaps clubland/bounce just isnt our's

Like everything clubbing/music/fashion has become 'marketable' where as once upon a time everything was done for the love of it, which imo is whats killed it. Your never gunna get your people like Bowie/Sex pistols/Beatles etc... again, true icons who didn't give a fuck, never stuck to the system & experimented with music, fashion etc... and truly pushed boundaries, somehow making it work, setting presidents, making history, becoming international icons....

I hate bands these days & totally agree in the sense that they all sound like carbon copies of each other - Same clothes, similar sound, skinny jeans, long hair... yadda yadda... shite. Dont get me wrong theres some good stuff out there but there the ones just bubbling away & happy with being 'averagely good'.

Id hate to be a kid in this day in age, I grew up when bands like Oasis were peaking & not too young (courtesy of my parents) to appreciate Bands like The Jam/Paul Weller, these days theres nothing much for people to grasp on to & actually be proud of saying 'im into these or that'.

Probably the weirdest genre of music I've encountered recently is Spitbass

I think all these programmes like 'X-Factor' & these 'Popstar Rival' shows have a lot to answer for, a 12 week competition of absolute bullshit leaving brainwashed kids (and more worrying) the acts themselves into believing what they've just witnessed/performed is the next best thing! what ever happened to bands/acts playing toilets the early stages of their careers & getting picked up/signed because they were actually good?


Load of bollox.

What I find more depressing is that that Mamma Mia shite is the fastest selling DVD of all time. I've seen this happening for a while now in the UK. Kids don't want to be in a band or make music now (unless they are emo, but thats another story), they want to sing along with their friends, tart up and create little dance moves ala Steps, Pussycat Dolls.... That is what is killing music, taking all the music away from the music!

people got lazy

talent scouts no longer exist.

agents who used to find people work have become booking agents, who now deal with bookings you get yourself

in relation to x-factor and all its glory, simon cowell has got a lot to answer for, but i do admire the way he talks to people. honestly. as soon as folk start telling people a little more truth about what they're hearing/seeing we'll get something good at the end of it, instead of half arsed shite thats about now, fused by friends and family telling their dear relation that thing they can play with their casio is worthy of human entertainment

first question how old is this guy who did the show? if you're over 25 you generally know next to little/nowt imo about current trends in music and fashion, i know I don't

I think if you asked teenagers about it they'd be able to tell you all the subtle fashion nuances like what separates a goth from an emo from a new raver from a skater, charvers are a good example they have a very distinctive dress code and musical taste

I reckon the nu rave/electro lot have quite a distinctive take on fashion and music, with their hip hop clashed with bright ravey colours look


however maybe todays massive image culture/commercial nature of music and their respective quick turnaround of what is "cool" sees celebrities stylists/major labels and therefore mainstream fashion/music stealing bits from all manner of scenes and then dilluting them down so something only needs to be underground/trendy for a short spell before it's blown apart in the mainstream of both fashion and music in a very short space of time, so the clearly defined image and sound of a scene becomes dilluted quickly and thus loses it's distinct cultural identity prehaps?

due to capitalist nature of modern western society the music and fashion industries nowadays have learned to be very good at taking a small undergound scene that is seen as the next big thing and turning it into a mainstream product in record breaking time, something that maybe didn't happen so much 20 years ago and therefore not allowing these small scenes to emerge more organically into clearly defined genres of their own

Most of modern music is fucked!

Greedy record labels that could not give a fuck about the music, its all about the money.
There is a distinct lack of good songwriters these days, strip most modern music back and there is fuck all to it, mainly due to bands being forced into corners by labels who want them to release a certain sound.
Societies a lot more developed now so music is a lot easier to get hold of, where as back in the day people actually had to make the effort to follow their chosen scene, which would have made it a lot more fucking interesting.
Hundreds of the best albums that have ever been made were inspired by the experimenting with the gear, wouldn't happen these days as its just not as good.
Too many artists these days just imitate whats gone on in the past and have got no identity of their own, no distinct sound that makes them unique, no big live show that blows you away at gigs. Theres only so far they can take it before people start taking the piss. The main example is coldplay, you go to one their gigs and it is basically just a run through of the album, no more, no less. Wheres the entertainment? value for money? Something extra? No where to be seen.

Good point

in no particular order.....

you can't sit on the dole whilst you learn to experiment

the number of venues which take live music shrinks every year and the ones who take anything non mainstream are vanishingly few

they 'teach' pop music in schools and colleges till all the subversion is gone from da kids

the radio 1 playlist

all the girls want to shag the DJ nobody wants to shag the guitar player

All the fusions which bring about new sounds (in the west at least) have already happened from New Orleans to Bhangra

musicians now talk about "their career" ffs

nobody has time to get good at performing before they are swallowed up by the music 'industry' and spat out again 6months later

teenagers today have access to 70 years of popular recorded music. It all sounds fresh to them they don't need new sounds when they can just find something from the back catalogue they like and the internet has made it all available for free