I don't agree at all. I'm old enough to remember the era of the novelty song, which we get far, far less these days. Black Lace and Shakin Stevens were 2 of the biggest selling acts in the 80s, and Little Mix and their ilk are immeasurably better. Pre the very late 80s Madchester emergence literally the only band I liked in that decade was The Smiths. Of course they're the greatest band of all time so they make up for much of the other ****e...
But Little Mix and their ilk are still ****. The level of ****ness may be different on an artist by artist basis, but there's definitely more **** stuff now.
and that's just bollox - some of the most endearing songs came from the eighties - Dexys, Queen, Duran Duran, Police - etc etc - many of their big hits were from the eighties - Little Mix - pap/drivel in comparison
Point 1) I hate all of those bands Point 2) I'm not comparing Little Mix to any of them, they're clearly better. The point i really quite obviously made was that the likes of Little Mix are better than the equivalent of their day, such as Black Lace or Shakin Stevens. I really don't see how you've failed to grasp that
You've got a point BCC. I never wanted to bang any of the members of Black Lace or Shakey for that matter.
New Order, Queen, Prince, Michael Jackson, The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Police, Metallica, U2, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy among others would disagree. Despite your opinion of them, they're all very good musically.
Always always hated U2 and Jackson especially - I was literally the only kid in my class who didn't buy Bad and I'm proud of that fact. Beastie Boys were **** in the 80s before becoming good, I'd suspect even they would agree with that. You have a point about Prince and PE.
Another thing about The Brits but off the recent topic... is there anything more deplorable than The Brit School? Makes me feel ill just to think about it. I always remember Alex Turner looking down to their collective throng as he collected an award and giving them a 'big shout out' as he remembered his days at The Brit School and it being integral to the forming of Arctic Monkeys. And the ****ing vapid ****s only shrieked in delight, not even twigging that he was massively taking the piss.
I was only born in '84 so I do a lot of my music rummaging in retrospect, but for me the 80s was both the best and the worst. Some of the very finest bands emerged, especially in post-punk, but the novelty songs were undoubtedly a historic low. Renee & Renata FFS. You only have to watch the TOTP re-runs they've been sticking on lately from '82 & '83, great entertainment but you literally get Bauhaus followed by Kadgagoogoo. Polemic times!
I have to disagree, I think creatively music has never been in a better place. These days with the internet and cheap recording software anyone can take their ideas, record songs and distribute them worldwide for next to nothing. For decades the mainstream music industry was dictated by what record companies thought would sell, the majority of people who were recording and distributing were either signed or already rich and we were served pretty generic music with only a few notable exceptions. Yes there's a lot of crap in the charts now but the difference between then and now is that you only have to switch on your phone to have access to millions of songs from incredible artists across the world, the charts/radio/tv don't dictate music anymore, whats popular has no relevance to what you have to listen to. Yes there might be more **** music around but there's also a hell of a lot more great music you've just to go find it.
I took my daughter to see Take That about 400 years ago, when that Jewish singer Rabbi Williams was still with them as a five piece. They had Lulu supporting and performing with them too Similar bloke to girl ratio there too...nightmare of screams and whistles that I think may be the cause of my poor hearing now I have to say though it was a very good show, excellent live band too
Have to say that my favourite decade for music is the 90s. I was born in 91 so wasn't old enough to appreciate the music when it was out so with age I've come to enjoy the music from the likes of Nirvana, Oasis, Pulp and The Stone Roses. Each decade has turned out its fair share of **** and great music and you can point to strengths and weaknesses from most decades. It'll be interesting to see how in 20 years time contemporary music from today will be remembered and how music will have evolved.
I agree with you on this. My lad's band have just been through this process. Recorded an EP that is now on Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, etc. (they'll even flog you a CD at one of the gigs). The whole setup is orders of magnitude simpler and easier to access than it was when I was his age. There's lots of great music out there, you just need to look beyond the mainstream. This has always been the case.
What do you think it is? Too many drugs/not enough? Not the right substances? Then there's the musician's themselves.
