I was talking to someone recently about those pop music tapes and CDs we used to buy back in the day, and I told him that I stopped buying them when I got bored of mainstream music and became more interested in rock and RnB. And when Top of the Pops was taken off our screens, well that was my last link to mainstream music gone!
Admittedly I know very little about mainstream music these days. I'm familiar with certain artists but don't know much about them or their music. I personally feel a lot of mainstream music started to go downhill around late 2000s and I lost interest. I prefer to listen to the latest offerings from my fave rock artists or music from back in the day.
What does everyone else think of today's mainstream music?
I don't have a problem with mainstream music. In fact my kids who are under ten love it so it's just as well that I don't have a problem with it! I was born in the late 1980s so I grew up during the nineties and the music from that time is more my style. I'm from Seattle so naturally alot of grunge, rock, alternative stuff is something that I have a real connection with.
And while I do enjoy some mainstream stuff and there are some catchy tunes out there, I don't thing many of them will be as memorable as the kind of music that I grew up with.
I do like a lot of todays music but I have a special connection with music from the late nineties and 2000's because those were my teenage years and my twenties. Back then I used to go to clubs and bars alot, and also I used to work in the entertainment and nightlife industry so I used to be a dancer in a lot of the clubs. Sometimes when I'm driving, a song comes up which takes me back to those times.
I don't think its fair to say that a lot of current music is not that great. It's probably not to our tastes but I still think it's pretty cool. I think it's just that we may prefer the kind of music we listened to as kids because it brings back a lot of memories for us. I think it's like that for everyone.
To be honest, as they say, I never really listened to that much contemporary pop even in the 70s and 80s when I was a teenager and young adult. I liked the oldies even then. So, anything from the 90s (with the odd exception*) and certainly beyond, I have little interest in, and even less knowledge of. The first album I ever bought was a double album called Rolled Gold, which was a compilation of The Rolling Stones 60s hits and I bought that in the mid-to-late-70s. So, by that time, they were even oldies.
I have an aunt who is only eight years older than me and when she got married in 1971 (when I was ten) she gave me about 100 of her old singles (45s) which she had acquired from the late-50s to the late-60s, some of them were hand-me-downs from her older sister, and these became treasured possessions. She did keep her albums though. But I used to play these records constantly. Back then it was a big deal owning your own records. I also used to like listening to my mother and father’s records a lot, which, needless to say were all stuff from the 50s and 60s.
But I did like quite a lot of contemporary stuff from the 70s and 80s though, I just wasn’t overly obsessed with it, like some of my friends were. I’m much more into 70s and 80s music now than I was then. The funny thing is, even if it’s a song I didn’t care for back then, I can hear it now and it takes me back to those days. My mind often seems to work in a peculiar manner, a lot of things I didn’t care much for years ago (like music, TV shows and movies), I like now, usually for nostalgic reasons.
Of course, back then, when a teenager, I never admitted to my friends I liked all this old stuff, this would have resulted in instant ridicule! Although you may have gotten away with admitting to liking The Beatles or even 'old' Stones, but not much more. By the mid-to-late-70s, even Elvis (especially 'old' Elvis) was pretty unhip.
* The last new pop song I recall taking a liking to was Fairground by Simply Red and that came out in 1995. I turned 34 that year and the interest in contemporary music – and pop culture in general – I guess was well on the decline by that time.
I don't really think it's a question of if a lot of the popular music today is better or not because that's subjective. At the end of the day it's all about what you personally prefer. I also think it's inevitable that each generation will say that the music they listened to when they were growing up were the best. My mum certainly does! But I have to say that my generation were brought up on stuff like Top Of The Pops and listening to the Top Forty every Sunday, and as far as I know they were all based on sales. I don't think people buy music the way they used to, and a lot of the TV and radio music shows are long gone so I'm more than a little out of touch. I do know about some of the pop stars that my stepkids listen to but don't know much about their music.
I know... get with it, Grandma! 😂
Music is music and as long as it sounds good, that's all that matters. Of course we all enjoy music from our childhood years - we wouldn't be here if we didn't! But There's also loads of great artists about today who are still producing lots of great music. I have quite an eclectic taste in music and I currently listen to artists like Drake, Adele, Little Mix, Ed Sheeran, Camilla Cabello. There are great acts about today but I know the more older stuff from when we were kids brings back loads of memories for us all.
I don't think I've been into 'mainstream' pop music and stuff since I was in my late teens. I've always been more into rock and country - a lot of artistes that people may not really be familiar with. Also I don't go out to clubs and bars like I used to when I was a lot younger so I'm not really up to date with current mainstream music, and I couldn't really say if it was good bad or anything in between.
I just appreciate good music - mainstream or not! In our household there's a whole variety of music being played because we all have different tastes. I admit that if it wasn't for my kids, I probably wouldn't know much about music today, especially chart stuff. But if you're asking if today's music is better than the kind we had when I was growing up, there's a lot of good music about and great artists, more so than a lot of people realise, but I do wonder how much of the current chart music we're listening to right now will go on to be classics and listened to twenty five years from now.
A lot of popular music just goes way over my head. It's never been something that I'm totally into. I also wouldn't be able to talk much about a lot of modern day artists who are 'big' right now. During my wild dancing days, I had more of an idea about artists and songs everybody liked. But to be honest, I'd rather listen to classical, jazz and musical numbers any day. That has always been more my thing.
If I'm honest I do prefer a lot of older tunes, especially ones from the 'days of my youth' which bring back lots of happy memories. But having two youngsters means I really am quite down with the kids 😁 so there's a lot of popular music of today that I quite like. I am quite a fan of Ed Sheeran, Adele, and Lewis Capaldi.