Quote:
Originally Posted by Delthefunky
Couldnt disagree more, the 60's and 70's were easily the best. I was born in '83 and can think of 100 artist I would rather listen to from that era over anybody from the 90's, or 00's.
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To me that means you just have an extremely narrow taste in music (or you're prone to hyperbole
)
Rant on:
Mostly everything has become better since the 70's. There are so many more artists working today than before, and they are just as talented as before, except they have been influenced by a much richer musical environment than before, they are technically better than ever before (because more people have better instruments and they have more time to practice) and it's possible to put out records in much more marginal genres and styles than it ever was in the dark days of major label domination of the 60's and 70's.
Artists careers have become much longer with the changing commercial environment, which is wonderful. Great bands last longer and they have much more time to develop and experiment. The only thing that's bad about this is the huge amount of people stuck back in time, shelving extensive amounts of money into hasbeen revival tours, which has made many labels all but abandon signing new bands. Back catalogues is where the easy money is.
The genre-oriented crowds and media were also terrible in comparison, and everything new was generally met with disapproval and criticism. It was dark times where people listened to and rated music based mostly on their political/social leanings (or lack of it), and only rarely stepping outside their self-defined boxes. Rock for white people, funk for black people, folk for the left, pop for the right... And god forbid if a left-wing icon like Dylan tried to move across those politically/socially defined musical limits.
Pre-punk and the independent movement, most bands and artists were overadvertised crap, drunks and junkies made stars by people who had no background in making music and who were simply going by the trend of the day and where they thought the dollar was. Major record labels pretty much decided what got out there. Doesn't mean that there wasn't a lot of good things happening, and some artists were able to walk over the limitations of their surroundings (and in some cases it propably did inspire them to be more creative), but, really, the 60's and 70's were the uncivilized, less developed Dark Ages, if you compare it to where we are now. (Note that a lot of good happened in the Dark Ages, but there's still a good reason why it's called that.)
Everything is better now. Everything. The only thing different is that it's harder to be a first in something. But being first is only a merit for the artist, it's not a merit for the music.
Rant off.
