I used to try to keep up but then the artists and producers started getting greedy. Instead of getting albums filled with awesome music we started getting albums with 2-3 good songs then a bunch of crap. I would rather wait another year for an album that I can listen to front to back rather then something I need to rip to my comp and make a mix CD from.

Now when I hear a song from a band I like I log into Amazon and DL the one single song. If I hear a new band that sounds interesting I will pirate the whole CD, find the songs I like, then DL them from amazon as well. Most people just stop with the pirated copies though, lol.

I think that if bands started putting out quality albums again you would see a drastic decrease in the pirating of music. But until that day comes I say set sail me hearties!

used to keep up, till limewire shut down

there are aps for keeping up with your favorite music genre...but who has time for more aps?

The moment you utter the words "all the best music has already been made" you are officially old.

Needs an "I try to keep up" option... whenever a new album comes out by a group I know, I generally hop right on it, either buying it on Amazon MP3 (if it's reasonable) or DLing it and buying the good songs (sorry Pendulum, "Immersion" is the best album on the planet, but paying $30 for it? Nah thanks!). Good to support the artists, IMO.

cmader wrote:The moment you utter the words "all the best music has already been made" you are officially old.

That's not true. I remember it just like it was yesterday. Amadeus and I were sitting around talking about this very thing, and how the old people didn't understand the new music. He got so mad, he threatened to stop writing what he was working on, even if it killed him. Now, that's some requiem, huh? Talk about something that's dead before it even starts.

So, yeah, the best stuff is already written, or maybe not..... And I'm not even in my tricentennial yet.

Phoulmouth wrote:I used to try to keep up but then the artists and producers started getting greedy. Instead of getting albums filled with awesome music we started getting albums with 2-3 good songs then a bunch of crap. I would rather wait another year for an album that I can listen to front to back rather then something I need to rip to my comp and make a mix CD from.

Now when I hear a song from a band I like I log into Amazon and DL the one single song. If I hear a new band that sounds interesting I will pirate the whole CD, find the songs I like, then DL them from amazon as well. Most people just stop with the pirated copies though, lol.

I think that if bands started putting out quality albums again you would see a drastic decrease in the pirating of music. But until that day comes I say set sail me hearties!

I moved on from mainstream music to mostly indie stuff a long time ago. And no, I'm not a cliched hipster, there just happens to be a lot of really great indie music. And not everything in my library is indie, but most of the new stuff is.

I do have my old standbys that I listened to in high school back in the early 90s, like Sarah McLachlan, Smashing Pumpkins, and Seal (told you I wasn't hipster!) but these days it's artists like Shiny Toy Guns, Natalie Walker, Metric, The Jezabels, Uh Huh Her, The Birthday Massacre, Tom Sartori, Chevelle, The Fray (Top-40 pop but a nice "indie" sound), Keane, Eisley, Grum, The Voltaire Twins...I could go on forever.

All of these bands and musicians came to (relative) popularity in the mid to late 2000s and they are across the board in genre. You have electro pop, gothic, "indie" pop, heavy rock, techno, britpop, shoegaze, folk, and a couple that are unclassifiable. And I'm super picky so that's an infinitesimal sample of what's out there right now.

Get on sites like Soundcloud and last.fm, search for a band you like, and listen to the recommendations based on your search. That's how I found a lot of the unknown or lesser-known acts I enjoy so much. Oh, and you're on the right track with Amazon too, their recommendations are usually pretty good if you REALLY like the band you're currently buying from them. Another good source to buy from, and with good recommendations, is cdbaby.com.

Happy hunting!

Apparently, I'm officially old - I haven't bought a CD in ten years. Haven't bought a DVD in five. Never bought a Blu-ray. I recently gave away my collection of 300+ cds (all from the 80's and 90's) to kids who didn't even know (or care) what they got. Ungrateful brats, Get off my lawn!

Speaking of current music... Where is the Woot-off song? Aren't we supposed to have a special audio podcast today?

/sad

-=C=-

I read approximately 10 different metal blogs daily to keep on the lookout for new artists that might interest me and keep up to date on the artists I already know I enjoy. I've come to find that in my genre of choice, one rarely encounters the problem of an album only containing 2-3 good songs and the rest being not worth your time. Usually the entire album or EP (very common for the upstart new bands to release first) is good, which makes finding someone new that you like that much better. So, to the answer the question, you're damn right I keep up with current music in my genre (the metuhlz) of choice.

cmader wrote:The moment you utter the words "all the best music has already been made" you are officially old.

Two words: Jimi Hendrix

Best music on earth, covering a range of styles - all with the unique Jimi touch.

Why doesn't anyone listen to him anymore? Old my ass, I'm only 2 decades in.

Keep up with current music - why? Like everything else, 80% of it is crap. I have a collection of over 1000 CDs collected over more than 20 years (and still have over 200 vinyl recordings), and can't listen to all of them in a month. A lot of them are loaded on the iPod, and I switch out some occasionally.
If I want to listen to something else, there is always Slacker. Once in a while, I'll hear some band I like and get the CD, but that is rare. No, I will not support buying single songs, which is the new music company paradigm.

cmader wrote:The moment you utter the words "all the best music has already been made" you are officially old.

You are so right! I am getting up there, but still find great new music, all the time, in a huge array of genres(thanks Pandora). I find that some people just stagnate musically after high school. Then they try to justify it by stating the above.

olperfesser wrote:Keep up with current music - why? Like everything else, 80% of it is crap. I have a collection of over 1000 CDs collected over more than 20 years (and still have over 200 vinyl recordings), and can't listen to all of them in a month. A lot of them are loaded on the iPod, and I switch out some occasionally.
If I want to listen to something else, there is always Slacker. Once in a while, I'll hear some band I like and get the CD, but that is rare. No, I will not support buying single songs, which is the new music company paradigm.

I don't think radio quality has changed that much. There was probably about as much crap on the radio back in the yester-years, but all of the junk got filtered out from the "best ofs" and "classic hits" and such. So, if you always want to listen to good music, be about 20 years behind the times I guess! :D

It takes way to much time sifting through the Bundle of Crops music to find something worthwhile. Too many people have a macbook and an editing ap and think they can produce music. Most of the newish music I like tends to reach me a year or two after it's been released.

I find the current pop music pretty much all sounds alike. You can listen to a song and not guess the performer. Could be sung by any half dozen people/groups. This is especially true of the current batch of women singers. So many of them are so generic. Of course there are stand outs like Pink, but still so many of them seem to sing the same songs with the same voices.

kaidenshi wrote:
These days it's artists like Shiny Toy Guns, Natalie Walker, Metric, The Jezabels, Uh Huh Her, The Birthday Massacre, Tom Sartori, Chevelle, The Fray (Top-40 pop but a nice "indie" sound), Keane, Eisley, Grum, The Voltaire Twins...I could go on forever.

All of these bands and musicians came to (relative) popularity in the mid to late 2000s and they are across the board in genre. You have electro pop, gothic, "indie" pop, heavy rock, techno, britpop, shoegaze, folk, and a couple that are unclassifiable. And I'm super picky so that's an infinitesimal sample of what's out there right now.
Happy hunting!

Wow, we are listening to a lot of the same stuff, I love "shiny toy guns". I'm gonna have to check out the others you mentioned.

BTW, no, I'm super picky! = P

Sad to say this but I listen to NPR more than I do music

only recently started looking for new music that i enjoy and look what i find-- Easy Star All-Stars, Mr. Scruff, Glitch Mob...

Its good to know that there are still a FEW talented artists out there today

cmader wrote:The moment you utter the words "all the best music has already been made" you are officially old.

I'm 15 and i just uttered that ha

mattschuette wrote:Basically death or prog or thrash or power or maybe speed metal with folk elements about Vikings. Not a proper subgenre, but more succinct than what I just said. Scandinavians are proud of their Viking heritage and sing about it sometimes. I'm not particularly Scandinavian, but I enjoy that others are.

One of the local college stations here in Atlanta plays two hours of Viking metal every night, and it's often during the time I'm driving home from my girlfriend's house. It has given me a new appreciation for the varieties of metal out there! I grew up with Metallica, Slayer, Corrosion of Conformity and such, and never got much into the whole genre beyond those mainstream acts. Viking metal and symphonic/gothic metal though, I do listen to from time to time these days.

I especially love the male/female dual lead dynamic (see my earlier post RE Shiny Toy Guns and Voltaire Twins for examples in electronic music), and a lot of symphonic/gothic metal has that. A beautiful female soprano lead paired with a guy who can equally sing operatic tenor and growl like Cerberus from the depths of hell is something I really enjoy.

MUSIC. TODAY. SUCKS. END.

cmader wrote:The moment you utter the words "all the best music has already been made" you are officially old.

Music-wise, I knew I was getting old when I realized Weird Al wasn't as funny as he used to be, not because he isn't still a funny guy, but I no longer recognize who the subject artist of his parodies are.

Then again, maybe I'm old just because I know who Weird Al is.

zippo6 wrote:That's not true. I remember it just like it was yesterday. Amadeus and I were sitting around talking about this very thing, and how the old people didn't understand the new music. He got so mad, he threatened to stop writing what he was working on, even if it killed him. Now, that's some requiem, huh? Talk about something that's dead before it even starts.

So, yeah, the best stuff is already written, or maybe not..... And I'm not even in my tricentennial yet.

+50 zippo6.

kaidenshi wrote:One of the local college stations here in Atlanta plays two hours of Viking metal every night...

what station? i'll check that out for sure.

Listening to new music improves cognitive function, which keeps your brain healthy and helps stave off dementia.

How about 'no, innovation and talent is discouraged these days because it usually accompanys independence and maybe even brains and music companies can't have independent people making music because it's not a sure thing so they lower the bar for music and the general populations expectations to the point where anything they play will be accepted because most people have never heard good music so they don't know what good music sounds like'? That's my current mood

olperfesser wrote:Keep up with current music - why? Like everything else, 80% of it is crap.

I think you're being generous. Probably 90% of it is crap. But that's a good thing, because then we only need to consider the other 10%. And this has always been true. 90% of the music at any time in history is crap. But of the 10% being made today, some of it is awesome (which also has always been true). I love keeping up with new stuff and old stuff. I just got a shipment of CDs from Amazon that includes Alela Diane, Givers, The Kinks, Fairport Convention, and Vic Chesnutt. Other excellent 2011 albums came out from R.E.M., Paul Simon, The Decemberists, The Low Anthem, Bright Eyes, and Telekinesis!.

zippo6 wrote:That's not true. I remember it just like it was yesterday. Amadeus and I were sitting around talking about this very thing, and how the old people didn't understand the new music. He got so mad, he threatened to stop writing what he was working on, even if it killed him. Now, that's some requiem, huh? Talk about something that's dead before it even starts.

So, yeah, the best stuff is already written, or maybe not..... And I'm not even in my tricentennial yet.

His best friends called him Wolfie.

Speaking of keeping up with new music... Q101, Chicago's only new rock station, is about to go off the air at midnight. Ratings were too low. It's a sad day. The spanish channels and WGCI thrive while the good stuff can't stay afloat. Maybe it's because those of us with money listen to Sirius now, but still...

nieltj wrote:His best friends called him Wolfie.

I know, but he got a "Cease and Desist" order from some lawyer claiming to be representing some guy named Lautner, like anybody's ever heard of him. Anyway, this Lautner guy seems to think that it's not "PC" to be using a nickname like "Wolfie".

Heck. Amadeus doesn't even know what a PC is. That's a good thing, since if he ever figured out how to use a computer, people would run around with stupid sayings like, "Rock me, Amadeus".

That just will never happen.