Why did the last 4T have so much better music than this 4T?

[David Horn]

(03-08-2017, 10:47 PM)Kinser79 Wrote: ... Cole Porter sure.  The Beatles are vastly over rated.  Heavily influential, yes, but over rated.  If you want to talk about good rock from the 2T I'd have to say Pink Floyd.

I can't argue about Pink Floyd, being a very early fan myself, I'll still stand by the Beatles, since they tried so many genres and did well with all of them.  Michael Stipe from REM had the same opinion you hold, but decided he was wrong after he examined the full output they generated.  As he later admitted, they influenced many who weren't even aware of it, himself included.

Kinser79 Wrote:I think you'll find that a great deal of under ground music has a much larger audience than it used to have.  Part of the reason for that is a change in the distribution model.  It is far easier for musicians now to make money by selling shows but giving their music away for nothing over the internet--not like that wouldn't happen anyway if they signed with a major label as it is.

In the information age the record companies are struggling.  What good is having a super expensive production infrastructure when people can shoot a music video on their phone and share it with the world in five minutes?

Yes, more performers and songwriters can be heard and gain an audience, but the audiences are becoming more and more fragmented.  Other than Lady Gaga, whatever you think of her, name one group with the massive size and range of audience their predecessors could muster.

Kinser79 Wrote:Salsa and Reggaeton both have a very large audience, and at least in FL not just among Latinos.  Blacks and Whites have taken to listening to the Spanish radio because the quality of music is vastly superior to the schlock that is pumped out on the Top 40s. 

Where I live we have four major FM stations (excluding the one that's all news all the time, and the one that's all talk radio all the time).  One of those is the Christian station (being an atheist I have no interest in it--even if it were good but isn't), then there's the "black" station that plays degenerate hip hop that has to be bleeped every other word (makes me wonder what the point is).

Then there's the "country" station.  They don't actually play country music, just what passes for country music these days I like me some Hank Williams (Sr or Jr, the 3rd not so much) or Conway Twitty but there's not been any good hillbilly crack around since about 1988.  The last station is the Spanish station which plays Salsa which is essentially Big Band with people singing in Spanish.

I don't mind the Spanish even if I can't really follow it.  Second language and all that.  Personally I like Reggaeton the best.  This for example.  In before someone yells that Daddy Yankee is on the Spanish Top 40s.

Clear Channel Communications killed the radio star, or more accurately, homogenized them death.  The better stuff finds its way onto fringe stations of one type or another.  We have a locally owned 250W FM roots/alt-rock station near enough to me that I can pull it in.  I'm a fan.