I feel bad for Generation X and The Millennial's

Do all the variations of 'rock' count as one genre? I've got a 5-figure system and listen to rock and reggae, which is pretty close, too, and that's about it. More than enough to explore just with those.... 

@dabel You noticed that? I think the silence is very telling. 😁

Pin drop …………

How many people have 5 or 6 figure systems and only listen to one genre of music or music from one era? 

Hey never feel bad for the next gen......my kids and my grandkids found their music.

I even like some of it ;-)

I found some myself.    

If you go through the chaff to glean the grain, try J-Rock or J-Metal.

My favorite is Band-Maid.  They just did in '22 their American tour.  They came back from playing in NYC and LA for the opening band The Last Rock Stars this month.  They are coming back for a US Tour in May.  I have my VIP ticket for the Rockville concert in Daytona Beach.  

They are not an Idol Japanese Band, but a true rock band. They all play their instruments, about as good as it gets. They write their own songs, all of them since 2016. I have not gone as far as some of the nuts but I did buy 7CDs and 3 Blue-Rays.  The mixing and sound  is superb particularly with Sennheiser 820s.

Live they sound even better......

Ohhhhh.......I forgot they are an all female band.......

I feel bad for people who look down their noses at other generations. And I think it's pretty awesome that technology allows GenX, Xennial, Millenial, GenY, etc., to access just about every kind of music ever made at the push of a button... something generations of the past never had. 

Short sighted post, dude. Get off your horse.

Poor things…

they never got to stumble into a Tower Records on Sunset Blvd at 2 in the morning. See The Who walk in (stumble, really) to admire a pallet stack of their new LP, Who’s Next. No one really paid attention to them, because all 10 people looking at LPs were frozen. We heard knocking, and more knocking, “open the door man…it’s me, I got the stuff”…

Not sure how many Who LPs were sold that night, but everybody, including the baby boomer Who, walked out with that yellow LP. It was sensational. 
 

If you stream, how many Boomers actually explore the genres? Like, click on Tidal "Hip-hop" or "Indie" and listen to a few songs from 10-15 newly released albums? I mean, it's easy to shy away from genres we don't like, but there's always good gems in them if you keep an open musical mind. 

@flyfish77 + 1

I’m a Boomer and there is no way that I would consider any era of music to be better than another.  It is all in the brain of the listener. 95% of the Boomers that I know only listen to the same rock/pop/soul music that the listened to in high school or college.  They might go to a classical music concert, but the they have no idea of any current music music is.

I listen to all sorts of current music in the blues, Americana, bluegrass, jam band, and Jazz genres. The people that I see at concerts include Boomers, Generation X, and Millenials.  The new music that is playing at those concerts sound good to everyone at those concerts.  The younger listeners have the advantage that they can better utilize technology to find the best new music and artists.

@ianb52 

I think Ian nailed it in his comments. What is interesting to me is my daughter loves making music and she is able to without the need and expense for a recording studio etc. She posted her first official song on YouTube Music, Apple Music, Spotify without a record label. It’s actually very good. Growing up she would get so excited about a song that she heard and would play it for us and inevitably it was a remake of a classic song which we would play for her. We had friends over and would play classics (50’s-80’s), Guitar Hero exposed her to a ton of awesome music as well! I know there has been some great music being made in the 90’s through today, due to the ease of making and posting online it is difficult to sort the good from the bad but it’s there. I think history buried the bad and only the great ones stand out so it always appears that the current generation doesn’t have anything worth listening to because it is still getting sorted out. 

I have to weigh in on this.

What seems to be lacking in modern pop music is the flesh-and-bones humanity of the old school recording process (ugly warts and all). I’d rather hear John Lennon screw up the bass line in "The Long and Winding Road" than some technically perfect digitally generated bass line. I’d rather hear Dylan sing off key than hear "Ye" sounding pitch-perfect using autotune. The visceral experience of hearing a live orchestra cannot be matched by a synthesizer playing state-of-the-art pitch and rhythm perfect renditions of the same score.

To be fair, there are many modern artists who eschew digital manipulation and prefer to stay true to the old analog processes (digital recording is fine as long as manipulation is kept to a minimum, or, even better, entirely eliminated). I do respect that many modern artists use synthesized music and autotune as part of their expression (T-Pain is a good example), but certain genres simply do not hold up (for me at least) when overly processed and produced.

George Gershwin was a prodigeous piano player and composer who has left us with an amazing repertoire. All evidence suggests that hearing him play live was enthralling. Gershwin is also famously known for creating piano rolls (to be played on the then popular player pianos – the digital music of the times). No doubt this made him a lot of money, and has left us with some priceless historical artifacts, "But a sense of voiceless perfection, a lack of microcosmic nuance, and an overall mechanicalness of the recordings ultimately shatter the “live” illusion and return our attention toward their inorganic nature. It’s even more difficult to coax out the personality of Gershwin as the performer of this music. Though scholarly analysis can provide clues about Gershwin’s style and arrangement, the combination of post-performance editing and analog reproduction obscures what traits of a “live” Gershwin performance might linger in the facsimile."*

* quote from "The Ghost in the Machine: Decoding Gershwin in his Piano Rolls" by Sarah Sisk, 2021.

@oregon The TV dinners sucked but JoAnn Castle brought the house down every time.  I implore anyone who who hasn't heard her give a listen!

Leave complaining and brooding behind, and cease projecting helplessness. Go with what you know and/or experience as best you can. I’m a Boomer, a dual national, and dedicated to enjoying great music. Don’t stream except for using Apple music in my 2008 Toyota FJ with its original sound system. Grew up with vinyl, biut with the refinement of CD mastering, I left the scratches, pops, and skips behind. Too lazy to get up, turn the record over, cue the tonearm, and trying to rationalize why I don’t want to put forth the effort to provide the meticulous care vinyl needs. I’m fortunate to have a close friend in Baltimore whose family dedicated themselves to recorded music and the ongoing refinement of the industry’s electronics. The salon still exists and with the same mission. "Relax, enjoy...no rush." The recent decades have contaminated much of what we appreciated.

Still upset? Listen to Dylan’s It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

My thoughts exactly. Well articulated. In fact I’ve over played my favorite and b come a little jaded.  Nothing recent gives me goosebumps 

I urge you all to check out John Bradley's "Boomer Patrol" songs.

There has been great music since the dawn of recorded music in all generations. There also has been less than great music in all generations. Great music to my way of thinking is music that has aged well. I can listen to 1930’s swing music for a couple of hours and switch to contemporary music for a while. I can put on a Flatt and Scruggs album and then a Frank Sinatra with Count Baise. Go from the Stones to Sturgill Simpson. As a 71 year old baby boomer I probably listen more to music from my high school and college years but to say that you feel sorry for another generation let’s me know you haven’t explored music from other generations. I could give you countless examples but if you like female vocals just dial up Brandi Carlisle and see how she stacks up to other great female vocalists.

Hey don't forget earth wind d & fire Gorge Clinton  stevie Ray Vaughan led Zeppelin isley brothers parliament funkidelic.  The list goes on and on

The golden age for everything was when I was 18.

I think our Grand Parents said the same thing when they were our age about us missing out on great music. Most of what I listen to is Not new music.....

"Turn off the TV"

Go out.  Frequently.  Hear live music in your community.  Old musicians, young ones, male, female, undeclared, unknown, famous, folk, rock, jazz, bluegrass, blues, soul, funk, hip hop, classical.  There is great music all around.  You just have to listen.

Imho....as usual.... ;) .....

It’s because ’we’, our ’era’ ( or ’error’, if mispronounced...😏...), has stopped listening to anything other than what they grew up with or is familiar with....

There’s still terrific music ’out here’.

Get off your collective tushes, and go wander around.

When music is good it always gets discovered by all generations... 

to quote paul Simon- Every generation throws their hero up the pop chart. 

This whole thread plays out like LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge”…

Don’t feel bad for me!

im a Gen X and enjoy all of that music and then some…daily. I also enjoy the music from your parent’s generation and prior…not to mention my music from the 80s and 90s and 2000’s - lots of epic stuff!

Sad….music brings people and cultures together. You would never know it by this thread. 

Everybody thinks they were young in the glory days.  They are wrong.  Another mistake most of us make is to believe our time is more important than other time.  Or that 'things are different now'.  Most likely everything is a continuum.

Watch Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris'.

I am glad I am alive now to listen to almost anything at any time on gear that is likely better than any time in history. Though I do find I am discovering more older music than new, such as Jeff Beck (I even saw him open for Santana but never liked his music until I was able to really discover his catalogue with ROON).

Luckily, I have a great local FM station that plays new pop and world music along with the most eclectic old stuff.

@au_lait  please clarify,

You only heard what some business man allowed through the gate. Congratulations on your limited knowledge

This is the boomerest boomer post that ever did boomer.

Signed,

A Gen Xer (the generation that was sick of Boomers way before everyone else hopped aboard that train lol)

You only heard what some business man allowed through the gate. Congratulations on your limited knowledge.

Admittedly I find pitch correction software to be one of the most fatiguing things I've ever listened to. I grew up with the understanding that singing or playing with absolute pitch was expected and if someone didn't possess that ability, they pursued something other than music. But the inherent nature of capitalism is to make a profit. I believe this has been the downfall of popular music/culture. I'm not suggesting a controlled economy but I believe artistic integrity to be more important than maximizing dividends where it pertains to the artistic process. 

A shame you never grew up. Music composition and instrument virtuosity sure did. I'm sure the newer generations will never miss you're condescending attitude.

This reminds me of some of the discussions I have had recently with my 12 yr old son about music. He wonders why I don't care for his music and I have been honest in telling him that it is normal for older generations to not like the music of newer ones. However, in this case it isn't even about that for me. I actually do listen to rap (along with just about everything else). He listens to artists like Tech N9ne and Huice WRLD. I just happen to find much of their work to be choppy and crass. I like music that flows and often these songs stop and stutter or outright change tempo in the middle...and not in a way like Stairway to Heaven. To me it is jarring. And what they talk about in the songs, as a parent, I don't believe are the best. I acknowledge that for a long time songs have talked about drugs, sex, etc. but they used to use more metaphors or at least other wor for things. Some of this new stuff, is very direct about it. This includes artists that I do like such as Cardi B. I just wish they would tone that stuff down and I freely acknowledge that is my being an old fuddy duddy. We also need to accept there has always been what we consider good music produced and not so good. The good stuff stands the test of time and is popular 40 yrs later. The crap is mostly forgotten. 

As for the medium, I think we are in a golden age for access. You can still use cd's or LP's if you like them. Heck, vinyl has had a huge resurgence and many of these new artists are releasing new work in that format.  I have purchased several records for my son and some for myself from artists like Syml. And streaming is a complete game changer. Not only can I access amounts of music that I know depending on what strikes my fancy but have had opportunity to experience new artists like Dotan and Anette Askvik that I likely never would have before. This is great for the music business as well as us listeners.

Now, as for the hardware, that is just part of people's ages and what they had access to. My parents never had a hifi system really. So growing up I listened on clock radios, little transistor radios, and eventually little boom boxes. Eventually it transitioned to Walkmans and Discmans. I now have a fairly decent setup with preamp/dac, amp, and so forth.  It has continued to get better through the years as my understanding of the music, and my expectations of it, have evolved. I have also gotten to a point where I can afford nicer equipment.  Let's not come down on the 16 yr old listening to music on their phone or Echo device. They are using what they have. Instead, let's celebrate the fact they are listening to music. We should be helping cultivate that interest and open doors to them for what is possible. 

I am grateful that I grew up in an era where "progressive rock" exploded and muscle cars ruled the streets. With the advent of 8-track you could bang through the gears with your Hurst shifter while simultaneously switching tracks on your Mitch Rider and the Detroit Wheels tape. So much fun.

But, I think it is a stretch to assume that later generations don’t seek out and find life experiences that are intellectually and emotional stimulating. They’re just not resonating with, or 100% engaged with the same things we were. It doesn’t mean that life is not offering them generous rewards, and their not pursuing them.

In my teenage years (1960’s) when you got out of school, you either a) did sports, b) had a job to get to, or c) hung out with your friends. The choices to occupy disposable time were pretty limited at the time and a lot of guys and gals grabbed their instruments and headed to someone’s garage. Someone’s parents kindly gave permission for a bunch of kids to make noise in the most acoustically isolated setting economically feasible -- the garage. And, they played and practiced for hours .. and. hours. and .hours. And, some of them got pretty good at it. Epic bands emerged that motivated us to tattoo their names on our skin, set the mood for romantic interludes, or got us so devoted to their craft that we would drive hundreds of miles to campout, and give several day’s pay to see them play. To me, the story is not about the greatest of the great, it’s the sheer number of GREAT bands that emerged from this time period. I particularly appreciate the "one hit wonders" where all the stars lined up on that fateful day and each and every member of the band reached deep inside and produced the best performance of their lifetimes. IMHO, I don’t think we’ll ever see the level of humanity and commitment to creating music as we did in the 60’s and 70’s.

But we can show our gratitude without taking anything away from those who follow. Just become it was important to us, don’t mean it is important to them. I thought the "right of passage to manhood" was to share the experience of a smoky burnout in my hot rod with my 10-year-old grandson. What I thought would be a bonding experience was absolutely terrifying for him. Yes, I did create a memory that will last a lifetime. Just not the one we wanted.

@kota1 …”As for any "best era" of anything that just means you are stuck in that era. Nothing wrong with that but fresh stuff is good too.”

+1

Growing up through your twenties is a time of maximum hormones and emotional experience / development. Music pairs with the emotional experiences / people and  gets deeply ingrained in your psychology. It brings back memories… which are usually beter in retrospect.

digitalization - everything is depreciating, everything is very fast, there is too much of everything ...
soon the owners of big money at the touch of a button on the computer will be able to destroy huge masses of people who do not need or interfere with them ... (this must be stopped)

I'm a boomer but I'm SURE every generation says this about other generations. 

@kota1 + 1

GenX has 40+ years of great music and influential artists 

Radio before the internet was a push system, you only heard what the broadcasters pushed through the airwaves, like it or lump it.

Today Spotify, internet radio, youtube, etc is a pull system. You can pull any track you want from any period of history, locale, or genre into your playlist instantly. Gen whatever will likely be exposed to more music, not less.

I agree. We lived thru the glory days of rock, fm radio, vinyl etc. Those were the days for music!

Oh man...the drug called nostalgia is running high. It’s pretty telling that the window of "greatest music ever" is limited to one decade of their life. It’s as if Boomers are ashamed of all the great music they grew up listening to as kids and teens. And then decided to fossilize their listening catalog in vinyl amber. That decade had a lot of throw-away pop and rock music and was just as disposable as any other. I’m trying to imagine the Beatles and Stones never bothering to listen to any new music. Imagine they just sat at home and only listened to BBC broadcasts instead of discovering Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Robert Johnson, Elmore James, the lyrical disposability of Leib and Stoller, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Sam Cooke, etc, etc.

I’m a Gen-Xer and I absolutely don’t think that decade was the greatest ever. It was top notch but not the greatest as it implies that nothing great existed before or since. My parents ran a record store in the 70s and 80s and I grew up listening to all genres and time frames of music. I grew up listening to jazz greats from the 40s, 50s and 60s, Delta blues, R&B and rockabilly from the 50s (an era of music for which the artists the OP lists drew all their inspiration from), 60s R&B, 70s progrock and album rock, and then on to influential genres of the late 70s punk, garage, krautrock, funk, disco, industrial and electronic music, reggae, dub, early DJ culture. 80s power pop, new wave, synthpop, 90s industrial, grunge, rap, EDM, etc., etc.

GenX has 40+ years of great music and influential artists that sadly you may never know the aural pleasures of because you stop listening to music made after 1974. I feel bad for anyone who never opens up their listening ears to new genres and artists. The beauty of music is discovering the new. Sure I can put the Drifters or the Cadillacs box set I have on or replay Let It Bleed or Rubber Soul for the 10,000 time and enjoy music from my childhood but I can also put on some New Pornographers, Calexico, Depeche Mode, Broken Social Scene, Radiohead, Winton Marsalis, Anders Osborne, Bjork, or Richard H. Kirk and further my listening experiences.

As for any "best era" of anything that just means you are stuck in that era. Nothing wrong with that but fresh stuff is good too. 

My teenage kid watched Squid Game on Netflix and heard "Fly Me to the Moon" and liked it. I played him the original by Frank and now he is a huge Sinatra fan. We watch the Sinatra concerts on blueray and now he is branching out in the genre to other singers and even movies from that era (The Music Man, Guys and Dolls, On the Town, etc). All started because some insane show put a cover version in the soundtrack.

The reason young people, my kids included, still listen to the great music of the 60s and 70s ("classic rock", singer songwriters, Motown/soul, blues, folk rock, etc., is that nothing has come along to replace it.  Look what's most popular- disposable pop music and rap.  There was a golden age of broadway musicals, and a golden age of jazz, and those are now past- why couldn't this happen to rock?  After the Beatles, everyone wanted to play guitar and start a band; there are not a lot of young Tom Pettys, and Gibson and Fender struggle financially.  Most often if you want to play music now, you do it like Billie Eilish- in your bedroom by yourself with a computer (OK, I know she plays with her brother).  Yes, there are young artists scattered far and wide, (like young Americana artists), but not a mainstream of music in the style we are used to.

Love those jazz giants and classic rock.  Some good recording and a lot of bad ones.  I like Led Zeplin, but their recording is really not very good.  I think today's music generally is much better recorded.