Originally Posted by Zerohour3k

Gonna put in my 2c here as one of those "damned youngin's" (relatively.. I'm 24).

I think you folks are right, actually. Modern music has gone way downhill from what was made in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Granted, not *everything* is total garbage, and there were a good number of songs in the 90's and 2000's that I can say "Yeah, that song was great!", but nowhere near the number of songs from previous generations, and certainly not as many songs that made me want to stick a screwdriver into my eardrums.

The problem, is that plain and simple.. people who really have no vocal talent, are allowed to become 'stars' by way of voice modulation, synths, and after recording touch-ups. A perfect example of this is in the 90's, when "N-Sync" and "Backstreet Boys" became hit boy-bands. The result of their (relative) success? A trend that continued on into the 2000-era bands, where lead singers with flat vocals / poor singing ability could still sound "great".

The other problem with modern music (and I KNOW I'm going to catch flak for this one), is rap music, plain and simple. Personally, I feel that the rap genre has totally strayed from its roots as "poetry set to rhythm", and become more of "anger set to a beat machine". Back in the 80's and early 90's, most rap music still had at least a little bit of talent involved.. people had to be creative with lyrics, and rap songs were usually meant to be either funny or to prove a point. The mid 90's saw a transition in the genre, to favor "gangsta rap", which is nothing more than derogatory words, hatred, and the promotion of violence, spoken over a beat machine. Maybe it's just me, since I'm more than a little biased towards rock, and have never been a huge fan of rap to begin with (except for Beastie Boys, and maybe the occasional Fresh Prince), but I think this genre isn't helping "modern music" any. And hey, I used to listen to punk rock in my teen years, and even *that* wasn't as violent (didn't talk about shooting people constantly), nor as derogatory.

Then again, my input may just be pointless.. since I DO have the tastes of someone in their late 30's - early 40's, anyway. Let's face it.. I drive around in an old Mercedes, love the smell of diesel, enjoy soldering, and my favorite music is from the 60's through the 80's... with some classical thrown in for good measure!