@Ger Whelan: That’s fair enough. There are a lot of people who find keeping up or understanding new music challenging as they get older. I’m not for a second suggesting that it’s all good. I’d probably agree with you about the quality of much of the stuff that gets radio play. As someone who is also well out of their youth I just find it a bit depressing how much people seem to coalesce around the idea that you have to stick to what you know, and that new music is automatically out of bounds for people as they get older.

There’s so much to be discovered. So much that can add some more colour and understanding to our lives if we occasionally push ourselves out of our comfort zones. There’s an entire industry dedicated to pushing the familiar. It always seems to revolve around a handful of old acts who were influential and talented but a mere fraction of the innovation and musical stories out there :)

@SerotoninWars: Interesting. I pretty much stopped listening to contemporary music about 20 years ago, but rather than stopping listening to new music at that point, I started to go backwards and listen to stuff from the past that I hadn’t listened to before. So EG, I started listening to lot’s of blues music, starting with Chicago Blues (Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Buddy Guy, Little Walter etc) and then moving onto the British Blues revival in the 60′s (Stones, Them, Yardbirds, John Mayal etc) and other American artists like Canned Heat, CCR, Little Feat, Paul Butterfield) – a treasure trove of stuff that I still listen to all the time

@SYaxJ2Ts: Nothing wrong with going back too! Love old blues stuff. Leadbelly is another artists who could so easily have been lost to the mists of time if he hadn’t been around for the still relatively new phenomenon of recorded music! My point is more about people who just flat out give up and often reference the same few bands who were around in the 60s and 70s. Many who I really like while finding it frustrating that these seem to be the musical be all and end all bookends for so many!

@Brian Pocock: No worries! Always good to point out active attempts to make us all that little bit dumber and less imaginative :)

@Brian Pocock: You’re not wrong there. However, she’s instantly recognizable, which is good enough for me, lyrics not too bad either.

@Brian Pocock: As a self-confessed attention-seeker, you’ll be also be glad of my reply too, I’m sure. I hope this validation helps improve your life in some small way!

@SerotoninWars: I suppose you get used to recognising your own faults after plenty of practice, I commend you, have a gold star ;)

@Jack Hayes: every little helps, thanks!

@Brian Pocock: Ah Brian you didn’t pull out the ‘no you are’ defence! Come on – Matlock wants a word! ;)

@SerotoninWars: in defence of what, exactly?

@Brian Pocock: Her music is almost country with great lyrics with buckets of humour.. she definitely eschews your definition of ‘nowadays’ music..

@Ciaran Forde: lots of things are subjective, I suppose

@Brian Pocock: Grunge was fueled by angst. Still at least there was upbeat stuff like the Smiths to balance it out.

@Alan: it’s out there, and easier to find than ever. Fellas are just more interested in moaning about back in their day than taking 5 minutes to look.

@Setanta O’Toole: I was rared on rebel songs until the age of ten. I still remember that day I brought home a Public Enemy CD, circa ’92. The poor mother hit the roof. The father insisted that I be allowed listen to whatever I like but said it shouldn’t even be classified as music. Hahahaha. Fair play to him.

@Alan: true true. Amy L and the sniffers have a nice punky irreverence if you’re looking for something new like that

@Darth O’Leary: i am a bit of a hiphop head myself. In the limewire era My Da deleted about a years worth of tunes off the pc because of the choice language.

@Setanta O’Toole: ahh! I can imagine the stroppy head on ya that day! :D
My Dad was a messer. He once convened a family meeting because my mother wanted to ban the word c+nt from the house. It was common for us to have family meetings every fortnight or so. There we sat around the table, my siblings and parents and I and my mother brought the motion to remove the word, my father seconded it and a lively debate ensued. I was 15. I liked the word. My brother liked it and my sister disliked it and we all voted according. My mother voted to ban it and then it came down to Da and he voted against my mother! The word survived! I didn’t use it around my mother ever after that day though so I think she got partial satisfaction

@Frankie Gozetahollywood: Totally! It’s the pure ego and ‘the world revolves around me’ mindset that’s hilarious. It bleeds into so many things, most urgently politics and the environment. An epidemic of unawareness of the sheer scale and vastness of our world and human thought and creativity too. If it hasn’t been mainlined into my eyeballs and eardrums on the tiny amount of outlets I access = it doesn’t exist!

@Frankie Gozetahollywood: what gets me is when it’s an article about someone who has “passed”away & they come out with that ” never heard of him/her” malarkey………… Weird tbh

@SerotoninWars: Christ didn’t mean to offend you. Give me your address and I’ll send you an apology card
Gimp.

@David O Brien: Not remotely offended. Just a few notes on the tedious and predictable nature of posts like yours :)

@SerotoninWars: so tedious and predictable that you find them worthy of a response, have another gold star!

@Brian Pocock: What’s that got to do with anything? There will always be a tonne of ‘common sense’ reactionary aul lads first in line to tell everyone ‘everything is rubbish now’. A few comments kicking back against the silly notion that there was ONE golden era of music that magically correlates with the youth of a handful of posters, is a good thing surely?

Or must we all lie down and go along with the dreary suggestion that a handful of musical acts from several decades ago are the pinnacle of the art form, despite the majority of people suggesting this, having absolutely no clue whatsoever about anything that’s happening now, outside of a few pop acts they hear on the radio?

It’s nonsense and deserves to be called out for what it is.

@SerotoninWars: nobody is forcing you to listen to or read or view anything, it seems beyond your comprehension that people cannot have an opinion, as is evident with your numerous doltish replies to others on here

@SerotoninWars: Fair enough:)

@Brian Pocock: Nope but if you post something people are allowed to respond and disagree! People just seem to be annoyed that they have been called out on some nonsensical statements that they are clearly used to being unchallenged over.

@David O Brien: Grand – I’ll put the Pulp Fiction suit away for another day so! ;)

@SerotoninWars: who are you to judge if someone’s statements are nonsensical or not though?

@Brian Pocock: When people make sweeping statements that are not based on fact, are not backed up by evidence and can be easily refuted – they are nonsensical. It’s not about anyone getting to judge. I’m more than happy to be contradicted and accept when I am wrong. There’s a lot of sentiments we can file under ‘dominant cultural myths’. They are the kind of things put forward as ‘common sense’ and ‘truisms’ that are really just lazy thinking based on not much at all except some gut feelings and a lack of people willing to call them out, while they mindlessly nod along and agree. The ‘good old days’ fallacy in another form.

Statements like this:

‘Music nowadays is shyte, just angst ridden, whiney people who identify as plurals of him/herself’

So obviously untrue when there’s an infinite number of listening options in more genres and subgenres than at any time in human history. The idea that it’s all terrible is far fetched to put it politely. There’s also thousands upon thousands of albums that are neither angst ridden or in any way part of the conversation around gender.