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Worst era for music?

Every era has had their crap.....but for my money? It would be 1989 to 1991.

People often wonder: Why was it that some random band out of Seattle (Nirvana) would suddenly become so incredibly popular with their sophomore album and completely change the face of popular music in one fell swoop?

Answer: Because the stuff that was topping the charts at that point was AWFUL. You know all of that sappy, saccharine and soulless Adult Contemporary garbage you hear at the grocery store? THAT was what was charting then. Oh sure, you'd have some occasional gems (old Celine Dion could be listenable), but that was it.

Oh, and don't get me started on the modern rock scene at the time. Sure, you had stuff like R.E.M. and Metallica, but other than that it was the slow, salty death of the Hair Band scene. The whole hair metal genre had become so formulaic and over-saturated that it really had no choice but to die. First everyone was all glammed out, then started toning it down and looking more fasionable, then everyone started going acoustic, and finally it just died.

Something else you forgot to mention about hair metal is the fact that around that time, it seemed like with the possible exception of Guns 'N' Roses(IMHO, Use Your Illusion I & II contain the band's best work, despite the fact those albums began Axl Rose's descent into d*******g mode), every other song was about sex(it's painfully obvious that when Warrant wrote "Cherry Pie", they weren't thinking with their stomachs...)... and it wasn't just hair metal, for example, the subject of "I Touch Myself" by Divinyls is so obvious, a blind man could see it in a darkened room...
 
For me there is no worst era of music. I love rock music from all decades (especially punk, metal, hardcore and 90s emo) I also like hip-hop, electronica, jazz, pop, folk, classical, avant-garde etc. there's good and bad in all genres/eras.
 
One of the great things about the music scene these days is that, thanks to the internet, we're not strictly limited to what mainstream radio plays anymore. No longer do we have to sift through obscure fanzines and dusty record collections to find quality, independent music.

True, we still have to deal with the schlocky corporate pop. But now we can also seek out indie bands like Royal Blood, or neo-progressive rock bands like The Flower Kings. All at the click of a button.
 
I don't really like the 2010's era of mainstream music. I don't find it that interesting or like the sound or images that are portrayed. It doesn't help that it's played so often in places.
 
i don't identify any era as worst, as there are always more then one genres going on at the same time. but i do have genres that i do not like. disco, the 70s version was pretty horrendous to me. but i can't say the era was all bad, for very good music was going on in the backround in progressive rock and the earliest foundations of what would become techno, punk and new wave. i can't listen to screamo or some types of rap either.
 
I used to think the 90s (with its gangsta rap, boy/girl bands, and house music) was the worst era ever when I was in the midst of it. Looking back, however, I fondly remember bands like Joy Drop, Biff Naked, Einsterzende Neubauten, KMFDF, Orgy, Rasputina, Cibo Matto, Marcy Playground, Massive Attack, The Tea Party... and the list goes on. To this day I still don't like most of what gets played on commercial radio. I learned as a teenager - staying up late at night to catch all of the cool videos on "The Wedge" - not to rely on mainstream outlets to find the music I like.

Unless your tastes are very narrow, I think that every erra, from medieval times up to present day, has something to offer. If there is a "worste erra" it is only marginally worse and I couldn't tell you what it is.
 
Like quite a few other people here, I feel that music, for me at least, started taking a turn for the worse during the mid 90's. I was never into it, with the exception of a few things here or there, or if a band from the 70's or 80's were still around and continued to release music in the 90's. I do, however, love Dream Theater (Their breakthrough sophomore album dropped in 91, but from maybe 94 until 2007 when they changed labels, they mostly just had a cult following.) IDK, I guess I just remember more stuff from the 70's and 80's then anything from the mid 90's onward.
 
for me i like folk and rock(alternative, indie, punk) from the 60s to the 80s i like some early 90s rock and grunge but generally i think music has got worse since the 90s right around when i was born (though obviously it hasn't got worse its just changed to a different style that some prefer and some don't like as much, its all subjective)
 
I think every era has had it's musical flops but, yeah the 90's were probably the worst for having a whole slew of flops being headliners.

I like music across all genres but, some of that sugar pop has got to go and so does the crude rap and hip hop, most is okay but, we don't need to use ever foul word there is in every song.
 
I think every era has had it's musical flops but, yeah the 90's were probably the worst for having a whole slew of flops being headliners.

I like music across all genres but, some of that sugar pop has got to go and so does the crude rap and hip hop, most is okay but, we don't need to use ever foul word there is in every song.


From your perspective, what happened to rock music? It doesn't appear to have evolved so much as simply disappear. So much pop and hip-hop, but what happened to rock? I don't get it.

So much beloved music played every day on the radio from earlier eras...yet there's no new songs replacing all those classics. What a shame.

So much talent still around...but not forever. But yes, my uptake is subjective...I know.
 
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Judge you're talking about classic rock, the stuff we credit Elvis for basically inventing. You're right the talent and, even the love of that music is still here, many of us would be performing it now but, that's not what sells.

Classic rock is all about the sound backed by a decent stage presence, now music as more about the show, the smoke, fire, lasers, LED backdrops than it is the raw talent of the musicians.

It's kind of a not so funny and not entirely untrue joke in the industry that we used to have music, now we just have autotune.

Classic rock left the building when enough of the greats of the genre left and, those of us that did stay toward the end came in at the end of that era. We had to evolve, or devolve depending on your opinion to stay relevant - and that is the big catch word management constantly throws at us - relevant.

There are a few of the classic rockers out there, but most of them are relegated to private gigs and charity events and are invited to those for their name more than their music.

Some of what we have now is on the same track, just too early for it to be obvious yet but other "older" styles are slowly fading and, the artist along with the music.

That's the way of it, big band, flapper jazz, the crooners, all gone from the headliner acts. Sure each still has its fans and a handful of artists doing it, but they aren't getting the world wide stadium tours and, that is what every major studio, every one of the top managers and, every star maker wants. Use to be it took a new band years, five to ten of them to get to doing stadium tours, now these kids are thrust into that world less than a year after being discovered.

Yes I got very lucky in my early years and took that same rocket ride to the top but, because it happened to me, the dream every young musician imagines, I know what that actually does to a person and what it demands of that musician and, it isn't pretty.

I'd love to see a rebirth of classic rock but, simply put, it isn't what sells out stadiums so, it isn't what labels want, thus nobody that really wants to be anybody bothers to perform it anymore. You want a single word for what happened? GREED

And no I'm not claiming to be immune to it, I want my money too.
 
Judge you're talking about classic rock, the stuff we credit Elvis for basically inventing. You're right the talent and, even the love of that music is still here, many of us would be performing it now but, that's not what sells.


Scary point given how different the economics of music evolved digitally and otherwise. The vinyl record era seemed so simple...

One thing I miss to the point of tears is Tower Records...and being able to buy the music of my heart's desire regardless of how popular or not the music was in the retail sense. Just heartbreaking...:(
 
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Scary point given how different the economics of music evolved digitally and otherwise. The vinyl record era seemed so simple...

One thing I miss to the point of tears is Tower Records...and being able to buy the music of my heart's desire regardless of how popular or not the music was in the retail sense. Just heartbreaking...:(

Tower isn't gone, they just went digital like everyone else. Still have the goods though, and books too. Great place to shop.

http://www.tower.com/
 

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