Self Esteem seem very popular with the over-40s, so I should think you'll fit in very well here
Old fogey opinions on modern popular music amnesty
- Thread starter Cloo
- Start date
BassJunkie
Clams on the half shell, and roller skates.
It's strange, but from the records I bought decades ago, those that are worth the most are 7 inches from Sarah Records. The Field Mice and the like. Back in 1990 I wouldn't have anticipated that.
BassJunkie
Clams on the half shell, and roller skates.
lol, yes.
Kevbad the Bad
Amiable Bowel Syndrome
I must confess that I find it difficult to make any sense of this 'trad jazz' that the youngsters 'listen' to these days. I've put the word 'listen' in inverted commas since the appallingly loud music is almost impossible to tolerate without resort to ear plugs of some description. Whatever happened to good old hymns, sung without the accompaniment of any instrumentation, (which I personally hold to be the work of Lucifer himself)?
Basically most people think the best music is the music that was current when they were a teenager or in their early 20s, and people who were teenagers or in their early 20s in the 1990s are now the people with the most spare cash to spend on their collection of nostalgia items. Coupled with this is the fact that the 90s were when vinyl was dying out as the default format, so there were relatively low numbers of the records pressed up, especially by indie labels like Sarah etc - so there's less of them in circulation.
Voley
Joyful and Recumbent
Do I win this thread by saying I've never even heard of this person?
Hearse Pileup
Horse Pickup, isle 5
No srsly - TikTok is where a lot of new musicians are getting traction at the moment. And I hate it 
lots of old musicians too! Tiktok sleeper indie hitsNo srsly - TikTok is where a lot of new musicians are getting traction at the moment. And I hate it
Hearse Pileup
Horse Pickup, isle 5
Yeah it's obviously not all bad, and there are things I genuinely like about TikTok in terms of how young people are using it. One thing that gets to me is how you can tell when a song has been written for the TikTok, shortform format. Now I am going to sound like an old fogey when I say I miss the freedom of the LP. It allows a musician to build a body of work, instead of making them focus on being a 'hit factory'
ska invita
back on the other side
hang in there, theres going to be a massive psychedelic drug binge amongst the young in 2026
pseudonarcissus
fluttering and dancing
I noticed a friend contribute to a discussion on Twitter that Adele wasn’t a patch on Karen Carpenter. When I realised it want a weight loss discussion, I thought “you old fogey”.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
I have an idea that music scenes just aren't as important in the UK as they used to be. I think less people are hanging out in gig/music spaces and more people are hanging out at food stalls and markets and the like, and going out less in total. But I don't have the figures to back me up.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
It's hard to go to gigs when so many of the venues are gone
ska invita
back on the other side
Definitely - I posted some stuff about this in the Kids Music Taste thread on the demise of subculture including some links
Young people do still go out, but the meaning/importance of music has changed/decreased overall for a variety of reasons
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
In a way pulled pork and craft beer is the punk rock of the last ten years. And in a way very much not. I do find it a bit disconcerting. Like I don't know what kids do if they want a rebellious subculture these days. Perhaps some of those with kids can tell us.....
Hearse Pileup
Horse Pickup, isle 5
I think a big part of this is also now that the internet is inundated with content all the time, scenes are just camouflaged and hidden within the signal-to-noise ratio. I honestly do think these things really are still out there, you just need to know where to look.
On that note I should also mention the incredibly hard working Chaos Theory Music, the guy who is kinda at the centre of it is a really good lad.
[EDIT]:
Also, I just bullied Chaos Theory into starting a podcast. They only have a few episodes out right now, but the first one I listened to is how I discovered Crying (the band, not getting in touch with my feelings)
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Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
So much of what the young do is invisible to even the most supportive and best intentioned oldsters
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Yeh with the price of craft beer I can't see it being a teen thing
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
You can overstate the degree to which people were into music subcultures in the past though can't you. It's kind of the nature of subcultures that most people aren't really involved.
the most rebellious of teens in my orbit are into drum & bass & ketamine tbh
totally - I think a lot of people our age look at their kids and their friends kids and wonder why they're so straight, where's the rebellion etc, forgetting that most kids from our era were straight too.
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
It's interesting to compare the playlists of the BBC stations, even if you wouldn't listen to them, to see what the beeb thinks the different audiences want and how some bands are 'seen'. I remember when Biffy Clyro (local lads) were seen as maybe a bit heavy and challenging (long time ago). Now they are mainstream R1 fodder - no idea what they actually sound like now tho!
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
On Radio 1, I put it on for a bit while I was driving a little while ago and there was a little section that really struck me as quite revealing in a lot of ways. They had listeners setting trivia questions for the presenters and one of them was 'have England ever won the football world cup' and they all thought it was hilarious that they'd know something as laddish as that. OK that's not music but I think if you wanted to get into the differences across the different generations the fact that twenty something presenters on primetime Radio 1 are laughing at the sacred memory of 66 would be an interesting place to start. Unsurprisingly there wasn't a lot of old rock/indie music being played.
Bus Honeygun
This week the score draws are plentiful
When I lived in London 91-94 you used to see foreign kids coming over and paying over the odds for Sarah stuff. I suppose the themed 7" labels (journey down the Severn Beach branchline in 10 consecutive singles etc.) the neat 100 releases etc. and the music genre itself lends itself to collectability. Sold the Sarapoly game for around £100 when I was skint a few years ago, and offloaded the stuff I never liked in the first place but bought because of my trainspotter tendencies and got good prices for them. The Orchids, Sea Urchins, Boyracer etc. are all staying. I'd never part with them.
Bit late to the party, but I can confirm my teenage daughter is also into shoegazey stuff - Lush, Cocteau Twins etc. There's a bit of me quite smug that my (and Mrs [62]'s) musical passions have rubbed off on her - she's also into Aphex Twin, Guided by Voices, Siouxsie & the Banshees - but I'm glad she's finding her own independent/obscure stuff now, and I leave her to it. As also mentioned, even though she's broadly into indie-ish guitar bands and electronica, she likes Abba, cheesy old soundtracks and the sort of modern mainstream shite I loathe. The kids are definitely less tribal or snobby about music.
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except my posts
Hearse Pileup
Horse Pickup, isle 5
This is something that gives me a lot of faith in zoomers. As well as historically almost unparalleled access to music from all eras
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