Here’s the sports related element:
Here’s the musical element:
Okay, so I was a kid of 80s music, so Michael Jackson was in my regular rotation. He was a baked in part of the 80s music that I listened to regularly, so I can still enjoy Jackson’s music, regardless of the allegations and thoughts of him past his passing. Admittedly, he was a weird dude, but I can still recall distinctly listening to LPs of him on my parents stereo, especially his collaboration with Paul McCartney (Say, Say, Say) and thinking how great the quality of mixing and sound was present in what I heard.
Jackson is a side note in this exercise, but for those of you my age, or older or younger, what’s the missing quality in today’s music that makes you nostalgic about the music of yesteryears?
Is it quality? Musicianship? Talent? I’ve long hypothesized with my buddy that quality of music has declined ever since the advent of the cassette tape, but maybe I’m just jaded.
What say you?
Damn, Hugh Durham could recruit & coach! HS All Americans airywhere….Terry Fair, James Banks Vern Flemming….watching the Hoopstas knock out Syracuse & UNC to advance to the final 4 was incredible!!!
It was St. John’s with Chris Mullin, but it happened in the Carrier Dome.
Well Im mostly a country and bluegrass fan these days. To me it was Nashville’s decision to target teenyboppers that ruined mainstream country.
I miss good country music being pushed in Nashville rather than people like Hardy and Morgan Wallen. Still though there is excellent country music being made now. It’s just not on terrestrial radio.
Also, is there such a thing as rock music anymore? Or is it all “classic rock” only? It almost seems like that has totally dried up.
The quality is still out there, you just have to go find it.
A lot of what’s readily pumped out to us lacks soul.
“Mister, can you make folks cry when you play and sing? Have you paid your dues/can you moan the blues/can you bend them git-tar strings?
Mister, can you make folks feel what you feel inside?”
Not just the misters, either. The gals that can reach way down and gut me are out there, too.
I think we all still gravitate toward the music of our youth. My daughters all love Tay-Tay and probably will for life. My wife loves the Yacht Rock Radio and the Bridge on Sirius XM. I bounce around but it’s 80’s, classic rock, and 90s country for me. I still love Billy Joel, Prince, Thriller MJ, some old school 80s rap and R&B, and Alan Jackson (yes, I know that’s a wide diversity).
Alan Jackson is the one who can bring out the emotion in me. Seeing the original paper that he wrote the lyrics for “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning” at the Country Music Hall of Fame was pretty darn cool. “Drive” gets me because I hope my girls remember me that way when I taught them to drive before getting a license.
The country music of my formative years was the product of poor people expressing the difficulties they experienced and the simple joys they could find. Fiddlin’ John Carson grew up in Cabbagetown. He got evicted from several rental shotgun houses in that community (UGA All-American John Carson is his nephew and is likewise a Cabbagetown product.)
Hank Williams, undernourish, undereducted and in the grips of an alcohol addition conveyed through his music the hard reality of being poor in the Depression in the South.
I was born after World War II and was fortunate enough to having the security of there always being enough in the refrigerator but that era of country music made be understand how those folks persevered (“Jimmy, take a tater and wait.”)
Modern country music may have pleasing tunes but it’s performers all grew up with privileges Williams and Cash and The Carters and Little Jimmy Dickens couldn’t even dream of and therefore their music lacks the heart of the Depression era performers’ music.
There is great country music being made. Nashville just doesn’t want anything to do with it.
Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Whitey Morgan, Cody Jinks, Zephaniah Ohora, Jamey Johnson, Turnpike Troubadours, Silverada, Chris
Knight are all excellent. But Nashville pretends they don’t exist. People who like Luke Bryan and Jason Andean hate the artists I just named because they make actual country music.
One of the industry producer insiders who has a YT channel (forgetting his name) basically blames the advent of the drum machine and auto-tune. Theory is that the former eliminated a lot of studio drummers who would set a unique beat, tempo and pattern for songs. Now the machine makes them all generic and kills artist collaborations. He gives some great examples and explains how the industry execs want this for commercialization and control. Auto-tune has permitted far too many talentless singers to prevail. Available for even live performances they no longer get exposed when away from the studio. Finally, the streaming business destroyed concept albums so no range or depth to what many acts will explore. Just a series of “hits”.
The exceptions still stand out…I’ll offer Chris Stapleton as one who is more of a throwback creator vs anything you’ll hear on “Pop” radio today. And Rock is dead. Many of you classic country guys dis on Bro Country and I understand why but it really is just what has replaced R&R by mashing the genres. And of course rap has infected everything for reasons unknown.
P.S. The Blues revival died with SRV may he RIP.
I do like Chris Stapleton.
Rap is dying. Im not a fan by any means but people who are say the genre started downhill a few years ago and will be dead in another ten years. Somebody will still be making rap music but there won’t be arena filling rap stars anymore they say.
Good songwriting. Much of the new “talent” on pop radio (my kids listen to this some) seems to think all you have to do is find words that rhyme.
The lack of true lyricists, along with what FPD & NMCTB pointed out above, has been the true downfall of good music. There are certain examples in today’s music out there – Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, Chris Stapleton among them – the true classic post Vietnam War era lyricists are gone.
There is a lot of new music out there in all genres being released today but the business of music, the process of making music and where to listen to music is very different than when most of us GenX’ers were growing up.
Think about the media landscape in the 70’s & ’80’s when I discovered my love of music compared to now. Terrestrial radio was the driver, video was breaking out as a medium. Even movies helped sell music by placement and/or soundtracks.
You really needed access to studios to record music. Artists had to figure out how to play instruments, learn to play live etc. Heck even school systems were funding music programs better than they do today.
Artists were compensated differently, record companies made money differently. DJ’s were willing to accept payola and cocaine to pump up artists.
One of my kids is a professional musician. They can sing, they are talented enough and muscially inclined to learn multiple instruments, etc. Has never been in a band but does a lot collabs with other artists. Makes most of the music on a laptop with limited studio time. When they play live, they sing the vocals but all of the music is on a file on the soundboard. Every once in a while there is a back up singer and/or live drummer.
I follow David Lowery (CVB/Cracker & UGA professor) on the Twitterverse and he is very knowledgable about the past, the current scene and where the business is going. He thinks Sturgill’s latest release and success will push other artists with established and lucrative fanbases to have similar types of releases. The use of AI in creative development for music has spawned a lot of backlash since the royalty rate from streaming services is the same. He is worth a follow. https://x.com/davidclowery
Big Sturgill Simpson fan. High top Mountain, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Dood and Juanita, and the Cuttin Gras albums are great. There are things I like about Sailor’s Guide to Earth and the first Johnny Blue Skies album. But Sound and Fury and that thing he just released are unlistenable to me. Sturgill could be one of the greatest country artists of all time but he needs time away to be weird. As long as I still get country music from him I can put up with his veering off into whatever that is.
This^. Sturgill does some great stuff but some of it is too far out there for me. Chris Stapleton is the same and if I never have to hear another cover of “Tennessee Whiskey” again it’ll be too soon, by anybody.