Why You Think New Music Sucks

Sure, it could be the music itself...but could it also be nostalgia, or choice overload, or uncertainty about where to find good new music?

In today’s post, we dig into just a few of the many reasons one could be disillusioned with new music… that have nothing to do with the music itself. A playlist awaits you at the end!

Remember those Bubble Tape commercials from the early ‘90s?

You know, the unhinged animations that looked like Terry Gilliam collided with Clarissa Explains it All? That rotating fever dream of square grown-ups with an inexplicable gum aversion?

Those commercials are what I picture whenever another cranky Xennial¹ declares that there’s no good music anymore, or that there hasn’t been any quality guitar rock since [insert decade here, because there isn’t any consensus], or that all new music is just a pale copy of what came before.

I’m not trying to stir the generational pot, here; I was born in 1984, so I’m an Xennial myself, and “cranky” would be a euphemistic descriptor for me at best.

As much as I have otherwise (generally proudly!²) become my parents and somewhat matured, when it comes to this particular brand of “when I was your age” adults, I still imagine a bunch of flat cardboard cutouts yapping away to the sound of the Peanuts trombone while the kids get to have delicious gum.

I make it my business to keep up with new music. Hell, I’ve been pretending to be a music reviewer for going on twenty years now. That’s not meant as a lead-in to “…and so there’s no excuse that you don’t do the same.” Hardly.

If anything, I know how overwhelming it is. New albums every single Friday? Literally who has the time?

No, the issue I have with these “back in my day” crusaders, is the dogged insistence that music flatlined at some point in history and has never recovered since.

I hear some version of these arguments almost daily:

• Nobody has talent or originality anymore.

• Any idiot can record music and put out a record now, and it’s watered down the whole industry.

• There’s nothing worth listening to on the radio anymore, the charts are filled with fluff, and pop music isn’t as substantial as it used to be.

• There are no bands anymore, and guitar rock has practically disappeared.

… and on and on in that vein.

I would love to put the entire matter to rest with the following brief exchange:

Instead, let’s take it down brick by brick.

1. Your Tastes Calcified When You Were Young

None of us is immune to getting old, looking at the generations coming up behind us, and clucking about how much better things were when we were younger. It’s an immutable fact of life.

Complaining about “what the kids are listening to” is a time-honored tradition. And when was music good exactly? Well, invariably (and objectively, factually, unassailably) it always aligns with the end of the development of your prefrontal cortex.

What a coincidence.

The Day Your Music Died

If you haven’t already read Daniel Parris’ essay in Stat Significant, he provides an excellent analysis of when and why this happens.

When Do We Stop Finding New Music? A Statistical Analysis

In short:

We are most open to hearing new music during adolescence, and the music we listen to as teenagers has the strongest influence. It’s right around age 33 that our tastes start to calcify, we begin listening to fewer artists, and ultimately give up on music discovery altogether (chiefly because life gets in the way, but also because we simply aren’t interested in hearing anything new).

It stands to reason that nothing sounds as good as when we’re teenagers. Everything was amplified back then, and nostalgia is a powerful drug.

Think for a moment, though. Is it objectively true that everything after your teenage years has declined in quality? Or maybe, just maybe, we were all adolescents at different times, and your memories and preferences are stuck in amber in whatever that time was for you.³

2. Increased Access Means More of Everything… Good and Bad