Guess it's really true, as there's a new poll that says so. Popular music just ain't what it used to be.

Three in every four fans complain that compact discs are too expensive, and 58 percent complain that music in general is getting worse, according to an Associated Press and Rolling Stone magazine poll. Ipsos' telephone poll of 1,000 adults, including 963 music listeners, from all states except Alaska and Hawaii, was conducted Jan. 23-25 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points....Many fans...say they just don't like what they're hearing. It may not be surprising to hear older fans say music just isn't what it used to be when they were growing up. But the poll also found that 49 percent of music fans ages 18-to-34 - the target audience for the music business - say music is getting worse.

I agree. Too much crap rap. And too much bland white-guy rock - I've noticed all the singers have the same plaintive bleat. Listened to some Built to Spill the other day, which all the critics rave about. OK at best. No fire, lotta bleat. Easy Street in West Seattle plays the same warmed-over grunge and emo-bleat over and over. Seattle all shook up over Death Cab for Cutie. Feh. Music today needs a soul transplant. The best stuff out there now is in the specialty genres: bluegrass, various ethnic musics, jazz, and odd hybrids that reek of musicality. Blues just ain't what it used to be, nor soul and rock.

Oh, for the days of the Hampton Grease Band, Savoy Brown and Little Milton.

TECHNORATI TAGS: MUSIC, POLL, ROLLING STONE, BUILT TO SPILL, DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 3, 2006 04:52 PM

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