Music in 2001 vs Now. Why the Hot 100 is a joke.

[Reaganfan]

In 1996, Bruce Springsteen and Eric Clapton both had huge radio hits. Songs from hit movies (Iris - Goo Goo Dolls, I Don't Want to Miss a Thing - Aerosmith, How Do I Live - Tricia Yearwood/Leeann Rimes) would skyrocket on the charts. You also had crossover hits. Songs that would reach #1 on the country charts and could get in the top 10 Hot 100 to add some variety.

Now, the best known and best musicians are gone from the charts. Bands and music with guitars, drums, ect are gone and replaced with auto-tuned beats about "Sippin' on patron in da club with da gurls" or something similar to that.

March 6, 2001

Hanging By a Moment
Breathless
Follow Me
He Loves U Not
I Hope You Dance
I'm Like a Bird
Ms. Jackson
Thank You
Angel
Jaded

March 6, 2011

F****** Perfect
Hey Baby (Drop It To The Floor)
F*** You (Forget You)
S&M
Yeah 3X
What The Hell
We R Who We R
Who Dat Girl

Atleast in 2001 you had variety. Some country, some rap, some rock....now it's all auto-tuned hip-hoppers and the charts are controlled by what songs teenage girls download the most. Pretty sad.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Fuck You is a great song.

[Oakvale]

^ Yes, although the radio edit is kinda lacking.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

In 1996, Bruce Springsteen and Eric Clapton both had huge radio hits. Songs from hit movies (Iris - Goo Goo Dolls, I Don't Want to Miss a Thing - Aerosmith, How Do I Live - Tricia Yearwood/Leeann Rimes) would skyrocket on the charts. You also had crossover hits. Songs that would reach #1 on the country charts and could get in the top 10 Hot 100 to add some variety.

Now, the best known and best musicians are gone from the charts. Bands and music with guitars, drums, ect are gone and replaced with auto-tuned beats about "Sippin' on patron in da club with da gurls" or something similar to that.

March 6, 2001

Hanging By a Moment - Like
Breathless - Like
Follow Me - Like
He Loves U Not - Nope
I Hope You Dance - I have a soft spot for this one
I'm Like a Bird - Hate it
Ms. Jackson - Ugh
Thank You - ...not sure
Angel - No
Jaded - Wow... year 12 flashback

March 6, 2011

F****** Perfect - Love
Hey Baby (Drop It To The Floor) - Eh
F*** You (Forget You) - OVER IT!!!
S&M - Like
Yeah 3X - No
What The Hell - Nope
We R Who We R - Yup
Who Dat Girl - Nope

Atleast in 2001 you had variety. Some country, some rap, some rock....now it's all auto-tuned hip-hoppers and the charts are controlled by what songs teenage girls download the most. Pretty sad.

You're SUCH a wannabe 90's guy... it really wasn't that great you know?

[The Mikado]

If I had the willpower, I'd do a mock 1901 vs 1911 post.

[Free Palestine]

Popular music, in general, is a joke.  Most indie music is only slightly better though -- it's still 90% stupid love songs and sh-t.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Songs about alcohol and women? I won't stand for it! Thank goodness rock music avoided those subjects. And country. And blues.

[courts]

Fuck You is a great song.

^^^
The difference between then and now is one of mediocrity as opposed to being unrelentingly awful. But I suppose part of that has to do with people actually buying CDs then. Now it's all dumb 'tween'/teen girls buying stuff for their iPods because they don't know how to torrent yet.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

^ Yes, although the radio edit is kinda lacking.

Very true, yes.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Mainstream music was only good from around approx. 1991-1994 or so.

[Eraserhead]

Music is probably better right now than it was in 2001, overall. Of course, I don't really listen to radio stuff. There were just some many awful nu metal bands hanging around everywhere in 2001.

[courts]

Music is probably better right now than it was in 2001, overall. Of course, I don't really listen to radio stuff. There were just some many awful nu metal bands hanging around everywhere in 2001.

Popular music? Definitely not, although I don't even think the independent stuff is as good honestly. Frankly a lot of it seems derivative. I'd take sebadoh, gbv, pavement, etc. over kaiser chiefs or arctic monkeys or whatever. Pop culture in general seems to have massively jumped the shark since the late 90s.

[The Artist Formerly Known As and Now Again Known As Ogis]

Fuck You is a great song.

Exactly this.

[Alcon]

Ke$ha is pretty unforgivable, but does anyone care about Lifehouse, Uncle Cracker and Dream?  I literally don't remember Dream.

And I agree, "F**k You" is a good enough song to make up for several Ke$has (who will soon be a d-i-n-o-saur anyway)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

*Listens to "F**K You"*

No, this is not a good song.

[minionofmidas]

It's probably not coincidental that not one of the songs listed for 2001 strikes a chord... as that was long past the off the deep end date for singles charts. Which occurred, really, somwhere in the 80s or so. Before my time.  And by that I mean the market for them contracted to a laughable share consisting mostly of small kids with no taste and no budget... airplay (the other factor that tends to go into charts) is not a direct indicator of what people want to hear, and is very easily manipulated.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

In the 80s? Come on, Smells Like Teen Spirit? The mid-90s had a lot of memorable songs too. But mainstream music basically went to hell after that.

[minionofmidas]

Went all the way to no.6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Which is more than can be said of most or all of those mid-90s songs, admittedly.
Blind chick. Corn.
Anyways I wasn't talking in terms of my own taste in music.

[Eraserhead]

Music is probably better right now than it was in 2001, overall. Of course, I don't really listen to radio stuff. There were just some many awful nu metal bands hanging around everywhere in 2001.

Popular music? Definitely not, although I don't even think the independent stuff is as good honestly. Frankly a lot of it seems derivative. I'd take sebadoh, gbv, pavement, etc. over kaiser chiefs or arctic monkeys or whatever. Pop culture in general seems to have massively jumped the shark since the late 90s.

I guess it depends what you define as "popular". Seriously though, the late 90s/early 2000s were at least just as bad as now in that respect. I really don't see a major difference in quality. If you want quality "Top 40" stuff, you basically have to back to the early 70s at least imo. At least today bands like Arcade Fire and The Fleet Foxes exist.

[courts]

Well like I said it's not like what was around was great or even good in most cases but I still think the stuff Naso posted while very boring is better quality than whatever Gaga, Kesha, etc are churning out now.

Also, never really got the appeal of Arcade Fire idk. Fleet Foxes is brilliant though. Going to have to give you that much.

[Eraserhead]

It disturbs me that Robin Peckenold is only like half a year older than me. The dude is a pretty amazing singer/songwriter.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It disturbs me that Robin Peckenold is only like half a year older than me. The dude is a pretty amazing singer/songwriter.

Guy Picciotto was only 19 when he started Rites of Spring.

[Tender Branson]

There are some other good songs from Q1 2001, which I remember darkly:

Cosmic Gate - Exploration Of Space
Eminem/Dido - Stan
Rammstein - Sonne
Sofaplanet - Liebficken
Wyclef Jean feat. Mary J. Blige - 911
Outkast - Ms. Jackson
Public Domain - Operation Blade
Baha Men - Who Let The Dogs Out
LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight The Moonlight
Limp Bizkit - Rollin' (one of my favorites, and yeah, the WTC was still there ... )

In general, I agree with Naso: Music was better in 2001 than it is today, but the better times were between 1990 and 1996 and between 2003 and 2007.

[Stranger in a strange land]

I stopped listening to the radio in early 2007, and I see it was a good decision. Autotune was the worst thing that ever happened to music. The Top 10 from early 2001 had its fair share of overplayed crap, but it was very good music overall. Now I see why MTV doesn't show music videos anymore: there's no good music to go with them.

[Eraserhead]

It disturbs me that Robin Peckenold is only like half a year older than me. The dude is a pretty amazing singer/songwriter.

Guy Picciotto was only 19 when he started Rites of Spring.

I like Rites of Spring but Fleet Foxes > Rites of Spring.