Quote:
Originally Posted by jklotz
I used to be very opinionated about music. Being in college in the 80's, it was either "new music", "our parents music" or corporate influenced "engineered to sell" music, and we were morale opposed to the latter.
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Gen Xer here, so I was in a similar place, and I really hope I'm in a slightly better spot now. Irony and slackerism dominated when I was young, but dialed-up earnestness as well. There were artists who were deemed to be or presented themselves as being only about the art, and there were artists who sold out by doing commercials or by letting their song be used in an Alicia Silverstone movie. So very different now. My kids don't even know what "selling out" means/meant. There's an acceptance now that artists want to earn a living, and getting paid is totally acceptable.
Even the idea "manufactured" acts are objectively bad isn't that robust an argument anymore. K-Pop can be really great, for example. Harry Styles, whose band was cranked out of a machine, is a legit great.
As for the quality, it's all subjective, of course, and I think there's plenty of talent and quality out there. There was a lot of junk on the radio in the '90s just as there's a lot of junk in the radio/Sirius/Spotify now. I do my best to check myself and just know that an artist just might not be my cup of tea rather than that artist being "bad." I try, mind you, and I don't always succeed.