Hello, I hope you're well. I listen to a lot of music - approximately 50 to 65 recently-released songs each week on average, which amounts to 2,600 to 3,380 new songs each year. In the current year of 2022, I bought tickets to see a total of 28 musicians perform live. Listening to music is my #1 hobby.

I think the most recent set of 3 years (2019 through 2022) have had some of my favorite songs of all time. And prior to that, during the 3-year period of 2015 through 2018, I also thought at the time that those were the best music years of all time.

Most people I talk to seem to reminiscence about previous decades of music, often aligning their favorite years, genres, songs, and musicians with their teenage and young adult years. As much as I love and treasure the music I grew up with - and I still listen to many of those songs regularly - I think music constantly gets better.

I'd like to hear your thoughts. Thank you and take care.

Comments

Competitive_Vast9832 t1_iujrdbw wrote on October 31, 2022 at 9:19 PM

In my world no timeframe is better than any other. You've always had to dig for good stuff, even in the rock era. It's whether you're willing to put the effort into finding new music that's for you.

DevinBelow t1_iujpcwh wrote on October 31, 2022 at 9:04 PM

If you really listened to 3000+ new songs in the past year, I get the feeling you didn't spend much time listening to anything this year other than new music. Which is fine, it's just that maybe listening 50-65 new songs each week on average has tainted your opinion slightly. Don't get me wrong, it's not more tainted than someone who listens to 50-65 songs from the 1950's each week, but I bet you if you did switch your habits to listening to 3300 songs per year from the 1950's, you'd probably be in here telling how how the best music ever was made in the 1950's. It just stands to reason.

I try to listen to a (fairly) even spread of music from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 2000's, 2010's and the current decade, maybe not as much 50's, but lots of 50's jazz and blues. I just think there has always been good music and there has always been bad music (see 90% of the pop charts for the last 7 decades), but I do think it's easy to get trapped in this mindset of "Whatever music I happen to be into the most right now is the best music in history", and that most of us do that a lot, because like "why would I be listening to it if it's not the best music ever?". But that's why, like I say, it's good to not just limit yourself, or even mostly just listen to, music from one decade or one year or just whatever happens to be coming out in a given week. But obviously you should listen to what you enjoy. And I'm glad to hear you're enjoying what you're hearing.

TofuVic OP t1_iujsnr0 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 9:28 PM

>If you really listened to 3000+ new songs in the past year, I get the feeling you didn't spend much time listening to anything this year other than new music. Which is fine, it's just that maybe listening 50-65 new songs each week on average has tainted your opinion slightly. Don't get me wrong, it's not more tainted than someone who listens to 50-65 songs from the 1950's each week, but I bet you if you did switch your habits to listening to 3300 songs per year from the 1950's, you'd probably be in here telling how how the best music ever was made in the 1950's. It just stands to reason.

I can see what you mean, but I've been listening to at least 2,600 songs per year since at least 2008, and possibly a few years before that. I know for certain I've been listening to at least 1,300 new songs every year since 1999.

> there has always been bad music (see 90% of the pop charts for the last 7 decades)

Oh, I should clarify that of the hundreds of new songs I listen to, I definitely dislike the majority of them... lol. I no longer keep track, but when I used to keep track years ago, I liked approximately 1 song out of every 30 to 40 songs I heard; a couple years, it was a sad 1 out of every 50 to 60 songs. That number has gone down quite a bit - it's probably around 1 out of every 25 songs these days - because of Spotify and other music discovery websites that help cater music to my preferences. (The downside of that is the type of music I listen to has shrunk a bit.)

>I try to listen to a (fairly) even spread of music from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 2000's, 2010's and the current decade

That's awesome and I commend you for that!

>it's good to not just limit yourself, or even mostly just listen to, music from one decade or one year or just whatever happens to be coming out in a given week.

I have tried getting into music of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. For example, several years ago, posted on Reddit to ask for music recommendations from those decades. (I admittedly have never gone as far back as the 50s.) After listening to those recommendations and 25 of the most popular songs of each year spanning those 3 decades (a total of over 900 songs), I stopped seeking out music from those years because they just weren't for me, unfortunately. (Of course, there were some really good songs I liked from those decades, some of which have made my list of favorite songs.)

>But obviously you should listen to what you enjoy. And I'm glad to hear you're enjoying what you're hearing.

Well said. As I had responded to someone else in this thread, I am not saying my opinion is correct in any way, but just that the statements I had written earlier are my opinions, and I'm curious if there are others who feel the same way.

Take care!

zgrizz t1_iujl5bw wrote on October 31, 2022 at 8:35 PM

I think you'd have a hard time convincing the larger group of people that it is "improving". But it is changing, and that is a constant going back eons. And that change tends to reflect trends popular with youth, although an argument could be made that youth automatically embraces new over old, meaning that the trend tracks in the other direction.

TofuVic OP t1_iujmb69 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 8:43 PM

Thank you for responding.

>I think you'd have a hard time convincing the larger group of people that it is "improving".

I'd like to make it clear that I definitely am not attempting to convince anyone whatsoever. I was simply sharing an opinion because I was curious if a lot of people - or anyone at all! - felt the same way. I wholeheartedly respect and appreciate people's varied tastes and preferences in music.

>an argument could be made that youth automatically embraces new over old

I can likely agree with that, and would be curious to see studies and statistics around that as it pertains to music. For what it's worth, I am not young... lol. When I was young, I definitely did enjoy music that was recently released more than things like "classic rock." That said, even though I'm much older now, I continue to enjoy music that has been recently released more than decades-old music.