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Whern was usic at its BEST?

clicktrax	Date: February 21, 2007 @ 2:39 AM music has been shifting for genre to genre with every changing generation...so when was the golden age of music? i would love to go back to the days that defined rock music. days of led zep. and i appreciate bands like black summer crush and wolfmother that keep us reminded of these days and take us back to the beginning.
bmccosar	Date: February 21, 2007 @ 8:19 AM Hang on to something. The new Golden Age is now. For years, corporations controlled music. Innovation would take place far away from the studios--in the clubs and juke joints and smoky bars. By the time the innovators were being copied, all of a sudden in would sweep the A&R men and there would be a new genre, a new marketing tool. Copying music was expensive in the old days. Then along came tape, recordable CDs, and finally the Internet. Suddenly the genie quit the bottle. I have been on many different sites around the net; I found a home here on DMusic, and on Jamendo; I participated in FAWM with people from all over the world. I have waited for this time now for years: I think it might be a new Renaissance. I can remember even 5 years ago that it would take me weeks to find a new musician I liked, largely by going through my friends CD collections and getting recommendations from other folks online. Now? There is so much good music I can't actually keep up with burning the CDs anymore. Over the weekend, after I finished FAWM, I finally sat down and burned 57 CDs, back to back, of material I've been gathering for the last few months. So there's my answer: the time is now. I predict in 10 years, people will be looking back at now in a thread, somewhere, and going "Man, I wish I could have been on DMusic back when---"
zedsalt	Date: February 21, 2007 @ 10:22 AM Yeah, the Rise of the Independents, the affordability and availability of recording equipment, the ease with which one can make his/her/their music accessible to others...I've always said that quality and popularity tend to run in inverse proportion and the best music ever made was stuff few of us were ever likely to hear, but that likelihood has gone up considerably. Obviously, most of what we're hearing isn't really music or even recordings of music. We've compromised so much by digitally reproducing it...or more accurately, a tiny portion of it...but that's a large part of what has made this Renaissance possible. And the smart artists make sure to "keep it analog" as far into the process as possible, and the true audiophiles seek out the recordings which have never been spoiled by digitizing. There's a lot of talk about how there just isn't the quality and creativity now that existed earlier, but I think that those folks would change their minds if they could hear what all of this REALLY sounds like.
Stercesderised	Date: February 21, 2007 @ 10:41 AM Hmmmm....while I really WANT there to be a golden age in music right now, I just don't agree. I think the current ability to give everyone the ability to make music and pass it on as they wish has improved the amount of music that is available, but I'm not sure there's really a revolution going on. Music revolutions tend to occur every 10 - 20 years or so, with some amazing bands who carry the "torch" of the previous/future revolution (I refer to them as the catalyst bands, as they tend to be the catalyst for the next music revolution). The problem with the current digital media is that there is so much material, that it's washing out some amazingly good bands. I.E. There is so much material out there that is easily marketted to the masses that it becomes difficult to seperate/discover the top 1/2 to 1/4 percent who will become legends. To reply to the OP, I do not think there has ever been a single "golden age" of music. I subscribe much more to a theory of music revolution that is in synch with a societies desire to change and define itself. Personally, I think the last solid revolution happened in the 90's and went away when the "ska" scene kicked in around 1998 (...and continued to become more cookie cutter to a degree with bands like Limp Bizkit and Coldplay). Mars Volta is probably the most prodigious and musically creative/dynamic/inventive band on the market right now (and very talented). I agree with Zed on the analog approach. The future of recording definitely involves taking advantage of both mediums. Sometimes all digital tracks are called for, sometimes all analog, but a blend of the two (in different distributions) is the future of recording as I see it. I'm sure this is already being employed by top-notch production companies though... ~j
PrincessTast...	Date: February 21, 2007 @ 10:43 AM The time is right here! Dmusic people! The best music on the planet is being made right here on this site!
GeneHilbert	Date: February 21, 2007 @ 11:51 AM I agree on both points; there is freedom from the system, a larger variety of artistic and stylistic choices. We are not at the mercy of being force feed bullshit by the major because they want to cut cost of production. However there is a glut of crap to wade through to find the gems. Any shit-head with a computer and Fruit-Loops can create racket, all in hopes of finding fame and fortune. The writing and performance ability of most are lacking because you don’t need to be disciplined in your craft anymore. Let’s not forget just human laziness, and the predilection for choosing the path of less resistance.
bmccosar	Date: February 21, 2007 @ 4:58 PM Gene, this is something called Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. The difference for me is there's more crap to choose from. Five years ago, the jazz and blues section at the local music stores was getting smaller and smaller, until it barely occupied two shelves (the rest of the store -- that is, 90% of it -- followed Sturgeon's Law to within experimental error). Now, I look online, and I find Henri Roger, Saxsinger, DaveWL, and, yes, Gene Hilbert. On Jamendo, I find Maya de Luna, Eau Forte, and many others. I remember being so exasperated five years ago, thinking it was the End of Music, that the lack of music education in schools was causing a generation of tone deaf cultural throwbacks who listened to supermarket lyrics over a canned beat and thought w00t, Bach! Even in town, there was this insane fad for punk rock, and if you were an actual musician who knew what you were doing, you were looked down upon -- the goal was to be primitive and grinding, or "nasty, brutish, and short." What a depressing time to live through. So, yeah, there's some crap, but the treasures I find, that vital 10%, tend to cancel out the other 90%, which, after all, I can just ignore. They aren't pushing the good music out of the record store anymore (figuratively speaking, of course).
evansorchid	Date: February 21, 2007 @ 5:27 PM On 21st Feb 2008, GeneHilbert said: Let’s not forget human laziness, and the predilection for choosing the path of less resistance. Have we met?