Decline in talent

[Burton Guster]

First of all, I believe anyone who has made it in the music industry has an incredible amount of talent but listening to older artists like Freddie Mercury, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and even some less famous artists of the 70s and 80s, I feel like they were more talented than today's artists. I try to imagine 20 years in the future and looking back and saying that I grew up listening to some of the greatest artist to ever live but I just can't see that happening. Why does it seem that the level of talent has decreased in the past decade or so?

[batwomr.smithshane]

I dont think it has i mean you got bruno mars maroon 5 fallout boys and alot of others. The only thing diff is the style of music

[teen.jpg]

There's so many different genres of music, so sitting there and complaining about Pop is useless and annoying. Some people like pop, don't go and call it crap when nobody askes for the hate, just stick with the music YOU like and leave it at that.

[Cygnus]

I could agree with you when it comes to things like ugh... dubstep and "house music", seriously all you need is a program for your laptop and you can do it, no skill required.

[Jenny jr]

Personally I am disgusted with today's music. It's terrible how people say new artists have talent when auto voice correct and music synthesizers and computers make the music. What happened to people like buddy rich, billy Vaughn, three dog night and other great musicians?

[PinkFloyd]

As someone that is listeing to Free bird at this exact moment, I agree 100%... Mainstream music is n where near as good as it used to be.

[teen.jpg]

Well, were YOU living in the 70s and 80s? So are you able to remember EVERY song from that era to compare to today's music?

Keep in mind that people only remember the songs they want to remember, so all the forgettable ones are gone. So it's an unfair comparison.

[Foamy]

To be fair, I think there's equal amount of singing talent from both generations. However, there's been a decline in OVERALL musical talent. It seems that all of today's musicians that use electronic music (while addicting in its defense) I think it's just because they really can't do much with a real instrument. There are few bands today, if any, (and that i know dont hate) that have some type of solo somewhere, be it drum or guitar. I always could be wrong, but I feel that the decline in talent is not really in vocal abilities but in the instrumental aspect of it. The advancement of technology has a part in it as well (auto tune and EDM as a whole)

[Jevon]

There are still plenty of good artist in my opinion and plenty of not so good ones...but it all mostly just depends on you taste of music

[Harry Smith]

It's all objective, many people absolutely hated Jazz in the 1940's, many people in the 1960's hated rock and roll. I don't get way people try and act cool by 'claiming' they only like old music, I mean cool if you do just don't go out of your way in claiming it.

I think musicians this day have a lot of talent, it's just not as organic as say 60 years ago

[LuciferSam]

I believe there is talent out there, but sadly it just has yet to go mainstream. I know that makes me sound kinda hipster, but that's how I see it.

[Ryhanna]

I don't think there's a decline in talent. There are always going to be artists who suck, but there are plenty of talented mainstream artists.

Have you seen Lady Gaga perform a song acoustically live? That girl's the biggest pop star since Madonna and has a fair bit of talent. Macklemore's talented, Bruno Mars has a capable voice, Beyonce has a really strong voice.

I think what's lacking in pop is a lack of innovation and new ideas. Artists like Katy Perry and Rihanna just do the same basic thing with every release, never challenging themselves or their listeners, and Bruno Mars is is more interested in being a throwback to the 70's rather than bringing new ideas to the forefront.

That being said, there are artists such as Gaga and Macklemore who are willing be unique and experiment with sounds and themes.

[Synyster Shadows]

Not all musicians nowadays are less talented as older ones. Have you ever heard Avenged Sevenfold's guitarist, Synyster Gates? That guy is amazing. Like, seriously. The speed at which he can play is amazing. And he does a lot of alternate picking as opposed to legato playing. If you want proof, listen to the solos in Beast and the Harlot, Afterlife, and Scream. Oh yeah, and their old drummer, the Rev was really good too. They have serious talent.

[Chris95]

I feel like this is much more noticeable because newer mainstream music seems to not really have the "band" element. It's mostly artists with fucking electronically created music.

[CrazierCaptDice]

Music is no longer really about talent.

It's about the marketability of it.

Justin Beiber is a success because he appealed to alot of people.
The albums sold like wildfire because enough people were being catered too.
Music is about catering to the people who like a certain thing, to make alot of money,
it's not about making any kind of leaps and jumps in a genre, or making a song with a actual important message anymore.

[Rina]

It's funny because people seem to only know like 10 names from people back in the days, but where are the rest of these great musical talents that everyone is saying are so much better than today's? They're forgotten because they were just as mediocre as some of the people of today are. People like Rihanna are probably not gonna be remembered in a few decades.

There are a lot of great artists out there. And then there are a lot of them that aren't great. Music doesn't have to have a message all the time, some of it is fun, and that's why certain things are popular right now.

[Sugaree]

It's funny because people seem to only know like 10 names from people back in the days, but where are the rest of these great musical talents that everyone is saying are so much better than today's? They're forgotten because they were just as mediocre as some of the people of today are. People like Rihanna are probably not gonna be remembered in a few decades.

There are a lot of great artists out there. And then there are a lot of them that aren't great. Music doesn't have to have a message all the time, some of it is fun, and that's why certain things are popular right now.

Exactly. I don't get this bullshit on how music HAS to have a message. I just want to listen to something fun sometimes, not have an intellectual masturbatory session to it.

[RebelHeart]

I think it's a combination of taste and what's to offer.

Let's say you only like 1 genre, of the total 10 to choose from. As long as there is only that one genre, artists are talented in your eyes, after all, you like 100% of the music being produced
as soon as the other 9 genres get mixed up, only 10% is good music, and so it seems like the amound of talent has been dropped because 90% of the music sucks, instead of the usual 0%.

Same happened before the time People like Elvis came around.
The older generation was used to the classic, calm, ballad music with a great melody (I love those kind of songs). But the more rock-styled music, that is disgusted. It doesn't have the calm atmosphere, it doesn't have the beatiful melody, so it is crappy music.

In 10-20 years, the same might happen to dubstep, the youth of these days who listen to dubstep, won't be able to imagine why the kids of those days like the music that is around by then.

personally, I love the older music, Queen, Bon Jovi, MJ, you name it.
But I also like some of the newer music. I love Rise Against, Skillet, but also bands like Sleeping with Sirens or artists like Manafest. The song 'Somebody that I used to know' by Gotye is also one of my favorite songs, it is one of the few songs with which I believed it was from the 80's while it was from the modern days.

[Human]

The talent is still here, it's just that you probably only listen to mainstream music.

[ImCoolBeans]

I've found that people who say that there is a lack of talent these days are usually pretty closed minded when it comes to music taste and have a very elitist mindset about their taste -- which usually means that they aren't right :P Saying there is a decline of talent is absurd; if anything there is more talent today than ever. In fact, there is so much talent out there that you should almost be ashamed to say that you can't find music by talented musicians.

Also... If you don't particularly like something yourself, that doesn't discredit somebody's talent.

If you think there is such a lack of talented musicians in this era then listen to music by John Frusciante (anything he's ever associated himself with, Brandi Carlile, The Mars Volta, Conor Oberst, The Strokes... Seriously some of the most talented musicians I know of.


Same happened before the time People like Elvis came around.
The older generation was used to the classic, calm, ballad music with a great melody (I love those kind of songs). But the more rock-styled music, that is disgusted. It doesn't have the calm atmosphere, it doesn't have the beatiful melody, so it is crappy music.

In 10-20 years, the same might happen to dubstep, the youth of these days who listen to dubstep, won't be able to imagine why the kids of those days like the music that is around by then.


This is a great point as well, I'm glad you mentioned it. Music tastes and genres change between generations, you can't expect it to be constant and flat lined, that's just unrealistic. Not everybody is going to love everything, but again, like I said, that doesn't discredit a person's talent.

[Chris95]

I've found that people who say that there is a lack of talent these days are usually pretty closed minded when it comes to music taste and have a very elitist mindset about their taste -- which usually means that they aren't right :P Saying there is a decline of talent is absurd; if anything there is more talent today than ever. In fact, there is so much talent out there that you should almost be ashamed to say that you can't find music by talented musicians.

Also... If you don't particularly like something yourself, that doesn't discredit somebody's talent.

If you think there is such a lack of talented musicians in this era then listen to music by John Frusciante (anything he's ever associated himself with, Brandi Carlile, The Mars Volta, Conor Oberst, The Strokes... Seriously some of the most talented musicians I know of.



This is a great point as well, I'm glad you mentioned it. Music tastes and genres change between generations, you can't expect it to be constant and flat lined, that's just unrealistic. Not everybody is going to love everything, but again, like I said, that doesn't discredit a person's talent.

I agree with basically everything you said. I think people might get the impression that there's a decline in talent because the music that's "mainstream" these days, for the most part, is autotuned to death with backing music created on a computer, which in the end gives the impression that not a whole lot of raw talent is involved.