the type of ignorant, defeatist attitude so prevalent in this thread is one that annoys me on many, many levels.
first of all, the logic in this thread seems to dictate that if the quality of Clear Channel radio goes downhill, the quality of music overall goes downhill also. i fail to see how that makes any sense whatsoever. yes, radio has become steadily worse over the years, as it becomes more homogenized and commercialized with certain conglomerates owning and hence controlling the output of virtually all media. payola, advertising, promotion, etc - money. money and its tightening grip on everything that exists is the problem. not the quality of the music scene. to think it is the latter is merely ignorant and illogical.
there are too many amazing albums being released for me to listen to, at the moment. the fact that very very very few current acts have actually been named in this thread leads me to suspect that virtually noone in this thread has even bothered to look for any new music. if you wait for music to be spoonfed to you while you sit there on your ***, of course you won't find anything. even just restricting it to this year, let alone the last few years or even the last decade as some nut suggested - a.c. newman, devendra banhart, guided by voices, wilco, sonic youth, of montreal, xiu xiu, tv on the radio, iron & wine, les savy fav, the polyphonic spree, !!!, the animal collective, deerhoof, mountain goats, french kicks, ratatat, modest mouse, sufjan stevens, magnetic fields, morrissey, gomez, john frusciante (guitarist in the red hot chili peppers), the beta band, stereolab, the walkmen, franz ferdinand, the liars, the secret machines, mission of burma, and the one am radio have all released lovely albums this year. and it's only july. how many of them have you guys heard? or have you just been listening to old stones records all year? and that list is even excluding hip hop (madvillain, blockhead...), jazz (brad mehldau...) and electronic music (mouse on mars...).
this inability or refusal to look beyond radio also reflects in some of the hilariously cliched comments on rap music. here's a tip, slick - most "fads" don't last three decades. i think people gave up dismissing rap as a "fad" in about 1992. the fact that some people are still persisting is hilarious (when's this whole punk fad going to die out then?). you guys are judging a gigantic, multi-faceted genre based upon about 0.000001% of what has been produced. how would you like it if some kid heard a Good Charlotte single on the radio and chose to take their crumminess as an indicator of the quality of Highway 61 Revisited or Revolver? or if someone heard Kenny * on the radio and chose to take that as an indicator of the quality of Headhunters or The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady? Because that's basically the equivalent of what you're doing. open your minds and listen to some Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox, Mos Def, De La Soul, RJD2, Public Enemy, Aceyalone, Organized Konfusion, Atmosphere, Eyedea, Sage Francis or something.
the internet has provided more facility to discover new music than ever before. why you guys are chosing to ignore it completely is just baffling to me.
