do you think mainstream music is terrible?

Whichever decade I've been in, I've hated most mainstream music. As others have said, it's been made to appeal to as many people as possible so you end up with quite a weak, middle of the road production that basically uses the same instrumentation and production tricks making it sound "of the time".

What tends to happen is that the real rubbish gets forgotten about as time wears on and the truly quality stuff remains. I sometimes find I like listening to something that at the time it was released didn't appeal to me because it used the same instrumentation and similar production so I instinctively rejected it. But now I can appreciate the craft that went into it. A good example for me recently was "When Smokey Songs" by ABC. I didn't like it when it was released as superficially it sounded like the sort of music I didn't like. But actually now I appreciate the lyrics, and the clever use of or riffing on the hook from "Tears of a Clown".

I tend to like a lot of unusual stuff that has rarely been considered "mainstream" like Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, Andrew Bird and more recently Dot Wiggin (From the "outsider" band The Shags). But sadly I don't meet many people who appreciate the same music :-(

I suppose it depends on why you listen to music. If it's just a pleasant noise you put on as background music, then maybe mainstream will be your choice. But if you want something that's engaging, thought provoking, emotional or even challenging, you probably won't find that in a lot of mainstream music.

There's been the odd mainstream song that has impressed me. "Locked Out of Heaven" by Bruno Mars was pure distilled 80s rock pop, that besides the lyrics being a bit rubbish, I'm my opinion, really showed that there's still some talent out there in the mainstream.

Sadly though it seems a lot is just random buzzes and percussion with some woman saying things like "Yeah look at my butt, mmhmm look at my butt" (honestly I did see someone show that on a YouTube channel once to show how far pop music has deteriorated).

 

I used to like a bit of popular music in the 2000’s and earlier 10’s but more recently I tend to dislike what’s trendy nowadays. Tunes are becoming less interesting to me and I find myself pretty much exclusively listening to older songs.

 

I don't think it's terrible, I can appreciate artists of basically every genre.
It's just that I find less hidden gems in mainstream music.

 

Mainstream music these days sounds like one long, repetitive song, with few variations, imho.

 

Honestly, I find myself not being able to vibe with a lot of newer mainstream music...usually because I think the lyrics are trite/repetitive, vocals sound off, or the music is too loud. I try to take it on a song by song basis...but there is just a lot of newer songs I hear on the radio that don't vibe with me or they just make me wince...that's just me though. I'm very picky on the type of music I like to listen to. For example, I love a lot of newer music that comes out of Japan, particularly anything produced by Hiroyuki Sawano. I love his music, I love the sounds of chords he uses, and how it just sounds really pleasing to the ear. In my opinion, his music is some of the best music out there. But it really depends. I don't hate all the newer music that comes out over here in the west (United States) but there's a great majority of it I end up disliking for some reason or another. Just my two cents.

 

I like the blues, so yes, not a fan of modern music

 

You nailed it in so many ways. Your answer reminds me of r/genx, where the top pastime seems to be dissecting why commercial music today sounds more or less like what we grew up with (but less compelling, because fewer people can actually play instruments ?) - and why the emergence of new genres has nearly stopped (except maybe for trap, and that's already gone stale ?)

I too have never used a streaming service, and I recently started collecting vinyl LPs again, after having thrown my whole collection away ...

As far as "mainstream" music, well pretty much everything that once prided itself on being experimental became mainstream a generation ago. The only genre that still makes me feel edgy is *shoegaze* - it's become my favorite genre of them all.