Has people's taste in music compressed over the years?

I'm curious to know whether people's taste and knowledge about different kinds of music has broadened or compressed in the last 10, 25 and 50 years.

10 Years because of the natural effect the internet has had. Without thinking I'd say the internet has broadened things, but at the same time I know people like xhuxk complain that end of the year ballots have gotten lazier and less diverse, and though people might now know more than ever about rock and pop subgenres that might be offset by decreasing interest in jazz, country, classical et al. There's also the issue of pop culture and music becoming such an inescapable behemoth over the last few decades -- and the influence of game-changing mediums like MTV -- and that must have had a certain compression effect on what people listen to and had a negative effect on non-pop or music that was only popular in certain enclaves, right?

Kind of a 'Big Question' but I know a lot of you can offer a good discussion and insight.

veiled ageist question leads to veiled ageist answers (mixed with the usual contrarianism)

In general, the very fact that technological progress over the last 50 years has lead to a greater variety music being accessible to more people would lead me to believe that tastes have broadened. I mean, one can go deeper into a particular genre at the expense of others,

IDK about less diversity in the year-end polls. I mean, these days you can have an electronic duo, a singer-songwriter, a four-piece garage-rock band, a female rapper, and a 10-piece ensemble, and they're all making the same lists. That's pretty damn broad, as far as Western music goes. What does that mean for specific genres? From consensus on this board and elsewhere, there hasn't been much jazz or country worth paying attention to since the 1970s. The notable stuff that came before is all canon now, is mostly still in print, and is pretty easy to find out about. Hell, thanks to the Internet and MP3s, everything is accessible to anybody who cares to find out.

Not sure whether it's due to the fact that I'm getting older, but I don't know anybody these days who says, "I listen to (punk/indie/hiphop/metal) and nothing else." I know some people who listen to nothing but Top 40 radio, but would treat them as an exception because in general, they're not very passionate about music.

used to be, i dunno, what?, 20/30 years ago?, as an indie-centric listener, i was told what to hear to by a few big voices. spin, rolling stone, the voice/p&j, option, forced exposure/your flesh, kcmu, etc. some of these voices were generic, impersonal, "corporate", but others were more eccentric, dominated by the fluctuating tastes of this or that pundit. in general, i suppose, i was exposed to a wide range of stuff that i supposedly ought to find fascinating, according to so-and-so. i don't see how things are all that different nowadays. no matter how narrow the range of offerings promoted by any given mouthpiece might seem, there's always someone else pushing some other thing, over there in the margins. whatever corner of the musical universe you might want to dig around in, you'll find your guides and champions. from what i can see, "serious music fans" listen to at least as broad a cross-section of what's available as they ever did, perhaps more so, due to the internet's bottomless pockets.

are the people submitting end of year ballots representative of the general population? are you asking about music critics, "serious music fans" or average people?

Has any old fucktard's ability to become a "music critic" increased over the years?

From consensus on this board and elsewhere, there hasn't been much jazz or country worth paying attention to since the 1970s.

Those thousands of posts on the Rolling Country threads must all be about Willie Nelson reissues then.

My personal taste has broadened hugely, and the internet has facilitated this but is not the cause.

I think the general public's taste is wider than ever before, but the same way, the stuff that dominates the singles hitlists seems to be more similar sounding.

I mean, I like today's hitlist pop better than I have done in more than 20 years, but even if it sounds 80s like in a fascinating way, it becomes a bit weary when everything sounds exactly alike, like everyone wants to sound exactly like Lady Gaga.

From consensus on this board and elsewhere, there hasn't been much jazz or country worth paying attention to since the 1970s.

According to most people on this board, there hasn't been much guitar based white indie rock worth paying attention to since the late 80s either. But the music press tends to disagree....

I like more music but love less.

Has people's tastes in ILM threads compressed over the years?

Compression is a real problem these days, you know.

In general people's tastes are greatly expanded from over 10 years ago. It may still be common that some people only buy one or two albums a year, but a lot more of those people have a lot more on their iPods and PMPs. Some, however, do restrict themselves with their portable devices. I have more than a couple friends who decline to check out something I'm offering to them because they don't have room on their iPod. FFS, that's what $60 1TB drives are for! Apple iTunes' crackpot system of synching iPods and the difficulty of loading up music from other sources seems to be a bottleneck for some.

"According to most people on this board, there hasn't been much guitar based white indie rock worth paying attention to since the late 80s either."

There is no such thing as "white" tradition or "black" tradition. Forget about skin colour. Skin colour isn't important.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, April 22, 2003 12:15 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

also, that's just nonsense--thousands of posts per day are devoted to contemporary indie, or nineties indie (yeah, this board hates pavement & superchunk & tful & yo la tengo all those other white guitar-based indie bands that were/are H-U-G-E.)

Unless you're going to back up some statements with survey numbers or other empircal evidence, it's all just your gut feeling. And the members of this board (and their friends, who often share their musical interests) are hardly representative of the world at large.

My gut feeling is that the internet has, indeed, made musical omnivores of a large percentage of people under 25, but that the populations music consumption overall hasn't changed or expanded, with most "regular" people buying just a few CDs or iTunes albums per year.

But I have no evidence for that, just a feeling based on things I've read in the mainstream press.

"According to most people on this board, there hasn't been much guitar based white indie rock worth paying attention to since the late 80s either."

There is no such thing as "white" tradition or "black" tradition. Forget about skin colour. Skin colour isn't important.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, April 22, 2003 12:15 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It isn't important to me, but it appears to be important for way too many people on this board, who often write off an indie band just because they (or, more typically, their influences) are all white.

My music taste has broadened over the last ten years and over the last five years (but yeah try searching thread titles 'I hate more rock music than you and I think you suck'). I hate college rock/radio rock more but that's only because I think that this sort of music has been in various statess of decline since the 90's but maybe I'm blinded because I've seen a greater influx of music over the years (and have greater access to music) meaning that I'm noticing a greater amount of bad music.

Geir is trollin', but I love me some white boy indie rock during the 90s (also throw in bands like The Black Keys - white boys can still throw down)

My music taste has decompressed slightly. I'm more open to punk, metal, noise, country, classical but I usually prefer indie variations (e.g. alt-rock with some punk or metal in it)

sometimes i feel myself pretty overwhelmed by the amount of good music out there and i feel the urge to just completely shift my listening focus to a few genres rather than what i've been doing for a few years now which is trying to take in everything i can. i don't really buy much music anymore, maybe for reasons beyond just not wanting to drop all of my money on it. occasionally i get the urge to compress my taste in music but i wouldn't even know what to leave out. it just seems like there's little time for everyone and i can only scratch the surface if i try spend time with all genres rather than digging deep into a small handful.

Maybe you can single-handedly bring back the genre wars! Metal! No, rock! No, hip-hop! Down with dilletantists!

And at least pay for the music you really like and take off that eye-patch! ;-)

http://www.trespassmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/momus.jpg

music Has compressed over the years people's taste in

fix'd

jumpskins OTM :)