Music Has Never Been Getting Worse
by Mia Bisono, Contributor
Illustration by Sylvia Cottrell
Sometimes it seems impossible to find new, interesting music in the modern media landscape. Most recommendations for new music are left up to the discretion of one of a few dysfunctional algorithms, or, even worse, an “aux friend.” No matter how reliable these sources have previously been, sometimes the algorithms get changed. Worse still, sometimes your “aux friend” gets on a niche internet rage music kick and you really just don’t care for it but he won’t stop pressing you to listen to OsamaSon or A1 Billionaire or something. Sometimes you just get really unlucky and get stuck with nothing new for a while.
Though there are many responses to this stagnancy, one has historically been particularly loud: there is always some camp of people claiming things used to be better than they are now. It’s classic, baseless nostalgia, ignoring the truth of the time they hold on a pedestal; often, the new music experience was worse back then. With no random chance in the equation or infinite options at your fingertips, knowledge fell upon a select few who had the time and resources to know things. Knowing underground music was more a matter of your devotion to cataloging and appreciating an art form. The tragic effect of that level of commitment being required for old music communities is that groups of musicheads became much more self-contained and actively elitist.
Nowadays, people will get snippy online about tastes and opinions, but that doesn’t stop you from lurking in forums and finding music without interacting with those people. Old music communities had a sizable barrier to entry, hiding behind at least a deck and a few records—at most a full sound system and a whole library. Such a closed system (and lack of self-awareness) essentially streamlined the formation of group social dynamics at an extreme rate, creating the bedrock of elitism that permeates even in modern music discussion. I’m firmly of the belief that this is the basis of the white-man-play-guitar-opinion-inflation phenomenon.
Granted, it would be disingenuous to present all pre-internet music fans as vicious gatekeepers. There always existed a plethora of people who were eager to share their knowledge to the interested, especially record store owners or experts in analog media. The community of musicians outside of the mainstream would surely not exist without the vendors who lovingly support the craft. The issue arises in those who lay claim to their favorite works as “masterful” and find it acceptable to aggress those who dissent.
The reality of the “Music Is Getting Worse” argument is that those who push it are elitist types at their core. It's not hard to draw parallels between the rhetoric of music nostalgia and prolific conservative dogwhistles of such infamy as “think of the children,” “states’ rights,” and, of course, “the good old days”. The people who look at modern electronic music and claim acoustic instruments have always been better exist in the same role as people in the 1990s who heard rap and thought we ought to go back to the classic styles of rock ‘n’ roll, ignoring how they would’ve written off that very genre had they been around at its genesis in the 1950’s…so on and so forth. It’s a conservative argument at its core, and, in tandem, it platforms the same racist subtext.
The most annoying part of this all is that elitists seem to have some pretty solid evidence in the form of soulless, corporate pop and streaming service inadequacy—their response is simply misplaced. It never fails to baffle me how someone with a wealth of knowledge can perceive the collective bank as drying up and not instinctively move to contribute. It’s proof that within these people is a deep self consciousness that drives their emotions. There is no actual care for their medium in their words, just their own self-importance. Look at what I know that you don't.
I speak from my own experience on this issue, as a recovering elitist. Honestly, I’m so sorry. The intention behind my elitism was simply to gain attention; I wanted to be recognized as knowledgeable, failing to see that the reality of sharing music is that logical knowledge is nowhere near as important as the emotional qualities of the art. Music is important on a level that those who negatively discourse about it could never hope to achieve. Ranking albums as the greatest of all time will never have the same weight as when I first cried to an album shared with me by someone I deeply loved.
Viable methods of creating music have drastically expanded in the modern age, a culture outpacing those who become stuck within it and defined by it. Your unique taste in music is something to explore. Music hasn’t gotten worse, but the voices who speak about it have.
