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Comment by mynameishere | Hacker News Reader

The fact that 100s of years of art and music are available, but people still gravitate towards whatever is being promoted--typically something recent and inferior. This is partly a function of marketing, partly of herding--both poor selectors of quality.

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I went to a music camp years ago and had the chance to get a drive home from one of the instructors. He was really old and classically trained and I liked him b/c he taught an awesome class on odd time signatures.

Anyway, on the drive he asked what kind of music I liked and I said that I didn't like most contemporary music because so much of it was based on rip-offs of stuff that had already been done.

"Do you think classical composers are any different?"

That really annoyed me at the time but I totally understand and appreciate it now. As more things change, etc.

Personally, I'm offended by the popularity of "Classic Rock" and the fact that marketing channels have broken down to the point where there's no connection between great music being made today and many listeners.

I grew up listening to "Classic Rock" in the 1980s, and it took years for me to realize that this had deprived me of the authentic music of my youth... It was the music of somebody else's youth, which makes it all the more dangerous and seductive. It appeals to geezers who were listening to it when it was new, and it still appeals to new generations of young people.

Classic rock dominates the airwaves in my locale; other than NPR, I find everything else unlistenable [there was ~one~ good urban music station a long time ago, but it's owned by Clear Channel and quit playing anything good rather abruptly after 9/11]

The situation has many dimensions (for instance, any credible 'new' rock has to make a rapprochement with punk) but the thing I hate the most is hearing the same doobie brothers song on the radio driving into work and driving home. I'll listen to NPR or a Shonen Knife or Red Red Groovy disc, but I feel bad for all the boomers who can't escape the gravity of 1968.

Do you by any chance live in New England? I recently traveled there and in several hours of driving over two weeks, could not locate more than one or two radio stations (per area) that did not play classic rock. I completely share your frustrations.

I grew up in New England and I'm still in the Northeast.

Yeah I have 2 (probably more) Clear Channel stations in my city and I can drive clear across town without hearing anything but ads and a dj talking. Then they proudly claim 50 minutes of (insert music type). Yet I just drove 20 minutes without a single song, and it happens all the time.

It seems worth investing in a station to replace these. (anyone have a good source on how to start one?)

I'd recommend streaming 89.3 The Current from Minnesota Public Radio.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/the_current/

It's fully independent music radio station that's publicly funded. They don't play commercials, and they play a wide variety of known and unknown music. I first discovered it when I moved up here (the Twin Cities) away from the Clear Channel dominated airwaves and I haven't turned back since.

Couldn't agree more. I discovered 89.3 when going to school in the cities. Now, even though I no longer live in the area, I stream them online almost every day.

Milwaukee's got what sounds like a similar station: http://radiomilwaukee.org

Broadcasts at 88.9 FM in the city and streaming at the site.

And 100, 200 or 300 years ago, some people were undoubtedly saying the same. It might be intellectually trendy to slam modern things, but it doesn't necessary make such criticisms universally true.

I didn't see a criticism of modern things per se. The argument was that people are flocking to things based on poor evidence of quality, like advertising and lists of the latest things, rather than finding good stuff regardless of when it was produced.

I don't care much if other people like bad things, but it irritates me when societal structures don't exist to allow me to enjoy the good things properly.

For example, the other day I was listening to my opera channel on pandora, and because pandora has horrible displays for opera music, I could not figure out what aria I was hearing, and spent close to two hours trying to figure out what it was. ID3 is totally unsuitable for anything besides pop music.

Things that were made in a different day and age will generally take more effort to understand or get into, though. It's easier to pick up what's already all around. I'm not saying it's better, but that's how it goes.

The biggest problem that I have with most pop music right now, is that so much of it is incredibly simplistic. I have no problem with simple music, but it never feels deliberate. It feels formulaic. I hear no artistry in most of it. That being said, there are a fair number of groups that I actually do enjoy.

Does anyone else here listen to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q50xzhDO9lI

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