Top 40 music

[Knightmare]

I CANNOT listen to the radio anymore. Most of the music on there is absolute junk. Generic, overplayed, over-produced crap! Everyone sounds the same.
Where is the originality? Where is the soul?
I'm not just talking about Spears, Simpson and Aguilera. Even the so called alternative rock bands sound the same.
I was in car today with my stepson. A song came on that he loves. I asked "Isn't this so-and-so?" Nope. It was some other band that sounds just like them.

I think I've figured it out. When we were kids, we had time to listen to music. We didn't have bills to pay, to go to work, all these other obligations one must do when they reach adulthood.

So when I get in the car, it's either on the talk radio station (not boring liberal/conservative talk. Entertaining talk) or I have my CDs playing.

"Oh, God, not that hippie music again!" my son said to me one day.
THE BEATLES WEREN'T HIPPIES! LOL.

*They were before my time, but I LOVE the Beatles*

[AFPheonix]

This is why I listen to NPR most of the time. When they do have music on late at night, it's usually fun world music, or something that you otherwise wouldn't hear anywhere else.

That, and Car Talk and Wait, Wait rock my world.

[ArenaBoy]

And that is why I haven't listened to FM radio in 6 years, I have been listening to XM though which is quite nice. I also started exploring other genres but my main taste will be alternative, the good stuff not the stuff that Knightmare mentioned. Today's music is relatively crap also but I am however a huge White Stripes fan and Audioslave fan.

Working Fall Out Boy made me realize how bad alternative music has become, half the songs that were played in cars sounded the same, and add that up with local alternative radio station booth blasting the same music where all I heard was distorted guitar and high pitched screaming vocals. I grew up on alternative and it always sounded different, now it's all the same sadly. The thing with alternative was, everything sounded different.

Knightmare, I went through that with some of my friends. They hated the music I always listened to. For now, give me my Sonic Youth, Beck, and Flaming Lips and I'm happy.

[ditchdj]

I'm not just talking about Spears, Simpson and Aguilera. Even the so called alternative rock bands sound the same.

Funny you should mention that. Last year when I lived in Indy there was this retarded Top 40 station bragging about playing the "Music of Now" in all formats, including pop, hip-hop and alternative. But it all pretty much sounds the same.

[digilight]

I've been noticing that to. I hate most of the new music with the exception of some of the new metal and new country. I haven't added to my CD collection since about 1999 or 2000 and I'm begining to feel more like my dad in that aspect. I am, however, trying to raise my kids to enjoy a wide variety of music, everything from jazz, big band and swing, classic rock, metal, all the stuff I call good, LOL.

[rahmota]

I havent really payed that much attention or noticed this as the seek button is my friend and the CD my weapon of choice against boredom. Fortunately by having such a wide variety of musical likes I can usually find something.
But now that you mention it and clicking a few of the songs I have handy they do sound quite a bit similar. Oh well its all part of the I'm so alternative and different attitude that the herd goes through right now.

"Commercialized, homogenized, I've heard that song before....."

[Greenday]

I can't stand it either. All this new music coming out sounds the same. I mean, the music I listen to is bands like Green Day, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, etc. Bands that were quite original with their music. But these female artists/Justin Timberlake, or these alternative bands. I can't tell one from another. It's all crap. I'll stick to my AC/DC and Black Sabbath.

[ShockQueen]

I'm not too sure about the whole "alternative" scene these days, since during the "new wave" movement, the great ones really had an energy to them that just made you feel great! There were many years where I told people that your music collection was NOT complete unless you had:
Nina Hagen
Lene Lovich
Siouxsie and the Banshees
The Cure
The Smiths
(oh heck....and throw some Propaganda in there too - the ORIGINAL lineup!)

I haven't heard anything that really grabbed my ear in some time, although I have gotten into more foreign music, such as In-Grid and Blumchen. To me....heck with the Top 40....give me everything BELOW that line.

[protege]

Ever since Clear Channel gobbled up most of Pittsburgh's larger stations...I rarely listen to the radio. It's the iPod or cds for me. Why? Well, nearly all the stations play *exactly* the same tunes each day. Some days, you can hear the same song multiple times a day! It sucks!

[Ryu]

clear channel is awful
both on the radio and trying to destroy concert venues

[Dreamstalker]

Ugh, yeah. I seem to recall Clear Channel took over KSFR a few years ago; they used to play a lot of awesome indie stuff. Now it just sounds like every other station out there.

[protege]

A similar thing happened here...CC took over 104.7 (The Beat), which would play songs you wouldn't hear anywhere else...and made it into yet another talk radio station, and then turned a few of their other stations into clones of each other.

[ditchdj]

That's why I love satellite radio. I have Sirius and I swear by it. One day I decided to listen to the alternative/retro, hip-hop, and country channels. They ALL have a much more diversified playlist and have much more to offer. Even the Sirius Hits channel is more diversified and has a broader playlist.

[Gawdzillers]

I listen to XM Radio.
Hair band goodness, heavy-hitting metal, interesting modern alternative, classic hip-hop, original blues, jazz, bluegrass, and comedy all in one little pod.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I'm not saying it's a generational thing, so don't take that away from what I'm about to say...

But to me, everything that my PARENTS (61 and 56) listen to sounds exactly the same. My mom gets me to download songs for her and I have to get her to come tell me if I've gotten the right songs because I can't tell. Yes, that includes the Beatles!

My sister listened to hair bands throughout my childhood...Poison, Def Leppard, Warrant, etc. I can, with some difficulty, tell them apart, only due to the forced indoctrination that came from sharing a room with her during my early years (and the fact that I've just flat out memorized some of the songs).

However, I can tell Fall Out Boy, Greenday, My Chemical Romance, etc., apart within the first three seconds of a song. I think that's just the direction my ear is inclined towards.

That being said, though, I like a little of everything, from "Hotel California" to "Angry American" to "Quien Soy Yo" to "Ridin Dirty" to "American Idiot". LOL Usually, the louder, the better, though.