Why do new albums not hold up over time compared to 'classic' albums?

[ar surround]

I have bought a number of recent (using the term loosely) recordings by classic rock acts from bygone years. While I consider these new efforts to be very good, I find that I'm done with them after a few listens and revert to listening to their 'classic' recordings. This is despite higher sound quality of the new recordings, Atmos, etc. I can speculate that the reasons for this could be:

1) Old Fart Syndrome: New material just doesn't stick in the brain anymore.*
2) Newness wears off: There is a degree of infatuation because it is new material from a beloved act; but it fades rather quickly.
3) The new stuff simply isn't as good as the old stuff: The artist's creative peak is long gone...along with his / her singing ability.
4) I spend too much time writing this sort of crap on this forum rather than going back to listen to the stuff.

Thoughts?


* I once read that people are done with new music once they turn 39. Hmmmmmm. That was a loooooooooong time ago.

 

[Marplot]

* I once read that people are done with new music once they turn 39. Hmmmmmm. That was a loooooooooong time ago.
based on the number of artists in heavy rotation the last decade plus I can say that isn't true.

Don't forget the nostalgia, listening to Colour My World for 50 years is going to have more emotional content than 12 months of Born For This Moment, no matter if it is better or not. (it isn't)

 

[IMachine]

I always search for new good music.
Once a year I have the luck to find something, that I really like.
Sometimes it's an old record that I have not heard, like the Album "The Politics Of Dancing" from Re-Flex.
So, not always a "new" release but for me it is.
I looooove Genesis (my favorite) and I listen to all PG and PC albums.
The last new record that I really enjoy is "Wired Ways".
So to conclude: Everything is possible.

 

[ar surround]

I always search for new good music.
Once a year I have the luck to find something, that I really like.
Sometimes it's an old record that I have not heard, like the Album "The Politics Of Dancing" from Re-Flex.
So, not always a "new" release but for me it is.
I looooove Genesis (my favorite) and I listen to all PG and PC albums.
The last new record that I really enjoy is "Wired Ways".
So to conclude: Everything is possible.

I'm not speaking about finding new good music. A member here introduced me to the Fleet Foxes Shore album and I really like it. I also like The Golden Bonana. I'll give you a specific example. I really like The Zealot Gene, but it just doesn't pop into my head as a Tull album that I should listen to when I'm thinking about listening to one. And sitting here, I cannot for the life of me name a song on the album or think of a tune that's on it.

 

[Marplot]

That's easy, The Zealot Gene isn't as good which makes it less memorable in general.
Now listen to it a few times a year for as many as you have heard Aqualung and your inability to recall anything will change.

 

[JohnN]

That's easy, The Zealot Gene isn't as good which makes it less memorable in general.
Now listen to it a few times a year for as many as you have heard Aqualung and your inability to recall anything will change.

Problem now is I'm really noticing the weak vocal on Ian Anderson's later solo albums. Did not bother me as much before. The new ruining the old.


THIS:
4) I spend too much time writing this sort of crap on this forum rather than going back to listen to the stuff.

 

[4-earredwonder]

I once poised the question "Have ALL the great melodies been written ...????" meaning nothing recently has struck me as being memorable like say Unchained Melody or You, Lost That Lovin' Feeling and nothing in recent memory have replaced the Beatles, Old Stones, Led Zep, classic Elton John, The Moody Blues, CSNY, Joni Mitchell, The Doobies, Eagles, MOTOWN, Springsteen, Michael Jackson and I could go on and on [insert YOUR favorites]!



Am currently spinning [and Don't LAUGH] two GRAMMY AWARD compilations from 2013 and 2015 and usually buy new ones every year and they are catchy and extremely well recorded but usually represent one hit wonders from those periods. And when I watch those late night talk shows flipping between Colbert, Fallon and Kimmel I sometimes wince at the blandness of the performances. Of course there are always exceptions like young 21 year old jazz ingenue Samara Joy on Fallon recently .... she KILLED it ...... a young Ella Fitzgerald in the making??????

Yep, the 60's, 70's and even early 80's produced some CLASSIC music across ALL genres but what happened? It just seems classic 'riffs' are being regurgitated ad nauseum because the musicians just seem uninspired. It's probably unfair to call ALL new music bland/boring .......because we of course haven't heard it all.

And I once even surmised that there are artists out there who have written some amaing music but failed to score a recording contract and their musical output remains locked up on their computers, tape machines and WILL NEVER BE HEARD.

Will there ever be a new renaissance in music harking back to the ole days? Never say NEVER!

 

[gene_stl]

I like the "39 year old" angle except I disagree slightly with it. Namely I think that your favorite music is what you heard as an adolescent, danced to, chased girlz (or boyz) too. In my particular case that all that ended about 1970. Perhaps the Kent State and Altamont tragedies influenced me but I was mostly done with Rock and Roll. So for me it wasn't 39 , it was more like 20.

I went to a LOT of Grateful Dead concerts. When I buy GD discs I try to limit myself to the early 70s even though they played for much longer.
I do the same with the Who (mostly)

I have been extending the timeline ocassionally to get BluRays and Atmos discs.
But I am mainly a classical music fuddy duddy.

When I read posts here and some other places and see how people are enjoying themselves I wish I did not feel this way, but attempts to listen to more modern rock and roll usually fail for me.

 

[timothyemerson]

Yeah, tons of factors at play here. One of the main ones is just that music is just plain hard.

Playing something to performance standard is incredibly difficult for most people. Now imagine writing and performing something new that people want to hear again and again, over and over for decades. That really narrows things down to a fraction of what is actually produced.

 

[JohnN]

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-52131818
I have been changing my USB mixed tracks more than ever.

 

[gene_stl]

Yeah, tons of factors at play here. One of the main ones is just that music is just plain hard.

Playing something to performance standard is incredibly difficult for most people. Now imagine writing and performing something new that people want to hear again and again, over and over for decades. That really narrows things down to a fraction of what is actually produced.

The thing that really made this clear to me: The whole reason I got into the audio hobby in the first place, was to clarify the sound of what Eric Clapton was doing, on his fingerboard.

After Blind Faith broke up, I kept listening to him. Derek and the Dominoes came to St. Louis, and I attended. Compared to Blind Faith and Cream they sucked. (edit: I actually bought and then got rid of the Derek and the Dominoes LP. I did that with a lot of LPs the list of which I would be embarassed to share)

A similarly aged friend of mine pointed out that doing what he did during Cream and Blind Faith probalby required an intensity that he could not or would not maintain. How are you gonna top the guitar solo on "Crossroads"?? He was much younger at that time.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Yeah, tons of factors at play here. One of the main ones is just that music is just plain hard.

Playing something to performance standard is incredibly difficult for most people. Now imagine writing and performing something new that people want to hear again and again, over and over for decades. That really narrows things down to a fraction of what is actually produced.

And that's why we equally divide out time between classic ROCK and Classic CINEMA, Pete ......although a lot of the current movies are MARVEL...not MARVELOUS!

 

[gene_stl]

I find the comparison of classic rock and classic cinema to be pretty good. A lot of the movies today suck too. CGI makes it possible to visualize things but you can always tell its CGI. They have no actors with the gravitas of the Hollywood immortals and also no directors and producers equal to the old geniuses.

Peter Jackson comes close. But when watching his Tolkien movies I always want to get out some video editing software and cut out the added bullshit and the deviations from the original writing.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I have bought a number of recent (using the term loosely) recordings by classic rock acts from bygone years. While I consider these new efforts to be very good, I find that I'm done with them after a few listens and revert to listening to their 'classic' recordings. This is despite higher sound quality of the new recordings, Atmos, etc.

Like a lot of the other posts here I probably misinterpreted the above being: why isn't new music as good as old music? But more specifically why is the new music of our beloved classic performers not as enticing?

That's happened to me as well. I dropped off listening to J Tull after his "A" album. It just seemed so dry to me & I can't remember any of the lyrics tho I know most of Thick as a Brick by heart. And Zappa's Apostrophe is a new Zappa album to me & I tuned out after that. I loved the early psychedelic sounds of The Grateful Dead. Tuned out after Working Mans Dead.

I think it's tough for a performer in the long run after initial success. They are in an almost lose/lose situation. Should they stay true to their roots their fans will say;" their playing the same old stuff. They need to try something new." If they try something new then fans claim:" they aren't as good as they used to be. They've changed too much."

So both bands & their fans can both have changing attitudes as time goes by. I would be most interested in more examples of discontentment with new music from older artists.

As for the broader consideration of the generation gap with music appreciation I found this a while back. Very interesting.

https://auxiliarymemory.com/2016/03/16/cross-generational-music-appreciation/

 

[4-earredwonder]

I find the comparison of classic rock and classic cinema to be pretty good. A lot of the movies today suck too. CGI makes it possible to visualize things but you can always tell its CGI. They have no actors with the gravitas of the Hollywood immortals and also no directors and producers equal to the old geniuses.

Peter Jackson comes close. But when watching his Tolkien movies I always want to get out some video editing software and cut out the added bullshit and the deviations from the original writing.

And that's why we LOVE our classical music, Gene, listening to it BACH to BACH......And NO CGI .... Just splendid Orchestras recorded in NATURAL ACOUSTICS with no artificial sweetners!

 

[4-earredwonder]

Like a lot of the other posts here I probably misinterpreted the above being: why isn't new music as good as old music? But more specifically why is the new music of our beloved classic performers not as enticing?

That's happened to me as well. I dropped off listening to J Tull after his "A" album. It just seemed so dry to me & I can't remember any of the lyrics tho I know most of Thick as a Brick by heart. And Zappa's Apostrophe is a new Zappa album to me & I tuned out after that. I loved the early psychedelic sounds of The Grateful Dead. Tuned out after Working Mans Dead.

I think it's tough for a performer in the long run after initial success. They are in an almost lose/lose situation. Should they stay true to their roots their fans will say;" their playing the same old stuff. They need to try something new." If they try something new then fans claim:" they aren't as good as they used to be. They've changed too much."

So both bands & their fans can both have changing attitudes as time goes by. I would be most interested in more examples of discontentment with new music from older artists.

As for the broader consideration of the generation gap with music appreciation I found this a while back. Very interesting.

https://auxiliarymemory.com/2016/03/16/cross-generational-music-appreciation/

Well, SW, nothing NEW here. When the MUSE which propelled such classic music made HER exist ....all bets were off that she would EVER return! Let's be perfectly frank: ALL the classic rock bands performing today are coasting on their past triumphs. Even BILLY JOEL ADMITS HE HASN'T RELEASED A NEW ALBUM SINCE THE MID 90's and yet he's still packing Madison Square Garden performing those old hits!

And when they attempt to 'create' a new album with mostly new band members [sadly a lot are deceased] how could it in any way be the same? And sadly, again, a lot of them are suffering from extreme hearing loss or tinnitus and their voices are screechy, at best, or embellished with talented back up singers to compensate for lack of anything approaching a high note!

Which is why we dearly treasure the music of our youths when almost on a daily basis ..... the music was genius and that feminine MUSE was spreading her inspiration all over the globe. I long for those days [and MY lost youth] but regrettably it seems to be currently on hiatus. Will it return at some juncture ...... DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?

 

[gene_stl]

Another band that comes to mind is the Doors. The first three albums were great. Of course those were different times. The later ones had great songs on them too but also some meh songs. After the first three which I also bought on CD I never bought the later ones until the Perception box set appeared at Half Price books and I twisted the managers arm for a good price and she seemed happy to make a sale.

I am a great Who fan but I don't want to see them without at least John Entwhistle if not without Keith Moon. (they played the Mississippi River Festival a wonderful venue that happened at the University I just retired from) Even Daltrey makes jokes about them continuing to tour.

There are many other examples. Time lurches on, and none of us will get out of this alive. Especially not, if leading, the rock and roll life style.

 

[4-earredwonder]

But then Mick 'n the BOYZ still march on looking ALL SKELETAL and on life support [sans Charlie Watts] but still managing to pack the stadiums singing: YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT ..... BUT YOU COULD TRY!


HOW PRESCIENT!

YOU'RE ALL CORDIALLY INVITED TO OUR 100th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT AT THE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN OF EDEN!

 

[JohnN]

YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT ..... unless you have a deal with the DEVIL.
Lightning strikes is why old albums hold up.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Oh nooooooo!!!!

So if people over the age of 39 are not regularly listening too and more importantly buying new music on a disc, this kind of talk wont help us old farts in our arguments about why disc based media is so important compared to streaming