Is it just me? Or isn't really much happening in the modern music? To my ears it all sounds more or less the same or it has been done before. Valerie by Amy Winehouse is a fine song, but it is not new. It sounds like the sixties Motown. Duffy's Mercy is the same song. Looking at decades like the 60's, 70's (Zeppelin, glitter, disco, punk, ska) and even the 80's it looks as if far more was happening then. But maybe opinions differ. Please tell me I'm wrong.

I'm always weary of making these judgements. I'm aware that a) I'm getting old and I'm not in most trecord companies target market anymore and b) there's a whole raft of music I'm not aware of. I guess a certain amount of recycling is inevitable.

That's why I built in the 'is it me'- escape.

Not much happing in music scene is spot on.
Valerie was a Zutons song
Duffy is the new Lulu
And ring tones are the new pop culture for kids , anything where you have to sit and listen to is dead , 3 minutes is all you will get out of most of todays kids .
Having said that there are some great guitar bands about today , but they don`t get air play, so its just touring that makes a successful band .
Still music is not an age thing any more as you can see on here on how many young people are into The Beatles.
Class will always last and good music will go on forever      

I'm always well aware that I could end up sounding like my father, which is why I'm usually very careful of what I say about modern music, and to whom. The recent music that I like tends to sound timeless; Okkervil River, Eels, etc. Could have been recorded anytime in the last 20 years or so. Same with Counting Crows.

I'm sure we all remember our parents saying 'All that stuff sounds the same'!

I agree with you- nothing is happening in the music industry today. It has become so phony, most of their voices are probably manipulated by technology, let alone most of them have no real talent. Coming from this totally bad generation, which if I might add I'm ashamed to be born in, I don't like to even consider the music of today ,"music". It's dull, boring, and basically has been done, better before.

I saw the video for Duffy's Mercy today and i was shocked how bad it was , it's attemps to capture a Northen Soul atmospher with a bunch of  lame male dancer's  , who barley knew the moves was totally embarrassing .
Duffy as an interesting voice but a Northen Soul stomper this song is not , if your going to do a pastiche of something thats gone before give the song and the video some more thought it's a lazy piece of work , and doe's not deserve to be # 1 in the singles chart .
I grow up going to these clubs in the north of England in  the late 70's and early 80's , when Northen Soul was popular and i can tell you it was nothing like this garbage.

I think the lull going on in the industry right now is probably one of the reasons why the Beatles are suddenly extremely popular again. It goes in phases. Somethings gotta happen to shake things up soon. Like Punk or Grunge did. Or like the Beatles did! I mean, how dull must it have been in the pre-Beatles days when people like Frankie Avalon and Fabian ruled the charts? Not too different from today's mess really.

Quoted from Bobber

Is it just me? Or isn't really much happening in the modern music? To my ears it all sounds more or less the same or it has been done before.

What strikes me is the extent to which pop music is still playing out ideas which were first heard forty years ago in the sixties. I'm not complaining about that; in fact I rather enjoy it (Amy Winehouse being a good example). All the same, I don't imagine that a lot of kids in the sixties were listening to music from the twenties- except maybe via a couple of Paul McCartney's songs- and that says something about the difference between then and now; the sixties being more intensely about right now.

I agree with Sandra - lulls are good. They normally prefigure the next big thing - there was one before The Beatles, punk, Grunge and Britpop. (and I guess Hip Hop, Dance and Garage, though outside my field). And the thing they always seem to have in common is that they produce something that "the kids" feel they can do themselves.

Thats why when The Chancers album is going to be ready they will lead this new charge of independant music makers. lol  

Shameless plug http://www.myspace.com/thechancersiow

British X factor winner Leona Lewis and her # 1 UK single Bleeding Love is starting to make a bit of a ripple on the Billboard singles chart she goe's from # 41 to # 21 this week and is the biggest sales gainer on the chart .
And Amy Winehouse clocks up a year on the Billboard album chart and is still in the top 10.
So maybe the future is women dominating music ? and groups are a bit out of favour at the moment .
One of the problems is i think  there are a lot of 30/40 somethings buying a lot of music and it's from a broad spectrum of artists and the youngster's out there don't seem to be getting a look in .
When i was young i felt like i was part of something, maybe todays youth feel whats the point when today's music and the album charts inparticular are clogged up with your mum and dads music ?
Maybe it's time for us oldies to potter about in the garden and leave the youth to it , when a 75 year old women like my mum is buying Leona Lewis something is seriously wrong with music today ?

Good point Dave. The charts in our day were generally full of youth oriented music, and that did indeed make you feel that you were part of some kind of movement. Even if that movement was only in the mind. Now 50 year olds are buying stuff that's in the charts, which would make your average teenager run a mile. Some kids would think their parents were pretty cool if they bought the same music as them, but most, I imagine, would be horrified. If my mum had come home with a Clash record in 1977, would I have ever listened to them again?

Identifying with your parents is not what kids want to do. You want to rebel a bit at that age, even if just to make a point. And you can't rebel by buying Amy Winehouse, and Justin Timberlake.

I think they should maybe have charts for the under 30's ? and have a vintage one for us , a lot of parents consider themsleves to be there childrens best friend which is sick in my book ?
My parents and the establishment were the enemy , what we need is the generation gap back?

Fact is that the chart used to be made up of sold cd's (or singles/albums in the early days). The 30+ generation is still the people that buy cd's. Maybe the younger folk is used to downloading more?