How were albums released in the past?

[LordEnigma 11,313]

On 1/23/2019 at 5:01 PM, Glamourpuss said:

Come to think about it, music was a much bigger deal in the past. Quality has declined alot and anybody can be famous these days, it doesn't require talent anymore. Streaming has ruined the magic as well. It seems like now we have fast food music and it's awful. The youth of today don't know anything of what it was like in the past hence why this thread was created and the question asked.  The decline in the quality of music is a good example of why older people don't like Millennials and they don't seem to realise that what they listen to is garbage, no offence. (I'm not a millennial hater btw although I do blame them for The Kardashians grrr). 

Ok but most older generations always hated on the younger generations.

I mean, I already see the people who used to drag the 90s/00s as the worst time in music, now hail it as the best era. It’s simply repeating itself over and over.

[Glamourpuss 29,062]

32 minutes ago, Alexander Levi said:

Ok but most older generations always hated on the younger generations.

I mean, I already see the people who used to drag the 90s/00s as the worst time in music, now hail it as the best era. It’s simply repeating itself over and over.

No it was the worst. I don't look back on it and get nostalgic. I still remember it as being utter garbage. 

The seventies and eighties were the best eras for music in my opinion. 

[LordEnigma 11,313]

12 minutes ago, Glamourpuss said:

No it was the worst. I don't look back on it and get nostalgic. I still remember it as being utter garbage. 

The seventies and eighties were the best eras for music in my opinion. 

Well you are one person. Again, I always think music has had trash and gems and just because we can get access to music faster, there is more trash thrown at us but there are still plenty of artists making gems.

For me, I never like to view music in a trash/amazing sense. It’s either my type or not my type and people can find the beauty/fun/excitement/sadness that they want in the music they enjoy.

Anyway, I know older generations hated Elvis, the Beatles, Madonna, etc. and you can say they didn’t but this is not the first (nor last) time in history that the older generations will hate the younger generation’s culture, entertainment, etc.

[Poker 3,312]

Smoke signals.

[Cavadour 1,895]

33 minutes ago, old sanuk said:

We all bought 45s to bring to school dances and house parties.

Back in '65, a friend of my mother was the authorized maintenance person in charge of quite all of our town jukeboxes. Her garage was packed with removed 45s. There I build my very first vinyl collection. Some discs were so worn out the music was barely audible under the hiss and crackle. Despite all, the sound was great and the volume level was usually much more powerful than the album version. Some of them singles I've never found such ooomph and dynamic range on any later vinyl reissue or CD remaster.

At that time, our side of Switzerland TV was flooded by french shows : british and american music was rarely broadcast here. But the german part of our country has always been of a great help in that matter, being in touch with Germany, another of our border neighbour who was and still is the biggest music market in Europe. Then in early 70's the Montreux Festival was born...

[Cavadour 1,895]

58 minutes ago, Glamourpuss said:

The seventies and eighties were the best eras for music in my opinion.

There was so many things to invent back then. Successful bands was the result of hard work mostly. Not much of an industry selling products like today...

[Glamourpuss 29,062]

58 minutes ago, Alexander Levi said:

Well you are one person. Again, I always think music has had trash and gems and just because we can get access to music faster, there is more trash thrown at us but there are still plenty of artists making gems.

For me, I never like to view music in a trash/amazing sense. It’s either my type or not my type and people can find the beauty/fun/excitement/sadness that they want in the music they enjoy.

Anyway, I know older generations hated Elvis, the Beatles, Madonna, etc. and you can say they didn’t but this is not the first (nor last) time in history that the older generations will hate the younger generation’s culture, entertainment, etc.

I understand that. I already considered this as a factor before writing what I wrote. It's not like I'm so out of touch with the youth, I'm only 30 ffs. The eras I mentioned that I prefer were from before I was born. I understand that it can come down to a matter of taste but it's a fact that quality has declined. You only need to look at the charts to see that. Many people rely on ready made beats and the music is computerised, many don't know how to play an instrument whereas Prince played 27 and many don't know how to read sheet music. It's as though people who have an ear for a "sick beat" are filling the charts with mediocrity and real talent is nowhere to be found. Ed Sheeran has blatantly stolen other people's songs and made them his own.

This is nothing to do with an older generation looking down on the youth, but it seems that in this internet age when we have influencers dictating what's cool to everyone else, that it's also affecting music. Look what happened with that Fyre music festival, for example. Supermodels posed for a video shoot and posted photos of them partying on an island. They didn't really do a big marketing campaign because they didn't need to. Once a Kardashian has put her face and name to something, people want it and need it. Look what happened with Kylie Jenner's boyfriend whoever he is, he went to number 1 with his album and he's a nobody really. Beyonce has something like 15 writers for one song which is pretty much the line "who run the world" over and over.

And also, people think you can get famous as a singer by appearing on the X Factor and shows like it. Alot of them have no musical talent or ever had singing lessons yet its their dream to be a star and they'll do "whatever it takes". They haven't been lugging around expensive equipment to different venues playing a couple of shows every week for a pittance. Most haven't even attempted to write a song. 

When I talk about past music being better I'm talking about artists like The Eurythmics, Prince, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Elton John and Fleetwood Mac to name a few. 

[LordEnigma 11,313]

15 minutes ago, Glamourpuss said:

I understand that. I already considered this as a factor before writing what I wrote. It's not like I'm so out of touch with the youth, I'm only 30 ffs. The eras I mentioned that I prefer were from before I was born. I understand that it can come down to a matter of taste but it's a fact that quality has declined. You only need to look at the charts to see that. Many people rely on ready made beats and the music is computerised, many don't know how to play an instrument whereas Prince played 27 and many don't know how to read sheet music. It's as though people who have an ear for a "sick beat" are filling the charts with mediocrity and real talent is nowhere to be found. Ed Sheeran has blatantly stolen other people's songs and made them his own.

This is nothing to do with an older generation looking down on the youth, but it seems that in this internet age when we have influencers dictating what's cool to everyone else, that it's also affecting music. Look what happened with that Fyre music festival, for example. Supermodels posed for a video shoot and posted photos of them partying on an island. They didn't really do a big marketing campaign because they didn't need to. Once a Kardashian has put her face and name to something, people want it and need it. Look what happened with Kylie Jenner's boyfriend whoever he is, he went to number 1 with his album and he's a nobody really. Beyonce has something like 15 writers for one song which is pretty much the line "who run the world" over and over.

And also, people think you can get famous as a singer by appearing on the X Factor and shows like it. Alot of them have no musical talent or ever had singing lessons yet its their dream to be a star and they'll do "whatever it takes". They haven't been lugging around expensive equipment to different venues playing a couple of shows every week for a pittance. Most haven't even attempted to write a song. 

When I talk about past music being better I'm talking about artists like The Eurythmics, Prince, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Elton John and Fleetwood Mac to name a few. 

Am I saying this generation is flawless? Absolutely not. But nostalgia and “looking back on the past” makes us forget that the faulty parts of a generation. The bad music, the people who used gimmicks to get to the top, the socialites who didn’t really do anything... those people are forgotten and we just remember the greats of those days.

I mean, charts come and go and just because someone is #1 does not mean they are held to a high standard by the general public. The legends of today will be remembered in 50 years and the rest will be forgotten.

There are also tons of artists who put in work and write all their music and play multiple instruments on Spotify. You just have to dig a bit deeper.

There was plenty of bad music in the old days as there are today... and honestly, we aren’t going to change each other’s minds. So we will agree to disagree.

[Lady Adga 8,664]

On 1/23/2019 at 2:37 PM, Glamourpuss said:

I was a child in the nineties and it seemed that everybody listened to the radio more, still bought vinyl records and it was a common thing to go shopping at the weekend and buy a new casette tape. People paid attention to the charts more and the Christmas number 1 was a big deal back then. I remember when CD's were new and became more popular and to own a new cd was so special, it was like a deluxe product compared to a casette (God, I feel ancient writing this). 

I also remember when MJ released Earth song and the album to go with it, he was EVERYWHERE. I'd never seen promo like it before. I remember walking down the high street and there were posters everywhere in shop windows and sides of bus shelters, shops were playing his new music and he was all over TV. 

Friday and Saturday night TV in the UK was a big deal. We had Top of the Pops on a Friday where stars would perform their hit songs so people would tune into that to stay up to date. I remember The Spice Girls had a one off Saturday night special where they performed songs and spoke to the audience. I also remember buying their video tape which was a collection of their videos and behind the scenes footage as well as the making of the videos. I miss those days when artists would release stuff like that. 

But it seems that they all tried much harder back then with promo whereas now we are in the internet age, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube is all they need. It's taken the magic out of it. 

Oh yeah, and sometimes when you couldn't afford to buy the song we had to wait for it to come on the radio and quickly record it to casette tape and hope the DJ didn't talk over it. 

The nostalgia 

[Cavadour 1,895]

Reading this thread I could see it coming... No, I for one I'm not an old time nostalgic. I think there's a lot of great talent today. But just take a moment to think of it like this : figure out a huge landscape with barely some trees here and there, easy to spot and to see them grow. That was the 70's landscape. Today, the same landscape is an overgrown jungle ! It needs so much talent and persistence to finally emerge of this mess !  How many great artists will never reach the light because they're just lost in the mass ? Moreover, many of these trees just look the same, cause they were cloned and replanted in rows for plain greed reasons...

That's why I stan Gaga. Such hard work and resilience to get her talent recognition. She's carying the flame of the 70's and 80's for sure. There's nobody like her today in the young generation.

 

[Cavadour 1,895]

1 hour ago, Alexander Levi said:

this is not the first (nor last) time in history that the older generations will hate the younger generation’s culture, entertainment, etc.

Haters are wrong for sure. It's easier to hate and reject everything new and stick to the same old than keep an open mind and search. For many reasons already mentioned in this thread it's much harder to find what your looking for nowadays. Pradoxal yes ? In the age of streaming... Angel Down lyrics come to mind right now... Lost in the crowd... Lost in the overdose...