If you asked this question 20 or 30 years ago the answer would be the same, no it isn’t. This has more to do with feelings and emotions that we associate with music that we grow up with then the actual music itself. Each generation has different styles and sounds that end up defining it at the end of that 20 or 30-year period. Music appreciation has a lot to do with the era that you grew up in and loved from an early age.

So, whether music is good now or was good previously is 100% opinion. Here is mine.

If you go back in time a few decades, to the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Lots of the bands from these eras have now become internationally famous, and their music has become classic. Artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Nirvana, and so many other successful bands. All these bands became famous, because they had something that’s hard to find today- real talent. Many of the bands of the past wrote music that had real depth to it. Their lyrics were meaningful, they wrote their own music, they played multiple instruments, they didn’t use auto tune or synthesizers, and many other factors. Using something like auto tune was considered an insult back in the day.

Many of the lyrics of today’s songs have no real depth to them anymore either. Lots of mainstream artists don’t even write their own. The music is repetitive, and the lyrics sometimes involve swearing and the same typical situations, like “going to a club tonight”, “let’s get this party started”, or the typical thought that every song must be about love, falling in love, being in love, or something having to do with love. It would be great for some artists to try and expand their music into more than just one topic of “love” and try writing a song about a different issue or situation in life. This music is great for hearing at a party, or something upbeat to hear. But when you want to listen to the music, I’m not sure this is exactly what everyone is looking for.

What Night is Alive has discovered is that hundreds of musicians today are all incredibly talented – especially in the jazz world. From Willie Jones III and Terell Stafford to Ralph Moore and Jeff Rupert, the jazz industry is just as impressive today as it was in the past!