example

music and songs from the 90s sounds like it is so much better mixed, produced, arranged and mastered than today music. no but really seriously i think it sounds better. Also at that time less plugins and no AI.

 

The group in that photo: All done in Pro Tools, plugins have been around since 1990 at least.

 

The 90's pop sound is so thin, that I would rather have them remastered. Early digital era is the worst thing that happened to the sound..
But this just my opinion

 

I think the definition of 'better' in this case is quite abstract because it depends on the perception of each person...

 

It's so subjective why bother wasting brain cells on thoughts like this.

 

Don't worry, a couple of decades from now the new generations will praise today's music as absolute perfection. You're just nostalgic, and probably 30-something.

 

There is a book with a collection of articles, all claim that the youth of the time is worthless, stupid and arrogant, behaves badly, has no respect and is not able to any cultural relevant input. 30 articles or so. And all writers complain that the whole cultural world would go to hell, because one generation before everything was worthy, well thought out and intelligent.

Point is, these articles were from a number of points in the last 3.000 years. So, everyone around 40 seems to complaint about nowadays music, and in former times everything was better.

Being blunt to the OP and all the people thinking likewise: How stupid is it, when you know that your parents complain about your youth and childhood music and taste in general, your grandparents complained about the same stuff your parents did or listened to, and so on and on ... how stupid is it to speak out loud the same idiocies about nowadays music. Serious question: How stupid? Answer carefully ...

 

Pet shop boys is a good example of how sound can get worse. Not meaning the musical or artistic sound.

 

Values and standards change per generation, so what defined your taste changes with every generation. It doesn't necessarily mean either side is wrong, definitely not stupid as you're stating.

One could argue mumbling brain-dead superficial words about money and pussy is worse than writing a poetic piece that required actual writing skills and deeper knowledge about certain topics, but on the matter of taste, neither side is wrong I guess if you're willing to look at it like that.

 

From a creative and commercial point of view the golden age of popular music was between 1965 and 1975.

 

90s --> Musicians and Sound Engineers with Degrees

2020s --> Bedroom " Weeders " with 0 music + Engineer knowledge and 0 Degrees

 

I visited this thread only due the title... but after reading the topic starter post, I think, the title should be "Older songs sound better than now"...
But if we'll follow directly the title, then IMHO we should recognize it's true!
For example this masterpiece was written in 30s, and all famous singers and orchestras sang/played it during next 3 decades...
do we have something like that today?

 

that might be true, but when I hear lead zepplin or pink floyd or beatles or rolling stones, I usually turn them off. ,

 

Are we really entering the era where nostalgic people feel that 90s boys band was good music ? I don't know if I should feel old or young for not being nostalgic of that.

 

Backstreet Boys?.....seriously?

 

I'd like to discuss the molecules of pixel on the lower right hand corner of the period at the end of the sentence.

 

I thought the same. out of so many good albuns and bands from the 90's, if this is what pokes out then I'm either out or getting the hammer. haha.
But yeah, this is pure nostalgia. I have so many many many friends whose musical taste or interest in music seems to have stopped and frozen when they were younger and are now the right target for "best of collections" of the 90's. for each era there are horrible bands and albums and also great and memorable ones. now, if you're just paying attention to what's trending or what is at the top of sales then there will be times when you can think there's nothing new or nothing of quality going on and back in the day it was the day, but that's mainly ignorance on the listener behalf. just think of the amount of albums and bands that flopped when their albums were released and later on were hailed as the second coming. It could be happening right now. it's a matter of perspective and knowledge. if you never heard aha then you'd be tempted to say that what's his face lights song is real original and fresh or if you don't know chuck berry that the Beatles' come together is a super original track - and let's not dwell in zeppelins catalogue (whom I love, but the plagiarism going on there from blues folk is too damn high). It just depends on how much you know. If you never heard Bowie's Low you'll think Radiohead's kid A is a truly original out there album and and if you never heard Kraftwerk you'll think bowie came up with that on its own
And you can double down on that and say. the 90's were horrible: the 70's we were cooking! and the 70's were too bland. 50's is where it's at!

 

wrong. just listen to this. much wider bass, more harmonics on the bass. punchier drums. louder. cleaner vocals.

 

You actually know the name of the band?.....seriously?

 

People forget the overwhelming majority of bad songs, no wonder old stuff always appears better by default - it's a biased selection by default.