Ok. I'm 35 and I seem find most the music these days to be awful. It seems my music taste does not extend past about 2002. Have I reached the cut off point where I now say it was better in my day?! Or have I managed to let some decent bands pass me by?

Music is good on the whole. Knowing which forum to post topics in is on the wain though.

Yes.

Over produced, autotuned, rhyming dictionary crap with Smash Robots fking a car alarm in the background. I'd like to take a machete to a Radio One playlist meeting.

In fairness, pop music has lost a lot of its ability to offend people older than its target audience.

I suspect a lot of the blame for this lies at the door of the ever increasing opportunities for expression available to the current generation of teenagers, equally the increasing number of forms of entertainment. Pop usic simply isn't such a component of young people's lives as it once was.

One thing that I didn't predict as middle age beckons is being utterly unmoved by forms of music being listened to be those younger than me. It all sounds bland and derivative to me now, whereas I was expecting to find it baffling and impenetrable by now.

My parents were horrified by my taste in music, I would frankly be relieved to be anything other than bored by my children's music.

OP, don't be afraid to try some jazz, folk or classical music too.
Loads of stuff around, roam the digital stations.
Never think that you might not like any particular genre, try it and then decide.

Johnnytheboy - That is exactly where I am with music. I've tried listening to todays music in the genres I like and none of it has given me the buzz I used to get.

I used to buy 2-4 CD's a week, at one point my hifi was worth more than my car. Now its a rare occasion I buy a CD and the hifi makes good place to put my cuppa down.

Regarding trying other genres, not a bad idea. I have quite a diverse range of music, ranging from ABBA to Carcass. But there are some I have not really investigated.

Any suggestions of music?

My taste ranges from heavy metal to 70's cheese to chilled out.

It's never been easier to find decent music as it is today. I stole one of my daughters exercise books to scribble down all the stuff I have to buy. I can't keep up with the pace. I don't download music by the way. I've bought more new (some only new to me ) and fresh music in the last 3 years than I did in the 80's and 90's put together.

I think it really depends on what age you were in what years, i.e, early 90's were indie, late 90's to early 00's were R'n'B, dance and trance (Commercial) and crazy POP/Boyband invasions.

I'm 29 years old and i CANNOT stand current day music, it is terrible, i mean really really terrible.

I have however started to go through the back catalogue that the real artist have to offer.

Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music
Elton John
Fleetwood Mac
AC/DC
Rolling Stones
David Gray
David Bowie
Johnny Cash
Etc,etc,etc.

There is some major talent out there at the moment but it depends what your tastes are.

There's a lot of Dubstep out at the moment (commercial crap though) so i thought i'd go back to the very basics of it, turns out that the first major dubstep album was "Burial".
And you know what, it's f**king really good.

Try some of these "new" artists/musicians.

"Phaleh" for a nice mellow listen
"Polica" for a dark electro listen
"Zero 7" for an ultimate classic (Sia Furler features heavily in their albums and she is now in everything, her Dad was the lead in "Men at Work" )
"Ben Howard" for new folk
"Elbow" not new but just amazing
"Two Door Cinema Club" very poppy but not in the bad way
"James Blake" cutting edge
"M83" electro goodness
"White Lies" worth a listen

It might not be your cup of tea but it's worth opening your mind and ears and hopefully you'll completely stop listening to the crap on the radio.

Pete

As others have said, the great music is out there still, it's just it's not in the places we're used to looking.

Radio One, Radio Two and all of commercial radio have to play to their demographic - the daytime playlist is small and tightly focussed to their target market. Ditto all of the music channels.

Fortunately it doesn't take hours of rummaging in record stores any more to find good new music, what with the internet and all.

OP, in no particular order to start you off, mono rock and roll from the 1950s and 60s.
Miles Davies, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Janis Joplin, Mozart, "Violin Concertos", Glenn Gould, Handel, Vivaldi, Jacqueline du Pre playing cello concertos.
Oh and don't forget Jimi. Reasonable sound system and those effects just go so wide.