You sound as old as me :o) and I am staring to sound like my Father when it comes to today's music :o)

I wrote an essay for college about the lack of quality in most of today's songs. It's all about the money now, sadly. Remember when songs were sang from the heart? Lenny Williams cried when he sang, "Cause, I Love You"

When writing a 3 minute song it's probably a bit hard to wax philosophical. There are a lot of good songs, even recently, that have incredible lyrics but there are also a lot of old great songs that arent lyrical masterpieces. I wanna hold your hand? To me, even if a song has great lyrics it doesnt get played much if it doesnt have great music and a good melody.

All the good songs were written and recorded back in the mid 50's to mid 60's. These old songs are being re-recorded today. Maybe, illegal drugs, have finally warped the brains of todays songwriters.

We can all thank Clear Channel for that perception. I can't stand listening to the pablum that dribbles forth from their stations. Listen to PBS and late night independent channels. A lot of the old spirit is still in the music. Just harder to find.

It depends on who you listen to. I find much of the stuff before 1965 (except Irish drinking songs) to be absolute, utter crap from a lyrical standpoint and totally lacking in the instrumental talent to compensate. Much modern music is actually more about melody, beat, and flow so the words are nearly irrelevant so long as they are catchy. It's all about getting the hook to improve ratings (and record sales) and that is done more by making people move than by moving their hearts. If you want ballads, ask a poet, not a songwriter.

I think much of it is because music as a career has developed such a glamorous image in modern times. When so many young people idolise musicians and want to grow up to be rich and famous for their own music, you're bound to get a lot more people trying to become professional musicians, and consequently, a lot more people failing abysmally. And, unfortunately, this leads to a self-perpetuating cycle of popular tastes and standards getting lower and lower, more and more talentless musicians gaining mainstream success, and all the major record companies standing by and allowing it to continue unabated because they're making money off of it. Think about it, back when Bob Dylan was first writing music, I seriously doubt that Woody Guthrie was a popular role model for children, and I'd be willing to bet that he was, at one point or another in his youth, considered "Weird" for being so enthusiastic about music at all. Because that kind of culture and attitude was the norm, only people with some sort of real talent and motivation managed to get into the music industry. It used to be the appeal that drew people to write music was the fact that they had a song in their heart that they wanted to share. But now, music is "Trendy", and a lot of people write music because they want to get rich and famous off of it. We still do get some musicians with true talent and vision, take Kurt Cobain, for instance. But given the massive influx of musicians driven solely by money and fame rather than personal fulfillment and creative vision, they seem like (And actually *Are*, to some extent) fewer and further between.

did the vast majority of pop music ever really have redeeming lyrical qualities?