I think it was a trio of deaths that killed music, which would consist of Kurt Cobain, 2Pac, and Biggie Smalls. After that, music wasn't good from any perspective. And the late 90s, if memory serves, was generally when we started to see the likes of the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

Classic music? Nothing will ever beat the true classics- Mozart, Beethoven, etc... now THAT's what I call classic!

I agree. After those three died, music in its entirety sucked, to me at least.

(The 2002 classic "Satisfaction by Benny Bennassi^^)

I think independent DJs (DJs who to some extent can remain in control of their own careers) Benny Benassi, Tiësto, David Guetta, Armin van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk etc., are the true innovators and 'core' artists of the 00's and of all the future decades to come.

http://www.olddjmag.com/?op=top100djs&top100dj_op=results (Top 100 World Famous DJs)

I agree with OP's assessment. No band can 'match' the "golden age" of classic bands.

Music evolves. New genres/styles emerges as we speak and will continue to influence all the pop and rock music being made 15 years from now on.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skweee  In the future Skweee might very well end up influencing mainstream pop and rock music (just like all the House/Techno/Electro/Trance music of the 70's, 80's and 90's are doing right now to mainstream pop). "Jean Michel Jarre", "Air" and "Daft Punk" are working on new sound over in France. Similiar artists 'true music creators' are doing their thing over in Belgium, The Netherlands, Canada, Detroit, England, Germany, Scandinavia and Italy. They are the ones who are experimenting and creating new sound for mainstream artists to copy.

All progressive musicians these days either listen to or draw influence from at least some electronic music genres and incoorperate new elements into their own respective genres. Everyone who loves and cares about music should listen to at least some electronic genres. After all, electronic music is still the new frontier. IMO rock bands these days are "retro digging" (either trying to revive the the old rock beast and 'revolution' or going for a more minimalistic, less grand sound). Cul-de-sac innovation IMO. :P

Some of you might have noticed that Pop and Rock music sort of 'merged' back in the 90's. As did R&B and Pop. 'Classic Rap' faded away. Internet has made electronic genres accessible to the whole world. The local music industry in America can't control DJs and independent musicians careers.

Again. I wholeheartedly agree with OP's assessment. No artist will ever again 'do it all' like Queen, The Who, Rolling Stones and The Beatles did.

Adding this great link below for those of us who would like to see what happened during the previous decades.
http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/  (Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music)

Seriously good link above ^^

I dont think it did, actually there are a lot of better musicians than Cobain today, which composed awesome songs but wasnt a good singer nor guitarrist.

And even if crap like Britney and the backstreet boys appeared I dont think music went to crap, just that most people listened to crap. You can see bands like Muse have appeared and others like Radiohead, U2 and others continue to make good mainstream music even if its not as mainstream as rap or pop girls.

I think that the problem is that you cant just turn your tv and find something good easily, but if you just look quickly you will still find some good stuff, after all, crappy music has been always, we just remember the ones that were good.

Deja vu..

either my brain predicted this happening, or this thread was already made, and carl said the same exact words..

You are correct, I like Muse btw, lol.

What I should have said was, back then, I could easily turn my T.V/Radio on and immediately hear a good song and it would be one good song after another. Nowadays when I turn on the T.V/Radio (haven't listened to the radio for like 3 years) I have to keep flipping through to finally find a song that I enjoy or "kind of like". We definitely still have good bands, but most aren't mainstream. And rap... my favorite genre when I was younger, is the genre I like least now. I don't know what happened, but new direction rap took was definitely the wrong one.

Well although I agree the music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s were amazing I don't think we can exclude everything out yet. There was some amazing music in the 90s and still some decent ones in the 00s. I just think with the enlargement of mass media, expanded basic cable, and the internet people are kinda drowned out by some music and even the music is drowned out. Music becomes more about the visual rather than the audio which quite ironic. It's no longer just about hearing music but seeing it as well. I think that has caused music, mainly pop, rap, and country to really become irrelevant in timeless great music.

However, I'd say in things that don't fit those categories, the music has stayed amazing. Look to the 90s for some great alternative rock and even nowadays. Grunge music was simply incredible in the 90s and unfortunately some untimely deaths killed it before its prime. Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, etc all brought some music that defined the 90s. Also had bands like Green Day, Radiohead, U2, etc all had great hits. I think these bands with their songs from the 90s and even some from the 00s will become some of the classic music we talk about for decades to come.

When we get to the 00s it's a little bit harder to figure out but there have definitely been some great artists such as Muse, Shinedown, etc. Maybe if we can get past the drowned out music we can look to that of alternative rock and music genres which have thrived during it.

I fully agree with this post.