Is Old Music Killing New Music?

[SSwans2011]

You have to remember that Big Footy trends old, male and with an emphasis on rock music.

The complaint about no listening parties is particularly funny when you see teenage girls and young women spend weeks dissecting Taylor Swift’s new album.

That also points to a gender element. It’s noticeable that the biggest pop artists now are women. Not all men feel comfortable with that and tend to dismiss it.

As you say, there’s plenty of great stuff to listen to, it’s more that old people can’t be bothered finding it because, in truth, they don’t want to hear something new. They hold to the comfort of their youth. I’m sure this then feeds back into the industry.

Useful tip. Don’t bother with Australian commercial radio, go overseas (e.g. KCRW, FIP) and find some good critics (e.g. Robert Christgau, Pitchfork) and build your lists from there.

Agree with all of this. Listening parties - both public and private - for new hip-hop releases are very much a thing as well. Some bands of other genres do the same thing, or play launch shows to celebrate the release.

My favourite sources for finding new music are RateYourMusic and Bandcamp. RateYourMusic in particular is incredibly helpful - you can make insanely specific searches (i.e. you could search the best album of a specific genre released in Australia with a female vocalist for a specific year). On top of that, with a subscription you can see automatic recommendations that other people who enjoyed an album also rated highly. It's a hugely useful tool.