Has music quality declined or do people's tastes just change with age?
The thread presents two opposing framings: (1) music quality hasn't declined - nostalgia and generational bias distort perception, a pattern repeated across history; (2) music quality has measurably declined due to algorithmic optimization for short attention spans, which disincentivizes long-form artistic work. These represent different empirical claims rather than just perspective shifts.
7 responses
Feb 25, 2026
Okay real talk: my dad listens to the same 15 classic rock songs on repeat and believes nothing good has been made since 1985. I used to think he was crazy but now I catch myself doing the exact same thing with 2010s indie rock. Maybe we're all just lazy after a certain point and it has nothing to do with actual quality.
Feb 25, 2026
The production quality is objectively better now, right? Like, go listen to a 90s demo versus today's bedroom pop production. But something about how songs are *written* has gotten formulaic. Too many features, too many producers touching one track, not enough weirdness.
Feb 25, 2026
I think what's changed is that being a musician became a viable career path, which means more people do it, which means more mediocre music exists. But that also means the signal-to-noise ratio got worse for casual listeners. You're not old; you're just not willing to spend three hours digging through Bandcamp like I do.
Feb 25, 2026
I'm not old - I'm 26 - but I think modern pop is more cynical and less inventive. Compare The Weeknd to Prince, or Olivia Rodrigo to Joni Mitchell. The craft is there but it feels corporate in a way that even 80s pop didn't. Maybe that's just me though.
Feb 25, 2026
I'm 34 and I still find bangers constantly. The difference is I'm not passively consuming whatever MTV or the radio shoves in my face anymore - I actually have to *seek out* good music instead of having it force-fed to me. That's a feature, not a bug, even if it takes more effort.
Feb 25, 2026
Nah, I'm worried about music. Everything's optimized for TikTok clips and 15-second attention spans. Nobody's making 8-minute prog epics or concept albums anymore because the algorithm doesn't reward it. We've sacrificed artistic depth for streaming numbers.
Feb 25, 2026
Every generation has said this exact thing forever. Your parents thought your music was garbage. You probably think your kids' music is garbage. Music's fine; human brains just romanticize what they heard when they were young and stupid and had all their friends listening to it together.