[emsy]

I do. Something like Hotel California that invokes a vivid imagery in one's mind seems unthinkable today. I don't know whether this affects the imagination or lingual abilities of the listeners, but it certainly can not produce the same emotions.

[paulcole]

I honestly don’t know whether you’re praising or criticizing Hotel California.

• https://www.laweekly.com/the-eagles-hotel-california-why-thi...

• https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/12/lets-talk-abo...

[emsy]

Think what you want about the song, but the lyrics are descriptive yet metaphorical. I made this example because I assumed everyone is familiar with it. The point is: the lyrics don't just consist of "I did this, I did that, yeah yeah yeah".

[goto11]

Are you saying no recent music contains "descriptive yet metaphorical" lyrics?

[emsy]

No, but it hardly exists in the mainstream and most indie music I've heard is mainly ambience stuff.

[goto11]

The bottom line is that older music seem better because time is a filter - we remember the good stuff. People have always complained that "music nowadays" is crap.

[kazinator]

There is a hypothesis that older music seems better because it is cherry picked, and is being unfairly compared against a random selection of new music.

That hypothesis is, unfortunately, starkly false.

Music nowadays really is crap; time is not helping it. If we use our 20/20 hindsight and pick the best music of, say, the past 50 years, it will be heavily weighted toward the first 20 of those years.

Thirty years ago, sure, I thought that a lot of "music nowadays" was crap; but, unlike today, I also thought that a good deal of it wasn't.