Is Music Getting Worse
Or Am I Getting Old?

(I’m writing something every day for #100days. This is post 74/100.)

Obviously, if I have a list of Albums That Have Changed My Life, I also have a list of my 50 favourite songs of all-time.

I don’t generally share it, because I don’t want to have to justify to people how John Mayer and Counting Crows and T-Pain found their way in there.

This morning I was feeling bereft of great new music and put my Top 50 on to fill the gap.

It got me thinking, has the rate of new artists making it into my favourites list slowed?

Am I falling into that old man rut where all the best music was made in some distant past that kids these days wouldn’t remember?

It’s a serious question. In the past 5 years, how many bands have really embedded themselves in my life. And how does that compare to the 5 years before that, and before that?

Thanks to a memory-jog from Album of the Year, I can actually answer that:

New Artists That Made It Into My Heart: 2010–2015


  1. The War On Drugs
  2. Kendrick Lamar
  3. Nicolas Jaar
  4. Nils Frahm
  5. The Dream

New Artists That Made It Into My Heart: 2005–2010


  1. Bon Iver
  2. Fleet Foxes
  3. Destroyer
  4. The Drones
  5. Burial
  6. The National
  7. Panda Bear
  8. Band of Horses (But they have sucked so hard since albums #1 & #2 that I am right now considering being rid of them).

New Artists That Made It Into My Heart: 2000–2005


  1. Kanye West
  2. Arcade Fire
  3. Sigur Ros
  4. The Avalanches
  5. The Strokes
  6. The Shins
  7. Sufjan Stevens
  8. My Morning Jacket
  9. M83
  10. The Streets
  11. Modest Mouse
  12. Interpol
  13. Coldplay
  14. John Mayer
  15. Augie March

OK. So it ain’t science. But it confirms my feeling that something’s slowing down.

I once heard a former COO of Sony BMG say:

“As record companies make less money, artists get less money to spend on making records. I’m worried that reduced investment will cause the quality of music to go down over time and we’ll all be worse for it.”

I thought it was self-serving at the time, but it is interesting to observe in the context of my n of 1 slow-down in new music observations.

Then again, I might just be getting old.