Not really. There’s tons of amazing stuff happening in modern music. The problem is it isn’t popular. Modern POPULAR music has flattened out with a level of sameness. Modern Optional Entertainment (to borrow a phrase from Zappa) has more variety than ever. Tedeschi Trucks, Rival Sons, Pretty Reckless, Gary Clark Jr, Alter Bridge. There’s AMAZING music being made today. But you gotta go find it. It’s no longer served up to you on radio.
I agree. There is some good music still being made, but you have to go outside the “mainstream.”
I’ve been a huge fan of TTB since before it was TTB, when it was The Derek Trucks Band and Susan Tedeschi touring separately. Saw them both a couple times back then.
A buddy of mine in the Northeast declares they’re a top 5 act currently touring. I can’t disagree.
TTB was the only show we didn’t take our ticket refunds from, when Covid hit. And we had a good chunk of cash in refunds. Rolled TTB over for two years, finally saw that show at The Fox in Atlanta last Summer. Had darn good seats, and they were great as usual.
I do miss hearing Mike Mattison’s vocals from the TDTB days. He’s still with TTB, but he gets like one song a show. But you sort of get moved down the pecking order when the band leader marries a lead vocalist and they merge touring operations. And I like Susan’s vocals quite well, I describe her as Bonnie Raitt minus 15 or 20 years. Bonnie has a better voice, Susan wails better, they’re both great.
Lately I been enjoying Volfpeck and their spinoffs ie. Fearless Flyers, Cory Wong. Billy Strings is awesome! JRAD and some other Jam Bands also go well for me.
On thing that disappoints me with modern pop music is the lack of any guitar solos or any instrument solos at all.
“There’s AMAZING music being made today.”
Absolutely! Looking at my top songs in Spotify for 2022, I find these artists:
Jake Xerxes Fussell
Phil Cook
River Whyless
Aoife O’Donovan
Pieta Brown
Lindsay Lou
Jack Rose
Eilen Jewell
Feist
Tift Merrit
Elephant Revival
Chuck Prophet
Dori Freeman
Lord Huron
Rhiannon Guidons
Kacy & Clayton
I didn’t check the year of the songs I like, but probably 90% are in the past 20 years, 75% in the past 10 years, and 20% in 2022.
Snarky Puppy, Vulfpeck, Cory Wong...