They don't write pop songs like they used to

I think his lyrics are brilliant
But ww can't all like the same music.

Never 'got' the fangirling some people have for Morrissey.

He's crap IMO.

Makes dull dreary drivel. Can't sing for shite. Bit of a dickhead.

Morrisey is absolutely a genius.

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten tonne truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine

Our music was definitely the best as they still play them at children's discos now.

I treated my children to some of the best songs I remembered a few years ago. They weren't convinced until I found the Chicken Song, when they decided that I was totally taking the micky and winding them up.
Even dh refused to believe there was a song with the words "boldly going forward, we can't find reverse" in.
Ds was actively terrified of My Blobby too.

One of my best moments was when ds went through a stage of putting music on his computer and doing things round the house listening to his music. I sneaked in. It was on the third time round of YMCA this dawning realisation came over his face and he raced upstairs. But as I pointed out, there won't be many songs from his age that in 30 years time everyone still knows the actions...

Their dancing to the BeeGees Saturday Night Fever was very close to soft porn, prancing around in skimpy nighties (no bras) and very brief bikini pants.

I think with music from any period, we have selective memories; as true for classical periods as pop music. What we keep from the "good old days" are the survivors, if you like; when I was studying other musical period styles for my degree, I waded through some of the more obscure stuff as well, and with some notable exceptions, you could see why it had fallen into said obscurity.
Also consider that the pop music of your younger days coincided with a more carefree time in your life, and can be associated with happy or significant occasions.
Some of it was, of course, fantastic stuff which still makes me misty eyed, but try whole episodes from the archives of "The Old Grey Whistle Test" or "Top of the Pops" (if their broadcasting is still possible!).

Mind you some of the costumes Legs and co wore were a bit dubious 😂

I do feel sad when I look at the old 80s Top of the Pops replays on telly. The songs were such fun, either light hearted and a bit of a laugh, or quite experimental and new. The audience looked just like normal young people having a good time. Not highly made up clones of each other or overly conscious of what they looked like. Just enjoying the music.

Now a lot of the songs are so aggressive or highly sexual, in terms of the lyrics or how they are performed. Or just out to shock. Legs and Co routines look so innocent now 😆 No writhing about suggestively and thrusting.

I know what was going on the BBC with Saville etc wasn't so innocent. But I'm talking about the culture of pop music itself. It was just more fun.

having said that, I think there is a generation gap building with music now, because of streaming. Years ago, everyone heard the same stuff, on TOTP, on the top 40 radio show on a Sunday night. Making a mix tape was an effort. You bought albums of your very favourites and listened to the whole album. Now with streaming, you can get virtuallly anything. You might not even listen to a whole album of an artist. You might hear some obscure singer one day and replay their stuff even though no-one else has heard of them.

I realised this when Lulu was on Jools Holland the other day and my 19 year old didn't know who she was. Fair enough, I thought, but he'd probably vaguely know the song Shout. He didn't though. Then I thought "Well, I'm sure he'd know Relight my Fire". He didn't. Said he'd never heard it when I sang a bit to him.

So the "classic hits" are kind of more diluted now. In the same way as we don't all sit discussing what happened in Corrie at work next morning anymore or whatever, because at the time we only had 3 then 4 channels to watch so everyone watched the same thing at the same time.

Sixties music is the best

1

And I love I'm a Believer by the Monkees.

As you read song titles you should instantly hear the music, whatever your age, and for quite a few of these, I don't. I had to look a couple of them up. I'm not a Taylor Swift fan and couldn't even think what "Blank Space" sounded like, I only recognised it when I played the video. Couldn't think what Espresso was either till I played the video. That song is ok, I suppose, not got a lot about it, it's a bit bland. I don't really understand why Sabrina Carpenter is so massive tbh. Just blandness.

female singers are expected to look beautiful and glamorous and dance and move as well, and often wear very skimpy outfits on-stage too.

Cilla, Dusty, Sandie Shaw, Judith Durham, Maddy Prior et al just wore a frock, stood there and sang. The folk singers sat there with a guitar and sang. Suzy Quattro jumped around a bit with her guitar, but she dressed and moved much the same way a male rock guitarist would have. In fact at that time many male artists were far more glammed up than she was.

I remember Eurovision 2022 - all the competing acts with light shows and lots of leaping around, then in the interval Gigliola Cinquetti came on in a little black dress and just sang.

Would Mama Cass have made it today?

Half of Spotify is AI shite these days. It is completely ruining the music economy so do 't expect anything more than derivative dribble going forward

Something huge needs to come along and shake things up, the next punk/grunge/hip hop/house. When Nirvana hit big they made all the hair metal bands look past it overnight.

We need more melodic rock bands, there are so many female singers who are bland, beige and average. I don't mind Taylor Swift though her music isn't really my thing, but the endless list of mediocre girl singers who rely on a particular image to sell their wares is depressing. Thinking particularly of Sabrina Carpenter, her oversexed appearance and all the songs slagging off men.
There were bad songs in the past, 1976 springs to mind, apart from the Sex Pistols who woke everyone up but at the moment music TV programmes tend to focus on oldies from last century. Who will we be getting nostalgic about in forty years time, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran?
It's very telling that MTV has now gone for good as latterly nearly all their music channels played old songs. Back in the past you didn't need to look for good music it came and found you, now you have to look long and hard to find anything inspiring.

Yes true

i watched the 1978 Christmas special and poor Den Hegarty who sang on Boy from New York City earlier on had been replaced by another singer on Christmas special but I think they were miming

i wonder with the 1976 episodes if it saves royalty payments if they play similar episodes on a night .

however I enjoyed Slick with young Midge Ure sounding very bay city rollersish

I think music is in a really good place at the moment actually. I’m loving CMAT, the last dinner party, Sombr and Wolf Alice’s albums. If you want something more poppy, Chappel Roan, Sabrina carpenter and Taylor swift all writing great songs. The woman are smashing it. Pulp also brought out a great album last year.

It’s possibly fair to say that Gen Z are being exposed to older stuff through TV and Spotify or TikTok; Kate Bush and Sophie Ellis Bextor are recent examples. So they’re having an impact still.
Chappell Roan covers Heart at her gigs. Stevie Nicks duetted with Harry Styles and advises Taylor Swift. I would say our oldies are influencing current music too.
ETA: I agree with you!

There was a Top of the Pops end of year review on over the Christmas holidays which apparently featured the best music from 2025. My Husband and I admittedly only saw around the last 15 minutes or so, but what a load of beige shite it was! When they did the countdown at the end everything sounded exactly the same and it just felt dreary and depressing.

There was good and bad lyrics in the 70s and 80s (and in fact 50s and 60s) just as there is good and bad lyrics today. Some of the most popular chart toppers of the 70s (those that were number one's for several weeks) had awful, repetitive, basic lyrics. I think it's nostalgia talking for the OP really. She probably forgets all the crap songs and only remembers the good, after all, it's the good ones that are timeless classics. Lots of even the number one's are long forgotten. Also need to remember that good lyrics don't make a hit record - there are lots of amazing songs on albums that were never even released as singles so only really listened to by those who bought the albums, never played on the radio, etc. That's as true today as it was 50 years ago.

True!

Apart from everything else, I think we have to acknowledge how very much streaming has impacted and changed the music business and the charts forever.

Long gone are the days when you would have maybe 100 at most current singles available to buy in shops, then 40 of them would make the charts. It must be so much tougher for current artists - not only having to accept free sharing of/tiny revenues from their music; but also having to compete on an equal footing with every single track that has been released in the last 80+ years, rather than just those from the last few weeks.