10 Opinions About Music That Are Commonly Held For Good Reasons

A lot of the time, we play the role of the contrarian simply because someone has to. When we all start thinking the same things, especially about music, things start to get pretty boring. But there are certain widespread opinions that are in place because they make sense. Here are 10 commonly held opinions that are commonly held for good reasons.

By Confusion, Jon Tanners, & Khal

We don't even want to talk about this. It's a given, and the contrarians that disagree are the same people that argue that milk actually doesn't go that well with cereal and that it's more comfortable if you wear shirts as pants. If someone argues with you about the Beatles not being a good band, don't even get into it. Just make a noise, like "pshhh" or "uhhfffph" or "dtehhha."

Crying "sell out!" every time a band you like makes it big is obnoxious as hell, but here's why it keeps happening year after year: because when bands make it big, they  usually start to suck. There's a price that comes with mass appeal and major label obligations. The fact is that casual listeners who rely on radio and iTunes' "what's hot" section generally have different taste than the people who are active music listeners.

Just look at the Billboard charts and ask yourself why none of the most popular songs in the country correlate with what you consider good music. Sales and success aren't tied to talent or quality; they're tied to accessibility. Call it music snobbery if you want, but nobody is hating on bands simply because they got popular. It's because getting popular usually comes with sacrifice, and it usally leads to an obvious, watered down version of what we liked from a band's (cringe) "early stuff."

Ever been watching a sporting event that you don't care at all about and you notice that one team's fans are annoying and that you hate them, so you root for the other team? You probably have. It's human nature. The same kind of concept applies to music, even though we hate to admit it. If you hear a song for the first time and simultaneously watch some burned out older gentleman with bleached hair, a bad soul patch, tinted glasses, and a faded ICP tattoo on his neck dance around with glowsticks, that is going to bury itself in your memory. That song will forever be tarnished.

We all want to believe that our judgment of music is pure, but music is more than just a bunch of sounds. It has come to represent entire cultures, and a lot of the time it becomes about identifying with not only a taste in musical styles, but a lifestyle. This opinion might not be shared often, but I think most of us can agree that it is a factor.

One of the biggest controversies within EDM in 2012 was the massive "button pushing" debate. Every DJ under the sun had an opinion, with good arguments on both sides. No matter how you slice it, however, the fact remains: the art of DJing really isn't that difficult. To DJ is to match the tempos of two records so they mix seamlessly. The true art, the thing that makes a DJ important or respected, is what they do with the medium. The art of proper track selection. The ability to move a crowd. Effectively, what they do with the medium, not just what they're doing.

Think of it the same way you would a great guitarist: just because you can learn all of the chords and play things technically, it's the amount of soul you put into your playing that sets you apart from the pack. And a number of guitarists who are considered "greats" weren't the most technically sound, but you sure "felt" something through their playing.

It sounds tired and curmudgeonly, you've heard it before, and you're not even sure if it's true, but there are a good number of reasons why screaming "the golden age of hip-hop was the best!" isn't necessarily wrong. On the one, fewer people were able to record in the late '80s and early '90s; those that were getting their records made (let alone distributed) were, in general, a cut above the bedroom hobbyists populating YouTube in the 2000s.

Simultaneously, techniques for producing and rapping were coming of age. Producers whose names now seem ingrained in memory (DJ Premier, Dr. Dre, RZA, Pete Rock, Prince Paul, Marley Marl, the Bomb Squad) were trying bold, previously inconceivable things with samplers and synthesizers. Rappers, by and large, were pushing the boundaries of the basic flows the grew up on, resulting in a wide array of sounds and styles that birthed rap as mainstream America knows it (and to which rap has remained largely indebted). Though the exact dates are often in dispute, between 1986 and 1994, rap blossomed and produced a concentrated burst of remarkable music (to be sure: there was bad music as well, but we've never lived in an era where bad music exists in greater abundance than in the present).

Something you almost never hear: "Man, the Grammys really nailed it this year." Every single year, the major awards shows are losing more credibility. It seems like the group of "experts" that choose the winners are half in touch with what's going on but not really plugged in and far behind the rest of the music community. Like, maybe they get their music cues from SNL performances, Ellen show appearances, and last year's "Best Of" lists, but they certainly aren't doing anything to dispell the industry circle-jerk reputation they've earned for themselves. After Bon Iver won Best New Artist in 2012 (the debut came out in February of 2008), I think a lot of us just stopped caring.

Sorry, Americans. We know, we're supposed to be all, "U-S-A! U-S-A!" but when it comes to music, Europe keeps its edge. While EDM is still just picking up in the U.S., Europe is already miles ahead of us in that genre and has been for years. America has its scenes, but countries like England, Sweden, and Iceland are beaming with creativity and pushing things forward, redefining what cool is and where the future lies. We're not saying America doesn't have good music—it does—but Europe is like that not-even-trying-too-hard cool kid who everyone is trying to keep up with.

10 FEMALE BRITISH SINGERS YOU SHOULD KNOW

It just does. It has become a tool for major labels and it works against the direction in which music as a whole is heading. The best thing about the Internet for music lovers is that we have access to sounds from all over the world. We can seek things out, we can discover new songs, and we can hear interesting artists who aren't being pushed on us because of a record deal. The radio hasn't caught on to this, and it's becoming more and more obvious. Yes, the radio is still relevant and it is still powerful in its reach, but more people are starting to realize that when they get into their car and turn the radio on and hear Rihanna's "Diamonds" every 30 minutes, something is wrong. With so much great music out there and so much access to it all, why are we still depending on stubborn, jaded old mediums to decide what we listen to?

There is no shortage of good music these days. We've got access to more of it than ever, and with so many new things happening all at once, it's one of the most exciting times in music, ever, hands down. Never before have we been able to keep up with so many interesting things at once. That being said, how much will all of this music last? Things are more fragmented than ever, and while that ensures that everyone gets exactly what they want, it also extinguishes the possibility for a lot of stars we can all agree on.

The most popular music in the world is mostly running on cycles—songs come out, hit the charts, get played out on radio, and usually disappear within a matter of months. But we have no real rock stars, our pop stars come and go like the latest style trends, and half of the most successful artists in the world are arguably more about entertainment than they are about music. We look back at artists like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, Led Zeppelin. Who do we have today? Look around and ask yourself, honestly, who is going to matter in 50 years?

To a lot of kids that grow up without The Beatles, the '60s supergroup is just another overhyped classic rock/pop band. At the time, they were innovative game-changers that everyone could agree on. They made great music, and we may never be able to understand the feeling of anticipating the next big Beatles album. But things have changed, and you can't expect a kid that grew up on hip-hop, pop, and EDM to listen to The Beatles and not get bored. Good, old-fashioned songwriting isn't enough to hold most listeners' attention these days. Not saying we agree with that, but we get it.