Were we better off 40 years ago?

[eastlondonseagull]

I think life was simpler 40yrs ago and people expectations weren't strangling them. Quality of life is much higher now but people seem less satisfied with what they have.

To be fair, though, does having more than three TV channels make life BETTER? I'm not sure it does. It means there's more vacuous bollocks on the box, wasting my time.

Not that I was around 40 years ago, mind, but there were only three telly channels when I was growing up. Hardly ever watched the telly as a kid. It was fantastic. Life was much simpler.

 

[Gwylan]

I thought this was a strange comment to make as well. Discounting anything by Dylan, Joplin, Hendrix, The Who, Eric Clapton (although he came into his heyday post 1971) and any rock & roll.

Of course there were pockets of good music 40 years ago (of your list I have records by four of the artists, Hendrix and Joplin were dead in 1971 and Dylan and Clapton were coming to the end of their creative period) but there was an awful conformity about it. I do have albums from that era - one of the greatest albums of all, What's Going On, is from 1971, Can, probably my favourite band of all were at their peak then and there were others. But I think the choice is so much better these days.

If you went into a record shop then, 95% of the music would be by British or American artists -these days you can pick up music from everywhere in the world. If you want to mix Icelandic trance music with a Balkan brass band or a Bollywood soundrack with South African mbaqanga,you can - these would have been completely unheard of 40 years ago.

And there's the distribution too - I can get all these by pressing a key. No going to record shops and you don't even have to wait for a band to be signed by a label, the control is with the artists. That's got to be better than 40 years ago.

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

The start of Sunday trading kicked open the stable door-

 

[NMH]

Of course there were pockets of good music 40 years ago (of your list I have records by four of the artists, Hendrix and Joplin were dead in 1971 and Dylan and Clapton were coming to the end of their creative period) but there was an awful conformity about it. I do have albums from that era - one of the greatest albums of all, What's Going On, is from 1971, Can, probably my favourite band of all were at their peak then and there were others. But I think the choice is so much better these days.

If you went into a record shop then, 95% of the music would be by British or American artists -these days you can pick up music from everywhere in the world. If you want to mix Icelandic trance music with a Balkan brass band or a Bollywood soundrack with South African mbaqanga,you can - these would have been completely unheard of 40 years ago.

And there's the distribution too - I can get all these by pressing a key. No going to record shops and you don't even have to wait for a band to be signed by a label, the control is with the artists. That's got to be better than 40 years ago.

A friend in the US has several walls loaded with albums from all over the World, of funk, acid-jazz, psych and progressive music.
Consequently I've been familiarized with some amazing good records that I could never know existed otherwise - and most of it comes from the period between 1967 and 1974. eBay of course, has provided most of the obscure gems for me.
I have collected 45s too, from the UK and USA mainly.

To hear all that stuff in the day would have been tough, and even when I did I bought a couple of crap records on the strength of one interesting track I'd heard.

The means now exists for me to find amazing good sounds, hear them several times first and explore the other tracks - then take a punt on buying the LP when it comes up for sale.

Some cool music came out back then, but of course it's not all about going on living in the past - there's great music now as then, got to just keep your mind open

[yt]7NNn8Kyrnoo[/yt]

[yt]gu87-le-h2g[/yt]

 

[Buzzer]

Of course there were pockets of good music 40 years ago (of your list I have records by four of the artists, Hendrix and Joplin were dead in 1971 and Dylan and Clapton were coming to the end of their creative period) but there was an awful conformity about it. I do have albums from that era - one of the greatest albums of all, What's Going On, is from 1971, Can, probably my favourite band of all were at their peak then and there were others. But I think the choice is so much better these days.

If you went into a record shop then, 95% of the music would be by British or American artists -these days you can pick up music from everywhere in the world. If you want to mix Icelandic trance music with a Balkan brass band or a Bollywood soundrack with South African mbaqanga,you can - these would have been completely unheard of 40 years ago.

And there's the distribution too - I can get all these by pressing a key. No going to record shops and you don't even have to wait for a band to be signed by a label, the control is with the artists. That's got to be better than 40 years ago.

I disagree with most of this. There was probably as much good music then as there is now and conversely as much bad music too. You say there was an awful conformity about it but that's partly the music that hasn't dated well sounds of a type. You could say the same about punk, glam, modern romantic, jangly indie, poodle rock, Britpop, Jungle, Gangster Rap or any other genre of music that was of a time. In years to come I expect people to say the same about dubstep. I'd also point out that lot of artists have had to take control of their own music as a lot of record companies play safe with generic types. It's a fair comment to say that a lot of chart stuff is vocoder/auto-tune or warbly sub-R&B or cheesy electro-pop. And of course, it's purely subjective to say that it sounds the same. If you aren't into a genre of music and don't spend much time investigating it then I think it is bound to sound samey. I really love minimal techno and I can appreciate the nuances of a particular tune or DJ set. I'm not a big fan of urban R&B and think that a lot of it sounds the same. It all depends on the listener.

The access to music is now much better but that's not to say that great music wasn't being made nor was it unavailable. You just had to spend a lot more time and money getting hold of it. The reason why you wouldn't have been able to get hold of Icelandic trance music 40 years ago was because trance didn't exist but musicians had been mixing different music styles from different cultures back then in the 60s. The 60s was awash with White British soul boys finding a kindred spirit in deep south blues or Indian sitar music or whatever. Fela Kuti was playing in British Jazz bars way back in 1960. The medium for accessing the music was different but it was still there. If you go into any of the big high street stores that sell music it will still be overwhelmingly British/American, I doubt that will ever change. Do me a favour tomorrow and go to HMV and see how many Icelandic trance albums you can buy. (Actually - if you know of any Icelandic trance acts, please let me know). The niche shops that sell the different stuff now serve the same purpose as the niche shops 40 odd years ago. There was no internet but there was pirate radio, there were clubs and bars and there were the music mags that sold in their hundreds of thousands.

And finally I really want to nail this idea that the music was 'generally' rubbish 40 years ago. Here's the charts from 40 years ago, this week
1 Brown Sugar - Rolling Stones
2 It Don't Come Easy - Ringo Starr
3 Joy To The World - Three Dog Night
4 Another Day - Paul McCartney
5 (Where Do I Begin) Love Story - Andy Williams
6 Rose Garden - Lynn Anderson
7 Hot Love - T.Rex
8 I Am...I Said - Neil Diamond
9 Power To The People - John Lennon & Plastic Ono Band
10 Knock Three Times - Dawn Bell

Now of those I'd say at least 4 of those are classics and I've heard of another 4 and they range (in my opinion) from okay to so-so, leaving 2 I have never heard of.

The charts today:
1. Pitbull - Give Me Everything
2. Aloe Blacc - I need a dollar
3. Alexander Stan - Mr Saxobeat
4. LMFAO - Party rock anthem
5. Bruno Mars - Lazy Song
6. Alex Gaudino - What a Feeling
7. Chris Brown - Beautiful People
8. Rihanna - King Bed
9 Snoop Dogg - Sweat
10 Jennifer Lopez - Into You

Now I'm not trying to say that the music nowadays is worse just that popular chart music 40 years ago compared to popular chart music nowadays seems to stand up well in terms of variety and also quality. I appreciate the demographics of the average singles buyer nowadays is a 14 yr old girl but it does prove that in some ways its more difficult getting access to 'good' music because the onus now is on the listener to go find it and a lot of musicians might only release music as part of an album or EP.

Whereas nowadays I spend a lot of time on the internet listening to new music, 40 years ago I'd have been in one of the many record shops hunting stuff out. And I'd go to a lot more gigs. It's definitely not better or worse - just different.

 

[ewe2]

IMO each generation defend their "bit "of life .

 

[Seagull27]

Just a thought. But I'm going to generalise on this and say that most of the people on here who were around in those times were probably in their teens/early twenties then. Many people consider that sort of age to be the best years of their life, and likely associate the things that went on during those times with the happy memories they have. So is it possible that this is why people remember 30-40 years ago more favourably?

 

[pork pie]

In many ways we were better off.

You could say what you like without the PC brigade getting on their high horse.
You could get served in pubs without stupid ID checks for under 25s.
Kids could get to football, and into the match for "pocket money" prices.
There was no pathetic Human Rights Act.
The Labour party had not completely f***ed the Country.
People were proud to be British without being accused of being Nazis.

Obviously, there are a great number of things that are better now as well.

 

[HoveHorace]

40 years ago we were moaning that we hadn't won the World Cup for 5 years !

 

[Seagull on the wing]

40 Years ago you could hear a new song and the next day sing/hum/whistle the tune,,,nowadays you hear a new tune and cannot remember how it goes 15 mins later.

 

[Vicar!]

OKI I am sad! Forty years ago you certainly could not get a decent pint of beer unless you were exceptionally lucky. We now have more breweries than before the war. The now wins on that one. (I will have Kunzel cakes back though)

 

[cyanide-sid]

How anyone can be content in a society that doesn`t make Spangles any more is beyond me.

 

[cyanide-sid]

Seagullonthewing

40 Years ago you could hear a new song and the next day sing/hum/whistle the tune,,,nowadays you hear a new tune and cannot remember how it goes 15 mins later.


That`s dementia for you.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

You can get coffee ice cream at the end of my road in Hove.

... but the post office is no longer run by an England cricketer (as it was in 1971).

 

[sydney]

oh how i remember those saturday mornings when i was about 6 or 7 , mum and dad at work , big brother supposed to be looking after me but upstairs , noisily banging his attractive welsh tart jillian , partially incinerating the kitchen making myself the mother of all bacon sandwiches ( bacon doesn't taste the same these days) stretching out on the sofa like little lord fontleroy, fantasising over maggie philbin's cleavage (and later on sally james). legging it across the road in my blue dressing gown to the sweet shop after rifling my mum's spare coat for change , mintolas , curly wurlies , texans, walnut whips , outer spacers (pickled onion flavoured , the ones that used to make you wince) jim the butcher jokingly waving his razor sharp cleaver at me from the shop doorway"you wait till i tell your dad you little bastard " he would joyfully shout after me. coming back through the front door to see jillians massive ginger minge disappearing back up the stairs ( minge , there is no minge any more !! not that i'm complaining , i personally f***ing despise the stuff ) i would hang around at the bottom of the stairs hoping for another eyeful only to be moved along by a shoe or boot lovingly hurled down the stairs by my brother..........why don't you turn off your tv set and go and do something more interesting instead.... only in the school holidays though. every now and then one of the junkies above the launderette would od and an ambulance would come and bring them round and take them away on a stretcher whilst being abused to f*** as the narcan kicked in , foreign student causing a stir by sunbathing , topless on worthing beach..........so many happy memories

it is an interesting fact that the youth suicide figures in australia and america are alarmingly high.......and this , in what are the two most prosperous countries on the planet. less is definitely more and i think people just generally have too much of everthing these days.....!!!

 

[Gwylan]

I disagree with most of this. There was probably as much good music then as there is now and conversely as much bad music too. You say there was an awful conformity about it but that's partly the music that hasn't dated well sounds of a type. You could say the same about punk, glam, modern romantic, jangly indie, poodle rock, Britpop, Jungle, Gangster Rap or any other genre of music that was of a time.

Lee, that's not the point I was making. It's the variety that's different - just look at all genres you mention. A record shop 40 years ago would have had Pop, Progressive, Soul, Country, Jazz and Easy Listening - that would have been it.

The access to music is now much better but that's not to say that great music wasn't being made nor was it unavailable. You just had to spend a lot more time and money getting hold of it.

Maybe if you lived in the big cities but even in a place like Brighton, you'd have been hard pushed to find anything out of the ordinary.

If you go into any of the big high street stores that sell music it will still be overwhelmingly British/American, I doubt that will ever change. Do me a favour tomorrow and go to HMV and see how many Icelandic trance albums you can buy. (Actually - if you know of any Icelandic trance acts, please let me know). The niche shops that sell the different stuff now serve the same purpose as the niche shops 40 odd years ago. There was no internet but there was pirate radio, there were clubs and bars and there were the music mags that sold in their hundreds of thousands.

I agree that you wouldn't find a lot of good stuff in the mainstream record shops but there are now places that cater for all sorts of tastes. But the music mags you mentioned covered pretty much the same sort of stuff as the record shops - they might have more emphasis on Captain Beefheart or Keith Jarrett but they would have scarcely mentioned Fela Kuti.

Whereas nowadays I spend a lot of time on the internet listening to new music, 40 years ago I'd have been in one of the many record shops hunting stuff out. And I'd go to a lot more gigs. It's definitely not better or worse - just different.

As I said, there weren't the record shops around. London had them but few other places. I went to Bradford in 1977 (at the time the 9th biggest city in England and the only record shops there were HMV and the section in WHSmith and the Co-op (a reggae shop did open up a year later). Try telling the kids in Bradford to hunt for obscure records.

Agree about the gigs though. I went to at least two gigs a week in the mid-70s, sometimes four or five. The ears were ringing.

 

[goldstone]

As it was my initial statement that started off this thread I guess I'm entitled to comment.

By no means everything was better 40 years ago, but a hell of a lot was.

Music ... that list of the charts 40 years ago is full of great songs. The current one, rubbish.

Shopping had it's challenges back then. No Sunday opening, early closing in the evening and lunch time closing in small towns and villages. But service was generally better. At least there was some.

Freedom for kids to go out all day to play and get home in time for tea. Less concerns by parents about where their kids were every minute of the day.

No worries back then about the current political correctness rubbish. You could pretty much say what you liked and the world was a better place for that.

Health and safety was almost unheard of. People took risks in everyday life and put up with the consequencies without some bureaucrat telling us what we could and couldn't do.

You could go to a football match at the Goldstone without having to book ahead.

Sure there were traffic jams, but nowhere near the awful situation we are faced with now on almost a daily basis.

Terrorism was almost unheard of.

Muslims were people who lived in far off places and didn't bother the rest of the world. The only ones we had heard of were Muhammed Ali and Cat Stevens.

The only immigrants we had in the UK were from the West Indies. Lovely people who worked hard and knew how to enjoy life. And the majority planned to return home after they had made some money.

You could impress girls by driving an MGB.

 

[Simster]

It was safer back then for kids to be out on their own and kids actually went out an played together rather than sat in front of a tv screen playing computer games. Less obesity as a result.

But was it really, or are people just more paranoid now?

Statistically, kids have never been safer - it is surely much harder for paedophiles to get anywhere near positions where they are responsible for a child. I coach at the rugby and cricket clubs and have needed separate CRB checks for each. However, every child disappearance/case of neglect is publicised, which ought to be a good thing but unfortunately skews people's attitudes about their child's safety.

Conversely, back in the 50s
i) a kid went missing for three days from my dad's class at school. Turns out he had been kidnapped and subjected to sexual abuse by two men - the police got them, but everyone at school was told he had been "ill" and nothing was made public.
ii) my step dad went to public school in North Wales. There was a kiddy fiddler on the teaching staff. All the boys knew about him and cowered every night hoping he wouldn't go into the dormitories.

This is how life used to be.

And on another subject:

Terrorism was almost unheard of.

Weren't the IRA active in the early 70s?

 

[bhaexpress]

Music, I remember people who were my age now moaning about rubbish in the charts, if music didn't change we'd all be rocking out to Mozart.

Shopping service better ? Debatable but now we have far more choice in terms of what and when and how we shop, damn sight more convenient.

Kids were in just as much danger then as now, remember Hindley and Brady for example ? There was no Childline then either.

Right about the Political Correctness, just a lot more racism, sexism and homophobia.

Health and Safety vastly improved, what's wrong with that ? How many more people are alive now that seat belts are compulsory for example ?

You could go to most games at the Goldstone without booking ahead but forty years ago the highest we had been was fours seasons in Division Two with most of our history getting nowhere in Division Three.

We had fewer motorways and to say we had fewer jams is madness, driving on any bank holiday was a nightmare.

Terrorism ? What about the IRA ? Forgotten them ?

Cat Stevens wasn't a Muslim forty years ago. He converted after nearly drowning in 1976. Petrol was cheaper though.

We had plenty of immigrants but they were not really allowed to say much. Huge number of Irish people here (I went to a Catholic School).

If you needed an MGB to impress women you had 'issues' although they weren't called that then. The average City car can out perform an MGB now (0-60 in 11.8 second).

 

[bhaexpress]

Statistically, kids have never been safer - it is surely much harder for paedophiles to get anywhere near positions where they are responsible for a child. I coach at the rugby and cricket clubs and have needed separate CRB checks for each. However, every child disappearance/case of neglect is publicised, which ought to be a good thing but unfortunately skews people's attitudes about their child's safety.

Conversely, back in the 50s
i) a kid went missing for three days from my dad's class at school. Turns out he had been kidnapped and subjected to sexual abuse by two men - the police got them, but everyone at school was told he had been "ill" and nothing was made public.
ii) my step dad went to public school in North Wales. There was a kiddy fiddler on the teaching staff. All the boys knew about him and cowered every night hoping he wouldn't go into the dormitories.

This is how life used to be.

And on another subject:
Weren't the IRA active in the early 70s?

Correct and correct. There was nowhere near the level of awareness that there is now. However it should be said that the internet has allowed paedophiles to communicate better though however it's also easier to detect at the same time.