When it comes to music, deciding a preference can be very difficult for me because I feel every song out there has a message, a style, a melody and most importantly, how a listener feels about each one of them. I may like a song so much for it's beautiful melody and lyrics and someone else hates that same song for it's genre or the artist.
Taking us back to the 90's musically, I have a lot to say about my feelings towards songs of then. But before we back that far, I'll love to start with what I think about modern music and why I might prefer songs of now compared to songs in the 90's. I'll stress on the fact that each generation has the best songs regardless of their time.
One thing we have to take note of is, modern music will in the future be like how the 90's were to us, to our children. Out of the many things that is evolving, music is one of the most interesting ones. Coming from that angle, it feels unnecessary to decide which generation had the best kind of songs. But I'll share my reasons still.
While "Modern Music" have more of pop and electronic influences, songs from the 90's were dominated by R&B, hip-hop and a lot classic sounds. We still have those kind of sounds from the 90's now in some modern music but there is the nostalgia from listening to the ones from those times. It's the beauty of the 90's songs.
Maybe it was the kind of 90's songs I was exposed to growing up, compared to recent songs, I think the songs from 90's focused more on social issues, relationships and storytelling. I can still remember a lot of old songs that told a lot of stories. Recent songs are more on mental health, personal struggles and empowerment.
I guess it's because we now have more technology, recent music are heavily produced and polished but songs from the 90's often had raw, live sound. There's much help to make music sound a lot better than there was before. It didn't make music of old any less great than recent music but I'll give kudos to the 90's artists talent.
For the most important reason I'll prefer the modern music to the 90's, it is more globalized and accessible due to the internet and streaming services allowing artists to reach wider audience all over the world. Very much unlike before where only those who could afford cassette could listen to good music but I still miss that nostalgic.
Music is broad, interesting and evolving, needs all the appreciation it can get from it's lovers. And so, I don't see need to prefer one over another as I feel each generation should appreciate those who are keeping music alive as we evolve to more generations. I had a good time with music from 90's and I'm doing same with recent music.
Images are AI generated