Lately I've been hearing a lot of talk about the lack of creativity in modern music and it irks me a bit. Music is an art form and as with any form of art, it progresses and evolves. Modern music evolved based off what was happening before hand. For example, things like hard rock and punk, along with the influence of Black Sabbath helped to revolutionize and bring about the genre of Metal (in particular, thrash metal). Then with Slayer's influence on thrash, evolved the genre of Death Metal. This is just one example of an evolution in music, as there infinite possibilities that I could list.

But the main fact remains, music is an art and will evolve as so. People are constantly saying it's becoming stagnant. Though if you take a closer look, music has actually evolved a lot in the last 20 years. We've seen an evolution from grunge and alternative rock more to hard rock and metal (that's usually influenced heavily by what was done by bands like Maiden or Priest). And for the pop side, electro and house in the 80s has influenced a lot of the pop music being written today. Rap has also evolved (maybe not in lyrical content), but in structure it definitely has. Also the strong emergence of electronic music is becoming more relevant due to groups like Pendulum and Julien-K.

While we may not be getting the nostalgia we're looking for in music today, the point is that good music does exist and it just takes a bit of listening and willingness to open your ears up to a new experience. Which is something people did when bands were popping up in the early 60s and rock was still young. Also for people to say music is over commercialized, I'd just like to say, bands/groups/artist had even less control over the direction of the music in the past. In fact most of them were sheep to the system and only put out hits to make money. One of these groups, were known as the Beatles, early in their career their music was heavily commercialized and produced for the exclusive thought of making a "hit". To say music in the past wasn't or isn't nearly as commercialized as music is today, is a lie.

Btw the music I primarily listen to is progressive, avant garde, and different in style. But I'm also open to anything that sounds good (which is why it is impossible to list all my favorite groups).

(Some of) My (primary) favorite musicians and bands: The Mars Volta, The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, Frank Zappa, Mr. Bungle, Pink Floyd, Blue Oyster Cult, Rush, Muse, Tool, Mastodon, Avenged Sevenfold, S.O.A.D, Serj Tankian, Rage Against the Machine, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Al Di Mieloa, Led Zepplin, Alice in Chains, At The Drive In, Incubus, Dream Theater (though not so much these days), Klayton/CellDweller, Pendulum, Julien-K, David Gilmour, Syd Barrett... And of course, Pinkly Smooth.