So how come a lot of music and games suck now?

I can't recall a great game coming out in the past 5 years, similarly I haven't heard a good rock or hip hop album in about 3 years.

I don't know much about movies but the demographic there doesn't seem to be much better because all I hear talked about is action movies and nothing actually else really about it.

So am I the only one that feels disinterested in modern culture?

Nope, there's plenty of good stuff out there.

The problem is that there's also a lot more generic/average/mediocre/subpar/whatever stuff available, which requires some digging on our part in order to reach the treasures. I found this most noticeable with music, there's so many bands out there that finding something that really stands out of the crowd is a challenge in itself.

So, all that being said, the main point is, unless you do your research you'll have a hard time enjoying what's coming out these days, or at least when it comes to music, I haven't followed carefully what's going on in the gaming department, though there's been at least a few good games coming out in the recent years.

i dunno what kind of games are you even looking for? if you're just looking at the big fps games you're going to have a bad time if they aren't your cup of tea. but there's much more to modern than a bunch of military fps games. i can't comment on music, i basically listen to nothing relevant, but games are all over the place now and many are very good.

You're not looking very hard. Incredible indie games have always been coming out nonstop. There's a lower level of consistency with triple-a games, but still plenty of quality releases. 

I don't play much new games nowadays, but i'm pretty sure there are some good ones out there.

The music however sucks indeed. I despise that over-produced shit that comes out in mass these days, I feel like everything sounds the same and originality is gone. The best option at this point is the underground.

There's still good stuff being made but it's harder to find, as @Agent6 said above. The mainstream channels push all the crap in our faces so we don't notice the little guy.

That's mostly in regards to games and music, maybe TV shows too. I think movies these days suck across the board.

Welcome to the falacies that come with age ;D

I think Agent6 said it right. Nowadays making music and games is easier than ever. Of course that means having more crap to sort through. But the goods stuff still exists.

You're older and therefore more critical. That's normal. It's how it has always worked. Eventually, you will reach the end stage where you yell at clouds.

Also, presumably, hopefully, your parents were curating the stuff you got as a child, filtering out the bad. That's something they're supposed to do after all.

I don't look forward to new games with the same excitement or anticipation as I did as a child, but that's mainly because as a child I hadn't played that many games and so it was easier for individual games to stand out from the crowd - once we get older and play more and more games we get more critical and it gets harder to find games that stand out from what we've already seen before.

Genres of games go through a similar ageing process - as they mature their development runs into diminishing returns.  I grew up in the late 80s and 90s so I got into first person shooters as they were in their infancy and the likes of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake and Half-Life were making revolutionary changes.  Nowadays it is much harder to make a FPS game that really stands out, which may well be partly why many of the latest ones are tapping into nostalgia.

There were plenty of bad games around in the 1990s, but I think it is true that in today's digital distribution age it is easier to get a lot of exposure to the bad stuff and harder to filter it out and focus on the good stuff. 

I collect a fair number of film soundtracks and find that there's still a fair amount of good film music coming out these days.  A lot of popular music does sound much the same to me these days, but I also felt that way about it in the 1990s.

There's simply more stuff out there. That brings more good stuff, but also more mediocre, and more terrible stuff. It just takes more effort to find the good.

Regarding games, this gen is already one of the best, by virtue of having a higher bar for AAA releases and the spread of indie games. Frankly speaking, this gen is substantially better than every other gen apart from the 6th (PS2, XBox, GameCube, etc) and 4th (Genesis, SNES, etc).

Music is a more interesting case. There are sub-genres within sub-genres now and there are hundreds of bands trying to get their voices heard. You have a lot more options for your musical palate but simultaneously have to deal with several bands trying to compete for your ear. This effectively makes a lot of them sound samey, even in niche genres.

Other mediums like television, anime, books, and movies haven't really changed too much. Most are mediocre to trash as usual, but there are always a few good ones around. I guess you can frame an argument by claiming there aren't any "visionaries" anymore, but that's quite a different topic to deal with.

Or maybe you are just older, more critical, and more aware of your tastes. You could try revisiting some of the games/music/movies/books/etc. that you grew up with or have fond memories of. Chances are that they don't really hold up well.

have you tried to research for stuff from other parts of the world? for example: do you know anything about japanese rock bands (and by extension the Visual Kei movement)? would you rather listen to colombian-style cumbia or salsa?

as for movies, i'm not an aficionado so i can't say anything. that said, the last couple times i went to see a movie were pretty disappointing because i wanted a more satisfying ending. all i want is to see the hero kill the antagonist, Mortal Kombat-style. i miss seeing some blood, and a more adrenaline-pumping music. instead, it's always some generic orchestra. i want a shooting scene, filmed on a GoPro camera with some industrial rock music (like KMFDM, Blue Stahli and/or Celldweller) on the background.

and for games:

my main concern these days is not about the actual games, but about being able to play them for years to come. i stay away from any and every game that have DRM which requires you to be online in order to play as well as multiplayer-only games that don't allow players to host their own servers. i don't want to have to do this, but if those greedy publishers keep putting expiration dates on games, i will give up buying any new games entirely.

also, i'm not fond of indie games because most of the time, the developers live in the past instead of making something truly original. i can't stand 8 and 16-bit style games in this day and age; if i wanted a retro platformer, i'd rather play an actual oldschool platformer, and not something that imitates the past. why don't they make, for example, more non-fantasy RPG games? or a FPS with anime-style graphics? 

summary: to quote an old Microsoft slogan; "Where Do You Want To Go Today?" ask yourself what would you like to see, hear or play and look for it. another good tip is to search for things from a particular time period that you may have missed out on for whatever reason.

1 hour ago, Marcaek said:

there was plenty of crap in the 90s and 00s, dont kid yourself

even the 80's had it's share of garbage, too.

Why are there so many threads asking why someone's controversial opinion is correct?  Half the comments will be triggered people saying random stuff that barely makes sense.  Just ask "what are your thought on _____________?" or something less assertive. 

About the actual topic:

I thought that there were plenty of good new games and music.  I can't think up any good examples but I've been a lot less bored recently than even just 1 year ago.

I think the best stuff tends to hang around, and the worst stuff is neglected and forgotten. Over a few decades, we only see the best of those times, and get a skewed perception of what the past had to offer.

It's a survivor bias of sorts. Music from the 80s and 90s seem so much better than what we hear today because nowadays we only hear the best of that era. There was lots and lots of trash music back then as well, but nobody listens to it anymore. Whatever is popular right now is still fresh so we get the crap mixed in with what's good. In 10 years or so, the music today will likely seem to be of much higher quality because by then only the best songs of today will be remembered.

The same goes for games. Sure, the 90s gave us our Doom and our Duke Nukem and our Quake and whatnot, but keep in mind all of the stuff that didn't do so well. There are dozens of Doom and Wolfenstein clones that are never mentioned, and truly untold hordes of other shovelware games. Only the greatest games from that era are still played today. Today we get to hear about nearly every major release, whether the game will end up being legendary or something that nobody will want to play by next year. Therefore the perceived quality of games goes down when compared to the "greats" of the past.

In general, I think that there is always good music, games, movies, shows, books, etc. However, there is always mediocre, bad and terrible shit that gets poured on top of the good. I think part of the reason why it's so much easier to find examples of good culture from a past time period is because the stuff that may have been more popular, but was crap, doesn't hold up and people who aren't blinded by nostalgia will be less likely to revisit the crap from that time period, and will instead rediscover the good stuff and recommend it to others who may be interested in things from that time period.

METAPHOR TIME!!!

Lets say you have two manure piles. Both of them are embedded with diamonds at varying depths, and the deeper it's buried, the larger it is. One of the piles is fresh and is still being dumped on, the other has been drying for over a decade. Which one would you say is easier to dig through?

I think there has always been a handful of awful or unamusing content. But over the years, gaining a platform to advertise or try to sell your media has become much easier, whether it's good or not.

A lot of games these days seem to be focusing too heavily on graphics and not as much on gameplay and content.

Everything was better back in the good old days.

I think games are still great. Just harder to spot for reasons others already mentioned, it's saturated full of crap but there is gold and gems hidden everywhere.

I can't talk for music.

As for movies, my interest in them has definitely dropped and more in favour of tv series. I wish more movies were fun like in the 80s and 90s. Terminator, Robocop, Aliens etc. I can still watch them NOT just for nostalgia.

the only song i listen to is 96 Quite Bitter Beings and the only video game i play is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

I've read this same thing every year for the past 20 years. Now of course I wouldn't mind if publishers finally fucking understand a game might need more time to be done or it'll get bombarded with shit reviews and downright kill the franchise, but that seems too hard for them since it's been happening every year. (Especially for strategy games. Farewell C&C, HOMM and a lot more)

there's probably ten genius albums/mixtapes uploaded a week

there's probably ten genius indie games uploaded a week

if you're jaded then don't pretend your finger's on the pulse of any of it

ludicrous talent abounds but it can't compete with that sort of prejudice

14 hours ago, Phantom-Kai said:

I think there has always been a handful of awful or unamusing content. But over the years, gaining a platform to advertise or try to sell your media has become much easier, whether it's good or not.

This.  There was always a lot of bad stuff that's largely forgotten, but skewed perspective of how people remember stuff aside, there's a greater tendency and ability nowadays for people to try to sell stuff that's half-assed.  Back in the late 90s/early aughts there was sort of a golden age of freeware games where if someone made a game that was trivial and amateurish they often released it for free and even if it was a bit unpolished, if you got any enjoyment out of it you were happy because hey, free games (and this was back before "freeware" effectively meant "we inserted malware to scam profits off your 'free' download").  Nowadays you'll see the same type of trivial/amateur junk sold on download stores as an "indie game" or rigged up with a microtransaction system instead.

as far as games go, 5 years?! are you joking i could name loads, as far as hiphop that died easily in 98 to 2001 its called pop now, rock as had loads of albums out just depends on your taste.

I think it's because you get locked into a like / genre when you hit a certain year in your teenage years. Everything is downhill from there.

There is a lot of good music coming out. There are lots of fantastic games coming out, too big to fail and the indies cover every genre you can ever want.

With that said, I'd argue my local radio stations are starting to suck. Lots of ads, lots of radio DJ banter even outside of the morning hours. Songs are being played that blatantly go against the genres of the station. I got tired of all 6 of my radio presets and decided to scan for something new and fresh... that new and fresh I found was a station that plays hip hop, RnB from the 90s. The reason why it's so awesome is they must not have a lot of any sponsors, because there's no DJs and no commercials. On rare occasion there's one. I don't even like hip hop or RnB, but ya know hearing it for the first time in 20+ years with no ads, suddenly it's awesome.

The worth of something being produced have exponentially lost its value over the years, nutshelled.

Sometimes even "nightcore" versions of already existing music are considered a separate produce, take note of that. This, and that nightcore only became a term when people got bored w/ "chipmunk version" .

There's something very interesting at play here, which is how the zeitgeist values and interprets art as paradigm shifts influence our day-to-day lives. Much of the 20th century, artistically, was guided by extreme enthusiasm about the future. There was a constant push to establish new conventions, whether the form be musical, cinematic, photographic, animated, sculptural, painted, etc. You can see that all throughout the century, each decade established its own aesthetic, informed by our fixation on the future and tendency to integrate computer technology into art.

It would seem that the current nostalgia wave—which is nothing new, but is simply more pronounced now—began somewhere in the late 70s and early 80s, as the aesthetic shifted toward something of a reinterpretation of 50s chic. Why this happened at that time is not clear, although I suspect that the introduction of punk culture and the rise of post-modern critique played major roles. This led to a 60s/70s revival in the 90s, and not long after an 80s and more recently 90s revival. What this means is that the focus is now less on the future and more on remixing the past.

Combine this with the manner in which the Internet has democratized information, and what you're left with is a nostalgia-obsessed zeitgeist pushing technology that allows everyone to participate. As a result, there's a lot of uninteresting and uninspired art that is very dominant, with only a small corner of the artisan world pushing for the future. This will likely change when we become bored of constantly remixing the past.

"Modern culture sucks, we peaked in the 90's..." 

Lmao you Cray cray