The older music we listen to has been curated much more extensively over time, so we now only listen to (and/or remember) the sample set that’s highly skewed to the best stuff of its era.
There’s been some (imho) outstanding 4x4 music over the years. But, just like in any other genre, the percentage of great stuff is relatively low.
Listening to uncurated 50s, 60s, 70s etc song lists is (for me) as unbearable as listening to uncurated EDM (or any other uncurated music).
i mostly agree …. being born in 1952 and only having radio / vinyl, i listened to the top 40 as well as the bottom 40 , for decades. i find that (till 2000) rarely found the complexity of 70/80,s music. you could find a lot more instances of key changes and more importantly complete changes in dynamics. almost like a whole new song jammed in the middle….
yes , there are people who say….”sure we boomers only think the music is better because we had our first girlfriend or first joint while listening to the songs , and maybe that’s true to a point. but i remember taking my daughter to concerts with bands from the 70’s and she told me that music was frequently better than the current (at the time). she ran out and bought a record player and old vinyl….
but maybe my memory is tainted for the above reasons.
i think for fun, i am going to listen to the top 10 popular songs for each year from the 50:‘s on, and see if the music ‘improved’ with regard to composition etc. i am probably not gifted enough to draw any professional opinions , but i’m curious. and it may be fun.