4 ms·

I saw a study online that showed music hadn't changed much since then. I suppose the test would be to ask the same question of a group of people in their 20s, 3

by gmarx 12y ago

I saw a study online that showed music hadn't changed much since then. I suppose the test would be to ask the same question of a group of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s,50s, 60s etc. In contrast BTW, I think television from back then seems bizarre and old.

ghaff 12y ago
You can certainly find TV shows for the 80s that would seem pretty normal today. http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/11/the-80-best-tv-shows-of-the-1980s.html?a=1 http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/11/the-80-best... There was a lot of crap but then there always is. But you go back to the 70s and with a few exceptions, e.g. MAS*H, they start to look considerably different and less watchable by a modern audience except as cultural artifacts.
- WalterBright 12y ago
  It's strange to say, but TV has gotten a lot better decade by decade. There was simply nothing remotely like "Breaking Bad" in the 60's or 70's. I recently watched an episode of "Charlies Angels" and was surprised at how insipid and simply awful it was, and it was a hit show in its days. The proliferation of options for people to watch has forced an upgrade in the quality of the writing.
  - ghaff 12y ago
    Breaking Bad is a high bar and Charlies Angels was always pretty low-brow fluff but I agree with your basic point. There were some good shows (Twilight Zone for example). But the list of shows from that era that are truly enjoyable today is pretty thin in a way that isn't true for movies. While a show like Breaking Bad isn't to everyone's taste--and arguably doesn't work without time shifting and even maybe the Internet--anyone who tries to argue that there's nothing good on TV any longer basically doesn't know what they're talking about.
    - ForHackernews 12y ago
      Twilight Zone is an interesting case, because while it's still quite watchable today, it's very obviously a different style than anything on modern television. Watching Twilight Zone episodes feels like watching a video tape of a stage production. The acting is much broader, the sets are more suggestive than realistic. It's clear that they had good writers and performers, but they were still finding their feet in a totally new medium.
    - WalterBright 12y ago
      Sure, BB isn't for everyone. But there's Suits, and House of Cards and Sons of Anarchy, it goes on. The good stuff today far, far exceeds the best of the 70's. Of course, there's plenty of crap on TV today, but I'm talking about the good stuff from each era. Yes, Twilight Zone was good. I think it was quite an anomaly.
  - buckbova 12y ago
    I think something like Alfred Hitchcock Presents is very watchable today and I often do. You get a little mystery and murder and all within an hour. There were other watchable programs, like Perry Mason or something. It depends on your taste. There's an incredible amount of bad programming on today, in my opinion of course. See any Kardashian-esque reality TV program. I can't watch very popular programs like Big Bang Theory. I find the laugh tracks and lousy one liners unbearable. If something is funny I'll know it and laugh. I don't need a cue.
    - ghaff 12y ago
      >There's an incredible amount of bad programming on today Well, Sturgeon's Law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law The crap today is crap in different ways from older television but I'd argue what's good is very, very good. And frankly, if you can give me a handful of hours of quality television a week, I'm happy. Give me much more than that and I'm not going to watch it anyway. If there's a greater percentage of poor TV today, it's probably because there are more time slots that need to be filled cheaply but whether it's 99% crap or 99.9% crap doesn't really affect me. I never got into Big Bang Theory and have pretty much lost my taste for sitcoms generally in any case. I'm not sure I'd even get into Seinfeld today although it was pretty much a cultural touchstone at the time.
    - cbd1984 12y ago
      > I think something like Alfred Hitchcock Presents is very watchable today and I often do. You get a little mystery and murder and all within an hour. There were other watchable programs, like Perry Mason or something. Those tend to be pretty good, I agree. I watch them on Me TV sometimes. (Digital subchannels are what UHF and cable were Back In The Day: Cheap timeslots filled with whatever someone has to hand.) However, they're good writing one episode at a time. These days, you get good writing a season at a time; it allows more characterization, more complex plots, and more flavor. Breaking Bad is a novel-length plot, something TV only did in soap opera form back then. And soap operas have never been accused of having good writing.
  - agumonkey 12y ago
    In my experience, this is fairly recent. I'd give Lost as a starting point. Maybe not Lost per se but the period. Movies were a little boring, people started to go big on TV Shows and a lot of ambitious ones suddenly popped. Now you have BB, HoC, GoT. Before that it was the same recipes sitcom/soap/police/scifi used from the 70s to the early 2Ks.
sogen 12y ago
Link to that study?
- gmarx 12y ago
  Sorry. I have failed you
  - sogen 12y ago
    No prob. BTW I saw a Top 100 Billboard(R) chart from the 90's and one from the 2010's. Surprising how much of today's music is pop. Pure. Pop.

by gmarx 12y ago

ghaff 12y ago

You can certainly find TV shows for the 80s that would seem pretty normal today. http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/11/the-80-best-tv-shows-of-the-1980s.html?a=1 http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/11/the-80-best... There was a lot of crap but then there always is. But you go back to the 70s and with a few exceptions, e.g. MAS*H, they start to look considerably different and less watchable by a modern audience except as cultural artifacts.

WalterBright 12y ago
It's strange to say, but TV has gotten a lot better decade by decade. There was simply nothing remotely like "Breaking Bad" in the 60's or 70's. I recently watched an episode of "Charlies Angels" and was surprised at how insipid and simply awful it was, and it was a hit show in its days. The proliferation of options for people to watch has forced an upgrade in the quality of the writing.
- ghaff 12y ago
  Breaking Bad is a high bar and Charlies Angels was always pretty low-brow fluff but I agree with your basic point. There were some good shows (Twilight Zone for example). But the list of shows from that era that are truly enjoyable today is pretty thin in a way that isn't true for movies. While a show like Breaking Bad isn't to everyone's taste--and arguably doesn't work without time shifting and even maybe the Internet--anyone who tries to argue that there's nothing good on TV any longer basically doesn't know what they're talking about.
  - ForHackernews 12y ago
    Twilight Zone is an interesting case, because while it's still quite watchable today, it's very obviously a different style than anything on modern television. Watching Twilight Zone episodes feels like watching a video tape of a stage production. The acting is much broader, the sets are more suggestive than realistic. It's clear that they had good writers and performers, but they were still finding their feet in a totally new medium.
  - WalterBright 12y ago
    Sure, BB isn't for everyone. But there's Suits, and House of Cards and Sons of Anarchy, it goes on. The good stuff today far, far exceeds the best of the 70's. Of course, there's plenty of crap on TV today, but I'm talking about the good stuff from each era. Yes, Twilight Zone was good. I think it was quite an anomaly.
- buckbova 12y ago
  I think something like Alfred Hitchcock Presents is very watchable today and I often do. You get a little mystery and murder and all within an hour. There were other watchable programs, like Perry Mason or something. It depends on your taste. There's an incredible amount of bad programming on today, in my opinion of course. See any Kardashian-esque reality TV program. I can't watch very popular programs like Big Bang Theory. I find the laugh tracks and lousy one liners unbearable. If something is funny I'll know it and laugh. I don't need a cue.
  - ghaff 12y ago
    >There's an incredible amount of bad programming on today Well, Sturgeon's Law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law The crap today is crap in different ways from older television but I'd argue what's good is very, very good. And frankly, if you can give me a handful of hours of quality television a week, I'm happy. Give me much more than that and I'm not going to watch it anyway. If there's a greater percentage of poor TV today, it's probably because there are more time slots that need to be filled cheaply but whether it's 99% crap or 99.9% crap doesn't really affect me. I never got into Big Bang Theory and have pretty much lost my taste for sitcoms generally in any case. I'm not sure I'd even get into Seinfeld today although it was pretty much a cultural touchstone at the time.
  - cbd1984 12y ago
    > I think something like Alfred Hitchcock Presents is very watchable today and I often do. You get a little mystery and murder and all within an hour. There were other watchable programs, like Perry Mason or something. Those tend to be pretty good, I agree. I watch them on Me TV sometimes. (Digital subchannels are what UHF and cable were Back In The Day: Cheap timeslots filled with whatever someone has to hand.) However, they're good writing one episode at a time. These days, you get good writing a season at a time; it allows more characterization, more complex plots, and more flavor. Breaking Bad is a novel-length plot, something TV only did in soap opera form back then. And soap operas have never been accused of having good writing.
- agumonkey 12y ago
  In my experience, this is fairly recent. I'd give Lost as a starting point. Maybe not Lost per se but the period. Movies were a little boring, people started to go big on TV Shows and a lot of ambitious ones suddenly popped. Now you have BB, HoC, GoT. Before that it was the same recipes sitcom/soap/police/scifi used from the 70s to the early 2Ks.

sogen 12y ago

Link to that study?

gmarx 12y ago
Sorry. I have failed you
- sogen 12y ago
  No prob. BTW I saw a Top 100 Billboard(R) chart from the 90's and one from the 2010's. Surprising how much of today's music is pop. Pure. Pop.