There's a silly article on Slate.com about how rock and roll flourishes every 12 years. According to the author 1967, 1979, and 1991 were abnormally good years for music, and therefore, we can expect another high point in a couple of years.
Looking casually at my Desert Island discs (which I'm already completely unsatisfied with, by the way), I noticed that none of my picks were released or recorded on any of those years. I'm too lazy to go through everybody else's picks and determine when the good years were, but if someone else wants to do it, feel free.
I think the overall flaw with Geoff Shandler's theory is that great music has been written and performed and recorded and released every single year. And a lot of it. Sometimes (often) the great records don't sell a ton and they don't make it to the charts or to the radio, but they're out there. It may be hard to find them, but they're around. The current state of music is pretty great. I've picked up some great albums recently. The fact that the radio stations play a bunch of crap and MTV doesn't show videos anymore only means that we have to work harder to find the good stuff.
The web can help. Along with legally dubious means such as Napster and good old-fashioned FTP, there are tons of legitimate sites that have songs available to stream and/or download for free. I like Listen.com and it's always my first stop when I hear about a band I want to check out. If they don't have anything there, I resort to CDNOW for audio samples or to Napster to see if anything's out there.
And don't forget about your local, independent record stores. As long as the guys behind the counter aren't snotty punks, they will usually have a few current releases to recommend. And they should even let you listen to it before you buy it. Get to know them. Let them get to know you, and I guarantee their recommendations will be more suited to your taste than anything a computer database can come up with.
Good music is available now, and it's always been available. Go out there and find it. I just picked up the new Me First and the Gimme Gimmes record and it's a hoot. Non-stop fun. All covers of 60's songs. Maybe not for everyone, but I smile every time I listen to them roaring through Cat Stevens' "Wild World."
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