The Jackson 5, and Genesis in the Peter Gabriel era, because they were the first bands I really got into.

Jimi Hendrix for waking me up to rock and distorted guitars. Coolest guy ever.

Tom Waits for showing me that real emotion has a place in music.

Babymetal for reminding me not to be a snob but to enjoy good music from outside-the-box, regardless of gatekeepers, and for waking me up to a ton of amazing Japanese musicians.

Nemophila for demonstrating a perfect combination of great songs, great musicianship, great personality, fun and crushing power. My current favourite band.

Apologies for being totally unable to pick just one.

'Hit Me Baby' is a classic. It's right up there with 'MmmBop'.

Damn my elitist tolerance for a skillfully executed pop hook. I'm so ashamed...

They probably assume that most people already know what to expect from mainstream artists. Perhaps they get better engagement from readers/viewers when they draw attention to newer stuff.

Dude, I'm 62. The first time I saw a Babymetal video it was so awful it put me off even looking again for years. Then, this year, I saw the video for 'Karate' and gave them another chance - mostly on the strength of their live backing band, Kami Band. Also, I joined Reddit this year, hence the high % of posts on a band I just discovered were actually good.

Do the arithmetic. I had a musical life for 50+ years before that. All that tells you is that I'm still finding new stuff.

But thanks for your thoroughly researched analysis, lol.

Binary gender option is a bit outdated unless the OP wants to exclude some people.

Equally inappropriately (IMO) quasi-binary/boolean are questions like

> Imagine you were to go shopping, would the music playing throughout the store make you feel calm?

It takes no account of the type of music affecting a negative/positive answer. Pachelbel's 'Canon in D' may have a more calming effect than Extreme Noise Terror's 'Am I a Punk Yet?'.

Are we to guess what kind of music will play? Are we to try to give an answer that covers all styles?

I mean, it's not my problem. Just offering constructive criticism. I would guess that people doing polls would want their questions to be clear and to return the most informative answers.

With respect, the questions in your survey don't seem very well formulated to return the clearest information.

I think it's just you and - those who also think that way.

UK has plenty of great new music. It always has since I was a kid in the 1960s. Of course there are periods that radio and people's playlists are dominated by stuff that is most aggressively marketed and hyped, but there is amazing variety there for those who aren't too lazy to seek it out.

You have YouTube and streaming platforms to explore, you have online communities to ask for nominations of good music. But you decide to ask a question that pre-supposes there's nothing to be found?

Attitude adjustment, mate. Get off your arse and go looking.

I don't mean to be rude but you asked for what people thought of your lament, you didn't ask what good music there is.

Dylan is not "high art" unless you mean maybe he was high when he created his art.

Dylan is a songwriter with a reputation that is disproportionately gushing and adulatory for the quality and consistency of his output.

There are many Dylan songs I love but there are just as many that seem, to me, to be grating, incoherent drivel.

Dude has had some great moments but then so have many people who get far less attention.

Vinyl sounds better than CD or FLAC; CD and FLAC are about the same and both are better than MP3.

In practical settings, Bluetooth fucks them all up as do ear buds and crap EQ, headphones or speakers. The better your medium format, the more it has to lose from crappy phones/speakers.

Vinyl through quality speakers/phones is still the best I've heard. That said, personally I just use MP3, lol. It's convenient and I can't afford the gear I've heard that really impressed. Anyway, I listen to metal and punk, so it's all noise anyway...

Why, FFS? You're missing stuff.

Who cares?

One moderately amusing diss track that got its ass kicked doesn't make a career worth assessing.

I deleted my earlier comment as I just spotted why even the revised version is, kind of tangentially, still a bit racist.

Seriously, a religious/spiritual chant is kind of pretty different to what most people would understand as "music".

Yeh, but some death metal lyrics are even less creative.

Those people lack the context needed to appreciate the band.

Totally cello. Most expressive instrument out there is for gentler emotions. Also does dramatic really well.

Your mind may live in an ideal world but, sadly, musicians don't. They live in a material world where they have to pay for accommodation, food and clothing.

Do you give your labour to your employer for nothing or do you expect payment for your work?

Welcome to capitalism, the system we keep choosing on election day.

I don't see the point of a cover if it tries to be too like the original

I know you already said you like some contemporary music. I'm afraid I kind of branched out in my comment and started ranting at all older people!

Age is no excuse, I'm 62.

Billie Eilish is great. Her music is varied and interesting. Better yet, she doesn't feel she has to pander to anyone's image expectations.

Like many things, it can take a while to appreciate her stuff if it's not what you're used to.

Don't fall into that stupid middle-aged mindset of "There's no good music anymore". There is always good music. Always has been and that's never changed. Pop is one area that has a ton of great, hooky stuff - especially when it comes to female vocalists.

Leo Moracchioli's metal cover of 'Dance Monkey' vs the Tones and I original.

Edit: needless to say, Leo wins.

Happy troll day, everyone. (For the 10 millionth time *yawn*)