Could it be that you're playing the 'best of' previous decades not taking into account all the garbage that was produced at the time?

I'm still finding tons of awesome new music

That's awesome you're sharing your love of music!

I have to disagree, though. There is tons of great music from all genres coming out all the time, you just have to find it because the industry has changed so much.

Your Old Droog, Louis Cole, Kamasi Washington, King Gizzard, Viagra Boys, Oh Sees, Deerhoof, Mdou Moctar, Czarface, Parquet Courts. These are just a handful of random modern acts off the top of my head who are putting out great music.

Hell, plenty of talented artists from the 90's (and other decades) like De La Soul and Beck are still releasing quality albums.

Maybe think about discovering new music as a bonding experience you can share with your kid.

I'd rather frame it in a different way for myself: some rigidity in preferred genre's has set in. Judging some newer genre's is just... outside of my scope now, and instead of it feeling less or lower then 'peak', it's more a problem of my (music)bagage getting in the way. That, plus there is SO much music being pumped out, that statistically, if you feel the better music times are behind us, it's way more probable that you just havent found the new music that you love yet.

The daily genre class sounds fantastic, chances are high that she will find loads of new music interests in a small amount of time and effort. Gotta love it.

If you expand your listening style to beyond what is in popular music, you will find a much steadier stream of interesting music. Look into older jazz, tango, bossa nova, traditional music from around the world. Look into alternative music from the 80s and 90s that would not have appeared on the radio or MTV. There is so much out there and there continues to be so much out there.

I agree that pop music has, in many ways, run out of ideas. We keep seeing the same thing be rehashed with a new production style.

Finding new music is less of a priority for you than it used to be. You spend less of your time in a music sphere and this are exposed to less of it, causing you to feel like less good music is being made.

It's just a time investment thing. I said it in another comment but there's more good music being made today than ever before

To build upon this bonding of music, why not pick one day a week to listen to new music together? Both of you could critique the music together and compare to genres/songs that you do like.

Don't forget Ska, Punk, Reggae and at least some Country and Americana ( John Prine, Townes Van Zant, Bobbie Gentry ) some Bluegrass, oh and Industrial, Jungle... music is awesome and there's so much of it!

That sweet, she gets to experience something new and exciting every day and you got to relive memories.

And yeah i am in my late 30s and also think I have peaked (years ago).

I know a lot of people hate Spotify but if you do have it there's a great playlist called Aussie Punk.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1TFKIwyLme2YQBBm1eY9cp?pi=ban9f26xQSeyU

Learning how to play an instrument/make music has been more accessible then ever since the internet.

Also acces to musical trends worldwide, no longer are we bound to what the radio is willing to play.

This leads to an explosion in blended styles that you can’t define modern music into anymore. This might explain why you feel this way. The culture is completely different.

That said all this new stuff is still a continuation of the music that came before. Its an evolution and knowing the older stuff is still a huge leg up to understand the stuff that comes out today.

Everyone disagreeing with you. I’m going to agree with you. Music peaked years ago. I listen to thousands of new songs every year, and my impression is music has lost its personality. Thanks to all the different streaming services, anyone can upload mediocre music. Everyone uses similar tools to make music so the genres all smear into a sound of boring sameness. Maybe it’s not bad, but it’s rarely distinct or good. I mean, I could play a guitar intro off Metallica’s Black album, a few seconds lead in of ‘70s Simon And Garfunkel song, a riff off U2’s Joshua Tree, etc…and they are distinct sounds of that group, you’d know instantly. You could play a song from ‘80s rap, R&B, or New Wave and you’d instantly know the era.

Modern music has pretty much lost anything that could set it apart. If anything defines it it’s the sameness of it all. If you listen to interviews of artists from decades ago they often spent weeks slaving over a particular sound or riff they created specifically for a song or album. Unique timing, multiple different unique instruments in a song. Lots of things went into new music that was full of new sounds. IMO now people just maybe tweak whatever comes out of software like Ableton’s instrument and synth packages a little and go with it.

Before some literalist jumps in and cites some exceptions - no, it’s not all bad. Yes, there are some good artists that have defined sounds. There is good music. The point is that the democratization of tools and the ability to share music so easily has, for the majority, drowned anything distinct out, you have to sift through a lot of crap to find the good, and I don’t think the last ~10-20 years have had the fortune of having a defined sound the way each previous decade did. Other than a lot of autotune and canned instrumentation, anyway.

electro swing has not peaked. Look it up, jazz is objectively the best music.

I don’t know if it’s old man or not, but I kinda agree. Taylor Swift has sucked so much air out of the room so to speak, so there’s not nearly as much money for other artists. I feel like most of the music I hear these days is the same or very similar genres. Back in the 90s and 00s I feel there was more variety. Maybe it’s my perspective. Maybe it’s TikTok.