One of the most common complaints against older albums is that “the music aged poorly.” Many consider timelessness (the ability for music to resonate with a new crowd of people years later much like it did at release) to be one of the most important criteria for labeling an album a classic. But I think there needs to be a major distinction here, there are plenty of albums that are very much “of their time” (do not fit into the current conventional sound in the mainstream) that are classics.

The major wall (to me) is when the conventional trends are so present in the music, that it was more the main appeal than the actual artist or music, rather than the music being great on its own but uses conventional trends. I feel like people are so quick to just call something “dusty” without actually trying to listen to the music because it isn’t conventional currently. Music of its time is so great because it really is the perfect capsule in time to go back and reflect on and see how things sounded/what was popular.

Only bad music ages poorly, but I’d challenge you to not write off older music just because it is not conventional. It’s a for sure grey area that will be different for everyone, but you can ruin your own musical journey but shutting out whole eras of music.

Damn no one disagreed with OP

I Need A Doctor is a perfect example of this

i seen a lot of people saying jeezy and gucci's music aged poorly

but op is right, that music was of its time and it was great. if you were present during their peak, it hits way different for you.

Great way of putting it OP

I like the time capsule metaphor a lot though. Most the time, when people call an album 'badly aged,' I think it's just extra charm

hey OP 👋

Music that ages badly usually attaches itself to extremely short lived and profitable fads that end up either blowing up or fizzling out

stuff can be definitely of it’s time by incorporating general practices lunt once people see a a fad and buy in with their product it’s usually not for a long term cause

overall ive always been part of the camp that music is just music. part of what my thread o here is all about.

you either like it or you dont. people put too much into liking & disliking things when its really just simple.

what you consider poorly aged or ahead of the curve, there is someone on the opposite side.

just listen to music without the thought of age or whatever imo.

can't lie when i saw people saying jeezy's music aged horribly it hurt a little. i grew up listening to that :(

i dont agree w people saying that first part a lot of those old songs still give that certain feel i mean it was popular for a reason

It's true though. How could you disagree with that?

i shoulda clarified and said i don’t agree with people saying gucci and jeezy music aged poorly

Amazing post

Say it louder for the nerds in the back

some of those old beats though

Yeah, the meme about Jeezy's music sounding like Madden 2004 had me dying though Lol

It's funny how we think we can predict the future

Trash from day 1 tbh

thread aged poorly

If anything great music encapsulates a time period. Illmatic is the definition of a classic and that’s as 90’s New York as it gets, same with the infamous. Great music transports you to a time and place. It’s the copying and dilution of classics that makes for music that ages poorly IMO.

Usually how it works is someone does an album that isn’t necessarily a classic (especially when it drops) but is forward thinking and brings in a new style.

For this generation it’s probably T-Pain’s Rappa Ternt Sanga which is pretty much a seminal Autotune hip hop album. That style was picked up and perfected with albums like 808’s, Rodeo, DS2 and HNDRXX, where it ages badly is when everyone hops on the trend, and because at the time it’s popular people eat it up, it’s only when that fad passes that people will go back with fresh ears and realise 99% of the albums copying that style were just that, bad copies and offered nothing of lasting value.

That’s my take on it anyway

Yeah that def is the case. I can still listen to old Gucci and Jeezy like it was yesterday. I grew up in it around it all about it. So while it sounds good to me, someone like my nephew thinks iti probably sounds horrendus and terribly aged

Great insight OP. I felt the same way for awhile but you put it into words better than I did. The “you had to be there” effect is real