Terry Teachout Quotes

I think we're in a very low point of music right now.

I know it sounds really lame and hater-ish, but I think 2009 was maybe the worst year for music ever.

There's more good music being made now than ever before.

There are some good songs, but not the kind of song-writing that I remember, that I like. Springsteen still does it. Paul Simon, and there are also good writers, but that doesn't dominate the charts.

Music has changed, but there will always be a demand for amazing music.

I think MTV put a huge dent in the songwriting craft.

The music that is played on the radio all the time or written about in magazines has nothing to do with musicianship.

Popular music has always had its really horrendous stuff.

Music is for people. The word 'pop' is simply short for popular. It means that people like it. I'm just a normal jerk who happens to make music. As long as my brain and fingers work, I'm cool.

I've covered Avril Lavigne. I like good pop songs, and I don't think there should be any kind of preconceptions about where good pop songs come from.

Have you listened to the radio lately? Have you heard the canned, frozen and processed product being dished up to the world as American popular music today?

The bottom line is fans just want to hear a good song. Some people will look underneath to see who wrote it, but they just want to hear a good song. And if they don't hear it, they're not going to buy it just because you wrote it.

What we hear now is great-sounding records with great-sounding grooves and loops. And the sound of these records is irresistible, but the craft of songwriting is just about over. That's why, whenever I get an opportunity to do an album full of standards, I jump at it because I miss it.

I don't care if it's a Cole Porter song, or George Gershwin, or Lennon/McCartney, or Elton John, or you know, whoever, Bob Dylan. Great songs are great songs, and they stand the test of time, and they can be interpreted and recorded with many points of view, but yet still retain the essence of what makes them good songs.

MTV ruined music for us.

I don't like the way a lot of music is going these days. No one buys it.

I can count on one hand the number of instrumental hits there have been over the last ten years.

There's no difference in a lot of people's minds between good musicians and popular musicians.

The world must be filled with unsuccessful musical careers like mine, and it's probably a good thing. We don't need a lot of bad musicians filling the air with unnecessary sounds. Some of the professionals are bad enough.

I think I can see people wanting to hear more music-music now as opposed to all hip-hop. You know, which I have nothing against hip-hop. I think some of it is really good. But on the other hand, some of the real great artists are just being lost because they're not getting the airplay or anything to make them inspired to record again.

Popular music sucks so bad right now.

There are a lot of stuff on the record that I am thinking is generic but actually it is just as good as everybody else who is putting stuff out at the time.

I think there are people who really always have and always will care about the quality of music in general, about the sound of the music, things like that.

I am frozen musically somewhere around 2004.

Rock in the mainstream culture has lost a lot of its mojo.