A lot of people both older and younger complain about today’s music.

People like to say it does not have the same meaning or that it is vapid.

But if we are being honest a lot of songs throughout the decades have been like this.

Every generation remembers the music they listened to growing up as being better.

And sometimes their kids also buy into this and they become music snobs.

Here is the thing, the songs that their parents like have usually been cherry picked from an entire decade or two.

While this past couple of decades have had some pretty bad songs like “Party Rock,” “Payphone” or “Girl on Fire” etc.

The 60s, 70s, 80s and definitely the 90s also had their share of awful songs.

Songs that people do not bring up anymore or listen to anymore.

Over the summer driving home with family from Kansas City, we listened to a station on Sirius XM called 80s on 8 and they have a show weekly that is like the top 20 or 40 songs of that week in one of the years of the 80s.

There were some really good songs that played like “Your Love” by the Outfield and “West End Girls” by Pet Shop Boys but overall most of the songs that were playing were just boring.

The number one song was some boring ballad by George Michael.

Older people remember their generation’s music through nostalgia vision and also through forgetting the horrible songs.

There are good and bad songs in every year and decade. Some years are better or worse than others.

I am not saying that all music of today is good; a lot of it is bad.

But also a lot of it just is not my taste. But there are some fun songs that I hear on the rare occasion I listen to the radio.

There are some genuinely good pop songs out there.

And if that’s not your thing you can look for music in other places.

My main point is being snobby or belittling people for liking today’s music and not being a fan of “real” music like you are does not make you a better person.

It is annoying and it makes you kind of a jerk for constantly bagging on people for their taste in music.

If you like Queen and The Beatles that is great, keep listening to them.

But there is no need to belittle people who like Kanye West, Nicki Minaj or Taylor Swift.

While they may not be your cup of tea a lot of people do enjoy them and do not enjoy your nagging about how music was better in the decade you may or may not have lived through.

In 10 or 20 years people will forget about some of the awful music of this decade by Pitbull, DJ Khaled, Fall Out Boy and Maroon 5, some of their songs might become jokes like songs from other decades have.

But we will live in a world when 2010-2020 was someone’s favorite decade for pop music and they will talk down to the next generation.

Just remember how annoying it is to hear people talk down to you about your favorite music and do you best not to be that person years down the line.

Mace Mackiewicz  is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or mmmackiewicz@eiu.edu