This is the subtext or even text that many posts keep coming back to on this site. Question is whether it's a case of rose tinted spectacles or they really don't make them like that anymore. One thing that I can think of right now I've heard in last 10 years that I really feel will stay with me is Radiohead In Rainbows and I still play Doves albums. Much stuff is good but as you say - often doesn't seem to last (at least for me), especially from new bands/artists. What is new is often retro in style also, perhaps even too reverent toward the past. But I am also prepared to accept that I am not trying hard enough to find new, original things.

...there's quite a few I think. All the work of Interpol and The Strokes will stay with me a long time. Ditto Bright Eyes. Albeit dodgy of late, Belle & Sebastian's high water marks are as good as anything in my lifetime.

There is something about the first albums/bands/songs that really do it for you, I agree. My 10 desert island albums have a core of 5 or 6 that come from my teens/early 20s.

His Retriever album (not sure what year, but I'm certain it's well within the last decade) is a firm favourite which gets a lot of plays round our way. Ditto Stories From The City Stories From The Sea (PJ Harvey). Maria McKee's Peddling Dreams. All of Richard Hawley's records. Lewis Taylor's debut album. And the ultimate marmite artiste, Joanna Newsum - I'll still be listening to Ys many years from now.

Nothing much else.

Does This Train Stop On Merseyside? - Amsterdam
Neighbourhood #1 - Arcade Fire
Rebellion (Lies) - Arcade Fire (and a few others)
A Certain Romance - Arctic Monkeys
Hurt - Johnny Cash
God Give Me Strength - Costello/Bacharach
This House is Empty Now - Costello/Bacharach
Stuck Between Stations - The Hold Steady
All These Things That I've Done - The Killers
Angel - Massive Attack
Teardrop - Massive Attack
Float On - Modest Mouse
Dry Your Eyes - The Streets

Do any of these songs scale the heights of stuff I listened to thirty-odd years ago?

Probably not.

Do they bring me great joy and pleasure anyway?

Oh yes.

Probably proves hargarino's point overall - but I refuse (at 48) to sit back and accept that there is not still wonderful stuff being created that can move me the way stuff moved me when I was 15.

Want to like new stuff and do -

Arcade Fire - Intervention
Maps - It Will Find You
Roisin Murphy - Overpowered album, some tracks
Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance
Editors - All Sparks

and others.

But music from my youth probably means more as it so often does I think. And I think it gets harder for new acts to come up with new sounds - so much ground having been broken already. Its not easy starting out now. Originality gets rarer inevitably. Maybe more looking back to the past is not so bad so long as influences are being combined in interesting and imaginative ways.

There's a number of factors here isn't there. The main issue would seem to be that so much has already been done that even a pretense of originality is getting harder to carry off - especially in the mainstream.

I wasn't old enough for Joy Division (I'm only 32) so those bands heavily influenced by them probably sound fresher to me. I also have had the opportunity to see the Interpols and Editors of the world live something I can't have with Joy Division.

This all means that the bands and albums I still play to death aren't necessarily the classics but the modern "copies".

...... the sheer weight of good music available to listen probably doesn't help either. It would seem to dilute the impact of the new ........

Yeah, well you get older and you keep looking for that high you used to get when you first discovered Dylan, The Smiths or Joy Division. Never going to find it though. You're not the same person and it's not sound-tracking the same experiences. You don't even listen in the same way - it's not a communal passing LP's around and sitting in an empty classroom over lunch with your mates waiting to hear the new chart on Radio 1. You're the £50 guys now - a dash to HMV on Saturday afternoon with a batch of reviews from Word or Mojo, thinking this could be the one. Spend all week listening to it in the CD changer in the car driving to and from work, then start all over again the next weekend.

In my experience 'the one' comes along when you're not chasing it down, and you don't have any expectations. David Bowie's 'Heathen' took me totally by surprise, as did Dylan's 'Time Out of Mind'. As for the 'new' new stuff : Mercury Rev's 'Deserters Songs' and Sparklehorse's 'Good Morning Spider' (both 1998); The Sleepy Jackson's 'Lovers' (2006); The Magic Numbers (2005) (and the best live band I've seen in a long while).

And remember, it's OK not to like Arctic Monkeys, and The White Stripes are truly the indie music equivalent of the Krankies. Randy Newman (as always) said it best:

"Didn't used to be this ugly music playing all the time
Where are we, on the moon?
Whatever happened to the old songs, Mikey?
Like the Duke of Earl
Mikey, whatever happened to the fucking Duke of Earl?"

Someone once said that the Golden Age of Science Fiction was 12. I think the same kind of argument applies here. Whatever soundtracked your adolescence and very early adulthood will stay with you to the grave. For me, it's early 70s glam-rock and prog-rock, through to the core punk era of 76-78. The events soundtracked by the music are what gold-plates the music's nostalgic rush. Let's face it, music that makes you think of your first romantic fumblings and frustrations, or that recalls wild nights clubbing into the small hours with your mates, is always going to induce a rosier glow than music you heard whilst dropping the kids off at school, doing your tax returns, or dragging your arse round IKEA, isn't it? Not that any of this deters me from still seeking out new musical thrills. The White Stripes, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, LCD Soundsystem and, most recently, Burial, have all given me brand-new spine tingles in the last few years, and I see no sign that the source of new excitements will dry up in the near furutre. These are great days for music (though not such great days for Big Industry's long symbiosis with music).

...but not to dismiss them without a fair hearing (and I'm not implying anyone here is doing that).

I can understand why the accent and the general banginess might not be to everybody's taste, but the quality of the lyrics and perfect capturing of what it must be like to be in your late teens in the early 21st century - particularly in the 'quieter' songs - should not be overlooked.

Some of the correspondents here are beginning to give curmudgeonliness a bad name........
Of course there will be a rose tinted (over)familiarity with the musics of our youth. There was less around, it was less freely available and we had less cash to spare. And we have heard it cumulatively more often. But to say there is nothing after 1970/1980/pick your date is arrant nonsense. Frankly it belittles the tenor what, I suppose, the Word is representing and presenting. I have heard loads of good if not better music in the last few years, some of it "new", much of it old, some of it by young people, of whom I generally disapprove, some by the dead (small D). My first love was prog, followed by folk-rock and country-rock (I use the terms of the day advisedly) I can abide a little of my ELP etc, I still like Fairport in principle, but little of the new stuff, and still can't get enough of almost anything with pedal steel in it. But I have subsequently discovered vistas of genres previously loathed, jazz for one, whether the old stuff, Coltrane, Parker etc, the newer stuff, Hancock, Marsalis or the new stuff, Seb Rochford offshoots etc. Soul music,as I stil call it, has opened up huge areas of enjoyment within recent years, again whether the perfection of stax horn arrangements or new stuff like Jill Knight and her ilk. And what my i-pod calls Electronica/Dance, ranging from Chemical Brothers thru' to Burial gives an intermittent thrill, especially in the "worldy" fringes of the Afr0-Celts or Transglogal Underground.
There's room for it all, obviously except Queen/ELO/Blur etc, but that is purely my prejudice. Blimey, I've even always held a blind spot for the Velvets, only accepting a grudging respect for covers of their songs by Oysterband, Cowboy Junkies etc. I spotted a best of in Sainsburys, Castle Vale, yesterday, for £4.97. It's bloody great! Open your ears, guys (and gals). Embrace the unheard.

As I get older (I'm 38 and counting), I find that there is less and less new music that affects me as much as music from the past. I've always been a bit Saxondale-like - I was listening to Led Zep and Floyd in the 80s - but now I am becoming grumpy old Patrick.

I do try... I listen to new records, buy a few, but most I forget about within a month or so. I have a few theories about why I'm like I am...

(1) I don't like the 'sound' of the majority of new records, particularly R&B chart music. Overly-compressed digital soup that lacks the warmth and humanity of my favourite records from the 60s and 70s.

(2) I believe there is a limit to how many times the form of the pop song can be twisted, recycled and reworked. It is increasingly the case that musicians are simply going over the same old ground, only not as well as before.

(3) The sheer abundance of choice. I don't know the figures, but I wouldn't be surprised if 10 times more records are released per year now than in the 70s. I can't keep up. And to be honest, I no longer have the inclination to do so. More music being available does not mean more quality... quite the opposite if you ask me.

(4) Pop music doesn't seem to affect the wider culture in the way it once did. It's as ubiquitous as cheeseburgers or Coca Cola, but the days of a band like the Sex Pistols arriving and changing the cultural landscape overnight seem to be long gone. Sure, it's still important, but a record release by a major artist no longer carries the same weight. It is no longer an event. With the possible exception of 'In Rainbows', which caused a stir in a way that very few records have done in the last 10 years. It caused ripples that spread beyond its own niche in popular culture.

(5) I'm happy to return again and again to records I know and love... I will never tire of "Jumpin' Jack Flash', 'Tomorrow Never Knows', 'Visions of Johanna'... they are an integral part of my life.

BUT... there is hope. Whilst the majority of contemporary US and UK pop music bores me to tears (particularly skinny white boy indie music), other countries still produce vital, exciting records.

Some records that have floated my boat over the last few years...

Lhasa - The Living Road

Tinariwen - Amassakoul

Sahara: Blues Of The Desert (various artists)

Every generation has claimed that the music of the subsequent generation "is crap". The difference with our generation, that of the 50-quid man, is that, this time, we are right. It is crap. (Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis, I should add.)

I remember David Hepworth summed up the difference between music of the early 70s and of the punk rock explosion that was such a thrill in the late 70s. And he went on to point out that the main difference now is that, even as you read these posts, there are more people listening to music from the shaggy haired era than that of its spiky-topped younger brother.

I have pretty much given up on the new new stuff, (with a few exceptions - Arcade Fire, Wilco). I even find the Word CDs something of a struggle. But I'm finding plenty of new music to enjoy by looking backwards. I'm really enjoying digging out old blues, jazz and country records, thanks to the huge number of blogs kicking around; thanks to the wonder that is Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour and thanks to internet radio.

I could be missing something by tossing the Word CDs onto the back seat with a mental note to give them a shot later. But I listen to so damn much now anyway - I don't have time for any more. God know where I'll find the time when Strictly Come Dancing returns...

New artists no longer have to compete only with their contemporaries. They're also up against our immediate, all-encompassing and ridiculously easy access to virtually everything that's gone before them, making comparisons inevitable - with the new acts almost inevitably losing.

Amy? Duffy? Yes, fine as far as they go. But (found by complete chance this morning)...

The poor things don't really stand a chance, do they?