"Those who say the music of today isn't as good as it used to be aren't looking hard enough"

I recently heard the quote above articulated by a friend of a friend and I thought it was outstanding. The quality of the way music used to be and the way it is today is something of a neverending debate, primarily because it is based upon when you were born, your taste in music and the type of music you grew up listening to.

I'm a '90s kid. I was born in 1992 and grew up listening to the likes of Spice Girls, Steps, S Club 7, 5ive, Britney…the list goes on. This was the kind of music which made me feel happy and want to dance around my bedroom using a hairbrush as a microphone (don’t judge, we’ve all done it - some more than others). And now over a decade has passed and hearing those songs still has that same effect; the nostalgia of being a kid and wanting that precious time back again is overwhelming.

I then turn to my nine year old brother, who was born in 2003. He has grown up with the likes of One Direction being played on the radio, Jessie J, Olly Murs and Rihanna, and to him this is good music. While I might struggle to understand why anybody would choose listening to “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction over “C’est La Vie” by B*Witched, he has no problem in doing so. This is the music of his childhood, the soundtrack to a time when he doesn’t have a care or worry in the world, a time when he has the freedom of a child that adults so desperately crave.

The world of music has changed enormously over centuries and more so in the last 100 years. In the early 20th century, you would go to see singers and bands play live in bars and clubs in order to listen to their music. Now, we can listen to it anywhere. Not just at gigs, concerts and festivals, but on the train, in the bath, at parties, on the other side of the world, on the moon, wherever you like. And while in the moment, we whine about the autotuned robotic sound of Nicki Minaj and cringe at the thought of Justin Bieber being top of the charts, we have to remember that it's the good stuff that will last.

For instance, does anyone remember Cascada? Basshunter? Their music isn't that old and already it's virtually been forgotten. How about 3 of a Kind, who wrote that awful song "Babycakes", which stayed at number 1 for a week before disappearing into the chart archives never to be heard again? Has anyone uttered any of the lyrics to a Blazin' Squad song in the last 5 years? These pieces of music are not the ones that you want played at your 50th birthday bash to remind you of the good times, simply because they weren't around long enough for you to remember how old you were when they were released.

The music of today is not dead. While in the midst of a music storm in which autotune is being used more often in a recording studio than medication is in a hospital, we must not forget the gems that appear in amongst the other so-called "artists".

We will always have music and while, at the time, a lot of it is terrible, it is the special pieces which will be remembered. These are the pieces of music which will be played at weddings and everyone will still know the words. It is the special pieces that will be played on the radio 10 years after their release date and people will smile and sing along.

You can't blame a teenage girl for listening to Justin Bieber. You just have to keep listening to the music that you love and that is all that counts.

Below I've added a few of my favourite timeless classics, they may take a while to load if your computer is as slow as mine, hope you enjoy!