This is where almost 67 year old grumpy Eddie comes in with his extremely old school nuanced taste in music.

Just for an example of where this is headed, let me share a quick story with you. A female friend of mine called me abut 6-7 years ago all excited that she won tickets to see Josh Groban, asking if I would go with her. My reply was something close to "There are not enough Clydesdales in the world to drag me kicking and screaming to a Josh Groban concert."

One of these threads somewhere mentioned that Ed Sheeran guy. I had to go find him and listen to about 10 seconds of 3 of his songs to see how much I hated his work. Refer back to the Clydesdale reference.

I can't stand this breed of wispy, willowy, overly-breathy half whispered largely falsetto singers that are the rage today. I want to hear music with power. With guts. With testicles. The music of today puts me in mind of the days of dueling when people would slap each other on the cheek with a glove. I prefer a solid left hook.

To Groban and Sheeran, add Jason Mraz, John Mayer (excellent guitarist - sappy songs), ANY of the nasal girl singers who release music in which you can audibly hear the autotune in place. And any of the boy band craze bands. New Kids, NSYNC, First Edition... any of them. Yes, they could sing, but when you spend more time in the beauty shop than the rehearsal hall, that's a problem for me.

Listen to THIS singer. I would rather gargle with Drano and chew razor blades than endure 100 minutes of this kind of voice. I suspect this is what you mean by "hipster" music? I don't have any idea who this guy is or what he looks like, but I am going to guess he probably has a man bun.

I want Average White band. I want Tower of Power. I want Earth Wind and Fire. I want music that screams at me to GET OUT OF THAT CHAIR AND MOVE YOUR FEET!! Not "Oooh let's make hot chocolate and cuddle under the stars".

I allowed myself to be dragged to a faith music concert once. The guy next to me, the GUY next to me, wanted to hold my hand and sway to the music. Okay, first of all, Eddie doesn't "sway". Second, keep your [ahem] hands off me. There is no reason other than you taking my pulse if I collapse mid-show for you to touch me. To this day I don't know why I even went to that thing. I am not a believer. That being said, some of the best music I ever heard was in a Southern Baptist church in Oklahoma!

On topic, of the 2 examples, I was okay with the second one a little bit. Not the first one. At all. Even the second one only got an A&R listen of 20-25 seconds.

I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.