Music

Music has always been a relatively large part of our culture and cultures from the past. In fact, as I write this blog, and probably as you read this blog I am listening to music. This form of media is the one form that has been integrated into our lives and has never fully been pushed out of our daily activities. From the time we are little, sometimes dating back even to when we’re still in the womb, to our funerals some sort of music can be associated with who we are, and what we like. Music has become one of the ways that the world identifies and clumps into groups of familiar people. When people first meet each other, one of the first things they do to get a judge of character on the person is ask what kind of music they are into. If they share similar tastes, they connect and if they don’t share similar tastes, often times they will go separate ways. The difficult part of this truth is that in society today it is becoming harder and harder to identify yourself by a unique type of music that fits your personality. The music industry has been looking at and recording what types of music society likes, sterilizing it, and putting it out on the market. It has gotten to the point where if you turn on the radio you can’t tell if you’re listening to a country, rock, or pop song unless you know the station it is on.

When asked on spot what my favorite music is, almost always I respond the same way, bebop jazz, metal, and any rock bands, preferably rock bands before the 90’s, but not exclusively only then. Most of the time this answer gets me a weird look, most of the music of today’s generation is the sanitized, meaningless pop that sprouts up overnight, and disappears before anyone can look closely at the lyrics and realize that they are completely empty and repetitive. Part of this plays into the instant gratification that so many of today’s children and teens have, but part of it comes from the lack of time (or talent depending on the musician) musicians have to complete and put out their new single.

Today, most of the artists who are well known and well liked (and aren’t from my parents generation) push out songs so fast because of the use of auto tune, which does exactly what it sounds like, it allows musicians to “look” the part and not worry about any of the actual singing. One big example of this, and sorry to any of her, uh, fans, would be the relatively new “singer” Ke$ha. Ke$ha “sings” dance-pop and electropop music according to Wikipedia. Which, to me, sounds made up special just for her. If you compare Ke$ha lyrics to any of the more old school bands, Tears for Fears for example, it’s easy to see the differences. Here is the chorus to Ke$ha’s “hit single” Tik Tok “Don't stop, make it pop / DJ, blow my speakers up / Tonight, I'mma fight / 'Til we see the sunlight / Tick tock on the clock / But the party don't stop, no”. From these lyrics it’s easy to pull out the literary meaning…. Oh wait…. There isn’t one. This song is just about partying. Now, if when looking at the chorus to Tears for Fears song, Mad World “The dreams in which I'm dying / are the best I've ever had / I find it hard to tell you / 'cause I find it hard to take / when people run in circles / it's a very, very / mad world.” From these lyrics, themes of death and stress can be pulled out. They have a much deeper meaning, and for that reason they will stay around longer.

Another big reason much of the music sounds so similar today is, well, it is similar. New and upcoming bands have to find some way of making a name for themselves in the world of music and since the unfortunate creation of the auto-tuned pop zombies, many of these new bands turn to the older generation’s music, which, in my opinion (in case it isn’t apparent by now) is much better. So many bands are re-doing older music, for the better or worse, to try and get noticed in the music world. Bands like KoRn, who remade Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, Disturbed, who remade Genesis’s Land of Confusion, Limp Bizket, who remade The Who’s Behind Blue eyes, Five Fingered Death Punch, who remade Bad Company’s Bad Company, and Metallica (who really didn’t need to make a name for themselves,) who remade Queen’s Stone Cold Crazy among other songs, did the songs a great justice and pushed themselves to a higher status so their own music would be heard and remembered along with the greats. On the other hand; however, bands and musicians, such as, Kid Rock, who unsuccessfully smashed together Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd) and Werewolves of London (Warren Zevon), Jack Ingram a country singer who butchered Lips of an Angel by Hinder, and Brittany Spears, who remade and killed AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long. With all of the remakes it’s hard to know and appreciate the bands for who they are and not the music that they stole and remade.

All of these different factors have added into the downfall and the separation of the music genres, and it only goes to show how much the music industry has changed music from being an inspirational soul music to sanitized pop crap. It’s really brought down the quality of everything these artists, good or bad, have devoted their life to perusing.