Why Music Gone?

[Richter]

Sometimes I think that no music was made after I graduated high school.  It's an easy trap of perspective to fall into, and one I know to be blatantly false.  (I entered into college amidst an un-missable chorus of "Who let the dogs out?")  There was other stuff too, you know, that was actually worthwhile, but somehow it seems to have gotten lost.

Now your good Deacon likes his music, and is tickled pink that the internet will stream just about every station out there to him.  Usually I'm back and forth between various college and classical stations.  Last night though, the classical with its NPR cosmopolitan intellectualist attitude was just pissing me off, and the tender mercies of French hip – hop from the college stations just weren't striking my fancy.  So I pulled up the old home town's rock station.  It was on my radio near constantly during my high school days, less so when I found myself at home during college, and entirely NOT for the past 5 years.  So I'd assume they must have something New on.

Now your good Deacon can occasionally savor his own wrongness like a fine wine, whether perversion or misconception...

80's hair metal is apparently still in revival.  Mid / late 90's tunes that were overplayed then are still overplayed now.  "Disturbed" has released a "new" song, which is really just another one of their old songs, so now luck there.  The only validly new music was an indie tune, novel in its use of banjos and references to the allegory of the cave (A darling of the college radio over the past 3 months).  After and hour I gave up and put on a white noise site. 

Now the Deacon is a little discouraged by this.  Sure, keep musical tastes in the 90's if you want.  You'll eventually get bored and stumble into Tricky, Massive Attack, Soul Coughing, Primitive Radio Gods,  Faith No More (other than "Epic"), or Sneaker Pimps, and have something NEW to listen to.  That's not even scratching the surface.  It's more the fact that they're playing the same stuff and BARELY looking further.  No curiosity or exploration, just the same stuff over and over.  This is selling enough advertising that apparently people are still listening to it.  Hoo - ray for the common man, hoo – ray for the stuff that gets pushed at him.       

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Music has - if anything - gotten worse since the 80s/90s, with a few notable exceptions.

This is why LMNO, Blight, and Dimo need to get on the fucking stick.

Also, kidnap Keith and make him record shit.

[AFK]

There's that old rock and roll cliche, thanks to an old rock and roll song, "the day the music died".  I realize that part of what I'm going to say is rooted in when I was in high-school and college, which is when most people kind of get wedded to their musical tastes and experiences.  But I also believe there is some objective truth to this as well.  Which is that rock and roll more or less died when Kurt Cobain put that slug through his head.  Sure, there were still a few occasional gems in the death throes.  I would say that OK Computer was probably the last really great important rock album recorded.  That was, what, 1996? 

But there have always been these big movements that have happened in rock and roll.  Whether it was the British Invasion, the rise of Punk, the rise of new wave, the rise of Metal and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, and of course the "grunge"/alternative rock movement. 

I think part of it can be explained by the internet.  Back in the 80s or 90s, if you wanted to be heard outside of your little town, you needed to somehow get on radio and then make a music video.  The closest thing we had to "going viral" back then was tape trading and college radio.  It just seems like today that there are now so many, albeit smaller, outlets for music, that the noise/signal ratio has gone off the charts.  And I think that has an impact on any real big artistic movement from happening.  Because the scene is so much more spread out now and probably watered down to a degree. 

So yeah, when it comes to music, I still live in the good ol glory days of the 80s and early 90s.  That shit still pulls me though so I'm okay with that. 

[Luna]

I find myself wondering what would happen if we locked Keith and Dimo in a room together and told them they can't come out until they have a new song.

The style clash alone might make something amazing happen.

That, or we'd be removing one or two corpses.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I find myself wondering what would happen if we locked Keith and Dimo in a room together and told them they can't come out until they have a new song and they'll get food, cigs, booze and women if they produce.

The style clash alone might make something amazing happen.

That, or we'd be removing one or two corpses.

Fixed that shit.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I remember back in the late 70's seeing a car bumper sticker - "the synthesizer is killing music" I laughed at the time but, with the advent of protools and sequencers and numerous - press a button and a tune pops out - softwares and hardwares, I have to admit that I can see where they were coming from, even if I don't necessarily agree. Sure it's gotten a lot easier to make a tune. Used to be you needed to be able to at least play an instrument, however poorly and then convince someone to front you some studio-cash to make it public. Now all you need is a piece of shit software and a finger to press the button. The ratio of crud-good has gone off the fucking scale.

Drugs haven't helped much. Used to be coke, pot, acid and even heroin were driving something at least vaguely intricate, mind expanding. Ecstasy, on the other hand turns you into a fucking robot and ends up with exactly the same 1/1 beat and virtually the same tune with some twat babbling random crap over the top of it. Yeah it's wicked sick if you're off your face on E but if you aint then the only thing that distinguishes one track from the next is the choice of movie sample and an infinitesimal variation in bpm.

Meanwhile the mainstream shit is just as shit as ever but, again with seemingly less variation. Why bother writing something when you can press a button and the song shits out the other end? The masses don't give a fuck - all they need is reasonably in-tune, with vaguely suggestive lyrics - they don't listen to it anyway, it's more about a fashion statement, conforming to whichever off the shelf lifestyle demographic takes their fancy.

But it's always been like that. There's still good music out there. At least with the internet it's easier to find now.

[Luna]

Damn, I've been doing it wrong.  I listen to the lyrics...

[Kai]

I recently purchased a whole bunch of cassette tapes low price at various venues and have started listening to them in the car instead of radio. I sing along to James Taylor and Michael Jackson with the windows rolled down.

Now, I can't say I'm a big fan of 2011 popular music, but I've started to see that it's not really my music anyway. The popular music of 2011 belongs to the kids and young adults growing up right now. I have no private or social obligation to know what songs are playing on the radio. In fact, I seem to be, more and more, listening to the music my parents listen to.

Surely, you could say, there's new stuff out there that would interest you, music in your genre's of choice that would broaden your horizons and imagination. You suggest I would benefit from listening to new things.

You know what? Fuck it. I'm perfectly happy listening to my old cassettes and replaying the same tunes over and over. And if it's fucking cheesy to listen to such things I frankly don't give a damn. I'm not hurting me or anyone else by listening to the same things I did yesterday and enjoying it. Entertainment is both  necessary to human well being and perfectly individual; what gets me off probably won't get you off and vice versus. It may be detestable to you that I enjoy listening to Kenny G, but you don't fucking have to listen to it. Isn't that wonderful? I can enjoy the hell out of Led Zepplin's Stairway to Heaven in my car and you can be rocking out to your new rock album, and it doesn't make any difference if we're both having fun.

In other words, no judgment from me on what music you choose to listen to, but if you listen due to popular opinion I might privately laugh about it. Which shouldn't stop you from listening if you enjoy it.

[Kai]

AND,

If you're one of those people who complains about the quality of music these days and how it's been all downhill since so and so,

Either listen to the "good ole' days" or make some of your own. It's that simple. You don't owe the musicians you think are crap anything, and you didn't spend any money on them, so why does it matter?

[President Television]

The popular music of 2011 belongs to the kids and young adults growing up right now.

Fuck that! I refuse to lay claim to such bland mediocrity!

[Eater of Clowns]

There was just as much trendy filler bullshit in the glory days of music as there is now.  The classics that we listen to and hail as the heyday of the genre are treated as such because they have proven to withstand the test of time.

The reason most of what's on the radio now is shit is because the good hasn't been weeded out over the years as people realize that, yeah, it made sense then, but it sounds absolutely terrible now.

I mean, shit, Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, at one point, were considered good instead of just awesome for how much of a punchline they've become.  Meanwhile Run-D.M.C. and Dr. Dre sound as good as they did then.

[AFK]

Are you steppin on the Hammer? 



Obviously, it wasn't thinking man's rap, but it wasn't that bad. 

MC Hammer that is.

Vanilla Ice was pure crap. 

[Jasper]

I suspect that, aside from the relatively slight fluctuations caused by culture, the level of talent has remained somewhat static or is increasing.  More people studying music due to larger populations, better means of sharing and self-publishing, and less expensive instruments seem like great ways to give rise to more and better music.

I have many dozens of gigs of music, most of which pleases me.  I could spend all year listening to unique songs.

But for some reason, at any one time, I seem to be stuck on roughly two dozen songs that I like very much.

I suspect there is something to that.  

[Richter]

I find myself wondering what would happen if we locked Keith and Dimo in a room together and told them they can't come out until they have a new song and they'll get food, cigs, booze and women if they produce.

The style clash alone might make something amazing happen.

That, or we'd be removing one or two corpses.

Fixed that shit.

Dimo and Keith are opposite ends of the local virtuoso spectrum.  Keith is the pretty boy who'll accept free drinks and top-offs while he's at the mic, smile, and everyone will love him for it.  Then he'll belt out "Gail the Whale", and the wrong people will hear it, dedcide he has the wrong values, and instead of sensationalism he'll just get the scorn of the crowd.  Then again, that's country music.  Or Folk.  Whatever you call it, it's him doing it the way they did back in the depression, and telling it like it is.  He is still more worthwhile to lsiten to than Joe Fletcher, who's 1950's rockabilly folk was GOOD, but just not as REAL.

Dimo on theother hand is a man of the people.  He doesn't expect or posture, and will relate to the deep questions about life and everything as well a he relates to the guy puking forcefully between expulsions of "Dude you guys are awesome!".  His is the energy and the noise, but you'll never see him sweat in the middle of it. 

[Richter]

Other replies:  YES.

My quest of the moment isn't so much to find music like I had in High school / College.  Nothing will replace that.  What I'm looking for more is novelty and value.