OK, I noticed lately that modern music is falling out of favour of young people. I'd probably be a great judge of this, since I'm a young person aged 18, who has many young friends.
Amongst my friends, very few of them listen to music which was made within the last 5 years. Almost all of my friends now listen to led zeppelin, and i find myself compelled not to listen to the modern music that there is on offer, and going for classics like guns n roses and dire straits. And in the UK, alternative music channel MTV2 has steeped up a bit on playing oldies. It used to be that you'd get a token AC/DC video every once in a while, but a couple of days ago, my litte bro was watching and they had led zeppelin and jimi hendrix on.
I was listening to a bbc radio 1 show about music and the way it is today, and one of the guys said that music goes around in cycles, and we're in teh dark ages right now. He stated that if modern music were food, it would probably be fast food, and that the older stuff would be more substantial, and it dealt with the whole issue of today's kids turning to old music rather than new music.
We need to face a few simple facts when we look at music pre 1995 and post 1995:
Metallica: These are the yardstick used to measure heavy music, as some people say. St. Anger is trash. You wouldn't believe this was from the same people who brought us the astounding master of puppets.
Music with a message: In the politically charged times of today, most music always has a message to it. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, since some great songs have arisen from politics. the truth is though, that audioslave will never be as good as rage against the machine or soundgarden. And when you have people like madonna trying to put politics into music, it's cringeworthy.
Conformity: Too many bands produce the same old crap these days, and don't want to deviate and find new ways of making music
Deviation: The bands that do deviate end up going too far. No doubt has gone from bein ga great ska band to a crappy hip hop act. And radiohead's kid A and amnesiac albums are the kid that you'd use as coasters.
Rap-metal: New rock music has turntables and rapping. Where were the good ol' days when rock was all about getting "guitars" and turning the amps up to 11. Now it's about having some turntable guy and the guitars are just there.
Guitars: Paul Reed Smith guitars and warwick basses. used by everyone nowadays. They sound good, but the point is that all music today has the same tonal qualities because they use the same instruments. It's a tiny thing, but I like to think that the best times are when half of the musicians opt for single coil pickup guitars (i.e. Ritchie Sambora) and the other half go for twin coil humbuckers. (Slash-style!) You get a real difference.
MTV: There was a time when MTV used to play "videos" i forget how long ago this was
Money: Music is no longer about expression. its about money. Radios and MTV get paid a lot to play music that the record execs want you to hear.
Hip hop/rap: I can remember when hip hop was great. De la soul, and sugar hill gang. Great hip hop. None of this gangsta crap. Now every rap group there is has to mention drive bys and bling bling. The only positive movement in rap music as of lately is eminem ditching dr dre as his producer, so he can produce the music he wants to. Bring back all the old hip hop. It was so much better.
Pop music: The rise of manufactured music has ruined music for everyone. It's pretty much the only thing you get on most commercial radio these days.
All my friends seem to have ditched modern music in favour of old music. Instead of listening to commercial stuff, we all listen to century FM (It's a northern english radio station where you're only one song away from the eighties) Instead of watching MTV when i can't sleep, i'm watching VH1 classic. And instead of seeking the latest band du jour, I'm looking through my dad's CD collection. I know i'm not the only one.
(or Hendrix ... or a jam session with both ;-) )
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