As I finished listening to Pink Floyd's 'Wish you were here' album for the second time today, I decided that I was in the mood to listen to something outside of my usual selection of bands which include: the doors, curved air,
jethro tull, the
allman brothers, led zeppelin,
fleetwood mac and many others. I wanted to listen to a band that is a bit more modern. A few bands that come to my mind are
astra,
wolfmother, the answer,
priestbird and blood ceremony. Then I realised something that I haven't thought about before. All these modern bands have very obvious influences in most of the aforementioned bands. So once again I am going back to familiar and much loved grounds. Why is that? Is it because I am stuck in some loop and I only have limited resources for music? Not really, I am surrounded by music lovers and musicians with tastes coming from all musical genres that constantly expose me to new or previously unknown music. Is it because I live by the philosophy 'if it's old then it must be good but if it's new it must be shit'? Not at all, I am constantly seeking out new and young bands that I can follow or watch live in concert. So with all this in mind and the fact that I'm a wannabe musician, one can agree that I have a relatively objective taste for most genres of music (except for rap and hip hop, that's really not my thing). Hence why do I always end up rummaging through the archives of music from the 60's, 70's and 80's and always finding something enjoyable whereas whenever I go on a hunt for new music I (more often than not) come back with empty hands?
The question is: 'Is modern music worse than music from the 60's, 70's and 80's?'This is something that has been a fiery debate in my social circles for quite some time now. I think that for all the people that are fans of the golden years, there are just as many fans that think music has evolved into something better. I cannot speak for everyone, but in my opinion there is something missing from modern music. That missing
ingredient is responsible for me continuously relapsing in the sea of familiar tunes. Older music stirs up emotions, stops time and lets the imagination run free. Modern music just makes me tap my feet and nod my head to the rhythm. Why does modern music contain such a void and how can it be filled? I think the answer to that is the same as the answer to 'Why is it that the white man can never master the blues?'. The white man can never experience what the African man went through during times of slavery and post-Civil War America. Therefore, the emotion that the white man sings about in the blues are (generally) made up. The relevance of this to the topic at hand is because I see modern music as the blues' white man. The man that enjoys blues but doesn't really understand them and is unaware of the emotions from which the whole genre spawned. He is there because that's where he
wants to be; he wants to
make blues. The black man was thrown there. He didn't want to be miserable or melancholic, blues music was his
way out. I think that is what modern music lacks. It lacks the emotions, the hardships and the bitter fight to survive that musicians back in the day experienced. Go search
wikipedia for 'Pink Floyd' and you will come across quite a novel. I think since times have changed so did people's perspective on music. Back in the day music was the messenger, the amber for that
rebellious fire burning inside the people's hearts, the judge and the saviour. Today music stands for fame, business and of course money. I know that there is exceptions to everything that I am saying, but I think that in
rock'n'roll, this is generally the case.
So are we doomed to forever listen to music from bands that are either dead or too old to make a concert that we would give anything to attend? I don't think so. I think that musicians are slowly realising that they can not aspire to do what the greats did because they will never be nearly as good, that's why they are called the greats. They need to draw lessons from them and use those as a foundation to build something new, something that they can pioneer. I think we are in the transition phase; where bad music with even worse video clips is made. But I think there will be a musical revolution that will bring back
eargasms.
But until then, I'll go back to listening to lyrics like:
Stand under my umbrella
ellaellae
e
e
How does one come up with such lyrics? That's what I want to know