Does the music industry make you want to vomit?

[megxyz128]

[big_green_monkey]

[Axtech]

[Narbus]

[Axtech]

[Lando]

[Sufjan Stevens]

[I AM ME]

[Narbus]

You're still missing the point.

The music from 10, 20, 30, however long ago that hangs around today does so for a reason. It had some kind of quality to it that eludes time and still resonates, even across the years and the (constantly growing) generation gap. It is the melodys and lyrics that set forth what good music is. But Simon and Garfunkle, Elton John, John Denver and the like weren't the only artists around 30 years ago. There had to be something to fill in the gaps between their records, some crappy, derivative filler that paid the bills.

Today, we hear the derivative crappy filler. Time hasn't filtered out the shit yet. So to say that music has taken a dive based off what was made and what's being made now is a lie. We are comparing the best music of the past with everything, including all the crap, today.

When andrea said that the music of the 80's just had that mysterious something that made it all just great, well that's just not true, as a lot of those songs point out. Yes, there was some great stuff released, there was also a lot of shit.

Nowhere did I claim that all the music I listen to is pure enlightenment encapsulated in verse or that I only listen to songs that speak to the undying beauty that is the human spirit. Shit, I have Tom Jones and J-Pop in my playlist right now (although it is Tom Jones featuring Portishead, doing a cover of a Louie Armstrong song, which I like to think earns me extra points).

My point was that for every great song you can point out, there were at LEAST 10 that were mediocre, and about 20 that just sucked. But in 20 years, some one is going to be listening to some godawful music on the radio, and claim that good music died in the beginning of the century because time stripped away the OTowns, the Puddle of Mudds, the Limp Bizkets, and left only the White Stripes, the Rufus Wainwrights, and the Pete Yorns (well, mostly his first album, but he's young), just as time has already stripped away a lot of the crap from the 70's and even the 80's and 90's.

What I'm saying is: Quality tends to endure. Saying that the average song today isn't as good as the greatest songs of yesterday is a very obvious statement. The question we should be concerned with is how do the best songs of today stack up against the best of yesterday? And if we're talking about the White Stripes and Rufus Wainrights of the world, then we're in pretty damn good shape.

[Sufjan Stevens]

I agree. I bet you didn't think I'd say that, eh fucker?

Anyways, when you think about it, the greatest songs of our generation seem rather weak. Think about it, go ahead and pick out the greatest songs in your opinion that we've had come out in the past 10 years, and it still seems to pale in comparison to the past. Thats's just how it's going to be.

Those standout artists you speak of that we have yet to discover sure don't look like they're coming out of the woodwork. The only bands that I can think of that will be the Led Zepplins or The Whos of our generation are The White Stripes (maybe) and Radiohead. Bands like OLP, no matter how good we think they are now, won't be considered among the greatest. There just aren't enough artists out there that expand music both musically and lyrically. We have Bright Eyes kicking ass lyrically, but the music is boring, simplistic, and something I can easily duplicate, not to mention Condor is trying to stay away from fame. Musically, The Darkness can blow you away, but give me a fucking break, in the sense of a legendary band, they blow.

I just want to see what bands we'll reminisce about gingerly in the future, because when you think about it, each generation had its big trend. The 60s, 70s, and 80s, had one trend, or two at the most for the entire decade. The 90s had hair metal, grunge, mellowed out rock, gangster rap, girl groups, and boy bands. That's a whole hell of a lot more than one or two major trends. Music is too trendy nowadays, and we're not going to be able to specifically pick out rock bands to speak for us, because the record company dollars follow trends. So when the punk/emo craze dies, and goes into mellow indie-esque rock, then into a huge R&B phase, then into ghetto rap again, then into who knows what, deserving bands will always get ignored. If the White Stripes were to have come out with White Blood Cells at the end of 2004, no one would have noticed except for hardcore scenesters. They just hit at the right time. Radiohead hit at the right time, multiple times. That's just how it is.

[Narbus]

[big_green_monkey]