So... Music. (Slight rant and some discussion.)

Am I the only one who thinks that many categories of music are dying? I'm not just talking about the lack of sales and such (which can slightly be attributed to piracy and a dying economy, but that's another discussion for another day,) but the lack of... Deep, moving lyrics, harmony between the vocals and instruments, and how there are songs like:

"So if you're too school for cool,
And you're treated like a fool,
You can choose to let it go,
We can always, always party on our own."
- P!nk "Raise Your Glass"

These lyrics in particular. Don't get me wrong, I love to party (regardless of the fact that I don't drink or do drugs) but these lyrics kinda burn me because it sounds like she's basically saying 'Hey, if you're serious about school, but you're getting picked on for being so serious, don't worry, you can just come party and drop out."

I realize that might not be the exact meaning, but music has always been about how each person interprets it.

[/rant]

So, what do you think of music? Are you frustrated with it? (whether it's music that you do listen to, or music you're forced to listen to while at work etc.)

I miss the narrative aspect, it used to be so crucial to music; but these days while music still tells a story I feel as though it's lost it's narrative.

People say music is getting worse, and I disagree. People everyday still create good songs to share with everyone. The problem is what the mass population decides to listen to and put on the pop charts. Horrible, terrible songs were made in the seventies, eighties and nineties just as much as now, we just forget those song and never play them on the radio again, and no one bought them.

In sort, music has not gotten worse, people's taste in music has.

@ Nihilistic - I agree with that. Out of curiosity, name a couple songs that you like the narrative aspect of?

@ Jaqueline - Hmm. This I agree with as well, but only sort of. For most of the rock genre especially, I've noticed that it has taken on this trend of simplicity. Small verses with slight difference between them and then repeated chorus. There are exceptions to the rule of course, but...

Rocky Raccoon, House of the Rising Sun, Big Bad John; I enjoy the folk story quality to such music.

@Monstro - Not in the rock I listen to, and it's new stuff, not old.

And of course, the appalling lack of HUMOROUS music on ANY radio!

@ Nihilistic - Nice choices there. ^^

@ Jaqueline - Oh? What bands are you talking about (Or songs, at the very least.)

And yea... No humor at all, unless you go get something like satellite radio.

Monstro.City said:

These lyrics in particular. Don't get me wrong, I love to party (regardless of the fact that I don't drink or do drugs) but these lyrics kinda burn me because it sounds like she's basically saying 'Hey, if you're serious about school, but you're getting picked on for being so serious, don't worry, you can just come party and drop out."

Click to expand...

I think it means, fuck the people who make fun of you. You don't need them. We can have a good time on our own without feeling the need to please them, so don't let them get to you.

Partying isn't necessarily mutually exclusive with being serious about school as long as you do it in moderation.

Well you can't take one section of a song and define the whole meaning. I kind of took those lyrics from Pink's song as an anthem for outcasts of all kinds... whether you're a nerd or a burn out. Just be happy for who you are, have fun in your own way, and don't worry about what others think.

I don't have much to say about music these days. I don't make an effort to like what is new. If I hear a song and I've never heard it, it's new to me. If its old or new and I like it, I like it. I have people on my friendslist trying to convince me that this needs to be at the opening ceremony of the Olympics *shudder*

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVRJQQlvx1k[/video]

...and those people turn around and claim they "copied" Hatsune Miku when they had that holographic performance of Tupac.

If you don't like what you're listening to, perhaps it's time to find new music. Your tastes may be evolving. There is a plethora of stuff out there you have never even heard of. Try plugging a band you like into Pandora radio and seeing if anything new comes up.

It sounds amazingly crazy to me to act like "music" in a broad, general sense, is faltering in any way. It's all subjective.

@ Lyra - Hmm. Alright, I can see the appeal in it that way.

@ Ms Muffintops - eh, yea, that's true too, but there are still some songs out there where I can't stand the entire song. Maybe I'm just picky, but most of the stuff on the 'Top 40' type stations annoys me, I guess?

And about that being an opening for the Olympics... Ergh. I can see why people like it, I don't myself, but not for the Olympics. @.@

@ Ahren - It's not about my taste in music, I have a wide variety of music that I do like, it's just harder for me to understand how some of the songs that are popular are so likable for people (and the fact that I can't get away from these songs 5 days of the week.)

@ Blitz - Yea, pretty much. I dunno, maybe I'm just bitchin or complaining too much. Also... Rise Against to calm down? Maybe some songs, but most of what I hear from them gets me pumped. XD

I have a live and let live attitude towards most things, and am only bothered by things that are pushed on me. I work two restaurant jobs, and music is played all day at them both. I can't stand any of it. Occasionally, some good music--music that suits my taste--will come on but that's the exception, not the rule. What I can't stand is that the radio station we have to play is decided by the CEO, who, of course is never in the restaurant. He's gotten too many "complaints" from customers about the radio station we used to play (aka, the same inoffensive, generic music you hear at just about any restaurant/retail spot.) I also have issues with overly entitled customers who feel like they have a right to complain about the music when: aye) they only have to "endure" it for the the five minuets a song last/ the duration of their visit, and bee) if the music is REALLY THAT BAD, they can always leave. They can put their headphones on and play their own music. They have options that I just don't have because I work there.

Notice that I didn't explicitly say the kind of music I like, the kind of music they play at my job, or anything like that. (I dated an emotionally abusive hipster who made me feel like shit for a lot of different reasons, and the music I liked to listen to was just as good of a reason to pick on me as any other. That made me kind of secretive about what I like to listen to, but)the REAL reason that I'm omitting those details is because my disgust at the elitist attitude that people have sometimes about what was "good" music and what music suxz0rs. The kind of music you like doesn't make you any better or any worse than anyone else. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it sucks. It's just music. It doesn't even really matter. Like I said, live and let live.

Keep in mind, our parent's and grand parent's generation and great-grand parents felt the same way about music as we do now. "it's going to shit! It's too sexual! It's corrupting the kids!" (Jazz had floozies, rock n' roll had groupies, rappers had hos, etc.) I personally don't think music has gotten any better or worse(1), but as people get older and have kids, they want to 'protect' their kids in every way they can. It can be all to easy to use music as a scapegoat for bigger issues(2). Pop culture also keep evolving. Eventually, people will get sick of the glitz and glam of today's music and start looking for more 'meaningful' songs. It's happened before. After the 80's (disco and Madonna!) grunge broke through to the mainstream. After the non stop partying was over and all the coke was gone, we were, as a culture, hung over.

(1)Overall, explicit content in music doesn't make it “worse” because the as a whole, our culture is getting a lot more explicit. I remember back when they never said words like bitch or ass on TV, but now it's the norm. And they're just words—it's the way words are used that give them power. We're exposed to more graphic sex and violence at younger ages than any generation before, but we can also connect with people on other sides of the planet much easier than our parents could. We sometimes know more about what's going on in far away places than in our own back yards.
(2)Marilyn Manson famously said when asked what he would tell the kids who committed the Columbine shooting that he wouldn't tell them anything. He'd listen. Because that's what no one else did for them. He was a shock rocker, an easy target to lay blame on, when really, society is the problem.

/rant

I took your slight rant and kind of ran with it. I didn't realize I had so much to say until I started writing, haha.