
For a long time now I have been trying to answer the question as to why contemporary music sucks so bad. Bear with me a few minutes and hear me out on this one.
Fact: contemporary music is just plain awful.
Unless you agree with this statement, then this whole post is worthless to you. To you, there's no problem; you love what's on the radio and songs like "My Humps" are just great. Who needs bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin when you have Chris Brown (who just won Artist of the Year at the AMA) and Kanye West, right?
For a time, magazines like
Rolling Stone held out hope that a band would arrive that could rejuvenate rock music (remember the Strokes?), yet none have really left an indelible mark. Album sales continue to be in the toilet, and the only musicians selling out arenas are
way past their prime (Van Halen, Aerosmith, Journey, etc.) and rely on former glory rather than current chart success.
If you prefer R&B and Hip-Hop, then this is heaven. If you like rock music, you might as well turn the dial to a classic rock station and listen to "More than a Feeling" for the billionth time. It's almost as if grunge was the death moan of rock music - the sound of rock music literally croaking. As post-grunge bands like Nickleback played in the ashes, urban music filled the void.
Not that R&B and Hip-Hop have no merit - quite the contrary. For instance, Outkast is an extremely talented and worthy offspring of Parliament Funkadelic. However, I'm grieved over the apparent end of rock. And, I'm sorry, but The Shins and Coldplay are not going to save it.
Which brings me to the question at hand - what the hell happened?
Well, there's a multitude of minor reasons such as (1) The file sharing revolution and (2) the rise of the Big Four record companies, EMI, Sony, Warner and Universal, which merchandise and market, but could give a shit about creativity.
But these explanations don't satisfy. They're more excuses than real answers. What the hell did the Sex Pistols care about big corporate record companies? The still made their mark in spite of an industry stacked against them. And as far as blaming the file sharing revolution - a band like the Beatles would have taken it to their advantage and made mp3's their bitch. Nothing as pitiful as digital downloads would have stopped the Fab Four from taking the world by storm.
So, the problem still goes unanswered - why does it suck? I have strained my feeble brain over the issue and have come up with a sort of tentative explanation. I'm not currently convinced I'm right, but it might just be true.
Rock music has simply run its course. There's only so much innovation and creativity possible with two guitars, a bass, and drums. It's pretty much tapped out.
When rock music was young, there was a lot of sounds to explore. Naturally, great music abounded. Floyd, Zeppelin, Sabbath, The Beatles took all the gold from the mine... and all we're left with is the shaft.
Perhaps, someday a bright young musical talent will come around and find a brand new gold mine just waiting to be explored... and, hopefully, prove me hopelessly wrong.