| "Everything that can be invented has been | | | | decent. Admittedly, Wings isn't the best Paul |
| invented." ~ Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of the | | | | McCartney music around, but it is Sir Paul after all, |
| US Patent Office in 1899."Children nowadays are | | | | and Chicago and The Beach Boys are a little |
| tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their | | | | weak. But overall, the lists just don't compare.The |
| food and tyrannize their teachers." ~ | | | | music industry itself has changed so drastically |
| SocratesWhy is popular music so bad today? I | | | | that I think that is one of the main reasons there |
| mean, I'm not that old, but jeez, the music of | | | | is such a chasm between today's music and the |
| today, with only a few rare exceptions, kinda | | | | creations of yesteryear. Like sports and medicine, |
| stinks. Some would say that when New Year's | | | | music in another industry that has been a casualty |
| Eve 1979 ended, we were ushered into an era of | | | | of big business and American capitalism.No longer |
| lame music that we still haven't escaped from | | | | does the actual music quality drive the industry. |
| today.I grew up in the 80's and remember | | | | Instead, the people with the money and power at |
| listening to the Beatles, John Lennon, Simon & | | | | the record companies notice some bad music |
| Garfunkel, Roger Waters and Pink Floyd, the | | | | selling well to young people for example, and |
| Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, and David Bowie, to | | | | therefore decide that from then on they're only |
| name a few, with my brothers or my dad. I | | | | going to find and promote that type of bad music |
| remember seeing album covers strewn about my | | | | since it made a few bucks. They've totally |
| brother's bedroom. Albums, not CD's. (If you're a | | | | stopped listening to the music and instead only |
| really young reader, albums are like CD's in that | | | | listen to the dollars.No longer does the music they |
| they're flat and round, but black, and a lot bigger. | | | | create determine the success of a band. Instead, |
| The get scratched and don't work just like CD's | | | | entertainment conglomerates tell fans what to |
| though).Some say that the 60's were a turbulent | | | | listen to, and that determines the success. They |
| time in the U.S. and the world and thus created a | | | | do this because they have such a strangle hold on |
| perfect environment and culture for innovative | | | | the media. We only have the illusion of choice |
| and creative music. But let's face it. These days | | | | now. A vicious circle has begun where the whole |
| are pretty turbulent as well. So where's the | | | | industry is inexorably spinning down, unable to find |
| Crosby, Still, Nash and Young of today to sing | | | | purchase on the sides of some slimy corporate |
| about our involvement in Iraq? Or where is the | | | | funnel, circling downward uncontrollably into the |
| Paul Simon of today to protest the government's | | | | abyss of painfully bad music.Some bands |
| stance on stem cell research? All we've gotten | | | | occasionally slip through the vortex relatively |
| recently is the new Paris Hilton CD. Paris Hilton? | | | | intact, sidestepping the almost institutionalized |
| Isn't she just famous for being famous? And her | | | | process of "making it" set in place by music |
| new CD actually got some good reviews.Before | | | | executives. Phish is a great example of this. They |
| anyone accuses me of painting a broad brush | | | | became hugely successful in spite of the music |
| stroke condemning all music after the 70's, let me | | | | industry. Because they were so good and so |
| say that in more recent times there has been a | | | | tenacious in touring and jamming, they attracted a |
| small amount of good stuff like Phish or Midnite, | | | | large fan base. The sheer numbers of eventual |
| and even politically-minded music such as U2, but | | | | fans Phish had gave them a power that most |
| no where near the creative amount of earlier | | | | artists today can't have. Most other artists have |
| times.I remember when the Dixi Chicks came out | | | | to do what the people with the purse strings tell |
| against President Bush and the Iraq war. While not | | | | them to do. And that often makes for bad music. |
| a bad band, they're hardly going to achieve iconic | | | | Unfortunately, Phish isn't even together any more. |
| status. And they paid dearly at the hands of big | | | | But they're a rare exception in that they came |
| business for their outspoken views. That's a far | | | | after the 70's and were highly creative and |
| cry from the politically-charged days of | | | | improvisational.Another thing that contributes to |
| Woodstock where many artists were speaking | | | | the poor music of today is technology. These |
| out, and changing things.If you think about it, | | | | days, Hollywood actors who can't sing can have |
| there are only a select few artists or bands that | | | | singing careers. The engineers touch up their |
| can regularly sell out huge arenas today. These | | | | voices, and use every digital sound technique |
| are the icons. And the vast majority of those | | | | there is to make an average product sellable, just |
| artists are bands from before the 80's! Between | | | | like the magazines airbrush the models and |
| last summer and this summer, here are some of | | | | actresses, trimming years off to complete the |
| the really big concert ticket sellers: The Rolling | | | | illusion. There are many ways in which the music |
| Stones, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Paul | | | | engineers can do this in the studio and even for |
| McCartney, Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton and The | | | | artists on tour.Ashlee Simpson is a good example |
| Eagles.I recently read an article that suggested | | | | of this. First, we saw her on Saturday Night Live |
| that music and tour promoters, large venue | | | | getting caught lip-sinking. Then I heard a recent |
| owners and ticket companies are all worried about | | | | interview where Joe Walsh's daughter, Lucy |
| concert sales taking a plunge after the legendary | | | | Walsh, admitted that as Ashlee's keyboard player, |
| artists stop touring. They realize it's going to be | | | | she always doubled Ashlee's voice while on tour.I |
| hard to sell out big arenas after the dinosaurs | | | | know that in any era there's going to be silly |
| become extinct. Who are the artists of today | | | | music acts like Ashlee Simpson, Kevin Federline |
| who will reach that status tomorrow?In a recent | | | | and Paris Hilton. I realize that during Bob Dylan's |
| interview with Joe Walsh on Sirius Radio Joe said | | | | time there were lots of feeble yet famous music |
| there is not nearly as much improvisational rock | | | | artists then too. My complaint is that it seems like |
| anymore. And I agree. When asked what bands | | | | in any other era there was at least enough really |
| he thought were decent these days, he couldn't | | | | fantastic and original music being created to |
| think of any for a while, and then finally said he | | | | balance things out.Let's go backwards. We've |
| thought the Goo Goo Dolls were good. | | | | looked at the popular music of the 21st Century a |
| Hmmm.Maybe I'm some kind of curmudgeon, but | | | | little in the lists above and I don't see any really |
| Top 40 today is just not as good as it used to | | | | original music in there at all. Some may argue that |
| be. Is Kevin Federline really talented? I just found | | | | the grunge era of the 90's produced some great |
| out recently that his nickname is K-Fed. How | | | | and original music. I argue that almost all of that |
| about fed up? I think K-Fed, J-Lo, X-tina (Christina | | | | music was so heavily influenced by the rock of |
| Aguilera, no joke) and A-Rod all need to get | | | | the 60's and 70's that it really wasn't that original |
| together ASAP and rethink their feeble | | | | at all.The music of the 80's matched the hair and |
| nicknames, just an FYI.Here are the top 5 songs | | | | clothes of the time, lame. The synthesizer was |
| right now in the Summer of 2006:- Fergie - | | | | new then, but the music was reasonably bad, and |
| London Bridge- Gnarls Barkley - Crazy- Nelly | | | | certainly not timeless. But then we come to the |
| Furtado Featuring Timbaland - Promiscuous- The | | | | 70's and 60's. Those are the decades that last |
| Pussycat Dolls Featuring Snoop Dogg - Buttons- | | | | held any hope for people like me who long for |
| Panic! At The Disco - I Write Sins Not | | | | fresh, original, creative and improvisational music.In |
| TragediesAnd here were the top 5 albums of | | | | 1899 the Commissioner of the US Patent Office |
| 2005:- Mariah Carey - The Emancipation of Mimi- | | | | wrote "Everything that can be invented has been |
| 50 Cent - The Massacre- Kelly Clarkson - | | | | invented." Alright, maybe he was a little off. But in |
| Breakaway- Green Day - American Idiot- The | | | | a way, everything that seems new is really just |
| Black Eyed Peas - Monkey BusinessHere are the | | | | new combinations of existing things. Music is no |
| top 5 albums of 1976:- Peter Frampton - | | | | different. I'm hoping that we return to the days |
| Frampton Comes Alive- Fleetwood Mac - | | | | when the combinations of beats, rhythms, |
| Fleetwood Mac- Wings - Wings At The Speed Of | | | | harmonies and melodies become as creative as |
| Sound- Eagles - Eagles Greatest Hits 1971-1975- | | | | they were in the 60's and 70's.But maybe things |
| Chicago - Chicago IX Greatest HitsAnd here are | | | | haven't changed much since even Socrates' times. |
| the top 5 albums of 1966- Original Soundtrack | | | | He thought kids were tyrants, as if his generation |
| The Sound Of Music- The Beatles - Revolver- | | | | was the last of a dying breed of angelic children. |
| The Beatles - Rubber Soul- The Rolling Stones - | | | | Maybe he just didn't understand the kids of his |
| Aftermath- The Beach Boys - Pet SoundsIs it | | | | era, and maybe I'm the same way.Jason OConnor |
| just me, or is there a glaring difference between | | | | runs Rock and Pop Concert Tickets - A great |
| the two 21st Century lists and the second two | | | | place to buy tickets to cheap concerts across |
| 20th Century lists? To be fair, I actually own | | | | North America. |
| Monkey Business and I like it. Also, Green Day is | | | | |