Oh Beautiful America; land of the free and home of the brave. We are one of the fastest growing, most innovative and most intelligent countries on the earth: So why do we listen to so much awful music? Why do we make ourselves subject to only what the media shows us? As a musician myself, music is something that is precious to me and always has been throughout my life. so one can see my issue with the constant decrease in the quality of music over this past decade. In my opinion there's multiple places the blame can be thrown on this one, but let's just focus on a few important ones.
In my opinion, I believe the powerhouse that is the media in our country today deserves the biggest blame. For years since the time of the first radio or the first television we as the viewers and listeners have been subject to whatever was shown to us. We've always chosen to listen to what was popular at the time or what everyone else was listening to. Don't get me wrong here I believe that in certain situations this type of word-of-mouth discovery is great, but there are better ways to discover music than just tuning in to MTV or listening to what your best friend is listening to.
One great way to discover new artists or even gain a better appreciation for an artist you are already familiar with is musical festivals. Festivals such as Chicago's own Lollapalooza have been bringing great live music with a wide variety of artists to people for years. Of course I know that popular festivals such as this are bound to bring in popular artists such as 2 Chainz or Nicki Minaj to gain popularity or attention. But it is just as easy to wander outside one's comfort zone and discover a new stage with an unknown artist. I believe that discovering an artist in this fashion is a great way to really hear and see the passion that the artist has for their music. I realize that a music festival or concert may not be the most favorable or convenient way to discover music but for some but no fear, there are plenty other ways to discover something new.
As surprising(or obvious) as it may seem, YouTube is a actually a fast and convenient way for anyone to discover new music. I can personally say this from experience as I have been able to discover some great new music with just a couple clicks of the mouse. Of course there are a plethora of Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus advertisements all throughout YouTube, but anyone with a true desire to discover something new can find it pretty easy to navigate through the sea of advertisements to get what they really want. Even searching something as random as Big Ugly Yellow Couch can land one in a page with a wide variety indie-style music live sessions; and trust me it's pretty awesome. In my opinion it its much easier than we think to discover something new or something we can really connect to unlike most of the popular hit-producing artists today such as Lil Wayne. We as the listeners do not have to subject ourselves to what anyone tells us to listen to any longer. The power of choice is in our hands; so please be better than today's best pop hits on KCLD and turn off the radio.
I absolutely 100% agree with this post. I also am a musician and I really do feel the decline in music in the past decade as well. To me, it seems music has lost its depth and its profoundness recently. I really love finding new bands via youtube or music festivals. It is on my bucket list to attend every major US music festival just because I think its a great way to find quality music and have fun with other people who enjoy the same type of music as you do.
ReplyDeleteBeing a musician for years, playing in bars and clubs with my band, its hard to please the younger kids with music. I've been saying music has lost meaning and creativity ever since i was in 5th grade. Musicians you see on the top charts seem to just care about money more than the music. For me some of the new rap/hip-hop songs are just all beat and no real meaning; just random words thrown together to try and make a song. What happened to the hip-hop artists of the 80's? Like Run-DMC or MC Hammer. Their music was fun to listen to and had some meaning. I am even seeing a lack of creativity in my genre of music (metal/rock). I wish there were more bands like Metallica who put emotion into their music and feeling. I also agree with attending festivals to find new artists. I personally have been to multiple festivals around the country and have discovered many new and exciting bands this way.
ReplyDeleteLong live Rock n Roll \m/